Saturday 2 May 2020

History of the South-East, Part 4: From Sea to Sea to Sea (100 to 198 CY)


“Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say
that we devise their misery. But they
themselves- in their depravity- design
grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns.”

― Homer, The Odyssey

A Rejection of Benevolence
The Great Kingdom had swelled, spanning from sea to sea to sea. It declared peace and prosperity for all, and believed all nations were blessed that were protected by its benevolence. In truth, it only desired peace in the interest of its personal prosperity, and for its own pleasure. Not all nations wished their wealth to enrich the capital. Not all nations wished to be blessed by it, and cracks were forming, in the west, where it had begun, and in the north, where it was never welcome. Even within, where its corpulence and rot were only just then beginning to boil and fester.

c. 100 CY
The Great Kingdom had reached its greatest height, its widest expanse. It spanned from sea to sea to sea. And had grown to vast to be administered as one. It needed parceling, partitioning, governance from regional capitals. Thus, was “Dyvar” raised from town to port, its intent to oversee the Viceroyalty of Ferrond, itself founded from the amalgamation of Feryon, Voll, the Highfolk, the Quaglands, and the Shield Lands and the Northern Reaches. And then, the Great Kingdom, pleased with itself, turned away from their responsibilities there, and set the course for its eventual independence, for the Kingdom never again gave its west another thought, until it was to late to do so. In truth, the Kingdom had more pressing matters to deal with, closer to home, for Nyrond had always chafed against the benevolence if its rule.
The realm began nearly five hundred years ago as the Viceroyalty of Ferrond, the proudest jewel in the crown of Aerdy. In those distant days, Ferrond consisted of modern-day Furyondy (Furyon) and Veluna (Voll), Highfolk, the Shield Lands, the Quaglands (Perrenland), and the hilly regions northeast of the massive Vesve Forest, then known as part of the Northern Reaches. The viceroy ruled fairly from Dyvers, where he was attended by scores of noble families culled from the Great Kingdom, as well as ennobled Flan who served Aerdy. [LGG - 46]

A viceroy in Dyvers administered the Viceroyalty of Ferrond, including its Northern Reaches (now Perrenland and lands north and northeast of the Vesve Forest). [LGG - 23]

Dyvers:
Dyvers
Long a trade port, Dyvers was also the capital of Aerdy's Viceroyalty of Ferrond. In that role, it served as a welcome port to goods and travelers who braved the unexplored shores of the Nyr Dyv. The palace of the viceroy rivaled that of his colleagues in the west, and its domed central structure and austere stone towers have long been cited in travelogues as among the finest examples of Oeridian architecture.
[LGG - 41]

Veluna: [When] the first Aerdi soldiers surged westward in a great drive to spread the empire, they came upon the people of Veluna, already a burgeoning culture. The High Canon of Rao met with representatives of the Great Kingdom, and explained to them the goals of his peaceful land. Mindful of the vast Aerdi host looming on his borders, the canon wisely agreed to support the Great Kingdom, seeing in the easterlings a passion for progress and innovation that could be tempered by conversion to the holy tenets of Rao. So it was that the Archclericy of Voll entered vassalage to the Viceroyalty of Ferrond under a banner of peace and great religious expectations. (If the Velunese did not care to emphasize their Oeridian heritage, the overking was only too eager to do it for them.) In the years following the establishment of the Viceroyalty, Veluna acted as a sort of moral compass for Ferrond as a whole. Key adherents of Rao gained major positions in the court of the viceroy. Given the warlike Oeridian temper and the years of arrogance established in the west, the Velunese advisers had much work to do. [LGG - 129]

Highfolk: The Fairdells and the Vesve Forest were home to high elves for untold centuries. When humans first arrived, as emissaries from the Viceroyalty of Ferrond, the two races developed a kinship that exists to this day. [LGG - 53]

Perrenland: During the Migrations, the warlike Flan tribes of the Yatil Mountains absorbed most of the Oeridian, Suloise, and Baklunish invaders flooding the great Yatils pass called the Wyrm's Tail, though several Flan tribes were driven from the lowlands by Oeridians who established freeholds for their own clans. The disunity of these small clans was taken advantage of by advancing Aerdi forces, c. 97-100 CY. The Viceroyalty of Ferrond quickly gained full control of the eastern and southeastern sides of what is now Perrenland, making it a part of Ferrond's Quaglands. The fishing towns of Traft and Schwartzenbruin were forced to accept the authority of stern Aerdi bailiffs. [LGG - 85]

Shield Lands: As the migratory Oeridians ranged eastward in their search for a land that would support them, they passed through many regions of inhospitable climate, infertile land, and unfriendly local populations. Chief among these lands were the rugged plains north of the Nyr Dyv, which resisted meaningful human settlement for centuries, even as a strong Aerdi empire created the Viceroyalty of Ferrond to the west. [LGG - 31]

So passes the west from this narrative.

The Viceroyalty of Nyrond, which eventually included Urnst, was ruled from Rel Mord by a junior branch of House Rax. [LGG - 23]

102 CY
The great houses were laying claim to lands throughout the realm. House Garasteth was no different, laying claim to the isles now known as the Sea Barons. So had House Atirr. War broke out between them, and Overking Manshen was forced to intervene, for so long as those fouses fought, his coast was open to raiding from the Barbarians to the north. He declared that a naval competition would settle the dispute; upon its completion, House Atirr was declared the winner and given dominion of what was to be christened the Sea Barons.
[Early] in the first century of the Great Kingdom, Overking Manshen decided to create baronies from the fertile isles; Oeridian colonists soon settled them while the court in Rauxes struggled with their administration. In 102 CY, House Garasteth laid claim to the isles, and open conflict threatened to break out between House Garasteth and House Atirr, from North Province. Overking Manshen's wisdom was in full display when his solution to the problem was to conduct an open competition to settle the matter. He appointed four peers from the rival noble houses to the baronies of the four islands and instructed them to build fleets. The baron who was most successful at the naval exercises that ensued would be chosen to represent the entire realm as the lord high admiral of theGreat Kingdom. Baron Asperdi of Atirr won the post handily, and the largest island was named for him and his descendants. The headquarters of the Aerdi Admiralty was thereafter moved to Asperdi Isle, and the islands came to be known as the Dominion of the Sea Barons. [LGG - 99]

108 CY
Overking Manshen desired to secure his northern border. The Fruztii Barbarians were a constant threat, and he meant to pacify the North once and for all.
Securing the Northern Border
In the spring of 108 CY, Aerdi forces massed in the frontier town of Knurl. With Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom in the vanguard, the force swept northeast, between the Rakers and the Blemu Hills, in a march to the sea. By autumn, after having been met with relatively light resistance, the Aerdi succeeded in uprooting most Fruztii encampments, and the foundations of a great stronghold were laid at Spinecastle. The Aerdi freed Johnsport in a pitched battle with the barbarians before the onset of winter. Sensing that this would be only the first phase of a long struggle, Aerdi commanders summoned thousands of contingents from North Province over the objections of the herzog, a Hextorian who had wanted to lead the forces into battle himself.
With the defeat of the Fruztii at Johnsport, the call went out that winter, and thousands of their kinsmen poured south along the Timberway the next year. Marching through passes in the Rakers, they assembled and attacked the works underway at Spinecastle, focusing their assault on the heart of the Aerdi fortifications. The defenders, including the bulk of the elite Aerdi infantry, were quickly outflanked and surrounded. A young Knight Protector of the Great Kingdom, Caldni Vir, a Heironean cavalier from Edgefield, commanded a large cavalry force patrolling the hills when the barbarian force struck. As part of the contingent led by the herzog into the north, he pivoted and headed back to Spinecastle while anticipating orders from his liege to counterattack. When the courier of the herzog delivered orders for Vir to pull back to the south in retreat, he spat in disgust and ordered the standard of the Naelax prince to be trampled in the mud. He then raised the standard of the Imperial Orb and charged.
Approaching the site of the battle from the north, he descended upon the barbarians from higher ground, and they were unprepared for the hundreds of heavy horse and lance that bore down on them in the next hour. Their lines were quickly broken, and the Imperial Army was rescued to eventually take the day in what would be called the Battle of the Shamblefield. The Aerdi drove the surviving barbarians out of the hills, controlling the land all the way to the Loftwood by the following spring. Overking Manshen recognized the courage of the young knight Vir, and raised him as the first marquis of Bone March. The land was so named for the high price paid for its taking, as the fallen imperial regulars numbered into the thousands. [LGG - 36]
Thus the Overking named Vir the first Marquis of the Bone March. And thus were the Fruztii broken.
It is said that the blood of those thousands of unsanctified and unburied Barbarian and Imperial corpses was pressed into the mortar of Spinecastle. It is also said that the Fruztii laid a curse on its unfinished walls.

124 CY
Irongate was tens of decades in the making. But its walls were raised high upon its cliffs, thick and sturdy, impossible to scale or breach, a fortified Aerdian presence on the Azure Sea.
The city known today as Irongate was completed in 124 CY by imperial architects charged to give the Aerdi a fortified presence on the Azure Sea. [LGG - 56]
The potential of the outpost and surrounding terrain was recognized early on by the imperial architects sent to fortify the harbor on behalf of the Malachite Throne. This was done in coordination with imperial miners and engineers, who organized the excavation effort with the dwarves. These master builders set about the task of erecting a city equal to the Great Kingdom's ambitions for the region, a plan that would take decades to complete. Not only did the Aerdi want a base of operations from which to exploit the resources of the peninsula, but they earnestly wanted a fortified port from which to maintain a naval force on the Azure Sea the year round. [LGG - 56]

The northern states had always been fiercely independent, and they baulked at the prospect of Aerdian rule. But the Malachite throne was persistent. They would lay claim to those lands, for had they not already as they had migrated east? Had they not pacified those lands, allowing those lesser houses that remained to settle there and live in peace? So, now that all the lands east of the Nyr Dyv were under their dominion, it was time for those nations to bend the knee to those who had made them possible in the first place. But they were Oeridian, scions of Johydee as the Aerdi were, and the Aerdi were loathe to put them to the sword. And thus the Great Kingdom sent its delegates to the Urnst offering to annex Urnst as a palatinate state rather than invading it.  Urnst declined.
By 124 CY, the Great Kingdom sought additional trade routes to the highly successful Viceroyalty of Ferrond. In that year, delegates sent by the Malachite Throne presented a bold plan to Urnst's senators. In effect, they proposed to annex Urnst into the Great Kingdom at. a palatine state, sparing the burgeoning empire the trouble of an all-out invasion. Though a detailed analysis revealed that the offer was indeed far more beneficial to the local lords than to Rauxes, the haughty nobility of Urnst shouted it down without debate, much to the chagrin of the northwest lords on the Franz River, who had long coveted a closer relationship with Aerdy. [LGG - 125]

134 CY
Fortune had favoured House Attir. It had gained the island chain now know as the Sea Barons, and was soon to be handed the North Province, as well.
In 134 CY, the early Rax overkings inaugurated a series of actions that would ultimately lead to the downfall of their house some three centuries later. In that year, the ill-tempered Overking Toran I deposed the scion of Naelax from rulership of North Province, appointing in his place the leader of the smaller but rapidly rising House Atirr. Citing the failures of the Naelax in supporting the heroic efforts of the Aerdy military in Bone March and Ratik, Toran reduced the house to a secondary role in the province. House Atirr ruled the province from its capital on the coast, eschewing Eastfair. The land experienced a brief renaissance under this enlightened leadership. However, this demotion was a slight that the Naelax would never forget. [LGG - 73,74]

141 CY
Kargoth of Mansbridge was born a feisty lad, noted for his bravery and ambition from an early age. He was destined for greatness, most said. They said as much again when he was elevated to the ranks of the Knights Protector.

150 CY
The Rhennee Cometh
There was a time that the Rhennee had not navigated the shores of the Nyr Dyv, nor the rivers and tributaries that wound their way across the Flanaess. Where did they come from? Few know. The Rhennee are not telling, either, for the Rhennee are a secretive folk, as distrustful of those who are not their kin as those who are not are of them. All that is known for sure is that they were first seen within the Adri Forest.
A minor human race called the Rhennee is found in the central Flanaess. These wayfaring people travel on river barges and are very clannish. Rhennee claim to have come to the Flannaess from another world and they do not trust outsiders. They have a bad reputation as thieves, but most are not truly evil. [TAB - 14]

They are thought to have first appeared in the Flanaess in the area around the Adri Forest circa 150 CY, moving west to avoid harassment by Aerdy soldiers and citizens. The Rhennee increasingly left the land to become migrants on the central rivers, until very few land-dwelling Rhennee now exist. [TAB - 58]

The Rhennee are truly the enigma among the races of Greyhawk. While the other foul races can trace their histories to elsewhere on the continent, the Rhennee have separate origins. They are thought to have first appeared in the Flanaess in the area around the Adri Forest around 150 CY, moving west to avoid harassment by Aerdy soldiers and citizens. The Rhennee increasingly left the land to become migrants on the central rivers, until comparatively few land-dwelling Rhennee now exist. Though they rarely speak of this to outsiders, their legends claim that the race came to Oerth accidentally from their home world of Rhop. Although the Rhenn-folk have only a few ideas of what their home plane was like or how they got here, they know that it was quite different from the Flanaess. [PGtG - 35]

The Rhennee live exclusively on the waterways. making their homes on large barges that average about 60 feet long and 15 feet wide. These sturdy barges are similar in style to a junk; they are capable of navigating the Nyx Dyv’s often choppy waters and treacherous storms, as well as riverways. These ships may have one or two masts. [PGtG - 35]
Rhennee are fairly common on the waterways of the central Flanaess and near inland shores and banks. A few secret, inland encampments are said to exist, and here may also be encountered their rare, land-dwelling cousins, whom they derogacively refer to as the Attloi. The mutual distrust and antagonism between the Rhenn-folk and other peoples of the Flanaess have kept the Rhennee relatively unmixed with other races, though the Rhennee do bring children of other human races into their families. [LGG - 7]

155 CY
There are mysteries aplenty upon the Oerth. Some are old, truly old, and were old even when the elves were young. Most are best avoided. But what can one do if one rises unexpectedly from below keel, and is stranded upon it?
The Sinking Isle
In the past one notable man was far less circumspect than modern adventurers: Atirr Aedorich, a hero of the Great Kingdom in the days of its youth. In 155, as a young man, he was sent southward by his father to the university at Rel Astra, then a great center of learning in the magical arts. The Sinking Isle was less active in those days but as the fates would have it Atirr’s ship was caught in a sudden squall, and driven onto the hidden claws of the Isle itself. Atirr was fascinated rather than terrified (such were the Great Kingdom’s nobles in those days). For a full hour, while the crew sweated at the pumps and strained to place a patch over the hull’s single rent, the young man gazed at the strange phosphorescent landscape, and prepared several sketches, until one of the Solnor’s strange and unpredictable great came questing the strait and lifted the wounded vessel clear. Atirr vowed to return and discover the island’s secrets.
Atirr did return northward some years later, but as Herzog of North Province. Not until his middle years did he have the leisure to the examination of certain ancient Suel tomes, and the exercise of the arts he learned at Astra, he devised a way to either predict or command the vagaries of the Sinking Isle. This knowledge, like much else, was lost in the Turmoil Between the Crowns, but several different descriptions survive of what he found when he drew alongside the risen city.
Sahuagin
In the short time before the sank Once again beneath the waves, Atirr and his to followers were able to recover and record information about a great many artifacts from among the spiky and highly decorated ruins. Among these were many panes of fine stained glass, some still intact, and some in tints never yet achieved by modern artists. Besides these were a number of twisted ornaments Of gold and lead, later discovered to be of sahuagin manufacture. Attir also discovered a book sealed against the water in a lead casket. All of these were returned to the court at Rauxes in honor of the Overking. The patient Atirr hoped to study them further in his retirement. He declared the book in particular to be most interesting, being among other things a recording in a lost language of “an ancient history together with magical secrets.”
Chill and Forbidding
Tragically, Atirr was never to attain his goal. Two years after his discoveries he and all hands went down in a storm off the coast of North Province in a storm which apparently even the Herzog’s powers could not quell. The book has since disappeared, though it may yet be found somewhere in the catacombs at Rauxes; it is difficult to be sure, as 90 little word now reaches the outside world of the doings at that court. It is known that Atirr was convinced from a preliminary study that the city itself was not primarily of sahuagin construction but must have been built by a terrestrial race, though sahuagin-like creatures and other sea life are depicted frequently in the architecture.
Later observers have examined the coastlands and sea near the site of the Sinking Isle, and have on a dark evening seen what may have been its upper towers. The region is chill and forbidding for such a southern latitude. Fishermen say that the catch in those parts is extraordinarily good, but that nets are often fouled. Those attempting the water, find it dark and chill. Most are content to leave the Sinking Isle to the sahuagin, or whatever race of the deeps now holds it. [GA - 93,95]


166 CY
The east coast of the Great Kingdom had never truly been pacified. Barbarians raided the North Coast unmolested, and piracy was ever a problem on the South Seas. The Overking was losing patience, and he committed forces to deal with it, once and for all time. He set his sights upon putting the Duxchaners to task for their misdeeds.Following a particularly terrible attack on Pontylver, during which the shipyards were set ablaze, Overking Erhart II was determined to put an end to the marauding. In 166 CY, he committed the combined navies of the Great Kingdom to breaking the power of the Duxchaners. Old Baron Asperdi's young but powerful naval force from the Sea Barons was brought to bear on them, led by Lord Admiral Aeodorich of House Atirr, then accorded the finest naval captain of the time. The town of Dullstrand was specifically founded to act as a base of operations for the invasion of these southern islands by the Aerdi fleet. [LGG - 71]

167 CY
Monduiz Dephaar was born in Bellport to noble lineage. He was elevated at a young age to its Barony when his family fell to Fruztii raids along the Solnor Coast.

History of the Star Cairns
The Suel had travelled long and far since the Twin Cataclysms, and in the intervening years they had found many lands that pleased them as had their homeland. But they never forgot the Motherland, or the fate it had fallen to, or at whose hands.
In 167 CY, a copy of the Tome of the Scarlet Sign was delivered to Murtaree, court wizard to the Malachite Throne of the Great Kingdom. The tome was a treasure of the fallen Suloise Empire, and the wonders of that lost realm struck a chord within the dark heart of the Suel-born wizard The man was fascinated by the tales and information about his ancestors, and was especially intrigued by the depth of the hatred his people felt for their enemies, the Bakluni. The tales of ancient and terrible feuds kindled in him the fires of hatred, and he resolved to bring back to life the ancient war and destroy the Baklunish people. Consulting his peers – other wizards of Suel heritage, working as advisors to various members of the AerdI court – he found that there were others who felt similarly, and he easily talked them into joining his personal crusade. [LT1 The Star Cairns - 2]

168 CY
The naval forces of the Great Kingdom defeated the Duxchan forces in the Battle of Ganode Bay with the naval power of the Sea Barons at the fore. Thus the Duxchan Isles became The Lordship of the Isles.
Within two years of hotly fought battles in the Aerdi Sea, Atirr and his armada, which was outfitted with mages and powerful clerics of Procan, finally defeated the Duxchaners and their allies at the Battle of Ganode Bay. This won greater fame and praise for the Aerdi admiral, who eventually rose to the throne of North Province some years later. The most militant of the surviving Suel buccaneers retreated to the port of Ekul, on the Spine Ridge of the Tilvanot Plateau, but were no longer a significant factor. The Aerdi settled these islands in large numbers, founding Sulward as the capital, though the population remained largely Suel, particularly on Ansabo and Ganode, where local Suel lords were absorbed into the government of the realm. An Aerdi lord was appointed prince of the new realm and he was made responsible to the herzog of South Province, but given the right to carve up the islands into provinces as he saw fit and award them to his kin. [LGG - 71]

169 CY
History of the Star Cairns
Seeking a quiet place to study, [Muratree] and his cohorts could study and grow strong enough [to bring back to life the ancient war and destroy the Baklunish people], he was lucky enough to find two great veins of magic rock in the western arm of the Abbor-Alz. These veins enhanced different sorts of magic in ways that suited his purposes, and so the wizard hired dwarves and men to dig out lairs in these places, first breaking ground in 169 CY. When the hidden tunnels were completed, Murtaree cast a great forget spell on the workers to preserve the secret of their location. There were five locations in all – arranged on the crossing ley-lines like an enormous victory-rune (its apex in the lower Abbor-Alz and its nadir in the Bright Desert), which the mage thought was most appropriate. The ambitious magic-users got to work creating items and spells of great power to use against their racial enemy. [LT1 - 2]

170 CY
What of the southern continent? Did they prosper? Did they wither under the gaze of the fell serpent Meyanok? Yes. The Olman wared amongst themselves. The Touv continued on much as they always had. But both suffered the yuan-ti. And both were beset with the machinations of the cult of the serpent. (1577 TC)
The Yuan-ti
Tolanok was once an Olman city in the highlands of Hepmonoland. Abandoned during the Olman exodus, the Touv moved warriors into the city to hold the front line and to initiate attacks against the yuan-ti of Xapatlapo. After several years when the Olman did not return and the Xapatlapoans closed their borders, the Touv capital allowed civilians to settle the city. The hillside mines were reopened, and precious metals and gems flowed back to the capital; Tolanok became a very wealthy state, although the mediocre soil of the region kept it from growing too large. It was its financial prosperity and status as the smallest of the Touv city-states that eventually attracted the attention of the priests of Meyanok.
Over the years the priests slowly replaced key individuals in the temples and the city government. In 170CY, the high priests of Meyanok called down the power of their god and withered all vegetation within five miles of the city wall. The city’s stores of grain were lost, and the people were best by famine. Many fled, but most could not; those that died of starvation rose as the ravenous, a new form of undead. [SB - 54]
It is no wonder that the Olman and the Touv floundered, just as the Great Kingdom flourished.

174 CY
History of the Star Cairns
Muratree never lived to see his grand scheme of destruction carried out. Not from lack of trying.
Although Murtaree died in 174 CY when his transformation into a lich failed, his first students continued to work teaching their ideals to new students. Great works were made in these dungeons. More importantly, a pow& destructive artifact of unknown origin was kept here for safekeeping, divided into three pieces, each stored in a different cairn for greater security. [LT1 - 2]

c. 187 CY 
As a member of the Knights Protector, Monduiz Dephaar distinguished himself defending against the seasonal Barbarian raids, fighting alongside such heroes as Lord Kargoth. He fought with a fierceness that was frightening to behold, and in time, as his reputation spread up and down the coast, his name came to be known and then feared by the Barbarians. His atrocities were initially overlooked; but eventually they could not be ignored. He was censured by the Knights, but he carried on unabated, then shunned; and in his fury, he left, and settled for a while among the Schnai, where his sword was welcomed, and where he could continue to raid and vent his rage upon the Fruztii.

189 CY
Patience and persistence served the Great Kingdom well. So too the divisive nature of Urnst, Oeridian to the north, Suloise to the south. The north had no wish to be ruled by the Suloise lords to the south, and those same Suloise lords preferred riches over the strife that had risen with repeated crop failures. Yes, patience and persistence had served the Great Kingdom well, that and a little magic and greed.
Originally part of the much-larger seminal Urnst nation, the County of Urnst was established as a distinct protectorate nation by Overking Jirenen of Aerdy in 189 CY. Owning by far the most fertile land of any nation bordering the Nyr Dyv, Urnst stood as the breadbasket of the region for many years, supplying wheat as far afield as Calbut, in the duchy of Tenh. [LGG - 123]

[The] Senate had grown effete and corrupt. Crop blights (some say the result of druids bribed by Aerdy) and bread riots forced the leaders of Urnst to take action. In 189 CY, the Senate effectively sold to the Great Kingdom all of the land between the Franz and Artonsamay Rivers for an entire caravan of treasure and magical artifice. The lords of the north, long abused by the Suloise senate, rejoiced at the new arrangement. The Urnst nation was divided into a county, to the north, and a duchy, to the south. [LGG - 125]

193 CY
The rejoicing was short lived.
When Nyrond broke from the Great Kingdom, it entered a period of expansionism, swiftly capturing the County of Urnst in a brief and surprising series of charges toward the capital. Most Urnstmen bitterly resented the occupation years, during which their own aristocracy (largely Suel, with strong ties to that of the duchy) was integrated with arrogant nobility from Nyrond. This resentment rarely erupted into physical conflict, however; the people of Urnst enjoyed a much better fate than the Pale under similar circumstances. [LGG - 123]
Though the folk of the County of Urnst welcomed the Aerdy with open arms, the newly palatine government of the south was far less trusting, fearing that the influx of Oeridian advisers and regulars might degrade the "pure" Suloise culture. Much to everyone's surprise, the overking took a hands-off policy to the heartlands after disbanding the Senate and placing ultimate authority in the hands of the duke of Urnst, selected by the Suloise nobles in 193 CY. [LGG - 125]

198 CY
All eyes looked to the heavens as a comet appeared over the Flanaess. What did it mean, the people asked? All manner of omens were declared, most great boons, like the declaration of a thousand years of peace and prosperity, the Pax Aerdia. But not all predicted the great age to come; the sage Selvor the Younger proclaimed a coming time of strife and living death for the Great Kingdom. Those in power had no ears for such words in their time of unprecedented contentment.
The History of the Star Cairns
An Omen of Wealth, Strife, and Living Death
A great ball of fire appeared over the Oljatt Sea in 198 CY, passed over the southern Great Kingdom, and vanished beyond the Sea of Geamat. […]  Selvor the Younger, an Aerdi astronomer, extrapolated its path back to its celestial origin and declared the fireball to be an omen of “wealth, strife, and a living death.” This pronouncement caused panic in Rauxes and throughout the Great Kingdom, where it was interpreted to mean the end of the world The subsequent incidents and unrest foreshadowed the Age of Great Sorrow to come, in 213 CY. Unknown to the people of the Great Kingdom, the shooting star struck ground in the eastern Abbor-Alz.
The impact was felt several hundred miles away in Murtaree’s southernmost site, momentarily distracting the attention of the mages working there. Mysteriously, the site vanished a few seconds later - with it, three well-known wizards of the Great Kingdom. Even worse, one of the pieces of the ancient weapon had been stored in the lost site. The remaining wizards abandoned for a time their plans of Bakluni destruction to deal with the troubles in the east, and fled the laboratories, some caking the time to activate magical and mundane defenses to protect their research.
Eventually, the wizards who knew the true purpose of the dungeons were scattered to the winds or dead; the items found inside sparked their own legends, leading people to believe that the ruins were merely burial sites for great mages. They came to be called the Star Cairns, after the star-shaped entrances, and the belief that they were mausoleums. Monsters and other undesirables began using the cairns as lain, the great plans of the Suel wizard forgotten. [LT1 - 2] 






One must always give credit where credit is due. This History is made possible primarily by the Imaginings of Gary Gygax and his Old Guard, Lenard Lakofka among them, and the new old guards, Carl Sargant, James Ward, Roger E. Moore. And Erik Mona, Gary Holian, Sean Reynolds, Frederick Weining. The list is interminable. Thanks to Steven Wilson for his GREYCHRONDEX and to Keith Horsfield for his “Chronological History of Eastern Oerik.”
Special thanks to Jason Zavoda for his compiled index, “Greyhawkania,” an invaluable research tool.

The Art:
Dyvers, by David Roach & Sam Wood, from Slavers, 2000
Rome-versus-barbarian by odinrules
Gypsy-Woman-Painting by noramohammed
The Sinking Isle, by Jeff Easly (?), Greyhawk Adventures, 1988
Away-from-the-Light by waterbear
R'lyeh by pmoodie
Dagon by bazibalba

Sources:
1015 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set, 1983
1064 From the Ashes Boxed Set, 1992
1068 Greyhawk Wars Boxed Set, 1991
2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1st Ed., 1979
2023 Greyhawk Adventures Hardback, 1988
9025 World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980
9253 WG8, Fate of Istus, 1989
9399 WGR 5, Iuz the Evil, 1993
9577 The Adventure Begins, 1998
9578 Player’s Guide to Greyhawk, 1998
11374 The Scarlet Brotherhood, 1999
11621 Slavers. 2000
11742 Gazetteer, 2000
11743 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, 2000
Ivid the Undying, 1998
Dragon Magazine
OJ Oerth Journal, appearing on Greyhawk Online
LGJ et. al.
Greychrondex, Wilson, Steven B.
Greyhawkania, Jason Zavoda
Tha map of Anna. B Meyer

1 comment:

  1. This installment was GREAT! I'm especially impressed you worked Star Cairns into the history. I never gave them much heed until now.

    ReplyDelete