“Pity is the most agreeable feeling among those who
have little pride and no prospects of great conquests.”
― The Joyful
Wisdom
 |
| An Aerdian Age |
The Aerdi has long since settled upon their vast and
trackless sea. And long since embarked upon their conquest of the known world.
But even as they sought to tame it and bring it to heel, they were doomed to
fail, no matter that they succeeded in every endeavour they had ever embarked
upon. There were portents afoot that would prove prophetic. Portents observed. Noted.
Discussed ad nauseum. Ignored. And thus made unavoidable.
Such lack of wisdom is not unique to the Great Kingdom,
though. Even as the Celestial Houses were beginning their long journey to their
inevitable corruption and collapse, other empires were as doomed as theirs.
There were other portents, other prophesies, equally dire elsewhere. All
equally unavoidable.
Such is Fate.
1st Century BCY
 |
| Pax Rauxia |
After the Aerdi first conquered the lands surrounding
the lower Flanmi and founded the kernel of their empire along the Solnor Coast,
their ambitions soon turned to the southwest, where great riches awaited. The
Flan kingdom of Ahlissa was conquered in the [fifth century OR] and eventually
became the core of mighty South Province. LGG - 80]
Early 1st Century CY
Even as the Aerdi began their march west they began to
build their first ships. They were small vessels, flimsy vessels, incapable of
venturing far from the coast. Be that as it may, those early vessels informed
the Aerdi to what extent the Flan and Suel had colonized those coasts and
islands within their reach, within their grasp. Before long, those ports and
villages, those islands and clans were subsumed.
Early in the history of Aerdy, when the Aerdi expanded
west from their holdings in the Flanmi basin, little attention was paid to
naval pursuits in the Solnor. Most of the islands off the eastern coast of the
Flanaess were either inhabited by Flan natives in the north or Suel colonists
in the south, and these peoples posed little threat to the expansion of the
dominant Aerdi on the continent. It was only centuries later, after the
founding of the Great Kingdom, that the overkings sought to extend their
dominion to the seas. [LGG – 99]
1 CY
 |
| Forewarned |
Over time, spies planted in the Aerdi Kingdom moved to
other lands, strengthening the Brother’s information network. Even when the
Great Kingdom swelled to its greatest size in 5516 SD under Overking Nasran,
Shar was protected from land assaults by the Vast Swamp, and from naval attacks
by the Brotherhood’s ships and its powerful magic. [SB – 4] (5516 SD)
12 CY
The lands farther south [of Ahlissa] were controlled
by the Suel, but a series a brutal wars brought regions such as Idee and Sunndi
into the burgeoning Aerdi kingdom (as part of South Province) over the next
century. In 598 OR (-46 CY), Onnwal was taken after a long and bloody conflict
that ended with the establishment of Irongate and final control of the
Headlands for the Aerdi. [LGG - 80]
Onnwal under heel, the Great Kingdom needed a port from
which it could secure the Gearnat Strait and Relmor Bay to the east, and the
Sea of Gearnat and Woolly Bay to the west, and thus lend safety and security to
all who might sail within, so it set about constructing Scant.
The peninsula was awarded as a fief to the herzog of
South Province, who constructed the port of Scant in 12 CY to facilitate its
colonization by the Aerdi. The port also served as a means by which to share
Onnwal's resources, particularly the silver and platinum being drawn out the
hills, with the markets of Prymp and Chathold. The szeks of Onnwal who
administered the land were originally appointed by the herzog in Zelradton and
were usually favored members of his court. [LGG - 80]
102 CY
Meanwhile, far asea in the Misty Kingdom, the dragons
there went about their business without interference from the young races, the
ever warring, disagreeable races of the mainland.
The three dragons were joined by Vehement Debate in
102 CY, who fathered a clutch of two with Fundamental Thought. Since then, the
dragons have hatched three more young, and now each of the nine dragons claim
part of the seven islands. [SB – 66]
102 CY
The great houses were laying claim to lands throughout
the realm. House Garasteth was no different, settling the isles of the Solnor
Sea. So had House Atirr. War broke out between them, and Overking Manshen was
forced to intervene, for so long as those forces fought, his coast was open to
raids 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.
 |
| Colonizing the Coast |
124 CY
Irongate was tens of decades in the building. 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]
155 CY
There are mysteries aplenty upon the Oerth. Some are old,
truly old, 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?
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.
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.”
 |
| Storm Wrecked |
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 has 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 to 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
Old evils never remain buried forever, even those that
should. Who in their right mind would ever wish to repeat the sin of the Twin
Cataclysms? No one, one would think. Or so we would wish. But there are those
who would, sure that their unexpected strike could not fail and result in their
own doom. It is those we should be wary of, for they cannot be sane, surely.
 |
| The Wrath of Murtaree |
168 CY
The naval forces of the Great Kingdom defeated the
Duxchan forces at 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, supposedly under the heel of
those mariners.
With the naval power of the Sea Barons at the fore,
the Aerdi captured the Lordship of the Isles in 168 CY by defeating the Suel of
Duxchan. [LGG – 100]
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]
170 CY
What of the southern continent? Did it prosper? Did it
wither under the gaze of the fell serpent Meyanok? Yes. The Olman warred
amongst themselves. The Touv tended their herds, much as they always had. But
both suffered the yuan-ti. And both were beset with the machinations of the
cult of the serpent.
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 [.] [SB – 54]
The decadence and snake-worship of [the city of
Ichamamna] first attracted the attention of the Tuov people, and Ichamamna was
the first city to fall to the might of warriors of the Kingdom of Kunda. The
Tuov took over the city and reconsecrated it in the name of their own gods,
then attacked their northern neighbor, Xapatlapo, with aid from Tuov warriors
of Tolanok. When the yuan-ti proved intractable, the Touv continued westward
around the serpent city to drive the Olman out. [SB – 49]
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]
When Tolanok was rendered barren in 170 CY, Prince
Okelo saw an opportunity to take the yuan-ti by surprise.
Unfortunately, the inhumans anticipated such a move
and laid poisonous traps all along the path of the Prince’s troops while
simultaneously flanking the humans and moving into the flatland, catching the
citizens unawares. The people were enslaved and corrupted by the blood curse of
Tlaloc, and Ichamamna remains a yuan-ti nation. [SB – 49] (1577 TC)
It is no wonder that the Olman and the Touv floundered, even
as the Great Kingdom flourished.
198 CY
All eyes looked to the heavens as a comet appeared over
the Flanaess.
 |
| Lyzandred the Mad |
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. [LT1 The Star Cairns – 2]
The meteor struck the eastern Abbor-Alz and shook the
bedrock hard enough for an echo to be felt in the demiplane. Lyzandred timed
the impact to occur while two Suel wizards tested spells simultaneously; the
spells went out of control, overlapping each other and other magics at the
site. The laboratory vanished from Oerth, taking with it one piece of an
unassembled Suel war artifact, the Doomheart. [LT2 – 2]
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. [LT1 - 2]
 |
| Selvor the Younger |
In mid-locktime of CY 198, the Great Kingdom was
astounded by a ball of fire which appeared over the Oljatt Sea, passed over
Sunndi, Idee, Ahlissa, and Onnwall, and vanished somewhere beyond the Sea of
Gearnat. It was visible as far south as the Olman Isles and as far north as
Eastfair and Rel Mord, and was cause for wonder and concern even in those
prosperous and confident times. [GA – 91]
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]
213 CY
How complacent
was Rauxes? How depraved? How self-serving?
Upon the death of Overking Jiranen, his son Malev
auctioned off the throne to the highest bidder. For how much? A princely sum, reputedly,
for few could meet the price Malev would accept. His cousin Zelcor could and
did.
[With] the death in the spring of 213 CY of the
Overking Jiranen, a sovereign who had reigned many years, succession became a
matter of intrigue. His fatuous son Malev was uninterested in the office and
proceeded to secretly auction it off to the highest bidder among his relatives.
Malev did not care who took the throne, and it came as some surprise when his
cousin Zelcor reportedly met his price. [LGG - 23]
Royal Astrologers at Rel Astra proclaimed the coming of
the Age of Sorrow, vindicating the disgraced Sage Selvor the Younger.
Selvor the Younger, an Aerdi astronomer, extrapolated
its path [of the comet that passed overhead in 198 CY] 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.
[LT1 – 2]
The Royal Astrologers proclaimed it as a great
portent, confirming the sign of a coming Age of Great Sorrow prophesied by
Selvor the Younger fifteen years earlier. Overking Zelcor promptly abolished
the astrologers' order for trying to recreate earlier hysteria and banished the
members to Rel Astra. So proceeded an inexorable decline that began as the
rulers of House Rax became progressively neglectful, decadent, or dimwitted.
[LGG – 23]
From 213 CY on, the Aerdi overkings grew lax, caring
more for local prestige and wealth than for the affairs of their vassals in
distant lands. This period was called the Age of Great Sorrow. As each
sovereign passed, he was replaced with a more dimwitted and less competent
successor, until the outer dependencies of Aerdy declared their independence. [LGG
– 14]
215 CY
Who was Wastri the Hopping Prophet? The Malachite Throne
had no idea. Neither did the Scarlet Brotherhood. Some few in the Brotherhood assumed
him to be one of the original followers of Kevelli, but they had no proof of
such a claim. He was powerful, to be sure; a god some thought; most believed
him a heretic.
 |
| Wastri, the Hopping Prohet |
It is he who preaches the ultimate superiority of
humankind. While humanoids can serve, demi-humans are fit only to be slain —
especially dwarves, gnomes, and halflings. These, with the aid of his gray-clad
“Servants,” he hunts with his toad packs and exterminates whenever possible.
[Dragon #71 – 56]
Orcs, goblins, bullywugs, and such are sufficient to
serve humans [….] Those who disagree […] are wrong and must be convinced of
their error, with a weapon if need be. [LGG – 187]
Was Wastri Iuz? Is that possible? Might that master of
mayhem and deceit begun to weave his web that far south of his domain?
 |
| Iuz |
This beg the question to be asked: Why did Choldraf flee
to the Vast Swamp of all places? To redeem himself there? Why there unless that
was where Iuz was to be found.
 |
| Wastri Upon His Steed |
The community of his followers grew, and as things
developed, Wastri’s main interest centered on the first friends he’s made in
the bogs, the giant toads. Over the course of decades, the Hopping Profit grew
more powerful, even as he and his faithful following assimilated certain
characteristics of a strange sort as a result of their mingling.
To this day, Wastri has continued to evolve to a point
where he is no longer human. [Dragon #300 – 16] (5730 SD)
252 CY
Some seeds take decades to germinate: the Theocracy of
the Pale, for instance. Who would have thought that its first seed was planted a
century prior to its Emancipation? But it was. And it was first seed was sown
by Overking Toran II, a paranoid, suspicious soul, if there ever was one. He
saw enemies everywhere, he heard whispers in the far corners of his court. And
knew that he had tenuous hold on the length and breadth of his Great Kingdom.
None should rule but him. And to that end, those with any influence need be
uprooted. Replaced. With those more loyal.
“This world is for those who are born to conquer it,
Not for those who dream that are able to conquer it,
even if they're right.”
― Poems of Fernando
Pessoa
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:
The Sinking Isle, by Jeff Easley (?), from Greyhawk Adventures Hardback, 1988
Lyzandred the Mad, by Sam Wood, from LT2 The Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad, 1998
Wastri, by Jeff Easley, from Dragon Magazine #71, 1983
Iuz, by Anthony Granato, from WGR5 Iuz the Evil, 1993
Pholtus of the Blinding Light, by Anthony Granato, from Dragon Magazine #294, 2002
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, 1984
9025
World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980
9577
The Adventure Begins, 1998
9578
Player’s Guide to Greyhawk, 1998
11374
The Scarlet Brotherhood, 1999
11742
Gazetteer, 2000
11743
Living Greyhawk Gazeteer, 2000
Ivid
the Undying, 1998
9579 LT1 The Star Cairns,
1998
9580 LT2 Lyzandred the Mad,
1998
Dragon
Magazine, 56, 71, 300
OJ
Oerth Journal, appearing on Greyhawk Online
LGJ et. al.
Greychrondex,
Wilson, Steven B.
Greyhawkania, Jason Zavoda
The map of Anna B. Meyer
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