The Tall Walkers

 

“So the story of man runs in a dreary circle, because he is not yet master of the earth that holds him.”

― Will Durant

The Tall Walkers

When did humans come to Hepmonaland?

We presume, I assume, that they were always there. Not much mention is made of the Dark Continent in the Folio, and none whatsoever of the Olman and Tuov, focussing all its pages and energy instead on that plot of land we call the Flanaess and the peoples who trod upon it.

Migrating bands began settling the eastern portion of the Oerik Continent, Flanaess, over a millenium ago. The Flan tribesmen were hardy and capable hunters but not particularly warlike, and their small and scattered groups made no appreciable civilizing effect. The Suel Peoples, mainly fleeing from the great wars in the Suloise Empire, moved northwards through the Kendeen (Harsh) Pass of the southern Crystalmist Mountains (now known as the Hellfurnaces) and spread out in all directions. The fierce Oeridian tribes likewise moved east, thrusting aside Flan and Suloise in their path. [Folio – 5]

Indeed, if we were left with only the Folio, we might have to presume that the Suel were its only inhabitants.

The majority of the Suelites were pushed to the extreme south, into the Amedio Jungle, the Tilvanot Peninsula, the Duxchan Islands, and even as far as across the narrow Tilva Straight into Hepmonaland. [Folio – 5]

The World of Greyhawk Boxed Set was as equally mum on the subject, as it too only referred to the Suloise as inhabitants on that mysterious southerly continent.

The Suel folk are quite predominant in the island groups off the eastern coast of the Flanaess as well as on Tilvanot Peninsula, in the Scarlet Brotherhood region. Those bands that migrated into the vast Amedio Jungle and Hepmonaland are so altered as to be no longer typical of the race; they are tan to brown with heavy freckling. [WoGA – 13]

Even the first adventure module actually set on Hepmonaland was vague on who the inhabitants were.

Mongrelmen

Merchants carrying precious loads of rare goods from the jungle lands have been way laid, their goods taken and their men captured or killed. Even then, those who survived these raids had to face headhunters, brain fever, giant leeches, cannibals, and leopards. Few men ever returned.

The stories they told were fantastic and addled, surely brought about by disease and the horrors with which they had to deal. Singing snakes, twisted and deformed ape-men, men who were not men, and writhing, horrid flowers filled their tales – surely such things were not to be believed. Nonetheless, something had destroyed the caravans. [I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City – 2]

In fact, greater detail is given to the dangers explorers might encounter than those natives who might aid and give succor to the adventurers (a prudent choice given the page count, and owing to this being an adventure module and not a gazetteer).

The long journey was tilled with hardship, but fortunately, peaceful tribes and villages were found to ease the journey. [I1 – 2]

Not much else is said about them. Or their village, for that matter. Although their past grandeur is alleged, though. The Forbidden City has been overrun by Yuan-ti and bullywugs and mongrelmen, and it is on these that the adventure focusses. We can only assume that the city was once theirs, whoever grand they may have been.

I expect hardly anyone gave the natives much thought back then.

Torhoon Artifacts

It wasn’t until much later, in 1999, that the natives, the Olman and Touv were finally given name, detailed in Sean Reynold’s The Scarlet Brotherhood and Bruce Cordell’s Bastion of Faith.

So to were the Torhoon, their earliest and only appearance in Andy Miller’s Ex Keraptis Cum Amore, in Dungeon #77 (December 1999):

[A]n ancient race called the Torhoon (whose empire, based on alchemy and magic, was centered in Hepmonaland over 8,000 years ago), the mad lich [Orlysse] crafted his dungeon on their writings and style. He strove to make the dungeon seem authentically ancient, going so far as to use the ancient Torhoon language in his riddles and fill the place with Torhoon artifacts of his own. [Dungeon #77 – 33]

Only a comprehend languages spell or similar magic allows the PCs to decipher the ancient, dead language of the Torhoon. [Dungeon #77 – 34]

Who were these Torhoon? According to Andy Miller, they were human:

Shades of the Torhoon

A [7’] tall man suddenly appears in front to you. He is human, although his body is hairless and his features are slightly elongated. He wears a loose, black toga and watches you with large, unblinking eyes. [Dungeon #77 – 48]

One such was the despotic sorcerer Kellex Zyrrinyth, who lived more than 8,000 years ago. [Dungeon #77 – 47]

Little else is mentioned. There are numerous references to Torhoon writings and pyramids and Torhoon wights and mummies and mists, of Torhoon magic and alchemy, although none of it seems to differ much from contemporary versions of the same, except that Orlysse could not duplicate all of the spells known to the ancient Torhoon sorcerers. [Dungeon #77 – 53]

Andy Miller is somewhat vague as to who and what they were, exactly. Powerful, certainly; more so than we, apparently. It’s all well and good to make references to the past, but those references ought to have some concrete anchor in canon, to my mind. One wonders – I do, anyway – whether Mr. Miller and Mr. Sean Reynolds were working hand in hand when Sean made these comments in his The Scarlet Brotherhood accessory, of the same year:

Southern Hepmonaland, Realm of the Torhoon

Onave, the youngest son of King Onatal […] found […] strange writings in the earth [in the hills of Imianme.] [SB – 51]

The Touv have no “living” memory of the writings or writers, so they must be ancient.

[A]n oddly-constructed ruin near the [Okeo] hills is said to have been built by an ancient race of people that predate the Tuov, possibly the ones the people of Banyo call “The Tall Walkers.” [SB – 58]

The Touv

The Torhoon are ancient; so too are they tall; so one can very easily make the connection between the two.

Reports surface from time to time of unusual ships on Byanbos shores piloted by beings the locals call “The Tall Walkers.” [SB – 48]

Was there more to come, concerning the Tall Walkers or the Torhoon and their magnificence and maleficence? There was not. I have to ask: Why are there no other mentions of these mysterious Torhoon (other than their architecture and magic being duplicated in the far north by an insane lich) or Tall Walkers anywhere but in the southerly-most regions of Hepmonaland? If they were so advanced, why are their ruins not scattered across the Flanaess, then?

So, are the Tall Walkers and the Torhoon one and the same? Can they possibly be? They could very well have been in Andy and Sean’s minds.

Myself? I’m not so sure.

Let’s pause here, shall we? Ex Keraptis Cum Amore makes mention that these Torhoon were an advanced society 8,000 years ago. The Torhoon civilization apparently predates the events of Len Lakofka’s and Steve Winter’s History of the Suloise, published in the Oerth Journal #1 in 1995, which also details very early Elven society.

-4462 CY Prior to this time, Elves used no calendars. But on this date […] the Four Elven Realms of the East are founded. (1053 SD/-1 OC) [OJ#1 – 9]

-4403 CY The Wind Dukes of Aaqa, meet a gathered force of evil humanoids and drow on the Plains of Pesh (in what is now Keoland). This is the last recorded great battle between Elves and their drow cousins. The Dukes shatter the dark elven armies. (1103 SD/60 OC) [OJ#1 – 9]

-2253 CY The Flan move into Eastern Oerik. They are welcomed by the Highfolk, but the other kingdoms, remembering the disaster of the helping of the Seul, close their Realms to humans. (3263 SD/2210 OC) [OJ#1 – 9]

The Flan were the first known humans to live in eastern Oerik, and it is from them that the Flanaess gets its name. [LGG – 5]

Even were we to ignore the above LGG quote for the moment, one wonders how these Torhoon humans came to such power before the elves, or to inhabit Hepmonaland, such a widely distant local from western Oerik and the rest of humanity, without any “bridge” between them? This gap was “rectified” later in 2000 in OJ#11 by the addition of the Kersi. But the elven and Suloise calendars were pushed back as well.

-7256 CY or 1 GE (Grey Elven Calendar) The Grey Elven History is recorded in written form, as opposed to the traditional sung and spoken forms, for the first time. Their gods grant magic to the Elven clergy. (-1740 SD/ 1 GE Grey Elven Calendar) [OJ#11 – 55]

The Kersi?

-6263 CY A group of beautiful dark skinned humans called Kersi from over the southern sea from a large island continent they called AnaKeri arrived on the southern portion of the Flanaess in large wooden platformed outriggers. (-717 SD) [OJ#11 – 55]

Did the addition of the Kersi clear anything up? Not a jot.

-5528 CY Alianor sends a large naval force to invade AnaKeri. The outriggers of the AnaKeri are no matches for the mighty warships of the Suel. As the massive armada approaches the clerics of the AnaKeri call upon the elemental princes for protection. The princes encircle the island continent with a maelstrom of wind and wild seas and much of the invading fleet is destroyed. Those that do land are met with upheavals in the land itself and, at last, by beings of elemental fire. A few of the invaders return to tell the tale. The wall of wind and water remains behind circling the continent of AnaKeri to this very day. (-12 SD) [OJ#11 – 56]

The Wall of Wind and Water

If anything, their apocryphal mention is all the more perplexing. Were the Keri a match for the Suel? They would seem to be. Were the Kersi as powerful as the Torhoon? And where was their elusive land, its lack obvious in every map included in the Folio? Who knows; it has never been included in any other published map, either. Nor will it. Such is the way with apocrypha. A simpler solution would have been that the Kersi were a branch of the Olman who colonised the archipelagos betwixt the Amedio and the motherland, and that the Suloise fleet was destroyed by a hurricane. But we like to raise mysterious long-lost civilisations where none had existed before.

It’s irrelevant whether Andy Miller was aware of the upcoming OJ#11 apocrypha; but did he have any recognition of 1995’s OJ#1 article? I suppose not. And even if he was, he was under no obligation to adhere to that timeline. The Oerth Journal is not specifically canon, after all, regardless who might have written its articles. Whatever Andy Miller was aware of, I do find the whole situation a bit of a gordian knot. Why wasn’t he? Things were in the works, as it were. Eric Mona (Iquander) was the editor of that earliest edition of the journal, the driving force of RPGA’s new Living Greyhawk campaign to be launched in 2000, and the publisher of the then in progress Living Greyhawk Gazetteer of the same year, if not Dungeon Magazine until 2004. How could it be that he and Andy were not in the same loop? I have to wonder then how the Torhoon could be mentioned in a Dungeon magazine adventure module published in 1999 and not at all in the two aforementioned Greyhawk supplements of that same year, or the upcoming Gazetteer; especially the 2000 Greyhawk Gazetteer! Not one! What are we to make of that? Nothing? Everything? The Torhoon do throw a wrench in the works, don’t they? As did the apocryphal Kersi. Why then do people add such things, these Kersi and Torhoon and Vaati when we were already given the Suel and Oerid and Flan, and indeed the Olman and Touv, to work with? Why muddy already decidedly opaque waters?

The Torhoon

What then do we make of the Tall Walkers and Torhoon?

Might the Tall Walkers, in contemporary times, presumably be the Suel, seeing that there were no other mentions of the Torhoon ever again. Likely not. The Suel are referred to as the white-skinned northerners [SB – 50] and ”white demons” [SB – 48] by the Tuov.

So, if not the Suel, who then could they possibly be?

The Tall Walkers

I shall table a theory, seeing that no other canonical writer of Greyhawk lore has chosen to address this disparity: One might imagine that the humans of the southeast, the Olman and the Tuov, and indeed, maybe even the Flan, are all descended from one stock, the Torhoon. Where did this common ancestor come from? That is lost to time. Speculate as you will, by I like to think that they were servants of a long-ago departed or deceased proto-reptilian species that tinkered with genetics. Nothing is known now of those reptilian overlords, and nothing concrete is known now of the Torhoon, either; but the very sight of their etchings and artifacts still has the capacity to all but paralyse the minds of humans and demihumans, alike.

What might we make then of the Tall Walkers’ contemporary mention? Maybe the Torhoon travel the multiverse, as the aforementioned Vaati do (if we ascribe that moniker to the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, as was done in the Rod in Seven Parts). Or maybe, if we want to keep things simple, these modern Tall Walkers are indeed the Suel, however unlikely that might seem. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that the Touv are applying their cultural “boogieman” to these fearsome newcomers. They wouldn’t actually know what the Walkers actually looked like, would they?

I’ll leave that to you to decide.

Because you will, as you should, without any help from me.

“Civilization is a race between disaster and education.”

― H.G. Wells

“It's like a memorial to Atlantis or Lyonesse: these are the stone buoys that mark a drowned world.”

― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

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:

Egyptolich by wamirul

Mongrelmen, by Jim Halloway, from Monster Manual II, 1983 

Torhoon statue, by Stephen Danielle, from Dungeon Magazine #77, 1999

Torhoon shade, by Stephen Danielle, from Dungeon Magazine #77, 1999

Hepmonoland map detail, by Sam Wood, from The Scarlet Brotherhood, 1999

The Emir, by Ludwig Deutsch (1855-1935)

New-world by almeidahelder

Rushing-sea-waves by annartshock

Trojan-Kings by poly-m

Scorpion-Charmer by sirend

Sources:

1015 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set, 1983

2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1st Ed., 1979

9025 World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980

9046 I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, 1980

11374 The Scarlet Brotherhood, 1999

11743 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, 2000

Dragon Magazine

Dungeon Magazine #77

The Oerth Journal, #1, 11

Greychrondex, Wilson, Steven B.

Greyhawkania, Jason Zavoda

The map of Anna B. Meyer

The Wind Dukes of Aaqa

 

“It is indeed a mistake to confuse children with angels”

― Douglas Coupland, Hey Nostradamus!

The Wind Dukes of Aaqa

Mysteries abound in Greyhawk:

Tales of the era before the migrations are fragmentary and poorly understood. Did monstrous creatures rule Oerik before the advent of humanity? Did the great races of humans, elves, dwarves, and the like arise by fiat of the gods or journey here from elsewhere? Did the elves raise humanity to civilization, or did humans achieve this on their own? Did the Flan once have their own empires and civilizations? Who built the oldest tombs in the Cairn Hills, the half-buried ruins in the Bright Desert, or the deserted stone cities in the Griff Mountains? Where were the fabled realms ruled by Johydee, the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, Vecna the Whispered One, the High Kings of the dwarves, or the elven King of Summer Stars? What became of the mysterious Isles of Woe, and who dwelled there? No one knows with any certainty. [LGG – 13] (2001)

These are but a few. Some of these were introduced to us within the pages of the OD&D Little Brown Books: Vecna, the Codex of Infinite Planes, and the Axe of the Dwarven Lords, for instance; some from modules: the Ghost Tower and White Plume Mountain; still others like Tuerny and Johydee and Ye'Cind and their artifacts came to us in the AD&D 1e Dungeon Masters Guide; most are but scant paragraphs, perhaps only a line or two attached to some artifact of old.

Rod of Seven Parts: The Wind Dukes of Aaqa are the legendary creators of this artifact. It is said that they constructed the Rod to use in the great battle of Pesh where Chaos and Law contended. There, the Rod was shattered, and its parts scattered, but the enchantments of the item were such that nothing could actually destroy it, so if its sections are recovered and put together in the correct order, the possessor will wield a weapon of surpassing power. [DMG 1e – 160] (1979)

Who might those Dukes have been? They most certainly found their first mention in early play when alignment was limited to Law and Chaos, or Gary Gygax would have spoken of Good and Evil. But aside from the need to create the mentioned Rod (to which we had to furnish with its powers, both baneful and benign), used at the then unknown Pesh, we were left to wonder. And to fill in the gaps.

There were so many gaps then. That leads me to marvel at how unique individual campaigns were then.

Who were these Wind Dukes of yours? Did you even care to ponder; or were such ancient mysteries as these always left unresolved, just names gleaned from a long-forgotten past, etchings on a wall.

Were these mysteries ever resolved? No, not at all, then. Pesh and the Wind Dukes were never mentioned again. Not in the Dragon, not in the Folio or the Boxed Set, not anywhere, despite the expectation that those names and artifacts in the 1e DMG would to be elaborated on. Indeed, we expected they would be, given the clues.

We were invited to obtain one of the commercially available milieux, and place the starting point of your campaign somewhere within this already created world. At the risk of being accused of being self-serving, I will mention parenthetically that my own WORLD OF GREYHAWK, (published by TSR) [….] [DMG 1e – 47]

THE WORLD OF GREYHAWK. This work provides a complete campaign milieu in which to base adventures and characters, place dungeons, etc. Two large full-color maps, a folder, and a 32-page booklet full of ready-made historical and geographical information. [DMG 1e – 236]

Codex of Infinite Planes

Codex of the infinite Planes: In the distant past the High Wizard Priest of the Isles of Woe (now sunken beneath the waters of the Nyr Dyv - see THE WORLD OF GREYHAWK from TSR) [.] [DMG 1e – 156]

Jacinth of Inestimable Beauty: Legend relates that the Jacinth was possessed by the fabled Sultan Jehef Peh'reen for a time and then passed into the Land of Ket and southward into Keoland (see THE WORLD OF GREYHAWK), where all trace disappeared. [DMG 1e – 158]

That setting booklet would not be made available for another year. And when it was, it was sparse in detail. And alas, the mysteries in the DMG remained just that … mysteries. We were informed that the setting was “ours to do with as we wished.” [Folio – 3]

Pesh and the Wind Dukes were left dangling in the wind, so to speak.

It would come to pass that those who followed in Mr. Gygax’s considerable wake would drop as equally enigmatic hints as his to whom or what the Wind Dukes might be and where they might have sallied forth from to battle upon fabled Pesh.

UNKNOWN LOCATIONS

The following places exist, but their exact locations are unknown or have been lost to time.

The Eternal Storm of the Wind Dukes:

The Eternal Storm of the Wind Dukes

This terrible magical manifestation is said to be invisible to everyone until they enter its half-mile radius, when they are magically drawn toward the eye of the storm. Constant hailstones fall from leaden skies, visibility is greatly reduced, and monstrous, slithering, eel-like reptiles ferociously attack those entering the storm area. Ball lightning and thunderbolts within the storm also beset those entering it, yet in the very eye of the storm is said to be a teleportation device leading to the location of the first part of the fabled Rod of Seven Parts, a mighty magical artifact of great antiquity.

Those who have sought out the storm have never found it; most who encounter it do not return to speak of what they have seen. [FtAC – 37] (1992)

Location unknown? An eternal storm a half-mile in radius should be a beacon, I would think. Perhaps it winks in and out of existence, and never appears in the same place twice?

Was Carl Sargent privy to special knowledge? Did he have access to notebooks and napkins Gary left behind upon his ousting to draw upon? Most likely not. I suspect Carl was as drawn to those relics and hitherto unelaborated references in the DMG as we were and had a burning desire to flesh them out. It make them his own, so to speak. They were wide open, after all – canonically; so, why not lay claim to them, why not fill in the gaps? He could have left well-enough alone. But he did not.

The Isles of Woe

Some of the [Nyr Dyv]'s islands are likewise said to have been home to a group of very seclusive and ancient wizards as powerful as the Wind Dukes of Aqaa or the Glittering Wizards of the Isles of Woe in Oerth's pre-history. These islands are said to be almost alive as entities in themselves, assaulting those who set foot on them with hails of stone and rock as the very earth churns underfoot. Whether any of these tales are true and what remains of the long-dead wizards' magical treasures and hoards, is a matter of pure conjecture. [WGR5 Iuz the Evil – 60] (1993)

For however reason, the Wind Dukes would henceforth be forever linked to the long-lost Isles of Woe.

All well and good, thus far, though. The Wind Dukes remained mysterious, a glimmer in the imagination, figures in the epic sagas like the whispering hymns of the long-dead Wind Dukes of Aaqa. [Ivid – 86] (1995)

I like that. But I’m from an era when adventure modules were hard to come by and sourcebooks were few, when these vague and leading lore drops inspired us to create our own adventures, our own worlds.

2^nd Edition changed all that. The pace of publications was swift; adventures exceeded 30 pages; and descriptions of magic items filled a page or two, and not just a paragraph or two. Why make mere mention of the Dukes and Pesh, as was the case in the 1e DMG, when an epic ancient war between Law and Chaos could be told in full?

Eons ago, a great war was waged between the Wind Dukes of Aaqa (the guardians of Law) and the Queen of Chaos. Those polar forces each craved the annihilation of the other, and were so obsessed with enforcing their ideologies that they spared no thought for Good and Evil. For many years the balance of power shifted back and forth, and neither side could achieve the upper hand.

The Captains of Law Surrounded the Wolf-Spider

Then the Queen of Chaos found and appointed a new commander: Miska the Wolf-Spider, who was so brutal and terrible to behold that the Queen also took him for her consort. With the arrival of the evil Miska, the forces of Chaos were bolstered and the Wind Dukes began to fear eventual defeat.

Therefore, they left the Captains of Law to hold the line while they combined all of their powers and created a magnificent ebony rod. With the newly created artifact in hand, the Wind Dukes rejoined the war at the battle of Pesh. The Dukes gave the Rod to the Captains of Law and bade them vanquish Chaos.

A fearsome battle raged for weeks, and the advantage shifted repeatedly between the foes. Finally, the Captains of Law surrounded the Wolf-Spider, and before the legions of Chaos could swarm to their leader's side, the Rod was driven through Miska's body. For a moment, every soldier stood terrified by the horrible scream of the general. Miska's foul blood covered the Rod and penetrated it as he writhed on the ground, and the magical forces of Law that had been infused into the Rod were combined with the essence of Chaos in Miska's blood, which ruptured the Rod and shattered it into seven pieces. Meanwhile, the Wolf-Spider was cast through a planar rip created by the explosion, and he remains lost on an unknown plane. The Queen's soldiers converged upon the site in an attempt to capture the parts of the Rod, but the Wind Dukes intervened and magically scattered the pieces across the world.

Ever since that time, agents of the Queen have been ordered to seek out the Rod at any cost. It is rumored that if she regains all the parts, she can use the reconstructed Rod to find the Wolf-Spider and return him to her side, whereupon the wars will begin anew. [Book of Artifacts – 91] (1993)

That passage in the Book of Artifacts is epic. I wonder, though, at the level of detail expounded in the above passage. It’s as if this were but a blurb of what was already in the production queue.

And lo and behold, could it be anything but? Just two years on, the Wind Dukes were raised from obscurity, indeed from their long-dead [Ivid – 86] presumption, for a boxed set!

Vaati

Aeons ago, in the Age of Legends, a great war arose between Law and Chaos. The roots of the conflict are obscure, shrouded in the mists of antiquity. Perhaps Chaos arose to spread decay and promote autonomy, maybe Law embarked on a crusade to stamp out discord and promote unity. Or perchance a monumental conflict between the two opposing forces was simply inevitable. [Ri7P 3 – 2] (The Ring in Seven Parts, 1996)

I won’t share the entirety of the passage – it’s easily twice the length of the one above – it’s altogether identical to the other, too, if far more detailed. It’s far “bigger,” too.

Warfare raged on several worlds (dozens by some accounts). The opposing armies were mighty. The guardians of Law were the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, scions of an empire already ancient at the way's beginning. [Ri7P 3 – 2]

Bigger, greater, and far more ancient: Prior, in the DMG 1e, only the battle of Pesh was mentioned, with no hint where said Pesh might be; in the Book of Artifacts the was is described as "great," equally mum on location; but this boxed set takes it to an entirely different level: It’s larger than life: THE WAR – full caps intended – so to speak, maybe the First War, presumably; the War that decided the ultimate fate of the multiverse; a war that found its climax on Oerth.

When the Rod was completed, the seven champions rejoined the conflict at the battle of Pesh, on the world of Oerth. After weeks of maneuvering, the two armies clashed on a vast, volcanic plain. [Ri7P 3 – 2]

Some presume that vast, volcanic plain to be in the shadow of White Plume Mountain.

The eons of conflict between the two opposing forces finally reached a conclusion of sorts on the Fields of Pesh, a land in the shadow of White Plume Mountain on the world of Oerth. [Age Before Ages, GreyhawkWiki]

As to the Wind Dukes, all their past mystery has been set to rest.

The Vaati

The Vaati (VAH tee), or Wind Dukes, are a race of immortals dedicated to Law. [Ri7P 4 – 13]

Aeons ago, the vaati ruled a vast empire spread over several worlds on the Prime Material Plane, with footholds throughout the planes. When war between Law and Chaos erupted, the vaati were nearly annihilated. They survived only by creating the Rod of Seven Parts and using it to end the war. [Ri7P 4 – 13]

Indeed, no detail is left to the imagination. People, society, classes, castes, are laid bare. As are they.

Vaati look like statuesque humans. They are tall, muscular, and androgynous. As a rule, they wear no clothing, but usually wear belts or harnesses to carry weapons and equipment. Vaati have smooth, ebony skin, brilliantly white eyes that sparkle with inner light, and velvety black hair (which usually is kept closely shaved). [Ri7P 4 – 13]

This race of lawful immortals has mostly withdrawn from the affairs of mortals as it tries to recover from the losses it suffered during the war against Chaos. A small, dedicated cadre of vaati have remained to dedicate themselves to tracking the Rod and thwarting the queen. Yet all is not well in the beautiful Vale of Aaqa. One Wind Duke has grown impatient with the uneasy truce that has existed between Law and Chaos, and seeks to reopen the war by releasing Miska. [Ri7P 1 – 3]

A couple of the Wind Dukes are named:

Vaati

Arquestan

Arquestan, a good-hearted vaati [Ri7P 1 – 3]

He is a Wind Duke, a member of the race that created the Rod of Seven Parts. [Ri7P 1 – 28]

Qadeej

His thirst of for a new war with Chaos has been festering for millenia [.] [Ri7P 2 – 62]

Qadeej's answer is a complete fabrication. The queen wants the Rod assembled so Miska can be restored to full health and escape the cocoon of law, and Qadeej knows it. Once he has convinced the PCs that assembling the Rod is the best thing to do, Qadeej vanishes back to Aaqa. [Ri7P 2 – 44]

Others are named later: Amophar, Darbos, Emoniel, Nadroc, Penader, and Uriel. [Wind Dukes of Aaqa, Greyhawk Wiki]

So too those slain: Icosiol and Zosiel [Dungeon #129 – 40] (2005)

This is all well and good. It’s an adventure. For high level characters, characters that are higher level than most kings in the Gold Box.

[T]his adventure is written for a party of five to seven characters at the 10th to 12th level of experience (60-70 character levels in all). [Ri7P 1 – 4]

And high level characters require greater challenge. Greater stakes.

But, to my mind, the cost of this epic adventure is mystery and wonder.

Are the Wind Dukes of Aaqa still the legendary creators [DMG 1e – 160] of the Rod in Seven Parts when [a]ny sage can tell the party that the vaati are a lost race of immortals more commonly known as the Wind Dukes of Aaqa. [Ri7P 3 – 4]

A sage versed in folklore, history, or law […] can tell the party the whole story of the battle of Pesh and the events leading up to it. [Ri7P 3 – 4]

Theories from sages and historians tend to reveal more about their authors' preferences than they do about the truth of the matter. [Ri7P 3 – 2]

Indeed, they are no longer “a group of very seclusive and ancient wizards as powerful as the Wind Dukes of Aqaa” [WGR5 – 60] at all if they are the vaati, an ancient race that seems to have more in common with divine and infernal beings than mere mortals.

The Battle of Pesh

In ages long past, before the rise of elves, dwarves, or humans, the legendary Wind Dukes of Aaqa ruled a vast empire, bringing Law and elemental magic to many barbaric worlds. Air and lightning powered their magic, and their ties to the Plane of Elemental Air were very strong. In time, they mastered other elements as well, and as they grew more and more powerful, dozens of other elemental and lawful races swore fealty to them, from the lofty djinn and the proud salamanders to the least of the mud sorcerer cults and the inevitables, servants of the Wind Dukes. At its peak, the empire of the Wind Dukes comprised most of the elemental planes, from the oceanic palaces of the marid to the City of Brass. The Inner Planes were harmonious, united under one rule, and their civilization thrived — until forces led by the demonic Queen of Chaos rallied slaad, demons, and others against them.

The fight against the Queen of Chaos was long and relentless, and it culminated in the Battle of Pesh. The Wind Dukes won a pyrrhic victory there — the loss of so many of their greatest leaders (including the great Wind Duke General Icosiol) weakened their hold on not only the Material Plane but the Inner Planes as well. Over time, their elemental allies drifted away, and more realms were sealed from the planar byways.

The decline of the Wind Dukes took centuries. In that time, they built enormous tombs to honor their dead, choosing sites on the Material Plane near to where they fell as the locations of their eternal rest. One of the greatest of these tombs was that of Icosiol, the general who defeated the Queen of Chaos and her lackey, Miska the Wolf Spider. Icosiol used a potent artifact called the Rod of Law to cast them into the outer darkness. This great victory came at a significant cost, for the Rod of Law fragmented to become the Rod of Seven Parts , and Icosiol himself was slain in the final battle. Millennia later, the Wind Dukes have passed into legend, and this tomb still remains hidden under the Fields of Pesh, its entrance concealed hundreds of miles to the south behind a collapsed section of tomb for another Wind Duke (Zosiel, slayer of the demon Kizarvidexus) known today as the Whispering Cairn. [Dungeon #129 – 40] (2005)

Figures of Myth and Legend

I suppose the Wind Duke’s rise from myth and legend to extraplanar elemental beings was inevitable. I can’t prove this, but it seems that each edition saw higher and higher levels of play.

Your PCs should hit 12th level at some point in this adventure […] [Dungeon #129 – 39]

Adventure Paths in Dungeon Magazine are quite similar to the weighty tomes of 5e that followed, taking their cast of characters from infancy to eventual epic feats, defeating the likes of archdevils, elder evils, and Queens of Chaos; so much so that I expect the first made the latter possible. Bigger and better, some may opine. They got what they wished: heroic characters engaged in epic exploits.

Am I a fan? No, but I see the appeal; so, I don’t judge.

I prefer a smaller scale, one reminiscent of when I began, of a decidedly mortal man, delving ever deeper into the dark depths of an ancient tomb, his torch sputtering, his arrows or spells few. The light of the torch plays across the glyphs etched into the limestone. They’re old, ancient in fact; but he’d come across similar ones before. One stands out from the others: Aaqa!

There are others who share my view, I imagine, who harken back to those days of yore, before PCs began flitting about the multiverse. Note this passage:

Rod in Seven Parts

Created by the Wind Dukes of Aaqa in prehistory to defend Oerth from armies of Chaos, the Rod was split into seven parts and scattered. [Dragon #299 – 103] (2002)

I detect no mention of elemental vaati or planar travel. What I detect is a potential for creation.

“Without myth, however, every culture loses its healthy creative natural power: it is only a horizon encompassed with myth that rounds off to unity a social movement.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

One must always give credit where credit is due. This piece 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.

Special thanks to Jason Zavoda for his compiled index, “Greyhawkania,” an invaluable research tool.

The Art:

The-Mysteries-03 by nfatin

Codex of Infinite Planes, by Daniel Frazier, from Book of Artifacts, 1993

Wings-of-Black by sinistereternity

Atlantean-Port by peteamachree

The Captains of Law Surrounded the Wolf-Spider, from The Rod in Seven Parts, 1996

Vaati, by Glen Michael Angus, from The Rod in Seven Parts, 1996

The Vaati, by Glen Michael Angus, from Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 4, 1998

Vaati tomb detail, from Dungeon #124, 2005

Dragon, by Erol Otus, from The Rod in Seven Parts, 1996

The-Mysteries-02 by nfatin

 

Sources:

1015 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set, 1983

1064 From the Ashes Boxed Set, 1992

1145 The Rod in Seven Parts, 1996

2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1st Ed., 1979

2138 Book of Artifacts, 1993

9025 World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980

9399 WGR5 Iuz the Evil, 1993

9577 The Adventure Begins, 1998

11434 Return to White Plume Mountain, 1999

11621 Slavers, 2000

11743 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, 2000

Oerth Journal #1, 2

Living Grayhawk Journal #2

Dragon Magazine #82, 167, 293, 294, 295, 299

Dungeon Magazine #129

The Greyhawk Wiki

Greychrondex, Wilson, Steven B.

Greyhawkania, Jason Zavoda

The map of Anna B. Meyer

On the Green God and the Elder Evil, Part 3

 “I am the spirit that negates.

And rightly so, for all that comes to be

Deserves to perish wretchedly;

'Twere better nothing would begin.

Thus everything that that your terms, sin,

Destruction, evil represent—

That is my proper element.”

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust - Part One 

I had an idea. I thought I might write about what was the eldest of the eldest in Greyhawk, and in my imaginings, that was the Old Faith and the Elder Evil. It’s all in the name, I thought. This will be easy, I thought. I was wrong. Other years, it has become a gordian knot, begging for Alexander’s sword.

What is to be made of it all?

If you haven’t already, read the treatise on the Green God, and the first part of the Elder Evil exploration, before diving into this. They are meant to read as one, but they are long. Regrettably, most of my posts are long. 

To continue: 

The Elder Elemental Eye

The Chained Horror

Consider, if you will, Tharizdun, an apocalyptic being of unbelievable power, and a capricious attitude towards life and all who live it.

The deity Tharizdun is a being of pure destructive force, of cold, conclusive obliteration and utterly evil nihilism. [RttTEE – 4]

That about sums Tharizdun up: dark, cold, malign, destructive, so much so that the whole of the universe had to go, so much so that an entire pantheon of gods has to come together to defeat him. The answer as to why these disparate beings banded together to banish Tharizdun is obvious; the gods are part and parcel with the universe; should it go, so do they. I can imagine they were rather motivated to set aside their differences, for the nonce. If it took all their might to banish Tharizdun, that would make him pretty powerful, equally powerful to the lot of them, it would seem.

An ancient, dark god of malign decay and madness, Tharizdun seeks nothing less than the utter destruction of the universe, reducing all to literal nothingness. Eons ago, Tharizdun was imprisoned when the other gods put aside their differences and attacked in unison, fearing his dread dreams would come to pass. [Dragon #294 – 31]

It’s an old trope, Evil cast down; used in most religions, I imagine; used in the Christian ethos, certainly:

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of out brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

[Revelation 12: 7-10]

 

Defeated, much like Lucifer, Tharizdun broods; he plots, he manipulates, and awaits his eventual return.

Now Tharizdun is trapped alone in a prison demiplane from which he cannot free himself. His conduits to the Prime Material Plane and the rest of the Great Wheel are few and tenuous, and only learned sages know that Tharizdun was ever worshipped. Under the cover of darkness, cults of his insane priests labor tirelessly to free their dark master from his prison, hoping to aid him in his destruction of all.

Tharizdun’s cultists call him by many names, including He of Eternal Darkness and the Ebon God. He also grants spells in the guise of the Elder Elemental Eye. [Dragon #294 – 31]

That’s how we imagine Tharizdun, anyway.

The question arises: Does Tharizdun truly wish to bring an end to the whole of creation? He must; all our literature professes as much; so, it must be true.

Why? Because he is the embodiment of Entropy, and Oblivion, and wishes a return to its perfection.

If that is the case, we could never hope to understand him.

And if we can never hope to, you have to wonder about his worshipers. Who are they that they should desire the same? Such a world view would be nihilistic, in the extreme. You would have to be insane to worship a god that promises to destroy the universe, bringing an end to everything, themselves in the bargain. So, we have to wonder: Are they insane? Or do they see him in some different “light?”

Oh, Lucifer, son of the morning!

Consider this passage concerning Lucifer:

"How you are fallen from heaven,

O Lucifer, son of the morning!

How you are cut down to the ground,

You who weakened the nations!

For you said in your heart:

'I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation

On the farthest sides of the north;

I will aabove the heights of the clouds,

I will be like the Most High.'

Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,

Yo the lowest depths of the Pit."

[Isaiah 14: 12-15]

This is how I imagine devotees of the Elemental Eye see their god. Cast down. To rise again in all his glory. But that is their world view of the Elemental Eye. Do they even know that they are worshiping Tharizdun? Few, in fact, realize that they are.

The Elder Elemental Eye is actually an aspect of dread Tharizdun. Clerics of the Elder Elemental Eye are his clerics, although sometimes they do not realize it. [RttTEE – 4]

Even the clerics of the original Temple of Elemental Evil did not refer to the Elder Elemental Eye. They believed that they revered only the evil aspect of the elements themselves (or the demon Zuggtmoy […]). [RttTEE – 4]

Those few that do are hopelessly insane. Did congress with the mind of Tharizdun drive them so?

His cult is small but fanatically devoted. Coming to them in mysterious and mind-wrenching dreams, the deity imparts his dark will to his followers. The goal of Tharizdun’s clerics is to channel enough power to their dread master so that he can free himself from his prison. This, of course, will spell the utter end of the world, and so this faith appeals only to the completely insane. [RttTEE - 4]

Calling to those souls that resonate with His

Whatever their reasons why, the Cult of the Elemental Eye has been around a very long time. Worship of the Elder Eye is ancient. There are long lost temples across the Flanaess that still call to those souls that resonate with His, as Roghan and Zelligar were to their Caves, and Lareth the Beautiful would surely be to the Gnarley Woods. As Wongas was, ages earlier. [WG4] 

When Man was still young, they were drawn to his temple in the Yatils, and would be for centuries, to the dark presence that thrummed in its depth.

The Temple was built in a previous age, a secret place of worship to Tharizdun, He of Eternal Darkness. It drew the most wicked persons to it, and the cult flourished for generations, sending out its minions from time to time to enact some horrible deed upon the lands around. However, a great battle eventually took place between Tharizdun and those opposed to his evil. Unable to destroy him, they were strong enough to overcome his power and imprison him somewhere, by means none have ever been able to discover. Thus Tharizdun disappeared from the face of the earth, and from all of the other known planes, and has not been seen again since. [WG4 - 3]

GREAT CHAPEL: This area appears to be a long-abandoned chapel or small temple, but in whose honor it is impossible to state. The whole is 40' wide and about 60' long, with the far (north) wall concave, the curve being smooth and shallow. Small, fluted columns of deep black stone line a 20' aisle, leaving a 10' wide space beyond on both east and west walls. Within the front 40' of the place, all stone is black. Beyond, where a stone rail rises 3' from the floor, and a curving step or dais rises 1' and meets the back wall, floors and walls are of deepest purple, although the ceiling remains black. [WG4 - 18]

AISLE: The 10' wide area seems to have been well-used, for the floor is worn down, and the walls are likewise slightly dished by the touch of many bodies. If the walls are actually touched, the character will feel a tingling and his or her vision will go black for a fleeting moment, then sight will be restored. Tactile sense will discover that there are strange, indiscernible convolutions here which form mind pictures when touched. These impressions are pleasurable and unsettling at the same time. Any person failing to save versus magic after experiencing this sensation will attempt to return and feel the sensation once again. If this happens, that individual will automatically experience the following things:

1) [Vision] in total darkness will seem normal, but, any light brighter than a hooded lantern will be disgusting to him or her, and he or she will immediately ask that it be extinguished or else he or she will go elsewhere.

2) Strange desires will begin to flood the individual's mind during times of quiet. These desires will be unwholesome at first, then absolutely strange ...

3) The name of Tharizdun will rise unbidden to the individual's lips whenever he or she is under stress and needs aid. [WG4 - 18]

ALTAR RAIL: The square fore portion of the chapel is divided from the sacred portion by a railing of puce-hued stone. This railing is 3' high and intricately carved and pierced. This work is disgusting and disturbing in nature, being of vines and tendrils, tentacles and serpentine bodies intertwined with human forms and skeletons and other things unknowable. [WG4 - 18]

RAISED SECTION: This step or dais appears to be the place where an altar service might have been conducted. There is a low table of black mineral which has bits of shiny purple within its polished surface. […] To either side are rotted and crumbling chairs of some sort. There are piles of rusted metal near the doors on the north wall. What devices or purposes these items once served is impossible to tell. On the wall behind the altar stone there is an anomaly. The violet color of the stone seems to bear the indistinct shadow of a large, vaguely-human shape. But it is so obscure, and so uncertain in form, that it may be a trick of light playing upon the curving surface of stone. [WG4 - 18]

After a time his servants returned again to the Temple, deserted as it was of any manifestation of their deity. Amongst these wicked folk were many powerful magic-users and clerics. All sought with utmost endeavor to discern what had happened to Tharizdun, so that he could be freed and returned to rule over them once again. All attempts were in vain, although the divinations and seekings did reveal to these servants of Eternal Darkness that a "Black Cyst" existed below the Temple. By physical work and magical means they delved downward to reach the Black Cyst. What they discovered there dismayed and disheartened them. In the hemisphere of black needlerock (floating as if by levitation) a huge form could be seen. Was this the physical manifestation of Tharizdun? None could tell. The misty form was black and indistinct and enclosed in vaporous purple energy as well. No ritual, no spell, no magic could pierce the enigma. [WG4 - 3]

THE BLACK CYST

As you enter this hemispherical chamber of some 40' diameter, the name of the place comes unbidden to your minds. It is called the cyst, The Black Cyst. From where you stand near the entrance, your iron torches cast only a faint light to where some form lies near the center of the place. This shape is so black that it is absolutely lightless, and it seems to absorb all the radiance from your torches. As was true in the entry chamber, so too here; all is needle-rock. [WG4 - 30]

The Black Cyst

You have dared all and descended the spiraling purple steps formed by the strange column of gray smoke, lilac light, and jet black. This swirling, pulsing column of radiation has opened a means of entrance to somewhere far beneath the surface of the earth — or perhaps to some place not of this earth. All of you feel the press of time, a sense of urgency. How long will this strange gate remain open? You all hope not to learn the hard way as you hurry down a seemingly endless flight of "steps" made of the purple radiance. Ten minutes seems more like ten hours, but at last you have come to what must be your final goal, for the stairs of light give way to more mundane ones of black stone... [WG4 - 29]

Their rituals went unheard.

Then, as time continued to pass, even this ritual grew stale and meaningless. The clerics of Tharizdun began to pilfer the hoard of beautiful gems sacrificed to him by earlier servants [….]

[The] former servants of this deity slipped away with their great wealth to serve other gods and wreak evil elsewhere. [WG4 - 3]

Finally, only Wongas, Tharizdun’s last High Priest, remained. He too grew weary, his life long and unfulfilled. “Lord, why have you forsaken your people,” he cried. Old, tired, spent, he had strength for one more spell, hand having prepared his way.

Wongas' Reward

The last High Priest, alone, wandered off into the place reserved for his remains in the dungeon, for alone he was unable to take his proper place in the Undertemple. Thus, a century ago, the last servant of Tharizdun died, and the Temple was without inhabitant of human sort. [WG4 - 3]

Unable to place himself in the chief crypt, not being able to get past the guardian there, [Wongas] had his vault placed in this chamber. Before he could begin proper decoration of the sarcophagus, however, the last of the lesser priests and servants deserted the Temple. Eventually, Wongas stalked to his tomb alone, full of rage and hate and shame. The High Priest made his own corpse into a monster by force of hate and displeasure. [WG4 - 26]

Wongas transformed himself into a Coffer Corpse to forever guard his temple against those infidels who might pilfer it as his perfidious brethren had. And Tharizdun’s temple passed into legend.

The Black Cyst knew that others would come, because they always did. So, it sang its song, and waited. Patiently, as is the way of Tharizdun. Patiently? One wonders, for the Black Cyst, like its master, does not feel the passage of Time.

Time did pass. Centuries. And the Evil rose again, as it is wont to do.

Hommlet

Whether the evil came west from Dyvers as is claimed by one faction, or crept up out of the forestlands bordering the Wild Coast as others assert, come it did. At first it was only a few thieves and an odd group of bandits molesting the merchant caravans. Then came small bands of humanoids-kobolds or goblins raiding the flocks and herds. Local militia and foresters of the Waldgraf of Ostverk apparently checked, but not stopped, the spread of outlawry and evil.

A collection of hovels and their slovenly inhabitants formed the nucleus for the troubles which were to increase. A wicked cleric established a small chapel at this point. The folk of Hommlet tended to ignore Nulb, even though it was but six miles distant. The out-of-the-way position was ideal for the fell purposes planned for this settlement, as was its position on a small river flowing into the Velverdyva. The thickets and marshes around Nulb became the lair and hiding place for bandits, brigands, and all sorts of evil men and monsters alike. The chapel grew into a stone temple as its faithful brought in their ill-gotten tithes. Good folk were robbed, pillaged, enslaved, or worse. In but three years a grim and foreboding fortress surrounded the evil place, and swarms of creatures worshipped and worked their wickedness there. The servants of the Temple of Elemental Evil made Hommlet and the lands for leagues around a mockery of freedom and beauty. Commerce ceased, crops withered, pestilence was abroad. But the leaders of this cancer were full of hubris, and in their overweaning pride sought to overthrow the good realms to the north who were coming to the rescue of the land being crushed under the tyranny wrought by the evil temple. A great battle was fought to the east, and when villagers saw streams of ochre-robed men and humanoids fleeing south and west through their community, there was great rejoicing, for they knew that the murderous oppressors had been defeated and driven from the field in panic and rout.

So great was the slaughter, so complete the victory of good, that the walled stronghold of the Temple of Elemental Evil fell within a fortnight, despite the aid of a terrible demon. The place was ruined and sealed against a further return of such abominations by powerful blessings and magic. [T1 The Village of Hommlet - 2]

Worshippers of those evil deities is scattered about, and on the rise again everywhere, or so it would seem.

It seemed that no monsters were left to slay, no evil existed here to be stamped out. For four years thereafter, this seemed true, but then bandits began to ride the roads again-not frequently, but to some effect. This seemed all too familiar somehow to the good folk of Hommlet, so they sent word to the Viscount that wicked forces might still lurk thereabouts. This information has been spread throughout the countryside, and the news has attracted outsiders to the village once again. Who and what these men are, no one can be quite sure, although all claim to be bent on slaying monsters and bringing peace and security to Hommlet, for deeds speak more loudly than words, and lies cloak true purposes of the malevolent. [T1 - 2]

Using their connections in the still-thriving cult of Lolth (unlike that of Zuggtmoy), the clerics of the Elder Elemental Eye influenced powerful individuals to return to the ruined temple. Lareth the Beautiful, the wizard Falrinth, Barkinar the commander, and others, not all of whom were friendly to one another, found their way into the hierarchy of the new temple. This time, its backers believed, the temple would grow quietly until it was ready to strike. [RttTEE - 6]

Lareth the Beautiful

None are as dedicated to their cause as Lareth, “the Beautiful.” Any and all who associate with him are seduced by his beauty, easily subverted to his cause.

Lolth was as smitten as any other. She has sent him aid, believing as any other that might meet him, that he is loyal and true.

Lareth the Beautiful is the dark hope of chaotic evil—young, handsome, well endowed in abilities and aptitudes, thoroughly wicked, depraved, and capricious. Whomever harms Lareth had best not brag of it in the presence of one who will inform the Demoness Lolth. [T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil - 26]

Lareth has been sent to this area to rebuild a force of men and humanoid fighters to gather loot and restore the Temple of Elemental Evil to its former glory. He is but one of many so charged, of course, but is looked upon with special favor and expectation. He and his minions have been careful to raid far from this area, never nearer than three or four leagues, travelling on foot or riding in wagons of the traders from Hommlet. None of the victims are ever left alive to tell the tale, and mysterious disappearances are all that can be remarked upon. No trace of men, mounts, goods, wagons or draft animals is ever found.

Evil to the core, Lareth is cunning. If a situation appears in doubt, he uses bribery and honeyed words to sway the balance to his favor. He is not adverse to gaining new recruits of all sorts, and will gladly accept adventurers into the ranks (though he will test and try them continually). Those who arouse suspicion will be quietly murdered in their sleep. Those with too much promise will be likewise dealt with, for Lareth wants no potential usurpers or threats to his domination. [T1-4 - 26]

In days past, when Lareth the Beautiful commanded the moathouse (the outpost for the Temple of Elemental Evil), both Zuggtmoy and Lolth believed him to be their priest—when really he served none other than the Elder Elemental Eye [Tharizdun]. [RttTEE – 5]

Lareth Risen

While Lareth was indeed slain by adventurers in this room, an even more powerful cleric of the Elder Elemental Eye, named Hedrack, raised him from the dead soon afterward and spirited him away. [RttTEE - 30]

Surely, after such utter defeat, the temple would pose no further threat to the lands of good.

Not so. In fact, in the years that have passed the insane and corrupt followers of the Dark God have moved closer to victory than ever before. A number of clerics and powerful servants in the Temple of Elemental Evil were spirited away by agents from the cult of Tharizdun to a new, hidden temple in the Lortmil Mountains. [RttTEE- 6]

Lareth does in fact know a great deal about the cult of Tharizdun, garnered from bits of information overheard in the temple and called forth in divinations that he has performed. Back in the day—like almost all the other clerics involved with the Temple of Elemental Evil—Lareth had no idea that he was actually working for the cult of Tharizdun. [RttTEE - 32]

Evil cults based in Verbinbonc and Southern Furyony are rare but dangerous, worshipping evil deities such as Iuz, Vecna (evil secrets), Tharizdun (entropy, insanity), and the Elder Elemental God. [Slavers – 10]

This rise is not a local occurrence.

The floor in this cavern is packed sand, pale yellow with flecks of iridescent material. Tendrils of pale mist or smoke writhe along the ground, carrying the rank odor of muddy filth and the sharp tang of resin or incense.

Ahead rises a pyramidal spire, as thin and sharp as a dart. It is composed of dusky gray stone, marbled with the ghastly white of dead flesh. A staring eye adorns the visible side of the spire.

A pit filled with glowing coals lies just beyond each corner of the spire. Yellow and blue flames dance over the coals, and tendrils of smoke and mist wander among the tongues of fire before escaping the pits and creeping along the floor.

An irregular pool ringed with slime lies beyond the spire. [A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry - 19]

Brubgrok brought in a small group of evil clerics to assist him with his operations. The clerics worship an unspeakably evil god they refer to as the Elder Elemental Eye, or simply the Eye. [A0 - 19]

There are things buried deep in the oerth that should remain so; lest they be released and destroy us all.

The Ebon Lord waits still. He has scattered the means of his returns hither and yon.

Beyond the purple veil, the rounded black walls of an entirely different room stretch out around you. It is completely black here, yet you can see the size and features of the room—as if here you can see shades of darkness. A dark, oblong orb, like an egg, rests atop a long black block. The orb is shrouded in swirling mist. [RttTEE - 116]

The Elder Elemental Eye is an aspect of Tharizdun. It was created to mask the cult from the forces of good and to draw in new worshippers who might be afraid to serve Tharizdun directly. Clerics of the Elder Elemental Eye typically wear ochre-coloured robes and carry or wear a symbol, a black triangle with an inverted Y-shape inscribed within it. Some times the robes are altered to reflect which element the specific cleric is aligned with (air, earth, fire, water).

If the Elder Elemental Eye was Tharizdun, was the Elder Elemental God Tharizdun?

"No, the Elder Elemental God I envisaged as an entity of vaguely Chronos-like sort, a deity of great power but of chaotic sort, and not always highly clever in thought and action. Big T on the other hand is the epitome of pure, reasoning and scheming evil. Eclavdra, being more of the mold of Tharizdun, would prefer to have as "master" a powerful deity she might hope to influence, thus the EGG."

Gary Gygax ("Col_Pladoh"), 10th January, 2003, Q&A with Gary Gygax Part I, Enworld.

All that did was muddy the water.

I would hazard that the Green God and the Elder Evil, however we might name them, are old indeed, far older than anyone imagines. They find their origin at the very beginning.

Consider this:

In the beginning there was Eternity. It dreamed.

The Dreaming Void

Eternity knew nothing of time and space, because it came before these constructs, and had yet to dream them. But it was from that dream that arose the infinite possibilities of what might be; and what was once infinite fragmented with each new possibility dreamed. The Dream imagined; the Dream saw, and creation began. An imagined shape coalesced from that swirling chaos, itself revolving, and rotating, becoming, taking form.

Form by its very nature was no longer infinite possibility. Form must Be. And thus, Law was born.

That form became the Twin Serpents, and they divided the firmament, constructing the Elements when each took the other by the tail and devoured its mirrored image, creating the Great Wheel of the Outer Planes. Thus, even Chaos, as we understand it, is a facet of Law. Eons passed. The universe became. Life emerged, and its foundation became the Green God. But existence has never been static. It changes. It flows, ever seeking a greater perfection that it can never attain.

But part of the dream wished to return to the perfection of the infinite possibility that was once the eternal void. And thus, Entropy was born, even as Law was.

Both are Possibility. And both are eternal. And all stem from them/It. Indeed, It predates the planes, as it was the Dreaming that created the elements and then the planes from the elements.

Oblivion

Even as the spark of life formed, so too did its opposite, Oblivion—what we would call death. Oblivion found purchase in Death. We might call Oblivion the Elder Evil; but that would be wrong. Life is not Good, just as Oblivion is not Evil. They existed before such simple philosophies, and as such, neither could ever understand them. To them, all things “Are,” or “Are Not.”

Our desire “to be” found form in the Sacred Male and the Sacred Female, the Father and the Mother, Obad-Hai and Beory. We created them in our own image. They appear as human to humans, lizardfolk to lizardfolk, treants to treants. The Green God is far more powerful than either of them because they are an imagined aspect of It.

It is only our desire to exist that created the precept that the Void, and the “Is Not”, are evil. And it was then that Evil was born, and in its most primitive state it became the Elder Elemental God, only becoming Tharizdun, the Destroyer, the Hater of Life, as our fears became more concrete.

Do those Eternal Entities hate one another? No. How can one hate the other when they are the Twin Serpents of Creation, forever entwined; or dare I suggest it: One and the Same. 

The gods as we know them are only constructs of our imagination, begot from out desire to make sense of the universe. We created them in our infancy to put a face to our wishes and fears. The eldest of those are the greater gods, the youngest demi-gods. Those emerging, ascending, are Quasi-deities and Heroes.

Eternity Chained

So, why did it take the entirety of the pantheon to imprison Tharizdun? Because Tharizdun is truly one half of the Universe.

And in the end, there can only be one.

I would suggest that Gary Gygax was of the same mind as H.P. Lovecraft when he created the Elder Elemental God, and then Tharizdun. There are some evils that are just too horrifying to comprehend—let alone defeat. To attempt to do so would result in insanity (if you were lucky), or more likely, the loss of your soul.

One would be better suited to defeat those who worship that inexplicable Evil, then that Evil itself.

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

― H.P. Lovecraft

To conclude, I give you words and wisdom from our greatest muse:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5

  

 

One must always give credit where credit is due. This piece 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:

Chained by deadlydesigns

The-eternal-fight by aphostol

Magical-Gate by nele-diel

Black-Hole-2013 by steveallred

Ghost-Remake by sephiroth-art

Hommlet detail, by Dave Trampier, from T1 The Village of Hommlet, 1979

Lareth detail, by David Roach, from Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, 2001

Village-of-Hommlet-Lareth-the-Beautiful by nevorick

Temple detail, , by Rich Longmore, from A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry, 2013

Twin Serpents detail, by Hannibal King, from Guide to Hell, 1999

Void-Aura by firstlightstudios

Void by bevynjm

Chains by baldrickthecunning

Sources:

1015 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set, 1983

1068 Greyhawk Wars Boxed Set, 1991

2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1st Ed., 1979

9023 B1 In Search of the Unknown, 1979

9034 B2 Keep on the Borderlands, 1980

9058 G1-3 Against the Giants, 1981

9065 WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, 1982

9147 The Temple of Elemental Evil, 1985

Dragon Magazine 294

The Greyhawkania Index, compiled by Zason Zavoda

The map of Anna B. Meyer