Back in the early 1980’s I was a huge fan of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting, and especially of the articles in Dragon magazine by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz, which “advanced the timeline” and laid out the goings-on in setting during the two years after the established date of CY 576 for the folio/gold box era.
I know “advancing the timeline” has a bad reputation in many quarters of Greyhawk fandom, thanks to the bad taste that Greyhawk Wars and From the Ashes left in folks’ mouths, but I loved these articles at the time. I really wish that Gygax/Kuntz had been able to at least cover the whole of the Flanaess, but unfortunately the series was discontinued before the south and central Flanaess could be covered.
I hereby present a wish, an “if only this had been able to be”, in the spirit of the original articles. It hopefully adds a little color to the setting at this time, without directly contradicting anything that comes afterwards.
Man, I would have given up a lot to have actually read this article back in the day.
You can see a thumbnail of the article in the upper-right. You can read the whole thing here.
Edit: The pdf has been updated to change the reference to Strandkeep Castle, which didn’t fall until a few years later, according to the time-frame of Artifact of Evil.
I only wish more of these came out. To get some extra history moving forward from those that knew the world would be great
Too bad real life is not as easy to sort out as D&D games are — both now and in the 1980s. We fans could request RJK finish the series of articles — or oversee others to ensure it fits the feel of classic Greyhawk. Of course, were real life sorted out, all of the EGG Greyhawk material would be out in print and under the same banner as the game that started it all.
Oops. I see that I forgot a clause in there:
"or oversee others to ensure it fits the feel of classic Greyhawk, like the linked PDF by Joe does."
My apologies, Mr. Bloch.
I did do some searching and found at least half a dozen other Dragon articles like this about WoG.
Yes, @jeffrey, that's the point. I was trying to emulate and continue those articles with my own humble effort.
Damn that was cool! You didn't spare any details on this. Great idea! *bows, bows*
Thanks so much Mike (and Mike). I had a blast doing this. I might do a couple more to finish off the series.
I love the Gord the Rogue nod at the end. Well done! I hope to see more soon!
That was beautiful!
One of my biggest pet peeves about From The Ashes was the drastic shift in setting tone, as well as so many states being wiped off the map.
Now, if the setting had been advanced like this, I could get behind it.
Please do more of these!