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Mordenkainen's Disjunction
Mordenkainen is a fictional wizard from the ''World of Greyhawk'' campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. He was created by Gary Gygax as a player character, only months after the start of Gygax's Greyhawk campaign, and is therefore one of the oldest characters continuously associated with ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Once Gygax was forced out of TSR, Inc., he lost creative control of Mordenkainen. TSR then made Mordenkainen a powerful wizard with strong convictions against moral absolutes, and the leader of the Circle of Eight, a cabal of eight powerful wizards. In fiction associated with the ''World of Greyhawk'', he has played diverse roles as both protagonist and antagonist. Official publications for the ''World of Greyhawk'' sometimes contradict each other regarding Mordenkainen. It is clear, however, that he is an important figure in the fictional history of the Flanaess. Creative origins In late 1972, Gary Gygax created Castle Greyhawk and the dunge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
From The Ashes (Dungeons & Dragons)
''From the Ashes'' is a supplement for ''Dungeons & Dragonss World of Greyhawk campaign setting. Contents ''From the Ashes'' includes a pair of booklets containing close to 130,000 words. Sidebars and summaries are included, as is an alphabetical directory of the Nations of Flanaess which reveals at a glance the races, populations, and other key data for more than 50 countries. A listing of adventure locations tells where all previously published Greyhawk scenarios occurred. The rune and glyph display from the original ''World of Greyhawk'' boxed set is included. A packet of reference cards is included, with most of them containing encounters and short adventures, in a format similar to that of ''The City of Greyhawk'' set. The trio of poster maps have the grid coordinates printed along the borders. "Book One, Atlas of the Flanaess", presents a broad overview of the eastern portion of Oerik, Oerth's major continent and the primary locale for Greyhawk campaigns. It starts with a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evil Hat Productions
Evil Hat Productions is a company that produces role-playing games and other tabletop games. Chief among them is the free indie RPG, ''Fate'', which has won numerous awards. History Fred Hicks had been working with Lydia Leong, Rob Donoghue, and others to run LARPs at AmberCon NorthWest starting in 1999, and came up with the name Evil Hat for themselves. While on a trip to Lake Tahoe, friends Hicks and Donoghue developed a new game based on a conversation about running another ''Amber'' game and fixing some problems with ''FUDGE''; the result was ''Fate'' which Hicks and Donoghue would publish under the name Evil Hat. Donoghue and Hicks released a complete first-edition of ''Fate'' through Yahoo! Groups (January 2003) then cleaned up the technical writing and slightly polished the system for a second edition (August 2003). Hicks and Donoghue began work on the licensed '' Dresden Files Roleplaying Game'' in 2004, but publication was held up because they decided to use ''Spir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalevala
The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory voyages between the peoples of the land of Kalevala called Väinölä and the land of Pohjola and their various protagonists and antagonists, as well as the construction and robbery of the epic mythical wealth-making machine Sampo. The ''Kalevala'' is regarded as the national epic of Karelia and Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature with J. L. Runeberg's ''The Tales of Ensign Stål'' and Aleksis Kivi's ''The Seven Brothers''. The ''Kalevala'' was instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity and the intensification of Finland's language strife that ultimately led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917. The work is also well known internationally and has partly inf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louhi
Louhi () is a wicked queen of the land known as Pohjola in Finnish mythology and a villain of the ''Kalevala''. As many mythological creatures and objects are easily conflated and separated in Finnish mythology, Louhi is probably an alter-ego of the goddess Loviatar. In mythology Louhi is described as a powerful and evil witch queen ruling over the northern realm of Pohjola, with the ability to change shape and weave mighty enchantments. She is also the main opponent of Väinämöinen and his group in the battle for the magical artifact Sampo in the ''Kalevala''. She has a number of beautiful daughters, whom Ilmarinen, Lemminkäinen and other heroes attempt to win in various legends. In true fairy tale form, Louhi sets them difficult-to-impossible tasks to perform in order to claim such a prize, which leads to the forging of the Sampo. In popular culture *Louhi was the main antagonist in the Finnish-Soviet film ''Sampo'', played by Anna Orochko. *There is an orchestral wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pohjola
Pohjola (; from 'base, bottom', but used in derived forms like ''pohjois-'' to mean 'north' + ''-'' 'place'), sometimes just Pohja (), is a mythical place, location in Finnish mythology. It is one of the two main polarities in the Finnish national epic, the ''Kalevala'', along with Kalevala or Väinölä. Pohjola and the ''Kalevala'' storytellers C. Ganander (1789), characterised Pohjola as : 'the most extreme North ... a dark and terrible place. Tartarus and Thule, Ultima Thule'. :''Yttersta Norden, beskrives såsom en mörk och förfärlig ort. Tartarus & ultima Thule'' : ''Mythologia fennica'' : ''eller förklaring öfver de nomina propria deastrorum, idolorum, locorum, virorum, &c. eller afgudar och afgudinnor, forntidens märkelige personar, offer och offer-ställen, gamla sedvänjor, jätter, trol, skogs- sjö och bergs-rån m.m. Som förekomma i de äldre finska troll-runor, synnyt, sanat, sadut, arwotuxet &c. samt än brukas och nämnas i dagligt tal; til deras tjenst, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ilmarinen
Ilmarinen (), the Eternal Hammerer, blacksmith and inventor in the ''Kalevala'', is a god and archetypal artificer from Finnish mythology. He is immortal and capable of creating practically anything, but is portrayed as being unlucky in love. He is described as working the known metals of the time, including brass, copper, iron, gold, and silver. The great works of Ilmarinen include the crafting of the dome of the sky and the forging of the Sampo. His usual epithet in the Kalevala is ''seppo'', a poetic word for "smith". and the source of the given name Seppo. Etymology and origin Cognates of the Finnish word ''ilma'' ('air') are attested in almost all the main Finno-Ugric languages apart from the Mari and Mordvinic languages, allowing the reconstruction of proto-Finno-Ugric *''ilma'' meaning something like 'sky'. This noun is also attested as the name of a god in Khanty (''Num-Iləm''), Komi (''Jen''), Udmurt language, Udmurt (''Inmar'') and the Finnic languages, suggesting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Väinämöinen
Väinämöinen () is a demigod, hero and the central character in Finnish folklore and the main character in the national epic ''Kalevala'' by Elias Lönnrot. Väinämöinen was described as an old and wise man, and he possessed a potent, magical singing voice. In Finnish mythology The first extant mention of Väinämöinen in literature is in a list of Tavastian gods by Mikael Agricola in 1551. He and other writers described Väinämöinen as the god of chants, songs and poetry; in many stories Väinämöinen was the central figure at the birth of the world. The Karelian and Finnish national epic, the ''Kalevala'', tells of his birth in the course of a creation story in its opening sections. This myth has elements of creation from chaos and from a cosmic egg, as well as of earth diver creation. At first there were only primal waters and Sky. But Sky also had a daughter named Ilmatar. One day, Ilmatar descended to the waters and became pregnant. She gestated for a very lon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lemminkäinen
Lemminkäinen () or Lemminki () is a prominent figure in Finnish mythology. He is one of the heroes of the ''Kalevala'', where his character is a composite of several separate heroes of oral poetry. He is usually depicted as young and good-looking, with wavy red hair. Description The original, mythological Lemminkäinen is a shamanistic figure. In the Kalevala, he has been blended together with epic war-heroes Kaukomieli/Kaukamoinen and Ahti Saarelainen. In one myth, he drowns in the river of Tuonela (the underworld) in trying to capture or kill the black swan that lives there as part of an attempt, as Ilmarinen once made, to win a daughter of Louhi as his wife. In a tale somewhat reminiscent of Isis' search for Osiris, Lemminkäinen's mother searches heaven and earth to find her son. Finally, she learns of his fate and asks Ilmarinen to fashion her a rake of copper with which to dredge her son's body from the river of Tuonela. Thus equipped, she descends into the underworl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mordecai
Mordecai (; also Mordechai; , IPA: ) is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He is described as being the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin. He was promoted to Vizier after Haman was killed. Biblical account Mordecai resided in Susa (Shushan or Shoushan),Esther 2:5–6 of the Bible ( New International Version): : Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, who has been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jeconiah king of Judah. the metropolis of Persia (now Iran). He adopted his orphaned cousin (Esther 2:7), Hadassah (Esther), whom he brought up as if she were his own daughter. When "young virgins" were sought, she was taken into the presence of King Ahasuerus and was made queen in the place of the exiled queen Vashti. Subsequently, Mordecai discovered a plot of the king's chamberlains Bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsGarner's Modern American Usage , p. 644. in which parts of multiple words are combined into a new word, as in ''smog'', coined by blending ''smoke'' and ''fog'', or ''motel'', from ''motor'' and ''hotel''. In , a portmanteau is a single morph that is analyzed as representing two (or more) underlying s. When portmanteaus shorten es ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
