Setting
The World of Greyhawk is located on a planet called ''Oerth.'' Oerth has an axial tilt of 30 degrees, which causes greater seasonal temperature variation than on Earth, which is controlled by wizardly and divine magic that shifts weather patterns to be more favorable to the populace.Development history
Early development
In the late 1960s, Gary Gygax, aHome campaign (1972–1979)
As Gygax and Arneson worked to develop and publish the rules for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' through TSR, Gygax continued to design and present the dungeons and environs of Castle Greyhawk to his circle of friends and family, using them as playtesters for new rules and concepts. As the players began to explore more of the world outside of the castle and city, Gygax developed other regions and cities for them. With play sessions occurring seven or more times a week, Gygax didn't have the time or inclination to create the map for a whole new world; he simply drew his world over a map of North America, adding new cities and regions as his world slowly grew through ongoing adventures. The city and castle of Greyhawk were placed near the real-world position of Chicago, his birthplace; various other places were clustered around it. For instance, the rival city of Dyvers he placed in the area of real-world Milwaukee. Gygax also continued to develop the dungeons underneath the castle. By the time he was finished, the complex labyrinth encompassed thirteen levels filled with devious traps, secret passageways, hungry monsters, and glittering treasure. Although details of these original Greyhawk dungeons have never been published in detail, Gygax gave some glimpses of them in an article he wrote for the European fanzine ''Europa'' in 1975: ::Before the rules for ''D&D'' were published, "Old Greyhawk Castle" was 13 levels deep. The first level was a simple maze of rooms and corridors, for none of the "participants" had ever played such a game before. The second level had two unusual items, a Nixie pool and a fountain of snakes. The third featured a torture chamber and small cells and prison rooms. The fourth was a level of crypts and undead. The fifth was centered around a strange font of black fire and gargoyles. The sixth was a repeating maze with dozens of wild hogs... in inconvenient spots, naturally backed up by appropriate numbers of Wereboars. The seventh was centered around a circular labyrinth and a street of masses of ogres. The eighth through tenth levels were caves and caverns featuring Trolls, giant insects and a transporter nexus with an evil Wizard (with a number of tough associates) guarding it. The eleventh level was the home of the most powerful wizard in the castle: He had Balrogs as servants. The remainder of the level was populated by Martian White Apes, except the sub-passage system underneath the corridors which was full of poisonous critters with no treasure. Level twelve was filled with Dragons. ::The bottom level, number thirteen, contained an inescapable slide which took the players clear through 'to China', from whence they had to return via "Outdoor Adventure". It was quite possible to journey downward by an insidious series of slanting passages which began on the second level, but the likelihood of following such a route unknowingly didn't become too great until the seventh or eighth level... ::Side levels included a barracks with Orcs, Hobgoblins, and Gnolls continually warring with each other, a museum, a huge arena, an underground lake, a Giant's home, and a garden of fungi. Anyone who made it to the bottom level alive met Zagyg, the insane architect of the dungeons. (''Zagyg'' is a reverseSignificant player characters of the home campaign
While many players participating in the Gygax and Kuntz home campaign were occasional players, sometimes not even naming their characters, others played far more frequently, and several of their characters became well known to the general gaming world before publication of the Greyhawk campaign setting. Some of these characters became known when Gygax mentioned them in his various columns, interviews, and publications. In other cases, when Gygax created a new magical spell for the game, he would sometimes use the name of a wizard character from his home campaign to add verisimilitude to the spell name, such as ''Melf's acid arrow'', Melf being a character created by his son Luke. Some of the characters who became synonymous with Greyhawk at that time included: *Greyhawk firsts
=The first mention of Oerth
= In the first issue of ''The Dragon'' published in June 1976, Gygax prefaced Chapter 1 of his serialized novella ''The Gnome Cache'' with a note that the story's setting, Oerth, was very similar to Earth in terms of geography.=The first deities of Greyhawk
= One facet of culture that Gygax did not address during the first few years of his home campaign was organized religion. Since his campaign was largely built around the needs of lower-level characters, he did not think specific deities were necessary, since direct interaction between a god and a low-level character was very unlikely. Some of his players took matters into their own hands, calling upon Norse or Greek gods such as=The first Greyhawk novel
= In 1976, Gygax invited the science fiction/fantasy writer Andre Norton to play '' Dungeons & Dragons'' in his Greyhawk world. Norton subsequently wrote '' Quag Keep'', which involved a group of gamers who travel from the real world to Greyhawk. It was the first novel to be set, at least partially, in the Greyhawk setting, and according to ''Alternative Worlds'', the first to be based on ''D&D''. ''Quag Keep'' was excerpted in Issue 12 of ''The Dragon'' (February 1978) just prior to the book's release.=The first Greyhawk adventures published by TSR
= From 1976–1979, Gygax also shared some glimpses of his home campaign with other gamers when he set several TSR ''Dungeons & Dragons'' adventures in the world of Greyhawk: * ''Lost Caverns of Tsojconth'' (1976), republished in 1982 as S4 ''Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth'' * S1 ''Tomb of Horrors'' (1978) * G1 ''Steading of the Hill Giant Chief'' (1978) * G2 ''Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl'' (1978) * G3 ''Hall of the Fire Giant King'' (1978) * D1 ''Descent into the Depths of the Earth'' (1978) * D2 ''Shrine of the Kuo-Toa'' (1978) * D3 ''Vault of the Drow'' (1978) * T1 ''The Village of Hommlet'' (1978) In addition, Lawrence Schick set his 1979 TSR adventure S2 ''White Plume Mountain'' in Greyhawk. Despite fan curiosity, the original Castle Greyhawk was never officially published outside of Gygax's home campaign.''The World of Greyhawk'' folio edition (1980)
In 1975, Gygax and Kuntz published a booklet called '' Supplement I: Greyhawk'', an expansion of the rules for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' based on their play experiences in the Greyhawk campaign. Although it detailed new spells and character classes that had been developed in the dungeons of Greyhawk, it did not contain any details of their Greyhawk campaign world. The only two references to Greyhawk were an illustration of a large stone head in a dungeon corridor titled ''The Great Stone Face, Enigma of Greyhawk'' and mention of a fountain on the second level of the dungeons that continuously issued an endless number of snakes. The 2004 publication '' 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons'' suggested that details of Gygax's Greyhawk campaign were published in this booklet, but Gygax had no plans in 1975 to publish details of the Greyhawk world, since he believed that new players of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' would rather create their own worlds than use someone else's. In addition, he didn't want to publish all the material he had created for his players; he thought he would be unlikely to recoup a fair investment for the thousands of hours he had spent on it; and since his secrets would be revealed to his players, he would be forced to recreate a new world for them afterward. With the release of the ''AD&D Players Handbook'' in 1978, many players were intrigued by the connection of Greyhawk characters to magical spells such as ''Tenser's floating disc'', ''Bigby's crushing hand'', and ''Mordenkainen's faithful hound''. The ''AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide'', released the following year, also made references to the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk. Players' curiosity was further piqued by the ten ''Dungeons & Dragons'' modules set in Greyhawk that were published between 1976–1979. Several of Gygax's regular columns in ''Dragon'' magazine also mentioned details of his home campaign and characters that inhabited his world. Gygax was surprised when he found out that players wanted to use Greyhawk as their campaign world.Development of geography
Rather than using his own version of the Great Kingdom map, which included local areas based on real-world maps, Gygax decided to create an entirely new and greatly expanded version of Oerth. Needing many more original names for all of the geographical and political places on his map for the new and expanded areas, Gygax sometimes resorted to wordplay. He had previously used Perrenland on the Great Kingdom map, named after Jeff Perren, who co-wrote the rules for ''Chainmail'' with Gygax; but for the new Greyhawk map he added many more such names of friends and acquaintances. For instance, Urnst was a homophone of Ernst (his son Ernie); and Sunndi was a near-homophone of Cindy, another of Gygax's children. Gygax gave only the most basic descriptions of each state; he expected that DMs would customize the setting in order to make it an integral part of their own individual campaigns. His map included arctic wastes, desert, temperate forests, tropical jungles, mountainous cordillera, seas and oceans, rivers, archipelagos and volcanoes.Development of history and politics
Gygax set out to create a fractious place where chaos and evil were in the ascendant and courageous champions would be needed. In order to explain how his world had arrived at this state, he wrote an outline of a thousand years of history. As aPublication
TSR originally intended to publish ''The World of Greyhawk'' (TSR 9025) early in 1979, but it was not released until August 1980."Often promised, but often delayed, WORLD OF GREYHAWK sometimes appeared destined to never see the light of publication... Soon the summer was fast disappearing, along with most of our expectations, but on a fateful day in early August, the cherished cry was finally raised. THE WORLD OF GREYHAWK had arrived!" ''The World of Greyhawk'' consisted of a 32-page folio (the first edition is often called the ''World of Greyhawk folio'' to distinguish it from later editions) and a 34" x 44" (86 cm x 112 cm) two-piece color map of the Flanaess. Reviewers were generally impressed, but some remarked on the lack of a pantheon of Greyhawk-specific deities, as well as the lack of any mention of the infamous dungeons of Castle Greyhawk. Game designer Jim Bambra found the original set "disappointing", because "there is only so much information you can cram into a 32-page booklet, particularly when covering such a large area".Between editions (1980–1983)
Before the folio edition was released, Gygax planned to publish supplementary information, using his column "From the Sorcerer's Scroll" that appeared on a semi-regular basis in TSR's '' Dragon Magazine''. In the May 1980 issue, Gygax gave a quick overview of the development of his new ''The World of Greyhawk'' folio. For players who planned to use large scale army tactics, he gave details of the private armies that were commanded by some prominent Greyhawk characters from his original home game: Bigby, Mordenkainen,More information about every political region
The folio edition had thirty two pages, and information about each region was condensed into a short paragraph or two. Gygax realized that some players needed more in-depth information about the motivations and aspirations of each region, and the history of interactions with surrounding regions. With this in mind, Gygax decided to publish a much longer description of each region in ''Dragon''. The first two articles, covering seventeen regions, appeared in the December 1981 and January 1982 issues. Due to his involvement in many other TSR projects, Gygax handed responsibility for completion of this project to Rob Kuntz, who covered the remaining forty three regions in the March 1982, July 1982 and September 1982 issues.Deities of Greyhawk
In the August 1982 issue of ''Dragon'', Gygax gave advice on how to adapt deities from the previously published ''Non-player characters of Greyhawk
Also included in the March 1983 issue of ''Dragon'' was an article detailing four unique Greyhawk characters. The first two ''quasi-deities''—TSR Greyhawk adventures published after the folio edition
Of the ten adventures set in Greyhawk published by TSR before the folio edition, all but one had been written by Gygax. However, the new availability of information about Gygax's campaign world and TSR's desire to make it central to '' Dungeons & Dragons'' encouraged many new writers to set their adventures in Greyhawk. This, combined with the fact that Gygax was increasingly involved in other areas of the company, meant that of the seventeen Greyhawk adventures published in the two years after the folio edition, only four were written or co-written by Gygax: * S3 ''Expedition to the Barrier Peaks'' (Gary Gygax, 1980) * A1 ''Slave Pits of the Undercity'' (David Cook, 1980) * A2 ''Secret of the Slavers' Stockade'' ( Harold Johnson & Tom Moldvay, 1981) * A3 ''Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords'' (Allen Hammack, 1981 ) * A4 ''In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords'' (Lawrence Schick, 1981) * Q1 ''Queen of the Demonweb Pits'' (David C. Sutherland III & Gary Gygax, 1980) * C1 ''The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan'' (Harold Johnson & Jeff R. Leason, 1980) * C2 ''The Ghost Tower of Inverness'' (Allen Hammack, 1980) * I1 ''Dwellers of the Forbidden City'' (David Cook, 1981) * L1 ''The Secret of Bone Hill'' (Lenard Lakofka, 1981) * U1 ''Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh'' ( Dave Browne & Don Turnbull, 1981) * U2 ''Danger at Dunwater'' (Dave Browne & Don Turnbull, 1982) * N1 ''Against the Cult of the Reptile God'' (Douglas Niles, 1982) * WG4 ''The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun'' (Gary Gygax, 1982) * S4 ''Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth'' (Gary Gygax, 1982) Originally published as ''Lost Caverns of Tsojconth '' in 1976 * U3 ''The Final Enemy'' (Dave Browne & Don Turnbull, 1983) * L2 ''The Assassin's Knot'' (Lenard Lakofka, 1983) In 1981, TSR also published the ''super-modules'' D1-2 ''Descent into the Depths of the Earth'' and G1-2-3 ''Against the Giants'', both being compilations of previously published modules from the '' Drow'' series and the ''Giant'' series respectively. Numerous projects were planned to add more depth and detail to the setting after the publication of the initial folio, but many of these projects never appeared for various reasons.''World of Greyhawk'' boxed set (1983)
In 1983, TSR published an expanded boxed set of the campaign world, ''World of Greyhawk'', which is usually called the ''Greyhawk boxed set'' to differentiate it from other editions. According to game designer Jim Bambra, "The second edition was much larger than the first and addressed itself to making the World of Greyhawk setting a more detailed and vibrant place." This edition quadrupled the number of pages from the original edition to 128, adding significantly greater detail. One major addition was a pantheon of deities: in addition to the nineteen deities outlined by Gygax in his ''Dragon'' article, another thirty-one new deities were added, though only three received full write-ups of their abilities and worshipers. This brought the number of Greyhawk deities to an even fifty. For the next eight years, Greyhawk would be primarily defined by the information in this publication.After publication of the boxed set (1984–1985)
Publication of the ''World of Greyhawk'' was the first step in Gygax's vision for Oerth. Over the next few years, he planned to unveil other areas of the continent of Oerik, giving each new area the same in-depth treatment of history, geography, and politics as had been accorded the Flanaess. Gygax had also mapped out the other hemisphere of Oerth in his personal notes. Part of this would be Gygax's work, but Len Lakofka and François Froideval had also created material that Gygax wanted to place on Oerth. Frank Mentzer, Creative Consultant at TSR at the time, wrote four RPGA tournament adventures taken from his home campaign setting of ''Aquaria'' (published by TSR as the first four of the R-series modules: R1 ''Greyhawk modules
In the two years after the Greyhawk boxed set appeared, TSR published eight adventures set in Greyhawk. Five were written or co-written by Gygax, and the other three were from TSR's United Kingdom division: * EX1 ''Dungeonland'' (Gary Gygax, 1983) * EX2 ''Land Beyond the Magic Mirror'' (Gary Gygax, 1983) Both of the EX adventures, although nominally set in Greyhawk, transported characters through a planar gate into an alternate reality. * UK1 ''Beyond the Crystal Cave'' (Dave Brown, Tom Kirby & Graeme Morris, 1983) * UK2 ''The Sentinel'' (Graeme Morris, 1983) * UK3 ''The Gauntlet'' (Graeme Morris, 1984) * WG5 ''Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure'' (Robert Kuntz & Gary Gygax, 1984) * WG6 ''Isle of the Ape'' (Gary Gygax, 1985) * T1–4 ''The Temple of Elemental Evil'' (Gary Gygax & Frank Mentzer, 1985)''Dragon'' articles
From 1983–1985, the only notable supplement for the Greyhawk world was a five-part article by Len Lakofka in the June–October and December 1984 issues of ''Dragon'' that detailed the Suel gods who had been briefly mentioned in the boxed set. In the December 1984 issue, Gygax mentioned clerics of non-human races and indicated that the twenty four demihuman and humanoid deities that had been published in the February–June 1982 issues of ''Dragon'' were now permitted in Greyhawk; this increased the number of Greyhawk deities from fifty to seventy four. Other than those articles, Greyhawk was only mentioned in passing in three other issues until Gygax's "Gord the Rogue" short story in the August 1985 issue ''Dragon''. Gygax then provided some errata for the boxed set in the September 1985 issue, which was the last mention of the Greyhawk world in ''Dragon'' for almost two years.Gygax departs
Shortly after the release of the boxed set, Gygax discovered that while he had been in Hollywood, TSR had run into serious financial difficulties. Returning to Lake Geneva, Gygax managed to get TSR back on firm financial footing. However, different visions of TSR's future caused a power struggle within the company, and Gygax was forced out of TSR on December 31, 1985.Greyhawk without Gygax (1986–1987)
After Gygax left TSR, the continued development of Greyhawk became the work of many writers and creative minds. Rather than continuing forward with Gygax's plan for an entire planet, the setting was never expanded beyond the Flanaess, nor would other authors' work be linked to unexplored areas of the continent Oerik. According to Gygax, TSR's stewardship turned Greyhawk into something very different from what he had envisioned. In 1986, in the months following Gygax's ousting, TSR turned away from development of Greyhawk and focused its energies on a new campaign setting called '' Forgotten Realms''. In 1986 and 1987, only three Greyhawk modules were released, A1-4 ''Scourge of the Slave Lords'', S1-4 ''Realms of Horror'' and GDQ1-7 ''Queen of the Spiders'', all being collections of previously published modules rather than new material.Greyhawk novels continue without Gord the Rogue
Gygax's novel ''Saga of Old City'', released in November 1985, and ''Artifact of Evil'', released two months after Gygax's departure from TSR, proved to be popular titles, and in 1987, TSR hiredThe dungeons of Greyhawk revealed
In its 1986 Summer Mail Order Hobby Shop catalog, TSR had listed a new Greyhawk adventure called WG7 ''Shadowlords'', a high-level adventure to be written by Gary Gygax and Skip Williams. However, this adventure was canceled after Gygax left TSR, and the catalog number WG7 was reassigned to a new adventure, ''Castle Greyhawk'', released in 1988. It was the first new Greyhawk adventure in three years, but it had nothing to do with Gygax's original Castle Greyhawk. Instead, it was a compilation of twelve humorous dungeon levels, each one written by a freelance author. The puns and jokes often referenced modern culture— the Amazing Driderman, King Burger, Bugsbear Bunny, and the crew of ''Greyhawk revived (1988–1990)
By 1988, with the first series of ''Dragonlance'' adventures drawing to a close, and ''Forgotten Realms'' doing very well, TSR turned back to ''Greyhawk''. In the January 1988 issue of ''Dragon'', Jim Ward — one of the original players in the dungeons of ''Greyhawk'', creator of the wizard Drawmij, and now working for TSR in the post-Gygax era — requested player-input about what should be included in a hardcover sourcebook for ''Greyhawk''. He received over five hundred letters in response. In the August 1988 issue of ''Dragon'', he outlined the ideas from readers that had been included, and '' Greyhawk Adventures'' appeared shortly afterward as a response to requests from ''Greyhawk'' fans. The book's title was borrowed from Rose Estes's ''Greyhawk Adventures'' line of novels and used the same front-cover banner design. It was the thirteenth and final hardcover book published for the 1st edition ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' rules. The contents were designed to give Dungeon Masters ideas and play-opportunities unique to the ''Greyhawk'' world, including new monsters, magical spells and items, a variety of geographical features, profiles of prominent citizens, and the avatars of deities. In the time since Gygax had left TSR, no original ''Greyhawk'' material had been published, and many letter-writers had requested ideas for new adventures. Ward responded by including six plot-outlines that could be inserted into a ''Greyhawk'' campaign.''The City of Greyhawk'' boxed set
The publication of ''Greyhawk Adventures'' came just as TSR released the 2nd edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. TSR released '' The City of Greyhawk'' boxed set in 1989 under the ''Greyhawk Adventures'' banner. Written by Carl Sargent and Rik Rose, this was not the city created by Gygax and Kuntz, but a new plan built from references made in previously-published material. This release remolded Gary Gygax's old Circle of Eight into a new plot-device. Instead of a group of eight companions based in the Obsidian Citadel who left periodically to fight evil, the Circle became eight wizards led by a ninth wizard, Gygax's former character Mordenkainen. In addition to Mordenkainen, seven of the wizards were previously existing characters from Gygax's original home game: Bigby, Otiluke, Drawmij, Tenser, Nystul, Otto, and Rary. The eighth was new: the female wizard Jallarzi Sallavarian. The Circle's mandate was to act as neutral referees between Good and Evil, never letting one side or the other gain the upper hand for long. In addition, Sargent and Rose took Gygax's original Obsidian Citadel, re-purposed it as Mordenkainen's castle, and placed it in an unspecified location in theModules released under the ''Greyhawk Adventures'' banner
TSR also released five new ''World of Greyhawk'' (WG) adventures, which used the ''Greyhawk Adventures'' banner: * WG8 ''Fate of Istus'' (Various authors, 1989) * WG9 ''Gargoyle'' (Dave Collins & Skip Williams, 1989) * WG10 ''Child's Play'' (Jean Rabe & Skip Williams, 1989) * WG11 ''Puppets'' (Vince Garcia & Bruce Rabe, 1989) * WG12 ''Vale of the Mage'' (Jean Rabe, 1989) In 1990, TSR also published WGR1 ''Greyhawk Ruins'', a module and sourcebook about Castle Greyhawk by TSR writers Blake Mobley and Timothy Brown. Although this was not the Castle Greyhawk of Gygax and Kuntz, it was the first serious attempt to publish details of the castle.A new vision of the Flanaess (1991–1997)
Game designer Rick Swan noted the apparent lack of a central vision for Greyhawk material, describing the Greyhawk setting up to this point as "a crazy quilt, where odd-shaped scraps of material are randomly sewn together and everybody hopes for the best. How else to explain a setting that encompasses everything from the somber A1-4 ''Scourge of the Slave Lords'' adventure to the King Kong-inspired WG6 ''Isle of the Ape'' to the cornball humor of WG7 ''Castle Greyhawk''? It makes for an interesting mess, but it's a mess nonetheless... '' The City of Greyhawk'' sthe most credible attempt at smoothing out the rough spots." In 1990, TSR decided that the decade-old world of Greyhawk needed to be refreshed. Rather than follow through with Gary Gygax's plan to develop new regions beyond the boundaries of the Flanaess, the decision was made to stay within the Flanaess and reinvigorate it by moving the campaign time line forward a decade, from 576 CY to 586 CY. The main story vehicle would be a war fomented by an evil half-demon named Iuz that involved the entire Flanaess, which would allow TSR to radically alter the pattern of regions, alliances, and rulers from Gygax's original setting.The ''Greyhawk Wars''
In order to move players from Gygax's familiar ''World of Greyhawk'' to their new vision, TSR planned a trilogy of modules that would familiarize players with events and conditions leading up to the coming war, and then take them through the war itself. Once players completed the war via the three modules, a new boxed set would be published to introduce the new storyline and the new Flanaess. Two ''World of Greyhawk Swords'' modules, WGS1 ''Five Shall Be One'' by Carl Sargent and WGS2 ''Howl from the North'' by''From the Ashes''
In 1992, after the two ''World of Greyhawk Swords'' prequel modules and the ''Greyhawk Wars'' game had been on the market for some months, TSR released the new Greyhawk setting, '' From the Ashes'', a boxed set primarily written by Carl Sargent that described the Flanaess in the aftermath of the ''Greyhawk Wars''. It contained a large 4-color hex map of the area around the city of Greyhawk, a number of ''quick adventure cards'', and two 96-page books. The first book, ''Atlas of the Flanaess'', was a replacement for Gygax's original ''World of Greyhawk'' boxed set, with some changes. Many human gods from previous editions were not included, although one new demigod, Mayaheine, was added. This had the net effect of reducing the total number of human deities from fifty to twenty-eight. Deities of other races were increased from twenty-four to thirty-eight, but unlike the full descriptions that were given to the human gods, these were simply listed by name. Like Gygax's original boxed set, each region was given a two to three hundred word description, although some details included in the older edition, such as trade goods, total population and racial mixes, were not included in this edition. A number of regions—Ahlissa, Almor, Medegia and South Province—no longer existed after the Wars or had been folded into other regions. One new region—the Olman Islands—was detailed. This had the net effect of reducing the total number of regions from sixty to fifty eight. Darlene Pekul's large 4-color 2-piece fold-out map of the Flanaess included in Gygax's setting was reduced to a small black & white map printed on the inside cover of the ''Atlas''. The second book, the ''Campaign Book'', was designed to supplement, rather than replace, the four-year-old ''City of Greyhawk'' boxed set. It included updates to the city and its environs, and gave details of some new non-player characters and possible adventure hooks. In Gygax's setting, the major conflict had been between the Great Kingdom and the lands that were trying to free themselves from the evil overking. In Sargent's world, the Great Kingdom storyline was largely replaced by the major new conflict between the land of Iuz and the regions that surrounded it. Southern lands outside of Iuz's were threatened by the Scarlet Brotherhood, while other countries had been invaded by monsters or taken over by agents of evil. Overall, the vision was of a darker world where good folk were being swamped by a tide of evil. Game designer Rick Swan concurred with this multi-step approach, writing that '' Greyhawk Wars'' "took another step in the right direction by shaking things up with a much-needed dose of epic conflict... veteran designer Carl Sargent has continued the overhaul with the ambitious '' From the Ashes''. By combining heroic tradition with elements of dark fantasy, he's come up with a Greyhawk campaign that is both familiar and refreshingly unexpected." Sargent tried to generate interest for this grimmer vision of the Flanaess by following up with an article in ''Dragons March 1993 issue, writing, "...the powers of evil have waxed strong. The hand of Iuz, the Old One, extends across the central Flanaess, and the cruel Scarlet Brotherhood extends its power and influence around the southern lands bordering the Azure Sea. The ''World of Greyhawk'' setting has become a truly exciting world again..." The boxed set was supported by the publication of two new source books in 1993, also written by Sargent. WGR4 ''The Marklands'' provided information about the good realms of Furyondy, Highfolk, and Nyrond that opposed Iuz, while WGR5 ''Iuz the Evil'' detailed information about the lands of Iuz, and emphasized the prominent new role that Iuz now played in the world order. In addition, a number of adventures were also published, as much to provide more source material as for adventure: * WGQ1 ''Patriots of Ulek'' was the first module published after ''From the Ashes'', and advanced the storyline in Ulek, threatened by invasion from Turrosh Mak of the Pomarj. * WGR2 ''Treasures of Greyhawk'', by Jack Barker, Roy Rowe, Louis Prosperi, and Tom Prusa, was a loosely connected series of mini-adventures—for instance, exploring Bigby's home, travelling to the demiplane called The Great Maze of Zagyg, and trading riddles with a sphinx. Each mini-adventure focussed on a unique treasure in the Flanaess. * WGR3 ''Rary the Traitor'' byTSR drops Greyhawk
In late 1994, TSR canceled Sargent's new book just as it was being readied for publication, and stopped work on all other Greyhawk projects. Nothing more about Greyhawk was ever published by TSR, with one exception: in May 1995, a ''Dragon'' column devoted to industry gossip noted that the manuscript of ''Ivid the Undying'' had been released by TSR as a computer text file. Using this file, several people have reconstructed the book as it might have appeared in published form. By the end of 1996, TSR found itself heavily in debt and unable to pay its printers. Just as bankruptcy in 1997 seemed inevitable, Wizards of the Coast stepped in and, fueled by income from itsWizards of the Coast (1998–2008)
After Wizards of the Coast (WotC) and TSR merged, the determination was made that TSR had created too many settings for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game, and several of them were eliminated. However, WotC's CEO, Peter Adkison, was a fan of both ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and Greyhawk, and two major initiatives were created: a revival of Greyhawk, and a new third edition of ''D&D'' rules. A team of people was put together to revive the moribund Greyhawk setting by pulling together all the previously published information about it. Once that was done, the decision was made to update Carl Sargent's storyline, using similar prequel adventures to pave the way for the updated campaign setting. First,''25th anniversary of D&D''
The year 1999 marked twenty-five years since the publication of the original ''Dungeons & Dragons'' rules, and WotC sought to lure older gamers back to Greyhawk by producing a series of nostalgia-tinged ''Return to...'' adventures that evoked the best-known Greyhawk modules from 20 years before, under the banner ''25th Anniversary of D&D'': * ''Return to the Tomb of Horrors'', by Bruce R. Cordell, reprinted Gary Gygax's S1 ''Tomb of Horrors'', and added a substantial expansion. * ''Return to the Keep on the Borderlands'', by John D. Rateliff, took Gary Gygax's 1979 module, Keep on the Borderlands, B2 ''Keep on the Borderlands'' and restocked it with fresh monsters, as if the twenty years that had passed since the original module's publication also equaled twenty years of game time. Although the original had been in a generic setting, the new adventure set the Keep in Greyhawk. * ''Return to White Plume Mountain'', by Bruce R. Cordell, likewise updated Lawrence Schick's twenty-year-old adventure, ''White Plume Mountain'', by advancing the storyline twenty years. * ''Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff'', by Sean K. Reynolds, included the full text of Gygax's three original 1979 ''Giant'' modules and details of eighteen new adventure sites in Geoff (Greyhawk), Geoff, linked together as an integrated campaign. * ''Slavers (Dungeons & Dragons), Slavers'' by Sean K. Reynolds and Chris Pramas, was a sequel to the original Scourge of the Slavelords, A1-4 ''Scourge of the Slavelords'' series, set ten years after the original adventures. * ''Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil'', by Monte Cook, returned the players to Gygax's infamous temple, which Rob Kuntz (as Robilar) had originally looted and wrecked. It was published in 2001, using the 3rd edition rules. In conjunction with the publication of the ''Return to'' adventures, WotC also produced a series of companion novels known as the ''Greyhawk Classics'' series: ''Against the Giants'', ''White Plume Mountain'', ''Descent into the Depths of the Earth'', ''Expedition to the Barrier Peaks'', ''The Temple of Elemental Evil (novel), The Temple of Elemental Evil'', ''Queen of the Demonweb Pits'', ''Keep on the Borderlands (novel), Keep on the Borderlands'', and ''The Tomb of Horrors (novel), The Tomb of Horrors''. In an attempt to attract players of other ''D&D'' settings, WotC released ''Die, Vecna, Die!'', by Bruce R. Cordell and Steve Miller, a three-part adventure tying Greyhawk to the ''Ravenloft'' and ''Planescape'' campaign settings. Published in 2000, it was the last adventure to be written for ''D&Ds 2nd edition rules.Third edition (2000-2008)
In the editions of '' Dungeons & Dragons'' published by TSR, the setting of the game had not been specifically defined— Dungeon Masters were expected to either create a new world, or purchase a commercial campaign setting such as Greyhawk or '' Forgotten Realms''. In 2000, after two years of work and playtesting, WotC released the Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, 3rd edition of ''D&D'', and defined a default setting for the game for the first time. Under third edition rules, unless a Dungeon Master specifically chose to use a different campaign setting, his or her ''D&D'' game would be set in the world of Greyhawk.''Living Greyhawk''
With the release of the 3rd edition of '' Dungeons & Dragons'', RPGA—the organized play division of WotC—announced a new massively shared living campaign, '' Living Greyhawk'', modeled on a 2nd edition campaign called ''Living City''. Although ''Ravens Bluff#The Living City, Living City'' was relatively successful, RPGA wanted to expand the scope of their new campaign—instead of one city as a setting, the new campaign would involve thirty different regions of Greyhawk, each specifically keyed to a particular country, state, or province of the real world. Each region would produce its own adventures, and in addition to these, RPGA would provide worldwide ''Core'' adventures. To provide the level of detail needed for such a venture, WotC published the ''Living Greyhawk Gazetteer'', the most in-depth examination of the world of Greyhawk ever produced, and the official starting point for not only the campaign, but also for all home campaigns from that point forward. Concurrent with the release of the 3rd edition ''Player's Handbook'', ''Living Greyhawk'' debuted at Gen Con 2000 with three ''Core'' adventures: COR1-1 ''Dragon Scales at Morningtide'', by Sean K. Reynolds; COR1-2 ''The Reckoning'', by Sean Flaherty and John Richardson; and COR1-3 ''River Of Blood'', by Erik Mona. WotC also released ''The Fright at Tristor'' by Keith Polster (2000), designed as an introductory adventure to the Living Greyhawk campaign world. Unlike previous campaign settings, in which the calendar was frozen at a point chosen by the author, the ''Living Greyhawk'' calendar did advance one year in game time for every calendar year in real time: the campaign started in 591 CY (2001) and ended in 598 CY (2008), at which point over a thousand adventures had been produced for an audience of over ten thousand players. During this time, the campaign administrators incorporated most of WotC's new rules into the Greyhawk world, only excising material they felt would unbalance the campaign. In 2005, the administrators incorporated every deity ever mentioned in official Greyhawk material previous to the ''D&D'' 3rd edition, as well as all deities mentioned in the new 3rd edition source books. This tripled the number of deities in the campaign from about seventy to almost two hundred. Despite the massive amount of world and storyline development, none of the ''Living Greyhawk'' storylines or changes to the setting were considered official, since the regional adventure modules were produced by volunteers; this material only received a cursory vetting by RPGA campaign administrators, and no review by WotC personnel.Wizards of the Coast Greyhawk releases
Despite the popularity of the ''Living Greyhawk'' campaign, Wizards of the Coast did not produce much material for Greyhawk after the 25th anniversary ''Return to...'' series of adventures and the ''Living Greyhawk Gazetteer'': * ''The Standing Stone'', written by John D. Rateliff (2001), had several minor references to the Greyhawk setting. * ''Red Hand of Doom'', written by James Jacob (2006), was not set in a specific campaign world, but did contain instructions for where to set the adventure within Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Eberron. * ''Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk'' by Erik Mona, James Jacobs, and Jason Bulmahn (2007), was an update to TSR's 1990 release WGR1 ''Greyhawk Ruins''. Otherwise, Wizards of the Coast left the development of the Greyhawk world to RPGA's ''Living Greyhawk'' campaign and concentrated on producing new source books of expansion material for the core rules of ''D&D''.Fourth and fifth edition of D&D (2008 to present)
Fourth edition
At Gen Con 2007, WotC announced that the Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition, 4th edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' would be released the following spring, and Greyhawk would no longer be the default campaign setting under the new rules system. For this reason, ''Living Greyhawk'' was not converted to the new rules system; instead, it was brought to a conclusion at Origins Game Fair, Origins 2008. In 2009, WotC released ''The Village of Hommlet'', by Andy Collins, which updated Gary Gygax's original 1st edition ''Village of Hommlet'' to the 4th edition rules for characters of 4th level. It was not available for purchase, but was sent as a reward for those who joined the RPGA. In March 2013 the adventure by Collins was reprinted in issue 212 of ''Dungeon (magazine), Dungeon'', but now for characters of 3rd to 5th level.Fifth edition
When the ''Player's Handbook'' for the Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, fifth edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' was released in 2014, several references to the world of Greyhawk appeared throughout the descriptions of various races and classes, and a partial list of Greyhawk deities appeared in the book. The ''Monster Manual'', the second released book of the 5th edition, did not include any direct references to Greyhawk but did mention Explictica Defilus from ''Against the Cult of the Reptile God'' in the Naga entry, and tied the creation of ghouls to Doresain, the "King of Ghouls", from the Greyhawk adventure ''Kingdom of the Ghouls'' by Wolfgang Baur from ''Dungeon (magazine), Dungeon'' #70. In April 2017, ''Tales from the Yawning Portal'' was released. It contained seven older modules now reprinted and updated for the Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, fifth edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Four out of the seven were old Greyhawk modules: ''Against the Giants'', ''The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan'', ''Tomb of Horrors'', and ''White Plume Mountain''. In addition the book also featured advice how to place the other adventures within the Greyhawk setting, or how to change the name-giving tavern Yawning Portal in Water Deep from the Forgotten Realms into the Green Dragon Inn from the City of Greyhawk. In May 2019, ''Ghosts of Saltmarsh'' was released for the Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, fifth edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The book compiles new versions of classic adventures that are located around Saltmarsh in Greyhawk (''The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh'', ''Danger at Dunwater'', and ''The Final Enemy''), or are generally naval themed.Unofficial Greyhawk sources
Although TSR and WotC had each in turn owned the official rights to the ''World of Greyhawk'' since the first folio edition was published in 1980, the two people most responsible for its early development, Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz, still had most of their original notes regarding the fifty levels of dungeons under Castle Greyhawk. Gygax also had his old maps of the city of Greyhawk, and still owned the rights to Gord the Rogue. After Gygax left TSR in 1985, he continued to write a few more ''Gord the Rogue'' novels, which were published by New Infinities Productions: ''Sea of Death'' (1987), ''City of Hawks'' (1987), and ''Come Endless Darkness'' (1988). However, by this time, Gygax was furious with the new direction in which TSR was taking "his" world. In a literary declaration that his old world of Oerth was dead, and wanting to make a clean break with all things Greyhawk, Gygax destroyed his version of Oerth in the final ''Gord the Rogue'' novel, ''Dance of Demons''. For the next fifteen years, he worked to develop other game systems. But there was still the matter of the unpublished dungeons under Castle Greyhawk. Although Gygax had given glimpses into the dungeons in his magazine columns and articles, the dungeons themselves had never been released to the public. Likewise, Gygax's version of the city of Greyhawk had never been published, although Frank Mentzer believed the reason for that was because "the City of Greyhawk was a later development, originally being but a location (albeit a capital). As such it was never fleshed out all that thoroughly... notes on certain locations and notorious personnel, a sketch map of great brevity, and otherwise quite loose. That is doubtless why Gary didn't publish it; it had never been completed." However, in 2003, Gygax announced that he was working with Rob Kuntz to publish the original castle and city in six volumes, although the project would use the rules for ''Castles and Crusades'' rather than ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Since WotC still owned the rights to the name Greyhawk, Gygax changed the name of the castle to ''Castle Zagyg''—the reverse homophone of his own name originally ascribed to the mad architect of his original thirteen level dungeon. Gygax also changed the name of the nearby city to "Yggsburgh", a play on his initials E.G.G. This project proved to be much more work than Gygax and Kuntz had envisioned. By the time Gygax and Kuntz had stopped working on the original home campaign, the castle dungeons had encompassed fifty levels of maze-like passages and thousands of rooms and traps. This, plus plans for the city of Yggsburgh and encounter areas outside the castle and city, were found to be too much to fit into the proposed six volumes. Gygax decided he would recreate something like his original thirteen level dungeon, amalgamating the best of what could be gleaned from binders and boxes of old notes. However, neither Gygax nor Kuntz had kept careful or comprehensive plans. Because they had often made up details of play sessions as they went, they usually just drew a quick map as they played, with cursory notes about monsters, treasures, and traps. These sketchy maps contained just enough detail so that the two could combine their independent efforts, after determining the merits of each piece. Recreating the city was also a challenge; although Gygax still had his old maps of the original city, all of his previously published work on the city was owned by WotC, so he would have to create most of the city from scratch while maintaining the look and feel of his original. The slow and laborious process came to a complete halt in April 2004, when Gygax suffered a serious stroke. Although he returned to his keyboard after a seven-month convalescence, his output was reduced from fourteen-hour work days to only one or two hours per day. Kuntz had to withdraw due to other projects, although he continued to work on an adventure module that would be published at the same time as the first book. Under these circumstances, work on the Castle Zagyg project continued even more slowly, although Jeffrey Talanian stepped in to help Gygax. In 2005, Troll Lord Games published Volume I, ''Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh''. This 256-page hardcover book contained details of Gygax's original city, its personalities and politics, as well as over thirty encounters outside the city. The two part fold out map of the area was rendered by Darlene Pekul, the same artist who had produced the original map for the folio edition of ''World of Greyhawk''. Later that year, Troll Lord Games also published ''Castle Zagyg: Dark Chateau'', an adventure module written for the Yggsburgh setting by Rob Kuntz. Book catalogs published in 2005 indicated several more volumes in the series would follow shortly, but it wasn't until 2008 that the second volume, ''Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works'', appeared. ''The Upper Works'' described details of the castle above ground, acting as a teaser for the volumes concerning the actual dungeons that would follow. However, Gygax died in March 2008 before any further books were published. After his death, Gygax Games, under the control of Gary's widow Gail, took over the project, but no more volumes of the ''Castle Zagyg'' project have been published. Rob Kuntz also published some of his creative work from the Castle Greyhawk dungeons. In 2008, he released the adventure modules ''The Living Room'', about a whimsical but dangerous room that housed enormous furniture, and ''Bottle City'', about a bottle found on the second level of the dungeon that contained an entire city. 2009 saw Kuntz release ''Daemonic & Arcane'', a collection of Greyhawk and ''Kalibruhn'' magic items, and ''The Stalk'', a wilderness adventure. In October 2010, Black Blade Publishing announced that they would be publishing several of Kuntz's original Greyhawk levels, including the Machine Level, the Boreal Level, the Giants' Pool Hall, and the Garden of the Plantmaster.See also
*:Greyhawk modules, Greyhawk modulesReferences
Further reading
* * Gary Gygax, Gygax, Gary and Robert Kuntz. ''Supplement I: Greyhawk'' (TSR, 1975). * Gygax, Gary. World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting, ''The World of Greyhawk'' (folio edition) (TSR, 1980). * Gygax, Gary. ''World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting'' (TSR, 1983). * James M. Ward, Ward, James M. '' Greyhawk Adventures'' (TSR, 1988). * Carl Sargent, Sargent, Carl. '' From the Ashes'' (TSR, 1992). * Moore, Roger E. ''Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins'' (TSR, 1998). {{D&D topics Greyhawk, Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings Dungeons & Dragons locations