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I don't have it handy, but I have a hazy recollection that Emirikol the Chaotic is statted in A Paladin in Hell

In the long long ago I posted an article on my version of linguistic history in the Flanaess - basically I posited that it makes more sense to have Common be a mix of Oeridian and Suel than Oerid/Bakl ...

mtg - Grey Citadel as Bellport is interesting, though you'd have to change out the waterfall I suppose. I've located that one in the Yatils, where the Velverdyva comes down out of the mountains into t ...

On the Avon Fyn/Avon Ffyn - If we're adhering to Welsh, as most of the Geoff nomenclature tends to, then Afon/Avon should be river, yes. I find the translation of the name interesting: Afon Ffyn is Ri ...

I've located two Necromancer Games mega-adventures in Bone March: the city of Tsar nestled under the mountains in the west, and Rappan Athuk in the east, in the hills just outside of the Loftwood. Knu ...

Very nice! Thoughtfully integrated with the existing module and effectively ties up the perplexing EEG loose ends. It's a pleasure to see the result of your research and musings - looking forward to t ...

I also wrote an article here on Canonfire (I think it's called An Alternative Linguistic History of the Flanaess) describing my take on the human languages of the Flanaess.

Hey all - apologies if this has been posted previously; I am not much up on the forums the last few years. I just ran across an Atlas Obscura article on the Smoking Hills of Canada - and I would guess ...

Wondering if anyone else is a fan or has considered the series as an inspiration for a campaign...obviously would be a thieves' guild sort of setting, with local guilds competing for regional supremac ...

Longish post ahead. After reading Scott Sz's Cold Text Files posts on the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun a few years back, I did a bit of my own close reading and thinking. Most of this is based on tha ...

In a post three or four years ago, I posited that Hendrenn Halgood (town in Nyrond, I think) was likely named after a local saint or religious hero - Halig-good = holy-good in Anglo-Saxon.

This is great stuff! Considerably different than my version of Elven history (which I will get around to publishing on here someday...) but plenty of material I could borrow and fit in.

Probability Travel, now that I think about it, seems similar to the travel between worlds, or between "narratives" on the same world, that occurs in Neal Stephenson's novel Anathem.

Tolkien's own drawings and paintings of Smaug depict a six-limbed dragon.

Haven't posted much the last year or so - I got this crazy idea to open a used bookshop and that eats a lot of time. Good t ...

GMan, that's a great idea, and I may need to steal it (with credit, of course) for my own upcoming History of the Flan article.

I've been composing a review of the movie, but it's very long, so won't post it now.

Just a brief sidenote - none of the content in the movie is from The Silmarillion, because Jackson et al don't ...

I've always pronounced it "smog" in my head, but I'm pretty sure the "correct" pronunciation (as JRRT intended) was indeed "smowg" (rhymes with cowg). I'm at work right now, but tonight I'll try to l ...

I never interpreted Vlek as an invader, so I consider Vlek and Vlekstaad to be names in the NE Flan language.

I go into this in more detail in my article on linguistics in the Flanaess, and in an a ...

Me, I use Slavic names for the NE Flan. Fits in with Vlek.

Mortellan, I'm glad it inspired you! Maybe for a holiday special. You're definitely plenty busy without it, what with Castle Greyhawk and the campaigns you run...

They've typically had episode 9 be the big one - Ned Stark in season 1, the Battle of the Blackwater in season 2, Red Wedding in season 3 - and then use the final episode to wrap things up a bit. The ...

Hmmm...maybe this gave Iuz the idea to impersonate Vatun.

For some reason, I'm envisioning a Greyhawk Comix strip where the priesthood tests a series of Iuz pretenders with Iuz trivia questions. O ...

There was no show on Sunday the 26th - they skipped Memorial Day weekend because of low ratings in previous seasons. Last night was #9, next week is the season finale.

Two storylines mostly wrap ...

I thought Tyrion had the line of the night: "And now my watch begins." The whole wedding was well done, I thought. Overall, seems to be winding up for the big finish over the last two episodes, thou ...

My gut feeling is that at least some characters will have a happy ending, despite all the crap they go through. It's possible he'll go full Hamlet and everyone dies, but to me that seems less likely ...

Me, I'm not debating "lawful," mostly because neither GRRM nor the show's writers have taken D&D alignments into account, and I have no plans to adapt the characters into D&D format. I like t ...

M-S - I'm not saying Daenerys is right, though opposing massive institutional slavery certainly isn't a bad idea. Should she just ignore it and take the gold instead? My point is we can't expect her ...

In the author's defense - what happens to Theon isn't told in the books until much later, and in flashback, and in much less vivid detail.

Daenerys - this is her figuring out how to rule. She's ...

I totally agree about Olenna - it's been really fun to watch her. Diana Rigg is excellent in this role. And her scene with Tywin was a treat.

A lot of Jon Snow's arc is progression from naivete t ...

MINOR SPOILERS

Oh, I know that's the likely intent; I was trying not to give it away for non-readers. What I'm curious about is whether they'll go on with the sacrifice, develop a new storyline ...

I'll have to check out those charts, Smillan. I've looked at some other fansites, but not that one yet. Amazing how these families are all intertwined - as noted in the "Black Ice and Fire" thread, ...

So...back to the show:

I'm curious about what they're doing with Gendry. It seems like his character is being combined with Edric Storm, which I understand for adaptation purposes, but it seems to ...

I've been watching. I thought episode 3 was especially good. Loved the punk version of "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" over credits - perfect ending to a mood-whiplash episode.

First, apologies for the thread necromancy. But I'm rereading the Guide to the World of Greyhawk (the glorious boxed edition from 1983) and found something bearing on the discussion that may explain ...

Mydrianor, I've always thought as well that Tharizdun is a good candidate for the Serpent. Though Mystic-Scholar's viewpoint of a non-subtle, direct Tharizdun is also valid, and other suitable interp ...

I've been reading your blog, and find it really thought-provoking...I was especially blown away by the Leng Desert - that immediately makes the Bright Desert much more interesting for me, and I'm alre ...

Alternate interpretations:

Hendren (when spelled with one n) is also a real-world surname and place name. I've seen some name-history sites claim this derives from hendron or hendon, supposedly ...

Strictly speaking, there's none of The Silmarillion in The Hobbit movie. The film rights to The Silmarillion are separate, and have not been sold to anyone. Most of the extra stuff comes from the ap ...

I like what they've done with Tywin too - particularly replacing Bolton with Tywin at Harrenhal, thus putting Arya and Tywin together...those were some of my favorite scenes last season.

I'm watching it! I got hooked on the books a looong time ago - I worked in a bookstore then, and actually read the galley of the first book before it was published. We were all big fans at the store ...

I can see arguments for both, but I'd probably place Irrisen between Stonefist and the Ice Barbarians (you'd have to alter Irrisen's geography a bit, but that's not too hard to do). The Cruski are ab ...

I was also taken by the calendar he posted in the blog - sets up long meta-seasons, similar to Song of Ice and Fire but with more regularity. I don't know if I'd import it into my campaign, but I thi ...

I'll second (third? lost track) the assertion that "drow" has no relation to JRRT.

The name "duergar" almost certainly derives from real-life dverg (Norse I think) or dwerg (Old English) - so whi ...

I endorse the idea of good, even non-evil humanoids being a rarity, unless a group of players actually enjoys the resulting moral quandaries (though they would likely come up in urban campaigns anyway ...

M-S my friend, I completely agree about what's lost when leaving out Faramir/Eowyn. On the whole, the treatment of Faramir was probably my least favorite part of the movies. Not only is the sense of ...

As I said, I understand why people wouldn't like these changes. Though a movie without change wasn't feasible.

I know Aragorn/Eowyn is one-sided, yes; hence "magnified" as my description. Not tha ...

M-S has the skinny on the trolls. Also I think that the great darkness Sauron sent out from Mordor via Orodruin (Dawnless Day through the Pelennor) would help his minions - with the sun blotted out b ...

Thanks for the summary, Smillan! I went back to look at the illustrations I have - remarkable how they've changed from the Fiend Folio picture (which as you note, doesn't really show the side-fangs). ...

Sorry for being unclear - what surprises me about Khazad-dum existing when the balrog hid under Caradhras is not that it existed - it was the oldest dwarven city, and dwarves further west had particip ...

One balrog was named, at least - their captain, Gothmog, who was killed by Ecthelion during the sack of Gondolin.

I didn't intend "appeared" to mean "came into being" - after all, the thing had fle ...

Mystic-Scholar, I think you're quite right. I should have included the initial appearance of the Balrog in my timeline up the thread:

1980 Balrog appears in Moria, slays the dwarven king (Durin V ...

Thanks Lanthorn and SirXaris! Yeah, I used a lot of brain space on those books.

As jamesdglick says, they do have cockney accents in the book, but it does seem like their voices ought to be lower, ...

Much like Smillan, I give a Slavic flair to the North Flan peoples - stronger where they survive largely intact, as in Stonefist and Tenh (Rus), and weaker where they've been overrun by other cultures ...

Re: Moria - indeed the dwarves do briefly establish themselves there post-Hobbit. In The Fellowship of the Ring (book, not movie) Gloin tells Bilbo of Balin's expedition to retake Moria (Ori and Oin ...

And another thing I wonder: How did Graz'zt, a demon lord so powerful he rules three planes, contends with Demogorgon and Orcus for primacy in the Abyss, and is rumored to be the son of various power ...

Re: dynastic succession from Garasteth to Cranden.

Sargent's description of double marriages and house renaming seems overly complicated. In the Aerdy histories and genealogies I created for my ca ...

Here I'm going to plug my "Legend of Pyremius and Ranet" article, which is decidedly not canon. In the story Pyremius uses poison _and_ a knife to kill her (a god of assassins has to be thorough). W ...

Room 3
The archway leads to a 20x20 vaulted chamber, with stout wooden doors (both locked) to the left and right. A single torch burns low on the wall by the left-hand door. The floor is blackened ...

SirXaris, I have a room to post, but I want to make sure I understand the end of your description: I can't quite picture the double archway divided by a 10-foot hallway. Does that mean a hallway wit ...

Thread Necromancy! which given the topic, seems appropriate. ;)

Just a few things to add to this discussion.

First, I agree that Nerull doesn't seem a caretaker of the dead so much as someone ...

So I recently bought this adventure in PDF form, and find myself entranced by its diabolical possibilities. I saw it reviewed on Grognardia, and I think I've seen it mentioned by GreyhawkGrognard, ...

I don't have a stake in this discussion/debate, so have not posted, but I have been reading avidly as tensions rose to levels not seen since earlier days of Canonfire!. In support of Lanthorn's call ...

More wonderful comments! Thanks especially to Lanthorn and Mystic-Scholar for your thorough responses.

So here's my update list:
Beory: bear. Lanthorn really sold me on this. Earth, hibernatio ...

Rasgon: The lynx is a great call for Sotillion, thanks. Bubastis is a nice visual for what hers would look like, though I think her priests would have to settle for a more mundane version.

Smil ...

Thanks for your suggestions, Rasgon. I am indeed looking just for mundane, or mostly mundane, animals; "common" magical beasts like unicorns are OK, though I think ki-rin are too far out. I've seen ...

So I'm working on identifying corresponding animal totems/symbols for gods in my version of the Old Faith (Beory, Ehlonna, Pelor, Obad-hai, Nerull, plus Atroa, Sotillion, Wenta, Telchur). These would ...

I can see the tech-savvy illithids designing a machine to print this script. With levers, and buttons, and dials, and a hatch you can get inside if you need to fix it, and claw-like arms to feed pape ...

Mystic-Scholar, I'm not sure I see the connection you're making here - perhaps Moldvay is referring to medieval cabalism instead of Jewish law as practiced during the era of the kingdom of Israel? Or ...

I think Ratik could work well; it has all some diverse geography, it's fairly remote, and has a conquering race (Oeridians) and an underclass. Tenh, though, has no coast, so Wake of the Watcher would ...

Hey! This looks like my thread in the 3E/Pathfinder forum, which should have had a named more like this one.

I like Bone March as a Kingmaker location - definitely lawless, variety of landforms, f ...

I'm guessing the character Ageelia from the Gord books? Can't remember which, maybe Sea of Death. In that case, she's not a character that actually was illustrated by Elmore, but one that he would h ...

Thanks MTG! I agree on Council of Thieves - Cheliax transfers to the Great Kingdom nicely. Easy to sketch out the Hellknights as a branch of Hextor's church...or to have the Naelax infernal contract ...

Boslok the Elder wrote:

I still have the nagging question of who's coat of arms is that on the '83 cover flag? It sorta looks like the Fax (Wild Coast) coat of arms but it has a blue stripe betwe ...

I would add The Thirteenth Warrior, a thinly veiled Beowulf movie based on Crichton's novel Eaters of the Dead. Though it's pretty low-magic, there is some mystical stuff, and it has several scenes t ...

Invoked for the first time! I will need to look over these to give a proper response - haven't worked with any sort of phonemes in 20 years. But this is really cool.

I know that some of my pronun ...

I even changed Telchur's alignment for my campaign to LN, to make his association with Belial more plausible, and to further differentiate him from Vatun. I've got Vatun as the embodiment of the chao ...

I'll be writing up an inn in Blue, in the Pomarj...run by hobgoblins.

Great points, DLG. This is something I considered, and it could certainly work for many people who wanted to use the Pathfinder adventures without moving them off-world. They've already included int ...

For a long time I've pondered how best to use Pathfinder APs and adventures. The main question for me was whether to keep Golarion and Oerth separate, or blend them somehow. I didn't long entertain ...

I've never seen the 4th edition remake, or the KODT; I have seen the original, and I know it was a tournament setting. I should have specified that I was commenting on the general unlikelihood that a ...

Oh, I know _why_ it took them that long, but I'm still impressed with their dedication! And some archaeologists weren't so picky about the structure, so long as they found some treasure in the vaults ...

This is fascinating! I love the description of excavating the blocked stair, and the expression of the explorer's/adventurer's mindset: if they took this effort to block it, what's down there must b ...

These are beautiful maps, Joe, and highly inspirational! I think I may finally build my own versions this summer. I have a technical question for you - I bought the Hexographer pro version a while b ...

Article is away - I had already sent to the "editors" account. And now the placeholder is submitted as well. Sorry this was so much trouble. I hope reviewers will be kind!

Oh sure, if I wanted to do it the easy way. :)
Seriously, I was trying my best to use the submit article page, since that seems to be the preferred format, reserving the email for my last resort. ...

Thanks DLG - I tried different fonts including Arial, no go. I ran it through two different "scrubbers" online, saved as plaintext, nothing has worked...I think I'm down to typing the whole thing fro ...

Bah! Something is still going wrong. I've taken out all italics; I don't have any bold, underline, or font changes. Hm. Let's see...I'm copying from a Word 97-03 document, my browser is Safari...u ...

OK, now I feel a bit dim. I've finally finished the article, and went to fill out the Submit an Article form. Filled in the blanks, copied in my document, hit preview - and I got the PHP-NUKE page t ...

You can retro-engineer from Slavers to get some approximation of pre-wars Wild Coast. I don't have it handy, but I think maybe two of those three cities are treated there.

Thanks Cebrion and Galen!

My rough draft was 2400 words, so I should be OK on the length unless I get really windy.

It's not crazy heretical; I'm changing a few things in order for the whole t ...

Hello! Sorry to clog the forum, but I couldn't find this in the FAQ.

1) Is there a maximum length for an article? At what point would you require/recommend an article be broken into smaller piece ...

Favorite: Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun.

Runners-up: T1-4 (Hommlet/Temple of Elemental Evil), G1-3, Return of the Eight

Least Favorite: Gargoyles (blech!), UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave. That ...

It occurred to me recently that the Dwarves of the Flanaess have two big reasons to harbor a bitter grudge against the Suloise. I didn't find anything on the topic via the forum search, so I've writt ...

Good stuff on here! I would add the Henry V soundtrack - good combat music, and the music from the St. Crispin pep talk is good for role players who want to give a rousing speech before they storm a ...

Hmmm...half-fiend four-armed gargoyle, escaped from the Tomb of Horrors? The sword might be the soul of an evil, genocidal mortal warlord, melted in an abyssal forge then cooled in the Styx. It's no ...

As with others, lots of Tolkien influence, especially dwarves, elves, and halflings. I replace a lot of canon elf-names (Melf?!?! I know the origin story, but gah) with names derived from Tolkien's ...

Name: Joe

Age: 38 (a popular answer)

Location: Columbia, MO

Started: 1981. Got basic box in 1982, expert box in 1983, Greyhawk box in 1984. I really liked AD&D, skipped 2nd edition, ...

It's not technically Greyhawk, but you can get there from here:

Moil, the City that Waits.

I have a feeling that Rel Astra should be the City of the Stars, but I can't say I've seen it in print. ...

Praise from Caesar(s)!

Nice to have the big names' approval. DMPrata - it occurs to me that those are my pronunciations too. But maybe Flan (or whichever language you want the word "Ulek" to be ...

I meant to post this a long time ago, but forgot...

A simple solution to the name's origin (in-world) might lie in the name of the goddess Ulaa, beloved by dwarves and other demihumans, especially ...