Hi all, I'm a relative newcomer to both this forum and Greyhawk as a setting. In my introduction post I was shown some excellent resources to brush up on the history of Oerth, but man there's a lot of it and my progress has been slow.
So I'm wondering if any of you loremasters can help me out. I'm looking for specific instances/places/events that match a particular theme. I'm interested in cases where Nature (with a capital N) has been defiled. I'm thinking along the lines of Saruman and his White Hand Orcs cutting into the Entwood to power his war machine operations at Isengard. Or the moonwells in the Moonshae Isles of the Forgotten Realms setting being poisoned by Bhaal, and the children of the Earthmother slain and replaced by horrible mockeries. Or even the World Tree in the Avatar movie being cut down by greedy, imperialistic humans intent on stripping an area of natural resources with no regard to the consequences. Or maybe even less dramatic than that - the slow decline of a highly magical, fey-heavy woodland becoming just a mundane forest over time as the unicorns and dryads and other such creatures are killed or driven off over generations.
Basically any trope or theme that deals with Man/Progress/Industry encroaching on or corrupting a magical or pristine natural setting resonates deeply with me, and I'm wondering if there are any strong examples in GH canon that can scratch this particular itch for me. Imagine you were tasked with building an epic task for a ranger, druid, or anyone closely linked to nature. What great wrongs would you have them undo? Or which areas are already on the brink of being despoiled that they could perhaps save?
... I'm looking for specific instances/places/events that match a particular theme. I'm interested in cases where Nature (with a capital N) has been defiled...
-Have you picked a time period yet, or will this decide the year you start. I('m not at source materials right now, but:
1) In the early 590s (591?), there was a scenario in the Timberway Forest where one of the northern noble houses of Ratik was doing something like that. There was even a sacred tree that might be threatened, although it was noted that the Lady in question hadn't decided if she could make any money out of it. I can't find the link, but I copied this:
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House Keth
Overview: This territory lies between the lands of House Ulthek and House Abonhoth, in the Timberway. It is a land of perpetual twilight under the conifers. Its landscape, beneath this needle canopy, is covered by cliffs and hollows formed by a small finger of the Rakers which reaches into its depths.
Who’s in Charge: His Lordship Vartuel of House Keth
Who's Really in Charge: Lady Katharna Keth
Economy: Poor. This territory once had a thriving trade in game and furs, but Lady Katharna's greed caused her to overhunt the game and bring the wrath of the Order of the Hart. Now, hardly any game can be found and the people are dependent on the meager earnings they make off foraging nuts, berries and fungus.
People:
Vartuel Keth (male, human). Vartuel was once a fair and just ruler. He didn't grow up in the lands he now rules, but the court of Marner, where he was sent as a boy to learn the ways of nobility. At the death of his father, he returned to Keth. It was then that he met and married Lady Katharna.
Lady Katharna (female, human). Lady Katharna actually first saw Vartuel while he was studying in Marner. She was attracted to his looks and status. Wanting nothing more than to climb the political ladder, she moved to the lands of Keth. Her greed for power and wealth knows no bounds. She sees the Timberway as a means to achieve wealth and nothing more.
Places:
The Great Oak: There is a ancient and majestic tree in the center of the lands of Keth. It is said to be the oldest tree within the Timberway. The woodsmen avoid it and the forests around it are said to be haunted. Lady Katharna is aware of its presense, but has not figured how to make a profit from it and so has left it alone.
Relations: House Keth has poor relations with the neighboring houses, if not outright hostile. Lady Katharna has seen to it that Vartuel stays in good standing with the merchant guilds and the nobility in Marner. The rest of Ratik means nothing to this house and it is well known...
2) The Adri Forest is mentioned as being threatened by foresters commanded by Innspa. This was in the late 580s, I think. I'm sure someone else will know the source.
3) In the aftermath of the Greyhawk Wars, hungry Nyrondese were over-gathering in the Celadon. This would have been in The Marklands.
Or could you just make something up, but that should be a start. I'm sure this won't be the only answer you get.
1) From the Ashes describes a place in the Gnarly Forest called Bad Deep, a dusty, ruined patch of blasted desolation (rumored to be an ancient battlesite) right in the middle of the woodland. This wasteland is actually spreading little by little, and the druids cannot stop it. Read pages 47-48 in the Campaign Book for more information.
My DM had my cleric-fighter (of Trithereon) and his retinue drawn into a battle there against a cult of Nerull that was plumbing the depths of a hidden shrine there. It was terrible...but epic. His explanation for Bad Deep was that it was the place where two ancient Oeridian armies, one dedicated to Hextor, one dedicated to Heironeous, fought a devastating battle. The resulting clash of divine (and arcane) magic ruined the area, and the spirits and bodies of the ancient dead still haunted that region (hence, the reason for the cult of Nerull going there).
2) The Marklands describes a place called the Defiled Glades up in the Vesve Forest, caused during the Greyhawk Wars when the forces of Good and Evil used devastating magic in their battles (this may have inspired my DM to explain Bad Deep). Read page 51 in that book.
1) The Invoked Devastation. The first part of the Twin Cataclysms that made the Baklunish homeland a barren wasteland.
2) The Rain of Colorless Fire. The second part of the Twin Cataclysms that turned the Suel empire into the Sea of Dust.
3) The Scorpion Crown is an artifact rumored to have turned the fertile valley between the Woolly Bay and the Abbor Alz into the Bright Desert.
4) It is rumored that the Barren Wastes were a result of Tzunk's experiments using the Codex of Infinite Plains to contact the efreeti City of Brass on the elemental plane of fire.
5) The Land of Black Ice. Who knows? Is it natural or unnatural? Is it retreating, stable, or spreading?
6) The elven weather magic that is protecting/hiding the Lendore Isles. How is this magical manipulation of the weather in that region affecting the global weather patterns? (It's basically a giant typhoon with an eye big enough to encompass all the islands.)
The Bandit Kingdoms has a few of these kinds of areas, both in canon and from the events of Living Greyhawk.
1. Brewfest, 584 CY, Steelbone Meadows (canon). A crazy Iuzian priest orders the western bandits of the Bandit Lands to a gathering in northeastern Wormhall to plan for 585's raiding season. Over 10,000 bandits attend. The delusional cleric becomes convinced the bandit leaders are plotting against him and Iuz and, after several nights of drunken revelry, unleashes demons, orc assassins, and powerful magicks against the drunk and sleeping bandits. Over half of the bandits are slain and the rest flee in terror. The abandoned campground remains haunted by a variety of undead, all of whom hate Iuz and cannot be rebuked by his clerics to this day. (Casey's note: the high numbers of undead would strip the area clean of all live, turning the campground into a small wasteland).
2. The Tangles Forest was denuded in Growfest, 596 CY by a chemical concoction created by Lesser Boneheart Cranzer. It was dropped all over the forest by a squadron of vrocks. (Living Greyhawk adventure BDK6i-01 The Great Hunt, 596 CY [OwCon 2006 forest-craw/battle interactive by Theo Judd]). In Flocktime, 597 CY, Gerland the Druid (CN male grey elf druid 6/Holt Warden 10), an unpredictable protector of the forest who had been slain during Cranzer's attack (and subsequently raised by adventurers), discovered that the green dragon Maurgoroothyx's (LN female huge elite advanced adult green dragon; she is the daughter of the Green Dragon of Lake Aqal and relocated to the Tangles in years past to get away from her mother) blood had a healing effect upon the foliage. Since then, the pair have been traveling the forest together working to restore it. Despite their alignment conflict, they get along quite well, they just don't often agree on how to go about things.
3. The Bluff Hills were devastated by an immense blast of negative energy unleashed by That Which Slept (CE female colossal advanced great wyrm silver dragon shadow creature Dragon Ascendant 12 [Tharizdun]) in Suns'ebb, 596 CY (BDK6i-09 Negative Outcome [MilleniumCon 2006 role-playing/battle interactive by the BK Triad and Britt]). The lingering negative energy fallout mutated many of the surviving inhabitants of the region into horrific abominations which attack all other creatures on sight and the Bluff Hills became a barren wasteland.
If you're using the 3rd edition adventure path that began with The Sunless Citadel, there's also the Ashen Plain, which was devastated by the dragon Ashardalon long ago and remains barren today. TwiceBorn placed it in the Southern Lorridges in this article, deciding it was the same place as a similar local wasteland mentioned in the adventure "Evil Unearthed" in Dungeon #82. If you use Anna's map of Bissel, it's probably the plateau between Mistyvale and Brierden Keep, though if you're using the Dungeon #82 adventure, the area immediately east of Brierden Keep fits better (Brierden Keep becomes Castle Overlook from that adventure). It may be that there are two barren wastes in the region, one created by Ashardalon and one created during the magical destruction of Castle Overlook.
Ashardalon was defeated by the druid Dydd, and one of the hooks in Bastion of Broken Souls is that one of the PCs is Dydd's descendant, so there's a definite druid connection.
Most of the woodlands and wild areas within the Great Kingdom are under pressure from the Great Kingdom itself. They serve as refuges for all sorts of people for whom the Great Kingdom is just too evil... kind of a network of Sherwood Forests if you like. The Great Kingdom every now and then launches an incursion into them, either because they are along a strategic route, or simply to engage in some policing.In Tale of the Old City Gygax provided a pretty vivid description of one such battle. Further, the unpublished Ivid the Undying describes these areas in more detail. The Adventure Begins also describes a forest in hwich al of the trees died suddenly, and there is the magical blight at the center of the Coldwood.
. The Adventure Begins also describes a forest in which all of the trees died suddenly.
This is the Bonewood, formerly known as the Thelwood.
Quote:
They serve as refuges for all sorts of people for whom the Great Kingdom is just too evil... kind of a network of Sherwood Forests if you like.
The Grandwood always struck me as Gygax's version of Sherwood Forest.
"The Grandwood, lying scarcely 25 leagues from Rauxes, is yet a haven for those escaping from oppression—outlaws both good and bad, demi-humans, and those who hate cruelty and tyranny."
These are terrific suggestions by all. Sorry it took me ~1.5 months to come back to this thread, that is because nearly all the references meant little or nothing to me. Now that I've acquired at least some rudimentary knowledge of Greyhawk history/geography, I've re-read the thread and am getting much more out of it.
Because I haven't settled in on a starting timeline, I'm favoring SirXaris's suggestion about the Scorpion Crown turning the Bright Desert from a fertile area to a desolate one. Being that this happened so long ago, it won't matter when the campaign begins. Also it's a very large area, geographically, so it fits with the epic scope of what I'm planning. On the other hand, among players familiar with multiple D&D worlds, it might evoke too much of a Darksun feel, what with a bleak, blasted landscape replacing a once lush, green area?
I also really like Lanthorn's suggestions. The Defiled Glade had piqued my interest even before reading about it, simply based on name alone (fits my theme perfectly). However that would lock me into a pretty specific time period of 584 CY or later. Must find out more about this Bad Deep place in the Gnarly Forest...
That Thelwood/Bonewood looks intriguing as well. Seems to be quite a mysterious and sudden affliction, leading to all manner of theories as to how or why it changed so drastically. "Dark sorcery" is the apparent cause, but that is pretty open-ended and could mean any number of things.
Because I haven't settled in on a starting timeline, I'm favoring SirXaris's suggestion about the Scorpion Crown turning the Bright Desert from a fertile area to a desolate one. Being that this happened so long ago, it won't matter when the campaign begins. Also it's a very large area, geographically, so it fits with the epic scope of what I'm planning. On the other hand, among players familiar with multiple D&D worlds, it might evoke too much of a Darksun feel, what with a bleak, blasted landscape replacing a once lush, green area?
The Rary, the Traitor sourcebook takes place immediately after the Greyhawk Wars, but contains background information on the artifacts, nations, and peoples that were in the area before it became the Bright Desert.
It would also make for an interesting place to locate old D&D adventures like The Lost City and the three-part series, Desert of Desolation.
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