Canonfire! - Greyhawk Content of the Coloring Album

A continuation of "Greyhawk Meta-text Onomastics,"and prelude to the upcoming historical article "The Temple of Elemental Evil, from the Rise of Iuz to His Release."

Greyhawk Content of the Coloring Album
By: Tzelios
Used with Permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.

More Tools for Greyhawk Meta-text Onomastics

This research would not be possible without the sponsorship of the Pastorate of Logical Discoursers and Enquirers, Mitrik, Veluna. They fully covered the cost of an expedition by sea to the Amedio coast, and from there, into the jungle to the Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan. The expedition was successful, which means that the sought magical item was recovered. It is a peculiar coppery statuette, narrow, with fins, at first sight resembling a fish. For reasons that will be clear later in the text, we will call it the Warden II figurine. Closer examination reminds one of, by quoting Iquander, the “torturing to the eye” City of the Gods aesthetic. It has a secret hollow with fixed-on-wall beads inside. Upon touching any of the beads the miniature flies in random directions, avoiding obstacles or being stopped. On its side, in a scripture similar to Grey Elven one can read “II-NEDRAW.”

The finding was compared with games recovered from Murlynd’s abode, accessed through Castle Greyhawk. One of the Murlynd games, readable by read languages to be the Metamorphosis Alpha game, depicts on its cover the Warden II figurine. Inside the game one can read that action takes place inside a ship for adventuring in space that is identified as Warden II. All the above, which might seem products more wild than Zagig’s imagination, significantly lead to completeness the study of Greyhawk Meta-text Onomastics, a field of study reminiscent to occult studies and philosophy.

We will need the notion of a generator of an object, being the object magical or otherwise. A generator itself can be some prime material, or other plane of existence, or their subsets. Define as a subset of a world, any “sub-world” whose each element belongs to the world. To better understand the use of the generator, take for example the ring of free action created by a wizard. The generator of the ring is the wizard. If the wizard was born in a world, one can say that another -broader- generator of the ring is the world. Lets apply the notions to our situation.

Little thought reveals that Warden II figurine and the Metamorphosis Alpha game have the same generator. A sketch of the proof is as follows. Due to same appearance and name, the Warden II figurine can have as generator Metamorphosis Alpha or the generator of Metamorphosis Alpha, which by definition proves the claim.

More thought reveals that the script of Warden II figurine or the Metamorphosis Alpha game is in inverse Grey Elven, that can be read by use of read languages or the skill to read (backwards) Grey Elven. The key argument is the fact that Warden II figurine served no purpose inside Tomoachan, so the runes are spontaneous and genuine.

Existence of the Greyhawk Meta-text Onomastics

After the already developed tools, the next paragraph answers to the question of the existence of Greyhawk Meta-text Onomastics. Is the field of study real in Greyhawk or do I write meaningless tripe?

The recovery of Muldynd’s collection of games greatly enriched the special Zagig Yragerne secret section of the Great Library. However, the benefit was not realized until the administration of Iquander. From his position the brilliant scholar, accessible as he was to the learned community, influenced other scholars with his methods and encouraged the use of his highly regarded special section. A natural consequence was the understanding by a broader audience that a large number of Murlynd volumes (games) are signed by Zagyg himself. Obviously, the mad mayor wrote the volumes after his disappearance from inside another world, under the penname Gary Gygax. The penname immediately reminds of Gigantos. Notice that the language of all the Murlynd games is the same. Then, observe that the author of most of the volumes reads by use of read languages as Gygax, while in Grey Elven it reads as Xagyg.

The Coloring Album

One such Yragerne volume is the odd Coloring Album. Based on its methodology of creation, the album is the first strong evidence of Zagig’s mounting insanity. Proper divinations showed that “he made the whole story up out of whole cloth, based on the art that was being done.” Like most of the volumes, the album is playable for a game called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. No matter who peculiar people might play the game, or even more proceed to paint the album with colours, an in depth investigation has been carried out. Warned by the scribes of Iquander that Yragerne material is amenable to be contradicting, erroneous, or intentionally misleading, the research will continue under the assumption that the contents of the Coloring Album are true. We will check whether this creates problems or it fits well into Greyhawk literature. It will be proved that the later is the case.

Few checked Greyhawk names will be encountered by the reader of the Coloring Album. The first impression is that the source should not be taken seriously, as few accounts of the album make sense. The mission is to recover the Holy Talisman of St. Cuthbert. The characters start from a coastal town of Nyr Dyv. One of the first drawings of the album shows a view of the town. From the distance of the depicted part of the town with the coast, it seems that the town is big enough to be Dyvers. Also, at a distance of several miles, in the drawing a reader can see the opposite coast, such a landscape being viewed from few coastal locations of Nyr Dyv around the delta of Velverdyva. The finding is in line with the research of the gnome sage Dr. Margana Eman. Of minute importance is the too often arising contradiction with the oral word of Zagyg (obtained through divination), who once claimed the city to be Greyhawk.

The talisman is searched in the ruined castle of the lich Grusyin, a few days from Dyvers on horseback. Supposedly, with no diversions, one that knows the exact location of the stronghold can be there on horse in one or two days from Dyvers. From another drawing of the album, the reader sees that the keep is on a peak of a forested hill, naturally that being part of the northern fringes of Gnarley Forest. Again, the castle owner is inferred from the fact that he is the stronger opponent of the scenario, and potential resident of Oerth at the same time. His name is also inferred from the fact that, at a bottom level of the dungeon beneath the castle, there exist the iron skeletons of Grusyin (who definitely serve the lich). As a side note, Grusyin is a mad man.

Inside Grusyin´s keep, the adventurers encounter the armies of the “Dark One,” intending to assault the Kingdom of Good. Very little thought reveals that this can be no other than the Kingdom of Furyondy. Now, who can this Dark One possibly be? Careful investigations into the historical enemies of Furyondy point to Iuz. The Old One was named as such by his orc subjects, being their leader for generations of their short lives. In the beginning, though, during his rise, his orc subjects use to call him the Dark One, due to his dark skin. Realistically (in addition taken into account that the troops of the Dark One are disorganized in the album), the above happened before Iuz´s ascension and after his imprisonment.

A few more references, given with the original Murlynd volume names, and we are done with the existence (in Greyhawk) of the contents of the Coloring Album. The volume entitled Iuz the Evil details that the mistress of Iuz, Zuggtmoy, attempted to disrupt the southern states of weal by launching the Elemental Evil ruse. The first occurrence of this was prior to the imprisonment of Iuz, and was fruitful only with respect to the creation of the Yellowskull. Plans were put back by the advent of Zagyg and company, and the concluding banishment of Iuz in 505 CY. The volume entitled The Temple of Elemental Evil (pg. 4 and 27) confirms the existence of a first promotion of the Elemental Evil cult west from and close to Dyvers, in line with our findings. Informed by Iuz the Evil (as well as the Gord novels) about the dependence of Iuz on his mother, the only part left for Iggwilv is connecting the three, Iuz-Zuggy-Grusyin. This was accomplished through her acquaintance Strovolla the night hag, an adversary of the Coloring Album scenario, the lover of Grusyin.

Other notable individuals of the Coloring Album is Tiamat (a short encounter, possibly an illusion), Demogorgon (seen playing knucklebones through a gate at his layer in Abyss), abundance of creatures from elemental planes (indicative of the creation and use of the Yellowskull), and a wizard (Tzunk?) in stasis who when freed summons an efreeti from the City of Brass.

The placement of the Coloring Album is by now complete. This last paragraph will clarify the presence of the cleric Sertern of St. Cuthbert in the album. Once again, a contradictory divination with Zagyg was the seed for what is usually referred as the "Serten misconception." As a result, the Sertern of St. Cuthbert was misassociated with the Serten of Pholtus. Serten was a cleric of some repute, however renowned for his ties with Tenser and the Citadel of Eight. When Sertern perished in the Battle of Emridy Meadows, it was erroneously perceived as the second and final death of Serten (the first death of Serten misconceived to have happened in the Coloring Album). By the already show mismatch of name and deity, as well as the operation of Serten under the alias Poztif up to the date that this document was written, the misconception is clarified. As a side note, the problem of burying a cleric of Pholtus at a temple of St. Cuthbert (in our case being the Cathedral of the Holy Cudgel in Verbobonc, Living Greyhawk Journal 0) vanishes.