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Chapter 18, the Reign of Nalaster the Clever: Part 1

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  Nalaster the Clever, 5th Grand Prince of the Kingdom of Aerdy Born -164 CY, Died -152 CY Reigned -179 CY to -152 CY The Sarcophagus of the Hidden Empress, Mentrey   Sidimara Sarcophagus, Roman period, 2nd half of the 3rd century AD, from Konya, Turkey. Now in Istanbul Archaelogical Museums His older brother Gennor having died without any surviving issue, the 28 year old Nalaster( 1 ) was crowned as Grand Prince. He had echoed the policy of his brother in exiling the dissident Naelax to the north, but had also argued that the church of Hextor shared a large part of the blame for the recent rising. Gennor had opposed such a policy, afraid of alienating the large number of Hextoran nobles in Medegia. Nalaster, bolder and now holding the title of Grand Prince, acted against the leadership of the Hextoran priesthood. But rather than using the assassination of his brother as the excuse he needed to attack the Naelax of Medegia, he went about this with the guile exhibited by so many of t
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Chapter 17, the Reign of Gennor the Brief

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Gennor the Brief, 4th Grand Prince of the Kingdom of Aerdy Born -212 CY, Died -179 CY Reigned -181 to -179 CY Princess Yanaymi wearing a headdress associated with the goddess Myhriss c. -180 CY English singer-songwriter FKA twigs Consumed with rage when they heard the news of the slaughter of almost the entire royal family in Rel Astra, Grand Prince Erian’s sons Gennor and Nalaster( 1 ) marched south from the Flannish Marches toward the capital city, gathering Torquann and Garasteth lords as they went. Gennor, as the heir to the crown dispatched swift riders to the cities of Ountsy and Roland to send aid. He also directed his presumably loyal vassals, the Prince of Rax and Duke of Nulbish to attack Medegia from the west to denying Baldo reinforcements from there. One unexpected component of this force was the Flan High King Man’khu of the Kho’lamm kingdom( 2 ), which lay along the east bank of the Flanmi and west of the Ur-Flan of the uplands. The royal brothers had been negotiati
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Interregnum, the Runes of Greyhawk: Part 2

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Continuing from Part 1 of This Series I present the next set of runes as they are given in the 1980 World of Greyhawk Folio Edition , pp. 29-32, the 1983 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set , p. 17, From the Ashes , p. 18, and the Player’s Guide to Greyhawk , p. 17. As said in Part 1, most of them appear to have been drawn from The Book of Signs by Rudolph Koch. Further research on my part seems to indicate these runes were compiled by Gary Gygax for the  Folio Edition  though I could not find definitively if that was the case. One other source I have used to reinforce the meaning given by Koch and to find the meaning for some runes that do not appear in  The Book of Signs  is Medicinisch-Chymisch und Alchemistisches Oraculum by August Lebrecht Stettin. What Gygax's sources were for the runes that do not appear in either of those sources we cannot know and are left only to speculate. Evil, Evil Pursuer.  This rune maintains its form throughout all Greyhawk publications in which the table
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Interregnum, the Runes of Greyhawk: Part 1

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This is the first of a series (hopefully) of articles departing from the primary purpose of this site, which is the telling of the history of the Kingdom of Aerdy and Great Kingdom; either in delving into other areas of the history of the Flanaess or presenting analysis of various aspects of Greyhawk lore. In this case I'm presenting the beginning of a long-ago-started dissection of what was presented as a "Glossary of Portentious Runes and Glyphs" in the back of the 1980  World of Greyhawk Folio Edition  and continued with some modifications in later guides to the world of Greyhawk. There are 76 runes contained within 4 separate Greyhawk sourcebooks;   the 1980 World of Greyhawk Folio Edition , the 1983 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set , From the Ashes, and the Player’s Guide to Greyhawk . With the publication of the Boxed Set, 27 runes were changed (air, answer/solution, betrayal, copper, day, demoniac, dragon, earth, electrum, evil servant, fire, go, god, gold, good, hail,
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Chapter 16, the Reign of Erian: Part 4

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Erian the Able, 3rd Grand Prince of the Kingdom of Aerdy Born -253 CY, Died -181 CY Reigned -198 to -181 CY A lowland Flan king of the Achik tribe c. -185 CY Art by Angus McBride Having broadened and secured Aerdy’s foreign trade networks, Erian next turned to the conquest of the Flan tribes of the north whose cultures were discussed in the previous chapter. Most of the expansion of Aerdy to the north in this period was in the lands of the lowland tribes of the Flanmi Valley and its tributaries. Expansion into the highlands inhabited by tribes dominated by the Ur-Flan proceeded at a snail’s pace and was largely unsuccessful. While the Flan of the lowlands frequently formed alliances to resist outside attacks, the Ur-Flan tribes were constantly at war with each other, with one exception --   rumors of a confederation of Ur-Flan in the Trask River Valley, much further to the north, which came to be known as the Necromancers of Trask. But that is a tale which will only have bearing
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