Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium

Template:Greyhawk source Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium (2011) is a sourcebook of magical items and equipment for the 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons game. It is presented in-character as a catalog of magical items written by Mordenkainen's apprentices, their notes magically appearing in Mordenkainen's "master copy." The in-character text was intended by Mordenkainen as a guide to powerful magic items primarily to keep out of the hands of those who might imbalance the world. "Those that serve no purpose for me I subject to disjunction," he writes. The excerpts from Mordenkainen's copy of the Magnificent Emporium that appear throughout the text were gleaned by his apprentice Qort (originally mentioned in the parody module Castle Greyhawk) before Mordenkainen burnt the pages of his original and disintegrated the ash. Qort is presented as the editor of the excerpts, presenting the contents of the Emporium to a broader audience without Mordenkainen's permission. The character writes that he fears for his life for having done so.

Greyhawk references

References are made in the text to Mordenkainen, Otiluke, Bigby, Tenser, Robilar, Bigby, Evard, the Circle of Eight, Erelhei-Cinlu, Castle Greyhawk, and Maure Castle. In the narration, Mordenkainen mentions living on a world called Oerth, but notes that other worlds have magical items similar to the ones mentioned in this book.

Magic items in Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium connected in some way to the Greyhawk setting include:

• Blessed Armor of Kord (though this is the 4th edition Kord, who has a thunder god aspect that Greyhawk's Kord lacks in previous editions)
• Book of Infinite Spells (suggested to have once been owned by Vecna)
• Box of Seven Demons (created by Tharizdun)
• Codex of the Infinite Planes
• Daern's Instant Fortress
• Eternal Chalk (said to be created by an apprentice of Nolzur)
• Flask of the Veiled Horde (said to be created by Evard)
• Hammer of Thunderbolts (connected to Moradin and Kord)
• Iron Bands of Bilarro (said to have been created by wizards of a long-lost empire)
• Jacinth of Inestimable Beauty
• Nolzur's Inkwell
• Orb of Enduring Magic (said to be created by Bigby)
• Quaal's Feather Tokens
• The Shadowstaff (formerly owned by Evard)
• Zax, Cloak of Kings (possibly connected to Pelor)

Non-Greyhawk references

The book also references many concepts first introduced in the 4th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game, including the Elemental Chaos, the Feywild, the Shadowfell, primordials, the goddesses Avandra, Erathis, Melora, and Ioun, the defunct lands of Bael Turath, Nerath, and Arkhosia, and the Dawn War between the primordials and gods.

Bibliography

• Crawford, Jeremy; Stephen Schubert, and Matt Sernett. Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2011.