City of the Gods
| City of the Gods | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Motto: | unknown |
| Region: | Bitter North ("Old Blackmoor") |
| Government | |
| Ruler: | unknown |
| Government: | Feudal technocracy |
| Alignments: | unknown |
| Established: | Pre-cataclysm |
| Demographics | |
| Capital: | The City of the Gods |
| Provinces: | unknown |
| Population: | unknown |
| Races: | Humans, constructs |
| Languages: | unknown |
| Groups | |
| Religions: | unknown |
| Allies: | unknown |
| Enemies: | Limbo |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Resources: | unknown |
| Coinage: | unknown |
Ages ago (certainly before the Twin Cataclysms), the so-called City of the Gods was the heart of a technocracy in what is now Blackmoor. The lords and ladies of the City used a combination of elemental magic and clockwork science to create automatons to perform all menial labor for them. Meanwhile, they devoted their time to art, philosophy, and war.
The end of the age came when the city's automatons were struck down by a plague called gear madness, or when the city's humanoid inhabitants transformed themselves into constructs themselves. Over the centuries, most of what remained of their civilization was covered by the encroaching Black Ice.
Occasionally, gears and other relics of this lost civilization will turn up in antiquities markets in various modern cities. These are eagerly sought by clockwork mages, gnomes, and dwarves, as well as groups like the Society of the Serpent.
Creative Origins
The City of the Gods was originally part of D&D co-creator Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign. Among the many groups who experienced it with Arneson as DM were Gary Gygax and Robert J. Kuntz, using their characters Mordenkainen and Robilar. In tribute to this, Gygax made Blackmoor and the City of the Gods part of the Flanaess in his World of Greyhawk campaign, modified somewhat to fit with the rest of the setting.
Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor campaign became grandfathered into the Mystara setting with the publication of module DA1, Adventures in Blackmoor. This Blackmoor, set thousands of years in the past of the D&D "Known World," is not the same as the Archbarony of Blackmoor of the World of Greyhawk, though both contain a site called the "City of the Gods." A version based on Arneson's original appeared as module DA3, City of the Gods.
In Dungeon #126, Wolfgang Baur elaborated on Oerth's version of the City of the Gods, which provides the basis for this article.
Bibliography
- Baur, Wolfgang. "The Clockwork Fortress." Dungeon #126. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2004.
- Brown, Anne. Player's Guide. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1998.
- Gygax, Gary. The World of Greyhawk. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1980.
- -----. World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.
- Holian, Gary, Erik Mona, Sean K Reynolds, and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000.
- Kuntz, Robert J.. "Robilar Remembers: Journey to the City of the Gods." Oerth Journal #6. available online
- Moore, Roger E. Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1998.
- Sargent, Carl. From the Ashes. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1992.