Living Greyhawk Gazetteer Chapter 6

Okay, we're in the home stretch, I think. Two more chapters to go. Tonight, it's the Power Groups in the Flanaess. We start with the most famous of these groups: The Circle of Eight. They get a column, which is a lot less than they got in the Living Greyhawk Journal #0 a couple of months ago. Since that was a much more thorough overview of the group, I'll send you there to refresh your memory.

Next is the Horned Society. Unlike the Circle of Eight, these guys are not looking out for the interests of the Flanaess. Instead, they were basically a group of bandits that filled the void left when Iuz disappeared almost a century ago; when he returned, he wiped out the Hierarchs of the Horned Society and took over the country. Now, no one knows if they still exist at all, or if they might be an underground, hidden society like the Scarlet Brotherhood used to be, with agents hidden all over the Flanaess. It's left open-ended for the DM to figure out, which I approve of.

The Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom are the New York Yankees of knighthood in the Flanaess. That is, they used to be utterly dominant, with hundreds of knights and a reputation that had most enemies giving up before the fight even started. Now, they're a shadow of what they once were, with only about a couple of dozen members currently active. They've been quiet for a century and a half, since...ooh, Kargoth. I know that name. He's Greyhawk's equivalent to Lord Soth, the first death knight. He and his followers betrayed their oaths and stained the order to the point that even as the faithful knights were hunting down the renegades, the royal family began to degrade as well, until Ivid I started hunting down the faithful knights. Now, with Ivid V having apparently died, some people are expecting the Knights to emerge from the shadows and restore their own glory, if not that of the fallen Great Kingdom.

The Knights of the Hart are made up of three orders of knighthood: The Knights of Furyondy, the Knights of Veluna, and the Knights of the High Forest. Since their strength is divided, they are more focused on defense and supporting the standing militaries of the various realms they serve. Iuz is their primary foe, of course. He's pretty much everyone's primary foe, I think.

The Knights...lots of knightly orders here. Three more on this page, in fact. The Knights of Holy Shielding were the main combat force of the Shield Lands. Unfortunately, thanks to the Greyhawk Wars, the Shield Lands are not doing very well, and neither are these knights. They're still popular among the local populace, but the nearby kingdoms aren't impressed at all, considering they lost two wars in a decade and their land is still occupied. Still, they're giving everything they have, including their lives if necessary, to reclaim the Shield Lands. I wish them luck.

The Knights of Luna are a group of elven warriors from Celene. There are about two hundred of them, mostly gray elves. I'd have to look more closely at the Monster Manual, but as I recall in 1st edition at least, gray elves are the really arrogant ones. As in, even other elves aren't usually good enough for them. These ones have that whole noblesse oblige thing going on where they look down on those beneath them but still protect them because it's the noble thing to do. Hey, Melf is their leader! As in, Melf's acid arrow and Melf's minute meteors. Yeah, that guy. I assume so, at least; here he's a 14th-level wizard/4th-level fighter, so sure, we'll say it's the same Melf.

The Knights of the Watch are a western batch of knights based in Keoland, Gran March, Bissel, and Geoff; they spend their time protecting people from incursions from the Paynims and other Baklunish invaders. They are no more concerned about the giants and orcs in Geoff than the Bakluni, so that should give an idea of how parochial they are. Of course, they hate Iuz and the Scarlet Brotherhood. Who doesn't?

Next up is the Mouqollad Consortium, which is the united Baklunish merchant clans. They are headquartered in the city of Zeif, and are reponsible for protecting the markets in all Baklunish lands from theft and vandalism. And they specialize; they're basically a group of guilds.

The Old Faith is a cult of druids that goes way, way back among the Flan people. It used to be solely devotion to the Earth Mother (Beory), but these days any neutral druid can join regardless of their deity. Even the druids are becoming cosmopolitan in Greyhawk.

The Old Lore is the bard wing of the Old Faith. Right off the bat we are told that there are 'very few' of these archetypal bards left; that's because bards from 1st edition don't exist anymore; 2nd and 3rd edition bards are completely different, and not connected with druids at all. And yes, the qualifications for these sorts of bards are listed here: human or occasionally half-elf, proven ability in fighting and stealth, and druidic training. This is begging for a 'Old Lore' prestige class to replicate the 1st edition bard as closely as possible. I wonder if one was ever made.

The People of the Testing are a widely-scattered cabal of mystical elves. And yes, they're that sort of mystic; they've had visions and have passed through something called the 'Moonarch' which only appears when the moon Celene is in full phase, and never in the same place twice. So, you're chasing an arch in order to get into this group. Good thing elves live a long time, because you'd need infinite patience to get there. Their focus is, of course, elven affairs, and they've got some hardcore magic stuff happening on top of that.

Finally, we have the Silent Ones of Keoland. Hmm...these guys are a band of eldritch practitioners seeking to protect the last vestiges of Ancient Suel magic. These guys are a very close-mouthed group, revealing pretty much nothing to outsiders. So, what information there is about them is scant and not necessarily reliable. From reading the description, these aren't wizards; they're sorcerers. I could be wrong; the text is a bit ambiguous. Still, a secret society of ancient Suel sorcerers sounds like fun.

And that's it for the penultimate chapter of the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Next time, we will go over the deities. Not one at a time, since there are a lot of them here, but I'll do something with them.