In a blog entry from the 20th of Novemer this year, James Maliszewski writes that:
"Both Blackmoor and Greyhawk have at least part of their origins in the Domesday Book map of the Castle & Crusade Society of the International Federation of Wargamers. Issue #13 of that periodical included an early version of Blackmoor, well before OD&D was ever published."
The Castle & Crusade Society was a chapter of the International Federation of Wargamers and was formed in 1968 by Gary Gygax. In the First Fantasy Campaign, Arneson writes that he reserved a remote spot on the IFW's Castle & Crusade map of the Great Kingdom. The Great Kingdom is ofcourse the basis of Greyhawk's Great Kingdom and also the Great Kingdom of Blackmoor, which Dave Ritchie turned into the Empire of Thonmia in the DA series and beyond.
What is known about the original C&C World? At the Acaeum, Rob Kuntz describes how he was listed as King of the Great Kingdom. This is reflected in the Blackmoor timeline even today, as it is stated that Blackmoor was founded by King Robert I of Geneva.
Maliszewski further describes how the C&CS World can still be seen in both Greyhawk and Blackmoor:
"Echoes of this reality can be seen in the existence of a northern realm of Blackmoor within the World of Greyhawk and of a "Great Kingdom" in each -- a formerly good and noble realm that fell to evil and despotism and against which several nations rebelled. Likewise, there's also a Duchy of Ten(h) in each setting, whose name, legend has it, derives from its existence in section 10 of the C&C map, which was parceled into "land grants" to be given to C&C members to develop on their own."
The C&CS World map was roughly based on North America. More information about this setting can probably be learned from the Domesday Book, the C&CS Newsletter. Issue #13 has the first known printed information about Blackmoor.
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Illustrations: Top: Reworked illustration of the Domesday Book Cover by Kevin Mayle. Bottom: Original Domesday Book #13 cover.
-Havard
The biggest coup anyone could have is producing this map. I know I have been wanting to see it for years and so have others.
ReplyDeleteHavard
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you adding some meat to the blog community. Looks like I've got quite a bit of reading to catch up on. Sorry I'm welcoming you to the blogosphere in such a belated fashion but you can be sure I'll be following your updates regularly.
-Dave
Julian: Agreed! I would love to see this map. I have a rough idea about what it looks like, but there could be details on that map that would be very interesting to see.
ReplyDeleteSham aka Dave: Thank for the welcome! I hope you enjoy reading through what I have been doing so far. I am keeping tabs on your blog too :)
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have read the best I can figure is that Greyhawk was located around Chicago and Blackmoor around Milwaukee. Not a stretch given the locations of the gaming clubs involved with D&D.
ReplyDeleteIt was hinted that the Great Kingdom was around New York state but, I think that was more Gary's campaign. If I had to guess both area's were part of the GK at one time.