As I mentioned elsewhere () in a campaign I run several years ago I made the technolgy found in Falun Caves (described in the Nothern Reaches Gazzetteer) of Blackmoorian origin as in that time it suited me better.

In the Gazzetteer they don't go a long way to describe where and how this technology ended up in Soderfjord (as far as i remember) and state that it's Gnomish technology (the technology described, however, is pretty high tech, such as digital calculators and similar).
A civilization that developed that stuff in Mystara would have necessarily required a very significant footprint, something that I don't see that much in Falun Caves complex and its traces in Mystara history (but of course I may be wrong or, more easily, ignorant). I can more easily see some connection (possibly indirect or forgotten) with Blackmoor. :idea:

Do you think this is a synthom of monomania (with a pathological tendency to retconn-nect everythng to Blackmoor :roll: ) or you can see some reasonable connection back to Blackmoor as well?





PS anyway, that might just mean that you suffer of my same kind of monomania... :mrgreen:

Did I post this in the right session? :?:

I think it should be of Blackmoorian origin.

The early Mystara products assumed that Blackmoor was located where the Known World later appeared. However, this caused a lot of problems and the Hollow World boxed set retconned Blackmoor's location to the continent of Skothar.

This again caused problems with the number of Blackmoorian artifacts/ruins in the Known World region.

The most common fan sollution to this problem is to assume that the Known World region was an important Blackmoor colony in the centuries leading up to the Great Rain of Fire.




-Havard

Apart this educated guess, there is no other canon (or fanon) support for this statement. Is it?

Actually, I was meaning if we have sources saying or hinting that Falun caves "gnomish" technology (printers, calculators, etc.) is actually Blackmoor-derived (and not originally developed by gnomes)...

Aha!

Does the Northern Reaches Gaz mention this possibility?

PC2 Top Balista does not mention the Falun Caves, but does have Gnomes making use of Blackmoor tech, so there is a precedence for it at least...


-Havard

I definitely think that the tech found in the Falun Caves is "Blackmoor Era" tech. There are a couple of possibilities that could describe why it is in the Falun Caves:

1) Falun was in some way a Blackmoorian Colony (comprised mostly of gnomes). Or the gnomes of Falun traded in some way with Blackmoor.
2) The gnomes of Falun had comparable technology to Blackmoor (I think it likely that as Blackmoor developed its technology, several other nations would have followed close behind).
3) It's possible that some culture in the area either used or re-invented Blackmoorian tech in some way. This is one track I'm taking with my BC 2300 Shimmering Lands dwarves (and gnomes) who do live in that area.

I think I suggested somewhere else that the Gnomes of Mystara could be a kind of Blackmoor revivalist race. Perhaps Garl Glitterlode is secretly working to make the Gnomes bring about a new Blackmoor Era, ala Rafiel's project with the Shadowelves?

-Havard

More on the connection between Mystara Gnomes and Blackmoor relics just came up in .

-Havard