[Age of Giants] The Fall of Castle Hammerfire

[Havard]

I just made a discovery that could be tied to this concept:

City of the Gods (ZGG edition) describes the realm of a Fire Giant King named Gunot-Vanur(p 33), the Fire-Nymph Ascendoris (p11), the Sword Ember (p 12), The Fire Salamander Lord Jihzaja (p16).

On the Sword Ember:
"The blade was forged as a gift to the barbarian warlords, when the world was still young and the dwarves reigned over
much of the north. Forged by the legendary dwarf smith Thorwien Dur’Hail. " --> I am tempted to ignore the reference to a dwarven reign of the north and instead place the forging of this blade to the Age of Giants.

I wonder if Gunot-Vanur is a long lost descendant of King Jevarin Firehammer?


-Havard

[Rafael]

Hehehe... So, now BMd20 supersedes Ritchie/Arneson? :twisted:

[Havard]

Hehehe... So, now BMd20 supersedes Ritchie/Arneson? :twisted:

I think you must have misread that. Actually it is just about tweaking the BMd20 material internally.

D20 City of the Gods implies that there was an age when dwarves reigned over much of the north.

However, all other BM material clearly states that there never was such an age. Dwarves arrived in the North around the year 500 and Uberstar Khazakhum founded his realm ca 525.

To keep things most consistent with the sentence from D20 City of the Gods, I would expect this to mean sometime during Khazakhum's reign, perhaps before the 1st Orc vs Dwarf War.

However, my main reason for wanting to place the creation of Ember earlier is that the sword is forged specifially to be used against fire based creatures. Also it was given by the dwarf smith, along with a suit of armor to a barbarian warrior. Barbarian might refer to alot of things*, but if this was during Khazakhum's reign, why not give it to the Thonians of Blackmoor instead?

*=Likely Peshwah given the sword's current location.


I will have to think about this though. The story of Fire Giants and related creatures is definitely interesting.


-Havard

[Rafael]

Actually, yeah, I misread that. There I was thinking, "where were those references in DA3?"

I think the dwarven kingdom south of the North (*drumroll*) was more than a random reference, though.
Either we, you and I, talked about the concept at some point, or someone else suggested it.

[Havard]

Actually, yeah, I misread that. There I was thinking, "where were those references in DA3?"

Sure. I am not a purist in that sense. I would like to incorporate everything ever published about Blackmoor into one coherent setting. Putting all those puzzle pieces together is what's fun to me. I haven't gone through the two versions of the City of the Gods in detail to see if they contradict eachother. DA3 is set in 1025 and I recommend the d20 version to be set probably around 1035. You wouldn't want to run that as the first installment of a D20 Blackmoor Campaign anyway as the adventure is designed for 9th-10th level characters. The 10 years between the two adventures could explain some changes. And actually there are Fire Giants in both adventures.

In the case of the Sword Ember and its backstory, there is no particular reason why that would not work with both versions, even though it was likely an invention of Harley Stroh.

I think the dwarven kingdom south of the North (*drumroll*) was more than a random reference, though.
Either we, you and I, talked about the concept at some point, or someone else suggested it.

Perhaps you are thinking about the Dwarven Duchy of Evedhur? Yes, a Dwarf Realm to the South makes sense. Uberstar and his followers would have had to come from somewhere before they arrived in the North in Year 525. I just got the impression that the passage was talking about "The North" as in the region of the Blackmoor Campaign Map.

Anyway, back to the Ember Blade. Perhaps I can keep this closer to what the module stated. Perhaps Thorwien Dur’Hail was one of Uberstar Khazakhum's companions in the early days and that he befriended the Peshwah and aided them against the Fire Giants then living near Dragonia.

This would mean I couldn't directly link the Ember Blade to the Age of Giants, but it would certainly be a scourge of their descendants. It would also allow us to add another story to the history of the Peshwah.

-Havard