Tell me about the Iron Duke

[Rafael]

I am not familiar with "Markovia" in that form of the name, but the Iron Duke's real name is Taha Marcovic.

(Just FTR, there are one or two other Markovias in D&D; I'm NOT confusing them with this one.)

Markovia, from what I remember, was the Iron Duke's home province, South of the Thonian Rand. I do not remember the source for this info, though. Since, in old wargamer fashion, the FFC featured some places that were "statted out", but never visited, it's possible this one was just a name in some income chart for the heroes, but not a place that otherwise had an impact on the game. - But I'm speculating here. I know the place is likely not of my own creation, because I use the name in the LFC, in 2011, in a thread called "Erdath's Story": viewtopic.php?f=21&t=729

And back then, I wasn't making additions to Blackmoor canon in that kind of the way. So, I doubt I "invented" Markovia for the game.

(The reason why I still have access to this kind of info is that I've been using programs like DocFetcher and Recoll, for some time now, by the way: Global in-document search programs. Maybe that software is worth a look to you guys, too, especially when it comes to investigating this kind of information that really has the character of a footnote. )

This would absolutely be interesting. We know that Dave kept his annual games going with the original group, but after moving to California (1984?), I don't know who he played with on a more regular basis. In the 1990s he moved to Florida to teach at Full Sail University where he met Dustin Clingman. I am not sure if they played D&D together before they formed Zeitgeist Games in 2004.

Greg's second main character in the Blackmoor game, Sol, seems to predate ZGG-era Blackmoor for a few years. So, apparently, there was both a time jump, and an in-between game.

DA1 and DA3 provide the best info on the Iron Duke. I actually think this character has tons of potential. He is a military genius and has married into one of the most powerful families of the Empire. He is also ambitious enough that many suspect he is planning to succeed the current Emperor (Iyx). His provess includes highly successful battles against the Skandaharians and the Peshwah. He is also interested in making deals to get technology from the City of the Gods. He has a number of allies and agents deep within Blackmoor. If one wanted to, one could easily run an entire campaign based around him.

- Which is why it seemed so counter-intuitive to me that noone would have used him later on. I understand that the campaign had different goals, and different plots it wanted to curate, but especially with respect to the more mundane, "social-themed" adventures, it almost seemed like a missed opportunity not to use the Iron Duke. (Say, for example, the classic "Ties That Bind" adventure. We have agents of the Egg, there but not agents of the Iron Duke, even though Jackport is a Southern harbor.)

But, yeah, the info on the Iron Duke from the old DA modules is quite extensively. Can't spoil this, but what I'd been looking for, I found it already. What a treasure, these old modules!

- Still so, I'm obviously interested in learning more if we can find something.