Rulers of Blackmoor

[Havard]

I hadn't given the timeline much thought but I think that's an important observation.  If the DA5 materials originated with TSR, even in draft, they should most definitely reflect the  TSR timeline with Uther as a principle character.

Speculating a bit further here. I suspect many outlines of the City of Blackmoor may have been created by Dave over the years. Not all may have been written out, but at the very least they may have existed as in his mind or as rough drafts. In some ways, perhaps even the FFC can be seen as a draft to what Dave may have called the Blackmoor Chronicles.

As years went by, he would have updated this draft. It is not unlikely that each these updates would also have included an extension of the timeline as the years went by and the events played out in the early 1970s became more distant.

While Adventure Games was still a thing, he may have wanted to prepare a document like this for publication.

We know that Dave considered publishing the Blackmoor Chronicles (under that name) with Mayfair Games in the mid 1980s.

I believe that Dave's work on the Blackmoor Chronicles then was revised and sent to TSR a few years later. TSR then sent this manuscript to Dave Ritchie to adapt them into modules with a framework similar to other products for the Classic D&D line in ca 1986. At this time Gary Gygax was ousted from TSR and Bruce Heard was promoted to Product Manager of the Classic D&D line as former editor Frank Mentzer left with Gary and everyone else wanted to work on AD&D.

It is possible that shifting the timeline 30 years ahead was Bruce Heard's idea, but I doubt it. Bruce Heard probably wanted to connect Blackmoor to the Known World (later Mystara) though as he could not afford to split the Classic line into different settings. The time travel plot probably came from him as he had prepared extensive timelines for the shared setting. Although some of this work could have come from Mentzer or more likely Harold Johnson.

So I think the shift from the FFC era Blackmoor to Uther's era either came from Arneson or Ritchie. It could be Ritchie wishing to make room for new PCs instead of having Zvenzen and friends solving every problem, but it could also be Arneson inserting himself as Uther, surrounded by his old friends as NPCs with new heroes emerging. Arneson even speaks about new generations of heroes in the City of the Gods section of the FFC.

City of Blackmoor was the fifth chapter in the Blackmoor Chronicles. I suspect TSR came up with the DA1-5 designation. We also know that a massive manuscript called the Chronicles of Thonia was sold on ebay to an unknown collector several years ago. That manuscript came from TSR's offices and I suspect it was all of DA1-5 in a single document.



-Havard