Dave Arneson on the Empire of Izmer

[Havard]

Indeed!

BTW I edited the original post changing the color of Arneson's font for easier readability on this forum.

Anyway, here are some things I would like to highlight:

In my case I placed the Empire beyond the Great Mountains to the West of the Afridi (I.e. REAL far away.)

This is the first time I have heard Arneson mention The Great Mountains and his ideas for lands beyond the Afridhi.

I think it was a good idea for ZG to drop the incorporation of Izmir into Blackmoor, especially given the reactions to the D&D movie, but also since it would have been a part of the setting that did not originate with Arneson.

My own idea was to incorporate Izmer as an historical version of Alphatia in the Mystara campaign, but in spite of Solomon probably getting his ideas from an old Mystara campaign, this was not embraced by the Mystara community given the general feeling about the movie among D&D fans.

(Barrett did make them up. The Elves are HUNTER Elves. Much more concerned with the 'Balance' and not reluctant to intervene in affairs to set them 'right'. They like to pretend that they are aloof from such things. The later is my take on them BTW.)



Corey's Elves bear more resemblance to Blackmoor's Mountain Elves (West of the Duchy of Tehnn). They are basically a blending of High Elves and Wild Elves. More Emphasis on the 'Wild' when dealing with humans and 'High" when dealing with each other. They try to maintain a 'Low' magical profile to keep the mages comfortable. Otherwise there would be open war.

While he is talking about the movie, this is also an interesting description of how Arneson viewed the Westryn (unless he is talking about an entirely different elven race?) two years before the D20 Blackmoor CS was published. I have never heard them described as mountain elves before, but the wild part certainly fits.

Three Eyes race has not name. We called them Tri-Clops among ourselves for the module. They are a race with very strong mental powers.

There were to be almost a dozen new races until the special effects budget went south. Hopes that New Line would extend the funding proved to be a pipe dream.

Although this race was probably invented by Courtney (Corey) Solomon or someone else involved with the movie, I am tempted to include them into Blackmoor. They are a purple skinned race with a third eye located on their forehead. (Something for your campaign Rafe?)Tri-Clops is of course a name from the Masters of the Universe series, so I wouldn't use that name in the game.

Me, I don't mind answering questions. Too bad that the web site went away. I hope to add such a section to my own web site. Right now I am seeking permission from Corey.

I am a little touched by Arneson's enthusiasm for this project. It seems like he is really happy about getting to work with D&D again, in spite of how the movie flopped. This enthusiasm seems to have been channeled onto Blackmoor again (never far from his thoughts, it seems) once ZG got the ball rolling in 2004.

-Havard