Sorcerer's Skull

Art by Gary Gianni. Check out all those polearms!
While my Greyhawk series of posts are all just sort of pseudo-encyclopedia entry sort of stuff, they are informed by a certain conception of Greyhawk, at least. I thought it was worth taking a post to outline the works that inform the way I'm presenting and interpreting what I read in the 1980 folio, and other "primary sources." 

As I mentioned, initially thinking of Greyhawk as a more firmly Medieval place was the impetus for this series, but as these things tend to do, my approach has drifted some with time. While my view remains more realistically Medieval elements are nice to bring in, I also don't want to lose site of the Gygaxian Implied Setting Recipe, because at the end of the day, a Greyhawk that feels like Greyhawk (if more rationalized) is more interesting to me than a straight pseudo-history.

Fiction:
Anderson, Poul. The Broken Sword — Fantasy in a historical setting with some science fictional rationalization.
Buehlman, Christopher. Between Two Fires, The Blacktongue Thief  — The first is a horror/fantasy novel in a Medieval setting, full of horrific monsters and historic detail. The latter is a secondary world fantasy in a world with interesting cultural detail and humor.
DeCamp, L. Sprague. The Reluctant King — Humorous fantasy with good worldbuilding. I've opined before about the relationship between De Camp and Gygax.
Chabon, Michael. Gentlemen of the Road — A historical adventuring duo, highlighting some less discussed areas of history like the Khazar Khaganate.Howard, Robert E. Conan series, various historical adventure stories. — Pulpy historic adventure or pseudo-historic adventure, with a sweep of history element. "The Hyborian Age" essay seems to have been a strong influence on Greyhawk's presentation.
Jókai, Mór. Told by the Death's Head — Picaresque adventure.
Leiber, Fritz. Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories — Picaresque-inspired fantasy with the archetypal fantasy city and active gods.
Potocki, Jan. Manuscript Found in the Saragossa  — Stories within stories that mix Gothic, picaresque, and a bit of secret history.
Smith, Clark Ashton. Averoigne stories — Pulpy pseudohistorical fantasy with a lot of atmosphere, humor.

Art by Marie & John Severin
The nonfiction is perhaps less definitive, but it has provided some inspiration to me in the course of the posts I've written so far.
Nonfiction:Armstrong, Dorsey. Powerful Women of the Medieval World (Great Courses) — Vignettes on the lives of some figures of the Middle Ages.Bale, Anthony. A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages — A fairly light, but informative series of examines of the stories of various travelers in the Middle Ages.Devereaux, Bret. "Practical Polytheism," blog series  — A great read on how real polytheism worked.Gies, Francis and Gies, Joseph. Life in a Medieval City — Street level (literally) view of life in the city of Troyes in 1250 CE.Haywood, John. Historical Atlas of the Medieval World — Just the one I happened to have at home.Hoffman-Becking, Dirk. History of the Germans (Podcast) — I particularly found this inspiring regarding the Great Kingdom.Muesse, Mark W. Great World Religions: Hindusim (Great Courses) — useful inspiration for the thinking about the religions of Oerth.Various. Osprey Publishing military books — mostly for the pictures of armors and armor of various cultures/eras.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on August 22, 1985.

Detective Comics #556: Moench and Colan/Smith continue their story from this month's Batman. It's very much set under the red skies of the Crisis, but it's not labelled as a crossover. We find out, as Night Slayer keeps murdering them, that the False Face Society leftovers hadn't actually been working with Nocturna yet--but as of this issue, she takes command. 
Robin tries to tell her how he feels and lean on her for support, but Nocturna is preoccupied with what's happening to the night skies. However, when Batman tracks her down after an encounter with Night Slayer, she makes time for a kiss. Meanwhile, Bullock reveals to Commissioner Gordon his theory that the current Robin isn't the original (something Gordon had noticed as well) but is actually Nocturna's son!
In the Green Arrow backup, we get back to the story by Cavalieri and Moore that had been left dangling. Ollie agrees to help Onyx battle Lars, a renegade monk at the monastery where Ollie himself once trained, who has killed the Exalted Master and taken over. Ollie recalls a run in he had with Lars when they were both students, where the guy confided that he sought a "wisdom key" that would unlock the power of an ancient book. As soon as Green Arrow and Onyx arrive at the monastery, they are confronted by Lars's goons. 
All-Star Squadron #51: A Crisis crossover, but that bit only amounts to a cameo, really. The Thomases and Clark/Jones/Coletta have the passing of Harbinger and Firebrand give Mr. Mind a way to find Earth--or at least an Earth. That leads to the events of this issue, where Hourman and Dr. Fate arrive at the JSA brownstone to find most of their team members missing and Hawkgirl a captive of a group of former JSA-member villains banded together as the Monster Society of Evil. This group is the brainchild of Mr. Mind, who came to Earth to meet his hero Charlie McCarthy only to find out he was just a puppet. He then decided to meet his other heroes the JSA, and when he could find them, he decided to be a super-villain. 
Hourman, Dr. Fate, Hawkgirl, and late arriver Sandy battle the likes of Oom the Mighty, Ramulus, Mr. Who and Nyola. Unfortunately, they're going to need more help to defeat them. Elsewhere, Liberty Belle and Johnny Quick have apparently fallen through the reverse of the portal Mr. Mind came through and find themselves facing Captain Marvel.

Nathaniel Dusk II #2: MacGregor and Colan pick up just at last issues cliffhanger. Dusk survives the falling unicorn statue, but the gunman who shot at Cranston gets away. As Dusk continues his job of trying to keep Cranston out of trouble, he gets the idea that the older man knows who is trying to kill him and is playing some dangerous game. Amanda's stepfather leans on Dusk to drop the case, and her husband takes him flying. He gets another piece of the puzzle when he finds out Cranston borrowed a camera from Amanda and that he visited her new family on the one day he slipped Dusk's surveillance. 
Before he can put any of this together, a drive-by with a tommy gun seems to take Cranston's life. This leads to one of those (for me) jarring aspects of the story, where it moves from conventional detective story to 80s action. Dusk pursues the shooter. The getaway car gets wrecked, and the shooter takes a bus. The issue ends with Dusk on top of the bus as the shooter blows holes in the roof trying to ventilate the detective, too.

Omega Men Annual #2: Klein and host of artists (including McManus, Colon, Smith, Giffen, and O'Neil) give us Primus's backstory, the events leading up to his marriage to Kalista and the founding of the Omega Men, his apparent death in the Spider Guild war, and how he came to be bonded with Artin. When she has heard the whole story Kalista accepts that this being is indeed her husband (at least in part) and the two reconcile. This issue pretty much closes the gap between the previous run and the time jump when Klein took over.

V #10: After all the setup and schemes last issue, it resolves pretty quickly. The mayor reveals herself to our heroes as one of the Visitors but tells them she is actually a triple agent and on their side. She gives them a device that can extend the New York winter, keeping the red dust active and at least postponing a renewed invasion. They're overheard, though, and the mayor is captured, interrogated, and executed. Still, the resistance has the device. Big, bad Walter sent to kill Donovan, gets in a fight with him, but before things resolve he's killed by friendly fire from an overzealous Visitor fighter. The device works, spring is forestalled, and our heroes return to L.A., presumably assuming the nascent New York resistance they were starting up can take care of itself. 

World's Finest #321: Cavalieri and Delbo pit our heroes against the Atom villain, Chronos. Coerced by the mysterious Powerbroker, Chronos uses time travel in a plot to destroy Batman. After sending Superman off chasing bombs in the timestream, Chronos forces Batman to journey to the past and watch his parents get murdered--or save them and alter history. Batman resists the temptation to save his parents, using the experience of again reliving their deaths to strengthen his crimefighting resolve, and he's rescued by Superman. Chronos, in a desperate attempt to evade capture, uses his time machine to become one with the timestream.

Proud Keoland is the oldest of the human nations of the Flanaess. Though diminished from its greatest glory, its rulers never bowed to lords of the Aerdi in the Great Kingdom. Its warriors have been successful in the main in protecting the land from invaders, though they have been powerless against the folly of its kings.

Keoland's origins are in the migrations following the war between Ancient Suel and Baklunish. Suloise refugees, harried by the humanoid warbands and reavers of their own people, fled across the Crystalmists and settled in the fertile basin formed by Sheldomar and Javan Rivers. The Flannae population of the region was small, owing to the depredations of the humanoids and a plague brought by earlier waves of Suloise fleeing war and destruction. The remnant Flannae and scattered demihumans were pushed to the fringes by the newcomers who sought to create a unified Suel kingdom but were thwarted by conflict with others and their own fractiousness.

In another century, Oeridian Keogha tribes swept into the region, scattering the encircling humanoid tribes. The Oeridians came in friendship to the Suloise and demihumans alike, but they brooked no disagreement with their intention to share the land between the rivers, and they expanded rapidly, soon claiming hegemony over all the human settlements, as they began to intermingle with the Suel peoples.

Eventually a monarchy was declared with the old Suloise town of Niole Dra as its capital. Over time, it would come to dominate the entire basin. This was not accomplished solely through conquest, however. Keoish kings shrewdly made allies of the demihuman lands Ulek and Celene.

The people came to embrace Nomism in the main (though pockets of folk religion still exist). In fact, it is possible the belief system may have coalesced here with the blending of Suel and Oeridian beliefs. Saint Cuthbert is the patron deity of Keoland, and the land's churches are adherent to Velunan doctrines and traditions.

Periodically over the centuries, Keoish kings have succumbed to dreams of empire. Such ambitions have tended to fare poorly beyond the two rivers. Indeed, Keoish entanglements elsewhere allowed the Sea Princes to gain a foothold to the South and lost the kingdom control of the Yeomanry. 

Though Keoland is currently at peace with its neighbors, it may be that it is being weakened by enemies from within. The ancient and entrenched noble houses game and scheme to see their house ascend the throne. Humanoid bands and human renegades lurk within the Dreadwood and the expansive [as in bigger than Ireland!] Hool Marsh. The coastal marshes rely on a brisk smuggling trade and secretly deal with the piratical Sea Princes.

Keoland's real world inspirations are perhaps not as distinct as many of the eras in the Aerdian East. The Mediterranean climate suggested by Anne Meyer's maps brought to mind for me the Iberian Peninsula. That might make the Keoish Oeridians the Vandals/Visigoths. On the other hand, it's position on the map, and its use of light cavalry reminiscent of the turcopoles are reminiscent of Byzantine Empire.

 

Last year, I was working on a blog series doing my own take on the world of Greyhawk. As it goes with these things, my interest petered out after a bit, and I moved on to other things. I'm feeling that Greyhawk jones coming on again, and I think I have at least a few more posts on that topic in me. We'll see, but if so it seemed a good time to revisit where I'd been. 

I summarized collated the posts summarizing what I wanted to do with the project and the first batch of posts here.

I had three posts after that:

The Wild Coast

North Province

South Province

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on August 15, 1985.

Batman and the Outsiders #27: I remember seeing this Barr/Davis issue on the spinner rack at the Pac-N-Sac gas station a few blocks from my house. Twelve year-old me found the "We call it WAR STARS! (or we'd get sued!)" cover blurb very clever. Anyway...Continuing from last issue, the U.S. fires missiles at the Star Wars station in defiance of Kobra's extortion, but the missile defense works on the station too, and they are disabled. In a show of glastnost, Gorbachev only pretends to make a deal with Kobra (reasoning rightly that the cult leader will turn on the USSR, too) and instructs his people to contact the U.S. and offer an alliance against the villain.
Meanwhile, our heroes are trying to get to the station to stop Kobra and rescue Halo, but the U.S. government refuses to loan Batman a shuttle. We see a computer screen labelling him "politically incorrect" due to his leaving the JLA and fighting with the Force of July. Harsh! So, the team just has to steal Kobra's own spacecraft and fly it up there. There's a fight in the station and the bad guys are defeated, but Kobra bests Batman in a one-on-one fight and escapes. Batman seems to relish the tough opponent though and looks forward to his next confrontation with the villain.
Halo's beau David decides to take some time to patch things up with his father, so she's free to return to the Outsiders.

Fury of Firestorm Annual #3: Conway and Kayanan/Akin/Garvey rewind to just power Ronnie and Stein left New York. Firestorm notices some fluctuations in his powers. Stein has a theory its due to sunspot activity and the two test it, leading Stein to figure the parameters of their powers. Largely, this seems like a way for Conway to rein in and clarify the limits of what Firestorm can do as we are given Official Handbook level quantifications.
While all this is going on, Frido, a guy in Miami with a drug problem, is having particularly bad time trying to get his fix to deal with his withdrawal. As the sunspot activity increases, Frido is somehow transformed into a being of (I guess) electricity. Still in pain, Frido takes out his frustrations on those who refuse to help him until Firestorm who has heard about this intervenes. He wins the day by short circuiting Frido (or Sparx as Firestorm names him) in the ocean.

Blue Devil #18: Mishkin/Cohn and Kupperberg/Maygar cheekily present "The Last Parallel World Story!" in this Crisis crossover issue. After the events of COIE #8, Blue Devil finds himself in space with some of the Omega Men. Luckily, they are picked up by a spaceship in the hands of a film crew composed of alternate universe versions of Cassidy and Blue Devil's supporting cast who had been sucked through a black hole into this universe just before theirs was destroyed by anti-matter. This being a somewhat humorous book, the characters take the potential trauma of being the last survivors of their universe and having lost everyone they know completely in stride. However, they soon find they are fading away, going to a Limbo since their universe no longer exists. Both Cassidys have to work to find a way to vibrationally stabilize both the crew and their ship.
The crew decides to go with the Omega Men to Vega via a teleporter as they know their universe's version of Harry Hokum has one. They try to send Blue Devil back to Earth, but he disappears before they can.

Green Lantern #194: Crisis crossovers often reveal that Harbinger had a tougher time than initially depicted assembling the heroes in COIE #1. Engelhart and Staton/Patterson again give us a bit of s scuffle, before Stewart agrees to go with her. This crossover is unusual as it depicts events on the Monitor's station from Stewart's perspective. We also see how the Anti-Monitor strikes a blow at the Guardians so that they can't interfere. A blast through the central Power battery kills many of them.
With everything going on Katma Tui turns to Hal, and the two of them reconcile. Hal seems ready to stop feeling sorry for himself, but feeling in a nostalgic mood, I guess, visits Abin Sur's grave. He finds Guy Gardner out of the nursing room, and misguidedly attempting to dig up a ring and power battery. The two fight, but then a Guardian shows up and gives Gardner exactly what he's looking for, inducting him into the Corps and snubbing Hal.

Infinity, Inc. #20: Another Crisis crossover by the Thomases and McFarlane/Bair, as the Infinitors deal with the weather disruption and natural disaster part of the Crisis. A hospital is threatened by extreme weather and an earthquake, and members of the JSA and the Infinitors must work together to try to save people. In the...well, crisis, a new hero emerges: Previous NEET Rick Tyler decides to follow in his father's footsteps and become a new Hourman, a move that worries both his father and Dr. Mid-Nite. There's another new hero in the making, too. McNider's medical protege, Beth Chapel, is blinded in the disaster and jokes bitterly the only sort of doctor she is fit to be is the next Dr. Midnight. 
Interestingly, a caption in this issue tells us it is "July 1985," which is (as George Olshevsky would have it) a "topical reference" to be ignored, but since this universe is going away anyway, I think it's usual in placing when the "modern day" events of the Crisis are occurring. This timeline goes with that idea. 

New Teen Titans #14: Yet another Crisis crossover from Wolfman and Barreto/Tanghal. Under red skies, Arella searches for her daughter and finds out she was for a time a faith healer in Alabama but has moved on by the time Arella gets there. Meanwhile, Captain Karras convinces Starfire to return to Tamaran, and Nightwing and Jericho choose to accompany her, leaving the others to deal with this whole Crisis thing. At the end of the issue, we find out Blackfire is waiting to greet her sister.
 The Titans that stay on Earth have to deal with Steve Dayton who is dying of cancer. Or at least he was. He may have used his Mento helmet to cure himself, but that seems to have driven him insane. He attacks his butler, then a club of wealthy men that denies him membership, then the Titans when they show up. 

Sgt. Rock #406: We finish Kanigher's and Gonzales's tribute to the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group. In the end, this story seems to have been largely for didactic purposes, which is a reasonable goal I suppose when we think about the assumed kid audience of comics. We get a lot more on the groups exploits and highlights of important members. Then, sometime later, Rock and Easy meet Captain Dennis again briefly. After that, we return to the frame of the civil rights era where the racist lieutenant turned police officer seems to recognize Dennis among the marchers and silent moves aside. Dennis feels Rock is with them in spirit, with the implication being that (as Kanigher as stated, I believe) Rock did not survive the War. 

Saga of Swamp Thing #42: Continuing the story from last issue, as Swamp Thing and Abby are piecing together what is going on, the past takes a greater hold over the present. The extras performing the ritual have caused the dead to rise from the graveyard and walk the Earth. The dead advance on the plantation house to confront the spirit of the former master of that house, now taken over an actor. Swamp Thing does have a whole lot to do as his plant powers can do little to stop a haunting. He's set on fire and accidentally catches the house ablaze too. That seems to break the spell and bring an end to what was going on, though one actor dies in the fire, and another seems unable to break from the traumatic memory of a man skinned alive. One of the zombies gets away and gets a job at a theater, so again the mystical strangeness of the world is rising.

Warlord #99: I reviewed this issue here.

Who's Who #9: Like last issue, the alphabetical span of this issue seems providential, as we get the Jordan and Stewart Green Lanterns (though no Guy Gardner), the Green Lantern Corps, and the Guardians of the Universe. The current artists, Staton, gets to draw Stewart, but Kane is fittingly given the honor of depicting Hal Jordan, and Bolland gets the two-page Corps spread. Gemworld is also in this issue as are both the Earth-Two and Earth-One Green Arrows, the latter depicted by Mike Grell. The Captain Atom foe, the Ghost, gets an entry and he hasn't even appeared in the DCU yet! We also get war comics characters Gravedigger, who we haven't seen since 1979, and G.I. Robot who we haven't seen since the demise of Weird War Tales in 1983.

Art by Jeff Easley
Savings throw in latter day editions of D&D are intrinsically tied to ability scores, which is pretty easy to understand. Old school saving throws, in contrast, are oddly specific and therefore difficult to generalize. Beyond that, given that they are tied to class, and only a few get ability score bonuses, it's not immediately clear what's going on in the fictional world.

Of course, this can be seen as a feature not a bug. Proponents point out the abstraction allows the player and DM to interpret what happens in the fiction, making this an unexpectedly more narrative sort of mechanical feature.

That's all sort of interesting, but a problem (for me at least) is that their progression is uniform based on class, and every member of the same class has the same distribution of saving throw aptitudes. So, while you're free to interpret success (or failure) any way you like, whatever situational explanation you give doesn't really build or develop the fictional world. As written, every cleric's better saving throw than other classes against Death Magic is just a mechanic.

I think it's more interesting to view them as telling us something about the world, while leaving room for situational factors. The fact that every member of a class is more resistant to certain dangers than others can tell us something about the training, aptitudes, of characteristics of people in that class.

Compared to the normal individual (0 level Fighter in AD&D parlance), we could conclude that:

Clerics have divine favor bolstering their spiritual and mental fortitude.  This particularly protects them from effects that would destroy or disrupt the body. Their biggest advantage is against Poison & Death Magic, but they have consistently good defense against all sorts of dangers.

Fighters have their martial spirit increasing their fortitude and perhaps giving them a "sixth sense" for danger. At first level, they are neophytes and haven't cultivated this to a great degree, but by the time they max out, they have the best saves on average.

Magic-Users possess an innate arcane aura that strengthens slowly as they develop their skills. It makes them particularly resilient in the face of spells and spell-like effects cast from common magical implements like wands and staves. Interestingly, they are also somewhat protected against the magical breath of dragons. Their aura adds little to protect them from poison, though.

Thieves rely on luck to get by. In the beginning it mostly protects them against things that would bind, hinder, or directly impair them being who they are. Unfortunately, they tend to wear their luck out and they max out their saves worse off than the other classes.

Certainly, these aren't the only implied class abilities you could take from these, but I wanted to come up with an explanation that didn't implicate ability scores, and I haven't really seen another approach that does that.

As when I wrote this post in 2019, I've been watching some wuxia film lately, and then there was the announcement of a new edition of Dark Sun, so it seemed a good time to revisit this idea...    art by Eric Belisle
Still on a wuxia kick and thinking about the arid lands of Northern China, it occurs to me that Dark Sun might be an interesting mashup with kung fu action. It is true that the default 80s barbarian film meets Mad Max aesthetic of Dark Sun doesn’t scream Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon, but that aside, I think it’s actually not a bad fit. Let me run the list:

• The downgrading of weaponry due to the scarcity of metal in the setting leaves space for bare-handed martial arts.
• The Elemental clerics thing can easily spun in a wuxia direction (as seen in Avatar: The Last Airbender).
• The "fighting oppression" angle of Dark Sun dovetails nicely with with the "fighting corrupt authority" aspect of some wuxia.

• There are Thri-Kreen who are praying mantis people, essentially, who would be natural practitioners of praying mantis kung fu. 
• Athasian Dragons aren't common monsters but beings of immense power, like the Chinese conception of the creature (though Athas's is certainly not benevolent). 

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on July 11, 1985.

Arak Son of Thunder #50: We arrive at the long ago announced final issue of the series as Arak and friends part ways from their more recent allies from the Middle East, and head ever eastward on a Chinese ship. Machinations of the Serpent see them barely making it to Japan, where they are attacked by the Ezo people under the command of an oni. Arak drives off the demon, sending the Ezo running too, and putting Arak and friends in the good graces of the local lord. The relationship sours, however, when Arak refuses to exterminate to Ezo for him. As Arak leaves, he frees an Ezo prisoner, who leads the group to his village. The Ezo aren't on the demon's side at all, but under his thumb. They want to escape to another island, free from the Japanese and the demon. Arak and friends slay the oni and get the lord to agree to giving safe passage to the Ezo.
Arak and Maligigi reveal that they have seen in visions that Charlemagne has now been made Emperor of the Romans. Valda realizes she must return to her king. Arak and Satyricus set out in a smaller boat to the Americas, but Maligigi is sure he and Valda will see them again.
This is the end of their story, though. Aside from some cameos, Arak and friends haven't appeared in the post-Crisis DCU. At 50 issues, Arak had the second longest run of any Sword & Sorcery character not based on a Robert E. Howard property in American comics.

Amethyst #11: Nice cover here by Cullins and Tanghal. Cohn and Colon/Kesel have Topaz and Turquoise reveal their love to Amethyst. Feeling betrayed, Amethyst decides to quit Gemworld to just live as Amy Winston on Earth. Gemworld isn't out of danger, though. Odd crystal formations are emerging, and one in the form of a serpent recruits Sardonyx for some evil scheme.
Things aren't so great on Earth, either. Amy's friend Rita is now Carnelian's accomplice in luring her father to his home to be a sacrifice for some dark ritual using the power of Dark Opal's broach. Meanwhile, in the Winston household's domestic drama, it seems like Herb's dissatisfaction with married life with an adopted kid who's also the savior of a fantasy world may be heading to an affair with one of his students from Hudson University.

Arion, Lord of Atlantis Special #1: The promised final issue of the series became a special instead. Kupperberg and Duursema seem like they're stuffing in every potential plot element they had thought of in this one issue. Atlantis is attacked by sub-men, alien invaders arrive, and jackal-headed S'net launches another assault. All of these forces manipulated and abetted by the evil god, Chaon. It's a lot for one issue, and it crowds out any significant focus on the characters, except that we do get to see Mara in her new relationship with the musician who also has an unusual ability: the power to manifest wings. 
In the end, the alien invasion is turned back after the revelation that they had their origins in expeditions from Atlantis millennia ago. Their ship is driven into the sun by one of their leaders sympathetic to the Atlantean cause so they won't be returning. S'Net is lost in space, and the sub-men have allied with the Atlanteans against their common foes. 
In Arion's fight with Chaon, though, the demon unleashes a blast sends seismic shudders through the land.  Arion banishes Chaon, but Atlantis is doomed. Arion, Chian, Wyynde, and many Atlantean refugees escape in ships, but their great city is no more. This is also the last appearance of Arion and his supporting cast in the pre-Crisis universe. Arion will show up in the post-Crisis world, mostly as a background element, though he will get another series in 1992 where he takes up residence in modern day New York.

Batman #389: Thanks to the Crisis (and Moench and Mandrake) there are red skies over Gotham. That's got Bruce thinking about his love life. He goes to the gym where Vicki is always working out to end things for good, but she thinks he's trying to win her back and storms off. Catwoman is back in town, tracking down the person killing wayward members of the False Face Society, and Batman meets with her to let her down easy, too. This attempt goes a bit better, but she declines to give up her vigilantism. Meanwhile, Jason is feeling the lack of a mother, so when a disappearance Bullock is working suggests Nocturna is back in town, he goes to the observatory to find her. Apparently, she's the one leading the False Face Society. Though no one knows it, Night Slayer is the one killing the Society members, with Nocturna is final goal. 

G.I. Combat #280: In the first Haunted Tank story by Kanigher and Glanzman, Stuart's Raiders draw cards to see who will go on a solo suicide mission to destroy the secret hangar for Germany's new jets, but even after Jeb "wins," his men won't let him go it alone. The second is a solo Rick story where he's attending a carnival with a woman when the Germans attack. Rick takes a shot from the top of a roller coaster to take out a fighter pilot.
In the Mercenaries story by Kanigher and Catan, the trio steals back a convoy of food relief for the Ethiopian famine from a hijacker chief, Nakamti. 
The two nonserial stories are both by Kanigher. The first, with art by Cruz, has an American G.I. and former championship skier besting the Chinese and an avalanche to complete his mission. The second has art by Catan as his about a paratrooper unlucky enough to get his chute caught on the wing of a German fighter plane, but lucky enough to make it out alive. 

Justice League of America Annual #3: Mishkin and Hoberg/Gustovich give us the ending of the pre-Crisis Red Tornado. It seems to me impossible to square the early events depicted here with the version of them in COIE #8 (though Wikipedia makes an effort). Here, Red is conscious and alone at the JLA station as he uses equipment there to test his powers, seeking to find out what the Anti-Monitor's cryptic comments meant about their being more to him. This leads to him exploding and sending the damaged station falling on to the Earth. The disaster is responded to by the new Justice League and several of the old members including Firestorm, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. 
Meanwhile, unusual weather patterns are starting up, and members of the JLA discover it isn't due to the Crisis but an experimental weather manipulation station that has mysteriously gone out of control. Red Tornado's lady friend, Kathy, is contact by Red through a TV set and other electronic devices. He asks her to meet him at the golden gate bridge.
It turns out Red Tornado has survived, he's again in the form of the living tornado, the Tornado Champion. Now viewing himself as a force of nature, he looks with a new-found horror at the ecological devastation humanity had wreaked on Earth. He decides to destroy civilization and battles the heroes to do just that. Finally, Kathy gets through to him, and he leaves the Earth to go elsewhere in the universe.

Legion of Super-Heroes #16: Levitz and Lightle/Smith still have Brainiac 5 moping over the death of Supergirl. If "moping" seems a dismissive description of grief over the death of a loved one, well, that's weirdly exactly how the narrative treats it. Brainiac is drawn to look like a sad sack, and a lot of other characters question why he's so upset when her death had occurred a long time ago and was a matter of the historical record. It seems the opposite of what you would want to do in a story, particularly when Crisis spent so much time trying to make her death impactful. I assume Levitz was trying to drive home that this is the future, and the past had been written, but that only draws attention to the fact that it clearly isn't, and it also seems to contradict the idea of Crisis as a sort of meta-temporal occurrence. Otherwise, to everyone but poor Anthro, maybe, the Crisis is to some extent "in the past."
Interestingly, the DCU fandom wiki argues Brainiac 5 is glum about the 1000 anniversary of Supergirl's Pre-Crisis death. It points out her death is not mysterious in this story--unlike a number of other Crisis-related events --and further notes Crisis isn't mentioned in this issue, nor does it carry a Crisis banner. Given, however, we saw Brainiac 5 grieving Supergirl in COIE #8, I'm not persuaded, but it is interesting.
Beyond, that a lot of Legionnaires attend the baptism of Graym, Lighting Lad's and Saturn Girl's infant. The new members also go on their first solo case to take down some bombers, which proves more complicated and mysterious than anticipated.

Omega Men #32: Klein and guest artist Spiegle do a fill-in issue where Felicity returns to Karna and finds work as a bar dancer, only to lose that job due to the lack of titillation in her dance. She meets a scarred face human named Mung who helps her get more work and gives her some dance pointers. In the background of all this, the cops are hunting for a serial killer who they believe to be a "regressor," a Karnan who can turn into a big cat like Tigorr. The story seems to signal that Mung is the killer, and he certainly tries to kill Felicity after revealing himself to be the bounty hunter Bedlam we saw previously. Felicity manages to best him and the cops take him away. Still, the issue ends with some ambiguity: Was Mung the killer? The only other possibility is that Felicity is secretly a regressor, but I'm not sure what Klein intended. 
Star Trek #20: Laurie Sutton scripts with Tom Sutton and Villagran on art for this Sulu solo story. Sulu attends a family wedding where a clan cousin he was romantically involved with in his youth is marrying a son of a rival clan in the un-Trekian giant robot business. It turns out the young man hasn't given up the feud, it ends as these things must: Sulu and the guy fight, each piloting a giant robot.

Super Powers #3: Kupperberg and Kirby/Theakston send Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Dr. Fate to Easter Island, probably so Kirby can again illustrate the Maoi, which he has done more than once before. Like in those stories the statues turn out to be aliens, but the primary menace here is Kirby's redesigned Mantis. The grateful Easter Islanders erect busts of the heroes, but unfortunately Green Lantern feels they have to be destroyed, which could be construed as "destroying evidence."

Superman #413: Bates and Swan/Williamson get to the end of the this "Clark Kent--Fired!" storyline. Luthor, already having Supes doubting his sanity, moves to his endgame. It comes at a particularly bad time, too, because Clark has been invited to a dinner, unaware that it's a big to-do in his honor put in by his friends and colleagues. Luthor's devices convince Superman that the Earth is dematerializing around him. Lex plans to trap him in this simulated reality of defeat forever, but his super-hearing (I guess) picks up all his friends and co-workers mentioning Clark Kent. Their calls focus him on the real world, allowing him to pull out of Lex's machine. As he fights with the villain, though, Lex is pulled away by some force. From Crisis, we know that's Brainiac, but it's mysterious here.
Superman attends the dinner and gives Clark's regrets but clears his good name by saying his previous reporting was all part of a plan to catch Luthor.

Art by Jeff Easley
A lot has been written about the "Myth of the Frontier" underpinnings of D&D, and the games perhaps greater homology to Westerns than traditional fantasy in many ways. Interestingly, despite that clear element of the game's core assumptions, when we look at published D&D settings, we don't really see a frontier and expansion setup.

The implied setting of D&D, as a number of writers have pointed out, can also be said to be post-apocalyptic. That often conjures images of science fantasy writers from Appendix N, but of applies to in the literal sense if not the generic sense to the Hyborian Age of Conan and the 3rd Age of Middle Earth. Materially greater and in some ways more advanced civilizations must precede the current one for there to be so much wealth and magic to be looted in old ruins.

A post-apocalyptic setting allows the frontier to be closer at hand, and indeed really sort of obscures it even being a frontier, as no discernable border but instead the distance between "civilized points." Connecting these dots seems more reclamation than expansion.

That works, but in D&D settings like Greyhawk, Krynn, and the Forgotten Realms, the apocalypse is remote enough so that the current civilization doesn't seem post-apocalyptic, at least no more than the High Middle Ages seems to us recovering from the fall of Rome.

Yet, Greyhawk, for all its map full of named regions, heraldry, and rulers with elaborate titles, is really empty. Some of this exists to facilitate the desired game play, sure, but that's the Doylist explanation. I like the more Watsonian explanations of humanoid and demihuman groups that are not adequately censused coupled with events that have led to a decline in population.

As Chris Kutalik and other commentors suggested in his blog series of years ago, I think Greyhawk is best analogized not to some science fantasy post-apocalypse but to historical eras like the "Dark Ages" (or early Middle Ages) after the collapse of Rome, or the plague, famine and war riven period of the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages.

In many ways, I think, Greyhawk reads better as a setting where the apocalypse (or at least an apocalypse) is not the remote past but happening now or relatively recently. This isn't so much a total destruction kind of apocalypse but a "civilization is dealt a blow" sort of one. This allows for the breadth and complexity of social structures described in Greyhawk, but also for the population numbers and available real estate for enterprising adventures to carve out something for themselves. 

It's "points of light" to use the modern descriptor, but not (like so many of those settings) a rather static period, but one where there are still roving bands of invaders (humanoids, monsters, or armies of other human nations) and isolated communities that must either grow larger and more resilient or be wiped out. I should add, There's no one way the communities have approach this problem to survive. Orcs settling down to live in some sort of peace is potentially just as possible as driving them out and killing them.

I think this sort of implied framing could be fun to lean into. D&D settings need more Random Calamitous Event Tables and societies in flux (like we see in some epic fantasy like A Song of Ice and Fire). Christopher Buehlman's historical horror novel Between Two Fires and his fantasy series beginning with the Blacktongue Thief where human civilization is still dealing with the fallout from a disastrous (and still simmering) war with goblinkind are great inspirations, as well.

Another way of recasting different groups of elves I've thought about is to draw inspiration from the wuxia tradition with its various kung-fu sects/schools/cults. Wikipedia has a nice (though I'm sure incomplete) list by author of these.

Though, I'm not opposed to kung-fu elves, mind you, perhaps in the case of elves, these would be based around a particular school or style of magic? They could be based on the elements or maybe the Classical Planets. They would presumably each be centered in a particular locale, probably remote from wider civilization.

Using this approach, different types of elves would have less physical or temperamental differences, but perhaps more philosophical ones. There might be rivalries between them. Since it's not an ethnicity but an allegiance, elves could move from one to the other, though perhaps not without some penalty.

I think this approach also has the benefit of making elven subtypes less background and more factions to interact with in gameplay.

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were on stands in the week of August 1, 1985. 

Crisis on Infinite Earths #8: After his fight with Supergirl, The Anti-Monitor makes it back to his base and adopts a new look before deciding to head for Qward where his "plan B" is being constructed: an anti-matter cannon. Psycho-Pirate and Flash have no choice but to accompany him.
Meanwhile in the 20th Century, some heroes are gathered in the old JLA satellite with T.O. Morrow to try to repair Red Tornado. Atom is investigating inside Red when he sees something activating. The heroes scramble to safety as the android explodes. Blue Devil is knock through a portal to the Vega System, and Firehawk is forced to make herself a new costume.
In the 30th Century, the Legionnaires monitor the 5 remaining Earths. Brainiac 5 frantically looks for a means to save them, while refusing to mentally acknowledge Supergirl's death.
On Qward, the Flash breaks free and takes Psycho-Pirate captive. He threatens to kil him and forces the villain to manipulate the Thunderers into attacking the Anti-Monitor. With that distraction, the Flash sabotages the energy core of the cannon. Running faster than he has every run before, he turns the energy back on itself. The cost is his own physical integrity, as he painfiully begins to disintegrate. He mentally says goodbye to his friends and family (mentioning Fiona who was forgotten in his comic by the end!) and feels himself slip back in time as he dies. He tries to warn Batman and the Joker, before he is gone leaving only his ring and costume. Unlikely Supergirl, none of the other heroes are aware of his passing or his sacrifice.
I feel like Crisis is improving in this second half. The first six issues seem mostly putting the pieces in place and establishing the stakes. There is still more than a little "just go with it" with Wolfman's plotting, but it's an engaging read.

Blue Devil Annual #1: This is called Blue Devil Summer Fun in the monthly checklists published in the issues. I feel like this issue was the real highwater mark for Blue Devil. My brother and I read it and re-read it as kids. I'm happy to say, I feel like the work done here by Mishkin/Cohn and Cullins/Martin holds up. Thanks to Wayne bringing back a crystal ball-like egg from Ile Du Diable and stashing it in Dan's workshop, Blue Devil is drawn into a battle with Felix Faust which has already entangled several occult and weird guest stars: the Creeper, Man-Bat, Madame Xanadu, Phantom Stranger, Etrigan, and ultimately Black Orchid. The heroes fail to stop all the imps that hatch from the egg from reaching a birthing pit, despite Dan chasing them with a butterfly net, and Etrigan gobbling up everyone he can find. The imp is transformed into a duplicate of Nebiros made of sand. The heroes manage to pull him apart, but the battle is only over when Phantom Stranger sucker punches Faust.
The issue is Blue Devil at its best: an action-comedy romp. One of my favorite bits is Xanadu and the Stranger at various points each telling conflicting versions of the origin of Black Orchid. Xanadu's tale is a pastiche of Daredevil's origin, while the Stranger's is a pastiche of Spider-Man's. Mishkin/Cohn also have a lot of fun with Etrigan's rhyming commentary.
It's a shame the series wasn't consistently this good, though its humorous approach was probably not what the majority of comic readers wanted in 1985. 

DC Comics Presents #87: Maggin and Swan/Williamson introduce the last Superboy of the pre-Crisis universe, the Superboy of Earth-Prime. Superman is mourning the loss of Supergirl, presenting an opportunity for the Superman Revenge Squad. They send him to an alternate Earth. Shortly after his arrival, the last son of Krypton of that Earth begins to manifest his Kryptonian powers. Superman introduces himself and the starts coaching the boy on his powers. They work together to repel an alien invasion. After that, they work to return Superman to Earth-1 via the alien's technology, but as soon as Superman's through, he's again ambushed by the Revenge Squad.
The backup story tells the origin of Superboy Prime. In this universe, Clark Kent and Superman are well-known from comics and media, but there is still a real Krypton and Jor-El, and this one has developed a teleportation device. Due events, only the infant Kal-El is sent to Earth where he is adopted by Jerry and Naomi Kent. They name the baby Clark, after Naomi's maiden name, realizing they have named him for a comic book character. On this Earth, Clark Kent grows up with super-powers.

Fury of Firestorm #41: Kayanan's back on art, and we get a Crisis crossover. Like a lot of these, it brings Firestorm up to where we see him in Crisis #1. Ronnie and Stein have move to Pittsburgh and Vandermeer College. Doreen and Cliff Carmichael are here, too, so Ronnie has similar social dynamics to before. Harbinger arrives to recruit Firestorm, but her job is complicated by Psycho-Pirate who she brought with her. His emotional manipulation of Stein causes Firestorm to fight at first.

Hex #3: Fleisher and Texiera/Garzoin don't give Hex a minute to catch his breath. He flees Borsten's minions through the desert, them gets set upon by punks looking to rob him when he stops in a town to wonder at the populace all hallucinating from some drug. He's rescued by a guy in an aircraft that offers him a job as his muscle, but then he turns out that guy is the dealer pushing the drug by aerosolizing it in an area and getting people addicted, before starting to charge. Hex objects to all this, the two fight, and the pusher falls from the aircraft.
Meanwhile, Borsten's under pressure by corporate types to deliver the Wild West gunfight he promised, as they're tired of watching kidnapped World War I soldiers fight it out. He yells at his minions to get him Hex so he can save face. The pressure must be getting to the old guy, as he again has to rushed to the rejuvenation tanks. 

Justice League of America #244: Conway and Staton/Machlan deliver a different perspective on the last few pages of last Infinity, Inc.issue. The JLA members that escaped the assault last issue regroup in the satellite then go to Earth-Two to enlist the JSA for help. Meanwhile, the Infinitors begin to suspect Heywood and Mekanique mislead them just in time for the JSA/JLA team to arrive. Mekanique gets away, but Steel and Commander Steel get a one-on-one combat, which Steel wins.

Outsiders #1: I bought this back in '85. I seemed special with the metallic ink on the cover. Barr and Aparo present a direct sale only book in the style of New Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes. Like those comics, there's a time jump between this issue and the concurrently published Batman and the Outsiders. The Outsiders are in L.A., they have a new member, Looker, and they are no longer partnered with Batman. They make a reference to "bad blood," but that's as much as we get.
The team is undercover, guarding the controversial opening of a nuclear power plant. They are unprepared for a group that acts and talks like a mid-century TV family that breaks into the core and seems to absorb radiation, the Nuclear Family. The Family turns out to be androids. The Outsiders let them go with a disguised Looker in the place of Mom to trace them to their base. She gives herself away, though, when she gasps in horror at their radiation-scared creator's plan to cause a nuclear explosion in Los Angeles. 

Vigilante #23: Cool Smith/Maygar cover. Kupperberg and Smith/Mitchell pick up the story as Judge Chase is heading into the courtroom. In flashback, we find out Marcia noped out of his craziness. With that and the faux Vigilante still out there, Chase is a wreck. His first case doesn't help because it's exactly the sort of thing he and so many other 80s vigilantes are always going on about: a drug smuggler gets off on a "technicality." The Killer Vigilante gets the smug lawyer that got him off, though, and unfortunately a young woman he is partying with. Meanwhile, the Electrocutioner reappears, doing his own killer vigilante thing. Marcia goes to a therapist to seek advice for how to help Adrian, spilling his identity, though attempting to conceal his name.

I've suggested (way back in 2012) slapping some antenna on elves and giving them some organic-looking armor--in other words, reskinning them as the 80s Sectaurs action figures. I think the relationship between the faerie and insects makes elves ripe for this twist. I liked the idea so much, I made the elf stand-in species the Ieldra in my Gnydrion science fantasy setting have more insect like with brood queens and instars.

Back to regular old elves, though, I think replacing the Tolkien-inspired nations/tribes (or "subraces" in older D&D) of elves with insect-themed groupings has a lot to recommend it. For one, that group of bad elves, the drow, already have that sort of relationship with spiders (yes, I know they are arachnids, not insects), so there would be a certain symmetry in it. 

What particular insect type would depend on specifically how you envisioned them. Organized, social wood elves might be patterned after wasps or bees, but maybe they are solitary warrior badasses like Crow from Hawk the Slayer with more affinity for mantises?

I think the aloof gray elves would have the bushy antenna and pale complexions like some sort of moth, along with an ethereal strangeness. High elves might be bee-like (and matriarchal) or nimble warriors like dragonflies or damselflies.

I know that Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadow of the Apt series has insect-themed races, so their might be some inspiration there, but I haven't read them to say. I know you could do a lot worse than checking out Bug Wars by Aaron and Asrar.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on July 25, 1985.

All-Star Squadron #50: I suspect both the Crisis tie-in banner, and the character-filled Ordway cover attracted my attention on the stands. This wasn't the first issue of the All-Stars I picked up as a kid, but it was the beginning, I believe, of a short period of getting it more frequently.  Reading it again now, though, it's apparent how much of this story is just plugging continuity holes. Even the Crisis tie-in portion is showing how and when Harbinger recruited Firebrand, and then using Harbinger's presence to advance the next story Thomas has planned. Beyond that, we get the Quality Comics characters leaving for Earth-X and Steel displayed to Earth-One so he can be the grandfather of the JLA's Steel there.
Several JSA members are also captured and put into rockets by the Nazi's to launch into space. Seems it would be easier just to kill them, but no, this becomes a way to do a modern version of some Gardner Fox stories from the Golden Age in upcoming issues.

Action Comics #572: This issue has three quaint stories that continue the trend of this book feeling like editorial is burning inventory before Crisis finishes and things are different. The first by Boldman and Boring/Hunt has a scientist revealing to Clark Kent the moon is suddenly inhabited by a bunch of copies of Clark! Investigating, it turns out to be Gollo and his pals, derpy-looking green saurpodish aliens with chameleon powers that Superman has met before. They are exiled due to aggressive other creatures on their homeworld, but it turns out their hero-worship of Superman (and taking on the form of his secret ID) is why the predators suddenly took interest.
The second story by Sabbatini and Bender/Oksner, has Superman safe was fluffy, cute animal creatures from an obsessed alien trophy hunter, and then is rewarded by their time traveling evolution descendants for his compassion. 
The third is the first DC work by Mark Waid. It's got art by Hoberg/Mitchell and is one of those "can you solve the mystery first?" stories involving the contents of the Fortress of Solitude disappearing after a close call with an unusually magnetized meteor. 

Detective Comics #554: Moench and Colan/Smith have Batman and friends setting up a sting to catch Boomerang and Mirror Master. Using his Matches Malone identity, Batman sets the bait by spreading word that Bullock will be transporting a valuable museum piece solo. Boomerang sends the supposedly hypnotized Mirror Master to steal it. The trap fails, and he kidnaps Bullock. In the hideout, Mirror Master reveals he was merely pretending to be hypnotized, and he and Boomerang start fighting. Batman and Robin show up to arrest them both.
In the Green Arrow backup by Maggin and Giordano, Ollie is pickpocketed on the way to pay his rent. When he pursues the thief as Green Arrow, he stumbles on to a gang stealing an ancient Greek artifact. He manages to stop them, then grab his rent money back when he happens to see the pickpocket at the police station.

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1: Levitz and Giffen, Kessel, and a host of other inkers, get around to solving the mystery of who shot Laurel Kent. The team of investigating Legionnaires figure out that other murders and attempted murders are related. Brainiac 5 deduces the murder is going after descendants of JLA members. They eventually track the murder to his cryogenic chamber where he has been only periodically awakening since the 20th Century and directing a robot. 
It's good to see Giffen back with the Legion, and I think the story is good in concept, but stumbles a bit in execution. I get the idea that each chapter, focusing on a different part of the investigation, is meant to be in the style of a different sort of mystery subgenre, but only Shrinking Violet's hardboiled narration, and Chameleon Boy's Holmesian turns of phrase give a hint of this. The styles of the other chapters are obscure to me. Also, they frustratingly never reveal the identity of the murderer. From what they did say, I thought Professor Ivo was a possibility, and that's who the internet is certain it was, but it seems a mistake just not to name him in the story.

Nathaniel Dusk II #1: MacGregor and Colan are back with another hard-boiled detective story with the same colors over pencils art style that makes the whole thing look like you're viewing the images through a rain spattered window. A lot of basic shapes and blobs of color. In this installment, Dusk is hired by Amanda Cooper, a wealthy woman, to act as a bodyguard for her father, Cranston, a former businessman reduced to selling apples from a cart on the street corner after losing his fortune in the stock market crash. Someone tries to shoot Cranston as a hurricane remnant hits the city (placing this round September 8, 1934) and Dusk has to fight the guy, but the would-be assassin gets away.

Star Trek Annual #1: Barr and Ross/Smith present a story of Kirk's earliest days in command of Enterprise. This is first of two annuals Barr did telling "untold tales" of Star Trek history. We get to exactly how he took over from Pike, the fate of Number One (injured in an accident), and Gary Mitchell's introduction to the crew. In fact, this issue marks the first ever comic appearance of Pike, Number One, Dr. Boyce, Mitchell, and Kelso. The aliens which appear in the story and have a history with Pike are beyond the budget of the TV certainly but fit in well with the short of things we see in tie-in novels. In fact, the novels will tackle this same idea in 1986 with McIntyre's Enterprise: The First Adventure, but Barr got their first. 

V #9: The cover of this issue is weird because it doesn't seem to relate at all to the contents. Donovan, Parrish, and Willie go to the New York City to offer to train the locals in resistance fighting to deal with a Visitor attack they believe is coming. The Mayor is completely dismissive of the possibility, and we find out (though our heroes don't) that that's because she's a Visitor herself. She sends some goons to ambush the LA crew, but when they defeat them, the demonstrable presence of Visitors in New York only serves to make the people come to them for training.
Meanwhile, there continues to be rivalries and jockeying for position among the aliens. Lydia convinces the brutish Walter than the human Donovan is in the way of him being with Diana, and she convinces Diana of a plan to send Walter to New York to stalk and kill Donovan.

World's Finest #320: Continuing the story from last issue, Batman manages not only to survey his plummet from an airplane into the reservoir but to wrap the cannister full of drugs in his insulated cape so it doesn't release in water. We get Rem's origin as a therapist turned super-villain after his mind in damaged using a device that allowed into to enter his psychotic patient's psyche. When Batman reaches the Fortress of Solitude, Rem has made Superman a sleepwalker under his command. Batman uses the Phantom Zone Projector to send Superman into the Phantom Zone, which has the effect of freeing him from Rem's control. Batman and Superman defeat Rem, but unbeknownst to them, the villain known as Chronos starts planning his attack on the world's mightiest heroes. There's also so more of the shadowy Power Broker talking to folks viagrainy monitors. 

 

Zagartha is a floating island wandering some 1000 feet above Berlaith. Like the other floating rocks of Parsulan, it contains large amounts of thaumatite. It was ejected from the surface during the early years of the Demon War owing to the magical surge from the weakening of the Great Barrier.

Zagartha, when it was an earthbound mountain, contained a large temple complex and was the site of a famous oracle, but it was abandoned after it was desecrated by demonic forces. At least two conflicting stories are told regarding its reinhabitation. The first holds that the Seven Great Sages, disputing some obscure points of the oracles last series of pronouncements, journeyed there with their followers and were holding a symposium there when Zagartha rose into the sky, stranding them. The second holds the Sages led a group to a place of (relative) safety from the Fomori on the already skybound island with a magical conveyance that was wrecked upon landing. Even among Zagartha's inhabitants, both stories have their adherents. 

The original sages passed long ago, and the number of students their successors enjoy have dwindled over time as they tend to be drawn from outsiders, not from the ranks of locals who feel a sense of duty to the sages and support them materially but have little time for their ascetic lifestyles and philosophical arguments. Both groups dwell in and among the ruins of the previous temple complex. Either the buildings have been repurposed or their materials used to build new structures. The locals are mostly craftsmen, farmers, and merchants. They maintain the all-critical cisterns, tend the small fields, and conduct trade with the "ground-folk." 

One important aspect of their lives is the capture over other floating rocks. Some of these are added to Zagartha to expand it. Others are mined for materials. In both cases the rocks are reached through the use of the skywires and skywire harnesses that use small thaumatite to shoot lines at force. The skill necessary to employ them effectively takes years to master but makes many Zagarthans skilled aerialists.

A common criticism of later editions of D&D from fans of older editions is that they produce "fantasy superheroes." I don't agree with that characterization. In fact, I wonder why we don't see many rpg examples of fantasy superheroes because, like Stargazer here, I think it could be an interesting idea.

For clarity, I don't mean characters in a fantasy world that have secret IDs and codenames and fight crime wearing costumes--though I think a Zorro or Iron Monkey sort of frame of masked fighters for justice could easily fit what I am thinking of. Mostly, though, I'm just thinking of comic books like Battle Chasers or Dreadstar (the latter is really space fantasy, but its basic setup is a useful example) and animated series like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002, particularly). Epic fantasy stories featuring super-powered characters. 

So what makes those examples "superheroic" in a way a 4e campaign isn't necessarily? In Superhero: The Secret Origin of A Genre, Coogan lays out his "MPI" definition of a superhero. That is, a superhero is a person with Mission, Powers, and Identity. He also has the fallback of "generic distinction" to catch characters (like the Hulk) that might fail by the initial test and to exclude characters that might seem at first blush to fit but are better accounted for in another genre.

Regardless of whether the fantasy heroes I'm thinking of would be superheroes in Coogan's estimation, I'm think about characters that:

• Have a mission, which might be something like "defeat Sauron," but could be something more like "overthrow the God-King who betrayed us." This wouldn't be the place for picaresque wanderings or "get rich or die trying."
• Have powers that are beyond reach of regular folks to a notable extent. Those powers would tend to require explanation and come with an origin of sorts. That could be as simple as "born an air bender," but whatever it is, it would set a character apart from most people. While this pillar is where there is the most overlap with modern D&D, I think D&D's approach to powers that largely makes then originless (other than being a particular class) and outside of spells, more an artifact of game rules than a setting element, fails to place it within the proposed genre.
• Have an identity, in the sense of being distinct, likely from other heroes in the party, but certainly from broader humanity. The difference between characters a normal D&D party is something like the difference between the members of the Fellowship of the Ring, but here the difference would be more like the differences between the members of the X-Men or Legion of Super-Heroes. I feel like a lot of identity is in a distinctive visual, but that probably comes from this subgenre being mostly a thing of visual media. Still, I feel like it would be something to think about in an rpg.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on July 18, 1985.

Talent Showcase #19: We arrive at the last issue of this title, and it doesn't really go out with a bang, but just with a kind of sense of obligation. There are more 1 page humor pieces than usual. There's a Western written by Rowlands about a writer who becomes his character, only to have the role taken up by a fan when he grows weary of it. That Darwyn Cooke is back with a story called "Private Eye" that already stands out visually, showing promise if not being terribly interesting otherwise. Dennis Yee is back with another installment of his Texan superhero team, the Desperados.

DC Comics Presents Annual #4: Maggin and Baretto/Ordway bring back Maggin's creation, Superwoman. Historian Kristen Wells, still eager to learn more about the mysterious Superwoman's career (particularly since she now knows she is Superwoman!), travels back to 1985. Baretto/Ordway show us that women history professors in the 29th Century dress like the movie version of an 80s pop star with a Mad Max theme. In fact, she and Stiletta in Hex may shop the same boutiques. Anyway, time travel being inherently risky, she loses her memory. As she struggles to regain it having various minor misadventures, Superman faces certain doom by Green Kryptonite at "Luthorcon III", in a deadly game of "monkey-in-the-middle" (like "keep away," I guess) between Luthor cosplayers who don't know that he's the real Superman or that the fake Kryptonite they had was secretly replaced by the real thing by the real Luthor. It's silly, but in a fun way, the issue's only flaw perhaps being it didn't need the pages allotted to it by annual length.
In the epilogue, we see Wells' colleague in the future (some point more in the future than when we last saw him) staring at a statue of Superwoman and wondering what was his friend's ultimate fate in the past. He's surprised by the appearance of Wells who has just returned from the 20th Century prepared to relate her adventures as a superheroine in the past. Maggin clearly hoped comics would chronicle those adventures, but that was not to be, certainly not with the dawning of the post-Crisis universe. Outside of one more tale--an obscure "imaginary story" by Moore in 1986 you probably haven't heard of--Wells hasn't really appeared again. 

Batman and the Outsiders #26: Kobra sends his agents to ambush the Outsiders as they go about their lives, and the goons all fail utterly. Batman even stops one agent from suicide using his cyanide filled tooth to interrogate him with "truth serum." Apparently Kobra's thought of that and given the goon a drug that kills him when a truth serum is introduced to his system. Either that or Batman misjudged the dose and killed him and is just covering up. Luckily with some forensic detective work and a knowledge of pine straw, they trace Kobra to the commune, realizing that Halo must be in his hands. They've barely started exploring the hidden (and now deserted) base when Kobra appears on a screen, boasting that he has taken control of the satellite missile defense program (thanks to the general he mind-controlled last issue) and is threatening to give it to the Soviets if the U.S. doesn't surrender Fort Knox to him.

Blue Devil #16: Mishkin/Cohn and Kupperberg/Farmer give us essentially the Blue Devil Swimsuit Issue as the whole cast goes to the beach. The fun doesn't last though as the Fisherman (in his first appearance since 1977, and his last pre-Crisis, outside of the Who's Who--see below.) shows up to rob the partygoers. Blue Devil manages to capture him while battling a horde of mini-monsters that rain down as a side-effect of cloudseeding. There might also be some effect of the weird, red skies (allow this to be an official Crisis tie-in) which the people of L.A. take in stride without all the doom and gloom hitting Gotham and Metropolis. Anyway, no sooner has Cassidy defeated the villain than he is recruited by Green Lantern to the go to the Justice League satellite.

Green Lantern #193: Engelhart and Staton/Patterson pick up where last issue left off. The 3 Lanterns on Zamoran have to leave because Star Sapphire hasn't really committed any crimes yet. On the way back to Earth, Stewart and Katma encounter a creature that looks sort of like a winged gargoyle composite being like the Super-Adaptoid or Composite Superman. He's Replikon, a guy who fought Hal Jordan before, as he wants to make the Earth into a replica of his destroyed home world so his species eggs can be incubated there. The fact that that would kill life on Earth is of no consequence. Stewart defeats him but then gets the Guardians' permission to make a planet suitable to the creature's needs. In doing so, he passes another test in his training. Katma Tui also tells him her backstory, and the two express their love for one another. They also get word the Guardians are becoming involved with this whole Crisis thing, with the issue telling us this is effectively the point where Crisis #1 comes in.
Meanwhile, Hal Jordan is sitting on Earth alone, regretting his life choices.

Infinity, Inc. #19: As the cover tells us, this is part of the last "Justice Society-Justice League Team-Up" in this continuity. It's also a Crisis tie-in and catches the title up to those events. Commander Steel and Mekanique show up from Earth-One and convinces the Infinitors (except Obsidian who has disappeared for Crisis) to help him take out the "criminals" who have usurped the name of the JLA. I have to say, repeated storylines regarding them getting duped into helping a badguy do not make the team look very smart. Once they have mostly helped him defeat the Detroit League, his behavior and the little details don't quite add up, so they realize they have made a mistake. Commander Steel orders Mekanique to attack them too. 
This issue also introduces Beth Chapel, the physician treating Jade's poisoning and former student of Charles "Dr. Midnite" McNider.

New Teen Titans #13: This is another of this month's Crisis tie-ins and the most continuity conscious. Wolfman starts where last issue left off and works his way up to the "present" (in terms of this month's issue of Crisis) telling us what the Titans did along the way. First, we see the Tamaranians coming for Kory slowed down by the anti-matter wave. After Cyborg finally has his talk with Sarah, he is whisked away by Harbinger and is missing for much of the story. The Titans deal with the time disruption, and we see their brief team-up with the Outsiders depicted in COIE #3 rescuing people from the anti-matter wave.
About a month after the issue's beginning, Cyborg is reunited with his teammates, and the heroes get a bit of respite from fighting the disaster in the nearly rebuilt Titans Tower. Suddenly, Captain Karras and his crew arrive, announcing that Koriand'r must return with them to Tamaran at once.


Sgt. Rock #405: This storyline was heavily advertised in comics leading up to its publication, but I've never read it before. "Angels with Black Wings" may well be the last in a long line of anti-racism stories Kanigher did in his career, many of which, unfortunately, haven't aged well. We'll see how this one goes. We start off with a double frame of sorts. The story opens in a postwar civil rights march where a black former soldier recognizes one of the police barring the marchers' way from the war. We then flashback to Rock and his Lieutenant meeting Captain George Dennis, one of the Tuskegee Airmen as Easy is camping near their airbase. The lieutenant means to keep his distance, but Rock is interested in how the airman got here. He also offers the first explanation I've seen of how he has a black man in his unit: paperwork mishap. Anyway, most of the issue is Dennis telling his story and the story of the Tuskegee Airmen to Rock. It's more didactic than the typical Sgt. Rock story, but we'll see how it develops in the next installment.

Saga of Swamp Thing #41: Moore and Bissette/Alcala bring Swamp Thing back to Louisiana, where a night-time soap about the antebellum South is in production at a plantation nearby. Abby gets a job there and is a witness to the growing darkness as the past refuses to stay the past, and ghosts begin to influence the behavior of the actors playing their parts. She asks Swamp Thing to look into it, and they arrive as the extras are conducting a voodoo ritual in the fields, and the stars seem prepared to re-enact a gruesome murder inside the old house.

Warlord #97: I reviewed this issue here.

Who's Who #7: It's fitting that Flash (drawn by Infantino) appears in Who's Who the same month his series ends. The Fisherman also happens to appear here, looking much more menacing under Luke McDonnell's pencils than he does in the pages of this month's Blue Devil. Beyond that we've got Felicity from Omega Men and the Floronic Man from Swamp Thing. The Forgotten Heroes and Forgotten Villains aren't yet forgotten as they get a page each. Both Firebrands from the pages of All-Star Squadron are here as well. Fire Jade (recently deceased) from Amethyst shows up drawn by Dan Jurgens. The entry on Firehawk doesn't really make a big deal of her romantic relationship with Firestorm, following the comic's lead in just kind of dropping the previous love triangle (or quadrangle, if we consider Firestorm is a composite of two people). She's drawn by Rafael Kayanan.

Our Nimble game continued last night with the party leaving the city of Brookdale Mill to rescue the local patron fae Moonblossom who had been kidnapped by a band of goblins. Following the goblin's trail, the party came upon another sign of their aggression: a caravan wagon overturned and at least partially looted. Frea found some loose gold pieces and a cowering halfling, who introduced himself as Shag Marigold. Marigold says he's an artificer traveling to Ervessos to work for the nobility. He was robbed of a manastone, and the oxen that pulled his wagon was chased off.

The party promises to get him back the manastone, if they can (though not the gold). Aelarion used his Naturecraft to figure out the goblins' trail. It was a good thing he was so skilled, too, because the goblins had laid false trails that led to pit traps. The party found the ox in one!

Further into the woods, they came upon a ridge, and they heard raucous laughter. A stealthy reconnoiter revealed a group of goblins playing a "dodge ball" sort of game with stones and one goblin on a giant rat. The party tried to sneak around the ridge and surround them, but they flubbed their stealth rolls and the goblins are alerted. 

The party still held the high ground, and the goblins were at a disadvantage. Aelarion, Tamarra, and Pan blasted the goblins like proverbial fish in a barrel with spells. G'Mbalisto and Frea charged in for melee. 

The rat rider managed to charge up the ridge and smacked Pan, knocking him prone. The other goblins hurled the rocks they had previously used in the game at the party.

In the end, the party wins with very little injury. They even manage to nab one goblin to interrogate. He confusingly asserts that the faerie is "a power source" that "Greb" plans to use for "the juggernaut."

------

This adventure is still mostly the intro adventure in the Nimble's GM's guide, though I'm mixing in some other elements to make it more interesting (to me, at least!). We're still getting used to the system. Though its lighter on paper, combat is still taking us about as long as 5e. Of course, we had 10 years' experience with 5e, so no doubt there's plenty of room for improvement here.

Events have conspired to put in a wuxia mood what with the Wandering Blades draft, the impending release of the new Last Airbender movie, and the recent Criterion sale on Amazon where I picked up a couple of wuxia titles among other things. Then there's Wesley Chu's wuxia-inspired fantasy novel, The Art of Prophecy. I've been listening to the audiobook.

Chu's book is interesting because it mixes the epic fantasy elements with the wuxia ones. The people of Zhuun have been training a prophesized champion to defeat the Eternal Khan and free them from the menace of the Katuia tribes and their steam-powered roving cities of the grasslands. The first problem is the champion, a fifteen year-old boy named Jian, hasn't really received the proper training. Instead, he's just grown up spoiled by luxury and self-importance. The elder "master war artist" Ling Taishi shows up to set things right, but she's just starting to make headway with the boy when the second problem drops: the Eternal Khan is killed while drunk by a random Zhuun soldier. 

With the prophecy busted, Jian is a political liability for the five Dukes of Zhuun and the delicate balance of power between them. Tiashi rescues the boy, and they both go on the run.

When while, the Katuia are thrown into chaos and the warrior Sali, decides to break tradition and delay her duty in order to try to find the only surviving member of her family. There's also the mad assassin Qisami thrown into the mix.

I like how Chu uses familiar wuxia elements but remakes them for a fantasy world. Instead of the wulin we have the lunar court as the society of martial artists, presumably related to the world's three moons and their seasonal cycles. Instead of "lightness kung fu" Tiashi's abilities are described as manipulating air with her spiritual energy. There are also the completely un-wuxia elements of the Steampunkish Katuia cities and their home grassland which is formed by gigantic blades of crash and a brittle crust of earth over a sea.

There are 2 more books in the series after this one, and I am interested in seeing where it goes. 

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on July 11, 1985.

Flash #350: Bates and Infantino/McLaughlin come to the end of Flash's run of 246 issues and over 25 years (in 2020, the series' legacy numbering was revived) abruptly with zero fanfare. I didn't see a single house ad heralding the series' end. The letter column suggests a rumor was going around fandom, though.
With Abra Kababra revealed as the true villain, the Rogue's must escape from a deathtrap he leaves them in. They wind up teaming up with Newbury and Flash to defeat the time traveling villain. The Flash realizes the identity of the future visitor inhabiting Newbury's body:  Iris Allen! It turns out her parents (in the future) were able to rescue her psyche upon her death in the past and have since cloned her a new body. "Newbury" reveals Abra Kadabra's juror tampering which gets Flash acquitted, and somehow, that restores public confidence in him. After all this, and with Barry Allen "dead," the Flash goes to the future to be with Iris. Everybody lives happily ever after--though since we've seen Crisis, we know it's only for a while.
I'd be interested in the origin of this arc and its resolution and whether it was always intended to end this way or it was modified for Crisis. This had the ingredients to make a great storyline. Taking a character to their lowest point always makes good drama: the "Born Again" arc in Daredevil will begin just 3 months from this issue's publication. Unfortunately, Bates's narrative still has a foot firmly planted in the 70s with its episodic nature and lack of resolve to really have Flash wallow in misery, while "Born Again" will become a defining story for the 80s. Further, the story fails to really wring the melodrama from the tale that would have surely been a part of an analogous arc in the Marvel 70s. Cheesy though it would have been, 70s Englehart (or whoever) would have had poor, mid-shattered Fiona Webb become a super-menace briefly, instead of just shuffling her off-stage. At least that would have been interesting! Infantino, unfortunately, is not really the artist for the over-the-top emotion that sort of 70s Marvel-style storytelling would have required. (I think a review of his 70s work at Marvel would support that, but maybe I'm forgetting something).
Some might say these differences are just Marvel vs. DC, but I would argue given the stuff being published in a number of DC titles (Swamp Thing and New Teen Titans, just to name two), it isn't so much DC as perhaps DC's approach to their oldest, core characters, and whether this is due to a failure of creativity or editorial vision, I can't say.

DC Spotlight #1: This was a free promo giveaway, but there are a few interesting things about it. One, it has a nice cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. Another is that the series it plugs aren't the ongoing series of any of their marquee heroes, outside of Green Lantern (which at this point, isn't your Super Friends Green Lantern). Instead, Firestorm, the Teen Titans, and the Outsiders are plugged, giving an indication of where the comic shop fan interest in DC was at. We do get a page on the upcoming Pozner/Hamilton Aquaman limited series, and some Frank Miller Batman book. Also, this issue is technically the first appearance of the Watchmen, though of course, not in-story, in the illustration accompanying the text piece on the upcoming Moore/Gibbons limited series.

Legion of Super-Heroes #15: After introducing the new Legionnaires last issue, Levitz and LaRocque/Mahlstedt sideline them this issue as they real just serve as bait for Dr. Regulus to lure the Legion into a trap. Sun Boy takes his foe on in one-on-one combat. Though it's a tough fight, Sun Boy wins through creative use of his flight ring. 
Meanwhile on Shanghalla, Timber Wolf pays tribute to his fallen comrade, the Karate Kid. He pledges to fulfill the Kid's last wishes by planting a flower at the Sacred Stones of Lythyl. At the Time Institute, Brainiac ruminates over the (historical for him) death of Supergirl.

Amethyst #10: Interesting cover by Colon. His art in the rest of the issue (or perhaps it's Kesel's inks) seems rushed and sketchier than the usual art on this series. We reach the conclusion of the conflict with the Ancients over the fate of Gemworld. As the creatures exert all their influence to destroy the world, Amethyst brokers a deal where they siphon excess energy all the time instead of reaping it in a world's destruction, allowing the worlds to "pay rent." Meanwhile on Earth, Carnelian has found Dark Opal's broach and intends to use it to gain power.

Batman #387: Moench and Mandrake bring Flash Rogue's Mirror Master and Captain Boomerang to Gotham. The two at first discuss teaming up, but after Batman thwarts their first robbery, and members of Black Mask's False Face Society looking for someone new to "hench" fall under the hypnotic sway of Mirror Master, the two villains are as much out to get each other as the Caped Crusader and friends. In fact, after the Mirror Master barely escapes Bullock and Robin, he receives a boomerang from the Captain made from his own will-zapping mirror tech. 

Arak Son of Thunder #49: The series reaches its penultimate issue with Arak's final showdown with Angelica. She's revealed as being behind the dragon in the Canton harbor. She's after the elixir of immortality she steals from Mu-Lan's grandfather. Mu-Lan, like Haakon, doesn't survive this issue. They are on a ship smashed by the dragon. Our heroes do a lot of fighting, but they would have likely shared the same fate had not Mu-Lan's grandfather summoned a dragon spirit to do battle with Angelica's monster. He also traps Angelica within a magic mirror, which Arak smashes with his tomahawk.

Omega Men #31: The cover proclaims this as a Crisis tie-in, and it does acknowledge that the Crisis is occurring, but that's really about it. The group of Omega Men we've been following attempt to save an ailing Viathan with travelers in pods in its belly, while Artin and Green Man try to save Elo. Klein and McManus get around to showing us what the Vega System is up too. The Tamaranians mourn the supposed deaths of the group we've been following, and Harry Hokum strikes a deal with Doc, Shlagen, and the rest for cooperation against the remnants of the Spider Guild.

Red Tornado #4: Busiek and Infantino/McLaughlin bring the limited series to a close. Red Tornado confronts the Construct, and it doesn't go well. While the Construct thinks he has the android defeated and spends his time gloating to Kathy, Reddy is rebuilding and infiltration the Construct's mental domain. By force of will and tough questions that shake the Construct's resolve, Red Tornado wins the day. In the aftermath, he embraces his found family and his newfound humanity.
I feel like the more abstract Infantino/McLaughlin art works for this issue in a way it didn't always work in Flash. It probably won't be to everyone's taste, but it reminded me a bit of Alex Nino. It's too bad it wasn't in the service of a story that really played to its strengths for the whole run.

Star Trek #19: We get a Chekov-centric story from the ST:TMP era written by Walter Koenig himself with at by Dan Spiegle. It isn't the best story we've gotten in this series, but still more Trekian than most of the comics previous licensors Marvel and Gold Key put out. Chekov is feeling guilty over the Enterprise's inability to rescue another vessel and inadvertently incites a portion of the crew to mutiny. made worse because Enterprise is out of control and on a collision course with an asteroid. All is not at seems, though, and manipulation by a hidden alien species is responsible at least in part for the crew's behavior. Chekov shakes off the psychic mind games in time to save the day. The aliens decide to make friends instead of manipulating others.

Super Powers #2: The Kupperberg and Kirby/Theakston toyetic series continues with Green Arrow, Red Tornado, and Hawkman sent to New York to deal with one of Darkseid's seeds of doom. They tussle with Kalibak and get sent back in time to the Age of Dinosaurs. Some of the dinos escape to the modern era and Martian Manhunter and Aquaman have to help deal with them. Martian Manhunter also confronts Darkseid in his secret base, but Darkseid holds him off with a bluff.

Superman #412: Nice cover by Janson. On the inside, Bates and Swan/Williamson continue the "Clark Kent--Fired" story. While Clark goes to the unemployment office and reconnects with Steve Lombard, Superman continues to try to do good while worrying about his sanity. Luthor advances his plan, setting these mysterious hi-tech staves in the ground around Metropolis. After Superman experiences an illusion where he fights with Luthor and punches right through his chest, killing his foe and dooming Metropolis to nuclear holocaust as Luthor's battlesuit explodes, he is fully convinced he's losing his mind.

 With starting our new campaign in Nimble and life in general, I just haven't got around to giving the attention I'd like to to crowdfunding rpg products that have been arriving. 

Two Little Mice have been busy lately and I got the physical occupy of Outgunned: Superheroes (I've had the pdf for a while) and the drafts of the Twilight Sword material. The former is the "action flick" (campaign book) for the Outgunned action movie rpg for cinematic supers. The latter is their Legend of Zelda-inspired fantasy rpg. Both look good, and I'm interested in seeing the rules implementation in both of them, more than I think either will be something I will play any time soon, admittedly. I'm always interested in rules lite-ish supers games, and I'm like to compared Twilight Sword to the similar jrpg-inspired Legends of Akeroth.

What I have spent a little bit of time reading over is the plain text draft of Wandering Blades, a wuxia rpg. Wuxia (sort of like supers) is a genre where I haven't found the system that I think perfect captures what I want to see in such a game. Wandering Blades looks pretty simple (which is a plus), but also flavorful.

These aren't the only crowdfunding rewards I haven't really given a thorough read, I'm said to say. If only these things would arrive at the moment I had maximum interest in them and time to engage with them!