He who has trod the shadows of Zothique
And looked upon the coal-red sun oblique,
Henceforth returns to no anterior land,
But haunts a later coast
Where cities crumble in the black sea-sand
And dead gods drink the brine.
He who has known the gardens of Zothique
Were bleed the fruits torn by the simorgh's beak,
Savors no fruit of greener hemispheres:
In arbors uttermost,
In sunset cycles of the sombering years,
He sips an amaranth wine.
He who has loved the wild girls of Zothique
Shall not come back a gentler love to seek,
Nor know the vampire's from the lover's kiss:
For him the scarlet ghost
Of Lilith from time's last necropolis
Rears amorous and malign.
He who has sailed in galleys of Zothique
And seen the looming of strange spire and peak,
Must face again the sorcerer-sent typhoon,
And take the steerer's post
On far-poured oceans by the shifted moon
Or the re-shapen Sign.
The idea of the lone city of ruin out in the middle of the scorched desert sands hearkens back to my early days in original Dungeons & Dragons. The call to old school adventure is very strong when I see a piece of artwork like this.
This piece of artwork evokes the emptiness that one finds in the back bones of the writings of Clark Ashton Smith's work. There's a certain melancholy of pulpy doom laying in wait for the unwary adventurer & trespasser after strange things. So I've been going back over my Original Dungeons & Dragons box set from 1974 & watching the progress of the HYPERBOREA: Beasts and Cannibals Kickstarter campaign. Still I've had time to do a bit of research into the background of Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique setting for a bit. Especially seeing some of the artwork by Johnathan Bingham and Del Teigeler.
AS&SH art by Johnathan Bingham
Both modules seem like their going to be in line with the quality of the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition book;
"The Anthropophagi of Xambaala is a great way to start a new campaign, with several pages dedicated to the town. Several locations have been developed, whilst the remainder is yours to develop to your tastes. The main adventure is a great challenge for players old and new, and there are plenty of seeds for further escapades.
The Beasts of Kraggoth Manor
is a great adventure module for challenging mid-level adventurers. This
site-based adventure is located in the hoary wilderness northeast of
the City-State of Khromarium, and features the weird and storied history
of a lost family."
But what seems to be happening here is the continuation of many of the pulpy adventure themes seen in the writings of the Lovecraft circle including Clark Ashton Smith. The idea of the desolation, depravity of the past of Hyperborea, and the legacy of the ancient Hyperboreans intruding upon the present of the adventurers. The ancient legacy calling upon the future is something we see in spades in CAS's the Tale of Satampra Zeiros, (1931).
Carry this forward to the decaying future of Zothique in Empire of the Necromancers, The (1932) & we see the cycles of time ever repeating themselves.
What does this have to do with original Dungeons & Dragon's wastelands? Plenty when looking at the whole set of OD&D we see a tool kit for playing in a wide variety of play styles. But in the Underworld & Wilderness book we get into the deserts of D&D's imaginary deserts & wastelands where nomads, dervishes, lords, wizards, red martians, Tharks, black martians, yellow martians, white martians, apts, banths, thoats, calots, white apes, orluks, sith, and darseen are at play. Time is not a solid construct in Greyhawk, Blackmoor, or for that matter Hyperborea.
A wish spell & the players could be visiting the wastelands of Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom or the worlds of Lord Dunsany. Time & space are fickle constructs at the edges of the map especially around dungeons & ruins in old school games. I was asked if there was a clear division between 'gonzo' adventures & historical gaming. My answer is a simple 'no'. Because my imagination is not a thing of divisions. I mix & match OSR & old school games freely and this is also the spirit of retroclones such as the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition & mini settings such as the Midderlands by Monkey Blood Design. The free wheeling spirit of the OSR is something that keeps me & my players coming back for more!
Taken on the whole campaign settings are unto themselves tool boxes for both players & dungeon masters to use & abused as the necessary of game play dictates. The boundaries of time & space are only limited by the imagination not setting, rules, or system. All of this comes back to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon's first editions Dungeon Master's Appendix N's ring around for inspiration. Look at the far future world of CAS's Zothique for exactly what I mean;
"Clark Ashton Smith himself described the Zothique cycle in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953:
And looked upon the coal-red sun oblique,
Henceforth returns to no anterior land,
But haunts a later coast
Where cities crumble in the black sea-sand
And dead gods drink the brine.
He who has known the gardens of Zothique
Were bleed the fruits torn by the simorgh's beak,
Savors no fruit of greener hemispheres:
In arbors uttermost,
In sunset cycles of the sombering years,
He sips an amaranth wine.
He who has loved the wild girls of Zothique
Shall not come back a gentler love to seek,
Nor know the vampire's from the lover's kiss:
For him the scarlet ghost
Of Lilith from time's last necropolis
Rears amorous and malign.
He who has sailed in galleys of Zothique
And seen the looming of strange spire and peak,
Must face again the sorcerer-sent typhoon,
And take the steerer's post
On far-poured oceans by the shifted moon
Or the re-shapen Sign.
The idea of the lone city of ruin out in the middle of the scorched desert sands hearkens back to my early days in original Dungeons & Dragons. The call to old school adventure is very strong when I see a piece of artwork like this.
This piece of artwork evokes the emptiness that one finds in the back bones of the writings of Clark Ashton Smith's work. There's a certain melancholy of pulpy doom laying in wait for the unwary adventurer & trespasser after strange things. So I've been going back over my Original Dungeons & Dragons box set from 1974 & watching the progress of the HYPERBOREA: Beasts and Cannibals Kickstarter campaign. Still I've had time to do a bit of research into the background of Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique setting for a bit. Especially seeing some of the artwork by Johnathan Bingham and Del Teigeler.
AS&SH art by Johnathan Bingham
Both modules seem like their going to be in line with the quality of the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition book;
"The Anthropophagi of Xambaala is a great way to start a new campaign, with several pages dedicated to the town. Several locations have been developed, whilst the remainder is yours to develop to your tastes. The main adventure is a great challenge for players old and new, and there are plenty of seeds for further escapades.
But what seems to be happening here is the continuation of many of the pulpy adventure themes seen in the writings of the Lovecraft circle including Clark Ashton Smith. The idea of the desolation, depravity of the past of Hyperborea, and the legacy of the ancient Hyperboreans intruding upon the present of the adventurers. The ancient legacy calling upon the future is something we see in spades in CAS's the Tale of Satampra Zeiros, (1931).
Carry this forward to the decaying future of Zothique in Empire of the Necromancers, The (1932) & we see the cycles of time ever repeating themselves.
What does this have to do with original Dungeons & Dragon's wastelands? Plenty when looking at the whole set of OD&D we see a tool kit for playing in a wide variety of play styles. But in the Underworld & Wilderness book we get into the deserts of D&D's imaginary deserts & wastelands where nomads, dervishes, lords, wizards, red martians, Tharks, black martians, yellow martians, white martians, apts, banths, thoats, calots, white apes, orluks, sith, and darseen are at play. Time is not a solid construct in Greyhawk, Blackmoor, or for that matter Hyperborea.
A wish spell & the players could be visiting the wastelands of Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom or the worlds of Lord Dunsany. Time & space are fickle constructs at the edges of the map especially around dungeons & ruins in old school games. I was asked if there was a clear division between 'gonzo' adventures & historical gaming. My answer is a simple 'no'. Because my imagination is not a thing of divisions. I mix & match OSR & old school games freely and this is also the spirit of retroclones such as the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition & mini settings such as the Midderlands by Monkey Blood Design. The free wheeling spirit of the OSR is something that keeps me & my players coming back for more!
Taken on the whole campaign settings are unto themselves tool boxes for both players & dungeon masters to use & abused as the necessary of game play dictates. The boundaries of time & space are only limited by the imagination not setting, rules, or system. All of this comes back to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon's first editions Dungeon Master's Appendix N's ring around for inspiration. Look at the far future world of CAS's Zothique for exactly what I mean;
"Clark Ashton Smith himself described the Zothique cycle in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953:
Zothique, vaguely suggested by Theosophic theories about past and future continents, is the last inhabited continent of earth. The continents of our present cycle have sunken, perhaps several times. Some have remained submerged; others have re-risen, partially, and re-arranged themselves. Zothique, as I conceive it, comprises Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, India, parts of northern and eastern Africa, and much of the Indonesian archipelago. A new Australia exists somewhere to the south. To the west, there are only a few known islands, such as Naat, in which the black cannibals survive. To the north, are immense unexplored deserts; to the east, an immense unvoyaged sea. The peoples are mainly of Aryan or Semitic descent; but there is a negro kingdom (Ilcar) in the north-west; and scattered blacks are found throughout the other countries, mainly in palace-harems. In the southern islands survive vestiges of Indonesian or Malayan races. The science and machinery of our present civilization have long been forgotten, together with our present religions. But many gods are worshipped; and sorcery and demonism prevail again as in ancient days. Oars and sails alone are used by mariners. There are no fire-arms—only the bows, arrows, swords, javelins, etc. of antiquity. The chief language spoken (of which I have provided examples in an unpublished drama) is based on Indo-European roots and is highly inflected, like Sanskrit, Greek and Latin."We draw on the realities of our imagination to create worlds of imagination & potent adventure for our players. For myself I use a mix of Arthurian, historical, pulp, science fantasy, & whatever I feel or need. Can you as a dungeon master need to take the steps into the larger world of imagination and weave the world of adventure! Labels of fiction limit the imagination and we should not be confined by them in bondage to our categories and boxes of dreams. Write & create the adventures & dungeons that you & players want!
Clark Ashton Smith is drawing from everything that he wants as a writer of incredible imagination to breath life into creation. What bravery & insolence to take such a step during the world of 1931. Can you & your players do any less? I think not!
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