The Rhymers of Blackmoor

[Havard]

Just came across this old discussion over at Canonfire:
http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules ... pic&t=5097


Some essential quotes:

I recently stumbled onto a Grehawk regional feet [Blackmoorian Rhymes] in Dragon #315 that references the Rhymers of Blackmoor. Is there a canon source for this group, other than this feat?

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkia has an entry for the Rhymers of the Blackfens [Dance With Demons, pg. 26]. The entry reads:

"The fabled Rhymers of the Blackfens, those northern mages who with kanteel and verse wrought world-shaking dweomers, might exceed the troubador's own ability in magic. On the other hand, it was in that land of snow and ice that Gellor had won his own kanteel and brought back great spells for his own repertoire. Gord doubted that any of the great druidic bards would care to challenge the one-eyed troubador to a challenge of skill in that vein. Perhaps Gellor was as great as any man or elf, then, when it came to the weaving of spells by music and verse."

I could see Gygax having to change Blackmoor/Gloomfens to Blackfens in order to not have to worry about copyright violations or something, and then Paizo going ahead and using the intended name in their Dragon article when they weren't under the same restrictions.

NOW I really want to know more about these MAGES who wove spells by music and verse! Is this where Heward learned his stuff, or why Otto has such an interest in the connection between music and magic? :grin:

This is a pretty straightforward reference to the song magic practiced in the Kalevala by heroes such as Vainamoinen (famously the inventor of the kantele) and Lemminkainen.

I wonder if we could connect this to any of the Bard organizations from the BMPG?

-Havard

[aldarron]

This is a pretty straightforward reference to the song magic practiced in the Kalevala by heroes such as Vainamoinen (famously the inventor of the kantele) and Lemminkainen.

I wonder if we could connect this to any of the Bard organizations from the BMPG?

-Havard

The Finnic song magic in blackmoor is more or less the faerie song magic as described in Adventures in Fantasy. Remember the anecdote about players having to judge how good a song the mage player had sung before Arneson would tell him if the spell worked or not?

[Havard]

The Finnic song magic in blackmoor is more or less the faerie song magic as described in Adventures in Fantasy. Remember the anecdote about players having to judge how good a song the mage player had sung before Arneson would tell him if the spell worked or not?

Cool connection to AiF there! IIRC the FFC doesn't use the term Faerie, but does mention Pixies in connection with the Wizard of the Woods. Perhaps these Rhymers have some link to the WotW?

-Havard

[aldarron]

The Finnic song magic in blackmoor is more or less the faerie song magic as described in Adventures in Fantasy. Remember the anecdote about players having to judge how good a song the mage player had sung before Arneson would tell him if the spell worked or not?

Cool connection to AiF there! IIRC the FFC doesn't use the term Faerie, but does mention Pixies in connection with the Wizard of the Woods. Perhaps these Rhymers have some link to the WotW?

-Havard

Pixie magic. Yeah, sounds good. I'd personally also extend it to Elven magic per AiF, maybe dwarves too. I wouldn't limit it to just the pixies of the Wizards' Wood, though, but to any pixie forest.

I suspect the "Mythic/Faery tale" nature of the creatures and magic in AiF is probably Richard Sniders idea, and you're right that you don't see that aspect much in the FFC. Its definetly the direction Snider took his Powers and Perils.