[Thonia] The Eastern Marshes Sourcebook - Year 1030 (PDF)

[Havard]

What follows is the first booklet detailing the provinces of the Thonian Empire, a realm in the world of Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor. This is my take on the Province known as the Eastern Marshes. While much of it is based on published information from the DA modules and the FFC as well as some ZGG material, the final interpretation is my own. I make no claim for it being any official interpretation. Thanks to Rafael, LoZompatore, Aldarron, James Mishler, Agathokles, RobJN, Cthulhdrew, Greg Svenson and many unnamed members of the Mystara Community and the people of the Comeback Inn Forum for research and ideas that was used in this PDF. This booklet details the Eastern Marshes in the year 1030, the time of the ZGG Blackmoor product line, 5 years after the DA modules.

Introduction
South of the Kingdom of Blackmoor lies the largest empire known to man. It is sometimes referred to as the Republic of Thonia or the Great Kingdom and was founded over 1000 years ago by King Robert of Geneva. The Empire today stretches from the Jungle Realm of Tangor in the South to the Northern Marches in the North. Its current ruler is Emperor Iyx I. Uther’s Rebellion in 1015 NC meant a significant reduction in the size of the Empire, which now consists of ten major Province (The Rand, Bleakwood, Bolgerie, Synobia, Salik, the Western Plains, the Eastern Marches, Mirakos, the Grey Woods and Cirkhosia) as well as the Imperial Province, which is home to Mohacs, the Capital. Each Province is ruled by an Imperial Governor and is made up of 2-3 Duchies. The Duchies are ruled by Dukes who in turn are served by Imperial Wardens (similar to Barons).

Southeast of Blackmoor lies the Thonian Rand. South of the Thonian Rand lies the province known as The Eastern Marshes.


Download The Eastern Marshes Sourcebook Here!

-Havard

[Rafael]

Good sauce, my friend. I'll post a link to this one on my blog as well.

...And pirate it for the second part of my Great Bay, hehe.

Seriously though, where do you want to take this? Do a gaz of the entire GK?
Run a game in the EM as well, like you did with the Vales?

[Havard]

Thanks!

As to games, I think I will continue using the Vales as the setting for my PbP campaign. When the Vales Campaign is completed, I may produce a sourcebook for that region as well, but I prefer discovering those lands together with my players so that will have to wait.

As for Thonia, I already have enough material to produce a 20 page booklet on the empire. However, I would prefer to explore each province in detail before I compile a full sourcebook for the Empire as a whole. I expect new ideas will appear as I go through the provinces one by one and I'd rather not limit myself by an overarching book before having looked into the details of the land.

Remember that each province is the size as the entire Northern Marches! That is, the Empire is ten times the size not of Blackmoor, but of all of Arneson's map.

With the Eastern Marshes, I was lucky enough to have a lot of material to work from. Early on I had decided that this region would be based on Richard Snider's Campaign from the FFC. This provided me with names of most of the settlements and much more. The second idea was to make this the same region that the noble families from the Duchy of Ten originally controlled. This meant I could mine the DA modules for information about the Duchy of Ten for more details.

Finally, I decided to mine the entry on High Thonians from the ZGG. I decided that each example familly name from the entry would correspond to an actual noble family on Thonia. High Thonians are pretty much exclusively nobles or aristocracy, so it did not seem like a far stretch. Every single NPC name is either from that list, or a reference to some other little factoid. Yep, this is the ultimate geekery of Blackmoor Scholarship at work

Beyond this, there are several other references to the DA modules as well as ZGG books like the Wizards Cabal. I was hoping to tie in some things from the MMRPG and the DABPG, but this will be more apparent in future sourcebooks.

Future sourcebooks will probably include The Rand, which is the area between the Eastern Marshes and Blackmoor. I already have the map pretty much done for that one. Bleakwood, also in the northern part of the Empire is also high up on my to do list.



-Havard

[Rafael]

Good plan. I am interested in what you will come up with, and, mainly, as you may already guess, into the sources you use.
- In case you're interested, my primary source for the entire Great Bay area is, quite simply, P&P, and I arbitrarily use the info that I like best.

I think I will steal a few tidbits from your Eastern MArshes for Synobia, though not many. Our overall visions of the setting are indeed pretty different.
(Not that this would be a bad thing, though.)

I myself am right now - and you would likely LOL if you saw how I do it - putting together the details for Synobia,
Salik, Ravilla, Palmyra, and Bleakwood, which will be a part of Ravilla in my campaign.
That makes about the entirety of the north of the Great Kingdom for me; the South, I might leave for 2015.

For Synobia, and so on, Kalibruhn, Greyhawk, and Midkemia will be the main resources that I cling to.
And a bit of Thieves World, though only a little bit. Andrew Offutt's lost novel, Death Knight, actually.

[Havard]

Good plan. I am interested in what you will come up with, and, mainly, as you may already guess, into the sources you use.

Thanks! Not sure if that was such a good compliment about my creativity though? LOL

Joking aside, you will probably enjoy my Behind the Curtain sections then, which I think will be a regular feature in these booklets.

- In case you're interested, my primary source for the entire Great Bay area is, quite simply, P&P, and I arbitrarily use the info that I like best.

I think I will steal a few tidbits from your Eastern MArshes for Synobia, though not many. Our overall visions of the setting are indeed pretty different.
(Not that this would be a bad thing, though.)

Makes sense. Using what you like is the only way to go in when running a game IMO. One big difference between our versions of Blackmoor is that in my version there is no Great Bay. Or rather, the Great Bay=Blackmoor Bay. I believe that when Arneson went from the early campaign map (included in the FFC) to the revised campaign map (from the fold out poster in the FFC), he changed the scale and made Blackmoor cover the entire Bay region. That is what I am basing my map of the empire on at least.

I myself am right now - and you would likely LOL if you saw how I do it - putting together the details for Synobia,
Salik, Ravilla, Palmyra, and Bleakwood, which will be a part of Ravilla in my campaign.
That makes about the entirety of the north of the Great Kingdom for me; the South, I might leave for 2015.

As mentioned elsewhere, Ravilla and Palmyra will not appear in my world of Blackmoor. I had originally reserved the Grey Woods as Ravilla, but since I don't really know much about the Ravilla setting I doubt it will have much of an influence on how the Grey Woods are presented. Also, see my overall philosophy of which sources to use below.

Synobia, Salik and Bleakwood are three separate provinces IMC.

For Synobia, and so on, Kalibruhn, Greyhawk, and Midkemia will be the main resources that I cling to.
And a bit of Thieves World, though only a little bit. Andrew Offutt's lost novel, Death Knight, actually.

Interesting!
In my version, I try to limit my sources to the books that can be linked to Dave Arneson, his players or anything published under the Blackmoor heading (Including BECMI and D20 Blackmoor Sources).

BTW, thanks for reminding me of Thieves World, the location that Dave Arneson wrote for that setting is something I think is worthy of incorporating into a future Thonia booklet.



-Havard

[Rafael]

Thanks! Not sure if that was such a good compliment about my creativity though? LOL

Joking aside, you will probably enjoy my Behind the Curtain sections then, which I think will be a regular feature in these booklets.

Nah, but if Havard writes something, Rafe reads. And likely steals the modus operandi.

Makes sense. Using what you like is the only way to go in when running a game IMO.

Yeah, that's the main difference between our approaches: I always look for a game application first,
while your approach is of course way more in sync with the original concepts, if it is that there are such.

I had originally reserved the Grey Woods as Ravilla, but since I don't really know much about the Ravilla setting I doubt it will have much of an influence on how the Grey Woods are presented. Also, see my overall philosophy of which sources to use below.

I'll get back to you on Ravilla one of these days, because we might be onto something there... But I can't tell yet. When the LFC has started anew, then. :twisted:

BTW, thanks for reminding me of Thieves World, the location that Dave Arneson wrote for that setting is something I think is worthy of incorporating into a future Thonia booklet.

I don't think he wrote a location, or even a scenario. It's just that the Chaosium boxed set is compatible with AiF.

TW is simply great, because it's like the essence of 80s fantasy - and well written, which is usually not to be expected from S&S-leaning literature.
If you read it, it gets very, very, very close to be like "D&D - the author's novel", and the writers are often not very subtle as to where they take their inspiration.
...Little Arneson I detected, but much Quag Keep.

In my version, I try to limit my sources to the books that can be linked to Dave Arneson, his players or anything published under the Blackmoor heading (Including BECMI and D20 Blackmoor Sources).

Raaaaah, oh my perpetual tiredness! I meant Thonia, not Synobia!

[Havard]

Thanks! Not sure if that was such a good compliment about my creativity though? LOL

Nah, but if Havard writes something, Rafe reads. And likely steals the modus operandi.

That sounds alot better

And likewise of course, especially when you write about Blackmoor.
And even more so, when you write about Blackmoor here

Yeah, that's the main difference between our approaches: I always look for a game application first,
while your approach is of course way more in sync with the original concepts, if it is that there are such.

Sounds like a good analysis.
I also aim for making my works enjoyable in actual play of course, but I do not have a specific game/campaign in mind.
Granted these mini-gazzes are fairly DM oriented, but I also have some more player oriented material, though it will have to wait a bit longer...

I'll get back to you on Ravilla one of these days, because we might be onto something there... But I can't tell yet. When the LFC has started anew, then. :twisted:

Okay, looking forward to seeing it.

Raaaaah, oh my perpetual tiredness! I meant Thonia, not Synobia!

Thanks for clarifying. I was wondering why you wanted to link those sources specifically to Synobia.


-Havard

[Rafael]

And likewise of course, especially when you write about Blackmoor.
And even more so, when you write about Blackmoor here

Hehe, thanks, man. I'll expand the LFC section sooner or later, but outside, I fear I have little to give to BM. - Not for anything, but that time is a precious good these days...

Thanks for clarifying. I was wondering why you wanted to link those sources specifically to Synobia.

Actually, I'll be looking a lot into the Theocracy of the Pale for this one. The Northern GK from Greyhawk is more than a small blueprint for my own GK - with a few liberties, though.

[Yaztromo]

Hi Havard,
you assumed that all the rulers of the Eastern Marches revolted and ended up in the Duchy of Ten.
I'd suggest thinking about one or two that stayed faithful to the Emperor and that now find themselves surrounded by newcomers (that in their eyes did nothing to earn their fiefs apart from being pawns of important and powerful families) but didn't get anything up to their expectation for their loyalty...
Just a passing thought...

[Havard]

Hi Havard,
you assumed that all the rulers of the Eastern Marches revolted and ended up in the Duchy of Ten.
I'd suggest thinking about one or two that stayed faithful to the Emperor and that now find themselves surrounded by newcomers (that in their eyes did nothing to earn their fiefs apart from being pawns of important and powerful families) but didn't get anything up to their expectation for their loyalty...
Just a passing thought...

Thanks for the feedback!

This is not a bad idea. Possibly this could very well include lower ranking nobles (knights, landed lords etc), who would have been forced to swear allegiance to their new overlords. It could also include Barons (Wardens), though that means I will have to come up with names for them.

I do like the dynamic that this could cause within the realm. Actually this could even apply to commoner families who may keep insisting that the old lords were much better rulers.

I am still trying to work out exactly what happened to the Nobles of Ten. Their revolt seems to coincide with Thonia being turned into a Republic. It is possible that these were loyal to the original line of Kings (perhaps King Robert's line) and that when this line of Emperors were removed, his most loyal supporters were also bannished. I have always assumed that the current Emperor, Iyx I, is from a different bloodline than King Robert of Genova. With the Eastern Marshes being one of the earliest Provinces conquered by the Genovans, it makes sense that these were the most loyal.

It is not necessarily clear that this was a change from a Good Regime to an Evil Regime though. While Iyx I clearly is evil, Thonia has played a positive role in the world also between the Revolt of the Ten and rise of the current emperor. During the FFC Era (ca year 1000) for instance, Thonia was usually a supporter for Blackmoor (against the Egg of Coot etc).

In other words, lots to think about here!


-Havard