@TheEdVerse, well met again! Is there anything you can share about your original concept for the "god-kings" of Mulhorand and Unther? I've read that you imagined Mulhorand as a land of dusky-skinned Set worshippers and slavers. How did Set tie-in to the god kings of your Realms?
— AdamDravian (@AdamDravian) May 25, 2019
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My original Realms had no ancient Egyptian/ancient Babylonia/Gilgamesh elements; “my” Mulhorand and Unther had desert areas and a hot climate and therefore the human inhabitants were darker of skin than the Sword Coast North humans. There were some slavers, …#Realmlore 2)
…selling criminals, the heavily in debt, and captured outlanders (from Raurin and points east) to Thay as slaves, but neither Mulhorand nor Unther had legal, country-tolerated slavery (whereas Thay did). When I was asked by early GenCon gamers where best to…@Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 25, 2019
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…”plug in” the worship of Set into Faerun, I pointed to Mulhorand and Unther as the best places. Left to my own devices, I would never have had such close real-world (or Hollywood) analogues in the Realms as Old Empires portrayed them to be, but remember that…#Realmslore 4)
…TSR wanted the Realms to be the broad canvas that had room for jungle, pirate, "Oriental," etc. etc. adventures, putting in the Desert of Desolation modules and others, so Mulhorand and Unther became what you see in print.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 25, 2019
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My original Mulhorand and Unther were thus: Unther had broken away from oppressive warring-with-each-other (and pouring conscripted farmers into their armies to do so) Mulhorandi kings: the armies turned on their masters and.. 6)
…forced independence (breakaway country). Both were remnants of older great (fallen) empires, and were scrabbling in tombs and underground "dungeons" (the cellars of vanished cities) for the treasure (especially magic) of the gone elder glory…but making…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 25, 2019
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…little headway because horrific monsters were lurking down there (when D&D came along, I latched onto beholders [with my inventions: death tyrants, as their undead guardians] and mind flayers as the horrific monsters) and because the climates of both Unther 8)
…and Mulhorand were drying, fast; the land was changing from verdant to arid with frightening rapidity (yes, I had climate change in the early 1960s, ahead of my time as usual ;} ). I wanted to explore how a fast environment change forces social change, but. :{#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 25, 2019
Wow, thanks for the great response, Ed.
But just to be clear, you’re saying that your Unther & Mulhorand were ruled by mortal kings as opposed to “god-kings”? If so, I’m a bit surprised, since the god-kings are mentioned as early as FR0 … but then again so is Kara-tur. 1)
My Unther and Mulhorand were one country ruled by two rival mortal kings, who warred with each other. Both declared themselves "god-kings" (one after the other) in a PR attempt to establish rightful supremacy over the other. Complete with fake priests.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 25, 2019
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Shar (chaos, discord) backed both, to bring about the downfall of mighty Mulhorand…and succeeded: Unther broke away into independence.
So, yes, the TERM "god-kings" was mine. Kara-Tur was not. Jeff Grubb and Karen Boomgaarden (now Karen Conlin) compiled FR0…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 25, 2019
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…from my lore and from TSR's needs/existing plot set-ups, and setups for products in the pipeline. I sent Jeff around 20 "Look At The FR" weekly packages, and TSR drew on those to get the boxed set done fast.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 25, 2019
I have to admit, getting the inside scoop on your original concepts is really fascinating. I really enjoy delving back into the early days of the Realms. For one thing, it takes me back to when my joints still worked, the world was an oyster before me, and all of that. ;} A lot of folks don't even realize the Realms is a STORY world that predated D&D and all FRP games.
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 25, 2019
I love this kind of insight. Thanks for indulging me, Ed. You are the gem of our North.
I’ll absolutely be using this in my game. Might I inquire the names of these kings?Sure. The two rival kings were Vaznurhor and Narlmur. Vaznurhor, whose seat of power was in the southwest and among the old nobles, claimed divinity first; Narlmur, the younger "reformer" (for more equality in society) followed suit. Both became ruthless madmen.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 26, 2019