Sea of Dust (Greyhawk)
Encyclopedia
In the Dungeons & Dragons
World of Greyhawk
campaign setting
, the Sea of Dust is a vast desert of ash and dust bound by a number of mountain ranges, including the Sulhauts to the north, the Hellfurnaces to the east, and a spur of the Tyurzi Mountains to the south.
giving her information on the Greyhawk
setting in which it was set. It was described more formally and familiarly in the The World of Greyhawk folio (1980) with the description repeated in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting
a few years later. The Sea of Dust was described in much greater detail in Sea of Death, a non-TSR novel written by Gary Gygax
in 1987, and in Greyhawk Adventures
, published by TSR in 1988. There has been a little more information published since then in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
, and elsewhere. The detail about thri-kreen packs was mentioned in Thri-Kreen of Athas, which had a short section on the thri-kreen of Oerth
.
can still be seen. These ruined buildings have the characteristic high-angled look still favored by Suel-descended peoples in places such as the Lendore Isles
and the Sea Princes.
The central region of the Sea of Dust is the most alien. Rather than gray ash, the substance of the Sea is a white, caustic powder that blows around and causes those who do not protect their mouths and noses with damp cloths to cough blood. Mixed with water, it forms a strong lye. The light reflecting off the white dunes will blind those who do not protect their eyes with slitted visors or masks. Glassy depressions in the central Sea are said to correspond to former cities of the Suel.
In the southwest of the Sea of Dust there is a small amount of rainfall, and here various groups of nomads are able to survive. The dust of this region is dry soil rather than an alien alkaline material or ash, and it is extraordinarily productive for a time after the occasional rain.
s, giant centipedes, meenlock
s, derro
, horgar, jermlaine
s, osquips, purple worm
s, giant rats, myconid
s, snyads, and ankheg
s.
In the foothills of the Hellfurnaces, firenewts and fire lizards hunt. In the same region a short, stocky human
people cover their bodies with a foul-smelling wax in order to protect themselves from caustic dust and burning sun. This matches the description of the Hek people from the adventure All That Glitters
.
Giant snakes and arachnids of various kinds can also be found in the desert
Some of the nomads are of Suel descent, but most are a tall, slender, curly-haired people with blue-black skin and slanted eyes with origins to the south. They are rich in gold and gems looted from the ruined cities of the Suel.
Stories are told of packs of thri-kreen
roaming the wastes of the Sea of Dust.
The dustlakes, or Ktosor-hep as the local nomads call them, are pools of dust anywhere between half a mile and six miles across that have been made magical by contact with the buried towns and cities of the Suel. While the wavelike dunes of the Sea of Dust do resemble the form of a watery sea, the dustlakes are completely liquid, able to support boats, swimmers, and divers just as water does. Unlike water, they are somewhat breathable for those wearing fine cloth masks, as the fluid somehow permits the passage of air between the grains of dust. The nomads require boys to dive to the bottom and bring back a trinket from the ruins in order to be accepted by their tribes as full men.
The Forgotten City, once the capital of the Suel Imperium, lies buried somewhere in the center of the desert.
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
World of Greyhawk
Greyhawk
Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
, the Sea of Dust is a vast desert of ash and dust bound by a number of mountain ranges, including the Sulhauts to the north, the Hellfurnaces to the east, and a spur of the Tyurzi Mountains to the south.
Publishing history
The Sea of Dust was first described in print in Quag Keep by Andre Norton, who wrote the book with Gary GygaxGary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
giving her information on the Greyhawk
Greyhawk
Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...
setting in which it was set. It was described more formally and familiarly in the The World of Greyhawk folio (1980) with the description repeated in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting
World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting
The World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting and the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting are two closely related publications from TSR, Inc. that detail the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...
a few years later. The Sea of Dust was described in much greater detail in Sea of Death, a non-TSR novel written by Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
in 1987, and in Greyhawk Adventures
Greyhawk Adventures
Greyhawk Adventures is an accessory for the Dungeons & Dragons World of Greyhawk campaign setting.-Contents:Greyhawk Adventures contains information about Greyhawk deities and clerics, major non-player characters, monsters, geography, spells of the setting's famous magic-users , magic items of the...
, published by TSR in 1988. There has been a little more information published since then in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is a sourcebook for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the 3rd edition of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Despite the title, the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is not exclusive to the Living Greyhawk Campaign...
, and elsewhere. The detail about thri-kreen packs was mentioned in Thri-Kreen of Athas, which had a short section on the thri-kreen of Oerth
Oerth
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Oerth, pronounced as "Orth" or "oyth", is the name of the fictional planet on which one of the earliest campaign settings, the World of Greyhawk, is located...
.
Description
The Sea of Dust is dominated by powdery gray ash immediately west of the Hellfurnaces. More ash is added every year. It becomes less ash-clogged toward the Sulhauts, where ruined fortifications and walled cities of the SuloiseSuloise
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, the Suloise, also known as the "Suel," are one of the major races of humans inhabiting the Flanaess....
can still be seen. These ruined buildings have the characteristic high-angled look still favored by Suel-descended peoples in places such as the Lendore Isles
Lendore Isles
In the Dungeons and Dragons World of Greyhawk campaign setting, the Lendore Isles, also known as the Spindrift Isles, are a collection of five large islands in the Solnor Ocean, just off the eastern coast of the former Great Kingdom...
and the Sea Princes.
The central region of the Sea of Dust is the most alien. Rather than gray ash, the substance of the Sea is a white, caustic powder that blows around and causes those who do not protect their mouths and noses with damp cloths to cough blood. Mixed with water, it forms a strong lye. The light reflecting off the white dunes will blind those who do not protect their eyes with slitted visors or masks. Glassy depressions in the central Sea are said to correspond to former cities of the Suel.
In the southwest of the Sea of Dust there is a small amount of rainfall, and here various groups of nomads are able to survive. The dust of this region is dry soil rather than an alien alkaline material or ash, and it is extraordinarily productive for a time after the occasional rain.
Ecology
The majority of the Sea of Dust is without water on the surface and has no plant life on the surface. In areas where the dust or ash lies thinner above the more stable earth the occasional vampire cactus is able to survive; their seeds were brought to the area by migrating birds. Deep beneath the dunes, some waters still flow, and burrowing creatures have been able to access it. Thus, certain creatures live in tunnels beneath the dust, including boring beetles, buletteBulette
A bulette or landshark is a fictional heavily-scaled carnivorous monster from the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a huge ravenous creature that burrows through the earth and attacks unsuspecting victims from below...
s, giant centipedes, meenlock
Meenlock
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the meenlock is a type of fictional monster for player characters to encounter.-Publication history:The meenlock first appeared in the original first edition Fiend Folio ....
s, derro
Derro (Dungeons & Dragons)
The derro are a fictional species of monstrous humanoids in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. They were first devised for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition adventure Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth...
, horgar, jermlaine
Jermlaine
The jermlaine is a fictional creature from the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. They are evil and fiendish underground fey who spend their days sneaking, hiding and plotting.-Publication history:...
s, osquips, purple worm
Purple worm
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the purple worm is a magical beast and a classic D&D monster.-Publication history:The purple worm was one of the earliest creatures introduced in the D&D game.-Dungeons & Dragons :...
s, giant rats, myconid
Myconid
Myconids are a race of intelligent roughly humanoid fungi found in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.-Publication history:The myconid first appeared in the first edition in the adventure module A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords , and then the original Monster Manual II .The myconid ...
s, snyads, and ankheg
Ankheg
An ankheg , also spelled anhkheg, is a type of fictional monster in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. An ankheg is described as a monstrous arthropod magical beast. The ahnkheg was created by artist Erol Otus and first appeared in Dragon magazine in 1977...
s.
In the foothills of the Hellfurnaces, firenewts and fire lizards hunt. In the same region a short, stocky human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
people cover their bodies with a foul-smelling wax in order to protect themselves from caustic dust and burning sun. This matches the description of the Hek people from the adventure All That Glitters
All That Glitters... (module)
All That Glitters... is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. TSR, Inc. published the module in 1984.-Plot summary:...
.
Giant snakes and arachnids of various kinds can also be found in the desert
Inhabitants
The majority of the derro race still dwells beneath the Sea of Dust, having survived the Rain of Colorless Fire thanks to the protection of hundreds of feet of earth. A major community of them lives in the Forgotten City.Some of the nomads are of Suel descent, but most are a tall, slender, curly-haired people with blue-black skin and slanted eyes with origins to the south. They are rich in gold and gems looted from the ruined cities of the Suel.
Stories are told of packs of thri-kreen
Thri-kreen
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the thri-kreen, or "mantis warriors", are an insect-like monstrous humanoid race. Thri-kreen are one of the primary player character races of the Dark Sun campaign setting, and have also appeared in the Spelljammer and Forgotten Realms campaign...
roaming the wastes of the Sea of Dust.
Features and settlements
The nomads move frequently between wells, as they are prone to dry up or grow salty when overused.The dustlakes, or Ktosor-hep as the local nomads call them, are pools of dust anywhere between half a mile and six miles across that have been made magical by contact with the buried towns and cities of the Suel. While the wavelike dunes of the Sea of Dust do resemble the form of a watery sea, the dustlakes are completely liquid, able to support boats, swimmers, and divers just as water does. Unlike water, they are somewhat breathable for those wearing fine cloth masks, as the fluid somehow permits the passage of air between the grains of dust. The nomads require boys to dive to the bottom and bring back a trinket from the ruins in order to be accepted by their tribes as full men.
The Forgotten City, once the capital of the Suel Imperium, lies buried somewhere in the center of the desert.
History
This great basin was formerly home to the ancient Suel Imperium, a nation of fertile lands extending some one-thousand miles west and south, before it was destroyed by the Rain of Colorless Fire in -422 CY. The Rain of Colorless Fire was sent by the Baklunish Empire to the north, in retaliation for the Invoked Devastation which destroyed all but the remnants of that empire.Additional reading
- Bambra, Jim. All That GlittersAll That Glitters... (module)All That Glitters... is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. TSR, Inc. published the module in 1984.-Plot summary:...
. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1984.
- Gygax, GaryGary GygaxErnest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
. The World of Greyhawk. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1980. - Gygax, GaryGary GygaxErnest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
. World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game SettingWorld of Greyhawk Fantasy Game SettingThe World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting and the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting are two closely related publications from TSR, Inc. that detail the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...
. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.
- Gygax, Gary. World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game SettingWorld of Greyhawk Fantasy Game SettingThe World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting and the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting are two closely related publications from TSR, Inc. that detail the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...
(TSRTSR, Inc.Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
, 1983).
- Moore, Roger E. Greyhawk: The Adventure BeginsGreyhawk: The Adventure BeginsGreyhawk: The Adventure Begins is a 1998 sourcebook for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. The 128 page book was written by Roger E...
(TSR, 1998). - -----. "Legacies of the Suel Imperium." DragonDragon (magazine)Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#241. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1997. - -----. "Greyhawk Mysterious Places." Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1999. Originally appeared in TSR's America Online folder as a 2nd edition update to Greyhawk Adventures, later moved to its website. No longer live on the WotC website but available from the Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20040222190643/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Greyhawk/DnDGreyhawkMysteriousPlaces.asp
- Reynolds, Sean KSean K. ReynoldsSean K Reynolds is a professional game designer who has worked on and co-written a number of D&D supplements for Wizards of the Coast, as well as material for other companies. He does not put a period after his middle initial.-Background:...
. The Scarlet BrotherhoodThe Scarlet BrotherhoodThe Scarlet Brotherhood is a regional sourcebook for the Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The sourcebook was written by Sean K. Reynolds, and published by TSR in 1999 for 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons...
(TSR, 1999).
- Sargent, Carl. From the AshesFrom the Ashes (Dungeons & Dragons)From the Ashes is a supplement for Dungeons & Dragonss World of Greyhawk campaign setting. It was published in 1992 by TSR as a boxed set of materials...
(TSR, 1993).