The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Graz'zt

[rossik]

wow, whata nice piece of art/
where did it came from?
the insider?

sorry for myself, guys.
i finally got to subscribe, so i could see by my own eyes..

 

[James Jacobs]

Damnit.

I was hoping to find out who Graz'zt's dad is. Or at least more speculation.

Up until the last minute I spelled out who Graz'zt's dad was, but then after running it by my demonic advisors, I added in a bit of uncertainty.

1: Because it preserves more of the mystery of it, and lets DMs pick which of the suggested dads work best in their campaign.

2: Because setting a father in stone suddenly takes Graz'zt out of the scene as "the man" of the family, and that reduces his cool factor.

Had I come out and officially made Grazz't's father Nyrlathotep, the Crawling Chaos (just one more of his gifts to creation to speed about the end of the world), suddenly that turns his whole backstory into a Lovecraftian agenda, which takes away from the established feel for him. Likewise, if I made Loki his father, suddenly you have to have the Norse pantheon in your game to use Graz'zt. Making up a brand new name wasn't really an option either, because there's no power or tradition behind that and just leaves things hanging. And as I mention in the last sidebar of the article, Gygax developed his own interesting and really cool origin story for Graz'zt in his Gord novels, something I couldn't really expand on in the article since he retains the rights to the Gord stuff (as far as I know) and I didn't want to (and couldn't) add that element into an article for Wizards of the Coast. But by skirting the issue and not officially giving Graz'zt a dad, you can still use Gygax's backstory in your own campaign without having to retcon ANY of the article. Gygax's backstory is probably the one I like the most for Graz'zt (although it might be tied with Nyrlathotep... and those two options aren't necessarily mutually exclusive since Nyrlathotep has so many different forms), and this was really the only way to support that back story without getting into a tangled issue of rights and all that.

So yeah, in the end... Graz'zt's father? Whoever you want him to be!

AND: Thanks for the kind words about the article, everyone! Glad I had a chance to write it!

 

[Uzzy]

Of course it's great. It's a Demonomicon of Iggwilv by James Jacob. Regardless of the format it's published in, it's going to be a quality article.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Up until the last minute I spelled out who Graz'zt's dad was, but then after running it by my demonic advisors, I added in a bit of uncertainty.

And the right decision, too. (But then, I come partly from a White Wolf background, so uncertainty is in my blood. )

But that said, now that the article is published, and nothing you say in this thread is canon...

Who, in your initial draft (which was changed, and is not canon ) had you selected?

 

[Greg K]

And I still can't access Dnd Insider. I migrated my account and no longer get this account does not exist. However, after attempting to log in, I keep getting you must be logged in to DND Insider.

 

[James Jacobs]

And the right decision, too. (But then, I come partly from a White Wolf background, so uncertainty is in my blood. )

But that said, now that the article is published, and nothing you say in this thread is canon...

Who, in your initial draft (which was changed, and is not canon ) had you selected?

Loki was the frontrunner for a short bit... until I realized that Nyrlathotep was soooo much of a more obvious and better choice. So yeah: Nyrlathotep was the closest to becoming Graz'zt's dad.

 

[Garnfellow]

I'm absolutely certain that the article is fantastic -- as were all the print installments of Demonomicon -- but alas! I am now one of the many who seem to be inexplicably locked out from D&D Insider.

More's the pity, since this was probably would have been the article to really sell me on becoming a subscriber.

*shrug*

 

[Ry]

Loki was the frontrunner for a short bit... until I realized that Nyrlathotep was soooo much of a more obvious and better choice. So yeah: Nyrlathotep was the closest to becoming Graz'zt's dad.

glee!

 

[Ry]

Nyarlathotep and Pale Night, sittin' in a tree. U-N-D-U-L-A-T-I-N-G!

 

[Stormtower]

This is great stuff - I heartily approve of both the artwork and the writing (but, as others have said, it's James Jacobs and we've come to expect this level of excellent work from him).

This is the first article that has made me truly optimistic that eDungeon and eDragon may succeed in the long run. I love the multi-pages devoted to pure fluff and background.