Search results

Tolkien didn't think of his orcs as fallen angels, at least if fallen angel is considered synonymous with demon as it is in Christianity. JRR Tolkien, The Annals of Aman (1958) in JRR Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien, Morgoth’s Ring (1993): Orcs we may name them; for in days of old they were...

There's no question about it in the case of Warhammer. The Empire, Bretonnia, Tilea, Estalia, Albion, Norsca, The Land of the Dead, Araby, Grand Cathay, Ind, Nippon, and the New World are clearly analogues of the Holy Roman Empire, France, Italy, Spain, Britain, Scandinavia, Egypt, Arabia...

JRR Tolkien's conception of orcs changed over time. His last writing on the subject was an essay Orcs (1959-1960) (with two minor notes added in 1969) published in JRR Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien, Morgoth's Ring (1993): Though of necessity, being the fingers of the hand of Morgoth, they...

I had a look at the section on deconstruction in Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory 2e (1996), and I don’t think it applies to anything I’ve written in this thread. Certain meanings are elevated by social ideologies to a privileged position, or made the centres around which other meanings are...

He's 61. According to Michael Witwer's biography of Gary Gygax, Empire of Imagination "Ernie, the couple’s first child, was born in September 1959".

I think I've demonstrated that the problems began a good deal earlier than that!

This post considers fantasy races with the characteristics of real world races in two Appendix N works – Edgar Rice Burroughs, At the Earth's Core (1914), and JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955). In the first case the connection to a real world race is explicit, in the second it is...

This post is about the late 19th century theory that European stories about fairies, dwarves, and similar "little people" were based on a real non-white people who had inhabited the continent. Several Appendix N authors — HP Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, and Abraham Merritt — used this idea in...

Summary This is a summary of the problem with respect to what the 5e D&D Monster Manual describes on page 7 as the "savage and brutal" "races" — orcs, goblins, etc. 1. Orcs and similar monsters are almost exactly the same as humans: shape; size; sentience; language; tool use; wear clothes or...

The Iron Way

You're correct that in the Dragonsfoot thread Gygax is talking about what he considers to be Lawful Good, indeed, paladin, behaviour within the fictional world of D&D. But he also uses claims about the real world to justify that behaviour. In the thread, Gygax says there are three different...

The first story, Jewels in the Forest, first published in Unknown #8 (1939) as Two Sought Adventure, feels very D&D-y to me. There's a treasure map with a riddle, a weird building (with a precisely described layout), treasure, grave danger, and competition from another 'adventuring party'. A...

Thanks! I can provide some even stronger and earlier evidence that the creators of D&D knew about (although they disagreed with) the feminist movement. D&D Book IV Greyhawk (1975): "There is only one King of Lawful Dragons, just as there is only one Queen of Chaotic Dragons (Women's Lib may make...

The linked comments that approvingly quote the 19th century genocidal racist, Colonel Chivington, were made by Gary Gygax in 2005 when he was 66 years old. He died aged 69. More enlightened views were being taken at the time. Sexism in rpgs was a contested topic in the 1970s and 1980s. Jon...

Perhaps they're the latter but successfully pretend to be the former, thus avoiding the 'angry villager' problem.

Perhaps they're thrillseekers. Neither altruists, nor rationally pursuing material self-interest, but driven by personal emotional needs. This would explain why they keep looking for greater challenges. Alternatively, but similarly, they might be (despite your thread title!) glory hounds. Again...

WARNING: This post contains unblurred spoilers for the Elric novel Stormbringer This post is about existentialism in four early Elric novelettes – Dead God's Homecoming, Black Sword's Brothers, Sad Giant's Shield, and Doomed Lord's Passing. First published in the British magazine, Science...

WARNING: This post contains unblurred spoilers for the Elric story While the Gods Laugh Existentialism is a major theme in several of Michael Moorcock's early Elric stories. This post is about the novelette While the Gods Laugh. This story first appeared in the British magazine Science Fantasy...

This is the first of three connected posts that compare anti-existentialist passages in the 1e AD&D DMG with the existentialism of some of the early Elric stories. The stories considered form part of the collections The Stealer of Souls (1963) and Stormbringer (1965), which are both in Appendix...