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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9512449" data-attributes="member: 58172">I want to get back to Baklun.The "who shot first" text is only in one brief place in the section called Mysteries of Greyhawk, talking about various weird things, like Black Ice."Devastating Magic. Almost a thousand years ago, the war between the Baklunish and Suloise empires came to a horrific end. The Baklunish people who lived in what is now the Dry Steppes called down a rain of colorless fire that burned all living things, ignited the landscape, and reduced the Suloise lands to ashes, creating the Sea of Dust.In retaliation, Suloise survivors invoked their own magic to devastate the Baklunish lands.What magic was responsible for the Rain of Colorless Fire and the Invoked Devastation? What would happen if such magic fell into the wrong hands today?A central portion of the Dry Steppes, where the seat of the Baklunish empire stood, is said to remain pleasant and rich, roamed by Baklunish nomads.The former Suloise capital, by contrast, in the heart of the Sea of Dust, is beset by howling winds, terrible dust storms, and rains of volcanic ash and cinders from the nearby Hellfurnaces."Relatively speaking, the Suloise are innocent − the Baklunish "shot first".The problem in the first place is, the text blames the entire "people" who live in the Dry Steppes. In this day and age, people should know better than declaring an entire people guilty.First, normal Baklunish people didnt know how to make the Rain of Colorless Fire. This was a secretive magitech that only a small handful of people knew how to do − whether criminals or a military unit.Apparently, the retaliatory Invoked Devastation didnt kill all of the Baklunish population, but did kill the ones who knew how to do the Colorless Fire magitech. Because when the Baklunish survivors migrated to other locations, they were unable to bring this magitech with them.The brief story, which is mostly an adventure hook maybe for spies, should have focused the guilt of the Colorless Fire on the specific handful of people (the faction) that did cause the Rain. To blame an entire "people" is insane.I think the text is just a poor choice of words, because of a context of a "war" between two peoples. But the Baklunish people are innocent − especially the survivors who had nothing to do with the Rain.</blockquote>

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