DM wrote:
-------------- My players kindly keep out --------------------------
Ah, the good old Master of the D.N. :D
One of my all-time favourite villains and surely an example of the biggest mess in time- and product lines that the piece-by-piece authoring of the Known World has ever created.
Many things point in different directions when we have to decide when to set X10. Those in favour of AC 1000 or shortly thereafter include:
1) Stefan Karameikos and the Black Eagle Baron are both alive and their conflict has not changed a bit in either's favour
2) Most of the Known World's nations haven't changed at all in 200 years, which may seem a bit odd, when we compare to the evolution in magic and technology in earlier centuries.
In favour of the AC 1200 setting is:
3) The Kin Faction has apparently taken over Ylaruam
4) The names of rulers in the Northern Reaches and Ierendi have changes (IIRC).
This board has featured a number of talks about how and when to set X4, X5 and X10. Personally, I am in favour of putting them all together with X10 first followed immediately by X4 and X5:
The Master Invades and conquers half the world
The PCs put together an alliance and fight his armies to a standstill
The PCs sneak into Hule and kill the Master
Plain, simple, epic
:-) Jesper
Moreover, it ignores many things already written in the Gaz series and introduces new things that were never said; some examples:
- Thar attacks Glantri in AC1007; this ignores completely the control exercised by Uruk Vaath (aka Prince Jaggar) over the humanoids (he wanted them to attack Rockhome instead);
- Stefan allies with Alphatia and the Thyatian nobles of his granduchy are absolutely happy with his choice; but we know from the Gaz that peoples like Kelvin or Oderbry wouldn't have accepted this - not to speak about von Hendriks, that is totally inactive during WotI (even taking into account what Heard clarifies in a Dragon Magazine's letter)... Only to be smashed by the Hins in AC1010-11.
One could find many more events that diverge from the Gazetters descriptions. All this to say that IMHO is better having two Mystara's future timelines (i.e. post AC1000): one that takes into account WotI and one that doesn't.
The latter would have X4/5/10/13 set in the years indicated in the GAZ, and follow the GAZ series more strictly. The former would follow later updates to the GAZ material included after WotI was published. ;)
Many things point in different directions when we have to decide when to set X10. Those in favour of AC 1000 or shortly thereafter include:
1) Stefan Karameikos and the Black Eagle Baron are both alive and their conflict has not changed a bit in either's favour
While you're quite right saying that the conflict between the Duke and the Black Eagle is not changed at all in AC1200, there is a note in GAZ1's final chapter about published adventures. Regarding X10, it says that in AC1200 Stefan VI is the ruler of Karameikos and that the Black Eagle's baron is Wilhelm von Hendriks.
This updated the informations found in X10. ;)
While you're quite right saying that the conflict between the Duke and the Black Eagle is not changed at all in AC1200, there is a note in GAZ1's final chapter about published adventures. Regarding X10, it says that in AC1200 Stefan VI is the ruler of Karameikos and that the Black Eagle's baron is Wilhelm von Hendriks.
This updated the informations found in X10. ;)
Really? I missed that somehow
:-) Jesper
(BTW, am I remembering horribly wrong, or did X10 make him a servant of Thanatos, while WotI made him a servant of Bogdogan, another name for Loki?)
He was seemingly a servant of Thanatos in X10. The Bozdogan thing actually comes from the Princess Ark stories (c. issue #174?), where it was "revealed" that the Master and the Huleans worship Bozdogan, who is an identity of Loki.