Other names for the Known World
by Travis HenryThese distinctions were probably hashed out in the fan community years ago, hence the Mystaran Almanac fanon term "the Old World." But I'd like to gather other monikers which have been used for the classic southeastern portion of Brun:
"The Continent" (capitalized; X1 map header)
"the continent" (lower-case: GAZ1 p.57: "she has adventured all over the continent, always returning to the city of her birth, Specularum.")
"the southeastern portion of the continent" (X1: B/X p.2; X1 BECMI revised, p.4.)
"the D&D® game world" (e.g. GAZ1 p.2 and many other instances; can also mean the entire planet and multiverse)
"the D&D world" (GAZ1 p.15)
Then as a planetary name, there's "Urt" from the Immortals Set DMG p.43: "The Immortals made special arrangements with this creature, who is known to them as Urt, before starting to cultivate life forms upon and within it."
"the known countries of the continent" (GAZ1 p.2)
"the nations of the continent" (GAZ p.4)
"the Realms of the Continent" (X10: Red Arrow Black Shield, p11; only KW countries are featured.)
"the Eastern Lands" (capitalized; Champions of Mystara table of contents and chapter header: "Sind: Gateway to the Eastern lands"; and p.7: "Sind is also known as the Gateway to the Eastern Lands." p.20: "If Sind is the Gateway to the Eastern lands, Jalawar is the Gateway to Sind.")
"the eastern lands" (lower-case; Champions of Mystara: "It [Sind] offers the easiest route between the eastern lands (Darokin and beyond) and the western lands (the Serpent Peninsula, Hule, and the Savage Coast). Of course, merchants of Darokin and other eastern lands call Sind the Gateway to the West." (p.7) [Note: it strangely says "Darokin and beyond" not "Atruaghin and beyond."]
"The first problem is to find suitable timber; most must be imported from eastern lands." (p.8)
"Although this war will center around the eastern lands (especially Glantri and Alphatia), the Great Waste will not remain untouched." p.54. [Note: "eastern lands" includes Alphatia.]
"Year 1010 The eastern lands attempt to rebuild after the past years' devastation." (p.55)
The quotes indicate that though "the eastern lands" is a name for the KW proper, the term also includes the Alphatian region. In the same way that the term "western lands" explicitly includes everything west of Sind (Serpent Peninsula, Hule, and the Savage Coast).
"the Dread Coast" (K:KoA. Two statements: p.108 "The reach of Karameikan traders is felt far and wide along the Dread Coast, from Thyatis to as far west as Slagovich." [But Slagovich isn't on the Sea of Dread!]
p.123: "The druids of Mystara have come to the Dread Coast only recently, arriving from the west and south.")
"the Known World" (AFAIK, in the HWCS, RC, PWA I, and PWA II the term "Known World" was synonymous with the "outer world.")
In contrast, in most AD&D products (though not in PWAIII), the term "Known World" was whittled down to just mean the "Known World" proper, as seen in K:KoA, Joshuan's Almanac, Red Steel, and the SC Campaign Book.
Did I miss any?
There are also monikers from the implied setting of the LJN characters, which may or may not be Mystara:
"long ago in the time of Magic and Legend"
"the four corners of the earth"
"the world of ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® action figures"
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Besides B2, could add monikers from Holmes BASIC Set. Though pre-Mystaran, the Holmes stuff is slightly connected to Mystara via the shared BD&D brand, the shared relationship with B1 and B2, and the later suggested placement of Zenopus in Karameikos or Darokin.
"With this last bit of advice we invite you to read on and enjoy a "world" where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" Gary's intro
"the characters can move from dungeon to dungeon within the same magical universe if game referees are approximately the same in their handling of play." p.5
"Each turn takes ten minutes (scale time, not actual) in the characters' magical universe. In the players' universe arguments sometimes develop and a turn may take considerably longer!" p.9
"These huge and hungry monsters lurk nearly everywhere beneath the surface of the earth." p.31
"The imaginary universe of Dungeons & Dragons obviously lies not too far from the Middle Earth of J.R.R. Tolkien's great Lord of the Rings trilogy. The D & D universe also impinges on the fantasy worlds of Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, Gardner F. Fox, classical mythology and any other source of inspiration the Dungeon Master wants to use." p.40
"Humans and non-humans from all over the globe meet here [at the Green Dragon]." p.40
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The Trail Maps give two divisions of the Known World proper (+ part of the Isle of Dawn):
"The Western Countries" = most of the KW proper
"The Eastern Countries" = the eastern sliver of the KW: the Northlands, Ylarum, Thyatis, and western Isle of Dawn
In a product blurb on p.40 of DRAGON #148 (1989):
"the western lands of the D&D® game's Known World"
Unfortunately, this is a cognitive clash with the later (1993) Champions of Mystara terminology of "eastern lands" = east of Sind and "western lands" = west of Sind.
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P.S. I just found several other monikers from DRAGON mag #148 (August 1989), in Jim Bambra's overview of the Gazetteer series:
"the D&D® game's Known World" (p79; also seen in product previews on p40 and p63)
"The D&D® game Known World" (p79 and p81; minus apostrophe "s")
"the game world" (p79)
"the adventuring lands" (p79)
"the Expert World" (p79)
"the realms of the D&D® game (p79)
"D&D® world" (p80)
"the lands of the Known World" (p81)
The "Expert World" is especially interesting. p79:
"While all this development was taking place, the game world grew slowly. It started in the Expert Set and module X1 The Isle of Dread. A world map, accompanied by a few paragraphs on each country, loosely defined the adventuring lands." [...]
"The Companion Set, while opening up Norwald [sic], set aside attention on the "Expert World." It was assumed that the Expert World was deserted by Companion-level PCs as they ventured north into Norwald for high-level challenges."
"Then the Companion and Master PCs came back to the Expert World (now the "Known World"), and great changes took place in the realms of the D&D® game."
This is scraping the bottom of the jar, but there's also the BD&D-branded comic strips from the B/X era (1981-1982). Steve Sullivan suggests that the Newsstand Series are set in his World of Illion and the Epic Magazine Series is set in Bill Willingham's World of Ironwood. So not Mystara*, but part of the "D&D game world."
*Or, barely Mystara: since the first comic strip takes place in some other levels of "Zenopus", so that maybe that has a parallel in the Mystara version of the Tower of Zenopus which exists in Karameikos or Darokin in two different timelines.
Anyway, here are two vague world monikers:
"Explore exciting worlds of fun, fantasy, and adventure with DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® and ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® adventure games." Newsstand Issues #1-#7 and Epic Issues #1-#4.
"The Basic Set starts your journey through enchanted lands of dragons and magic." Newsstand Issue #8
I hadn't looked at those pages in decades; but I found a PDF and looked at it. Gee, the extensive paragraphs on Earth, the solar system, and Milky Way Galaxy are a huge discontinuity with Mystara. The HWCS's change to the "small, hollow world" is the key breaking point; though there were probably other discontinuities (e.g. the different planets in 1986 CM7: Tree of Life).
The Mentzerian D&D game world is basically a "campaign model" of Earth. Mentzer even give an official name for the setting: the Age of Magic. (A related campaign model, but FR-focused, is your "Earth's Forgotten Realms" which you wrote about in an earlier thread; where, like Ed Greenwood said, the Forgotten Realms are actually the source of all of Earth's fantastic legends.)
Incidentally, the term "Age of Magic" is similar to the LJN tie-in products which say that the world of AD&D action figures takes place "long ago in the time of Magic and Legend" amidst "the four corners of the earth." These were published in the BECMI era.
I've said it before but I'll say it again: the Mentzerian setting is actually a different world than Mystara. Though Mystara parallels many (but not all) of its features.
I think my previous moniker of "Urt" for this paraverse (to refer to the pre-Heardian world) would be better clarified as the "Age of Magic" paraverse. Mystara may still be "Urt" in the language of Immortals, but it's not Earth's Jurassic "Age of Magic." As each discontinuity appears, we lose sight of the Age of Magic paraverses, and start to see Mystaran paraverses. There's a gradual "shedding" of discongruous paraverses.
More from PWAIII:
"the D&D® Known World campaign" p.2
"the AD&D® MYSTARA campaign" p.2
"the world of Mystara" p.2
"the World of Mystara" p.2
"the Known World of Mystara" p.7
"the eastern half of the continent of Brun" p.7 [presumably KW proper + Norwold]
"This chapter details many of nations of the Known World of Mystara, especially the eastern half of the continent of Brun, the western coast of Skothar and the Esterhold Peninsula." p.7
And "yarth." As seen in the Thyatian month Yarthmont, which surely means "Earth month." I'd suggest that the Thyatian word for "earth" is A few more from CM1: Test of the Warlords. Since the PCs are moving on to Norwold, the module reflects back on the old Known World, and refers to it as:
"the settled lands of the continent"
"With the fall of the Black Eagle Barony and its allied forces, the settled lands of the continent are now peaceful. Most of the land's
From Bruce's 1991 Reference Guide
"the southeastern corner of Brun"
found some more:
"the realms of man" (plural) -M3 back cover
"the civilized dominions"
"the land"
dungeons have been plundered, and monsters have been driven from all but a few of the civilized dominions. Prosperity reigns throughout the land now, which is just how the rulers want it." p.2
"the world of man" -M3 intro page
"western peoples" (DotE, Alphatia book p19). Refers to the people who use the Thyatian calendar.