The World of Karawenn
by Travis HenryHi. The World of Karawenn has been covered seemingly extensively in fanon writings at the Vaults
And in a thread which I started back in 2008
At the time of that thread, I still did not own the Karawenn trilogy (Quest Triad), and so I was relying on the informed sharing of others in the community. Since initial reports indicated that the "Lands of Karawenn" were indeed obliquely a part of Mystara, I ran with it.
At that time, I discovered Official indications (in Bruce's in-house TSR document "Mystara -- Before and After") that the First Quest line, as a whole, was considered to be a part of "Mystara." (For details see my post in the 2008 thread.)
And specifically: that the Karawenn trilogy is set in "the Known World" and "world of Mystara":
"In 1994 and 1995, novels about the world of Mystara will branch into two new categories: epic tales for series fantasy saga fans, and shorter books for younger readers [the First Quest series].
"Pawn's Prevail, Book One of the Quest Triad, Douglas Niles: The immortals Daliphree and Pusanth have decided to play a game with mortal pawns. One pawn is Princess Danis, born with a silver spoon in her mouth. The other is a farmhand named Holt, born with nothing. As Mystara's mortals [sic] cannot interfere directly in the lives of mortals, the game between Daliphree and Pusanth is a very controlled one, indeed. Their pawns seek an artifact, each hoping to find it first, but the evil Nightshade is drawn to the magic item as well, coveting its power."
"About the Author: Having written three trilogies (Moonshae, Maztica, and Druidhome) for the Forgotten Realms(r) world, Doug recently turned his attentions to the D&D(r) Known World with his upcoming Quest Triad."
That seemed to cinch it!
Yet I also cornered Bruce and asked him, and this was his response:
Bruce Heard: "Karawenn was [...] supposed to be pretty generic, but I suspect it could be located somewhere in Norwold since this is the place Doug developed in Mystara."
And I took it straight to Douglas Niles, and offered six suggested locations
Douglas Niles' response: "As far as the location, it was specifically requested that I keep it vague when I was writing the books. There was some talk among TSR management that it would be placed somewhere in Mystara, but I never gave it a specific location, and to the best of my knowledge, nobody else did, either. So if you find a good place for the land, by all means go ahead and put it there!"
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However, now I see that those indications are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! :) Or rather, any placement on the planet/world of Mystara contradicts the text of the novels themselves. Resulting in discontinuities between various Official indications and designers' post-TSR comments.
Background: Sometime after I participated in those threads and interviews, I did manage to purchase the Karawenn novels, and I read through at least the first book, and flipped through the rest. I took notes...which I later lost when I moved. But I distinctly remember realizing that the novels clearly portray Karawenn as a "world."
But I had other things to attend to so I forgot about it.
Yet now I'm looking into it again. And though I haven't read the trilogy through yet, I did lightly skim through them just now, looking for instances of the name "Karawenn."
And here are the cinchers, all from Book 3, Immortal Game:
p.5: "Why, the Crown of Vanderthan is so powerful that if she lost it, we'd certainly hear about it. The forces of Entropy could use it to take over all Karawenn--or any other world."
p.10: "And in the meantime, here on Karawenn, I shall set the forces of Entropy to the task."
Note: In English, we say "on Earth," but "in a country."
p.278: "There is no man in all Karawenn--in all the Spheres!--who could be more worthy than Holton Jaken!"
(This is third quote is more subtle, but relevant, in that the statement leaps in scale from "the world" to "the Spheres" (the entire cosmos). It doesn't say something like: "There is no man in all of the land of Karawenn--or in all the whole world--or in the Spheres!--who could be more worthy than Holton Jaken!"
Again, this is only from a quick flip-through. There may very well be other relevant quotes gleanable from a thorough and close reading.
Yet the first two quotes clearly cinch it. Karawenn is a world.
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Also, the World's End is a big deal. As presented, it's an endless chasm, into which the ocean pours! And beyond the chasm, is endless sky in all (or most?) directions, up, down, and horizontally. Now, D&D can handle this kind of fantastic planetology. No problem: the World's End is literally the end of the world, beyond which is the skyshield of that world. The cascading ocean waters are recycled and replenished by Elemental Water vortices.
However: in the three maps of Karawenn, we only see the end of the world in the northeast, not in other directions. It's awkward how the ocean continues to the east, meaning that the World's End is really the "northeastern" world's end. A kind of "corner shaped" bottomless chasm! Which is not easy to picture. And is open to several different interpretations.
But the World's End is the key geographic feature...a key "theme" of this world. It's actually pretty awesome and distinctive. To demote it to a (previously unnoticed) two-sided canyon in Norwold, I feel is hamhanded, and saps the novellic setting of its wonder.
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Also of note: when looking over the maps, and quickly skimming the text, I saw no instance of the phrase "lands of Karawenn" or "Lands of Karawenn." The map in Book 1 is labeled simply "Karawenn." The maps in Book 2 and Book 3 have no overarching label.
However, in my interview with Douglas Niles, he does refer to Karawenn as "the land."
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Now here's how I hope to do better in the future: if ever I introduce a thread on a little-known, forgotten product, such the Karawenn novels, which most people don't have access to, I wish to first give an objective recap gleaned from a close reading, before launching into homebrew speculation and revisions. On the other hand, it's not a big deal, because RPGs are also about freewheeling, enthusiastic creativity; and it is cool to see Karawenn fanon materials in any case. It's all part of the fermentive, cross-pollinating process. I feel my original research back in the 2008 thread was still useful, but incomplete.
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Now about Karawenn's cosmology; and how Karawenn appears in the various "game edition" Realities:
Karawenn-B: If Karawenn were converted back to BECMI or RC/WotC, it'd be a planet in the "Five Spheres" D&D Multiverse, somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy (in Mentzerian terms) or whatever the galactic equivalent is in WotI terms.
Karawenn-A1: If Karawenn were converted to AD&D 1E, it would've probably existed in the same Prime Material Plane as "Mystara-1" (and "Aelos-1"), since they are closely related, and there's room in 1E for many planets in each Prime Material Plane. As per the 1E MotP, the Mystara Prime Material Plane would be a "universe" of space with galaxies and such. This Mystara Prime Plane would have its own Ethereal Plane, but shared Elemental, Astral, and Outer Planes with the other 1E worlds.
Karawenn-A2: Though Karawenn isn't given game stats, and though it's default system would've been the simplified First Quest system, it was definitely Officially part of the AD&D 2E Great Wheel. So in this paraverse, "Karawenn-A2" would have its own "Karawenn-space" crystal sphere. Its local Immortal hierarchy would be a cultural grouping of deities, who have dominions in the various Outer Planes of the Great Wheel. Their stats would be Warriors of Heaven-style, 2E Legends & Lore style, and Planescape style.
Karawenn-3. In the 3E Reality, "Karawenn-3" has its own cosmology. Presumably called "The Five Spheres". Or, maybe, to differentiate it from Mystara's cosmology: "The Immortal Hall". This cosmology is reachable by "Mystara-3"'s "Five Spheres" cosmology (and other worlds' cosmologies) only through the Plane of Shadow transitive plane. Karawenn's Five Spheres would only include those few Immortals depicted in the three books.
Karawenn-4. In the 4E Reality, "Karawenn-4" is part of the shared World Axis cosmology.
Karawenn-5. In the 5E Reality, "Karawenn-5" has its own crystal sphere, and its Immortals are a cultural grouping who have domains on the Great Wheel which is shared by all 5E worlds.
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Speculative/creative aside: I thought there was a slim chance that the Flat World / Coin World mentioned in CoM: Designer's Manual, pages 36 and 37 could serve as the World of Karawenn. Since both have an "edge". But I see it's probably not feasibly, given that the write-up says that the main hydrological process is the drainage to a central lake. Also, I'm not sure how the passing of day and night as seen in the Karawenn stories would fit with the central sun of Flat World.
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From a "paraversal" perspective, the various Official statements and designers comments result in several distinct paraverses:
#1 The World of Karawenn-N.A2FQ (Karawenn in the novel/fiction Reality-N, as expressing the simplified First Quest version of AD&D 2E rules lens). In this paraverse, Karawenn is a world in itself. As explicitly stated in Book 3. This is the mainline Official Paraverse, because this follows the actual text of the novels. In this paraverse, the TSR "Before & After" doc's referrences to "Mystara" are interpreted in the sense that "Mystara" is not only the name of the planet, it's also Officially the name of Mystara's entire Prime Plane! See RC p268: "Both [the KW and HW] are based on (or within) a planet in the Prime Plane known as Mystara." In this paraverse, those references in the "Before and After" document are referring to the Prime Plane of Mystara, not the planet. The reference to Karawenn being a part of the "Known World" is simply incorrect in this paraverse. This paraverse is affirmed by "As far as the location, it was specifically requested that I keep it vague when I was writing the books. There was some talk among TSR management that it would be placed somewhere in Mystara [which implies there was also some talk that it *wouldn't* be placed in Mystara.]"
#2 BH/DN-Mystara-N.A2FQ.Karawenn.Norwold ...This paraverse is based on two designers' post-TSR statements: Bruce's suggestion that "I suspect it could be located somewhere in Norwold since this is the place Doug developed in Mystara." And my inclusion of Norwold (based on Havard) as one of six options when I interviewed Douglas Niles, which he neither affirmed nor denied. Plus, the statements in the "Before and After" document are, in the paraverse, interpreted to be referring to the *planet* Mystara. The reference to Karawenn's placement in "the Known World" (in Niles author blurb) is true in this paraverse. (In the sense of KW = "outer world".) Existing fanon depictions work on this paraverse.
The next paraverses are based the fact that I listed several suggested placements for Karawenn in my interview with Douglas Niles...which he did not deny. He lightly affirmed and personally empowered my placements, in a very general way, by saying "if you [Travis] find a good place for the land, by all means go ahead and put it there!" In addition to Norwold, I thought these were all (more or less!) "good places" for the land:
#3 DN/TH-Mystara-N.A2FQ.Karawenn.The Cradle Lake in Central Brun
#4 DN/TH-Mystara-N.A2FQ.Karawenn.The Large Lake in Hyborea
#5 DN/TH-Mystara-N.A2FQ.Karawenn.Thonian South Coast (Using Havard's "two-walled canyon" approach; with the canyon extending north from the coast.)
#6 DN/TH-Mystara-N.A2FQ.Karawenn.Pelatan Inlet North Shore
#7 DN/TH-Mystara-N.A2FQ.Karawenn.Vulcanian Peninsula (The Far End Ocean matches the World's End.)
#8 DN/TH-Mystara-N.A2FQ.Karawenn.Zyxl (The Far End Ocean matches the World's End.)
And lastly:
#9+ DN-Mystara-N.A2FQ.Karawenn.[Other Placement] Douglas's comment just as well empowers all readers ("you" in the widest sense) to find a good place for the land. So, wherever someone places Karawenn on Mystara, it's automatically congruent with the designer's comment! So there's potentially limitless paraverses. This is also supported by Bruce's statement: "Karawenn was [...] supposed to be pretty generic." And Douglas Niles' other comment: "There was some talk among TSR management that it would be placed somewhere in Mystara, but I never gave it a specific location [in Mystara], and to the best of my knowledge, nobody else did [give it a specific placement in Mystara], either."
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However, due to the fact that the book's text refers to Karawenn as a "world", that would be the mainline paraverse.