Graakhalia? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Graakhalia?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
May 09, 2004 8:39:15 Can someone give me a brief summery about Graakhalia?
It sounds interesting - but I can't quite understand what's going on there exactly.

I understand there is some info in CoM - but I don't have that, so please.
#2
zombiegleemax
May 09, 2004 9:11:10 I'd never even heard of it before today - best I could find is some vague information in the vaults

http://dnd.starflung.com/graaktho.html
#3
katana_one
May 09, 2004 10:27:16 In a nutshell, Graakhalia is an underground nation in the region covered by the Champions of Mystara. It is a community of elves and gnolls living in a peaceful coexistence. I would have to dig out my copy of CoM to tell you more.
#4
kheldren
May 09, 2004 11:29:52 I can't remember the full details, but katana_one has the eessence of it. They form(ed) an underground community in the desert to the west of Sind (I think). The were a legacy of Bruce Heard's inability to leave wilderness unpopulated. Anyway having set up a very interesting community (covered in his Dragon Magazine articles after the end of the Voyage of the Princess Ark) the official WotI timeline (in one of Gazateers I think) wiped the nation out!

Personally I think I like the idea and if I ever need to use it I will have it somewhere in the Hollow World (like all other vanished cultures).

Kheldren

PS My memory said Elves and Ogres not Gnolls, but I am really not sure.
#5
zombiegleemax
May 09, 2004 13:01:35 It is Elves and Gnolls, trust me, as that was one of my favorite nations. I allowed players to make Graakhalian Gnolls if they choosed. Made for some interesting games. Graakhalia was pretty much wiped out when Hule moved across the Great Waste. The Master I believe convinced humanoids in the Black Mountains to the North to invade the Great Waste region for some reason I can't remember. They were primarily a secret nation and I think they were accidently discovered by the humanoids. Their peaceful coexistince was not so peaceful actually, many of the gnolls distrusted the elves and vice versa, at the time of the humanoid invasion they had dug tunnels all the way to Sind and were planning to reroute some of the rivers there to water their underground farms. They had also dug in very deep under the ground and I think there could be a chance of survivors far into the ground and maybe some making their way to Hollow World. I remember the humanoids mostly forcing them deeper and deeper, but not really able to wipe them out. Thought they did begin to starve them by taking out their upper caverns where they harvested insects and other animals that happened by. I do remember that the caverns they occupied were the only saf caverns in that region. A Beholder lived in one area and Manscorpions lived in another and some poisonous mushrooms or algea or something would fire off spores at certain times that would kill anything in the area that was alive. Very active nation.
#6
zombiegleemax
May 09, 2004 13:15:37 But how come elves and gnolls got to live together in the first place?
And what kind of elves live undeground? Were the some sort of Shadow Elves?
Does this culture resemble Sind in some way? Or any other known culture?

Thanks, all.
#7
Cthulhudrew
May 09, 2004 13:24:45 Tjedge noted:

Graakhalia was pretty much wiped out when Hule moved across the Great Waste. The Master I believe convinced humanoids in the Black Mountains to the North to invade the Great Waste region for some reason I can't remember.

This was pretty stupid, I always thought. They had just been created, for the Champions of Mystara boxed set (which came out post-WotI) and in a part of that set that "updated" the timeline of events to post-Wrath, they had the Graakhalians wiped out. They essentially gave you 6 years game time to do something with them and that was it.

Strangely, though, there doesn't even seem to be a complete consensus of what happened to them. PWA1011 mentions that they were destroyed, and that Ka managed to send 2500 of them to the Hollow World. 2500 out of 25000. The rest of the entry leads one to believe they were completely wiped out and only a few scattered bands remain. Yet the entry for the Great Waste says that 14,000 of them are still around. Hardly what I'd call scattered bands. That's a pretty sizable group.

So, I think it's safe to assume they're still more or less intact if you want to use them. Just a lot more harried than usual, due to the pressures of humanoid incursions into their territory. Probably most of their "main" caverns are occupied.
#8
Cthulhudrew
May 09, 2004 13:34:36 Lost Woodrake pondered:

But how come elves and gnolls got to live together in the first place?

The elves were the Sheyallia clan, who (IIRC) were one of the clans that fled the explosions in the Broken Lands. Myself, I expand this a bit further and say rather than fleeing the Broken Lands, these were the elf clan that lived in Glantri (Gaz3 mentions elves in the highlands who disappeared prior to the arrival of the Flaems). They had ties to the four clans in the BL (the future Shadowelves, Icevale elves, and Gentle Folk... man, there were a lot of elves right around there!)

Back to the point- they fled the explosion and headed west, and underground to flee the radioactive fallout.

The gnolls were part of the (apparently massive) outpouring of "beastmen" who invaded Traladara (Karameikos) and the Shires c. 1000 BC. These particular gnolls went further west than any, and invaded Sind, but were driven underground. Again, don't recall the details offhand.

(As with the Sheyallia, I expanded on this a bit further, actually attempting to tie together the first "official" bit on Sind- HWA3: Nightstorm, with the "revised" Sind- Champions of Mystara, which changed quite a bit for no apparent reason. Long story short, the gnolls were enslaved by the Sindhi, forming the first of what would someday be the caste system. When the chambahara (the shapechangers) took over, the caste system was formally instituted. Anyway, the Graakhalia gnolls were descended from gnolls who escaped during the human uprising against the chambahara, and fled underground in order to escape their slavery.)

Now, I'm not sure which was there first, the elves or the gnolls, but they fought and warred (as they usually do) but eventually, over the centuries, learned that they would survive more readily in the harsh cavernous terrain if they cooperated, and so they formed a tentative alliance, sharing living space and hunting together. Some gnolls were even trained in the elvish arts of magic (becoming something akin to foresters).
#9
havard
May 09, 2004 14:10:21
Originally posted by Cthulhudrew
This was pretty stupid, I always thought. They had just been created, for the Champions of Mystara boxed set (which came out post-WotI) and in a part of that set that "updated" the timeline of events to post-Wrath, they had the Graakhalians wiped out. They essentially gave you 6 years game time to do something with them and that was it.

I totally agree. When I first read that I was like "What?!" The Grakhalia were never my favorite race, but since the box presented a detailed description of the, destroying their culture right away seemed pointless.

I pretty much made the same assumption that you did about the Grakhalia being driven from their homes, but still being very much around in the surrounding caverns.

Havard
#10
zombiegleemax
May 11, 2004 5:29:02 To be honest I made it where they were able to finish their tunnels to Sind and then they had underground rivers, but they made it so that none of the rivers through Sind was fully rerouted so that nobody really noticed except that the rivers dropped a little. Then they barricaded themselves from the regions the humanoids invaded and basically built an underground fortress to defend themselves with. With the rivers they were able to farm again and they were still able to hunt deep in the ground. Eventually they dug another exit and then masked it with magic and shrubs so that it was kept a secret and the elves could continue their trade with Sind. Of course with the wars going on, they may move their trade to some other location like the Shires, Darokin or the Savage Baronies. Only elves did the traveling, but I allowed players to play the Gnolls as characters because of the elven influence on their society. Made for interesting games, especially since another player was a Rakasta once and they bickered constantly.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax May 09, 2004 8:39:15	Can someone give me a brief summery about Graakhalia? It sounds interesting - but I can't quite understand what's going on there exactly. I understand there is some info in CoM - but I don't have that, so please.
#2 zombiegleemax May 09, 2004 9:11:10	I'd never even heard of it before today - best I could find is some vague information in the vaults http://dnd.starflung.com/graaktho.html
#3 katana_one May 09, 2004 10:27:16	In a nutshell, Graakhalia is an underground nation in the region covered by the Champions of Mystara. It is a community of elves and gnolls living in a peaceful coexistence. I would have to dig out my copy of CoM to tell you more.
#4 kheldren May 09, 2004 11:29:52	I can't remember the full details, but katana_one has the eessence of it. They form(ed) an underground community in the desert to the west of Sind (I think). The were a legacy of Bruce Heard's inability to leave wilderness unpopulated. Anyway having set up a very interesting community (covered in his Dragon Magazine articles after the end of the Voyage of the Princess Ark) the official WotI timeline (in one of Gazateers I think) wiped the nation out! Personally I think I like the idea and if I ever need to use it I will have it somewhere in the Hollow World (like all other vanished cultures). Kheldren PS My memory said Elves and Ogres not Gnolls, but I am really not sure.
#5 zombiegleemax May 09, 2004 13:01:35	It is Elves and Gnolls, trust me, as that was one of my favorite nations. I allowed players to make Graakhalian Gnolls if they choosed. Made for some interesting games. Graakhalia was pretty much wiped out when Hule moved across the Great Waste. The Master I believe convinced humanoids in the Black Mountains to the North to invade the Great Waste region for some reason I can't remember. They were primarily a secret nation and I think they were accidently discovered by the humanoids. Their peaceful coexistince was not so peaceful actually, many of the gnolls distrusted the elves and vice versa, at the time of the humanoid invasion they had dug tunnels all the way to Sind and were planning to reroute some of the rivers there to water their underground farms. They had also dug in very deep under the ground and I think there could be a chance of survivors far into the ground and maybe some making their way to Hollow World. I remember the humanoids mostly forcing them deeper and deeper, but not really able to wipe them out. Thought they did begin to starve them by taking out their upper caverns where they harvested insects and other animals that happened by. I do remember that the caverns they occupied were the only saf caverns in that region. A Beholder lived in one area and Manscorpions lived in another and some poisonous mushrooms or algea or something would fire off spores at certain times that would kill anything in the area that was alive. Very active nation.
#6 zombiegleemax May 09, 2004 13:15:37	But how come elves and gnolls got to live together in the first place? And what kind of elves live undeground? Were the some sort of Shadow Elves? Does this culture resemble Sind in some way? Or any other known culture? Thanks, all.
#7 Cthulhudrew May 09, 2004 13:24:45	Tjedge noted: Graakhalia was pretty much wiped out when Hule moved across the Great Waste. The Master I believe convinced humanoids in the Black Mountains to the North to invade the Great Waste region for some reason I can't remember. This was pretty stupid, I always thought. They had just been created, for the Champions of Mystara boxed set (which came out post-WotI) and in a part of that set that "updated" the timeline of events to post-Wrath, they had the Graakhalians wiped out. They essentially gave you 6 years game time to do something with them and that was it. Strangely, though, there doesn't even seem to be a complete consensus of what happened to them. PWA1011 mentions that they were destroyed, and that Ka managed to send 2500 of them to the Hollow World. 2500 out of 25000. The rest of the entry leads one to believe they were completely wiped out and only a few scattered bands remain. Yet the entry for the Great Waste says that 14,000 of them are still around. Hardly what I'd call scattered bands. That's a pretty sizable group. So, I think it's safe to assume they're still more or less intact if you want to use them. Just a lot more harried than usual, due to the pressures of humanoid incursions into their territory. Probably most of their "main" caverns are occupied.
#8 Cthulhudrew May 09, 2004 13:34:36	Lost Woodrake pondered: But how come elves and gnolls got to live together in the first place? The elves were the Sheyallia clan, who (IIRC) were one of the clans that fled the explosions in the Broken Lands. Myself, I expand this a bit further and say rather than fleeing the Broken Lands, these were the elf clan that lived in Glantri (Gaz3 mentions elves in the highlands who disappeared prior to the arrival of the Flaems). They had ties to the four clans in the BL (the future Shadowelves, Icevale elves, and Gentle Folk... man, there were a lot of elves right around there!) Back to the point- they fled the explosion and headed west, and underground to flee the radioactive fallout. The gnolls were part of the (apparently massive) outpouring of "beastmen" who invaded Traladara (Karameikos) and the Shires c. 1000 BC. These particular gnolls went further west than any, and invaded Sind, but were driven underground. Again, don't recall the details offhand. (As with the Sheyallia, I expanded on this a bit further, actually attempting to tie together the first "official" bit on Sind- HWA3: Nightstorm, with the "revised" Sind- Champions of Mystara, which changed quite a bit for no apparent reason. Long story short, the gnolls were enslaved by the Sindhi, forming the first of what would someday be the caste system. When the chambahara (the shapechangers) took over, the caste system was formally instituted. Anyway, the Graakhalia gnolls were descended from gnolls who escaped during the human uprising against the chambahara, and fled underground in order to escape their slavery.) Now, I'm not sure which was there first, the elves or the gnolls, but they fought and warred (as they usually do) but eventually, over the centuries, learned that they would survive more readily in the harsh cavernous terrain if they cooperated, and so they formed a tentative alliance, sharing living space and hunting together. Some gnolls were even trained in the elvish arts of magic (becoming something akin to foresters).
#9 havard May 09, 2004 14:10:21	Originally posted by Cthulhudrew This was pretty stupid, I always thought. They had just been created, for the Champions of Mystara boxed set (which came out post-WotI) and in a part of that set that "updated" the timeline of events to post-Wrath, they had the Graakhalians wiped out. They essentially gave you 6 years game time to do something with them and that was it. I totally agree. When I first read that I was like "What?!" The Grakhalia were never my favorite race, but since the box presented a detailed description of the, destroying their culture right away seemed pointless. I pretty much made the same assumption that you did about the Grakhalia being driven from their homes, but still being very much around in the surrounding caverns. Havard
#10 zombiegleemax May 11, 2004 5:29:02	To be honest I made it where they were able to finish their tunnels to Sind and then they had underground rivers, but they made it so that none of the rivers through Sind was fully rerouted so that nobody really noticed except that the rivers dropped a little. Then they barricaded themselves from the regions the humanoids invaded and basically built an underground fortress to defend themselves with. With the rivers they were able to farm again and they were still able to hunt deep in the ground. Eventually they dug another exit and then masked it with magic and shrubs so that it was kept a secret and the elves could continue their trade with Sind. Of course with the wars going on, they may move their trade to some other location like the Shires, Darokin or the Savage Baronies. Only elves did the traveling, but I allowed players to play the Gnolls as characters because of the elven influence on their society. Made for interesting games, especially since another player was a Rakasta once and they bickered constantly.