Sub-settings of Mystara part 3

This article follows a first part which appeared in Threshold Magazine issue #23^¹, which described the Geographical sub-settings in Brun and the Alphatian sea and a second part which appeared in Threshold Magazine issue #24^² with the sub-settings of Davania and Skothar. This issue of Threshold completes the series with the sub-settings of the Hollow World and Mystaraspace, Historical and Racial sub-settings; see previous issues for more details.

Down, inside, up and beyond Mystara

These subsettings are still, strictly speaking, geographical places, but quite far away from the usual ones, or relatively unknown to the general populace of the Outer World. Yet it could be quite easy for the players to reach them if the DM wishes so. For some locations there is quite enough canon and fan made material to sustain a whole campaign, while others may require a bit more work to develop them.

The Shadowdeep

The name is a neologism created by the Mystara community for the Underdark of Mystara, to avoid using the latter term which is now very much associated with the Forgotten Realms setting. The underground regions of Mystara were de facto introduced in the canon Gazetteer product GAZ13: “The Shadow Elves”, which was also released as a free download in the last days of TSR^³. It was later expanded greatly by fans, mainly in Threshold Magazine issue #14^⁴, which was dedicated to it. Many events both in the canon Almanacs and in the later fan Almanacs are set in the Shadowdeep from 1,010 to 1,019 AC, with a war between Shadow elves, dwarves and humanoids for the conquest of Oenkmar and internal struggles among the Shadow elves between followers of Rafiel and Atzanteotl.
Basic Campaign: Explore the dangerous lands of darkness, find food and safety for you and your friends.
Expert Campaign: Help your people against external and internal threats.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in the Shadowdeep and defend it from the many threats of the sunless lands.
Master Campaign: Become the rulers of a great land, or lead your people to the conquest of the surface of the Outer or the Hollow World.
Immortal Campaign: Create a new religion, spreading the faith in the Shadowdeep and beyond.

Main sources

The Hollow World

The hollow interior of Mystara had a dedicated boxed set, which created this setting as a lost world, lit by a red sun, with floating continents, preserved by the Immortals as a refuge for civilizations and people that disappeared from the surface. Magic works differently in the Hollow World, with several spells unknown to the locals and others not working, such as teleport spells. This makes the setting much more savage and primitive, complete with dinosaurs. The Hollow World was the theme of Threshold Magazine issue, #9^⁵ and even a dedicated videogame, “Warriors of the Eternal Sun”, whose monumental conversion to a tabletop adventure you can find in this issue and the previous two issue of Threshold Magazine.
The Hollow World is the homeland of several major cultures which once flourished in the Outer World and have now found a new life under the red sun, so to call it a single subsetting is really an understatement, as it can really contain many more than just one.
A major theme of the Hollow World is also the Spell of Preservation, which keeps its cultures more or less intact, but is something the Immortals of Entropy would very much like to destroy and have tried to in the past with the Burrowers, gigantic and destructive monsters, as it was depicted in “Warriors of the Eternal Sun”.
Basic Campaign: Explore the vast lands of your region of the Hollow World, finding lost secrets and running from dinosaurs and ancient beasts.
Expert Campaign: Help your people against pesky neighbours with a different, strange culture, or travel to their lands to spy on them.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in your land and defend it from enemies and unwanted changes.
Master Campaign: Deal with the Spell of Preservation, unwilling or not, either to protect your land from unwanted change or to try to change your people.
Immortal Campaign: Discover the secrets of the Hollow World, choose if you want to protect it or change it at any cost.

Main sources

The Hollow World boxed set
The Poor Wizards Almanac I, II and III
GAZ13: “The Shadow Elves”
HWA1: “Nightwail Adventure”
HWA2: “Nightrage Adventure”
HWA3: “Nightstorm Adventure”
HWQ1: “The Milenian Sceptre Adventure”
HWR1: “Sons of Azca Campaign Source”
HWR2: “Kingdom of Nithia Campaign Source”
HWR3: “Milenian Empire Campaign Source “
The Atlas sections in the Vaults of Pandius http://pandius.com/atlas.html#hllwwrld.
Fan Almanacs from 1,014 to 1,019 AC http://pandius.com/alm.html
Threshold Magazine issue #9 and other articles dedicated to the Hollow World in Threshold Magazine http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17521&p=222019#p222019

The Skies

The Skies of Mystara may well have the status of a full subsetting because several creatures are known to inhabit them on solid islands of clouds. Intelligent creatures known to have settlements in the skies of Mystara are Cloud giants, faenare, faerie and obviously the sky gnomes introduced in PC2: “Top Ballista”, the supplement dedicated to the flying gnomish city of Serraine with its strange technologies and its inhabitants: sky gnomes, faenare, gremlins, harpies, nagpa, pegataurs, sphinxes and tabi. Other creatures that certainly inhabit Mystara skies are dragons, griffons, hippogriffs, pegasi, roc, manticores, pixies and sprites. More intelligent flying creatures which can well have settlements on the skies are introduced in the Savage Coast material, like the Crimson dragon and the Red Hawk dragon, the winged elves (ee’ar), the winged minotaurs (enduks) and the winged reptilians (krolli). More flying monsters are present in the Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium, as frelôn, ghriest, lupasus, naâruk, greater shedu, skinwing, tyminid and vulturehound.
Any other creatures with flying capabilities can also inhabit the skies, such as the cryon, bat-like inhabitants of the cold north, or the owl-like faerie folks the hsiao, werebats, and obviously several types of air elementals and undead. The canonically extinct werehawks may have survived up in the skies of Mystara.
The Hollow World has its own skies complete with a flying island of sky gnomes, Oostdok, and several floating continents inhabited also by winged serpents and, probably, flying dinosaurs too.
Basic Campaign: Explore your cloud in the sky, defend it from rivals and enemies.
Expert Campaign: Help your people against external threats or natural disasters.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in your home cloud and defend it from enemies, conquer the skies or explore the surface.
Master Campaign: Create an Empire of the Skies, or conquer the surface!
Immortal Campaign: Create a new religion for Mystara skies.

Main sources

Rules Cyclopedia
The Hollow World boxed set
The Poor Wizards Almanac I, II and III
Creature Catalogue
PC1: “Tall Tales of the Wee Folk”
PC2: “Top Ballista”
Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium
Some articles in the Vaults of Pandius as “Skyrealms of Mystara” by Håvard http://pandius.com/skyrealm.html and “99,9999985% Mystara history” by Francesco Defferrari http://pandius.com/mysthist.html or “Clouds: Those which pass, pass with rain” by Giulio Caroletti http://pandius.com/nuagclkn.html or “Faerie” by Sheldon Morris http://pandius.com/faerie5e.html or “Faenare Race and Racial Progression” by Jamie Baty http://pandius.com/faenarer.html

Matera

The white and visible moon of Mystara, modelled after our real world moon, has likewise a rocky and airless surface, but is canonically the place where lies Pandius, the hidden city of the Immortals on the dark side of the moon. Beside that, fans developed Matera a lot, both on the surface and inside, with the development of the Hollow Moon by Sharon Dornhoff, John Calvin and others. The Hollow Moon is the home of more people and creatures now extinct on Mystara’s surface and this, combined with the mysterious external surface, is more than enough to make Matera a very big subsetting.
Basic Campaign: Explore your corner of the Hollow Moon and meet its inhabitants.
Expert Campaign: Travel the Hollow Moon and discover its secrets.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in your home country or travel as far as Matera’s rocky surface.
Master Campaign: Create an Empire in the Hollow Moon and beyond and deal with the Spell of Remembrance, the Immortal way to preserve the local cultures!
Immortal Campaign: Create a new religion for Matera or join the Immortals in their own city.

Main sources

Patera

The invisible, dark moon of Mystara was introduced by Bruce Heard in “Voyage of the Princess Ark” series as the home of the rakasta culture of Myoshima, modeled after ancient Japan. Through the series, Myoshima enters into conflictual contact both with the Heldannic Knights and the Alphatians of Prince Haldemar and its flying ship, the Princess of Ark. Patera has later been further developed and mapped by fans, making it quite a viable and detailed subsetting. Beside rakasta, the other main inhabitants of Patera would be Pachydermions, but other creatures could be present too, even if probably none of the classic human, demi-human and humanoid races. Fan supposed other intelligent creatures such as nagas, monkey folks, pooka and faeries, merfolks, shark-kins, aranea, sasquatches, tengu and snappers should be present on Patera.
Basic Campaign: Explore your corner of Patera and discover its ruins.
Expert Campaign: Travel to other countries and lands of Patera, fight invaders from Mystara such as the Heldannic Knights, or the Alphatians.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in your country or travel beyond Patera and explore Mystara’s surface or its solar system.
Master Campaign: Create an Empire in Patera or guide its people to the conquest of Mystara
Immortal Campaign: Create a new religion to unify Patera.

Main sources

Voyageof the Princess Ark series of articles in Dragon Magazine
Champions of Mystara boxed set
The Wrath of the Immortals boxed set
The Patera section in the Vaults of Pandius http://pandius.com/themoons.html.
“History And Evolution Of Rakastas” by Simone Neri http://pandius.com/rakhevol.html following the rakasta article in Dragon Magazine by Bruce Heard and other resources in the Vaults about rakasta and their history.
Threshold Magazine issue #15 and other articles dedicated to Patera in Threshold Magazine http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17521&p=222019#p222020

Mystaraspace

The Mystara solar system had practically no canon development, except for a brief description in the original Immortal Set by Frank Mentzer which described planets similar to the ones of our solar system. Fans elaborated a lot about that, creating a live setting which can potentially host many sub settings and obviously be linked to the Spelljammer campaign setting. More recently, Threshold Magazine issue #15 summarized the current available material for Mystaraspace, adding some more. The vastity of the setting obviously makes it potentially inhabited by any race ever created for Mystara, and more.
Basic Campaign: Explore your small corner of your planet, to slowly discover how big it is.
Expert Campaign: Travel to other nations of your planet, and discover there is an infinite space beyond it, face its marvels and dangers.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in your planet or somewhere else in your solar system.
Master Campaign: Lead your planet to the conquest of Mystaraspace, or unite people and whole planets against a common enemy.
Immortal Campaign: Create a new religion on your planet and spread it to Mystaraspace.

Main sources

Planes and Dimensions

Originally described in the Companion set as the Multiverse, which introduced Interplanar adventures, the planes also appeared in several classic adventure modules from CM6 to IM3. Exploration of the planes is the natural path for PCs starting their Quest for Immortality as described in the Master set, but travels to the planes are possible even at much lower levels.
Planes and Dimensions, from the Ethereal Plane to the Elemental Planes and the Outer Planes, are obviously a theoretically infinite array of settings which go well beyond Mystara and can connect it to other D&D classic settings, starting with Planescape. Mystara fans have expanded on this information, creating maps and stories for the Planes.
Basic Campaign: Start as PCs natives of a Plane, meeting its dangers and its opportunities.
Expert Campaign: Travel to other corners of your Plane or Dimension, and maybe meet strange creatures from beyond your home world.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in your corner of the Multiverse, or start exploring the infinite and diverse Planes.
Master Campaign: Lead your people to the conquest of the Planes, or become Planes travellers famous in many worlds and universes.
Immortal Campaign: Create a new religion and spread it to the Planes.

Main sources

Companion, Master and Immortal rules boxed sets
Adventure modules of the CM, M and IM series
Rules Cyclopedia
“Voyage of the Princess Ark” series of articles in Dragon Magazine
The Wrath of the Immortals boxed set
The Mystaraspace and Planes section in the Vaults of Pandius http://pandius.com/planejam.html.
Threshold Magazine issue #15 and other articles dedicated to the Planes in Threshold Magazine http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?p=222033#p222033

Historical sub settings

The History of Mystara was developed starting from the Gazetteers and then with a much more complete picture in the Hollow World boxed set, which also explicitly connected Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor and the DA series of modules to the continent of Skothar. With the Hollow World described as a museum of past cultures, it provided a lot of details on the history of Mystara. Fans have done the rest, even creating whole new sub settings, as like Lhomarr by Geoff Gander or 2300 BC by John Calvin. Enough to have several interesting and viable subsettings in the past of Mystara.

Ancient times

Prior to 5,000 BC (Before the Coronation of the first emperor of Thyatis, as history is typically measured in Known World nations), Mystara’s history is not really described in canon sources, but fans have written enough material to create sub settings for the ancient times of the planet. Previous eras have been dominated by non-human races, such as fairies, dragons, giants, brutemen, lizardmen and other reptilian races. Hints and bits about the ancient times of Mystara are present in some canon products, such as the adventure module M3: “Twilight Calling”, which introduced the Carnifex as an ancient reptilian race imprisoned by the Immortals for the use of evil and destructive magic. Other aspects have been developed by fans, like Lhomarr and Y’hog by Geoff Gander, a great struggle set in Davania around 7,000 BC between the first great human civilization and the heirs of the Carnifex. More details on the ancient times of Mystara have been developed also by Sharon Dornhoff and John Calvin in their work on the Hollow Moon setting.
Basic Campaign: Start as PCs in the ancient past of Mystara or as low level PCs stranded in a remote and unknown past.
Expert Campaign: Travel through the past and become leaders of your time.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in the past or visit past ages in search of lost treasures.
Master Campaign: Lead your people to survival and prosperity, leaving a mark in the future.
Immortal Campaign: Create a new religion and make it last through the ages.

Main sources

The Times of Blackmoor

The times which saw the rise of Blackmoor, in 4,000 BC, are the focus of the DA series of adventures, and more material has been provided by the Blackmoor Campaign setting published for D&D 3ed and D&D 4ed. Even if not officially linked to Mystara, it is widely compatible with Blackmoor as placed in Skothar in the Hollow World boxed set. More material on Blackmoor and Thonia up to the Great Rain of Fire of 3,000 BC was produced by the active fans community of Mystara. In the space of a thousand years Blackmoor rose to dominate the whole world, establishing colonies everywhere, as in the modern Known World, but was eventually destroyed by its own technomagic weapons in the event later known as the Great Rain of Fire.
Basic Campaign: Start as PCs in Thonia or Blackmoor or travel there as in the DA1 module.
Expert Campaign: Defend Blackmoor from his enemies and help it rise to greatness.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in Blackmoor or in its new colonies.
Master Campaign: Lead Blackmoor to greatness, or resist its rise among its enemies.
Immortal Campaign: As a new Immortal, ensure the survival of Blackmoor, avoid the Great Rain of Fire, or destroy the dangerous remnants of Blackmoor technology.

Main sources

2,300 to 1,700 BC

This era, in which the world of Mystara was recovering from the devastating effects of the Great Rain of Fire, was made into a viable sub setting by the work of John Calvin aka Chimpman and others. The material now available, including some items recently published in Threshold Magazine, is more than enough to sustain a campaign in these times. This period has an interesting post-apocalyptic and bronze agee feel and should end approximately with the minor cataclysm of 1700 BC, when during the great humanoid invasion the explosion of a lost Blackmoorian device created the Broken Lands and a series of earthquakes in the southern Known World destroyed the Taymora civilization and created the islands of future Ierendi and Minrothad in the Sunlit Sea.
Basic Campaign: Survive in difficult times and face the challenges of the past.
Expert Campaign: Rise in the ranks of your homeland or fight despotic rulers and overwhelming enemies.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in your land or discover new ones.
Master Campaign: Lead your homeland to conquest and greatness, or become celebrated heroes.
Immortal Campaign: As a new Immortal, save your homeland from oblivion or prevent the minor cataclysm from happening.

Main sources

1,600 to 0 BC

This age on many of the continents of Mystara is marked by extensive humanoid invasions, as hordes of the many breeds of humanoids reached from the north of Brun to the south of the continent and as far as Davania and Skothar. This age also saw the rise of important human civilizations, such as Nithia and Milenia, and the arrival of the Alphatians on Mystara. It should be the equivalent of a new iron age in Mystara, with rising civilizations and barbarian cultures side by side with the humans slowly rising to prominence in many areas of the world. The Known World also saw the rise of the dwarvish and gnomish nation of Rockhome, the elven nation of Alfheim and the halfling emigration from Davania with the creation of the Five Shires.
Basic Campaign: Survive in difficult times and face the challenges of the past.
Expert Campaign: Rise in the ranks of your homeland or fight despotic rulers and overwhelming enemies.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in our land or discover new ones.
Master Campaign: Lead your homeland to conquest and greatness, or become celebrated heroes and founders of new nations.
Immortal Campaign: As a new Immortal, ensure the survival of your people in the future.

Main sources

1 AC to 1,000 AC

This is the time of the creation of the Empire of Thyatis in the Known World and the age up to the present day, in which Mystara takes the shape it has in canon products, which are mostly set in 1,000 AC. This time sees the birth and development of all the modern Known World nations, each with its own epic story of hardships and successes. A similar story should be common in other areas of the world, each one with its own peculiarities.
Basic Campaign: Explore your land and defend your community.
Expert Campaign: Become famous adventurers among your people and help them create a new nation.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in your land or discover new ones.
Master Campaign: Lead your country to conquest and greatness, or become celebrated heroes and founders of new nations.
Immortal Campaign: As a new Immortal, lead the path of your people toward the future.

Main sources

Racial sub-settings

Each intelligent race of Mystara may be a sub setting of its own. This has a basis in canon with the PC series of supplements, which were dedicated to fairies, sky gnomes, undersea creatures and werecreatures. An older Mystara supplement, AC10: “Bestiary of Dragons and Giants”, could be used for the same purpose even if it is mostly a collection of adventures with human PCs meeting dragons and giants. Several Gazetteer, notably GAZ10: “The Orcs of Thar” (but also GAZ5: “The Elves of Alfheim”, GAZ6: “The Dwarves of Rockhome”, GAZ8:“The Five Shires” and GAZ13: “The Shadowelves”) can be used to create parties entirely composed of humanoids and demihumans PCs living in humanoid and demihuman nations. The “Voyage of the Princess Ark” articles in Dragon Magazine and later articles by Bruce Heard dedicated to lupins, rakasta and tortles also could be the basis to create sub settings based on members of these races, in the Savage Coast and Myoshima as explained above. The Savage Coast material also contains other minor non-human playable races. While most Mystaran canon material deals with human NPCs and countries, where other intelligent races are adversaries or supporting cast, there is still a lot of material to create fully non-human campaigns.
Threshold Magazine issue #13, A Crucible of Creatures, includes many resources to play non-human characters, including undead PCs. Threshold Magazine issue #14 also includes information and rules to play non-human characters native to the underground lands of Mystara. Other non-human PC options appear in other issues of Threshold Magazine, such as the pachydermion in issue #15, creatures of Western Brun in issue #17, people of the Savage Coast in issue #18 and the zhochal created by Geoff Gander in issue #20.
Basic Campaign: Defend your community from humans or other threats.
Expert Campaign: Become famous adventurers among your people and help them create a new nation. As non-human communities of the same race may be hundreds of miles apart, PCs could be sent to find other members of the race, having to travel hostile human or humanoid lands.
Companion Campaign: Create a dominion in your land or discover new ones, or lead a great migration of your people to a promised land.
Master Campaign: Lead your people to conquest and greatness, or become celebrated heroes and founders of new nations.
Immortal Campaign: As a new Immortal, lead the path of your people toward the future and ensure the survival of your race through the centuries.

Main sources

AC10: “Bestiary of Dragons and Giants”
PC1: “Tall Tales of the Wee Folk”
PC2: “Top Ballista”
PC3: “The Sea People”
PC4: “Night Howlers”
GAZ5: “The Elves of Alfheim”
GAZ6: “The Dwarves of Rockhome”
GAZ8: “The Five Shires”
GAZ10: “The Orcs of Thar”
GAZ13:“The Shadowelves”
Hollow World boxed set
The “Voyage of the Princess Ark” article series in Dragon Magazine
Champions of Mystara boxed set
The Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium, also here http://pandius.com/sc_monst.html
Dragon Magazine # 237: “Lupins of Mystara”
Dragon Magazine # 247: “Rakasta of Mystara”
The Creatures and Conversion section http://pandius.com/newcrea.html and the Mystaran races section in the Vaults of Pandius http://pandius.com/races.html.
Threshold Magazine issue #13, #14, #16, #17 and #18, http://pandius.com/thrs_mag.html, in particular the articles dedicated to the intelligent races of Mystara in Threshold Magazine http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?p=222032#p222032

1Threshold issue #23 can be downloaded free here: http://pandius.com/Threshold_23.pdf. A html version of the article is also here: http://pandius.com/msubset1.html

2Threshold issue #24 can be downloaded free here: http://pandius.com/Threshold_24.pdf. A html version of the article is also here: http://pandius.com/msubset2.html

3And it is stored in the Vaults of Pandius, in html and pdf format, at this address: http://pandius.com/shadow.html

4Threshold issue #14 can be downloaded free here: http://pandius.com/Threshold_14.pdf.

5Which can be downloaded at the Vaults here: http://pandius.com/thrs_mag.html#9