Thoughts on including a piece of Rod of Seven Parts in Mystara
by Mike HarveyHuh. For whatever it's worth here's the original text from the 1E DMG:
"The Wind Dukes of Aaqa are the legendary creators of this artifact. It is said that they constructed the rod to use in the great battle of Pesh where Chaos and Law contended. There, the rod was shattered, and its parts scattered, but the enchantments of the item were such that nothing could actually destroy it, so if its sections are recovered and put together in the correct order the possessor will wield a weapon of surpassing power. The seven parts of the rod are slightly different..."
No mention of a queen of chaos, a wolf spider or any of the rest.
I would tie the Wind Dukes of Aaqa to the flying city of Serraine and probably the air wizards of the kingdom of Floating Ar, along with some cloud Giants and other aerial critters.
Pesh it's obviously a reference to the kingdom of Peshmir, in the mountains north of Sind.
The queen of chaos is most likely either the immortal Hel or Nyx. (Both are in entropic, but Nyx is more evil.)
To use the Alphatian air wizards, the Battle of Pesh could not be more than 2,000 years before the present (aka 2000 BC). It's not clear what Alphatians would be doing in Peshmir, there is nothing in Mystaran history connecting the two, and they're widely separated geographically. On the other hand, that never stopped anyone before!
I propose that the rod of seven parts was created by Alphatian wizards and it has air powers, not law powers. (Alphatia itself is pretty chaotic so I don't see "staff of law" as something they would create). Not long after Alphatian Landfall, the wizards discovered that they were among the most powerful people in the world, and while most of them were content to only conquer the single continent and stay there, a few of them decided to take this planet (or at least another continent) for themselves.
The self styled Wind Dukes were air wizards who went west to build an empire in the neighboring continent of Brun, around 900 BC. The empire of Nithia was still at its height, and very powerful, so they went beyond into the wilderness northwest of Nithia, to a region we now know as Glantri. They had discovered strange magical emanations coming from this place and wanted to investigate. Within 50 years they had subdued all the surrounding territory from Glantri to Kadesh, and established a capital on the shores of Lake Hast, at the site of what is now known as Kandahar. Although the magic that attracted them was in a Glantri, they did not understand it and the area around Lake Hast was beautiful and more protected, and not occupied by any powerful empires.
They built an alliance of white dragons, cloud giants and gnomes, and crafted the Rod of Winds to unify and defend the empire. Their fleet of flying ships, floating castles, and their famous floating University were all tied to the power of the rod. The rod also granted the power to subdue and command aerial creatures for their armies.
Unfortunately, within a hundred years they came into conflict with the empire of Nithia that correctly saw them as a dangerous rival, expanding far too quickly. By this time Nithia was in its decline and falling rapidly to evil chaos; even though the Wind Dukes were chaotic themselves, they were supported by the immortals of law as "better than Nithia".
Within a rather short time span, battle was joined between the fire and water wizards of Nithia and the air wizards of Peshmir; Nithia commanding legions of demons (thanks to Thanatos and other immortal demons) and undead (thanks to the immortal Nyx), and Peshmir with a much smaller army of gnomes and white dragons. Nithia was far more powerful and soon was besieging the capital at Kandahar. The battle ended with a contest between the Necromancer Pharoah (a cleric of Nyx) of Nithia and the Archduke of the Winds, in which the pharaoh shattered the staff. All the works of Aaqa were unmade in that instant, and a cataclysmic magical whirlwind destroyed the pharaoh and scattered the pieces of the rod across the multiverse. (The Alphatians were dimensional travelers, not even native to mystara, so it stands to reason that their magic has transdimensional aspects to it.)
Only one piece remained in Mystara, in the possession of the gnomish allies of Aaqa. It was used to build the Flying City of Serraine, and if it is removed that City will crash to the ground and be undone. The culture of the flying tinker gnomes would also be ended by such an event. It is a well-kept secret known only to the lord mayor of the city. It is hidden and disguised by powerful spells over a thousand years old. The origin stories have been suppressed and then forgotten. Perhaps in a forgotten cave underneath Serraine there is a lost archive that tells the story, but at this point even the lord mayor has forgotten the story; all he knows is that there's a powerful artifact that must be kept secret.
And what of the original capital of Aaqa? It is now known as Highfell. (See the mega dungeon by Greg Gillespie) In Highfell can be found the true origin of the rod of seven parts, the story of it's making and it's reason for existence. Perhaps after the battle some surviving wizards even pieced together what happened and suspect that one of the parts is now in possession of Serraine.
A quest to find this part might go like this:
- Trace the Exodus of the Alphatians from old alphatia to mystara
- In the elevation Capital find an ancient reference to the Wind Dukes of aqua, nearly 2000 years ago immediately following landfall
- Trace the wind Dukes of aqua to Highfell, which drifted away from its original site at Kandahar and is now lost among the impenetrable mountains of the Kurdish Massif.
- In the deep archives of Highfell discover lore about this rod and a rumor that the gnomes of aaqa escaped with one of the pieces
- Put two and two together and realize that the gnomes of aaqa probably became the gnomes of Serraine, the only known flying "wind gnomes" of the known world
- Go to Serraine to find and claim the part 7a. Justify destroying the gnomish civilization to yourself. (In order for a quest to be truly epic, it needs to have tragedy and soul searching.) 7b. Alternately enlist the aid of immortals to replace the rod with a new air artifact, so you don't have to destroy Serraine. That's a whole different quest, possibly involving that high council of alphatia. Good luck "herding those cats" though, as the council is notoriously divided and political.
Well that's my thoughts. No idea how well this may or may not match with other ideas you have, but maybe it gives you something to work with.