Lankhmar
Encyclopedia
Lankhmar is a fictional city in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
stories by Fritz Leiber
. It is situated on the world of Nehwon
, just west of the Great Salt Marsh and east of the River Hlal, and serves as the home of Leiber's two anti-hero
es.
rife with corruption; it is decadent and squalid in roughly equal parts and said to be so shrouded by smog
that the stars are rarely sighted (the city's alternate name is "The City of Seven Score Thousand Smokes".) Located next to the Inner Sea, Lankhmar is visited by ships from across Nehwon and is the starting point for Fafhrd and the Mouser's many sea voyages.
The city is ostensibly ruled by an Overlord and a nobility. The Thieves' Guild is influential, too, and controls Lankhmar's abundant criminal element, with the notable exceptions of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
Streets in Lankhmar are often evocatively named (the Thieves' Guild is located on Cheap Street near Death's Alley and Murder Alley.) Commonly referenced locations are the Silver Eel Tavern, behind which is Bone Alley, and the Golden Lamprey. The main meeting place is the Plaza of Dark Delights, which is the setting of the popular story The Bazaar of the Bizarre
. The religious center of Lankhmar is the Street of the Gods (the Gods in Lankhmar), along which numerous (and often bizarre) cults seek to arrange themselves in order of popularity. The true gods of Lankhmar, however, are feared rather than worshipped; these "Black Bones" (mummified ancestors of the Lankhmarese) occasionally leave their temple to fight threats to the city—or threats to their own position as preeminent religion within the city.
Beneath Lankhmar is an underground city
inhabited by sentient
rat
s. At one point the Mouser, magically reduced in size, infiltrates this world.
Leiber's Lankhmar bears considerable similarity to 16th Century Seville
as depicted in Cervantes
' classical picaresque tale Rinconete y Cortadillo: a bustling, cosmopolitan maritime city, into whose port galleons sail laden with gold from which only a few benefit, with a thoroughly corrupt civil government and a powerful and well-organized Thieves' Guild—all seen through the eyes of two young adventurers who formed a partnership to guard each other's back in this dangerous milieu. However, Cervantes' protagonists, less daring than Leiber's, do not confront the Thieves' Guild but instead enter its ranks.
created a complex wargame
set within the world of Nehwon, which Fischer had helped to create. Later, they created a simplified board game entitled simply "Lankhmar" which was released by TSR
in 1976. This is a rare case of a game adaptation
written by the creators of the stories on which the game is based.
The TSR game is for 2-4 players, each of whom takes a hero (Fafhrd, the Gray Mouser, Pulgh, or Movarl) and leads the forces of one of the powers of Nehwon in an effort to capture the opponents' citadels. This oppositional stance is unusual for the series, though there were a few times in the stories where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were temporarily committed to opposing sides. The TSR game is simple and includes bits of color from the series, such as geases that send the heroes around the board chasing various goals at the behest of Sheelba, Ningauble, or various gods.
(1985) was a supplement produced by TSR
for their Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
(AD&D) role-playing game
containing maps, descriptions of the city areas, game statistics for various prominent characters from the stories, and ideas for adventures in and around the city. It was updated in 1993 under the same name for use with 2nd edition AD&D. Several modules and accessories were produced for use with City of Adventure.
The New Adventures of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser
(1996) was a boxed set that replaced Lankhmar, City of Adventure and could be used as an AD&D supplement or a standalone RPG with simplified AD&D rules.
In 2006, Mongoose Publishing
began publishing a number of Lankhmar-themed roleplaying books based on its revival of the RuneQuest
roleplaying game system, starting with Lankhmar (ISBN 978-1-905471-69-0) and Lankhmar: Nehwon (ISBN 978-1-905471-99-7 ).
For many years, the role-playing magazine Dragon
ran a column introducing magical treasures, under the name "Bazaar of the Bizarre", in honour of the magical emporium in Lankhmar (and Leiber's story of the same name). When the column's name was changed, there was sufficient outcry from readers for the name to be reinstated.
The first edition AD&D game book Deities & Demigods
and the second edition AD&D book Legends & Lore both include a section on the Nehwon mythos, and stats out several characters from the books as well as gods and monsters.
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two seminal sword-and-sorcery heroes appearing in stories written by Fritz Leiber . They are the protagonists of what are probably Leiber's best-known stories....
stories by Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
. It is situated on the world of Nehwon
Nehwon
Nehwon is the fictional world created by Fritz Leiber in which his heroes, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, adventure. It is notable for the city of Lankhmar."Nehwon", the reverse spelling of "No When", alludes to Erewhon.-Ilthmar:...
, just west of the Great Salt Marsh and east of the River Hlal, and serves as the home of Leiber's two anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
es.
The city of Lankhmar
Lankhmar is richly described as a populous, labyrinthine cityCity
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
rife with corruption; it is decadent and squalid in roughly equal parts and said to be so shrouded by smog
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
that the stars are rarely sighted (the city's alternate name is "The City of Seven Score Thousand Smokes".) Located next to the Inner Sea, Lankhmar is visited by ships from across Nehwon and is the starting point for Fafhrd and the Mouser's many sea voyages.
The city is ostensibly ruled by an Overlord and a nobility. The Thieves' Guild is influential, too, and controls Lankhmar's abundant criminal element, with the notable exceptions of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
Streets in Lankhmar are often evocatively named (the Thieves' Guild is located on Cheap Street near Death's Alley and Murder Alley.) Commonly referenced locations are the Silver Eel Tavern, behind which is Bone Alley, and the Golden Lamprey. The main meeting place is the Plaza of Dark Delights, which is the setting of the popular story The Bazaar of the Bizarre
Bazaar of the Bizarre
Bazaar of the Bizarre is a sword and sorcery novelette by Fritz Leiber, and part of the canon of stories chronicling his adventurous duo, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser....
. The religious center of Lankhmar is the Street of the Gods (the Gods in Lankhmar), along which numerous (and often bizarre) cults seek to arrange themselves in order of popularity. The true gods of Lankhmar, however, are feared rather than worshipped; these "Black Bones" (mummified ancestors of the Lankhmarese) occasionally leave their temple to fight threats to the city—or threats to their own position as preeminent religion within the city.
Beneath Lankhmar is an underground city
Underground city
An Underground city is a series of linked subterranean spaces that may provide a defensive refuge; a place for living, working or shopping; a transit system; mausolea; wine or storage cellars; cisterns or drainage channels; or several of these. The term may also refer to a network of tunnels that...
inhabited by sentient
Sentience
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think from the ability to feel . In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences...
rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s. At one point the Mouser, magically reduced in size, infiltrates this world.
Leiber's Lankhmar bears considerable similarity to 16th Century Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
as depicted in Cervantes
Cervantes
-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
' classical picaresque tale Rinconete y Cortadillo: a bustling, cosmopolitan maritime city, into whose port galleons sail laden with gold from which only a few benefit, with a thoroughly corrupt civil government and a powerful and well-organized Thieves' Guild—all seen through the eyes of two young adventurers who formed a partnership to guard each other's back in this dangerous milieu. However, Cervantes' protagonists, less daring than Leiber's, do not confront the Thieves' Guild but instead enter its ranks.
Board games
In 1937, Leiber and his college friend Harry Otto FischerHarry Otto Fischer
Harry Otto Fischer was an American science fiction fan best known for helping his college friend Fritz Leiber create the sword and sorcery heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and their imaginary world of Nehwon....
created a complex wargame
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
set within the world of Nehwon, which Fischer had helped to create. Later, they created a simplified board game entitled simply "Lankhmar" which was released by TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
in 1976. This is a rare case of a game adaptation
Adaptation
An adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation....
written by the creators of the stories on which the game is based.
The TSR game is for 2-4 players, each of whom takes a hero (Fafhrd, the Gray Mouser, Pulgh, or Movarl) and leads the forces of one of the powers of Nehwon in an effort to capture the opponents' citadels. This oppositional stance is unusual for the series, though there were a few times in the stories where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were temporarily committed to opposing sides. The TSR game is simple and includes bits of color from the series, such as geases that send the heroes around the board chasing various goals at the behest of Sheelba, Ningauble, or various gods.
Role-playing games
Lankhmar – City of AdventureLankhmar – City of Adventure
Lankhmar – City of Adventure is an accessory for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, first published by TSR in 1985.-Publication history:...
(1985) was a supplement produced by TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
for their Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
(AD&D) role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
containing maps, descriptions of the city areas, game statistics for various prominent characters from the stories, and ideas for adventures in and around the city. It was updated in 1993 under the same name for use with 2nd edition AD&D. Several modules and accessories were produced for use with City of Adventure.
The New Adventures of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser
Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar: The New Adventures of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser
Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar: The New Adventures of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1996.-References:...
(1996) was a boxed set that replaced Lankhmar, City of Adventure and could be used as an AD&D supplement or a standalone RPG with simplified AD&D rules.
In 2006, Mongoose Publishing
Mongoose Publishing
Mongoose Publishing is a prolific British manufacturer of role-playing games, miniatures, and card games, actively publishing material since 2001...
began publishing a number of Lankhmar-themed roleplaying books based on its revival of the RuneQuest
RuneQuest
RuneQuest is a fantasy role-playing game first published in 1978 by Chaosium, created by Steve Perrin and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. RuneQuest was notable for its original gaming system and for its verisimilitude in adhering to an original fantasy world...
roleplaying game system, starting with Lankhmar (ISBN 978-1-905471-69-0) and Lankhmar: Nehwon (ISBN 978-1-905471-99-7 ).
For many years, the role-playing magazine Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
ran a column introducing magical treasures, under the name "Bazaar of the Bizarre", in honour of the magical emporium in Lankhmar (and Leiber's story of the same name). When the column's name was changed, there was sufficient outcry from readers for the name to be reinstated.
The first edition AD&D game book Deities & Demigods
Deities & Demigods
Deities & Demigods , alternatively known as Legends & Lore , is a reference book for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game . The book provides descriptions and game statistics of gods and legendary creatures from various sources in mythology and fiction...
and the second edition AD&D book Legends & Lore both include a section on the Nehwon mythos, and stats out several characters from the books as well as gods and monsters.
External links
- Fan website on Lankhmar
- Listing for the Lankhmar Board Game
- TSR Archive Lankhmar product list