Oerth
Encyclopedia
In the Dungeons & Dragons
roleplaying game, Oerth, pronounced as "Orth" (long "o") or "oyth", is the name of the fictional planet on which one of the earliest campaign setting
s, the World of Greyhawk, is located. Oerth has an axial tilt
of 30 degrees, which would cause greater seasonal temperature variation than on Earth, were it not for wizardly and divine magic that shifts weather patterns to be more favorable to the populace (at least the god-fearing folks).
in Oerth Journal, Oerth's circumference is about 42,024 km
, and its radius measures 6,714 km
, about 1% more than that of Earth. There is no flattening of the planet sphere due to rotation, and divine power is again hinted at.
Oerth has at least four continents, the largest of which is Oerik
, lying mainly in the Northern Hemisphere
. Southeast of Oerik lies the much-smaller landmass of Hepmonaland
, lying in the tropics. Hyperboria, also called Telchuria (after Telchur
, the god of winter), lies at the north pole
, while an unnamed fourth continent lies in the southern hemisphere. Oerth is thought to have four oceans, including the Solnor Ocean, the Dramidj Ocean that circles Telchuria, the Ocean of Storms south of Oerik, and the Sea of Thunder encompassing Polaria.
Oerth also has a number of islands, the largest being Fireland in the northern Solnor, depicted on maps as being roughly half the size of Hepmonaland. Polaria is a chain of mountainous islands covered for at least part of the year by the southern polar ice cap.
The easternmost part of Oerik, the Flanaess
, has received the lion's share of detail, though Hepmonaland has received significant attention. Western Oerik was the setting for TSR
's original miniature line, Chainmail, but few regard the material written for that setting as canon
, especially after the miniature line's cancellation in 2002.
Author Frank Mentzer
, in a series of early modules
, added a small territory called New Empyrea to the world across the Solnor Ocean from the Flanaess, but it has not been mentioned in subsequent Greyhawk products.
at the north pole of Oerth. Telchuria is sometimes referred to as "High Boros" or "Hyborea."
It is possible that, in the depth of winter, a natural ice bridge forms between Telchuria and the Land of Black Ice.
. Unlike most planets, Oerth does not orbit its sun, Liga. Instead, the Sun, and all other planets in the crystal sphere, orbit Oerth. Thus, Greyspace houses a geosystem, rather than a solar system. Oerth's "moons", Celene (Kule) and Luna (Raenei), are in fact the first and second planets in the geosystem, with Liga being the third. From Oerth, planets beyond Liga appear to the naked eye as wandering star
s.
Liga orbits the Oerth once every 364 days, thus the Oerthly year is slightly shorter than that on Earth. Luna has a 28 day lunar cycle, while Celene's cycle is 91 days.
Newszine, Gary Gygax
revealed several "alternate Oerths" while explaining the setting for his HEROES CHALLENGE game books, co-written with author Flint Dille
and published under the aegis of the Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment Corporation by the Wanderer Book division of Simon & Schuster
.
This implies that the planets differ in both their geographies as well as the relative presence of magic. The planets, from least to most magical, are Earth, Uerth, Yarth/Aerth, then Oerth. Between Yarth/Aerth, it is unclear which is more magical.
Other references to these alternate Oerths appear in the Gord the Rogue
short story anthology Night Arrant as well as in Gygax's Epic of Aerth campaign setting for the Dangerous Journeys
roleplaying game. The five parallel worlds of Oerth, Aerth, Uerth, Yarth and Earth were recently mentioned in the 3rd Edition adventure Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk
and thus found their way into 3rd edition canon.
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...
roleplaying game, Oerth, pronounced as "Orth" (long "o") or "oyth", is the name of the fictional planet on which one of the earliest campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
s, the World of Greyhawk, is located. Oerth has an axial tilt
Axial tilt
In astronomy, axial tilt is the angle between an object's rotational axis, and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane...
of 30 degrees, which would cause greater seasonal temperature variation than on Earth, were it not for wizardly and divine magic that shifts weather patterns to be more favorable to the populace (at least the god-fearing folks).
Physical features
According to the paper by Gary HolianGary Holian
Gary Holian is an American author of several products and articles for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, especially for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting...
in Oerth Journal, Oerth's circumference is about 42,024 km
1 E7 m
To help compare different orders of magnitude, this page lists lengths starting at 107 metres .Distances shorter than 107 metres- Conversions :10 megametres is* 6,215 miles....
, and its radius measures 6,714 km
1 E6 m
To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths starting at 106 m .Distances shorter than 106 metres-Conversions:1 megametre is equal to:* 1 E+6 m * approximately 621.37 miles...
, about 1% more than that of Earth. There is no flattening of the planet sphere due to rotation, and divine power is again hinted at.
Oerth has at least four continents, the largest of which is Oerik
Oerik
In the Dungeons and Dragons World of Greyhawk Campaign setting, Oerik is the largest continent on the world of Oerth, where the Greyhawk campaign takes place.Oerik is named after the Oeridians, a human people who settled much of the continent...
, lying mainly in the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
. Southeast of Oerik lies the much-smaller landmass of Hepmonaland
Hepmonaland
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, the continent of Hepmonaland is Southeast of the Flanaess. Hepmonaland was created as a in-game region where the Aztec culture is dominant and dinosaurs are very common monsters.Hepmonaland is the Suel and...
, lying in the tropics. Hyperboria, also called Telchuria (after Telchur
Telchur
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Telchur is the Oeridian god of Winter, Cold, and the North Wind...
, the god of winter), lies at the north pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
, while an unnamed fourth continent lies in the southern hemisphere. Oerth is thought to have four oceans, including the Solnor Ocean, the Dramidj Ocean that circles Telchuria, the Ocean of Storms south of Oerik, and the Sea of Thunder encompassing Polaria.
Oerth also has a number of islands, the largest being Fireland in the northern Solnor, depicted on maps as being roughly half the size of Hepmonaland. Polaria is a chain of mountainous islands covered for at least part of the year by the southern polar ice cap.
The easternmost part of Oerik, the Flanaess
Flanaess
The Flanaess is the eastern part of the continent of Oerik, one of the four continents of the fictional world of Oerth in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. The Flanaess has been the setting of dozens of adventures published between the 1970s...
, has received the lion's share of detail, though Hepmonaland has received significant attention. Western Oerik was the setting for 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....
's original miniature line, Chainmail, but few regard the material written for that setting as canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
, especially after the miniature line's cancellation in 2002.
Author Frank Mentzer
Frank Mentzer
Jacob Franklin "Frank" Mentzer III , is an American fantasy author and game designer best known for his work on early materials for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. He was a performing folk musician from 1968 to 1975, and played one concert at the White House during the...
, in a series of early modules
Adventure (role-playing games)
An adventure is either a published or otherwise written collection of plot, character, and location details used by a gamemaster to manage the plot or story in a role-playing game. Each adventure is based upon a particular gaming genre and is normally designed for use with a specific game or gaming...
, added a small territory called New Empyrea to the world across the Solnor Ocean from the Flanaess, but it has not been mentioned in subsequent Greyhawk products.
Telchuria
Telchuria is an ice-covered continentContinent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
at the north pole of Oerth. Telchuria is sometimes referred to as "High Boros" or "Hyborea."
It is possible that, in the depth of winter, a natural ice bridge forms between Telchuria and the Land of Black Ice.
Hepmonaland
Hepmonaland is a tropical landmass to the southeast of Oerik. Hepmonaland is a very small continent compared to the other known continents.Oerth in the "Solar" System
It takes exactly 24 hours for Oerth to make one revolution on its axis. Oerth lies at the center of GreyspaceGreyspace
Greyspace is an accessory for the Spelljammer campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The book was written by Nigel Findley, and was published in 1992. Cover art is by Tom Baxa, with interior illustrations by David O...
. Unlike most planets, Oerth does not orbit its sun, Liga. Instead, the Sun, and all other planets in the crystal sphere, orbit Oerth. Thus, Greyspace houses a geosystem, rather than a solar system. Oerth's "moons", Celene (Kule) and Luna (Raenei), are in fact the first and second planets in the geosystem, with Liga being the third. From Oerth, planets beyond Liga appear to the naked eye as wandering star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s.
Liga orbits the Oerth once every 364 days, thus the Oerthly year is slightly shorter than that on Earth. Luna has a 28 day lunar cycle, while Celene's cycle is 91 days.
Alternate Oerths
In a 1984 interview for PolyhedronPolyhedron (magazine)
Polyhedron was a magazine which started out as the official publication of the RPGA . Publication began in the year 1981, and the target audience was players of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game...
Newszine, Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
revealed several "alternate Oerths" while explaining the setting for his HEROES CHALLENGE game books, co-written with author Flint Dille
Flint Dille
Flint Dille is a screenwriter, game designer, and novelist. He is best known for his animated work on Transformers, G.I...
and published under the aegis of the Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment Corporation by the Wanderer Book division of Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
.
"By the way, action takes place on Yarth, a place somewhat similar to Oerth, the setting of Greyhawk, et al. It has fewer magical properties than Oerth but more than Earth. It is not impossible that additional works will be contracted for in months to come, action being set on Yarth or perhaps another alternate world, Aerth. On Earth, magic is virtually non-existent. On Uerth, dweomers are weak, chancy things. Yarth has a sprinkling of things magical, and Oerth is pure magic."
This implies that the planets differ in both their geographies as well as the relative presence of magic. The planets, from least to most magical, are Earth, Uerth, Yarth/Aerth, then Oerth. Between Yarth/Aerth, it is unclear which is more magical.
Other references to these alternate Oerths appear in the Gord the Rogue
Gord the Rogue
Gord the Rogue is the protagonist in a series of fantasy novels and short stories written by Gary Gygax. Gygax originally wrote the novels and short stories to promote his World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. After he left TSR, Gygax continued to write...
short story anthology Night Arrant as well as in Gygax's Epic of Aerth campaign setting for the Dangerous Journeys
Dangerous Journeys
Dangerous Journeys is a roleplaying game created by Gary Gygax, the co-creator of the original Dungeons & Dragons system. The game was originally announced as Dangerous Dimensions but was changed to Dangerous Journeys in response to a threat of a lawsuit from TSR, Inc., the publishers of Dungeons...
roleplaying game. The five parallel worlds of Oerth, Aerth, Uerth, Yarth and Earth were recently mentioned in the 3rd Edition adventure Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk
Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk
Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk is an adventure book for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The adventure is set in the game's World of Greyhawk campaign setting, specifically in and around Castle Greyhawk and its dungeons. As such, it is an update to the...
and thus found their way into 3rd edition canon.