Rary
Encyclopedia
In the World of Greyhawk 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...
for the 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...
roleplaying game, Rary of Ket is a powerful archmage and ruler of the Bright Lands, also known as Rary the Traitor.
In a storyline developed 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 a resetting of the Greyhawk campaign in 1991, Rary, a member of the Circle of Eight
Circle of Eight
The Circle of Eight is a fictional group of wizards in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. The Circle was originally created by Gary Gygax around 1975 as an alliance of most of his Dungeons & Dragons characters...
, betrayed the Circle at the end of the Greyhawk Wars
Greyhawk Wars
In the Dungeons & Dragons World of Greyhawk campaign setting, the Greyhawk Wars raged across the whole of the Flanaess from 582-584 CY.-History:...
and was responsible for the deaths of Circle members Otiluke
Otiluke
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Otiluke was an archmage. He was slain by Rary in Harvester 584 CY, at the close of the Greyhawk Wars.-Publication history:...
and Tenser
Tenser
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Tenser is an archmage who actively seeks to rid the Flanaess of evil...
. After his betrayal, Rary fled with his ally Lord Robilar
Robilar
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Robilar is a powerful warrior who serves as commander of Rary's forces in the Empire of the Bright Lands...
to the Bright Desert
Bright Desert
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, the Bright Desert is a fictional desert located in the central Flanaess...
, where he established the Empire of the Bright Lands.
Development
Gary GygaxGary 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....
, co-creator of the Dungeons & Dragon fantasy game, created a home campaign based in the World of Greyhawk in order to test new rules. His playtesters were friends and acquaintances, one of whom was Brian Blume
Brian Blume
Brian J. Blume is noted for being a business partner of Gary Gygax in TSR, Inc., producers of the fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.-Biography:...
, co-owner with Gygax of the nascent game company 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....
. Rary was a low-level wizard created by Blume for play in Gygax's home campaign. However, Blume was not interested in developing the character into a high-powered wizard; he only played Rary until the wizard character reached 3rd-level and then retired him, having reached his objective, which was to be able to introduce the character as "Medium Rary". Gygax borrowed the name "Rary" for the spells Rary's mnemonic enhancer and Rary's telepathic bond. Ironically, the original Rary was never powerful enough to cast either of "his" spells.
Rary was not a part of Gygax's original Circle of Eight
Circle of Eight
The Circle of Eight is a fictional group of wizards in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. The Circle was originally created by Gary Gygax around 1975 as an alliance of most of his Dungeons & Dragons characters...
, which was made up of eight of Gygax's own characters that he had developed during solo play with his friend Rob Kuntz
Robert J. Kuntz
Robert J. Kuntz is a game designer and author of role-playing game publications. He is most famous for his contributions to various Dungeons & Dragons-related materials.-Works:...
acting as Dungeon Master
Dungeon Master
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the Dungeon Master is the game organizer and participant in charge of creating the details and challenges of a given adventure, while maintaining a realistic continuity of events...
. However, after Gygax was ousted from TSR in 1985, the company took over creative control of the published Greyhawk setting. In 1989, in The City of Greyhawk
The City of Greyhawk
The City of Greyhawk is an boxed set accessory published in 1989 for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Contents:...
boxed set, Carl Sargent
Carl Sargent
Carl L. Sargent is a British author of several roleplaying game-based products and novels.-Early career:...
and Douglas Niles
Douglas Niles
Douglas Niles is a fantasy author and game designer. Niles was one of the creators of the Dragonlance world and the author of the first three Forgotten Realms novels, and the Top Secret S/I espionage role-playing game.-Early life:Niles was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, and...
took Gygax's original Circle of Eight and re-purposed the concept as a powerful collection of wizards dedicated to the proposition that no group or entity, no matter how good (or evil), should dominate 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...
. Gygax's own wizard, Mordenkainen, became the head of the Circle, while eight wizards from the Greyhawk campaign, made famous from their spells published in the original Players Handbook, became the actual Circle. Several of the wizards, including Rary, had not been particularly powerful characters in Gygax's home campaign, but in the new Greyhawk storyline, all of the Circle were dominant spell casters.
Description
In material developed by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) in 1998 as a further update to the Greyhawk storyline, Rary was described as a man of mixed BaklunishBaklunish
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the Baklunish are a race of humans inhabiting the Flanaess, as well as regions of Oerik further west....
and Suel
Suel
Suel may refer to:*Suel, ancient name for Fuengirola, Spain*Suloise, a fictitious human race in Dungeons & Dragons...
stock, six feet tall, 170 lbs, with auburn hair, bright green eyes, and a tanned complexion who favors tan robes with intricate gold patterns. Although originally described in TSR material as a man in his eighties, the new WotC storyline had Rary looking like a man in his fifties, having somehow reversed his aging by 30 years. The explanation was that this was not for reasons of vanity, but because Rary knows his current plans may take many decades to come to fruition and is prepared for every eventuality.
Rary's personality is given as thoughtfully contemplative. Apparently he dislikes those who acted foolishly or rashly, and Otiluke was a particular target of his scorn, though even Mordenkainen
Mordenkainen
Mordenkainen is a fictional wizard from the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. He was created by Gary Gygax as a player character and is one of the oldest characters in roleplaying fiction...
is characterized as too volatile for Rary's tastes.
History
The following information is outlined in material developed for the Greyhawk campaign world by TSR and WotC between 1988 and 2008.Origins
Born around 511 CY in KetKet (Greyhawk)
Ket is a political state in the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Because it lies in the only gap in the north-south spine of mountains that divides the eastern Flanaess from the western Baklunish Basin, Ket is a nexus of important trade...
, Rary was known as a quiet, dignified scholar and a skilled mediator and peacemaker. He was a living legend in his homeland, and held in the greatest respect by the Paynims, and would confer with their shamans and wise men, telling them tales of their past. The frequency of Paynim raids into Ket decreased dramatically because of his influence. He was apparently invited to join the Circle of Eight in or around 575 CY.
Rary betrays the Circle
After a decade's careful deliberation, Rary decided that the Circle of Eight was too quarrelsome to ever be effective in its goals. On the day of the signing of the Treaty of Greyhawk, he tried to eliminate the Circle but only succeeded in killing Tenser and Otiluke. Simultaneously, RobilarRobilar
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Robilar is a powerful warrior who serves as commander of Rary's forces in the Empire of the Bright Lands...
besieged the castle of Tenser, sacking its treasures and destroying all of Tenser
Tenser
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Tenser is an archmage who actively seeks to rid the Flanaess of evil...
's known clones. Having largely failed in their quest to destroy the Circle, the two conspirators fled to the Bright Desert, where they founded a kingdom.
Further plans
In the Living GreyhawkLiving Greyhawk
Living Greyhawk was a massively shared Dungeons and Dragons living campaign administered by RPGA that ran from 2000 to 2008. The campaign setting and storyline were based on Gary Gygax's World of Greyhawk setting, and used the Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition rules...
campaign, Rary desired to recreate the ancient kingdom of Sulm by recovering an artifact known as the Scorpion Crown. (Players of the campaign were often unwittingly employed as agents of Rary to help fulfill his goal.).
Spells
When Gary Gygax developed new spells for Dungeons & Dragons, he often borrowed wizards' names to give the spell names more verisimilitude. He borrowed the name of Brian Blume's retired wizard for the spells Rary's mnemonic enhancer, and Rary's telepathic bond, which appeared in the original Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook.Because Rary's two original spells seemed to involve psychic or mental powers, whenever a new spell was developed that involved these powers, authors often attributed them to Rary:
- Rary's aptitude appropriator
- Rary's arcane conversion
- Rary's empathic perception
- Rary's interplanar telepathic bond
- Rary's memory alteration
- Rary's mind scan
- Rary's mind shield
- Rary's plane truth
- Rary's protection from scrying
- Rary's replay of the past
- Rary's spell enhancer
- Rary's superior spell enhancer
- Rary's urgent utterance
Writings
In a similar fashion, further background material on Rary has given him credit for authoring the following works:- Arcane Puissance of the Memory
- The Lost Spellbook of Rary the Traitor
Living Greyhawk campaign
During the Living GreyhawkLiving Greyhawk
Living Greyhawk was a massively shared Dungeons and Dragons living campaign administered by RPGA that ran from 2000 to 2008. The campaign setting and storyline were based on Gary Gygax's World of Greyhawk setting, and used the Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition rules...
campaign, several adventures set in Rary's home region of Ket
Ket (Greyhawk)
Ket is a political state in the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Because it lies in the only gap in the north-south spine of mountains that divides the eastern Flanaess from the western Baklunish Basin, Ket is a nexus of important trade...
referred to him as Rary the Patriot, and Ketite characters in these adventures sometimes tried to convince players that Rary was not evil, merely misunderstood.
Additional reading
- Broadhurst, Creighton. "Into the Bright Desert." DungeonDungeon (magazine)Dungeon Adventures, or simply Dungeon, was a magazine targeting consumers of role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons. It was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 as a bimonthly periodical. It went monthly in May 2003 and ceased print publication altogether in September 2007 with Issue 150...
#98 (Paizo PublishingPaizo PublishingPaizo Publishing is an American publishing company in Redmond, Washington that specializes in game aids and adventures for "the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game" and its flagship spin-off game and setting, Pathfinder...
, 2003).
- Broadhurst, Creighton, Paul Looby, and Stuart Kerrigan. "Mysterious Places: The Brightlands." Wizards of the Coast, 2004. Available online: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/lgmp/20040810a
- Cook, DavidDavid Cook (game designer)David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years.-Early life:...
. "History of the Greyhawk Wars." WarsGreyhawk Wars (game)Greyhawk Wars is a fantasy board wargame published by TSR, Inc. in 1991. The game was designed by David Cook as a strategic simulation of the eponymous Greyhawk Wars on the fictional world of Oerth, the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.-Components:The...
(TSR, 1991). Available Online: http://www.nyrond.org/turbine/page/university/greyhawkwars.html- Cook, David. Vecna Lives!Vecna Lives!Vecna Lives! is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, set in the game's World of Greyhawk campaign setting.-Plot summary:...
(TSRTSR, 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....
, 1990).
- Cook, David. Vecna Lives!
- Heard, Bruce. "Spells Between the Covers." DragonDragon (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...
#82 (TSR, 1984).
- Holian, GaryGary HolianGary Holian is an American author of several products and articles for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, especially for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting...
, Erik MonaErik Mona-Career:Erik Mona served as the editor-in-chief of Dragon magazine since 2004 and Dungeon magazine from 2004 to 2006; at the time, both magazines were published by Paizo Publishing, until the license through Wizards of the Coast expired in September 2007...
, Sean K Reynolds, and Frederick WeiningFrederick WeiningFrederick Weining is among those credited for design of the Dungeons & Dragons Gazetteer and the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, both published by Wizards of the Coast. He has also authored or co-authored a number of Greyhawk articles for the Living Greyhawk Journal, the Oerth Journal, and...
. Living Greyhawk GazetteerLiving Greyhawk GazetteerThe Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is a sourcebook for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the 3rd edition of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Despite the title, the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is not exclusive to the Living Greyhawk Campaign...
(Wizards of the CoastWizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
, 2000).
- Mona, Erik, and Gary Holian. "Wheels within Wheels: Greyhawk's Circle of Eight." Living Greyhawk JournalLiving Greyhawk JournalThe Living Greyhawk Journal was a periodical published by the Role-Playing Games Association as a stand-alone magazine from 2000 to 2004. The publication was intended to supplement the RPGA's Living Greyhawk campaign, though many consider the content within to be canon for the Greyhawk setting in...
#0 (Aug 2000). Available online: http://www.wizards.com/rpga/downloads/LGJcircleof8pdf.zip
- Moore, Roger ERoger E. MooreRoger E. Moore is a designer of role-playing games. He is best known for his long-running tenure as editor of Dragon magazine, and was the founding editor of Dungeon magazine.-Early life:...
. Greyhawk: The Adventure BeginsGreyhawk: The Adventure BeginsGreyhawk: The Adventure Begins is a 1998 sourcebook for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. The 128 page book was written by Roger E...
(TSR, 1998).- Moore, Roger. Return of the EightReturn of the EightReturn of the Eight is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, set in the game's World of Greyhawk campaign setting. The module was published by Wizards of the Coast in 1998 under its recently acquired "TSR" imprint for the second edition Advanced Dungeons &...
(TSR, 1998).
- Moore, Roger. Return of the Eight
- Pryor, Anthony. Rary the TraitorRary the TraitorRary the Traitor is a Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook and module for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting.-Plot summary:The work details the empire of the renegade archmage Rary, known as the Empire of the Bright Lands. Historical background of the Bright Desert is also covered, and introduced the...
(TSR, 1992).
- Sargent, CarlCarl SargentCarl L. Sargent is a British author of several roleplaying game-based products and novels.-Early career:...
. From the Ashes (TSR, 1993).
- Ward, James MJim Ward (game designer)James M. Ward , is an American game designer and fantasy author. He is most famous for his game development and writing work for TSR, Inc., where he worked for more than 20 years. In 1989 he was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame...
. Greyhawk AdventuresGreyhawk AdventuresGreyhawk Adventures is an accessory for the Dungeons & Dragons World of Greyhawk campaign setting.-Contents:Greyhawk Adventures contains information about Greyhawk deities and clerics, major non-player characters, monsters, geography, spells of the setting's famous magic-users , magic items of the...
(TSR, 1988).
- Williams, SkipSkip WilliamsRalph Williams, almost always referred to as Skip Williams, is an American game designer. He is married to Penny Williams, who is also involved with the games industry...
, Penny Williams, Ari MarmellAri MarmellAri Marmell is an American novelist and freelance role-playing game writer.-Novels:His first novel, Gehenna: The Final Night, was published in 2004 by White Wolf Publishing...
, Kolja Raven Liquette. Complete Mage (Wizards of the CoastWizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
, 2006).