| Game information | |
|---|---|
| Homeland | Unknown |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Human |
| Class | Fighter/ wizard |
| Alignment | Lawful Evil |
| Setting | World of Greyhawk |
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the man known as Erac's Cousin is a mysterious figure who has not revealed his real name. He is also called simply the Unnamed.
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Gary Gygax's son Ernie originally had a character he called "Erac", in addition to other well-known characters Serten and Tenser. Later, he created a wizard who, due to a personal issue as part of his backstory, refused to reveal his name, simply referring to himself as "Erac's Cousin". Gary Gygax knew that Ernie liked the Barsoom stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and at one point, whisked Erac's Cousin off to a very Barsoom-like Mars,[1] where the inhabitants refused to let the wizard use magic. Erac's Cousin was forced to become a fighter instead, and learned to fight proficiently with two weapons simultaneously. Eventually he was able to teleport back to Oerth, but when he acquired two vorpal blades, co-Dungeon Masters Rob Kuntz and Gary Gygax decided he had become too powerful,[1] and lured him into a demon's clutches. The demon took him to an alternative plane that drained the magic from the vorpal blades, destroying them.
The profile of Erac's Cousin was published in TSR's Rogues' Gallery in 1980,[2] and Gary Gygax mentioned Erac's Cousin in several articles in Dragon magazine in 1980 and 1981.[3][4]
When Gary Gygax was forced out of TSR in 1985, the rights to most characters used in his stories and columns, including Erac's Cousin, remained with TSR, and Erac's Cousin was mentioned in further material by both TSR and Wizards of the Coast.
Erac's Cousin was a mage who was able to wield swords with great proficiency. He was seldom seen without a red-eyed rat on his shoulder, his imp familiar. He commanded an army including 50 medium cavalry, 50 light cavalry, 50 light horse archers, 100 heavy infantry regulars, 100 heavy archer regulars, and 100 pole armed infantry regulars. Many of his troops were rumored to be evil humanoids.
The Unnamed may have been reborn as a greater devil.
Erac's Cousin was once a lawful good human magic-user. He gave up being a spellcaster to become a fighter with a penchant for wielding a pair of vorpal swords.
In one adventure, Erac's Cousin and his cleric companion Ayelerach are purported to have stumbled upon the stone prison of the demon prince Fraz-Urb'luu in the dungeons below Castle Greyhawk. The Prince of Deception, with his honeyed words, tricked the pair into reading from a scroll that released the demon from his prison. The two hapless adventurers were then whisked away by Fraz-Urb'luu to his layer on the Abyss to become his slaves, and the vorpal swords were destroyed. Erac's Cousin and Ayelerach were eventually able to return to the Material Plane, but describe the Abyssal realm they visited as depressing and sickening, due to its totally flat and featureless terrain, and ability to drain the magic out of any item.
Upon his escape from the Abyss, an unknown form of insanity overtook Erac's Cousin and he slew all of his friends to steal their possessions, forsaking his former deity who he blamed for not saving him from the demon prince. Erac's Cousin, now thoroughly evil, made a pact with the archdevil Baalzebul. As a reward for the souls of those he slew, Baalzebul agreed to make Erac's Cousin into a major devil upon his death, despite Erac's Cousin's fear of dying.
There is speculation[5] that Erac's Cousin may have helped form the Horned Society. Many of the Hierarchs were killed by Iuz's vengeance, but one was able to return. This being, known only as the "Unnameable Hierarch" was reborn as a greater devil thanks to a pact with the archfiend Baalzebul.