Gord the Rogue

Gord the Rogue

Cover of Saga of Old City by Gary Gygax (TSR, 1985), cover art by Clyde Caldwell. It is the first Greyhawk Adventures novel, and the first featuring "Gord the Rogue".
Game information
Homeland Free City of Greyhawk
Gender Male
Race Human
Class Thief-Acrobat
Alignment Neutral
Setting World of Greyhawk

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 Gord the Rogue novels for several years. In all of these works, the plot revolves around the adventures of a young man named Gord who rises from humble origins in the slums of a large city on the planet Oerth to become a powerful force trying to stave off the takeover of Oerth by demons.

Publication history

One of the factors that contributed to the success of the Dragonlance setting when it was published in 1984 was a popular series of concurrent novels by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. Gary Gygax, the developer of the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, realized that novels set in Greyhawk could have a similar benefit for his recently published World of Greyhawk boxed set, so he wrote Saga of Old City, the first in a series of novels that would be published under the banner Greyhawk Adventures. The protagonist was Gord the Rogue, and this first novel told of his rise from the Slum Quarters of the city of Greyhawk to become world traveller and thief extraordinaire. The novel was designed to promote sales of the boxed set by providing colourful details about the social customs and peoples of various cities and countries around the Flanaess.

Even before Saga of Old City rolled off the presses in November 1985, Gygax wrote a sequel, Artifact of Evil. He also wrote a short story, At Moonset Blackcat Comes, that appeared in the special 100th issue of Dragon magazine in August 1985. This introduced Gord the Rogue to gamers just before Saga of Old City was scheduled to be released.[1]

However, at the same time, various factions within TSR with different visions of the company's future caused a power struggle, and Gygax was forced out on December 31, 1985. By the terms of his settlement with TSR, Gygax kept the rights to Gord the Rogue as well as all D&D characters whose names were anagrams or plays on his own name (for example, Yrag and Zagyg).[2]

After Gygax left TSR in 1985, he continued to write a few more Gord the Rogue novels, which were published by New Infinities Productions: Sea of Death (1987), City of Hawks (1987), and Come Endless Darkness (1988). In Gygax's absence, however, TSR moved the Greyhawk storyline in new directions that Gygax didn't appreciate, and the line of Greyhawk Adventures novels (without Gord the Rogue) continued to be written by Rose Estes. In a literary declaration that his old world of Oerth was dead, and wanting to make a clean break with all things Greyhawk and D&D, Gygax destroyed his version of Oerth in the final Gord the Rogue novel, Dance of Demons.[3]

Series overview

The series of novels follows the progress of the orphan beggar Gord, from his lowly youth to his ascension as an avatar of Balance. Gord begins his career with less than heroic motives, but early mentors Gellor and Curley Greenleaf continually steer him toward honorable ends. Eventually Gord is revealed to have a kinship with an enigmatic deity named the Cat Lord.

The series, originally designed to provide some social and descriptive details about Gygax's Greyhawk campaign world that he had not been able to fit into the limited space of either the 1980 folio edition or the 1983 boxed set, were written in a pulp swords and sorcery style reminiscent of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser short stories. Gygax, who believed D&D would always only appeal to a male demographic,[4] wrote the novels for that readership.

Individual novels

Saga of Old City was the first novel in TSR's Greyhawk Adventures series. It starts in Gord's childhood, and ends with his triumphant return to Greyhawk City as a young man and master thief. He learns his trade in the 'beggars' guild', and gets involved in the gang war touched off by the beggars encroaching on the official thieves' guild's territory. He travels and has a variety of swashbuckling adventures, ranging from participating in a war to liberating a young noblewoman held hostage.

Artifact of Evil is a continuation of Saga of Old City. This was final novel under TSR's Greyhawk Adventures banner that was written by Gygax. An ancient artifact is uncovered, whose power could destroy their world. It is up to Gord and his companions to try to stop this artifact of evil from falling into the wrong hands.

Night Arrant is a collection of nine short stories about Gord's adventures, in his early twenties, in the City of Greyhawk.

Sea of Death, the first of the series published by New Infinities Productions, Inc., has Gord traveling far afield to the Sea of Dust, on a quest for a 'Theorpart', hidden in a lost city. He must face rivals sent by demon lords; the psychopathic dwarf Obmi, who serves Zuggtmoy, and the drow elf priestess Eclavdra, serving Graz'zt. He meets and falls in love with Leda, a clone of Eclavdra. Leda and Gord part at the end of the book as she returns to the Abyss, impersonating Eclavdra in Graz'zt's service for the sake of higher ideals.

City of Hawks is a retelling of the events that occurred in Saga of Old City. Gord's rise from simple begger to master thief are detailed as is his search for his true heritage.

Come Endless Darkness continues where Sea of Death left off and has Gord continue his quest to stop Tharizdun & Lord Entropy from taking over the Multiverse.

Dance of Demons is the finale, in which Gord and Gellor enter the Abyss on a mission from the world's most powerful forces of Balance, to retrieve the remaining Theoparts. The goal is nothing less than to free Tharizdun, the long-imprisoned god of ultimate evil and entropy, and to finally destroy him. The novel ends with the complete destruction of Oerth, and the unveiling of a new and better world.

Uncollected Short Stories

"At Moonset Blackcat Comes" is an early tale of Gord and his friend Chert, accepting a mission for the Cat Lord.

"Evening Odds," appears as story 14 in "Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion", an anthology of fiction inspired by Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion mythos. The story takes place some time after the events of Dance of Demons. Gord has been deposed from his position as the new Cat Lord and is traveling the alternate realities as a Champion of Balance. In the course of the story he upsets a plot by the archfiend Baphomet on modern Earth.

"The Return of Gord" is a caper story set during Gord's days as a master thief in the City of Greyhawk.

Description

Gord is described as being small for a human, five and a half feet tall,[5] slender and wiry. His eyes are iron-gray in color. He has black hair and olive-toned skin (which allows him to fit in among the Rhennee).

List of "Gord the Rogue" novels and short stories

References

  1. ↑ Gygax, Gary (August 1985). "At Moonset Blackcat Comes". Dragon (Lake Geneva WI: TSR) (100): 22.]
  2. ↑ Gygax: "Anagrams of my name are exclusively my property according to my settlement agreement with TSR, so that is how I can use Zagyg, or Zagig, as well as Yrag.""Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part IX, Page 91)". EN World. 2005-10-20. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
  3. ↑ Q: "After you left TSR, you finished the Gord the Rogue books. At the end of the cycle, Oerth bites the bullet. Was this your way of saying that Greyhawk is dead and that fans should turn away from TSR's version with disdain?" Gygax: "More my way of saying that since T$R had killed the setting with trash releases, it was time to wipe out the shame by obliterating the setting.""Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part VII, page 2)". EN World. 2004-11-19. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
  4. ↑ Gygax: As I have often said, I am a biological determinist, and there is no question that male and female brains are different. It is apparent to me that by and large females do not derive the same inner satisfaction from playing games as a hobby that males do. It isn't that females can't play games well, it is just that it isn't a compelling activity to them as is the case for males."Gary Gygax Q&A (Part V, page 7)". ENWorld. 2004-01-25.
  5. ↑ Gygax, Gary (1985). Saga of Old City. Ch 9: TSR.

External links