An interesting comment I found on
this Dragonsfoot thread:
I think there are some distinct phases. The world
was effectively rewritten four times, and each time marked a change in
theme, tone, scope, cosmology, and even geography.
1981 to 1983 -- the Continent.
Gods and demons are explicitly mentioned, and religion tends to be dark
with a Mythos slant. Modules have elements borrowed from Lovecraft and
Clark Ashton Smith. The known world is not yet an official setting, only
a sample wilderness. Mapping was exclusively 24-mile and 6-mile
B&W. The Moldvay-era world did not have any planes, but did have
dimensions, including dimensions of Ice, Nightmare, Arik's prison
dimension, and the Dimensional Vortex.
The tone was grim and
sorcerous with no humor. The lands were wide open and fairly empty. Many
modules featured lovecraftian tentacled nightmare things (B4, X1, X2,
X5) or demons and cults (B1, B2, X1, X4, B5) and gods (Expert rules, B1,
B4, B5, X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, O1). We have a Sauron-style villain that
threatens the known world, and a secret mind-control cult.
Scope:
This era included the "Map of the Continent" from X1 plus Sind,
Slagovich, Hule, and the Moon. In X4, Sind is included as a part of
Darokin rather than a separate kingdom. It is implied that Karameikos is
part of Thyatis. Module X1 provides a paragraph on each nation and
suggests a RW analogue for some, but does not say how close the parallel
is. Module X5 says that the Black Mountains betwen Sind and Hule are
part of the "known lands", which implies that the known world of Moldvay
includes the Great Waste and Hule.
Canon: B/X, B1-5, X1-5, MSOLO1-2, O1, AC1
1983 to 1987 -- the D&D Game World.
Mentzer publicly announced (in early 1984?) that the sample wilderness
from X1 is being adopted as an official D&D Game World, and said
that the Jurassic world map from the Master Set had already been
completed in 1983. He places existing modules to fit into this map. At
this time Mentzer begins de-emphasizing gods and replacing religions
with philosophy, but this is not yet official and not binding on module
writers. However, most writers begin adopting the Mentzerian model. The
setting has no official name; X10 refers to The Continent from the
Expert Set and also refers to it as "the entire civilized world." Maps
continued to be 24-mile and 6-mile (see X6, CM1, X9, X11, etc). While
the setting was official, it was only detailed in the core rulebooks and
in modules, so canon was limited and sporadic. Demons were renamed
Fiends in the Immortals rules. Mentzer adds the concept of planes
alongside dimensions. Immortals are explicitly not gods and not to be
worshipped, and this is reinforced in module IM2.
The tone seems a
little lighter, but still not overtly humorous. Lovecraftian elements
disappear. It strikes me as a mix of lighthearted "saturday morning
cartoon" feel (esp the black eagle and bargle), and more serious work.
We start seeing very high production values like X8 and B10. We still
have world threatening mega-villains in X10 and X11. A lot of history
and interesting places are established in this era.
Scope and
Changes: Adds the Serpent Peninsula, Savage Coast, Norwold, Wendar and
Denagoth, the Isle of Dawn, and Blackmoor, as well as the world map in
the Master Set and the planes and Immortals. Module X10 expands a bit on
each nation and expands on the RW parallels with cultural details and
NPCs.
Canon: BECMI, B6-10, X6-12, XS1-2, XL1, CM1-8, M1-4, IM1-2, AC2-9, DA1-4, O2
1987 to 1990 -- the Gazetteer Era.
To me this is distinct from the Mentzer era in that the world received a
top-to-bottom rewrite in exhaustive detail, and hexmaps were changed to
the familiar 8-mile color maps. There were four major changes. First,
the new trail maps did not always agree with the older B&W maps.
Second, while the nations had a very loose correlation with RW cultures
before, they were still generic fantasy realms. The Gazetteers
explicitly connected most nations to a RW culture and rewrote them in
great detail as a virtual clone of that culture. Third, nations need
religions, and the Gazetteers used the immortals for this, so that the
immortals started to be treated as gods. There were fewer modules;
gazetteers were the main published product. Fourth, the world was much
more civilized and populated; cities in Karameikos have a population ten
times higher than the Known World versions. Toward the end it starts
being referred to as the Known World; Dungeon #26 from 1990 refers to
the world as the "known world of the Expert Set and the Gazetteers."
In
terms of Tone, we see a clear swing into overt humor (GAZ3, GAZ4,
GAZ10, AC11). Previously the setting had a mix of lighthearted and
serious tone; the gazetteers firmly established a light tone for the
entire setting. Villains were not evil, they just had conflicting
cultures and goals. The one overtly villainous nation, the broken lands,
was changed to a cartoon comedy land. Dark cults were banished to the
distant past of Nithia. War has been abolished by the Darokin diplomats.
Instead of murder hobos, you go on a Disneyland safari in Ierendi where
nobody gets hurt. While nations are modeled on historic cultures, they
are flltered through an enlightened modern lens of tolerance and
democratic values. Even the dwarves and elves don't fight, they just
play pranks on each other. There are no world-threatening evils, and the
events fo X10 are retconned into the distant future.
Scope and
Changes: Adds Serraine, Undersea, Alphatia and the Sea of Dawn, planes.
Rewrites and remaps the central areas, including detailed treatment of
some areas never before done. Thyatis gains a corps of dragon riders,
and Alphatia gets flying ships.
Canon: GAZ1-12, DOTE, B11-12, X13, CM9, M5, IM3, AC11 PC2, TM1-2
1990 to 1995 -- Mystara.
This is the Allston and Heard era, defined by the Rules Cyclopedia,
Wrath of the Immortals, and Almanacs. The world was officially named
Mystara. in this era, immortals effectively became gods and were treated
identically to gods. At this point, claiming that "mystara doesn't have
gods" is reduced to a semantic technicality; they are not "gods" only
because that's not their official title. The setting was given ongoing
metaplot via the Almanacs, and immortals become very active in the
setting. I start this era in 1990 with the publication of the Hollow
World. This era saw more changes to established canon via the Hollow
World, Champions of Mystara, etc. We start seeing peaceful utopian
societies as settings designed for stories rather than adventures. Many
new nations are nonhuman.
Scope and Changes: Adds the Shadow
Elves and the Hollow World. The almanacs detail places in Skothar and
Davania among others. The Heldannic Knights appear as pseudo-nazis. The
great waste, serpent peninsula and the savage coast are rewritten almost
from scratch, nearly obliterating all previous canon. Heavy metaplot
includes gods dying and new gods forming, sweeping changes to politics
(NACE, kingdom of karameikos) and even the landscape itself (Alphatia,
Alfheim, Great Crater). Some old adventures and materials are rewritten
such X2 and GAZ1.
Canon: GAZ13-14, RC, Hollow World, WOTI, Champions of Mystara, PC3-4, DDA1-3, HWA1-3, HRW1-3, HWQ1, KKOA, Red Steel, Almanacs
1995 to present -- Pandius.
After Mystara was cancelled, fans took over and the Vaults of Pandius
was established as a semi-official repository. This is really a
continuation of the Mystara era, with extensive embellishment,
alternate-realities, and proposed rewrites and retcons in order to
reconcile the different eras that came before. Pandius really embraces
and thoroughly studies all the material, not just the most recent, but
as a whole the 1995 version is taken as the baseline canon. Everyone
approaches it differently, but overall the fans take it much more
seriously than TSR did, and Geoff Gander's lovecraftian "outer beings"
pull the setting back towards its dark and grim origin.
Fanon:
Everything in the Vaults of Pandius. The most widely accepted and
polished products are the continuation of the Almanacs, the Fan
Gazetteers (GazF), the Threshold magazines, and Thorf's maps, but these
only scratch the surface.
There is some bleed-over between eras.
Any modules that were in progress when Mentzer took over were building
on the foundation Moldvay laid, so I would expect some stuff published
in 1984 may fit better into the earlier era. I have not investigated
this, its just a hunch. XS1 Lathans Gold for example mentions the temple
of the spider goddess (I think).
As RogueAttorney mentioned, I
tend to lump Moldvay and Mentzer together as "Known World," and
Gazetteer/Mystara together as "Mystara." What is in my mind as the
"known world" is actually closer to Moldvay's vision, but there was a
lot of great stuff from the BECMI era too, so its mix and match. I
really prefer the dark and lovecraftian version of the setting.
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