The Grey Realms: Sword and Sorcery

 Sword and Sorcery in the Grey Realms

I grew up on the "Sword and Sorcery" of Howard's Hyboria and other adventurers like Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser. I also, after reading a bit about how Ed Greenwood felt his own mystical realms of Unther, Mulhorand and such were originally, I decided to change a bit about how I run those lands in my own campaigns.

1. The land of Semphar in my Grey Realms is much more like the land of Turan in R.E. Howard's Hyboria. Nomads sweeping out of the Hordelands settled into a rich land and became mostly civilized. Not always united, they still dominate the "Semphari Sea" (the Gbor Nor or "Brightstar Lake"). The land was once held by Mulhorand, but that was before the Semphari conquered it.

2. The Durpari are much like the Iranistani of Hyboria in how I play the region. Mostly merchants that ply the seas, they are ever on the lookout for possible invasion from the north by the Semphari.

3. Mulhorand is more like Stygia of Hyboria than anything Egyptian. Set is the dominant religion of my Mulhorand, and the Sorcerers of Set dominate this land of slaves and plantations that once held a vast empire. There was a time in the past that the Egyptian Pantheon as a whole dominated here; but those times are long gone now; and instead the sorcerers vie against each other for power.

4. Unther in my game is more like the City-States of Shem in Hyboria. There is no Gilgeam in my campaign, and instead the city-states here that stretch down into Shaar war upon each other, the sorcerers of Set and also ply the inner sea in trade. They are renowned mercenaries, though they rarely send many of their people abroad for fear of needing them at home to defend their own city-states against each other or the sorcerers to their east and north.

5. The lands of Chessenta are a heavy mix of Corinthia and Zamora from Hyboria. Not much really changed here when I thought about it, but adding in Spider Cults and cabals of assassins make Chessenta more interesting to me now. Chessentan mercenaries are still a welcome addition to any army that can afford them.

6. Thay is still Thay; but instead of Zulkirs of different schools of magic, the entire lot are more like the Fire Sorcerers of the East from Nehwon...instead of a focus on Necromancy, they LOVE fire/destructive magic. They hate, and are in turn hated by, the Sorcerers of Set. Thay still tries to invade neighboring lands, still using circle magic and tattoo magic...but it is focused on fire and destruction for the most part...and summoning demons (like Eltab). Humanoids and slaves form the backbone of their armies and rarely are undead used (though not never!). There is no Szass Tam here.

7. The Hordelands are still the Hordelands; but more magical. Like the sorcerers of the Hyrkanians within Hyboria. Some are primitive in their methods, they use "Eastern" magic often (being Wu-Jen even). The steppe barbarian horselords are still a suspicious lot; but the mountains and badlands in the Hordelands are dotted with the lairs of "evil" wizards like the decadent wizards of Khitai from Hyboria.

8. Within what is Altumbel in the area of the "Forgotten Realms" near the domain of the Simbul you will find a modified City of Lankhmar. In my own Grey Realms, Fafhrd is from the lands of the Witches of Rashemen, while the Gray Mouser is from Lankhmar. The two of them still have their alien patrons as well. While the Simbul still has her domain of Aglorond, the forest to her south and the cities on the opposite coast are "haunted lands" filled with all manner of fiends and other monsters.

I pretty much left the rest of the Forgotten Realms area of the Grey Realms as they are in the published setting; but all of my campaigns are still more of a Sword and Sorcery feel in this particular area of the world: there is little healing to be had, and many quickly succumb to the violence of the land.