The Dungeoneers

Marc Gascoigne and Pete Tamlyn's Dungeoneer, the first Advanced Fighting Fantasy manual, came out in November 1989. I can still remember the day I went into my local bookshop, one school lunchtime, and spotted this huge big FF book with a blue spine on the shelf - I spent as long as I could reading it in the shop, and I think I had to wait until the next week's pocket money was supplied until I could buy a copy (for £3.99, which seemed like a lot in those days!).

As one of the few fans of FF in my area, and with the few of us who did exist living quite a few miles apart, roleplaying wasn't something I ever really got into, and it was the huge amount of Fighting Fantasy lore that I was most impressed by in Dungeoneer. That and the superb illustrations by John Sibbick, whose work had previously appeared on the covers of Masks of Mayhem and Midnight Rogue, and in the interiors of Crypt of the Sorcerer and Midnight Rogue. He's always been one of my favourite FF illustrators, with the people and creatures in his pictures having a kind of life about them that's quite unique. In fact, some of the pictures in Dungeoneer are among my favourite in the whole of Fighting Fantasy - especially the attacking Ghouls on p. 154, Nicodemus on p. 270, the female warrior being attacked by Tentacles on p. 318, and the skeletal Tyrannosaurus on p. 342.

Another interesting feature of Dungeoneer was that it came with a set of pre-determined characters for you to play, each of which was accompanied by an illustration by John Sibbick, giving us a good idea of what they look like. These characters are:

• Aspen Darkfire, a female elf adventurer
• Jerek Stormgard, a male human mercenary
• Gordo Brondwyn, a male human thief
• Grimbold Tornhelm, a male dwarf warrior
• Axel Wolfric, a male human barbarian warrior
• Baradas Rangor, a male human wizard

The adventurers are referred to by name in the two scenarios in the book, but curiously a different set of adventurers (though with some similarities to the pre-defined characters) is illustrated repeatedly in the pictures in those scenarios and in the rest of the book. These characters appear in all sorts of adventurous situations, from battles with chaotic hordes to quieter moments examining ancient hieroglyphs. In the rest of this post I examine who these adventurers are, and what they are doing in the illustrations in Dungeoneer. I think they really add an extra dimension to the book, as you trace their struggles and successes through the illustrations. I call them the 'Dungeoneers'.

The Dwarf

Given his short stature and strong build, the Dwarf is perhaps the most distinctive of the Dungeoneers. Unlike Grimbold Tornhelm, who is a young Dwarf with a black beard, the Dungeoneer Dwarf appears to be older male, with grey or white hair and beard. Like Grimbold, he is a warrior, and he also wears a horned helmet (though of a different design). He wears spiked armour on his shoulders, and wields a short, broad, doubled-bladed axe.

The Dungeoneer Dwarf is pictured on the following pages:

• p. 10, standing holding a torch at the top of the well, which some of his fellow Dungeoneers are climbing out of.
• p. 28, standing by the spike-pit trap, watching helplessly as one of his companions, the Amazon, falls into it.
• p. 38, riding a short pony towards Xortan Throg's Tower with the retinue from Chalice.
• p. 48, entering the tunnel in the crag beneath Xortan Throg's Tower.
• p. 63, apparently falling backwards as the portcullis in the tunnels under Xortan Throg's Tower is triggered.
• p. 146, battling the hordes of Chaos on the narrow bridge (extreme left of picture) with his Dungeoneer companions.
• p. 234, bringing up the rear of the party of adventurers as they approach the throne of King Salamon the 57th.
• p. 353, looking backwards down the tunnel of a dungeon at one of his companions, the Explorer, whilst some of the others try to figure out where to go next.
• p. 392, grinning with pleasure as he opens a chest of riches with one of his Dungeoneer companions, the Knight.
• possibly on p.162, as a shadow on the wall (mostly of his axe) as his Dungeoneer companion, the Elf, holds a knife to the throat of an Orc.

The Elf

Unlike Aspen Darkfire, the Dungeoneer Elf is a male warrior and archer. His main weapon is a long bow, but he also wields a sword or knife as the situation requires, and he wears metal shoulder armour. From the pictures of him in Dungeoneer, he certainly doesn't come across as a gentle, peace-loving creature of the woods. Quite the opposite in fact!

The Dungeoneer Elf is pictured on the following pages:

• p. 20, watching on as his companions tend to the wounded members of their group.
• p. 63, jumping in surprise as the portcullis trap is sprung beneath Xortan Throg's Tower.
• p. 104, firing arrows into the fray as his companions battle a group of Lizardmen.
• p. 146, firing an arrow into the battle between his companions and the hordes of Chaos on the narrow bridge.
• p. 162, clamping his hand over an Orc's mouth and holding a knife to its throat.
• p. 170, hacking with a sword at the tentacled horror which is assailing him and his companions (one of the tentacles has wrapped itself around his left arm).
• p. 234, approaching the throne of King Salamon the 57th with his fellow adventurers.
• p. 282, realising that a young thief has stolen his purse in a market.
• p. 358, riding a horse in front of the slain beast (front rider, about to pass through the city gate).

The Wizard

The pre-defined Wizard character in Dungeoneer is the dweebish, clean-faced young Baradas Rangor. The human Wizard who features as one of the Dungeoneers throughout the book is a more mature, grizzled character, a hook-nosed man of middle years with grey bushy eyebrows, moustache and chin-beard. He dresses in a spiked cap and a billowing robe, tied at the waist, and sometimes wears a pair of pince-nez glasses to read. Carrying a spiked staff, his favourite spell appears to be a blistering blast of white fire, which issues from the tip of his index finger.

The Dungeoneer Wizard is pictured on the following pages:

• The front cover, discharging his spell at the knightmarish beast from the Pit.
• p. 20, tending his wounded companion, the Explorer.
• p. 38, in the retinue from Chalice approaching Throg's Tower (just about discernible, his spiked staff most obvious, above the Dwarf, bottom right).
• p. 104, in the midst of battle with his companions against the Lizardmen.
• p. 127, using excessive force (in the form of twin fire bolts) to deal with a couple of unfortunate Goblins.
• p. 146, lighting up the battle on the narrow bridge with another blast of spell fire.
• p. 194, studying ancient hieroglyphics with his companions, wearing his pince-nez glasses to see them better.
• p. 353, examining a parchment or map with the Warrior as his party of adventurers try to work out where to go in a dungeon.

The Knight

A rather more clean-cut looking armoured human warrior than the pre-defined Jerek Stromgard, who I dub 'the Knight', appears in the illustrations throughout Dungeoneer. This Knight, who has a neat, dark moustache, dresses in a metal helmet and camail, in a mail hauberk, and a leather or cloth coat and gloves. He wields a two-handed sword.

The Dungeoneer Knight is pictured on the following pages:

• p. 10, holding the rope at the top of the well his companions are climbing out of.
• p. 28, standing helpless as his companion, the Amazon, falls into a spike-pit trap.
• p. 170, with a two-handed sword, slicing a limb off the tentacled horror which is assailing the group of Dungeoneers.
• p. 353, looking back down the dungeon tunnel as his companions try to figure out the way forward.
• p. 392, with the Dwarf, basking in the glow of gold coming from an opened treasure chest.

The Explorer

The young thief, Gordo Brondwyn, in the list of pre-defined characters is probably the nearest equivalent to the next of the Dungeoneers, who I've called 'the Explorer'. Looking like a cross between Indiana Jones and Lee Van Cleef, this human is a middle-aged man with a bushy moustache, dressed in a fur jerkin with a broad leather strap diagonally across it, trousers and a brimmed hat. He carries a rope over his shoulder and fights with a long, slender, curved sword.

The Dungeoneer Explorer is pictured on the following pages:

• p. 10, climbing up the well with his companions.
• p. 20, lying injured with an arrow in his back, being tended by his companions after a fight (at least I hope he's only injured and this isn't some kind of out of sequence Pulp Fiction style Vince-on-the-toilet moment).
• p. 48, approaching the tunnel into the crag under Xortan Throg's Tower (third in line).
• p. 63, surprised by the portcullis trap in the tunnels under Throg's Tower.
• p. 104, probably the Explorer using a long, thin, curved sword to fight off a Lizardman who is wielding a whip (the character's head is obscured in the picture).
• p. 127, standing behind the Wizard as he discharges his spell at the Goblins, with his back to us.
• p. 146, fighting the hordes of Chaos, half way across the narrow bridge.
• p. 170, attempting to pull one of his companions, the Adventurer, from the clutches of the tentacled horror which is assailing the group.
• p. 194, looking on as the Wizard studies the hieroglyphs (just above the Wizard's cap in the illustration).
• p. 234, probably the Explorer kneeling before King Salamon the 57th (on the left near the front).
• p. 350, having a near-death experience, as he brandishes the Crystal of Power in an attempt to destroy Xortan Throg just as he casts a Death Spell.
• p. 353, checking an alternative passage as his companions try to figure out the best way forward in a dungeon.
• p. 358, riding one of the horses which is pulling the slain beast, waving his hat in the air in celebration.

The Adventurer

The list of pre-defined characters in Dungeoneer includes the Barbarian human, Axel Wolfric. He doesn't appear in the illustrations throughout the book, but another character, who could just about be interpreted as a Barbarian does. This man, who I've named 'the Adventurer' because of his leather armour, has longish hair, a band across his brow, and a leather vest held in place by broad leather straps across his shoulders, over a tunic which streches down almost to his bare knees. He wields a long sword.

The Dungeoneer Adventurer is pictured on the following pages:

• The front cover, wielding a sword as the creature from the Pit emerges.
• p. 10, climbing out of the well.
• p. 20, helping the Wizard to tend the injured Explorer.
• p. 38, the first horse rider in the retinue approaching Throg's Tower.
• p. 48, the second Dungeoneer approaching the tunnel into the crags under Throg's Tower, behind the Dwarf.
• p. 104, fighting a Lizardman in the foreground of the picture.
• p. 170, caught by the tentacled horror and being pulled by it in one direction and by the other adventurers in the other.
• p. 234, kneeling before King Salamon the 57th, at the front of the group of adventurers.
• p. 318, approaching the Warrior to help her escape the tentacled beast which has trapped her.
• p. 358, walking behind the slain beast.
• p. 373, holding a sword surrounded by traders.

The Warrior

The Dungeoneer party has two women among its number, neither of whom has an equivalent in the pre-defined characters at the end of the book. The first of these I have named 'the Warrior'. She has a distinct ponytail (as well as smaller braids of hair), wears a thigh-length, armour-studded leather tunic with a strong leather cross-belt, and fights with a sword (and sometimes with a dagger or pole-arm). She carries a small shield, often on her back.

The Dungeoneer Warrior is pictured on the following pages:

• p. 10, climbing up the well with her companions, her ponytail swinging behind her.
• p. 146, fighting the hordes of Chaos on the narrow bridge (the figure nearest the Elf).
• p. 154, getting ready to fight a pair of sword-swinging Ghouls.
• p. 162, her shadow visible on the wall behind the Orc's head.
• p. 234, possibly the Warrior in front of the Elf, approaching the throne of King Salamon the 57th (this character appears to have a ponytail).
• p. 318, fighting to escape from the tentacles of some amphibious beast.
• p. 353, examining a map or parchment with the Wizard, as the Dungeoneers try to work out the best way forward in a dungeon.
• p. 358, one of the horse-riders (with a spear in her hand) dragging the slain beast.

The Amazon

The last of our Dungeoneers is the other woman in the group, who I've named 'the Amazon', given her shock of wild hair and the fact she fights with a spear (she also carries a sword). She wears a short-sleeved tunic over trousers, and has a wild, half-long head of hair that she holds back with a hairband.

The Dungeoneer Amazon is pictured on the following pages:

• The front cover, wielding a spear.
• p. 20, standing guard in the background while her companions attend their wounded.
• p. 28, falling into a spiked pit-trap (though she appears to be bracing herself with a hand and a foot).
• p. 104, fighting the Lizardmen (top right).
• p. 170, guarding her companions from behind as they fight to free the Adventurer from the grip of a tentacled horror.
• p. 353, at the front of the group of adventurers as they try to work out the best way forward in a dungeon.
• p. 358, riding a horse in front of the slain beast (just left of the Explorer).

So there we have it, quite an adventuring crew! As I said, I really think they add an extra dimension to Dungeoneer (and to Allansia), and it's fun to imagine how they got into the situations pictured and how they got out of them (if indeed they did). It's worth pointing out that these Dungeoneers don't appear to have survived into the other Advanced Fighting Fantasy books, although characters very like the Knight and the Dwarf do turn up in a couple of illustrations in Blacksand!. Let me know if you have any further ideas or comments about the Dungeoneers, or have spotted anything I've missed. I may return to them from a rather different angle soon, so look out for that.

Flaxenmane of Silverton

Here's an interesting one from Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy masterpiece, Creature of Havoc, that Kieran Coghlan pointed out to me in the comments on my earlier post, The Allansian Adventurer. Obvious spoilers ahead!

After Zharradan Marr engineered the theft of the magical Vapours of Stittle Woad, he hid them in his dungeons until he could understand their secrets (CoH, pp. 30-31). Fearing that Marr would become invincible, the towns of Stonebridge, Chalice and Silverton sent parties of adventurers to search for the Vapours and return them to safety (CoH, p. 32). It is of course in these dungeons that your adventure as the savage Creature of Havoc begins. Your first encounter in the adventure is with the unfortunate Dwarf, Swinebeard of Yore, who has been sentenced for the crime of arson in Salamonis to enter Marr's dungeons and search for the vapours. On the written sentence from the court that Swinebeard carries with him someone (probably Swinebeard himself) has scribbled Vapour of  knowledge / - Flaxenmane of Silverton = / - Winged helmet (CoH, para. 337).

After what can only be considered to be an unfortunate encounter with a Hobbit (read the book to find out why if you don't know already!), you come to a room with four corpses in it, which three Flesh Feeders are feasting on (CoH, paras. 101 and 447). There are corpses of two 'pug-nosed' creatures, presumably Orcs, and of two adventurers - one dressed in a leather tunic and helmet, the other, described as a Knight, dressed in metal armour and a ornate winged helmet (see the illustration below from para. 447). We can assume that this unfortunate individual, who has been dead a long time (CoH, para. 101), is the character identified on Swinebeard's note - Flaxenmane of Silverton.

We can also assume that Flaxenmane was one of the adventurers sent by Silverton to recover the vapours of Stittle Woad (and indeed he had succeeded in finding one before his demise) and, given that he is wearing fancy armour that he was, unlike Swinebeard, a willing participant in this endeavour. It doesn't look like he is someone from your past, though, since he is notable enough to be described in some detail in the book but isn't mentioned by Zharradan Marr later in the adventure.

Creature of Havoc is a book packed full of detail, and that's part of the brilliance of it, but the attention given to such a minor character in the story obviously invites us to ponder who exactly Flaxenmane of Silverton might have been. As I mentioned at the start of the post, Kieran Coghlan mentioned a fan theory, one which I hadn't heard before, concerning Flaxenmane. At the end of Ian Livingstone's early FF book, Forest of Doom, you are rewarded for returning King Gillibran's magical war-hammer with jewels, gems and a fabulous golden winged helmet, which you proudly place on your head. Could it be that this is the same helmet that Flaxenmane is wearing and indeed that Flaxenmane is this same Allansian adventurer?! It's an intriguing thought that the hero of the Stonebridge Trilogy (and maybe even of other Allansian adventures, such as the Deathtrap Dungeon sequence) might have come to an inglorious end in the bowels of Zharradan Marr's dungeons but, as Kieran points out, he's exactly the sort of renowned adventurer that might have been sent on the desperate mission to recover the Vapours of Stittle Woad before Marr uncovered their secrets. I like this idea a lot, not least for its subversive take on the fortunes of the (essentially Livingstonian) Allansian adventurer. But of course a winged helmet is not a lot to go on, so maybe there's no connection at all (though that would leave us wondering why Steve Jackson took the trouble to describe Flaxenmane that way in the first place). What do you think?

Transoxalia

Say what you will about Luke Sharp's fantasy-themed FF gamebooks (I know some of you hate them!), but I don't think anyone can disagree that the man had an eye for an interesting setting. Whether it be the Dark Chasms beneath Gorak, the Turkic-inspired lands of Kazan, or the weird mix of cultures and environments that make up Zamarra, he really did a lot to add interest to the world of Titan. I'll explore these lands in more detail in later posts, but in this post I want to pick up on one intriguing little reference in the Background section to Sharp's fourth Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Fangs of Fury. As he tells you about Ostragoth's plans for the destruction of Zamarra, Astragal the wizard suggests that:

"If he succeeds here, Gorak, Kazan, Transoxalia, all of south-west Khul will fall to his power."

Very interesting. These are lands in south-west Khul which were not detailed in Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World (Luke Sharp's books having appeared after Titan was published). We know about Gorak from Chasms of Malice and Daggers of Darkness. Kazan we know from Daggers of Darkness, and of course Zamarra is the location for Fangs of Fury itself. But what about Transoxalia? It's clear from the context that it is in south-west Khul and that it is probably a land like Zamarra, Kazan and Gorak, but other than that we know nothing, as this is the only mention of it in the whole of Fighting Fantasy. I like to think that it would have been the location for Luke Sharp's next book had he kept writing them or had the Puffin range not been cancelled. But where might Transoxalia be? Let's have a look at south-west Khul and the locations of other lands we know more about.

I've marked in the areas of the maps in Chasms of Malice, Daggers of Darkness, Fangs of Fury, and Peter Darvill-Evans' Portal of Evil for reference, as these are the only FF maps we have of this part of Khul apart from the Titan map. As you can see, we know a reasonable amount about the geography of south-west Khul, and there are a number of areas we can rule out as the location of Transoxalia. Firstly, anywhere north of the River Swordflow seems unlikely, as these are the vast lands of the Council of Seven and don't really constitute south-west Khul anymore. Secondly, we can rule out anywhere east of the Cloudhigh Mountains (essentially the Wastes of Chaos and the Scythera Desert), as again these aren't in south-west Khul and anyway they aren't settled lands which anyone would care about falling under Ostragoth's rule. Thirdly, we can rule out the lands already detailed by Luke Sharp: Kazan itself (i.e. all the lands between the River Swordflow, the River Dart and the coast; Zamarra, between the Lesser Ilkhan Mountains and the sea; and Gorak, between the River Dart, the River Swordflow, the Lesser Ilkhan Mountains to the south, and extending an unknown distance to the east.

So where does that leave us? One possibility might be one or both of the islands of Soldragar and Pendragar, but as they are already named this seems unlikely. Another possibility would be the area immediately east and south-east of Gorak, though there isn't a lot of room here before bumping into the forests around Kleinkastel. Better might be the area between the River Dagger and the River Swordflow, which isn't part of Gorak (see the Background section in Chasms of Malice). It might even be that this area could include lands south of the River Dagger, east of Gorak. The area around Zagoula is unlikely, as this ruined city is clearly an emerging centre of Chaos in the region, so Astragal is hardly going to be concerned about it being conquered by Ostragoth's chaotic forces. (Exactly where Ostragoth, his army and his fleet have come from to besiege Zamarra is another interesting question which I won't go into right now, though Zagoula must be one possible candidate.) Areas south of Zagoula might be possible locations for Transoxalia, including the peninsula southwest of it and the area around Yaziel and Hyennish (which was once the southern reaches of the kingdom of Klarash according to Titan, so we could imagine it retaining vestiges of civilisation). The only other place that Transoxalia could be is in the area between the River Swordflow and Lake Mlubz - i.e. the area detailed in Portal of Evil, the new southern limits of the lands of the Council of Seven. This is the location of Transoxalia assumed by Ken Beuden in his map of Khul but locating Transoxalia here isn't altogether unproblematic since Peter Darvill-Evans never uses the name for this region, most of it is unsettled or only recently settled forest and jungle and, in any case, it is part of the Council of Seven lands rather than a separate land in its own right in danger of falling under the rule of Ostragoth.

One clue as to the location of Transoxalia might lie in its name. Like many other names in Luke Sharp's fantasy books (see my Fact of Fiction article in issue 3 of Fighting Fantazine), this name is modelled on a name from the Near East and Central Asia - in this case the name of the Central Asian region Transoxiana, the land beyond the Oxus (Amur Darya) river as far as the Jaxartes (Syr Darya) river (note the name Jaxartes, also used in Fangs of Fury). The name Transoxiana contains the Latin prefix trans- meaning "across, beyond, on the other side", so it means "(land) beyond the Oxus". If we apply the same principles to the FF name Transoxalia, then it means something like "(land) beyond the Oxal" or something to that effect. The Oxal (or similar) would then be a geographical feature such as a river, a mountain range or a plain, beyond which lies Transoxalia. Now obviously this doesn't give us a location for it, but it might help us to work out where Transoxalia might lie.

So there you have it. My personal preferred location for Transoxalia is the area between the Swordflow and the Dagger, or the area around Yaziel and Hyennish, but I'm sure some of you have other ideas, which I'd love to hear.

More Fighting Fantasy LEGO

Here's another Fighting Fantasy-inspired LEGO build. This was much more of a technical challenge than the last one, I can tell you! It was also a lot of fun.

It's built at minifigure scale (though whether there's anyone inside is currently unknown). As you can see, I didn't quite have all the pieces I needed to perfect the build (i.e. the red rather than brown struts and the grooved rather than smooth chimney pieces), so I'm going to keep at it till I'm completely happy with it, but it's near enough that I thought I'd share it with you. Oh, and photographing LEGO is an art in itself, and quite obviously one I haven't mastered yet...

Anyway, anyone got any idea what (and where) in the world of Fighting Fantasy it is?

The Ximoran Protectorate and the Council of Seven

To my mind, one of the most interesting, yet one of the most unexplored areas of the world of Fighting Fantasy is the civilised western part of Khul which is governed by the Council of Seven, who rule from the capital of the area, Ximoran (see Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World, p. 24/39 (large/small format)). We can, following the practice of Titannica, call this area the Ximoran Protectorate. Other than some information in Titan, which I'll discuss further below, we learn almost nothing about this part of Titan other than a few crumbs of information in Scorpion Swamp by Steve Jackson (US) and a fair bit more about the area around and south of Neuburg (especially in Peter Darvill-Evans' Beneath Nightmare Castle and Portal of Evil). In this post, I'm going to explore this part of Khul and see what we can learn, and offer some suggestions of ways we might develop this area further for our own adventures and stories.

Let's start with Steve Luxton's map of Khul in Titan. Titan (pp. 24/39) suggests that the Ximoran Protectorate stretches from the River Swordflow in the south to the Coast of Sharks, with the Council of Seven made up of representatives from the seven main cities: Ximoran, Anghelm, Buruna, Djiretta, Kalima, Kelther and Neuburg. We know from Portal of Evil that the Protectorate extends some way south of Neuburg, but it is unknown whether it extends far beyond Djiretta to the area of Shantak Bay.

South of the River Swordflow lie the lands of Kazan and Gorak, which I'll talk about more in later posts (as I will also do for the lands around Neuburg), and the forests and jungles north of Lake Mlubz, which are largely unsettled. This huge expanse of territory, bounded in the east by the Mountains of the Giants, in the north and west by the sea, and in the south by the River Swordflow, looks like a land of lush river valleys, ancient forests (some fans have equated the large forest in the northwest of the land with Mithrir Forest, mentioned in Daggers of Darkness, but this is only conjecture), rolling grassy plains, and teacherous swamp (see my previous post for a reanalysis of the geography of Scorpion Swamp though). It's obvious that there are many more towns and villages in the Protectorate than are marked on the map (which only shows the main cities and the two villages which appear in Scorpion Swamp) - see the Background section of Scorpion Swamp and the map accompanying Portal of Evil for some indications of this. Otherwise we know very little about the geography of the area, though thankfully we do know more (though still not a lot) of the history of this part of Khul (see Titan, pp. 24-5/39-41, 38-41/73-83, 43/87). In outline, the kindgom of Klarash, named after the dynasty of the same name, grew up in the area, centred on its capital, Shakista (near where Ximoran later lay). At its height, Klarash extended from the north coast to Yaziel and Hyennish in the far southwest. The Spawning of Chaos in Khul almost ruined Klarash for good, but it survived the convultions which destroyed much of the rest of the continent, though it had lost its southern territories around Zagoula and Shakista had to be abandoned due to the ruin caused by the forces of Chaos. A new capital was built at Ximoran, and it looked for a short while like Klarash might return to its former glories, but then the last King of the Klarash dynasty died without leaving an heir, and the lands became ruled by the Council of Seven. Instead of a unified nation, the result was a loose confederation of lands united under a governing council and notionally under the protection of Ximoran.

Interestingly, The Fighting Fantasy 10th Anniversary Yearbook adds a few choice details to the history of the region. The Yearbook records that the last king of Klarash was called Orien, and that he died in 81AC (After Chaos), on the 20th day of Nature's Curling. Nine years later, the Yearbook records, the 'Queen of Silver' was banished from Ximoran (on the 6th day of Forests Golden in 90AC), and in 103AC the Riddling Reaver was unmasked in Ximoran on the 2nd day of Watching. These last two events are fascinating if rather enigmatic - who was the 'Queen of Silver', and what was the Riddling Reaver doing in Ximoran? It's tempting to connect all of these events, since the Yearbook considered them (and only them) important enough to record. Perhaps the Queen of Silver was Orien's dowager queen (though not of the Klarash line herself), who may have found herself in conflict with the new Council of Seven. And perhaps the Riddling Reaver saw a situation here which he could work to his own unknowable advantage. I like to think that perhaps he posed as a (false) claimant to the throne, Perkin Warbeck style, maybe even supported by the Queen of Silver, who had become seduced by him. None of this is canon of course, but it certainly makes for an interesting episode in the history of the Ximoran Protectorate.

Actually, the impression I get from the Ximoran Protectorate is of a land not dissimilar in some ways from George R. R. Martin's Seven Kingdoms from his A Song of Ice and Fire series (spoilers ahead, just in case you haven't read all the series yet). Okay, so there's no king or ice wall and frozen north, but there are lush river lands (see, for example, the area north of Ximoran, which reminds me of Martin's Trident and Riverlands), a possible pretender to the throne, fAegon style (in the form of the Riddling Reaver), and seven semi-independent sub-kingdoms and a council which is no doubt the scene of scheming and intrigue (especially if we go back to the times after the death of Orien). I'm not suggesting that Ximoran should be based on Martin's Seven Kingdoms, only that we might be able to model it partly on that. And, of course, I'm not suggesting that Martin drew his inspiration for the Seven Kingdoms from the Ximoran Protectorate, even if there are tiny bits of evidence which might, maybe suggest that Martin drew inspiration here and there from Fighting Fantasy (e.g. the deadly poison, the Tears of Lys, which we can compare with the Black Poison of Lisz from Daggers of Darkness, and the name Sansa, which is obviously close to the name of the first noble of Kharé). One further aspect of Martin's Seven Kingdoms that we might also be able to incorporate into the Ximoran Protectorate is the chivalry, gallantry, and knightly society which is such a keystone of his work. There isn't actually anywhere in Titan where knights and their courtly deeds take centre stage, and I wonder whether Ximoran might be the place for it. We do have some evidence of knights in Khul, for example the tourney in Daggers of Darkness, the knights of Zamarra (I like to think of Zamarra as an early outpost of Klarash founded by adventurer knights, now gone its own way), and the Order of Knights Errant from Dave Morris's unpublished Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Keeper of the Seven Keys, and I can't help feeling that the Ximoran area might be the source of all this on the continent. Anyway, it's just an idea, but I think a settled land combining elements of what we know from canon FF sources, and inspiration from Arthurian legend and A Song of Ice and Fire might make the west of Khul a really rather interesting place. What do you think?

The geography of Scorpion Swamp

Over to the other side of Khul for a change, to that early Fighting Fantasy adventure location, Scorpion Swamp. Outside of the eighth FF book, the only geographic information we have on this miasmic place is the map of Khul (by Steve Luxton) and a few notes in Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World. Let's see what we can find out about it.

Scorpion Swamp, by the other Steve Jackson, was the second FF book I bought, encouraged as I was by my friends who thought the cover was crap and were worried it was rubbish inside too. It's never been an all-time favourite of mine, but I like it, as much for its old-school charm and non-linear approach (and, as we'll see, its easy mapability). There's not much information about the geography of the swamp and the lands around it in the background and the start of the adventure before you actually enter the swamp, but we know this much:

• There's a "King's highway" (sic.) with towns along its course (Background).
• Scorpion Swamp "lies far to the west of the kingdom", and you have to travel a long way to get there: "As you travel further west, the mountains around you turn to hills, the hills to plains, and the plains to damp lowlands". You eventually come to the little town of Fenmarge, on the southern edge of the swamp (para. 1).
• One of your possible benefactors in the adventure, Poomchukker, tells you that it would save weeks and weeks of time if his caravans could travel through Scorpion Swamp to the town of Willowbend on its northern edge rather than going round it. This suggests that the swamp is vast (para. 173).

In order to say anything more about the geography of the swamp as described in the book, I'm going to have to follow the advice given on pp. 21-22 and do some mapping! It's been a while since I mapped this one out, and I have no idea where my old maps are, so time to have some fun doing it again for the first time in years. Here's the result (obvious spoilers included):

That was fun! Very satisfying seeing all the clearings coming together so nicely. Not exactly a complicated layout, but I think it's effective (if not at all realistic). So what do we learn from this romp through the swamp? Well, here are some points of interest:

• It takes you a day to travel between Fenmarge and Willowbend, so the distance between them isn't great.
• The swamp is bisected by the Foulbrood River, which is about 200 metres wide and is crossed by an old stone bridge. Interestingly, the river flows west to east (see paras. 339 and 369).
• Willowbend is a bustling town with at least three inns in it. It lies north-northwest of Fenmarge.

That's about it for the geography of Scorpion Swamp from the gamebook itself. Let's have a look at what we can learn about the geography of the swamp from Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World. Here's the part of the Khul map that contains Scorpion Swamp:

Scorpion Swamp lies, like a rotten core, in the middle of the civilsed lands of western Khul. To its east are the King's Highway (sic.) and the Mountains of the Giants. The Foulbrood River runs roughly through its middle, from the northeast to the southwest. Fenmarge is at the east-southeast edge of the swamp, and Willowbend is at the west-northwest edge, and a considerable distance lies between the two towns (there's not a big difference between the two of them in a straight line compared with going around the swamp).

Clearly there are things here which don't match the original gamebook (again I'm not blaming anyone for this; in fact I'm glad it's different, otherwise this post wouldn't have to be written!). The swamp isn't in the far west of the kingdom, a long way distant from the mountains (though we can imagine a traveller coming south down the King's Highway past the mountains to the lowlands south of the swamp). Fenmarge and Willowbend are in the wrong positions relative to each other (they should be on a nearly north-south axis), and they are far too far apart considering it only takes a day to get between them (compare the distance to the size of the Inland Sea or Hachiman in the same map in Titan). And of course the orientation and direction of flow of the river are wrong! It should, according to the text in the gamebook, flow in a west-east direction.

I think it's time to revise the Khul map somewhat to bring it closer to the description in the gamebook. There's not much we can do about the direction of flow of the river, and I think we'll have to assume that in a swamp the water might be pretty stagnant and could flow in various directions. But the rest we can fix, to an extent at least. Here's my version of the same area of the map:

In this version of the map, I've changed the positions of Fenmarge and Willowbend to make them the same as the map drawn from the gamebook. I've also put them much closer together, essentially in the fringes of the swamp itself, presumably on drier promentaries. I've slightly widened the swamp in an east-west direction to account for Poomchukker's estimate of how long it takes caravan's to get round it (no doubt he was exaggerating somewhat, and I suspect he had other motives for exploring the swamp too). Finally, I've corrected the course (though not the direction) of the Foulbrood River somewhat to make it fit better with the text of the gamebook. What do you think?

Anyway, there you go. One of the curious things about the gamebook Scorpion Swamp is that it is really the only source of information we have about the civilised western lands of Khul north of Neuburg. However, it can hardly be considered to be typical of those lands! We can assume that most of the evil, nasty things in western Khul have ended up in places like this, where civilsation does not quite reach. The bustling towns of Fenmarge and Willowbend give us a better idea of what these western lands are like, but it would be nice to know more.

The geography of Hachiman

"The world of Titan has three main continents - Allansia, Khakabad [sic.] and Khul, the Dark Continent. It is on the eastern coast of Khul that the lands of Hachiman lie; the sea on one side and mountains on all the others cut Hachiman off from the rest of the continent."

So begins the memorable Background of the twentieth Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Sword of the Samurai (by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson, published in April 1986). Unfortunately the book didn't come with a map (the first inside cover map didn't appear until three books later, in Masks of Mayhem), so we were, other than for geographical indications in the text of the book itself, left in the dark as to the wider geography of this part of Khul and, in particular, of the geography of Hachiman itself. The geography of places like Konichi, the Shios'ii Mountains, the Hang-Yo and Hiang-Kiang Rivers, the Mizokumo Fens, the Forest of Shadows, and Ikiru's mountain fastness, Onikaru, could only be guessed at. We had to wait until October of the same year to get our first (and so far only) map of this exotic part of the world of Fighting Fantasy. And here's what it looked like (map by Steve Luxton, from Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World, as usual):

Although the only place-name from the adventure to appear on this map is Konichi, it's pretty obvious that the mountains all around Hachiman are the Shios'ii Mountains, the forest is the Forest of Shadows, the marsh is the Mizokumo Fens, and the rivers are the Hang-Yo (to the south of Konichi) and the Hiang-Kiang (running west-east through the country). More detail would have been nice, given the size of the land, but at least it was something.

But on returning to Sword of the Samurai, it was clear that this map of Hachiman wasn't as good as it could have been (I'm not blaming Steve Luxton for this by the way, given the lack of a map in the gamebook and the rather confusing geographical indications in it as to the relative locations of the places). Despite some of the main geographical elements appearing on the map, it simply didn't mesh particularly well with the description of the lay-out of Hachiman in Sword of the Samurai. Let's take a close look at the geographical indications in the book to see what I mean (obvious spoilers ahead!).

• You start the adventure in the capital, Konichi, and travel north by road through beautiful countryside, soon coming to a fork. You can either head west and north to the Shios'ii Mountains via the Forest of Shadows and Hagakure Bridge, or east to the ford and through the Mizokumo Fens to the mountains (para. 1). This choice is the major split between the two paths in the adventure, and I'll discuss them both in turn.
• The west and north route is pretty straight forward. You travel for a few days through peaceful countryside (para. 10), before coming to a burning village and Lord Tsietsin's fortified castle, which nestles against the foothills of the southern Shios'ii Mountains (para. 300). Beyond that, the main road runs through a shallow valley before it comes to the large Forest of Shadows, which it passes through (paras. 222, 386).
• Eventually you come out of the Forest, almost immediately coming to the Hagakure Bridge over the Hiang-Kiang River, beyond which you can see the Shios'ii Mountains on the horizon (para. 82).
• The journey to the mountains takes some time (you must sleep between Hagakure Bridge and the mountains), with you eventually leaving the road and following a goat track into the mountains towards Ikiru's stonghold, Onikaru (para. 211).
• The east route is rather more complicated. You begin by following the East Road (the Road of the East Wind) through the civilised, fertile plain of the great Hang-Yo River, before climbing into the uplands and the Charcoal Burners' wood, leaving the river behind (para. 29).
• From here you can either travel northwest through the Dales of Kanshuro, including the Village of the Undead and the Vale of Tinshu (paras. 197 to 397), or north through the Longhills (paras. 195 to 237).
• If you travel through the Dales of Kanshuro, you eventually come to the Marcher Lands (para. 397) and then to a low range of hills, beyond which lies a sheer cliff that stretches as far as you can see (para. 381). Realising that you cannot get past this, you 'retrace your steps' to the upper Hiang-Kiang River, before coming, after two days' travel, to a ford over one of the tributaries of the Hiang-Kiang (para. 381).
• If you go north from the Charcoal Burners' wood, avoiding the Dales of Kanshuro, you travel for two days through the Longhills before coming to the same ford over the tributary of the Hiang-Kiang River (paras. 195-237). It seems likely that this is the same route you take after retracing your steps from the sheer cliff beyond the Dales of Kanshuro.
• Crossing the Ford of the Kappa, you travel over a ridge of slate hills (para. 335), which afford you a panoramic view of the lands beyond (para. 295). It's worth quoting the text in full here as the description of this bit of Hachiman is very interesting: "The great valley of the lower Hiang-Kiang River lies below you. In the distance lies its delta amid the Spider Fens of Kumo. The Spider Fens are lost in a pall of mist. Knowing that to detour around the enormous delta would take weeks, you set off down the gentle slope of the valley."
• This journey to the Spider Fens takes you three days across open lawless territory, but entering the Spider (Mizokumo) Fens "will allow you to penetrate deep within Ikiru's territory" (para. 17).
• The vast Spider Fens themselves consist of marshes and lakes, with ancient paved roads on dykes stretching through the delta (para. 17). Most of the paths through the Fens are treacherous and lead nowhere but the depths of the marshes, but it is possible to cross the Fens, ultimately emerging via another dyke on their north side, at the foot of the Shios'ii Mountains (paras. 285 to 87). From there, you can follow a goat track into the mountains towards Ikiru's fortress.

How does this compare to the map from Titan then? Well, there are a number of problems. Firstly, Konichi is far too close to the Forest and the Fens, which should be much further north, near the mountains. Secondly, the Hiang-Kiang River should, in its lower reaches, form a huge delta (presumably as it approaches the coast), which constitute the Mizokumo Fens. Thirdly, there's a problem with the geography of the Hiang-Kiang River which the map doesn't resolve. On the west and north route, you cross the Hiang-Kiang River via the Hagakure Bridge. The river can only be flowing west to east (or northwest to southeast) here, as the east route takes you to the lower Hiang-Kiang and its delta. On the east route, though, you appear never to cross the Hiang-Kiang itself but only cross a tributary of it as you travel north towards the Fens. It's hard to see how you can cross the Hiang-Kiang going north over the Hagakure Bridge, but only cross a tributary of it going north to the Spider Fens, especially if we try and fit all of this to the course of the river in the Titan map.

One notable long-time fan of the Fighting Fantasy series, Ken Beuden, set himself the task of not only trying to work out the geography of Sword of the Samurai, but also of detailing the rest of Hachiman in a way consistent with what we know about the land from published sources. The following beautiful map, from Ken's website, Fang's Finest Emporium, includes all of the places I've discussed above plus many more that Ken invented for the purposes of 'rebuilding' the word of Titan for the fan community (this was at a time, between the demise of the Puffin range and the production of the Wizard series of the gamebooks, that many fans felt FF to be dead, so that if they wanted to know more about the world of Fighting Fantasy, they would have to invent it themselves). He used the layout of the map from Titan as his starting point.

There are a couple of notable features of this map which relate to the outline of the geography of Sword of the Samurai given above. Firstly, Ken very sensibly locates Lord Tsietsin's fortress at the end of the southern spur of the Shios'ii Mountains that extends eastwards towards the Forest of Shadows in the Titan map. This is a good solution to the location of this fortress at the foothills of the southern Shios'ii (para. 300), even though you are still a long way from Ikiru's stronghold in the same mountain range. Ken also tries to accommodate the Hiang-Kiang delta in the Mizokumo Fens by assuming that the delta is where the Fens are marked in the Titan map and is fed by a number of smaller rivers running westwards from a range of hills. This is one way of imagining the situation, but I don't think it's ideal. The most striking feature of Ken's map, though is how he attempts to resolve the problem with the course of the Hiang-Kiang River itself. In order to explain why you never appear to cross the main course of the Hiang-Kiang, Ken has the river disappearing under the Longhills, into the nicely named 'Caves of the Fragrant Jewels'. In Sword of the Samurai, then, you cross over the river without actually crossing the river, coming to the Ford of the Kappa (which Ken problematically locates within the Spider Fens). This is an ingenious solution, but I think it's a bit unlikely and doesn't, in any case, really fit with the text of Sword of the Samurai, constrained as it is by the problematic layout from the Titan map. Let's look at the text of the gamebook again and see if we can come up with a better solution.

In fact, two other solutions present themselves. One option is that you do in fact cross the Hiang-Kiang (e.g. by bridge), but that it isn't mentioned in the text. This may be hinted at by the description in para. 381, where you retrace your steps to the upper Hiang-Kiang before coming to the tributary. This might possibly be problematic when we consider the location of the Hiang-Kiang delta, further to the north, though it wouldn't be very hard to work out a course of the river that would fit with this. The other solution is that the lower Hiang-Kiang breaks up into many smaller branches in the delta, which you cross without mention via the dykes in the Spider Fens. The tributary wouldn't be a problem in this case, as we could imagine it rising somewhere in the heart of Hachiman, say in the Forest of Shadows, and flowing eastwards to meet the Hiang-Kiang delta further east. In neither case is it necessary to imagine that the Hiang-Kiang conveniently disappears underground for a while.

But in any case, the Titan map doesn't represent the descriptions in the book very well at all. So maybe we need to fix that part of the Khul map, and try out the two solutions just described. Let's start by scratching the problematic detail on the Khul map:

That's better! Now we can start from with a blank slate and try to fix not only the Hiang-Kiang problem but also the other geographical issues.

Let's try solution 1 first - that you do in fact cross the Hiang-Kiang before you get to the Ford of the Kappa and the Fens. I've followed Ken in placing Lord Tsietsin's fortress near the eastward spur of the southern Shios'ii, but have located the Forest of Shadows further north and have combined the Mizokumo Fens with a coastal delta of the Hiang-Kiang River.

Hmm. I'm not convinced, even if the layout in this map isn't optimal. Crossing the Hiang-Kiang, then the Kappa tributary, then coming to the Spider Fens in the Hiang-Kiang delta is messy, and it forces us to shunt the delta so far east that you wonder why it couldn't just be avoided altogether (the sheer cliff is before the Kappa tributary, so it doesn't help). Also, the text suggests (para. 17) that the Fens are near Ikiru's territory. Let's try solution 2 to see if that fares any better.

Now that's more like it, if I may say so myself! I hope you agree. Increasing the size of the Forest of Shadows, and making the Spider (Mizokumo) Fens a huge delta stretching from the Shios'ii Mountains (near Ikiru's stronghold) to the sea fits much better with the book. Moving Konichi further south gives room for the Charcoal Burners' wood and the Dales of Kanshuro too. The bit where you lose your way and back track to the upper Hiang-Kiang is more problematic, but at least it allows us to imagine that you initially headed northwest towards the Forest of Shadows, came to the sheer cliff and then back tracked towards the Dales of Kanshuro and on to the Ford of the Kappa (the tributary flowing east from the Forest). The main civilised area of Hachiman would be in the south and along the course of the Hang-Yo River (which I've put flowing past or through Konichi). What do you think?

So there we have it. I think it is possible to construct a coherent map of the layout of Hachiman based on Sword of the Samurai without resorting to forcing the Hiang-Kiang to flow underground, as long as we're willing to accept that the map in Titan isn't right (I like to imagine that Titan was written by a scribe in Salamonis based on the best information (s)he had - and not all of it was right!).

There are still a few other parts of Khul that could do with further exploration - I'll return with some more geographical analysis soon.