As I've mentioned before, I've been reading alot of
Savage Sword of Conan, a 70's graphic novel series that closely draws from
Robert E. Howard's original pulp era stories. Then yesterday while researching for a game, I come across an ad in an old issue of
Dragon Magazine (#104, December 85) for
Gary Gygax's hot new novel
Saga of Old City for the
Greyhawk Adventures line. For those not familiar with Saga, it follows the story of
Gord, a thief and adventurer from the mean streets of
Greyhawk City.
If you never read one of Gygax's Gord novels before and only judged the book by its cover (as you may have back in 1985) you can see the similarities between Gord and Conan are there in this illustration by
Clyde Caldwell. Gord like Conan, is brooding, dark haired and muscular. He is dressed light as a rogue but carries himself in battle like a fighter with a sword. Alone, he faces a brutish monster standing atop a pile of skulls; motifs common in Conan covers. Saga is a good novel and if Gygax was going for that Conanesque, pulp-era feel, I say he achieved it.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Gord is not a complete rip-off of Conan. For instance he is not a barbarian, but rather urbane, which means Gord also draws as much from other fictional characters like
Fritz Leiber's fantasy swordsman the
Grey Mouser. When you're trying to write a story based in a D&D world, you can hardly be blamed for borrowing fantasy tropes. I wondered if maybe pulp-era figures like Gord were out of style back in 1985, but looking at some other new releases perhaps not: that same issue advertising Saga also saw the launch of
CA1: Swords of the Undercity (a module for the
Fafhrd and Grey Mouser inspired
Lankhmar setting) and
Tarzan and the Tower of Diamonds, an
Endless Quest novel. Pulp fare all around.
The point of my observations I suppose is to wonder more about Gord the character's place in the pantheon of Greyhawk lore. As the game setting is concerned, Gord himself is almost non-existent. For some "Gordhawk" might be incompatible with their game setting and not worth discussion. Indeed, the post-TSR novels were only loosely based on Greyhawk and the series catastrophically ended. That I can understand. But had these novels come out sooner than 85, would have Gord's adventures influenced Greyhawk setting development more? If fans had supported Gord stories more voraciously (as they would later do for a few notable Forgotten Realms characters), then perhaps (barring Gygax leaving
TSR and all) Gord might be mentioned in the same company as other great fictional heroes? I know I was no help. I didn't discover Saga until the 90's or read Gygax's later novels until 2000, which was way too late by then. This is why the topic may be old hat for many in the community, but it's fairly new territory for my own Greyhawk musings. So anyhow, Gord might not have attained the popularity he deserves, but in a world full of notable wizards like Greyhawk, he is still the most popular rogue character the setting has got.
