Saturday, August 22, 2026

 

The Trope Is Dead. Long Live the Trope!

Authority, Power, and Possiblity In Dungeons & Dragons

Critical Reception

 

“Sure, ‘Barzai is high priest of the Gods of Earth (the Great Ones) in Ulthar and one-time teacher of Atal’; the author writes as if he sacked the man’s study and bedded his Cyclopean daughter.” Doctor Henry Armitage, Chief Librarian, Miskatonic University, 1931.

 

This text seems to take aim at the accursed writings attributable to the legendary Exior K’Mool, whose work remains queerly shrouded in antiquity’s whispered perversions and horrors. Yet it does so perhaps without incurring the abysmal Theem’hdra, sac-like widening. Professor Emeritus Tyler M Freeman, Anthropology, Miskatonic University, 1932.

 

"Republics, principalities, churches, mercenary companies, and monsters all contend for dominion.“ —Niccolò Machiavelli, from an unpublished Florentine notebook.

 

"Half handbook, half grimoire. The difficulty lies in determining which half is the more lethal." —Author Raimond, Archivist First Class, Royal Keeper of the Brass Index.

 

"The author claims no responsibility for the enwraithment of three graduate students. I find this disclaimer legally unpersuasive." —Ripley van Torn, J.D.

 

"The fourth chapter remains prohibited in Jharad for reasons involving municipal finance and a dragon." —Dread Sage Rabbelous, Office of Civic Prohibitions, Jharad

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