Over the weekend, Luke Gygax revealed the full title (and a few other details) of the upcoming gazetteer, Melf’s Guide to Greyhawk.
What a fast turnaround. Not long ago, Luke Gygax announced that he was going to be working with WotC to bring a Greyhawk book to 5.5E. And now, this past weekend, Gygax revealed the full title and the new cover art for the upcoming Greyhawk gazetteer, which tells us a lot about what to expect from the coming book: Melf’s Guide to Greyhawk: The Shield Lands.
Melf’s Guide Unveiled, The Shield Lands Await
In a post on Instagram, Luke Gygax showed off a piece of artwork painted by Jeff Easley and gifted to him by Vince Vaughan (more on this in a little) while also revealing that the book is called Melf’s Guide to Greyhawk: The Shield Lands. It’s an evocative title that also tells us more a little bit about to expect.
After all, the Shield Lands aren’t just any place in Greyhawk. They’re the equivalent of the Remembered Realms, though they were there before the Sword Coast was the adventuring destination de rigeur for new heroes. Because the Shield Lands are right in the heart of the Flanaess, where Greyhawk itself is.
We’ll get more into that in a second. But first, here’s the original post:
“This beautiful rendering of Melf by Jeff Easley arrived at my home safely. This is the only painting of Melf that reflects my vision of him as played by me in my father’s Greyhawk campaign. This will be the cover to Melf’s Guide to Greyhawk: The Shield Lands. I am so thankful to Vince Vaughn for bidding on this at the Gary Con Charity Auction and gifted it to me. He is incredibly generous and a thoughtful friend. I am taking this to get framed and then it will go on the wall near my other 2 Easley originals.”
Melf, the Male Elf Ranger, is a storied hero in the lands of Greyhawk (and Luke Gygax’ character in the original campaigns run by his father and D&D creator Gary Gygax). And the Shield Lands are a storied part of Greyhawk itself. They are located in the Flanaess, which is the eastern part of Oerik, on the world of Oerth.
It’s where a lot of Greyhawk’s history has happened. It’ll be exciting to revisit the lands of the original campaign and get to see how things have changed, and what is new for the new edition of D&D. In the meantime, we’ll just have to wait until Gen Con for the official announcement.
If you can’t wait until then, at least there’s a few editions’ worth of D&D to go through about it!
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