History TabletopGame / Greyhawk

** ''Scourge of the Slave Lords'' (''compilation of ''Aerie of the Slave Lords'' revised for higher levels)

* CameBackStrong: Centuries ago in the lands that would become the Great Kingdom, the SorcerousOverlord [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Tuerny the Merciless]] (he of the eponymous [[ArtifactOfDoom Iron Flask]]) was HoistByHisOwnPetard when demon lord Graz'zt broke Tuerny's arcane bindings, took him back to the Abyss through the Flask, and [[BalefulPolymorph turned him into a dretch]] (a pathetically weak cannon fodder demon). Skip almost a thousand years, and Tuerny not only manages to return to Oerth, he does so as a mighty nalfeshnee demon (only third in power in the vanilla demonic hierarchy behind mariliths and balors, something which would typically take a dretch millenia or more to achieve), AND has managed to regain most of his arcane prowess (he's now a 17th-level wizard) on top of his demonic power.

The setting is named after the great Free City of Greyhawk, a sprawling metropolis of wizards and thieves located next to the legendary dungeon of Castle Greyhawk. These locations are at the heart of "the Flanaess" -- the northeast end of Oerik, the largest continent on the world of Oerth. Ravaged by centuries of warfare, contested by dozens of races and organizations, the Flanaess is crawling with monsters to slay, ruins to loot, and vile magicians to foil. A very generic HeroicFantasy or SwordsAndSorcery setting at least on the surface, but one which suits the game's needs perfectly. Greyhawk notably also takes significant inspiration from real-world history, making the setting grittier and more "mud-and-blood" than other settings. In the ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' settings, the world of ''Greyhawk'' is part of a [[TheMultiverse larger universe]] that also includes ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' and ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''.

* OurElvesAreDifferent: Actually, Our Elves Are Pretty Standard, all things considered. But on a related note, this setting was the TropeCodifier for D&D's ''dark'' elves. Though much rarer than in the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'', they even display the same tendency towards being redeemable, as proven by characters like [[CloningBlues Leda]] and several of the rebellious dark elves in the city of Erelhei-Cinlu. The ''Unearthed Arcana'' sourcebook even references the idea of drow being rebels due to their alignment, as well as making all elven sub-races, including drow, eligible for the Ranger character class. And all of this actually precedes the introduction of [[Literature/TheIcewindDaleTrilogy Drizzt Do'Urden]].

The setting is named after the great Free City of Greyhawk, a sprawling metropolis of wizards and thieves located next to the legendary dungeon of Castle Greyhawk. These locations are at the heart of "the Flanaess" -- the northeast end of Oerik, the largest continent on the world of Oerth. Ravaged by centuries of warfare, contested by dozens of races and organizations, the Flanaess is crawling with monsters to slay, ruins to loot, and vile magicians to foil. A very generic HeroicFantasy or SwordsAndSorcery setting at least on the surface, but one which suits the game's needs perfectly. In the ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' settings, the world of ''Greyhawk'' is part of a [[TheMultiverse larger universe]] that also includes ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' and ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''. Greyhawk notably also takes significant inspiration from real-world history, making the setting grittier and more "mud-and-blood" than one might think.

The setting is named after the great Free City of Greyhawk, a sprawling metropolis of wizards and thieves located next to the legendary dungeon of Castle Greyhawk. These locations are at the heart of "the Flanaess" -- the northeast end of Oerik, the largest continent on the world of Oerth. Ravaged by centuries of warfare, contested by dozens of races and organizations, the Flanaess is crawling with monsters to slay, ruins to loot, and vile magicians to foil. A very generic HeroicFantasy or SwordsAndSorcery setting, but one which suits the game's needs perfectly. In the ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' settings, the world of ''Greyhawk'' is part of a [[TheMultiverse larger universe]] that also includes ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' and ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: The sourcebooks' entries on each Flanaess country lists its ruler's name, class and level. These are almost always at least 11th level, and are usually higher.

* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Out of all the ''D&D'' settings, the orcs of ''Greyhawk'' are probably the worst, if only because they have no notable heroes to show off their ProudWarriorRaceGuy side (well, there's Turrosh Mak, but he's clearly too much on the "total asshole" side of things to be seen as admirable). They're very much of the "Tolkienian Orc" model, especially in early editions when they [[PigMan looked like pigs]].
** There ''is'' a notable exception to this rule, though; the sultanate of Zeif has a sizable population (10%, or about 140-150,000) of integrated orcs, descendants of mercenaries hired by the ancient Baklunish empire who mostly assimilated into the culture of the survivors over the last thousand years.

* RagtagBandOfMisfits: Fairly common to any ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' setting, but Greyhawk can have some particularly odd ones. Mordenkainen used to belong to one that turned out to include the BigBad Iggwilv when she was starting out, for example.

* WretchedHive: The Vault of the Drow and the village of Nulb.

* FalseFlagOperation: [[GodOfEvil Iuz]] once disguised himself as Vatun, the main god of the [[HornyVikings Ice Barbarians]] in order to instigate a war against the Dutchy of Tenh.

** The Olmans and the Flan are clearly based on Native Americans -- the Flan on northern First Nations (Cree, Sioux, Iroquois, etc.), and the Olman on the southern nations, especially [[{{Mayincatec}} the Maya and Aztecs]]. The Flan, however, are a bit peculiar about this -- they once had thriving, advanced kingdoms about two millenia ago or more, from which extremely powerful spellcasters like Vecna and Acererak came; by the time of the the Twin Cataclysms and the Great Migrations a little over a thousand years ago, however, they had reverted to "primitive" tribal enclaves for unknown reasons. Granted, giving rise to at least two of the setting's greatest {{evil sorcerer}}s could just be related to said reasons, and the evil wizard-lord Keraptis disappeared (and is usually claimed to have been killed) about thirteen hundred years ago. His rise and fall may have been part of a general downward trend that resulted in the collapse of civilization in the region. Records from the time are, to say the least, sketchy. Eventually, several of the more successful Flan groups integrated in or adopted the newcomers' hierarchy, meaning that sizable Flan-blooded populations are rather common, and a few nations are dominated by this ethnic group.

** Another would be Kyuss, TheWormThatWalks (that's [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast his actual title]] AND a totally accurate description), [[WasOnceAMan an ancient human priest]] [[DeityOfHumanOrigin currently in mid-ascent to godhood]] who's the originator of a number of worm/bug-related undead, aberration, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs and undead abberation]] monster species, currently a gigantic, vaguely humanoid mass of wriggling worms attempting to usher in the Age Of Worms, which will mark his ascension (which between that or Tharizdun's end goal would be worse [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is largely a matter of opinion and semantics]]).

* FalseFlagOperation: [[GodOfEvil Iuz]] once disguised himself as Vatun, the main god of the [[HornyVikings Ice Barbarians]] in order to instigate a war against the Dutchy of Tenh

* LovableRogue: Gord.
* MadGod: Several [[GodOfEvil evil gods]] come off as at least sociopaths or psychopaths, but two gods deserve special mention: Zagyg (who prior to [[AGodAmI ascention]] was known as the mad archmage, and hasn't become any saner afterwards; not evil, though) and Dread Tharizdun (a monster [[OmnicidalManiac wanting to unravel the universe]]; basically the UltimateEvil).

* {{Magitek}}: The Machine of Lum the Mad, the Mighty Servant of Leuk-o, the Doomgrinder and the Apparatus of Kwalish. The first three are also in the ArtifactOfDoom category. Rary is fond of creating ClockworkCreature[=s=].