An Apocalyptic Tradition

In the beginning, there was darkness.

A gorgeous view on one evening's drive home.

What do Gygax's Greyhawk, Vance's Dying Earth, Arneson's Blackmoor, Barker's Empire of the Petal Throne, Bledsaw's Wilderlands of High Fantasy, and Bakshi's Wizards all have in common?

The end of the world.

But hold on, I need to qualify something here. The word "apocalypse" and "world" are being used in a particular way here, which you might not agree with. Specifically: I am using these words in a very old, archaic sense.

First, when I say apocalypse, I am not talking about an atheist's nuclear haulocost, where all meaningful life ends and there's nothing else to tell. D&D assumes literal souls and a bodily afterlife in a similar sense as ancient religion. In ancient times, an apocalypse would simply be a mass transition of life to afterlife; a metaphysical exodus, if you will. Generally, they'd mean all life in the world, all at once, but then again their storytellers did enjoy exaggeration a bit too much.

Second, when I say world, it might help to understand that for most ancient people, in their minds at least, the world ended at the horizon. Even the most well travelled of men still drew maps of the whole "world" in which land could be seen extending off the edge of the page, sometimes even with notes of what lies beyond! In this ancient sense, "world" is not synonymous with "planet", "universe", or "dimension". Rather, one's world is merely that part of existence which is considered to actually matter. And yeah, a fair dose of nationalism, racism, and other tribal tendencies are what produce the distinction.

So, when I say all of these games are apocalyptic, or postapocalyptic, or that an event brings about the end of the world, don't get all up in arms- I'm speaking in a foreign tongue.

The End. Again.

Here's an article to give you an introduction to the roots of this tradition. Unfortunately, the guy's editor isn't a fan of citations apparently, so if that isn't enough evidence for you, here's some of the stuff that got cut. For further info, Grognardia brought the topic to discussion, from another blogger's campaign plans, and it was this discussion which led to the initial link above. Some other highlights budding off from that and going back in time is this colorful description of the birth of D&D, and this brilliant memorial to Dave.

If you want a broader discussion of the implications rooted in the assumptions the game system is built with, take a look at this old forum discussion.

But this isn't just the ramblings of some dude and his audience who noticed a coincidence. This guy understands it personally; he used to game with the original development team and received credit in the 5e corebooks. He knows this game like it's in his blood. But more than apocalyptic or postapocalyptic, D&D isn't even medieval! It's a bizarre sort of American fantasy. Its inherently American nature can even be found in its fundamental drive: the hunt for holes in the ground full of treasure.

The whole Darksun campaign setting is explicitly postapocalyptic, and is one of the most iconic and beloved settings ever published, even after being abandoned. (Something that can not be said of settings like Birthright, Council of Wyrms, or Spelljammer, which are typically remembered as boring, incredibly gay, or both.)

Need some more? Since the very beginning, each edition has made references to ancient histories full of fallen empires as the basis for all of the ruins. This theme stands true through to today.

How to build a classic.

In the first D&D book, we get this description of what the early game was about:

"First,  the  referee  must  draw  out  a  minimum  of half  a  dozen  maps  of  the  levels  of  his  'underworld',  [...] When this  task  is  completed  the  participants  can  then  be  allowed  to  make  their  first descent  into  the  dungeons  beneath  the  'huge  ruined  pile,  a  vast  castle  built  by generations  of  mad  wizards  and  insane  geniuses'."

Later, in the third book of that set, not quite the "DMG" by name yet, we get a glimpse into just what Greyhawk's underworld really was like:

 "'Greyhawk  Castle',  for  example,  has  over  a  dozen  levels in  succession  downwards,  more  than  that  number  branching  from  these,  and  not less  than  two  new  levels  under  construction  at  any  given  time.  These  levels  contain  such  things  as  a  museum  from  another  age,  an  underground  lake,  a  series  of caverns  filled  with  giant  fungi,  a  bowling  alley  for  20'  high  Giants,  an  arena  of evil,  crypts,  and  so  on."

In 4th edition, civilization persists only in small gatherings and clumps, known as "points of light". The world surrounding is untame wilderness and the ruins of empires past.

The 5e DMG contains the following assumptions, which can be found in the first chapter:

"Much of the World Is Untamed. Wild regions abound. City-states, confederacies, and kingdoms of various sizes dot the Iandscape, but beyond their borders the wilds crowd in. People know the area they live in well. They've heard stories of other places from merchants and travelers, but few know what lies beyond the mountains or in the depths of the great forest unless they've been there themselves.

The World Is Ancient. Empires rise and fall, leaving few places that have not been touched by imperial grandeur or decay. War, time, and natural forces eventually claim the mortal world, leaving it rich with places of adventure and mystery. Ancient civilizations and their knowledge survive in legends, magic items, and their ruins. Chaos and evil often follow an empire's collapse.

Conflict Shapes the World's History. Powerful individuals strive to make their mark on the world, and factions of like-minded individuals can alter the course of history. Factions include religions led by charismatic prophets, kingdoms ruled by lasting dynasties, and shadowy societies that seek to master long-lost magic. The influence of such factions waxes and wanes as they compete with each other for power. Some seek to preserve the world and usher in a golden age. Others strive toward evil ends, seeking to rule the world with an iron fist. Still others seek goals that range from the practical to the esoteric, such as the accumulation of material wealth or the resurrection of a dead god. Whatever their goals, these factions inevitably collide, creating conflict that can steer the world's fate.

The World Is Magical. Practitioners of magic are relatively few in number, but they leave evidence of their craft everywhere. The magic can be as innocuous and commonplace as a potion that heals wounds to something much more rare and impressive, such as a levitating tower or a stone golem guarding the gates of a city. Beyond the realms of civilization are caches of magic items guarded by magic traps, as well as magically constructed dungeons inhabited by monsters created by magic, cursed by magic, or endowed with magical abilities."

The Corbinet ("Apocalypse Stone") in captivity

Following through with the theme

But aside from the need of vast ancient ruin to adventure through, there's also a tradition of smashing the current empires into ruins as well.

Wrath of the Immortals is a boxed set adventure for the basic series of D&D. For those unaware of it, think of Basic as pre-1st-edition D&D. It evolved directly out of those little brown pamphlets sold by Gygax and Arneson back in the 70s. (First as a compilation, then as a series of revised editions, eventually culminating in the Rules Cyclopedia and Wrath of the Immortals) The adventure completely remodels the geography of Mystara (The default campaign at the end of Basic and early Advanced editions.) and creates a new, mostly undetailed world. Since this was pretty much the last rules publication for the basic line, it essentially set up the fans of that game with an empty world that they can play in, develop, and explore for decades to come.

Have you ever heard of the Rod of Seven Parts? It's a classic D&D magic item, and a sad loss for the 5e DMG. Here's a guy who already compiled everything I was going to tell you about it. In all of that though, he kind of misses one important detail: several versions of the Rod have the capacity to destroy the world as it currently exists, and several of the adventures centered on it could result in similar consequences if the players fail. The rod spans every edition until 5th, and even appeared in 4th, albeit a very strange iteration in its last appearance.

The Apocalypse Stone for 2nd edition is an absolute apocalypse scenario which unravels the multiverse on a cosmological scale. It is truly a complete end-times event. It's one of those "fuck you, hotshot" games in a similar spirit to Temple of Horrors. It is designed to eliminate broken characters with players who think numbers are all it takes to play D&D. This one teaches dice-happy players a lesson by using their murderhobo ways against them, by tricking them into kicking off the end of all things. That'll teach them to use their brains before they blindly loot everything in sight just because someone asked them to.

This adventure gets a lot of flack for being rather railroady and antagonistic to the players, which isn't actually true. Much of the criticism is actually resolved within the text itself, but the information is not provided in a linear fashion, so unless you really read the thing and its appendices, you'll only get half the story. (The #1 complaint, that the stone itself is a dumb idea, or that leaving it in the hands of mortals is foolish, is actually inherent to the story of the stone! The #2 complaint, that the trials seem pointless, is also justified by the nature of deities in the assumed D&D setting, something most players don't actually understand.)

Tales of the Outer Planes is a book full of mini-adventures which includes an adventure called to Hell and Back, which has the potential to unleash a terrible wave of diabolical evil across the outer planes.

Although not cannon to its content, players have found that Curse of the Azure Bonds has the capacity to ruin a whole campaign world, should things go terribly wrong and Tyranthraxus (or worse, all of the enemy factions together) gets his way.

Die Vecna Die!, also for 2nd edition, serves to explain why multiple worlds and their cosmologists were rewritten in the transition to 3rd edition. It is also the conclusion of a trilogy of Vecnan adventures, including Vecna Lives! and Vecna Reborn, which document his rise from arch lich to lesser god, and his attempt at reshaping the entire multiverse.

But even once we got to 3rd edition, the world just couldn't stop ending! In the later stages of the game, after it grew its ".5" appendage, we were treated to Elder Evils, a book filled to the brim with literal world-enders on a scale somewhere between Vecna and the apocalypse stone. And as if that wasn't enough, they had to add a few more elder evils through Dragon Magazine!

In 5th edition, publication entered seasonal (quarterly) releases of major adventures and campaign supplements. Generally: 4 adventures per year, 1 other book per year. These are significant publications with massive production value. Thus far, over half of the seasons have had apocalyptic potential. Tyranny of Dragons covered two seasons and focused on a 2-part adventure (Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat) to kick off the new edition, and pretty much invariably ends with the summoning of Tiamat, the 5-headed god of evil dragons- and leaves it to the group to decide where to go from there! Elemental Evil featured the adventure Princes of the Apocalypse- I'll let you guess what the cults of elemental evil are up to in that one. Rage of Demons contained Out of the Abyss, an adventure where multiple demon princes rise in the underdark and try to take over the material plane. Nothing like saving multiple planes of existence, to make you feel like a real hero, amirite?

I think this tradition really says something about what makes an exciting and interesting fantasy world: the greatest of heroes must triumph over the greatest of adversity. A lot of beginner DMs create these beautiful, perfect, peaceful worlds that are only really threatened by some external threat. In the absence of this "devil" element, there is no true conflict, the world is static and plain in its comfortable genericness. Let me give you a suggestion: don't be afraid to end the world. Don't hold so tightly to your fantasy world that you refuse to allow it to be threatened. Don't be a cowardly DM. Grow some balls and tell the players: "If you die, all is lost, and the world shall fall to ruin." ... and stand by it.