At North Texas RPG Con last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Darlene, an artist for TSR who did the original World of Greyhawk maps in the 1983 boxed set. I asked her to sign my original copy of the WoG Glossography, one of the books from the set. I picked this because part of her beautiful map is shown on the cover, but she relayed that she had also designed the graphics. She stared at title page for a few seconds, remembering her work.
In addition I bought a copy of her 1982 card game, Jasmine: The Battle for the Mid-Realm, which you can see here on BGG. On the bottom side of the clear box for the game I spied a Skull Mountain-esque picture I'd never seen before on one of the cards. See above.
Darlene has a page about Idshoii on her blog, which verifies that it's not just a castle, but a carving at the top of a mountain:
"Ildshoii Castle, carved from shiny black obsidian rock, rose high above a crown of volcanos. The dark castle was the domain of Melantha, the ruler of Medrylthorn ..."
Update: Here is Darlene's own intro page for the game:
In addition I bought a copy of her 1982 card game, Jasmine: The Battle for the Mid-Realm, which you can see here on BGG. On the bottom side of the clear box for the game I spied a Skull Mountain-esque picture I'd never seen before on one of the cards. See above.
Darlene has a page about Idshoii on her blog, which verifies that it's not just a castle, but a carving at the top of a mountain:
"Ildshoii Castle, carved from shiny black obsidian rock, rose high above a crown of volcanos. The dark castle was the domain of Melantha, the ruler of Medrylthorn ..."
Update: Here is Darlene's own intro page for the game:
Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteSo is this Skull Mountain placed in what is now called Perrenland?
ReplyDeleteOr is the Mid-Realm another world different from Oerth, Middle-Earth, The Realm, etc.?
ReplyDeleteI believe it is Darlene's own creation. It was the setting for her comic strip that ran in Dragon magazine for one year starting with issue #37. I've added a link to an intro page by Darlene above.
DeleteIt's awesome that you posted this. Don't forget that Darlene was also one of the illustrators for the 1st Edition AD&D DM's Guide. When you open the book the first illustration is a unicorn that she did, for example.
ReplyDelete