Lankhmar is a fictional city in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber. Fictional locations are places that exist only in Fiction and not in reality Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two seminal Sword-and-sorcery heroes created by Fritz Leiber (1910–1992 and loosely modelled upon himself and his friend Harry This article refers to the science fiction writer For the actor see Fritz Leiber Sr It is situated on the world of Nehwon, just west of the Great Salt Marsh and east of the River Hlal, and serves as the home of Leiber's two anti-heroes. Nehwon is the fictional world created by Fritz Leiber in which his heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, adventure
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The city of Lankhmar
Lankhmar is richly described as a populous, labyrinthine city rife with corruption; it is decadent and squalid in roughly equal parts and said to be so shrouded by smog that the stars are rarely sighted (the city's alternate name is "The City of Seven Score Thousand Smokes". A city is an Urban area with a large Population and a particular Administrative, Legal, or Historical status Smog is a kind of Air pollution; the word "smog" is a Portmanteau of Smoke and Fog. ) Located next to the Inner Sea, Lankhmar is visited by ships from across Nehwon and is the starting point for Fafhrd and the Mouser's many sea voyages.
The city is ostensibly ruled by an Overlord and a nobility, but the true power is held by the Thieves' Guild, and in this sense the city could reasonably be called a cleptocracy. A kleptocracy (sometimes cleptocracy, occasionally kleptarchy) ( root klepto+kratein = rule by thieves) is a term applied to a The Thieves' Guild also controls Lankhmar's abundant criminal element, with the notable exceptions of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
Streets in Lankhmar are often evocatively named (the Thieves' Guild is located on Cheap Street near Death's Alley and Murder Alley. ) Commonly referenced locations are the Silver Eel Tavern, behind which is Bone Alley, and the Golden Lamprey. The main meeting place is the Plaza of Dark Delights, which is the setting of the popular story The Bazaar of the Bizarre. The religious center of Lankhmar is the Street of the Gods, along which numerous (and often bizarre) cults seek to arrange themselves in order of popularity. The true gods of Lankhmar, however, are feared rather than worshipped; these "Black Bones" (mummified ancestors of the Lankhmarese) occasionally leave their temple to fight threats to the city - or threats to their own position as preeminent religion within the city.
Beneath Lankhmar is an underground city inhabited by sentient rats. An underground city is a network of Tunnels that connect buildings beneath street level Sentience is the ability to feel or perceive subjectively. It is an important concept in the philosophy of Animal rights, in buddhist philosophy and in Rats are various medium sized long-tailed Rodents of the superfamily Muroidea At one point the Mouser, suitably reduced in size, infiltrates this world.
Leiber's Lankhmar bears considerable similarity to 16th Century Seville as depicted in Cervantes' classical picaresque tale Rinconete y Cortadillo: a bustling, cosmopolitan maritime city, into whose port galleons sail laden with gold from which only a few benefit, with a thourougly corrupt civil government and a powerful and well-organised Thieves' Guild - all seen through the eyes of two young adventurers who formed a partnership to guard each other's back in this dangerous milieu. Seville ( Spanish: Sevilla, see also different names) is the artistic cultural and financial capital of southern Spain. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( in modern Spanish; September 29, 1547 &ndash April 22, 1616) was a Spanish Novelist However, Cervantes' protagonists, less daring than Leiber's, do not confront the Thieves' Guild but enter its ranks.
Lankhmar in games
Board games
In 1937, Leiber and his college friend Harry Otto Fischer created a complex wargame set within the world of Nehwon, which Fischer had helped to create. A wargame is a Game that simulates or represents a Military operation. Later, they created a simplified board game entitled simply "Lankhmar" which was released by TSR in 1976. TSR Inc was an American game publishing company most famous for publishing the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game. This is a rare case of a game adaptation written by the creators of the stories on which the game is based. An adaptation is a characteristic of an Organism that has been favored by Natural selection and
The TSR game is for 2-4 players, each of whom takes a hero (Fafhrd, the Gray Mouser, Pulgh, or Movarl) and leads the forces of one of the powers of Nehwon in an effort to capture the opponents' citadels. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two seminal Sword-and-sorcery heroes created by Fritz Leiber (1910–1992 and loosely modelled upon himself and his friend Harry Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two seminal Sword-and-sorcery heroes created by Fritz Leiber (1910–1992 and loosely modelled upon himself and his friend Harry This oppositional stance is unusual for the series, though there were a few times in the stories where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were temporarily committed to opposing sides. The TSR game is simple and includes bits of color from the series, such as geases that send the heroes around the board chasing various goals at the behest of Sheelba, Ningauble, or various gods.
Role-playing games
Lankhmar, City of Adventure (1985) was a supplement produced by TSR for their Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) role-playing game containing maps, descriptions of the city areas, game statistics for various prominent characters from the stories, and ideas for adventures in and around the city. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) TSR Inc was an American game publishing company most famous for publishing the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game. Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a Fantasy Role-playing game (RPG originally designed by A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. It was updated in 1993 under the same name for use with 2nd edition AD&D. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) Over the years there have been a number of different versions of the Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Role-playing game (D&D Several modules and accessories were produced for use with City of Adventure.
The New Adventures of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser (1996) was a boxed set that replaced Lankhmar, City of Adventure and could be used as an AD&D supplement or a standalone RPG with simplified AD&D rules. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar)
In 2006, Mongoose Publishing began publishing a number of Lankhmar-themed roleplaying books based on its revival of the RuneQuest roleplaying game system, starting with Lankhmar (ISBN 978-1-905471-69-0) and Lankhmar: Newhon (ISBN 978-1-905471-99-7 ). Mongoose Publishing is a prolific British manufacturer of role-playing, miniatures, and Card games actively publishing material since 2001 RuneQuest is a Fantasy Role-playing game first published in 1978 by Chaosium, created by Steve Perrin based on the mythical world
For many years, the role-playing magazine Dragon ran a column introducing magical treasures, under the name "Bazaar of the Bizarre", in honour of the magical emporium in Lankhmar (and Leiber's story of the same name). When the column's name was changed, there was sufficient outcry from readers for the name to be reinstated.
References
External links
- Fan website on Lankhmar
- Listing for the Lankhmar Board Game
- TSR Archive Lankhmar product list
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