A break from the usual, this week, simply because before the next chapter can be written, I need to have an answer to this question myself – and that’s an answer that I don’t currently have. So, this week, I’m going to take you behind the curtain as I work out an answer to that question.

The Ages Of Existence from a non-human perspective

If you look at the Ages Of Existence, provided for readers of Campaign Mastery to download in Inventing & Reinventing Races in D&D Part 3, and synopsized within that article for good measure, it should be clear that the third Dwarfwar was part of The Age Of Heresies, despite the fact that in human records, that age preceded the Age Of Empires while the Dwarfwar obviously followed it – it was during the Age Of Empires that Half-elves came into existence. This was done deliberately, to emphasize that the human timeline of events was not the whole story.

Another implication of the human history is that there is a great deal of time between the Age Of Heresies and The Age Of Genocide, and another healthy gap in time between that Age and the Age Of Armageddon. Obviously, since I have already established that the human perspective is one that (rather arrogantly) places themselves at the centre of existence, I feel no need to slavishly adhere to this outline, which is why I had the Dwarvish experience of the Age Of Heresies lead directly to the Age Of Genocide.

All that is well and good, but it then raises the question: into which age do the events of the Orcish Clan War fall?

In The Age Of Heresies?

This could certainly be the case. There have been enough incidents involving the Orcish Gods for it to qualify. In the Age Of Heresies, the Chaos Powers impersonate existing religious figures to create controversy and division amongst the faiths. While the humans have them impersonating Priests, impersonating Orcish Gods is well within their powers. The implications of the prophecy clearly show that the whole Clan War is an attempt by the Chaos Powers to prevent, by pre-emptive strike, the formation of the current band of PCs, so having The Hidden Dragon be a Chaos Power certainly makes sense. The litany of ‘false gods’ who have appeared in the course of the Clan Wars can be either other Chaos Powers or subordinates of the Hidden Dragon, or even aspects of The Hidden Dragon.

But there is a complication. The prophecy, which appeared in Chapter 68 of the Orcs & Elves story, speaks of the Hidden Dragon being awoken when the Oracle was discovered. That implies that it was asleep (or at the very least asleep to the danger described by the prophecy) until then. The latter interpretation explains the situation, and is the reason why the prophetic verse was phrased in that way; the original draft spoke of the Hidden Dragon being “released”, which is a far more direct statement, and implicitly implies that it had been confined at some past time. By Whom? There’s no reference to any such event anywhere in the Orcs & Elves story, though I suppose one could be inserted retroactively. But the question still remains to be answered: by Whom? And another one: why not impersonate Priests? Why pretend to be Gods?

So this answer to the question of timing gives a possible solution to the main question of identity (a Chaos Power), with a few sub-varieties describing the subordinates. All are reasonable and satisfactory, but none are especially compelling, and there are some weak points. This was the answer that I had in the back of my mind when I started outlining the Orcs & Elves series.

In The Age Of Genocide?

This could also be the case, and it clarifies the objectives of the Chaos Power in doing all this. In an nutshell, it wanted to so weaken the Orcs that they would be wiped out. Divide, and conquer – one of the oldest tactics in the book. It also makes sense insofar as both Elves and Dwarves are in this Age, and it is entirely possible that Humans are, too. So this would be an answer that restored some consistency to the overall pattern of events. This was the answer that I drifted towards when I started writing the Clan Wars chapters of the Orcs & Elves series.

But I also hedged my bets. When I was writing up the article on the Orcish Mythology I had to answer the question of what the Orcs think their gods do all day? I didn’t want them underfoot, because I wanted their intervention to be a Dramatic Event. So I came up with the notion of the Gods fighting to conquer a realm “beyond the sky” (how else would you describe a Plane Of Existence when no-one has any notion of such cosmological details?), to be used as an afterlife for the Orcs. Orcs who lived ‘honorably’ earned their place in the army of Gruumsh, and got to live in this afterlife, save for occasional excursions to expand it to make room for more Orcs. This is clearly analogous to the legend of Valhalla in many respects.

Who were they fighting against? This was never made clear. It might be the current masters of Elysium, i.e. the Human Gods, and the Orcs were (in effect) seizing part of the Human Afterlife to have as their own. But that would make the Orcs “Bad Guys” again, and I was trying to avoid that. Since it had already been established in the campaign mythos that the layers of the Abyss were once just as idyllic as Elysium, until they were corrupted by the Demons & Devils that overran the place (Refer Chapter 41 of the Orcs & Elves series, where it was mentioned in passing). So why not have the Orcish myth be that Gruumsh and Co had conquered part of the Abyss and returned it to its garden-like state? This would keep the Orcs as “Good Guys” (in general), however distasteful their activities and cleanliness might be to more civilized societies. And that in turn led to the articulation of the “nightmare armies” that the false Gruumsh summoned to bolster his forces in Chapter 61; the descriptions being appropriate for Demons being beheld by Orcs, and consistent with the information presented in the course of the chapters on the Third Dwarfwar.

So the Hidden Dragon, whoever he is, has demon underlings, and hence might just be a Demon Prince. Or perhaps Demon Princes merely describe those lackeys of the Hidden Dragon who impersonated the Orcish Deities.

This answer has a lot going for it. Consistency with what has already been established, plus a bringing together of many other plot threads from the broader narrative – and tying the whole lot together into a relatively neat worldview.

But there is, perhaps, a downside. I deliberately implied that the Devil responsible for the Third Dwarfwar, Molgoth, had impersonated Gruumsh in the past. That was explicitly to raise doubts about the reality of the Orcish Gods without actually ruling them out of existence. But to justify the Demon Princes’ willingness to support the Hidden Dragon’s agenda, I would have to accept that the conquest of part of the Abyss by Gruumsh was real, and so was (therefore) the Orcish Afterlife, and so (necessarily) must Gruumsh himself be. And I don’t want to resolve that question. I love the notion of Orcs worshipping deities who may not exist (explaining why they were never caught up in later events), whose priests can nevertheless cast Divine Spells because of their belief in the Principles that those deities represent.

One way around that is to make “The Hidden Dragon” not a Chaos Power at all, but another being like Molgoth – a Demon Prince. But that doesn’t quite work, either. Molgoth was essentially a solo act, corrupting and inspiring and deceiving mortals into doing his dirty work for him. Events in the Clan Wars are on another scale entirely, and would require the architect of them to have that much more power and authority than Molgoth did. So this solution would require me to make Molgoth a relatively minor Demon Prince, at least in retrospect. That has both an upside and a down-side. It makes Demons and Devils far more scary within the context of the campaign, if a “relatively minor” example can cause so much misery, pain, and bloodshed – and that’s consistent with how they have been depicted in other encounters with the PCs. But it also risks reducing the importance of the conflict created by Molgoth, and that’s something that I don’t want to do, either.

So this answer to the question of timing also provides a different take on the original solution, and a completely different alternative. This is the solution that I’ve had in the back of my mind while actually writing the last twenty-odd chapters – so it is not too surprising that it dovetails with the story so far very accurately, but so far I have avoided committing irrevocably to it, hesitating because I could see those problems looming.

In The Age Of Armageddon?

Always lurking somewhere in the back of my mind has been this possibility, and in part, the pattern of events in this era were used as a template for events within the Clan Wars. This era is all about the greed for power of some Gods, called the Shadow Gods. When I was first creating the campaign background for the Fumanor Campaign, I was confronted with a fundamental question: If you’ve got the Chaos Powers as fundamental enemies of the Gods, why do the different pantheons need their own, internal, enemies? Why do you need a Loki, or a Coyote, or a Pluto? Where do these “evil gods” fit into the scheme of things?

After a bit of thought, I came up with a stratagem on the part of the Chaos Powers which would leave most of the Gods helpless – but not the Shadow Gods (I won’t go into details here, I have a forthcoming chapter of the Orcs & Elves series dedicated to the story). These ‘Shadow Gods’ got together, saved the day, and were lionized by their respective pantheons; past offences were forgiven, at least a little, and the necessity of a God who could at least touch “The Dark Side” was established. But people get tired of being grateful, and the innate arrogance of many of the Shadow Gods began to grate, and old patterns of behavior slowly returned, and the Shadow Gods were again marginalized within their respective pantheons. They only tolerated this for a while before acting to reclaim what they saw as the respect and authority that they had earned; in the Age Of Armageddon, this leads to multiple simultaneous wars between different pantheons of Gods, with mortals caught in the middle.

The “Hidden Dragon” might be a ploy of the Shadow Gods. This only makes sense if the Shadow Gods were also responsible for the Prophecy, making the whole thing an even grander deception than has been revealed so far. The expectation would be that the real Orcish Gods would respond to the deception, that the identity of “The Hidden Dragon” would be yet another subterfuge, and that the purpose of everything that had taken place would be to get the Orcish Gods to attack the Pantheon they thought responsible. Whether or not those events would be the way things actually played out could be a very different story, of course.

As with the other solutions considered, this answer carries inherent advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include compressing the remaining storyline by removing the need for a separate set of incidents describing the Age Of Armageddon and how it impacts the Elves and Orcs. That it places Armageddon prior to the Age Of Enlightenment, the reverse of the chronology humans use, is a minor quibble that doesn’t bother me. Another advantage is that instead of treading on old territory within the narrative – we’ve already had an episode involving the Chaos Powers and Demons and so on – this would tread new ground. But, balanced against these advantages are a couple of really difficult problems. First and foremost, it requires me to confirm that the Orcish Gods are real, or are not real – or to have the resolution of the Clan Wars be really anticlimactic. None of these is appealing, for reasons that are either obvious or have already been discussed. Secondly, there’s the question of which Pantheon all this would be directed against; there isn’t one conveniently at hand. And finally, there are parts of the story that – as things stand – would make no sense under these circumstances and each of these incongruities would need to be explained away – which could be very tedious and dull, and it would take a lot of work digging them all out and constructing those explanations.

So, while this gives me an option with some definite advantages, overall it is more of a liability. I may have been doing my best to keep this answer as a viable option, and there have even been times when I may have thought this the most likely answer and written accordingly, but at this point I am ready to rule it out of consideration. I might still have used it if I was really desperate, but I have other, better, alternatives.

Making The Big Decision

Having ruled one of the three major choices out, that still leaves me with two – the original idea, and the one I’ve been writing towards without committing myself. Frankly, the advantages of the latter clearly outweigh the lack of disadvantages of the former – IF the disadvantages of the second can be overcome satisfactorily.

That still leaves two choices. The first option – “The Hidden Dragon is a Chaos Power” – avoids most of them. The second – “The Hidden Dragon is a Demon Prince” – is more problematic, even though it more explicitly references other parts of the story. But, while writing this, a hidden upside to the first solution came to mind. One of the themes of the campaign is the ongoing struggle between the Chaos Powers and the Gods; Demon Princes are nothing more than a side-show to that theme. Having had a big story that focuses on that sideshow (The Third Great Dwarfwar), perhaps it’s right that an even bigger story (The Clan Wars) refocuses attention on the primary theme.

So the decision is made: The Hidden Dragon is going to be a Chaos Power.

So, what just happened?

It’s worth my pausing for a minute to review what just happened.

• I had a problem;
• I listed as many possible solutions to that problem as I could;
• I considered the benefits and liabilities of each of those solutions without committing to any one of them; and only when that was complete,
• I chose the solution that was of greatest overall benefit to the end product, the story, despite any downsides that it had.

I follow the same basic process whenever I encounter a problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s a problem with my personal budget, with an adventure that I’m creating for an RPG, or a story that’s to be rendered in prose.

Sometimes, I can do it all in my head and reach what may seem to be a snap solution; and sometimes I overlook things when I fly by the seat of my pants that way.

On other occasions, no snap-judgment “obvious answer” presents itself. I might need to cross-reference with past events (as in this case), or I might need to do some research, or I might have an idea for a later adventure that I need to incorporate. Those are the times when it’s worth pausing and documenting your thought process; over time, I’ve learned the hard way to be systematic in my approach, and always to keep one eye on the Big Picture. If you don’t do that, then sure as shooting, six weeks or six months later, when the time comes to render the finished product (whatever it might be), the details that made your solution work will have been lost, and you’re in trouble.

What’s Next?

The decisions aren’t over yet.

• No two chaos powers are alike; Lovecraftian Horrors all, but with very little in the way of common descriptive elements, and with very different capabilities and characteristics. So I need to work out what this particular Chaos Power looks like, and what its personality is, and how these things will be expressed. And I need to work out how all that relates to the name, “the Hidden Dragon”. Why choose that particular name? Or did whoever wrote the prophecy choose it? Why?
• For that matter, I need to make some final decisions about who exactly created the Oracle Of Gottskragg, when, and why – and whether or not to reveal any of that information.
• I need to decide how the “nightmare soldiers” are going to make sense given that the Demon Prince idea has been thrown overboard.
• I need to work out who, or what, was impersonating the various Deities to further this scheme on behalf of the Hidden Dragon, and how they are going to connect with the climax of the Clan War storyline. And why they are working on behalf of the Hidden Dragon.
• I need to work out where the Hidden Dragon’s lair is. And, how at least some of the protagonists who assault it are going to get back to tell their stories. (I know, for example, that I am going to need Ambassador Tathzyr after that climax, for example.
• I need to plot out an action sequence that permits me to divulge any of the above information that needs to be revealed in the course of that climactic battle.
• Which, of course, means that as I develop these answers, I need to decide what needs to be revealed, what can be implied (and how), what can be inferred, what can be left out – and what should be provided ex-cathedra as narrative or sidebar.
• And oh yes, one other small item: How will the Hidden Dragon be defeated? Or will the mission be a failure, or a qualified successes?

As you can see, I still have a ton of work to do before I can start writing the big confrontation sequence. How do I intend to go about it?

The Key to a Solution

Looking over that list, there are three items that really leap out at me as being the cornerstones of solutions.

• The name, “The Hidden Dragon” is either going to be descriptive, self-descriptive, or possibly a metaphor. The answer to that specific question will provide a lot of guidance toward solutions to every other question.
• While the nature of “The Hidden Dragon” should go a long way to resolving the “nightmare soldiers” and the “who are the false gods” questions, it might be even more useful to come up with a set of possible answers to those questions and reason back to nail down more of the nature of the main villain in the story. Sometimes it can be good to put the cart before the horse – when you’re going backwards, especially.
• And thirdly, the Oracle Of Gottskragg. Figure out the who, what, and where of that – again, perhaps making a list of possible answers, and then cross-referencing those solutions with the list of answers to the previous question – should really help with understanding the context of what is going on, and from that, who the participants need to be.

So those are my starting points. I’m going to take everything that’s been revealed so far, extend that information, and use the results to narrow down the requirements (from a story perspective) that I have for the Hidden Dragon. That should get me to a personality and a description. Once I have all of that, plotting out the action should be (relatively) straightforward, and lead to a logical outcome.

As a general principle, make the smaller decisions first (while being prepared to change them) and they will serve as clues to the bigger decisions. At least, that’s the best approach when you can’t go directly to the big decision for some reason.

What will be my ultimate answers to all these questions? You’ll have to read Chapters 74 and 75 of the Orcs & Elves storyline next time to find out…