Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Who are the Tdon

Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:45 am Who are the Tdon

Is there anywhere where the house of Tdon (from Aeirdi) is described further ?

Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:34 pm

There's no indication that Tdon is a house. It could be a priestly order, a soverign nation, or a geographical feature (for example, a mountain). It could be a minor clan or a village. It could be a castle or temple. It could be the name of a demiplane for all we know.

For what it's worth, I've assumed it was the name of the priestly order Arnd belonged to.

Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:34 pm

Based on Rasgon's other thread on alternate Oerths/Earths: Tdon could make a perfect alternate Oerth location for a sect of Heironeous where the Invulnerable Coat finds its way to Oerth by fate or design.

Sun Apr 01, 2007 4:50 am

"Tdon" in "Aarnd of Tdon" could either refer to him being from a place(city or land most likely) called Tdon, or could refer to him as being a worshipper of Tdon(a god). The latter seems an interesting and archaic way of denoting one's divine allegiance, so I kind of like this option too.
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Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:54 am

Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:34 am

This rings a bell, but I cannot place it. Where is the Tdon reference originally?

Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:10 pm

Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:21 pm

"Arnd of Tdon Invulnerable Coat of Arnd, DMG1 p. Arnd of Tdon = Don Arndt Don Arndt = ? "

http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_anagrams.html
Gygax's Anagrams, Puns, and Homages in the World of Greyhawk

Tue Apr 03, 2007 6:26 pm

Don Arndt was one of the early rpg adopter folks, but I haven't dug up more specifics than that. I'll have to ping Rob the next time we chat, see who he was....
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Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:36 pm

Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:48 am

Well, it is clear that Tdon was not created to complete a vision of GH or anyplace else for that matter.

Maybe it would be a good postfest, to come up with the best story of Arnd and Tdon.

Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:06 am

Heh. Very little of the earliest material was created to "fulfill a vision of GH". IIRC, alot of the artifacts in the 1e DMG had nothing to do with Gygax' campaign. They were made up by other folks out of thin air.

Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:21 am

My take on the Tdon is in this article.

Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:23 am

Tdon=T'don="To don" the Invulnerable coat Smile

Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:16 pm

Thread necromancy!

I just noticed this from p. 72 of Iuz the Evil -

"They (The Declaimers of Tenh) have disappeared as completely as the dervish High priests of Tdon, ten centuries before them."

Mon Nov 09, 2009 3:01 am

Nice find! Dervish then would mean they are roving priests and aren't tied to a town. Since this is Migration era they could be dervish because of this, and they could just be an order of priests who traveled along the Migration trails to tend to/defend the people, maybe something like crusading Hospitalers.

Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:06 pm

Actually within the research into the balunish west; my interpretation.

Dervish is the bakluni term for "Holy Warrior" which I perceive as the bakluni term for Paladin and perhaps warrior priest. However following the destruction of the Bakluni Padishah which created several rival successor states and after the subsequent schism within the faith of Al'Akbar the terminolgy was altered.

Those areas under the True Faith (Ket and Northern Tusmit) use the term Elder Somb for Holy Warrior. While areas under the Exalted Faith (Ekbir, Zeif and Southern Tusmit) use the term Elder Saphi for Holy Warrior.

The Paynim tribes continue to use the ancient pre-schism term Dervish as noted by the Dervishes of Karnak.

Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:46 pm

Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:19 pm

Tue Nov 10, 2009 2:44 pm

Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:38 pm

Because the writers weren't paying attention, maybe? Not that such a thing has ever happened...

Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:20 pm

Well, the Oeridians were living among the Baklunish at the time, or at least near their territories, in Ull. We can expect a certain amount of linguistic influence.

Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:31 pm

We also can't assume they meant dervish in the traditional sense, although it does show up as that in a couple of GH sources. In the 1e MM dervishes are just "highly religious nomads... encountered only in desert or steppes/plains areas." The Oeridians of the time were nomads living in an area of plains about twice the size of Hungary.