I was reading over the story of Reydrich's death and resurrection in Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins, and a very interesting idea struck me. There were no indications that Reydrich's body was ever recovered. The general who found him assassinated never saw his assassins, nor did he do anything with Reydrich. And yet, lo and behold, Reydrich returns a year later seemingly just fine, doesn't say a word about what happened, and demands his kindgom back. He apparently also gets into some spats with Xavener over his level of control and eventually Xavener makes him Chief Advisor of Sorcery.
Now this is just a shot in the dark. Perhaps the theory has been proffered before. But is it possible that the new "Reydrich" is actually Ivid V in disguise? Think about this. Ivid was never declared dead; he was just declared deposed. It seems he took no part in the ensuing war over Rauxes and the Malachite Throne, and in the aftermath, Rauxes is destroyed. Maybe the Mad Overking hatched a plot shortly after the disappearance of his most important fiendish advisors in the Flight of Fiends. He decided that if he couldn't have the Malachite Throne, no one would. He also realized he could kill two birds with one stone by luring a number of the most powerful personalities in the kingdom to Rauxes and destroying them. Perhaps Ivid discovered the secrets of the Machine of Lum the Mad, and plotted to abdicate right before using it to destroy the city from the inside.
Ivid's plan went off virtually without a hitch. He disappeared into obscurity, Rauxes was destroyed, along with several powerful lords who most likely held grudges against the Mad Overking. The 20,000 or so residents of Rauxes were of no concern to Ivid. He saw them as martyrs for his cause. What more fitting way to die than in service to your Overking? After he had made his getaway, he set about plans to reclaim his empire.
Ivid was the actual assassin of Reydrich. He just managed to catch the archmage in a vulnerable position and exploited the situation. Thereafter, Ivid spent the following year in an isolated location (perhaps he had aides) perfecting a permanent version of a magic jar spell that would have an instantaneous effect rather than an ongoing one, preventing it from merely being dispelled or abjured against. When he had finally completed his research, final preparations were made. Reydrich was resurrected by a priest of Hextor still loyal to Ivid (or perhaps a fiend cast wish). Just prior to Reydrich's resurrection, Ivid cast a wish spell to ensure Reydrich would succumb to his new spell. Once Reydrich was revived, he had but a brief moment of clarity before he glimpsed the chanting Mad Overking who promptly assumed Reydrich's identity.
"Reydrich" showed up in Ahlissa soon after that and assumed a place in Xavener's court. Now he bides his time, waiting for the day when he can rebuild a new kingdom of Aerdy. Since his return, Reydrich has always carried a periapt that holds a small crystal. But none suspect that the crystal is actually Reydrich's essence, and that the archmage everyone assumes is Reydrich, is truly the Mad Overking.
I find it plausible enough given the fact that Ivid is a magic-user.
Weeeeell - The Scarlet Brotherhood sourcebook says that the SB assassinated Reydrich, cloned him, brainwashed the clone and sent it back to Ahlissa as a sleeper drone.
While I have my own spin on that (wouldn't an archmage of Reydrich's intellect have his own clones or other backup contingency plans, especially as he was engaged in a head-to-head war with the Scarlet Brotherhood?) - that does blow a big hole in the Reydrich = Ivid theory (though if it works in your campaign, go hog wild!).
For my money, Ivid's still in the wreckage of Rauxes - but that's another story entirely... :)
Although personally I think Ivid was to deluded and so far in denial to come up with a plan to escape. He refused to believe the GK was breaking apart when it was actually happening. (think hitler in his bunker moving army markers conviced he could still win the war).
Ofcourse the "canon" answer is Reydrich is a clone created and brainwashed by the scarlet brotherhood, although whether the clone has "broken out" of his SB programming and reverted to reydrich's original personality is open to interpretation.
Clones are so unreliable, it's a mystery why wizards even bother.
Interesting. BTW there are two improved versions of Magic Jar in the great 2E Complete Necromancer's Guide: Life Force Transfer and Life Force Exchange.
This is a brilliant idea, and works far better than the cop-out of a powerful and brilliant archmage being assassinated and-ugh-cloned by the Scarlet Brotherhood (is there an evil pie the Brotherhood ISN'T involved in these days?) It sound like just the sort of plot a master manipulator and plotter like Ivid would come up with, and is entirely plausible, considering that he himself is a powerful wizard as well (12th-level wizard and 7th level cleric, presumably of Hextor, according to the 1983 boxed set), as well as having the Machine of Lum the Mad at his disposal.
This has the potential for a brilliant chess match-campaign of intrigue, deceit and wit, the likes one would see in The Count of Monte Cristo, or read about in Machiavelli. Two master intriguers and Machiavels the likes of which would rival the best of Shakespeare's villains in their manipulations and deceptions.
It's a clash of the titans...and woe to any unlucky PCs caught in the middle... _________________ <div align="left">Going to war without Keoland is like going to war without a pipe organ. They both make a lot of noise and they're both a lot of dead weight, so what's the point in taking them along? </div>
I know this is going to sound controversial, but IMO Ivid V wasn't the mastermind manipulator that people seem to think he was - especially towards the end of his reign. He certainly wasn't a patch on his illustrious ancestor Ivid I.
Remember that he presided over the disintegration of the Great Kingdom - that's hardly the action of a Machiavellian genius.
In contrast, Ivid I managed to overthrow the (albeit decadent) ruling house and defeat the combined forces of the Crandens, the Rax, the Darmens and the Garesteth to claim the throne (albeit through a fiendish pact). Then when faced with a rebellion on all fronts - he ruthlessly held the heartlands of the Great Kingdom together, serially slapping down the North Province, the Solnor cities, the Sea Barons, Medegia, Ahlissa, the Darmens,and the Crandens back into line (though he did lose Almor and the Iron League states - though one was protected by Nyrond and the other had formidable natural defences). Then he almost singlehandedly corrupted every noble institution of old Aerdy and bent them to his will, ruling tyrannically (and largely peacefully) through fear and might. he was so successful that the mechanism of tyranny he built managed to survive through his largely incompetant successors (with the possible exception of Ivid III, who had a bit of the old man in him) until Ivid V finally ran the ship of state hard aground.
Ivid V might have been cunning and intelligent, and early in his reign, he clearly had enough political nouse to keep the wolves at bay (though in fairness, Chelor III and Spidesa were second rate and Sencho Foy was a stuffed shirt; only Drax and Grenell posed a real threat). He even managed to temporarily halt the centrifugal forces that were spinning the empire apart. However, he seriously lost it during the Greyhawk Wars and caused the disintegration of the mightiest empire the Flanaess has yet seen. He's not Aerdy's Octavian or Vespasian or Justinian, he's its Caligula; its Nero; its Alexius III Angelus (the Byzantine emperor whose fecklessness left Constantinople wide open to the Fourth Crusade).
Given the state in which he's described in Ivid the Undying, I couldn't see him manipulating his way out of a wet paper bag - and he certainly hadn't the smarts or the shazam left to outwit an archmage of Reydrich's calibre (who you'll recall only got turned down by the Circle of Eight because of his alignment).
I just don't buy it - but I accept that other people's milage may vary.
Equally, as stated earlier, I'm not overly happy with Reydrich falling to the Brotherhood, without any apparent contingencies. That just smells to high heaven. There's more to that story than meets the eye.
Ofcourse the "canon" answer is Reydrich is a clone created and brainwashed by the scarlet brotherhood, although whether the clone has "broken out" of his SB programming and reverted to reydrich's original personality is open to interpretation.
Clones are so unreliable, it's a mystery why wizards even bother.
I agree this is the best result. Reydrich overthrows his brainwashing and becomes his own man.
The SB is just tattered and torn after FtA with, dare I say it (sure I do) - _NOTHING_ to offer GH any more. HOOK!
Woesinger wrote:
. . . IMO Ivid V wasn't the mastermind manipulator that people seem to think he was - especially towards the end of his reign. He certainly wasn't a patch on his illustrious ancestor Ivid I.
I completely agree. Ivid V was a loon at the end and for a good while before that. Another fellow who did not survive FtA in good shape and has, dare I say it (sure I do) - _NOTHING_ to offer GH any more. HOOK!
GH needs new villains. In part, the old ones (particularly the Old One) are just old, as in tired, but in part because FtA "used up" others. The Scarlet Brotherhood and Ivid are two sterling examples of villains "used up" in and by FtA. Time to retire both and move on to something new.
Ivid V might have been cunning and intelligent, and early in his reign, he clearly had enough political nouse to keep the wolves at bay (though in fairness, Chelor III and Spidesa were second rate and Sencho Foy was a stuffed shirt; only Drax and Grenell posed a real threat). He even managed to temporarily halt the centrifugal forces that were spinning the empire apart. However, he seriously lost it during the Greyhawk Wars and caused the disintegration of the mightiest empire the Flanaess has yet seen. He's not Aerdy's Octavian or Vespasian or Justinian, he's its Caligula; its Nero; its Alexius III Angelus (the Byzantine emperor whose fecklessness left Constantinople wide open to the Fourth Crusade).
Given the state in which he's described in Ivid the Undying, I couldn't see him manipulating his way out of a wet paper bag - and he certainly hadn't the smarts or the shazam left to outwit an archmage of Reydrich's calibre (who you'll recall only got turned down by the Circle of Eight because of his alignment).
.
The impression I got from Ivid the Undying and other sources was that in his early days he was smart and devious but limited, and that by the end he had lost even that. Ivid says of its eponym that he was "no military genius, but he was a brilliant intriguer and politician... Had he remained content with such masterful acts within his own lands... he might have been a highly effective ruler. As it happened, his megalomania got the better of him". This speaks to me of the sort of mind that is clever, adroit, and wily in acquiring power but has no clear vision of what to do with dominance once it gains it.
The catastrophic flaw was not Ivid's incompetence as a general, but his failure to recognize this incompetence. Woesinger's contrast with Augustus is very useful here: Octavian was no great shakes as a military man, but he had the sense to associate himself with those who were (such as Marcus Agrippa). Ivid blinded himself to his own inadequacy in this arena and holed the ship of state below the waterline as a result. By 585, he had lost contact with the here-and-now to such an extent that even in the sphere of domestic intrigue he was no longer good for anything much, and simply a pawn for Karoolck and Baalzephon.
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