Rod of Seven Parts
In many campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game the Rod of Seven Parts, formerly known as the Rod of Law, is a fictional powerful magical artifact.
Description[edit]
The Rod of Seven Parts, when whole, is a 5-foot-long pole. The command words for each piece are "Ruat," "Caelum," "Fiat," "Justitia," "Ecce," "Lex," and "Rex," which collectively make up a Latin phrase that translates into "Though chaos reign, let justice be done. Behold! Law is king."[1] The artifact is described as singular, with creator Gary Gygax emphasizing that only one exists.[2]
The Eldritch Wizardry guidelines described each piece as having its own unique powers. In a gaming scenario, the more parts of the rod a user possessed, the more powerful each one of the seven parts became.[3]
History[edit]
The Rod of Seven Parts artifact first appeared in the 1976 TSR (Gygax & Blume) publication Eldritch Wizardry.[2] It was the centerpiece of a story concerning a long-ago "great war" between characters known as Wind Dukes of Aaqa and the Queen of Chaos. At the time the artifact was in one piece, and was known as "The Rod of Law".
In the story, the Rod of Law was used in the Battle of Pesh to imprison the Queen's greatest general, a character known as Miska the Wolf-Spider, Prince of Demons. The rod was broken into seven fragments during this conflict, and the seven individual pieces were scattered across the world.
Influence[edit]
Game designer Ken Rolston has called the Rod "the greatest story". Fellow game designer Hal Barwood said the concept of a rod of many parts forms the basis for a process of "corporealizing and then atomizing" a game's story, where a single item is broken into pieces and the players are tasked with finding and assembling the parts.[1]
Publication history[edit]
The Rod of Seven Parts first appeared in the Original D&D supplement, Eldritch Wizardry.[4] It was one of the first artifacts detailed for the Dungeons & Dragons game.[5][6] This artifact has been updated many times,[7][8] and has received an eponymous boxed set titled The Rod of Seven Parts based around it including an adventure.[9] The Rod of Seven Parts appeared in the Arms and Equipment Guide (2003), on page 154.[10] The Rod has even been the object of quests as in the adventure path, Age of Worms. In the Age of Worms Adventure Path, the seventh part of the Rod lies in the tomb of the Wind Duke general Icosiol.[11] The sixth part lies on another plane.
The Rod of Seven Parts is one of the few artifacts to be given a detailed history and guide for any campaign world.[12] An earlier adventure featuring the Rod appeared in an RPGA tournament adventure called "The 'Dwarven' Quest for the Rod of Seven Parts" by Frank Mentzer in 1982.[13]
The Rod of Seven Parts was also a featured item in a fantasy novel by Douglas Niles, titled The Rod of Seven Parts.[14] The story deals with the return of the Rod and the forces of Chaos trying to keep it apart. This makes the Rod the only major Dungeons & Dragons magical artifact to be featured in its own stand alone product and a novel.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Howard, Jeff (2008). Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives. CRC Press. pp. 87–89. ISBN 978-1439880814. Search this book on
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mizer, Nicholas J. (2019). Tabletop Role-Playing Games and the Experience of Imagined Worlds. Springer Nature. ISBN 978-3030291273. Search this book on
- ↑ Williams, Skip (December 1995), "A History of the Rod of Seven Parts", Dragon Magazine (224): 66–71
- ↑ Gygax, Gary; Blume, Brian (1976), Eldritch Wizardry (1st ed.), Lake Geneva, WI: TSR
- ↑ Mortdred (2001-02-05). "Review of Eldritch Wizardry". RPGnet. Retrieved 2007-11-19.
- ↑ Metzer, Frank (1982), The "Dwarven" Quest for the Rod of Seven Parts (1st ed.), Chester, PA: RPGA, Gen Con East II
- ↑ Cook, David. Dungeon Master's Guide (TSR, 1989)
- ↑ Cook, David (1993), Book of Artifacts (2nd ed.), Lake Geneva, WI: TSR
- ↑ Williams, Skip (1996), The Rod of Seven Parts, Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, ISBN 0-7869-0418-6
- ↑ Cagle, Eric, Jesse Decker, Jeff Quick, Rich Redman, and James Wyatt. Arms and Equipment Guide (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)
- ↑ Baur, Wolfgang (December 2005), "A Gathering of Winds", Dungeon, Paizo Publishing (129)
- ↑ Williams, Skip (September 1996), "The Rod of Seven Parts, World by World", Dragon Magazine (233): 92–94
- ↑ http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_tourneys_r7-10.html
- ↑ Niles, Douglas (1996), The Rod of Seven Parts, TSR/Wizards of the coast, ISBN 0-7869-0479-8
Other reading[edit]
- Cagle, Eric, Jesse Decker, Jeff Quick, and James Wyatt Arms and Equipment Guide (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)
- Henson, Dale, and Doug Stewart, eds. Encyclopedia Magica Vol 3 (TSR, 1995).
- Erik Mona. "The Whispering Cairn." Dungeon #124 (Paizo Publishing, 2005).
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