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Mordenkainen is a fictional wizard from the ''World of Greyhawk'' campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. He was created by Gary Gygax as a player character only months after the start of Gygax's Greyhawk campaign, and is therefore one of the oldest characters continuously associated with D&D. Once Gygax was forced out of TSR, Inc., he lost creative control of Mordenkainen. TSR then made Mordenkainen a powerful wizard with strong convictions against moral absolutes, and the leader of the Circle of Eight, a cabal of eight powerful wizards. In fiction associated with the ''World of Greyhawk'', he has played diverse roles as both protagonist and antagonist. Official publications for the ''World of Greyhawk'' sometimes contradict each other regarding Mordenkainen. It is clear, however, that he is an important figure in the fictional history of the Flanaess. ==Creative origins== In late 1972, Gary Gygax created Castle Greyhawk and the dungeons beneath it. After a few months of almost non-stop play as the Dungeon Master,〔Gygax: "An average of seven gaming sessions a week was typical even when I was busy working. Often I played more than that. " 〕 Gygax asked one of the players, Rob Kuntz, to become co-Dungeon Master, which would allow Gygax an opportunity to experience the game as a player. Gygax subsequently created several characters, including a 1st-level wizard in early 1973.〔Gygax: "Mordenkainen came into being about the first month of 1973."〕 Gygax was interested in Finnish mythology, and named the wizard Mordenkainen, a portmanteau of the mythical heroes Mordecai and Lemminkäinen.〔Gygax: "The background I created for Mordenkainen was Finnish-like in nature, and his master was a chap called 'Old Waino'... () I picked the name because one Vainomoinen was sometimes referred to as "Old Waino." I really was captivated with Finnish myth after seeing a B&W movie done by the Russians, I think, about him, Leminkainen, and Ilmarinen adventuring to Pojola and entering Louhi's fortress, then reading ''The Green Magician'' by de Camp and Pratt as well as the Kalevala." 〕 He was to become Gygax's most famous character, and also his favorite to play.〔Q: "Of the characters you have played, which is your favorite?" Gygax: "I really must admit Mordenkainen is my favorite. I enjoy playing fighters, rangers, thieves, clerics, and multi-classed sorts in OAD&D, but the magic-user is usually most fun for me."〕 Over several years of gameplay, mainly from 1973 to 1985, Gygax developed the character traits and adventures with which Mordenkainen would become associated, as well as raising the wizard to "twenty-something levels".〔Gygax: "I do believe that Mordenkainen earned his twenty-something levels through cleverness, daring, a bit of luck, and dint of trying..." 〕 During this period, Gygax united Mordenkainen with eight of his other characters to form the Circle of Eight.〔Gygax: "The original (of Eight ) was composed of my PCs – Mordenkainen, Bigby, Yrag, Rigby, Felnorith, Zigby, Vram & Vin. In the novel version the Circle was expanded to encompass other PCs in my campaign such as Tenser. It came into being because Mordenkainen and Associates had a lot of wealth stored up from successful adventuring, located a place for a stronghold deep in enemy territory to assure plenty of action, and then went to work building the citadel. As there was a small army of dwarves associated with the larger, mounted field army, the building project went relatively quickly, about three game years to complete. While it was in progress, the 'boys' were active in raiding the lands around to keep the enemy forces back on their heels." 〕〔Gygax: "The Obsidian Citadel was indeed my personal creation as a player.... It was an octagonal castle with eight wall towers and a central keep with much space between the outer wall and the inner works because of the number of troops housed in this fortress.〕〔Gygax: "The Obsidian Citadel and its Circle of Eight was original to my own campaign. When Mordenkainen was at a level I considered too high for normal adventuring, I used the money he and his associates had amassed to construct the said fortress. The members of the 'Circle were Mordenkainen and...others of my PCs: Bigby, Yrag the fighter, Rigby the cleric, Zigby the Dwarf, the Elves Vram and Vin, and Felnorith as principles. A number of lesser PCs were () associated."〕 During his lifetime, Gygax never disclosed any of Mordenkainen's original game statistics.〔Q: "May we see () stats?" Gygax: "Can you see Mordie's stats? No! I won't even show you those for my most recent PC, Louhi Sharpnose, a gnome illusionist and treasure finder who I created only about four years back." 〕 When Gygax was forced out of TSR in 1985, he lost the rights to most of the characters he had mentioned in TSR publications, including Mordenkainen.〔Gygax: "Anagrams of my name are exclusively my property according to my settlement agreement with TSR, so that is how I can use Zagyg, or Zagig, as well as Yrag."〕 TSR subsequently changed Mordenkainen in ways unforeseen by his creator. When the Greyhawk campaign world was reset in 1991's ''From the Ashes'', Mordenkainen was refashioned as the world's most powerful wizard. The Circle of Eight was now described as a cabal of eight wizards supervised by Mordenkainen, who together sought to balance the forces of good and evil. Mordenkainen is one of the famous mages whose spells were included in the 1988 ''Greyhawk Adventures'' hardbound. Mordenkainen's name has been used to describe various spells published in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' system of magic. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mordenkainen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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