Lankhmar

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Lankhmar is a fictional city in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber. It is situated on the world of Nehwon, just west of the Great Salt Marsh and east of the River Hlal. It is a decadent city rife with corruption, the perfect home of Leiber's two anti-heroes.

Lankhmar is so saturated with smog it is rare to see the stars; this may be the origin of the city's alternate name "The City of Seven Score Thousand Smokes". It is supposedly ruled by an Overlord and a nobility, but the real power is held by the Thieves' Guild.

Located in the labyrinthine Thieves' House on Cheap Street near Death's Alley and Murder Alley, the Guild pretty much rules Lankhmar's criminal element, except for Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Another notable institute is the Silver Eel Tavern, behind which is Bone Alley.

The religious center of Lankhmar is the Street of the Gods, where one goes to worship the gods in Lankhmar (not the same as the gods of Lankhmar). The street stretches from the Marsh Gate to the vicinity of the Overlord's citadel, and the various cults of the gods in Lankhmar array themselves along it, the powerful housed in great temples, the weak holding their services on a few cobbles of pavement. Successful sects, by claiming more and wealthier worshippers, may buy, rent, or muscle themselves into better circumstances; less successful ones will be displaced from their position and eventually ejected from the city. The gods of Lankhmar, the "black bones", are quite different: mummified ancestors of the Lankhmarese, they are feared rather than worshipped and may leave their temple to fight threats to the city - or threats to their own position as preeminent religion within the city.

One of the main meeting places is the Plaza of Dark Delights, where there are numerous shops and merchants. At one time, the Bazaar of the Bizarre was located near here, but it has disappeared.

Lankhmar is next to the Inner Sea and is visited by ships from across Nehwon. It is the starting point to Fafhrd and the Mouser's many sea voyages.

Beneath Lankhmar is an underground city inhabited by sentient rats.

[edit] Board games

In 1937, Leiber and his college friend Harry Otto Fischer created a complex wargame set within the world of Nehwon, which Fischer had collaborated in the creation of. Later, they created a simplified board game entitled simply "Lankhmar" which was released by TSR in 1976. This is a rare case of a game adaptation written by the creators of the stories on which the game is based.

The TSR game is for 2-4 players, each of whom takes a hero (Fafhrd, the Gray Mouser, Pulgh, or Movarl) and leads the forces of one of the powers of Nehwon in an effort to capture the opponents' citadels. This oppositional stance is unusual for the series, though there were a few times in the stories where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were temporarily committed to opposing sides. The TSR game is simple and includes bits of color from the series, such as geases that send the heroes around the board chasing various goals at the behest of Sheelba, Ningauble, or various gods.

[edit] Role-playing games

Lankhmar, City of Adventure (1985) was a supplement produced by TSR for their Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) role-playing game containing maps, descriptions of the city areas, game statistics for various prominent characters from the stories, and ideas for adventures in and around the city. It was updated in 1993 under the same name for use with 2nd edition AD&D. Several modules and accessories were produced for use with City of Adventure.

The New Adventures of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser (1996) was a boxed set that replaced Lankhmar, City of Adventure and could be used as a AD&D supplement or a standalone RPG with simplified AD&D rules.