In the foreword to the Lorebook of the Void, one of the two volumes included in the original Spelljammer boxed set, Jeff Grubb talks about a bit about its creative origins. One paragraph of that foreword has long stuck with me.
When I first read this, I thought it was very cool, because, even at the time, I thought D&D could do with a little more genuinely medieval influence on its fantasy. Even if, in the end, the cosmos presented by Spelljammer bore only the most superficial resemblance to the conceptions of medieval thinkers, it was still (in my youthful eyes anyway) a step in the right direction.
I spent some time in the early '90s trying to find these "medieval woodcuts" to no avail. This was before Internet search engines were very good, so I wasn't completely surprised that I might not find a good example of what he might have been referring to. However, some years later I did come across one image that looked like it might have been the kind of thing Grubb had seen.
This is the so-called "Flammarion engraving," which first appeared in the 1888 book, L'atmosphère : météorologie populaire, by Camille Flammarion. Apparently, its artist is unknown, but it became very popular in the 1960s as an illustration of psychedelic experiences, the opening of the human mind to new realities. Regardless of its original intent, it's a very striking and evocative image, so I can understand why it is that Grubb might have been inspired by it, if indeed this is the "medieval woodcut" that David Cook showed him all those years ago.
Looking around online, I discovered a blog post by Grubb from more than a decade ago in which he talks a bit about the creation of Spelljammer. It's a very interesting post, filled with plenty of details I didn't know. Among those details is Grubb's admission that, yes, the above image was indeed the one that inspired him, though he connects it to Daniel Boorstin's 1983 book, The Discoverers, rather than Flammarion. I'm glad to know that my guess was correct. Anyway, read the whole blog post if you'd like to know more about the prehistory of Spelljammer.
That image is such a fine pastiche of Renaissance Era illustrations that it is no wonder people think it was genuinely antique. (The drapery in particular is reminiscent of Durer, though the rest of the imagery seems to be inspired by a mixture of earlier and later sources.)
ReplyDeleteStrictly speaking, this image is probably a woodcut or what is called a "wood engraving" ( a woodcut made using engravers' tools) rather than an engraving made on a metal printing plate.
Thanks for the information about wood engraving. I know nothing of such things.
DeleteYou are welcome! To elaborate further, woodcuts and wood engravings are used in what is called "relief printing", i.e. the surface is in relief and the ink transfers from the raised parts to the paper. This is the same principle as in printing from movable type. Engravings and etchings on metal (copper, zinc, or steel) involving making grooves in the metal that are then filled with ink and pulled out of those grooves by capillary action when a moist sheet of paper is pressed onto the plate. This is so called "intaglio printing." This latter process requires much higher pressure than relief printing, and so such prints are usually printed as separate plates. The process also wears out the metal. Wood engraving typically uses harder wood than regular woodcuts, so it can feature finer detail and is durable so it the blocks can be used for more impressions. It can also be integrated into a textblock, making it ideal for newspaper illustrations. In the very late 1800s, wood engravings were sometimes used to make faithful copies of photographs, before halftone photo printing was invented.
DeleteThis would seem to be a depiction of Ezekiel's vision of the wheels from the Bible.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+10&version=KJV
Grubb's blog also had this interesting quote:
ReplyDelete"The other idea that came out of the meeting was a boxed set for the far side of Krynn, in the lands of Taladas. Zeb Cook said something along the lines of “Well, I’ve never worked on Dragonlance, so I guess I get AD&D in space.” Jim Ward, bless his heart, countered with, “Since you haven’t done any Dragonlance, Zeb, this would be a great place to start”."
That might partly explain why Taladas is so divergent from the other side of the planet. Zeb had fewer preconceptions about what DL was supposed to be and got more creative than he might have otherwise.
Still paled in comparison to Spelljammer as a setting when it came to originality, but Taladas was less of snooze-fest for me than the rest of DL.
Also kind of neat to hear that such a core element of beholder lore was the accidental result of being unable to pick just one piece of artwork. Certainly worked out for the best in the long run, that.
I agree that Taladas is much better than Ansalon.
ReplyDeleteTaladas is better than most of the 2E settings.
DeleteI don't know if I'd go quite that far, but it was arguably more original than Ansalon. Still pales next to Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Planescape, and Spelljammer in that regard - and in terms of popularity everything's dwarfed by Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk.
DeleteSpelljammer is one of those “weird” settings that I completely skipped over, back in the day. I must say though, your brief descriptions of it sound intriguing!
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should check it out, now that I’m older and more open-minded…. :)
The art was also used on _The Secret Language of Birthdays_, or it’s a very close knock-off.
ReplyDeleteAllan.