Ancestral was shaped foremost at the gaming table, playing RPG games ceaselessly since 1994 but also by decades of stories, imagined worlds, myths, adventures, and characters that fed our imagination back when this setting had not yet began to take form.
Those Who Lit the Way
Gary Gygax1938–2008Dungeons & Dragons
Dave Arneson1947–2009Dungeons & DragonsAbove all stands our debt to Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the creators of Dungeons & Dragons and the fathers of modern tabletop role-playing. Their contribution goes beyond creating a whole new game. For us, as for many gamers, they opened a new path and gave us a medium through which to express our imagination. Every campaign we played, every character we created, every map we drew, and ultimately Ancestral itself, exists because they showed us how a fantasy world could come alive. Their legacy is the foundation upon which our own journey was built.
We gratefully acknowledge the immense influence of H. P. Lovecraft, whose visions of cosmic horror showed us how unsettling the unknown can become; J. R. R. Tolkien, whose work demonstrated the depth that history, language, myth, and culture can give to an invented world; Frank Herbert, whose Dune showed how politics, religion, ecology, prophecy, and power can become inseparable parts of worldbuilding; Robert E. Howard, whose savage kingdoms, ancient ruins, forgotten civilizations, and larger-than-life heroes helped define sword-and-sorcery fantasy; Stephen King and Clive Barker, whose darker stories explored fear, transformation, nightmares, and the strange worlds that sometimes exist just beyond our own; and Michael Moorcock, whose tales of Elric and the Eternal Champion expanded fantasy into struggles of cosmic balance, destiny, Chaos, and Law.
H. P. Lovecraft1890–1937The Call of Cthulhu
J. R. R. Tolkien1892–1973The Lord of the Rings
Frank Herbert1920–1986Dune
Robert E. Howard1906–1936Conan the Cimmerian
Stephen Kingb. 1947The Dark Tower
Clive Barkerb. 1952Books of Blood
Michael Moorcockb. 1939Elric of Melniboné
R. A. Salvatoreb. 1959The Legend of DrizztOur thanks also go to Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, R. A. Salvatore, and the many novelists who gave personalities, histories, tragedies, and legends to the worlds we first discovered through fantasy role-playing games. Likewise, Joe Dever, creator of the Lone Wolf series, deserves a special place among our influences. His world of Magnamund, its orders, enemies, choices, artifacts, and sense of an unfolding personal journey showed an entire generation that a fantasy world was somewhere you could enter and experience even by yourself. We could not forget Ursula K. Le Guin, whose Earthsea demonstrated the power of myth, consequence, balance, and restraint; and the generations of fantasy and speculative-fiction writers whose ideas contributed to the language through which we imagine our world of Ancestral.
Tracy Hickmanb. 1955Dragonlance
Margaret Weisb. 1948Dragonlance
Joe Dever1956–2016Lone Wolf
Ursula K. Le Guin1929–2018EarthseaThe Tables Before Ours
A particular debt is owed to the extraordinary writing and design teams behind © Mystara, the Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Vampire: the Masquerade, Call of Cthulhu, Hunters, D&D, Pathfinder and the many other settings of tabletop role-playing. Their kingdoms, maps, gods, monsters, cultures, adventures, sourcebooks, and countless small details taught us that a campaign world could become something far greater than the background to a game acquiring history, memory, identity, and a life of its own.
Mystara
Forgotten Realms
Dark Sun
Dragonlance
Vampire: The Masquerade
Call of Cthulhu
Dungeons & Dragons
PathfinderAround Our Own Table
Finally, our deepest thanks belong to our players and fellow gamers, who have accompanied us throughout the long Ancestral journey. Through countless adventures, characters, victories and disasters, often arguments but also friendships, unexpected decisions, laughter, and unforgettable moments around the table, they helped shape this world as much as any written page ever could.
Without them, Ancestral would have remained an imagined place.
Because of all of you who shared our table, life was breathed into Ancestral. As Eolon would say,
“I don’t know about the ending, but the journey has surely been an interesting one.”
Author photographs via Wikimedia Commons. Gary Gygax © Moroboshi, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Dave Arneson © Carlos A Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Stephen King © pinguino k, CC BY 2.0 · Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman © Eva Schiffer, CC BY 3.0 · Michael Moorcock © Catriona Sparks, CC BY 2.0 · Ursula K. Le Guin © K. Kendall, CC BY 2.0 · Clive Barker © Steven Friederich, CC BY 2.0 · R. A. Salvatore © pinguino k, CC BY 2.0 · Joe Dever © Niccolò Caranti, CC BY-SA 4.0. H. P. Lovecraft, J. R. R. Tolkien, Frank Herbert and Robert E. Howard are in the public domain. All photographs have been cropped and are shown in greyscale. Game, setting and publisher names and logos are the trademarks of their respective owners. Corrections are welcome at info@ancestralspire.com. Ancestral Spire is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any author, estate, publisher or property named on this page.
