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 powerful artifact.

Description

The Rod of Seven Parts, when whole, is a 5-foot-long pole. The command words for each piece are "Ruat," "Coelum," "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."

History

The Rod of Seven Parts artifact first appeared in the 1976 TSR (Gygax & Blume) publication "Eldritch Wizardry". It was a the centerpiece of a story concerning a long-ago "great war" between characters known as Wind Dukes of Aaqa and the character 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.

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 [Citation| last =Williams| first =Skip| author-link =Skip Williams| title =A History of the Rod of Seven Parts| journal =Dragon Magazine | volume = | issue =224| pages =66-71| date =December, 1995| year =1995| id = ] .

Publication History

The Rod of Seven Parts first appeared in the Original D&D supplement, Eldritch Wizardry. [Citation | last =Gygax | first =Gary | author-link =Gary Gygax | last2 =Blume | first2 =Brian | author2-link = | title =Eldritch Wizardry | place= | publisher =TSR | year =1976 | location =Lake Geneva, WI | edition =1] It was one of the first artifacts detailed for the "Dungeons & Dragons" game. [Cite web| author =Mortdred| title =Review of Eldritch Wizardry| publisher =RPGnet| accessdate=2007-11-19| url =http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_4232.html |date=2001-02-05 ] [Citation | last =Metzer |first = Frank| author-link =RPGA | title =The "Dwarven" Quest for the Rod of Seven Parts | place=Gen Con East II | publisher =RPGA | year =1982 | location = Chester, PA| edition =1] This artifact has been updated many times [Citation | last =Cook | first =David | author-link =David "Zeb" Cook | title ="Book of Artifacts" | place= | publisher =TSR | year =1993 | location =Lake Geneva, WI | edition =2] , has received an eponymous boxed set [Citation | last =Williams | first =Skip | author-link =Skip Williams | title =The Rod of Seven Parts | place= | publisher =TSR | year =1996 | location =Lake Geneva, WI |ISBN = 0786904186] based around it including an adventure, and 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. [Citation| last =Baur| first =Wolfgang| title =A Gathering of Winds| journal =Dungeon | volume = | issue =129| publisher = Paizo Publishing| date =December, 2005| year =2005| id = ] The sixth part lies on another plane.The Rod is notable for being one of only three magical artifacts that have appeared in in all three editions of the Dungeons & Dragons "Dungeon Master's Guide" [Citation | last =Gygax | first =Gary | author-link =Gary Gygax | title =Dungeon Master's Guide | place= | publisher =TSR | year =1979 | location =Lake Geneva, WI | edition =1 |ISBN = 0-935696-02-4] [Citation | last =Cook | first =David | title =Dungeon Master's Guide | place= | publisher =TSR | year =1989 | location =Lake Geneva, WI | edition =2 |ISBN = 0-88038-729-7] [Citation | last =Cook | first =Monte | last2 =Tweet | first2 =Jonathan | title =Dungeon Master's Guide | place= | publisher =Wizards of the Coast | year =2000 | location =Lake Geneva, WI | edition =3 |ISBN = 0-7869-1551-X] [Citation | last =Cook | first =Monte | last2 =Tweet | first2 =Jonathan | title =Dungeon Master's Guide | place= | publisher =Wizards of the Coast | year =2003 | location =Lake Geneva, WI | edition =3.5 |ISBN = 0-7869-2889-1] and one of the few to be given a detailed history and guide for any campaign world. [Citation| last =Williams| first =Skip| author-link =Skip Williams| title =The Rod of Seven Parts, World by World| journal =Dragon Magazine| volume = | issue =233| pages =92-94| date =September, 1996| year =1996| id = ]

The Rod of Seven Parts was also a featured item in a fantasy novel by Douglas Niles, titled "The Rod of Seven Parts" [Citation | last =Niles | first =Douglas | title =The Rod of Seven Parts | place= | publisher =TSR/Wizards of the coast | year =1996 |ISBN = 0-7869-0479-8] . The story deals with the return of the Rod and the forces of Chaos trying to keep it apart. The book by veteran writer Niles received mostly positive reviews from Amazon.com [Cite web| author =Amazon.com| title =Rod of Seven Parts| publisher =Amazon.com| accessdate=2007-12-28| url =http://www.amazon.com/ROD-SEVEN-PARTS-Hardcover-Novels/dp/0786904798/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198873841&sr=8-2 ] . This makes the Rod the only major Dungeons & Dragons magical artifact to be featured in its own stand alone product and a novel.

References

Other Reading

*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).

*Williams, Skip. "The Rod of Seven Parts". (TSR, 1996).