Tell me about the Wind Dukes of Aaqa

[Urpriest]

I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about D&D cosmology (well, at least D&D 3.5 cosmology), but I know almost nothing about the Wind Dukes. I know they opposed the Obyriths, and that they were forces of law that were somehow involved with the Staff of Seven Parts, but almost nothing beyond that. Fiendish Codex II seems to say that the gods were the Obyriths' main opponents, does that mean the Wind Dukes were their allies? Wind Dukes makes them sound elemental in nature, but I thought the various elemental powers were on the Obyriths' side.

Could someone explain these guys? A perspective from any edition would be helpful, though things may have changed a lot in 4e so earlier information would be preferable.

[Saintheart]

Look up the first part of the Age of Worms adventure path.

Spoiler

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Basically, in the "default" setting these guys were allied to the forces that opposed the Queen of Chaos back in the primodial time before human civilisations arose. The Wind Dukes of Aaqa opposed her, the most cultured of the elemental lords who ruled before the birth of living races and had an empire that spanned worlds. The implication is that they're the forerunners of the djinni species. But they and the Queen were in perpetual deadlock over the fate of existence.

The Queen of Chaos recruited a prince of demons named Miska the Wolf-Spider. This broke the deadlock and allowed Miska to run roughshod over the Aaqan empire. Anyway, seven great Wind Duke warriors left the conflict and set off on their species' version of the Holy Grail quest -- ending in the discovery of the Rod of Law, basically as close as you get to Teh Sword Of Teh Law in all the planes.

The seven dukes fought a pivotal battle on the volcanic fields of Pesh. There, one of them managed to stab Miska with the rod of law. Absolute Law met Absolute Chaos; a planar rift erupted and the Rod was shattered into seven pieces -- thus the Rod of Seven Parts. Both Miska and the Wind Duke who hit him vanished into that rift, and the seven parts were scattered across the lands and presumably planes. It won the battle for the Wind Dukes, and they buried their dead, order was restored, their empire had been dealt a grievous blow and vanished into history, yadda yadda yadda. That sort of thing.

Bear in mind that's the default setting. In Faerun they're reworked into one of the allies of Memnon and/or Calim; in Eberron I seem to remember they're different again but can't remember how.

But either way the implication holds true: the Wind Dukes were the proponents of law, and thus presumably allies of the gods.

[Eldan]

There isn't much more known about them, yes.

They were involved in the very first known planar war, the war of law against chaos in the early days before gods or the modern planar races. The Wind Dukes were the first and major race of law, the obyriths chaos corrupted to evil (by the Baern, I think? It's been some time since I read any of them). Hence the queen of chaos as their leader.

[Yora]

I think they are actually Greyhawk specific outsiders.

[Eldan]

Nono, they were in Planescape. Could have been in Hellbound, or Faces of Evil.

[Cieyrin]

Nono, they were in Planescape. Could have been in Hellbound, or Faces of Evil.

They were expanded and revised with Planescape, certainly, but the tale of the Rod of Seven Parts has its origins in pre-WotC times. The story of the conflict between the Wind Dukes and the Wolf Spider has been part of the mythology since 1st Ed, though I don't think in any relation to the original Castle Greyhawk.

I don't think the Wind Dukes are specific to Oerth, though; some of the battles between the the forces of Law and Chaos may have taken place there but Oerth was just one of many worlds that the conflict raged across.

[ken-do-nim]

It comes from the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide, in the artifacts section:

Rod of Seven Parts: The Wind Dukes of Aaqa are the legendary creators of this artifact. It is said that they constructed the Rod to use in the great battle of Pesh where Chaos and Law contended. There, the Rod was shattered, and its parts scattered, but the enchantments of the item were such that nothing could actually destroy it, so if its sections are recovered and put together in the correct order, the possessor will wield a weapon of surpassing power.

Then it was made into a 2nd edition boxed set adventure. Go pick up a copy on eBay.

[Muz]

Then it was made into a 2nd edition boxed set adventure. Go pick up a copy on eBay.

I give this my official (for what it's worth) endorsement. Save for having a few wrinkles that a good DM can iron out (but what module doesn't have those?), it's a great, lengthy module, and very detailed.

Of course, it's 2nd edition, but since that's what I play...

The party is currently running around with one of their wind chariots (freely given). The one who actually held the assembled rod in the fight with Miska was a rogue modron. (He's not in the module.)

And, of course, the module has plenty of info on the Wind Dukes.

Amusingly, the Wind Dukes also have a Wikipedia page.

[CapnZapp]

It comes from the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide, in the artifacts section:

The Rod actually first appeared in "Eldritch Wizardry".

[RedMage125]

Aren't the fields of Pesh in Oerth, though? Not far from White Plume Mountain, as I recall.

Seriously, though, Saintheart mostly has it right. Excepting only that the Seven Wandering Dukes did not "discover" the Rod Of Law, they created it. If your read through the rest of the Age of Worms, it occasionally goes into more detail about a few specific Wind Dukes, and some bits of lore (such as, I believe the names of all seven dukes who made the rod). I recently ran AoW, and as I recall, Icosiol is the name of the Wandering Duke who actually used the Rod on Miska.

The death of her general Miska not only ended that battle for the Queen of Chaos, but ultimately resulted in her losing the war. Her armies, being composed of such purely evil and chaotic creatures, crumbled without Miska whipping them into unity. As I understand it, the Queen of Chaos is one of the few obyriths remaining in the Abyss, as not even the greatest of demon princes has been able to oust her.

[Bohandas]

IIRC they were also talked about in Dungeon Magazine 124 and 129 and the "Mahasapra" web enhancements for Oriental Adventures

[Nifft]

Aren't the fields of Pesh in Oerth, though? Not far from White Plume Mountain, as I recall.

AFAICT the Rift Canyon or the Nyr Dyv itself were once the Fields of Pesh; the current deep gash in the face of Oerth was from the force of the blow with which the Wind Dukes smote the Wolf-Spider's ruin.


But the fact that a thing originated on Oerth doesn't mean it only appears on Oerth -- just look at the Underdark for one very widely-copied example. So, any setting in which you want to run a Rod of Seven Parts adventure path will presumably have its own Fields of Pesh.

[Bohandas]

Found a description of what they are and look like. According to Mahasapra (a web enhancement for Oriental Adventures 3e) they're outsiders with the air and law subtypes, they have ebony black skin, and they're generally human in appearance except for the fact that they have glowing white eyes.

[afroakuma]

I don't know that I have much to add beyond what's been offered, but I'll do what I do regardless.

The Wind Dukes, or vaati, were an outsider race native to the Elemental Plane of Air in the Age Before Ages. A powerful caste-based species devoted to principles of cosmic order, the vaati were able to conquer vast swaths of the other Elemental Planes and were leading entities in the cause of Law. Opposing them there arose the forces of Chaos, beneath the banner of the Queen of Chaos, an obyrith lord, and the bulk of these forces came not from the Inner Planes but rather the Outer Planes. Other beings eventually got dragged into the war on both sides, including the Princes of Elemental Good and the Princes of Elemental Evil.

The forces of Chaos were powerful, but their strength was arguably over-invested in the Queen's mighty tanar'ri general, Miska the Wolf-Spider. This demon, the Queen's lover by some accounts, was bequeathed the title "Prince of Demons" after the Queen of Chaos managed the unlikely feat of taking the previous Prince by surprise and striking him down before he could bring his power to bear against her. With Chaos focusing so much of its power behind one lynchpin individual, Law planned to eliminate Miska and in so doing bring a swift end to the War. The vaati crafted the Rod of Seven Parts, and in a climactic battle of order against chaos, the Rod was used to banish and seal Miska, weakening him and breaking the armies of demonkind. With the Queen scrambling to find a replacement, allies in the cause of Chaos determined that the multiverse would be worse off under a demon-sponsored form of Chaos than if they merely resorted to standing apart for their own principles or lack thereof. The slaad decided to slaad off, while the eladrin seized on the uncertainty in the demonic ranks to launch a devastating attack that crippled the obyrith population.

As for the vaati, while they arguably won the War of Law and Chaos, it was a bit of a pyrrhic victory - their empire splintered and decayed, their numbers dwindled, and their relevance across the planes waned. Now there are only a small number remaining.

[Bohandas]

Apparently Greywiki is back up so take a look at their article

https://wiki.greyparticle.com/index...._Dukes_of_Aaqa

[DMfromTheAbyss]

They also bred the Hounds of Law (Awesome dogs that can fly, shapechange and track people through planar barriers) and I believe they were present in several planes, including but not limited to Elysium, The Elemental plane of Air and some prime planes.

From what I remember off hand I believe they had just a few sparse settlements left, after the whole Rod of Seven Parts debacle/war they never really recovered as a civilization.