Bigby (Greyhawk)

Bigby is an archmage in the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Before the Greyhawk Wars, Bigby made his home in Scant, capital of Onnwal. Nowadays, he can often be found in Mitrik, Veluna. His personal symbol is an open palm behind a large, stylized bumblebee.

Creative origins

Bigby was created by Rob Kuntz as a low-level non-player character evil wizard in the early dungeons of Greyhawk in 1973. Since Gary Gygax often played one-on-one with Kuntz—the two often alternated the roles of dungeon master and player—it was not unusual that it was Gygax, playing his favourite character, the wizard Mordenkainen, who first encountered Bigby. The two wizards engaged in combat, and Mordenkainen managed to subdue Bigby using a charm spell, and forced Bigby to become his servant. Kuntz ruled that Bigby would be Mordenkainen's servant as long as he remained under the charm spell, but until Gygax, through roleplaying, had won Bigby's loyalty, the evil wizard would remain a non-player character under Kuntz's control. After a long time and several adventures, Mordenkainen managed to convince Bigby to leave his evil ways behind, and Kuntz ruled that it was safe to remove the charm spell, since Bigby had changed from an enemy to a loyal henchman; therefore Gygax could use Bigby as a player character. For a time after this, Kuntz ruled that all the names of Mordenkainen's future henchmen had to rhyme with Bigby. This resulted in Zigby the dwarf; Rigby the cleric; Sigby Griggbyson the fighter; Bigby's apprentice, Nigby; and Digby, who eventually replaced Bigby as Mordenkainen's new apprentice.

Thereafter, Gygax developed Bigby into a powerful wizard second only to Mordenkainen, and eventually Bigby became one of the original members of Gygax's Circle of Eight, a group of adventurers made up of eight of Gygax's own characters.

When Gygax wrote TSR's AD&D Players Handbook, he borrowed Bigby's name to describe a series of "hand" spells (Bigby's crushing hand, Bigby's grasping hand, etc.). This custom continued on in later versions of D&D, with over two dozen "hand" spells eventually ascribed to Bigby.

When Gygax was forced out of TSR in 1985, he lost the rights to most of his characters, including Mordenkainen and Bigby. Bigby was reintroduced as a member of a repurposed Circle of Eight in 1989 in The City of Greyhawk boxed set, where he appeared as part of a cabal of nine wizards who sought to balance the forces of Good and Evil in the world. He also appeared in the adventure Vecna Lives!, where he was temporarily killed by an ancient warlord armed with the hand and eye of Vecna. When TSR decided to reboot the World of Greyhawk campaign setting in 1991, Carl Sargent moved the storyline of the setting forward a decade to 585 CY, the year after the end of a continental war called the Greyhawk Wars. By this time, Bigby had returned to life via the agency of a clone spell, and was once again a member of the Circle, now known as the Circle of Five after the deaths of Tenser and Otiluke.

Bigby remained a potent character in subsequent versions of the Greyhawk setting, which updated the storyline to 591 CY.

Description

In 591 CY, Bigby is nearly 58 years old. He stands 5'11" tall and weighs 149 pounds. His hair is light brown, and his eyes are dark brown. He has Oeridian facial features, although his skin is pale and he is extremely gaunt. He is quiet, introverted, soft-spoken, and appears perpetually nervous and overly cautious about everything. "I think we should be very careful about what we're about to do" is his pet phrase. He is puritanical and ascetic, eschewing pleasures of the flesh.

Relationships

Bigby is a scion of the Aerdi House Cranden. Sir Oslan Knarren is one of his ancestors.

The former apprentice of Mordenkainen, Bigby is part of the Circle of Eight, and is a former member of the Citadel of Eight. He helped found both groups. Bigby is an ally of Cobb Darg and Elayne Mystica of Irongate. He opposes the Scarlet Brotherhood, which occupies his adopted home of Scant.

Bigby considers himself the enemy of the lich Xaene and the former Circle of Eight member Rary.

History

Bigby was born in the town of Oldridge in approximately 534 CY. He traveled to the Wild Coast early in life and became an apprentice of Mordenkainen. Together, the two founded the Citadel of Eight in 561 CY.

In 570 CY, Bigby ventured beneath Castle Greyhawk with Tenser and Neb Retnar in an attempt to stop Robilar's scheme to release the demigod Iuz from Zagyg's Godtrap. They arrived too late to prevent the release, but acted to help Robilar finish the weakened cambion off. Although Bigby nearly succeeded in destroying Iuz's physical body with his Crushing Hand spell, Iuz managed to teleport away at the last minute.

In 571 CY, Mordenkainen and Bigby founded the Circle of Eight. Bigby was forced to leave his tower in Oldridge in 573 thanks to intrigue with Xaene, then court wizard to Ivid V, causing him to relocate to Scant. There, he posed as a merchant of rare goods and built an alliance within the Iron League.

At some point, a large statue of Bigby was constructed in the otherworldly city of Sigil, although it is far from clear how this came to be.

In 581 CY, Tenser accompanied Bigby, Drawmij, Jallarzi Sallavarian, Nystul, Otiluke, Otto, and Rary to the tomb of Halmadar the Cruel. Every member of the party died that day, though they were brought back to life later through the agency of clone spells.

The Circle was betrayed in 584 CY, when Tenser, Bigby, and Otiluke discovered a plan by the Circle's own Rary to slay a number of diplomats assembled in Greyhawk to sign the treaty ending the Greyhawk Wars. Unfortunately, Rary witnessed their discovery, and a great magical battle ensued, resulting in the deaths of Otiluke and Tenser, and severely wounding Bigby, who was unable to pursue Rary as he escaped.

Of late, Bigby has abandoned some of his earlier caution, although he is still thoughtful and conservative in temperament.

Spells

Bigby is responsible for developing such commonly known spells as:

• Bigby's Clenched Fist
• Bigby's Crushing Hand
• Bigby's Forceful Hand
• Bigby's Grasping Hand
• Bigby's Interposing Hand

The above have been found in all three editions of the Player's Handbook, while the following are in Player's Handbook II:

• Bigby's Disrupting Hand
• Bigby's Helpful Hand
• Bigby's Striking Fist
• Bigby's Tripping Hand
• Bigby's Warding Hand

Bigby has also developed the following additional spells:

• Bigby's Battering Gauntlet
• Bigby's Besieging Bolt
• Bigby's Bookworm Bane
• Bigby's Construction Crew
• Bigby's Dextrous Digits
• Bigby's Fantastic Fencers
• Bigby's Feeling Fingers
• Bigby's Force Sculpture
• Bigby's Most Excellent Force Sculpture
• Bigby's Pugnacious Pugilist
• Bigby's Silencing Hand
• Bigby's Slapping Hand
• Bigby's Strangling Grip
• Bigby's Superior Force Sculpture

Writings

Bigby is known to have authored the following works:

• Manual Powers Beyond Life

Bigby in other media

In the computer game Planescape:Torment, some text found within the game's files (but not within the game itself) indicates that Bigby was an incarnation of The Nameless One.

In the book Passage to Dawn by R.A. Salvatore, when Harkle Harpell enters into an unorthodox contest of wizardry with the Sea Sprite's wizard Robillard (no relation to Robilar), Harkle boasts that he had "improved on Bigby" with his spell Bigby's Snapping Digits.

Jones Soda Company has released a limited edition D&D soda set; one of the sodas is Bigby's Crushing Thirst Destroyer.

References

• Blume, Brian, David Cook, and Jean Wells. The Rogues Gallery (TSR, 1980).
• Cook, David. "History of the Greyhawk Wars." Wars (TSR, Inc., 1991). Available Online: [1]
  • Cook, David. Vecna Lives (TSR, 1990).
• Gygax, Gary. Artifact of Evil (TSR, 1986).
  • Gygax, Gary. Players Handbook (TSR, 1978).
• Heard, Bruce. "Spells Between the Covers." Dragon #82 (TSR, 1984).
• Holian, Gary. "Demogorgon's Champions: The Death Knights of Oerth, part 2." Dragon #291. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2002.
• Holian, Gary, Erik Mona, Sean K Reynolds, and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (Wizards of the Coast, 2000).
• Kuntz, Robert J, and Gary Gygax. Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure (TSR, 1984).
• Mona, Erik, and Gary Holian. "Wheels within Wheels: Greyhawk's Circle of Eight." Living Greyhawk Journal #0 (Aug 2000). Available online: [2]
• Moore, Roger E. Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins (TSR, 1998).
  • Moore, Roger E. Return of the Eight (TSR, 1998).
• Niles, Douglas, and Carl Sargent. The City of Greyhawk (TSR, 1989).
• Noonan, David. Player's Handbook II (Wizards of the Coast, 2006).
• Pryor, Anthony. Rary the Traitor (TSR, 1992).
• Sargent, Carl. From the Ashes (TSR, 1993).
• Sargent, Carl. Ivid the Undying. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, unpublished. Available online: [3]
• Ward, James M. Greyhawk Adventures (TSR, 1988).