Mordenkainen is the rector of the University of Magic in the Tower of Greyhawk and one of the city’s principal “sentinels”. He grants permits, keeps critical objects and diagnoses the imbalance of the cosmos, and he does not leave the Tower.
| Type | Character |
| Spanish entry | Mordenkainen |
Description
Bald, with a “little Van Dyke beard”, holding “something in his hand” that no one named.
Name
He is counted among Greyhawk’s important figures with Robilar and Tenser; one figure speculated about his role in the city’s founding. Mordenkainen’s Private Sanctum is common among mages: a warded cube where “sound does not pass”, teleportation and planar travel are blocked and those inside cannot be targeted by divination. In camp it gives “each one their own room”: people fall asleep together and “in the morning they wake up and are alone”.
Role
- Permits: one must “get Mordenkainen’s permission”. He will say where certain creatures are found, keeping them only in the Tower.
- Custodian: he holds the key to see the God Trap, offered only in barter, promised for the Sword of Kas; a rival must “offer something better”.
- Adviser: he names Tovag Baragu as the focal point of the cosmic imbalance: “The damn problem here is in Tovag Baragu.”
- He has an established diplomatic relationship with the company.
Conflicting accounts
- The key is said both to open the God Trap and only to let one “see” it.
Open questions
- What he holds, and what the “other creatures” are, is unrecorded.
- His founding role is one figure’s speculation.
- The terms of the diplomatic arrangement are unknown.
- What a “sentinel” is as an office, and who the others are, is open.
- The Tower and University are not described.