Gemworld
9579 BCE - 254-year-old Atlan begins laying the groundwork for the first Shadowpact by awakening the Lords of Chaos & Order. The interdimentional space once occupied by Chaos & Order begins to populate with the infinite worlds of the Paths Beyond
9518 BCE - 315-year-old Atlan casts the spells of the first Shadowpact, assisted by 1,283-year-old Nommo Balema, who is stripped of much of his magical power. They allow the Homo Magi of the world to flee Earth into the Paths Beyond, populating worlds like Gemworld, preventing Earth's destruction by Darkworld.
1670 - 22-year-old Citrina is taken as apprentice to the sorceress caretaking the magic of Gemworld.
75 years ago - Prince Garnet is born to House Garnet.
63 years ago - Prince Opal is born to House Opal.
53 years ago - 22-year-old Prince Garnet is married. He becomes the new Lord Garnet.
52 years ago - 11-year-old Prince Opal offers himself to the dark powers trying to control Gemworld, killing everyone within House Opal, forever becoming Dark Opal.
48 years ago - Granch is created by 15-year-old Dark Opal's sorcery, the greatest and most powerful of his monsterous soldiers.
47 years ago - 28-year-old Lord Garnet becomes the arms instructor for the young Lord Amethyst. Prince Sardonyx is born to House Sardonyx.
38 years ago - 12-year-old Prince Garnet saves the Lady Emerald from a magical whirlwind, casting himself into the Paths Beyond. He is found by the Lords of Order & Chaos, taken in as their agent, agreeing to pay his debt to them by traveling the Paths and observing the many worlds there, taking the name Rhodo.
34 years ago - Princess Emerald is born to House Emerald.
33 years ago - Princess Turquoise is born to House Turquoise.
32 years ago - Citrina delivers the Princess Amethyst of House Amethyst of Gemworld. When 31-year-old Dark Opal stages a coup against House Amethyst she bring the princess to Earth and places her with adoptive patents, who name her Amy Winston. 43-year-old Lord Garnet's forces are defeated, forcing him to retreat to the Stormy Garnet Peaks. Opal's forces raze House Amethyst, but cannot find the infant Princess. Several other houses ally with him after the coup, including House Topaz, Emerald, & Turquoise. 15-year-old Prince Sardonyx kills his own father in exchange for becoming Opal's main lieutenant. 16-year-old Granch, seeing the aftermath of the war, abandons his role in the army and is imprisoned. Prince Topaz is born to House Topaz.
27 years ago - Citrina helps 21-year-old Granch escape his imprisonment, and retakes the fallen House Amethyst. 20-year-old Lord Sardonyx is married.
26 years ago - 8-year-old Princess Emerald father is killed for defying the will of 37-year-old Dark Opal.
21 years ago - 12-year-old Princess Turquoise parents are killed by 42-year-old Dark Opal's forces. She becomes the new Lady Turquoise, and begins secretly preparing her house for rebellion against Dark Opal.
17 years ago - 15-year-old Amy Winston is found on Earth by 30-year-old Lord Sardonyx and brought back to Gemworld. She is saved by 31-year-old Granch & brought to House Amethyst, where she learns her true identity as a Princess of Gemworld. 2-year-old Taffy follows Amy to Gemworld, and when 19-year-old Wrynn captures Amy & attempts to steal her back to 46-year-old Dark Opal, Citrina grants Taffy a luck charm, allowing her to defeat the alpha of a pack of Deathhounds and track Wrynn, stopping him with her new pack. Citrina teaches Amy to use her magic while 58-year-old Lord Garnet teaches her to fight. She quests across Gemworld to unite the noble houses. 16-year-old Lady Turquoise allies their houses, becoming Amy's trusted lieutenant. 17-year-old Princess Emerald's mother refuses to defy Dark Opal, forcing her to secretly assist Amy's allies. 15-year-old Prince Topaz is forced to kill his father when Dark Opal's magic controlling him is revealed. He is forced to flee House Topaz, leaving it under the control of his older sister. Granch sacrifices himself to protect Amy.
16 years ago - 47-year-old Dark Opal offers the life of 31-year-old Lord Sardonyx to Otherworldly Entities in exchange for the destruction of the Diamond Temple. Citrina burns away most of her magical control holding a magical spell allowing 16-year-old Amy Winston and her allies to attacking the castle of Opal, with 59-year-old Lord Garnet & 17-year-old Lady Turquoise in the lead. 18-year-old Princess Emerald defies her mother claiming control over the magic of House Emerald. 16-year-old Lord Topaz returns to House Topaz to convince them to join the attack. Lord Sardonyx manages to escape his punishment & return to Gemworld where he assists the attack, and is killed in the ensuing battle. A lone surviving Diamond Priest, now the sole vessel of their power, joins the attack, helping to channel the magic of all the houses. Dark Opal is defeated by the combined magic of all the collected houses, and Amy retakes the throne of House Amethyst. 20-year-old Wrynn steps down, becoming the new Lord Opal, biding his time to get his revenge. Amy & Topaz cannot be together as they are nobility from different houses.
14 years ago - 18-year-old Amy Winston chooses to remain in Gemworld. 18-year-old Topaz abdicates his lordship of House Topaz and they are married by Citrina, who steps down as regent as Amy becomes the Lady of House Amethyst.19-year-old Lady Turquoise is Amy Winston's maid of honor. The surviving Diamond Priest restarts their order as the Diamond Temple is rebuilt. Donal is born among the forrest people.
13 years ago - Phoss are born among the trade people of Gemworld.
12 years ago - Amaya is born in Gemworld, daughter of 20-year-old Amy Winston, Lady Amethyst of House Amethyst, & 20-year-old Topaz. She is delivered by Citrina, 63-year-old Lord Garnet is her godfather.
10 years ago - 24-year-old Lady Emerald is married.
9 years ago - 4-year-old Phoss starts raising her riding catepillar Stan from a grub.
8 years ago - 24-year-old Amy Winston defeats the Gemworld coup staged by Lord Mordru, casting him from Gemworld. She begins teaching spellcasting to her daughter 4-year-old Amaya. 6-year-old Donal's parents are killed in the coup. He begins working to make sure other children like him are taken care of.
7 years ago - 26-year-old Lady Turquoise adopts 7-year-old Donal as her ward and squire. he first meets 5-year-old Amaya.
6 years ago - 28-year-old Lady Emerald gives birth to her daughter Emmy.
2 year ago - 10-year-old Amaya, 12-year-old Donal & 11-year-old Phoss explore the connected Paths Beyond where they meet 12-year-old Rhodo, helping him escape his debt to the Lords of Order & Chaos and return to Gemworld, where he reconnects with his father 73-year-old Lord Garnet.
1 year ago - Eclipso begins a campaign of conquest across Gemworld when the Heart of Darkness manifests there. He is able to take control of armies, inflicting heavy casualties on House Turquoise & blinding 31-year-old Topaz. 31-year-old Amy Winston & 32-year-old Lady Turquoise journey deep into the heart of Gemworld & unlock its Elemental magic to strip away Eclipso's influence and finally reduce the Heart of Darkness to a harmless gemstone, ending his threat. Amy grants Topaz a magical second sight.
People of Gemworld
Gemworld has gone on to be a regularly-referenced part of the magical superstructure of DC's worldbuilding, and that is a very cool part of their mythology, but it really shouldn't be lost that it all began as a fun child's fantasy world. Gemworld, if it's anything, is this wonderful world meant to be played in, and as we adapt the stories of Amethyst and her friends, we should try to remember just how much fun this whole thing should be.
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Gemworld's Comic HistoryGemworld, and it's heroine Amethyst, debuted in a pull-out comic packed with Legion of Super-heroes #298 in 1982, but the story really began in the first issue of the original 12-issue Maxi series. In it we're introduced to Amy Winston, the 13-year-old girl who, when she uses her Amethyst pendant to open a portal to the magical world of Gemworld, becomes the 20-year-old Princess Amethyst, who is fighting to unite the disparate magical houses of Gemworld, the last hope of a world controlled by the evil sorcerer Dark Opal.
While this does play like a very fun fantasy story, what actually seems to be happening here is a really, REALLY confident pitch for the same sort of collection of toys that were becoming so incredibly popular in the early 80s. Amethyst and her friends and enemies just seem to scream to be made into a collection of dolls. My only guess for why it never happened is because the industry that produced the toys of this era came from specific channels, and comics were used more to market toys that already existed. I know it's odd to spend so much space talking about a toy line that never happened, but reading this original series that does wind up becoming your main reaction, that this was just a huge missed opportunity. |
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The adventure of the original maxi-series was followed up by an ongoing series in 1985, and here we started to watch the narrative of Gemworld slowly pick itself apart. DC was in the process of redefining itself in the buildup to the Crisis, and the voice the series started to find seemed to be more melancholic as it was revealed that the whole of Gemworld, which we already knew was a refuge for the magic users that had fled Earth when it's magic wained, was actually living on borrowed time as the ancient beings that had granted them residence were anxious to reclaim what was once theirs, held back only by Amethyst's mentor Citrina. Amethyst was actually blinded in the Crisis of Infinite Earths, and the series seemed to grow even darker, with the reveal that she was actually the child of a Lord of Order, that the Lords of Chaos were actually the ancient beings trying to reclaim Gemworld, and that Amy's adopted dad was probably cheating on her mom. I mean they really laid it on thick. In the end, Amy essentially had to sacrifice herself to save Gemworld. Make no mistake, I do love this series, but as it goes on Gemworld seems to grow smaller and more fragile as the tone gets darker.
The 1987 4-issue miniseries actually feels like it might be have been created specifically to give the original series a more satisfying ending. Amy is restored to Gemworld years later as a Lord of Order herself, bonded to the land and promising to protect it for eternity. It's an equally somber story, but it makes the world feel grand and magical, like a proper legend. |
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Our Gemworld StoryBefore we get into Gemworld itself, It's pretty important that we actually define what it even is, because even within the original series, this was actually a topic of some contention, as the nature of the magical land wound up driving a lot of the drama.
In our world, all the way back in 9000 BCE, the magic of the original Shadowpact opened up the Paths Beyond, the infinite magical extradimentional worlds where the magic users of Earth could flee, preventing the end of the world. Gemworld was perhaps the most-accessed of these worlds, making it one of the largest populations of Homo Magi in the Paths Beyond. We don't want to minimize the vastness and permanence of Gemworld, so we won't be using the many stories suggesting that it is on the brink of vanishing forever. Instead, it's one of the central, most important of the magical worlds connected to our own. There are all sorts of dark forces vying for control of Gemworld, most notably having reached out to both Dark Opal and Wrynn, but these are the same magical entities that exist in all of the Paths Beyond, constantly vying for more power, not specifically targeting Gemworld for any reason beyond it's abundance. |
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There is another element to Gemworld that we all agree really needs to be refined a little, mostly because we're all a bunch of D&D nerds, and the political structures of a fantasy world is something we all have very strong opinions about. Gemworld often feels like it's very rigid in it's structure, with it's 12 great houses all sharing political control from within a singular political system. We're of the opinion that a truely fun fantasy world should mostly be about open frontier, with vast stretches of uncontrolled, untaimed land. These 12 houses actually shouldnt all be sharing control, they should instead each essentiually be their own kingdom, with the Lord or Lady of the house essentially functioning as the monarch over their territory. They would have political alliances, obviously, but wouldn't each be part of the same system.
This extends into the naming conventions of the characters, where the eldest child of a house is named after the house itself, keeping the title Prince or Princess until they somehow become the new Lord or Lady. To maintain the romantic drama between Amy & Topaz, they should actually be forbidden from marrying children of other houses, instead marrying from among the commoners of their own kingdom, which is more like how gemstones actually grow anyway. |
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