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"All things come to those who wait, and especially to those who wait upon the Rock of Bral"
- An elven saying[1]

Overview[]

"I hate Bral. It's dirty, noisy, crowded and dangerous. There aren't more than ten honest men in the whole city. But I wouldn't miss it for the world."
- Mordreggan Zudrik, dwarven veteran and miner[2]

One of the most cosmopolitan cities in all Dungeons & Dragons settings the Rock of Bral is considered the crossroads of Wildspace. In only 200 years the City has risen from a small pirate haven to prominence as one of the most influential trade cities in the universe.

Shaped like a stout potato the Rock of Bral is roughly 1 mile long and 1/2 mile thick as well as wide, the City of Bral dominates the 'upper' half of the floating island. The 'lower' half of the asteroid is dominated governor's private structures including his hangers for the Rock of Bral Spelljammer Fleet.

Where is the Rock of Bral?[]

The Grinder in Greyspace, the center of Casaspace, in the Tears of Selune, in another location altogether? Within SJR5 The Rock of Bral L Richard Baker III postulates the Rock of Bral could be anywhere in the Spelljammer Universe.

Rock of Bral is specifically designed to have no particular location. It fits well with virtually any crystal sphere of the SPELLJAMMER adventure universe, and can be placed in the Dungeon Master's own campaign space with little or no impact on the substance of this book.[3]

Within fiction the Rock of Bral appears is two distinct locations; the Tears of Selune and in Casaspace.

The Rock appears directly in two fiction products. Roger E. Moore’s The Maelstrom’s Eye begins on the Rock of Bral, and in Spelljammer #9 ‘The Geas’ Jeff Grubb sets most of the action on the Rock of Bral. ‘The Geas’ has no sphere specific information, and has no impact on where the Rock is located. The Maelstrom’s Eye has a great deal of information on other worlds in the same sphere.[4]

Later he adds the following information.

It’s actually easily reconciled. SJR2 Realmspace mentions a Spelljammer-canon asteroid city in the Tears, Dragon Rock. Aside from the short paragraph in SJR2, Dragon Rock is not detailed in any published sources. The similarity between the names makes it easy to simply substitute ‘Dragon Rock’ in Realmspace, which leaves us clear to maintain the Rock in its own sphere. This sphere has entered canon as ‘Casaspace’ in Hackjammer, according to the lead Hackjammer author, Adam Miller. But Hackjammer also contains the Rock of Brawl, which is firmly placed in Hackspace.[4]

Paul Westermeyer has a great deal of information in his Guide book noting that there are three similar named locations in the canonical materials, similar enough that it could be overlooked and any one of the three locations could be the location of the Rock of Bral.

So, we have three asteroid cities, all with similar names, that act as centers of spelljamming traffic and trade: Dragon Rock in Realmspace, the Rock of Bral in Casaspace (which some fans on the internet have called Bralspace, or Spiralspace), and lastly the Rock of Brawl in Hackspace. Of course, DMs can still choose to place the Rock wherever they wish.[4]

References

  1. Richard Baker, SJR5 Rock of Bral, 1992, (TSR Inc), Part 1: The Crossroads of Wildspace, page 4
  2. Richard Baker, SJR5 Rock of Bral, 1992, (TSR Inc), sidebar, page 4
  3. Baker, L Richard, III, "Rock of Bral", Lake Geneva, WI, TSR, Inc. 1992, Page 2
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Westermeyer, Paul, "An Official Spelljammer Guide to the Spheres", unknown date, http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/articles/SphereGuide/Guide%20to%20the%20Spheres.pdf, Page 5

Appendix[]

External Links[]

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