I was going through the map archive looking for some details, and I came across Greg’s very earliest drawing of Dragon Pass. This was part of the design process for what later became White Bear & Red Moon. Among the amusing bits:
The oldest fixed details in Dragon Pass are the Lunar Empire, Wintertop, Boldhome, the Bush Range, Black Horse County, the Upland Marsh, Alone, Snakepipe Hollow, and the Plaines of Prax. A few names were almost there, like the Stinking Hills, Hill of Bones (the original Quivin Mountains) or Jaldon’s River. But not quite there!
Originally there was a King Aluan who founded a kingdom in Dragon Pass. His kingdom was locked in conflict with the Lunar Empire, and the 2nd, 4th, and 5th kings all fell fighting Lunar Invaders.
Baron Sanuel was connected with a hero Ssam who was buried on Sanuel’s Rise.
The Dragonewt Rune was originally an eye inside a pyramid.
Of course, Greg continued to work on through several drafts. In the next draft it started to take more of the form we recognize now. But early drafts are always fascinating.
Of course, back then it was the Haunted Pass, not Dragon Pass!
How did Jaldon’s River get its name? Originally Jaldon was just a name in the Haunted Pass, with a few locations in the western part of the map and so what later became the Oslir was the Jaldon River. But then he decided that Jaldon was the leader of the people of the Plaines of Prax, so it became Jaldon’s Wrong River and then later the Oslir River. The upper reaches are still called Jaldon’s Wrong River.