Rary

Rary

Rary (right), depicted on the cover of Rary the Traitor (TSR, Inc., 1992)
Game information
Homeland	Bright Lands (formerly Ket)
Gender	Male
Race	Human (Baklunish)
Class	Wizard
Alignment	Neutral Evil
Age	86 (born 511 CY)
Setting	World of Greyhawk

In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Rary of Ket is a powerful archmage and ruler of the Bright Lands, also known as Rary the Traitor.

In a storyline developed by TSR for a resetting of the Greyhawk campaign in 1991, Rary, a member of the Circle of Eight, betrayed the Circle at the end of the Greyhawk Wars and was responsible for the deaths of Circle members Otiluke and Tenser. After his betrayal, Rary fled with his ally Lord Robilar to the Bright Desert, where he established the Empire of the Bright Lands.

Gary Gygax, co-creator of the Dungeons & Dragon fantasy game, created a home campaign based in the World of Greyhawk in order to test new rules. His playtesters were friends and acquaintances, one of whom was Brian Blume, co-owner with Gygax of the nascent game company TSR. Rary was a low-level wizard created by Blume for play in Gygax's home campaign. However, Blume was not interested in developing the character into a high-powered wizard; he only played Rary until the wizard character reached 3rd-level and then retired him, having reached his objective, which was to be able to introduce the character as "Medium Rary". Gygax borrowed the name "Rary" for the spells Rary's mnemonic enhancer and Rary's telepathic bond. Ironically, the original Rary was never powerful enough to cast either of "his" spells.

Rary was not a member of Gygax's original Circle of Eight, which was made up of eight of Gygax's own characters that he had developed during solo play, when his friend Rob Kuntz acted as Dungeon Master. However, after Gygax was ousted from TSR in 1985, the company took over creative control of the published Greyhawk setting, and took it in directions Gygax had not envisioned, including remaking Rary into a major Greyhawk personality.