The "Minarian Legends" were published in original form between 1980 to 1982 in TSR's DRAGON MAGAZINE. The stories came out of the enthusiasm showed for the lately-published game, DIVINE RIGHT, on the part of Tim Kask, then editor, who came up with the format of the series and urged me to take it on. I did, and still look back fondly upon the period of their writing.
All through the run of the Legends Mr. Kask and his successor, Kim Mohan, remained faithful patrons of the series. I would like to remind them of the author's gratitude.
The original 20 episodes of the Legends included a chronological summary. The present edition has replaced the chronological chapter with an entirely new Legend, the "Origin of Minaria." All the Legends herein contained have been subjected to new editing, and at times author changes and additions have been interpolated for the sake of internal consistency or other necessary considerations.
Essentially, the Minarian Legends are short historical articles presenting the rise of each important Minarian kingdom from primitive conditions following a world-wide catastrophe called "the Great Cataclysm." Other stories tell the biographies of noteworthy Minarian heroes, creatures, and monuments. The tales are told in an unusual manner, as if a Minarian scholar was writing them or a Minarian audience, drawing from different historical sources and finding himself sometimes forced to resort to conjecture when said material is scanty, or to even to cite variant versions of the same events at those occasions when he finds no single authoritative source. Of course, none of the cited authors or books have ever existed outside of the fictional world of Minaria.
The author hopes that the holder of this new compilation shall have as much fun in reading it as he himself had in the writing of it.