The Realm, the Kingdom of Ghyr, and Mystara

The Realm of the D&D Cartoon must be a different world than Mystara because, IIRC, there are moons visible in the sky which don't match Mystara's. And from an Out of Game perspective, reportedly, Hasbro/WotC may've sold all of the rights to the D&D Cartoon Show to another company, which, if true, would mean that The Realm is functionally a distinct Intellectual Property.

In contrast, the Kingdom of Ghyr (from Quest for the Heartstone) is the setting of the Action Figures produced by LJN toys. Ghyr is branded "D&D" but the figures are branded "AD&D".

Some of the Action Figure characters, such as Warduke, also appear in episodes of the Cartoon Show.

The Action Figure characters are also featured in Shady Dragon Inn. Shady Dragon Inn was later officially placed in Darokin.

Action Figure characters also appear in the Ierendi Gazetteer.

In 3E era, there was an online article which placed Warduke and Strongheart in the Core world of Greyhawk, and gave biographies which indicated they'd always lived there. But these are only a few of many features which officially exist both in Greyhawk and Mystara along with, for example, the Keep on the Borderlands and the Caverns of Quasqueton.

The Kids were later seen in a Forgotten Realms comic book - they were apparently older, and just passing through on further adventures.

To synthesize all this, I'd say some or all of the LJN Action Figure characters exist in all four settings:

1. The Realm

2. The Kingdom of Ghyr (which is just a kingdom, so could easily be placed in Mystara. In some interview with Bruce, he affirmed that Ghyr would be located in Mystara somewhere, though it has no official exact placement.)

3. Mystara

4. Oerth

That doesn't mean these are the same worlds. It just means that (some or all of) the Action Figure characters live a parallel existence in all four.

Due to the mixed D&D/AD&D branding of The Realm and the Kingdom of Ghyr/LJN Action Figures, they (like the world of Pelinore) must exist in both the Classic D&D Reality and the AD&D 1E Reality. (The concept of "game universe realities" is explained in Bruce Heard's "Up, Away, and Beyond" article in the Vaults.) The Realm also exists in the 3E Reality, since there were 3E stats for the Kids in the DVD release.

And so though The Realm is a different world/planet than Mystara, it must exist somewhere in the Classic D&D Universe...either as another planet, or as alternate world (like Aelos), or in another Dimension (distinct from the Multiverse Dimension, such as a "Cartoon Show Dimension"). I'd suggest it's an alternate world like Aelos, but within the Multverse Dimension. The Acrobat, Barbarian, and Cavalier would either be, stat-wise a Thief with acrobat skill, and a two Fighters, or (a probably better solution) they'd be presented as Classic D&D character classes which are specific to that setting, and thus simplified from their AD&D Unearthed Arcana versions.

The Realm would be situated differently in the AD&D 1E Multiverse (it'd be an Alternate Material Plane, as described in the Manual of the Planes). And in the 3E Multiverse, the Realm would have its own Cosmology and set of planes, and could only be reached from other worlds via the Plane of Shadow.

The 1984 placement of Ghyr:

Travis Henry Keith Byers thanks for sharing this. Right, that looks to be a more extensive version of JTR's map which I posted above. I don't doubt that either of the two fan-placements in the Vaults are well-thought out, and that they are both "best locations" if you consider Mystara as a complete whole, retrospectively. ....yet, I believe I make a solid case for a "best location" if you consider only areas which have been mapped by 1984, when Ghyr was published. The other fans did not consider this factor.

To recap these parameters:

1) Ghyr exists somewhere on Mystara. I interviewed Bruce Heard awhile back, and he affirmed that:

Bruce Heard: "The pregen characters were actually trademarked action figure toys that were marketed in the mid 80's. Their kingdom eventually found its way into Mystara much in the same manner as other orphan projects did. They weren't originally conceived as Mystaran entities but became so by default since the toys were marketed for kids -- thus the Basic D&D Game."

(The interview is at: http://pandius.com/b_heard2.html)

The key words are: "became so by default." Ghyr became Mystaran. And so Ghyr is located on Mystara.

2) Ghyr exists somewhere on the 1984-era map. (This is the factor which neither fan-placement considered. As far as I can tell, neither of those two locations existed on the 1984 map.)

2b) It is a valid approach to completely ignore previous fanwork, and offer a new conception which is strictly based on a different set of parameters.

3) Of all the named places on "1984 Mystara", the Icereach Range is clearly the closest to "Mountains of Ice". This also fits with the LJN characters' ties to Norwold.

4) Ghyr, as a Kingdom, should be outside the political boundaries of the Kingdom of Norwold. As far as I can tell, all 3 of the placements I offered are outside of Norwold proper.

5) The Ghyr map shows the mountain-based wellspring of a river. There are only three visible wellsprings in the Icereach Range on the 1984 map. Ghyr "must" be located at one of these three hexes. (The truism that there must be countless unmapped tributaries is misleading, since we are going with the most straightforward line of thinking: there's a river which arises from the Mountains of Ice. And there are three places where a river arises from the mountains in the 1984 Icereach.)

6) Since there is no scale on the XL1 map, the scale must be invented whole-cloth. There are no marshes in the 1984 Icereach, so the Ghyr map must be no larger than a 24-mile hex. Otherwise, we'd see already see one or more 24-mi. hex of marshes somewhere on the 1984 map. But we don't.

6b) There is already a precedent in 1984 for a one-hex sized realm: The Barony of Twolakes Vale.

6c) All of the terrain from the Ghyr map can fit in a 24-mi. mountain hex, as long as mountains subhexes are the plurality (not necessarily the majority). My sketch of how the Ghyr terrain might extend off the edge of the rectangular map was only a very rough approximation - someone else could render it differently.

7) As for which of the three river-sources to place the map -- this would be a mostly arbitrary choice. I went with the one which is most secluded (furtherest north). But really, either of the other two wellsprings would work just as well.

8) As for the aerial perspective of the map. Stretching the Ghyr map 428% north-to-south makes the westernmost lake into a circle - which is its implied shape in the drawing. The map could be assumed to be a quasi-isometric perspective, which means that it'd be okay to stretch the entire map, the same amount. I admit that other approaches might work, such as just manually placing all of the features so that they fit neatly in a single 24-mile hex.

9) The strange disappearing rivers in the XL1 are interpreted in such a way that the entire middle portion of the map (between the forest and the mountains) is really all marsh, wherein the river distributaries peter out and re-emerge. Whichever of the three hex-mapped river-sources is chosen, serves as the outlet for the entire Northern Marsh wetland system.

That's my case.