Since we keep coming with good alternative plots to what happens in the Tyr Region, from right before Kalak's death to years later, maybe we can all list them here?
- King Hamanu sends an army to Tyr to restore the flow of iron and is successful, the city falling under Urikite regency. Dissatisfaction grows among the other sorcerer-kings as Hamanu now controls iron and obsidian, but with the levy reestablished he has the backing of the Dragon. Players can be Tyrian, fighting for freedom a second time, or Urikite, conquering.
- The Oba wishes to expand her forest. Players can hinder or help.
- The Merchant Houses get involved in a trade war, and so do the PCs.
- A powerful Merchant House enters conflict with a city-state.
- Keep the peace in Raam, or push for revolution.
- Reopen trade with the Lost Cities.
- Kalak is not assassinated, instead succeeding and becoming the next Dragon. What happens then?
- ...
- With the Dragon of Tyr dead, Dregoth levels Raam and begins his conquest to kill all of the SKs. He finds out he cannot become a god, and that just makes him even more angry.
- Kalak's death rocks the Tyr region, the status quo is shaken as each of the remaining SK's position themselves to take the prize of Tyr. Their focus is so much on going against each other and the city-state of Tyr, that the invasion of the Tohr-Kreen Empire catches many off-guard as they are overwhelmed by the expansionistic mantis folk.
- Kalak successfully transforms himself into a full dragon, goes insane, and begins ravaging the countryside. The desolate remains of Tyr being the first of many locations he destroys before the combined efforts of the remaining SK's and Borys are able to take him down and finish him off. Several of the villages and forts around Tyr now are destroyed, as is Balic, and Urik was razed significantly, now under repair from the attack of Kalak.
- Just as Kalak finishes his spell and kills off the entirety of Tyr, a huge asteroid smashes down upon his ziggurat and kills him in the throws of completing his spell. From this asteroid arises a new threat -- the archetects of the Rebirth have returned; they have become twisted pain-worshipers with crafted creatures as their servants, armor, and weapons. Seemingly immune to psionics, and extraordinarily hateful of arcane magic, these "Rhulisti" begin a purge of all non-rhulisti peoples the likes of which even the Cleansing Wars can't compete.
- Trade becomes restored to the Forgotton North, and with it the lost city-states of Eldaarich and Kurn... both alien and confusing, neither very hospitable to the peoples of the South.
- With the Dragon of Tyr dead, Dregoth levels Raam and begins his conquest to kill all of the SKs. He finds out he cannot become a god, and that just makes him even more angry.
Mine is similar to this. Basically a duke out between Dregoth and Oronis, with agents of Kalid-Ma trying to resurrect him his coma..then he could be a wild card.
1. Convince Keltis/Oronis to engage in not-so-ironically-named Cleansing Wars, and become his champions. Or at least convince him to take over Tyr. Course, new Cleansing Wars would eventually bring him to the last sea...
2. Dregoth figures out how to finish his metamorphosis.
3. The Veiled Alliance overthrows Tithian, and calls for reforms to remove all trappings of "Kalak-worship" from Tyrian culture (something along the lines of what Mao did in China, or Khomeini did in Iran).
4. A Pyreen, or a Veiled Alliance cell, or Oronis/Keltis, someone develops a ritual to redistribute the life force of all living things on the planet to restore the green age... At the cost of the egos of everyone on the planet (think the Instrumentality Project from Neon Genesis Evangelion).
4.a. Course, a smaller version of this ritual would make it easier to tap into the life force of a rival city-state and take enough life force to allow for some serious defiling. This could allow Boris to become an actual god. Or Dregoth could use this power to destroy all non-Dray and become a god. This could carry over into other campaign settings (suddenly, Asmodeus-worship becomes perfectly acceptable).
4.b. The ritual could also be used to turn everyone into undead, which one can argue is an improvement. Maybe it doesn't completely work, and we have a zombie apocalypse.
5. Gunpowder was actually known about for quite some time, but was mainly used for fireworks. Noone bothers to use it since slave labor has been readily available. With the slaves of Tyr free, new means of mining are investigated, and explosives are developed. After someone gets his head knocked off by a rock getting blasted out of a cave, someone else gets the bright idea to develop muskets from mekillot bones soaked in ock'n sap or reinforced with rasclinn hide? An arms race ensues as some Tyrian Dwarves try to one-up the templars in neighboring regions, allowing the Gamma World gun rules to be used in a few in-game decades.
5.a. Maybe substituting the ashes from defiling for the charcoal in gunpowder results in less smoke. Perhaps it also petrifies the barrel and ammo as it's ignited, allowing cheaper guns to be made (since only bone is needed). Maybe defilers never have to worry about cheaply manufactured guns breaking, but preservers can use the life force in peculiar (but since it's Athas, not unlikely) ammo (say, an Ock'n) to cast spells (so the weapon can be used as an implement, defiling and weapon breakage rules apply).
6. Various extraplanar races need to destroy Athas to make way for a spelljammer bypass, and hire a group of unusually bureaucratic and overweight Githyanki to do so.
- With few Champions left, one less to deal with (Kalak), and so many things having changed since the Green Age, the Pyreen decide to take a more active role in the world. What will they do?
Various extraplanar races need to destroy Athas to make way for a spelljammer bypass, and hire a group of unusually bureaucratic and overweight Githyanki to do so.
Heh, nice one Ian.
- After Rajaat left and when the setting in the Revised version takes place, an Elemental-King of the Green-Age awakens and convinces the Kreen Empire to invade the Tablelands in revenge for the state Athas is in due to the Champions. The Kreen act as locusts devouring everyone they find. Ogo, Walis and Urik are devoured in the swarm. Hamanu is killed by the Element-King; the armies of Nibenay, Gulg, Raam and Draj meet at Raam along with Dregoth to fight the Element-King and the Kreen; who will win?
- Since most of my games, takes place in the past, like when Kalidnay was a capital city that commanded a small sea next to it and the area around it, I have little more to add.
- Also, the box set, Freedom, could be set in Kalidnay, save that they were unsuccessful...
I like this. I like the idea of Lifeshapers going to space. Maybe they brought some Thri-Kreens with them. Maybe that is the origine of Spelljammer's Xixchils (Spelljammer Monstrous compedium II).
The Xixchil where Thri-Kreens that practiced bio-manipulations and surgeries. Adding, removing or replacing limbs and organs to "improve" living organisms.
I tend to borrow quite heavily from the race in the Star Wars Expanded Universe known as the Yuuzhon-Vong (main enemies from the New Jedi Order series of novels) for my inspiration as to what the Rhulisti have become. Partially because Troy Dennig helped with the NJO, and I see the Yuuzhon-Vong as having been inspired at least partly by the Rhulisti from Dark Sun.
- A long-dead defiler warlord of ages past is revived through an ancient pact, and goes on conquest like the Tyr Region hasn't seen since the wars of yore.
lord of the land between cities.
I like it.
Egendo, Lord of the Inbetween Lands, the Merchant King.
Egendo, Lord of the Inbetween Lands, the Merchant King.
- Irikos, the forgotten and true First Champion arises. Unlike his peers, he was never corrupted into becoming a Dragon, he also was never tasked to destroy any one race. His task was to lead the Preserver Jihad, and ended up disappearing near the end of that war. Now returned, and still loyal to Rajaat, he begins to raise an army to overthrow the usurpers and restore true order to the region -- his order.
- Just as Kalak finishes his spell and kills off the entirety of Tyr, a huge asteroid smashes down upon his ziggurat and kills him in the throws of completing his spell. From this asteroid arises a new threat -- the archetects of the Rebirth have returned; they have become twisted pain-worshipers with crafted creatures as their servants, armor, and weapons. Seemingly immune to psionics, and extraordinarily hateful of arcane magic, these "Rhulisti" begin a purge of all non-rhulisti peoples the likes of which even the Cleansing Wars can't compete.
This one is fantastic. It may be how I end my first campaign (maybe in mid-paragon) and begin my second campaign.
If you recall, the ghost of Haakar taught the Moratuc dwarves living on the slopes of the volcano at Charvass how to mine obsidian, and Abalach-Re's spies reported this to her and she ordered an obsidian sphere for herself (probably so the other SKs could not track the request).
There may be other obsidian being mined elsewhere than by the Urikites in the Black Crown Mountain, those initiatives started by shadow giants to ensure ongoing supply.
The flow of iron would be essential to them, as flesh and blood miners need to acquire iron tools to extract the obsidian. Shadow giants could thus get involved in Tyr's affairs during the aftermath of Kalak's death to reestablish the flow of iron. Maybe they prompt action with a few well-placed templars or nobles, or convince raiders to hijack one of the first iron shipments to come out of the mines.
- Irikos, the forgotten and true First Champion arises. Unlike his peers, he was never corrupted into becoming a Dragon, he also was never tasked to destroy any one race. His task was to lead the Preserver Jihad, and ended up disappearing near the end of that war. Now returned, and still loyal to Rajaat, he begins to raise an army to overthrow the usurpers and restore true order to the region -- his order.
I brought back Irikos for my old home game. Shortly upon his return, he helped "liberate" Raam from Dray occupation and is now the new ruler of that City-State.
- The PCs are approached by a venerable dwarf whose focus is to raise an ancient force of good known as Taraskir, the Lion King.
After Kalak falls Urik eyes Tyr with hungry eyes. The war costs both city-states dearly. Dregoth comes to the surface to overtake Raam with Tek, Nibenay, and the Oba coming to Abalach-Re's aid. The Dragon is furious because with all this fighting there are not enough levy's to continue to power it's spells. The Dragon in desperation to keep Rajaat's prison in tact casts a massive psionically augmented spell to tap the Grey and in doing so severs the bond that undead have with the Grey. Thus with no "sustenance" from the Grey the undead begin searching for life to consume. Where there are wars going on missing persons are not noticed so much, but the hidden undead in the cities begin craving flesh and taking it. In the midst of all the fighting no on notices that word from Balic has stopped. The Merchant Houses are the first to realize something is wrong.....enter the Dead Lands Horde!
To make matters worse the PCs work for a noble family who has been good to them...one of the last true noble houses. The reason the house had been held together for so long was that it's patron was an undead. With Borys' spell their patron becomes their enemy.
What only the top dogs in the Veiled Alliance know is that the plan is actually to use an epic psionic ritual to resurrect all the sacrificed people to fight back on the Templars and possibly the Dragon. What effectively happens is that a few thousands hungry, mindless undead corpses are raised to wreak chaos in the city-states, and the ritual does something to the link between the undeads and the grey, leading to a massive undead rampage and the awakening of powerful undead creatures under the sands of the Athasian deserts.
I was never confortable with them just waiting for that lost 1/2 elve slave girl to stumble in the Pristine Tower.
They did not have to wait long after the death of the Urikite nobleman. Sadira came along, yes, but others would have been found. That is the meaning of post #6.
- Kalak's death rocks the Tyr region, the status quo is shaken as each of the remaining SK's position themselves to take the prize of Tyr. Their focus is so much on going against each other and the city-state of Tyr,...
Only Hamanu is in a position to take Tyr; Nibenay and Gulg can't move without the other taking advantage of their absence. The Sorcerer Queen of Raam is too unstable and weak to take Tyr; her rule might fall. By the time news reaches Balic and Draj any army the mobilize will arrive at Tyr after Hamanu has already taken in.
I think they might do a reverse, "Road to Urik"; instead, it's, "Road to Tyr" and Tyr could end up a vessal city to Urik.
- Kalak's death rocks the Tyr region, the status quo is shaken as each of the remaining SK's position themselves to take the prize of Tyr. Their focus is so much on going against each other and the city-state of Tyr,...
Only Hamanu is in a position to take Tyr; Nibenay and Gulg can't move without the other taking advantage of their absence. The Sorcerer Queen of Raam is too unstable and weak to take Tyr; her rule might fall. By the time news reaches Balic and Draj any army the mobilize will arrive at Tyr after Hamanu has already taken in.
I think they might do a reverse, "Road to Urik"; instead, it's, "Road to Tyr" and Tyr could end up a vessal city to Urik.
I dunno. That's the classic Crimson Legion approach, but I don't necessarily agree that Hamanu is the only one in a position to take Tyr. I think that Gulg and Nibenay's war is a bit of a sham, and could be revealed as such when they switch to the "new meat" of Tyr.
- Kalak's death rocks the Tyr region, the status quo is shaken as each of the remaining SK's position themselves to take the prize of Tyr. Their focus is so much on going against each other and the city-state of Tyr,...
Only Hamanu is in a position to take Tyr; Nibenay and Gulg can't move without the other taking advantage of their absence. The Sorcerer Queen of Raam is too unstable and weak to take Tyr; her rule might fall. By the time news reaches Balic and Draj any army the mobilize will arrive at Tyr after Hamanu has already taken in.
I think they might do a reverse, "Road to Urik"; instead, it's, "Road to Tyr" and Tyr could end up a vessal city to Urik.
I dunno. That's the classic Crimson Legion approach, but I don't necessarily agree that Hamanu is the only one in a position to take Tyr. I think that Gulg and Nibenay's war is a bit of a sham, and could be revealed as such when they switch to the "new meat" of Tyr.
Gulg and Nibenay's war is the starting point of my campaign
Gulg and Nibenay's war is the starting point of my campaign
Oh, I've had a campaign start there as well... with armies holding their positions and skirmishes here and there throughout the forest. But I think that as far as Lalai-puy and Nibenay are concerned, they could honestly care less about it -- the war serves as a means to keep their own respective people in line, and as a mild diversion for a seeming eternity of boredom. Kalak's death just might entice both of them to respond. Along with Hamanu and his armies, I could see Tyr being somewhat under siege, while the three armies each try to position themselves as the superior one to be able to lay claim on the new prize. Meanwhile, Raam, Draj, and Balic could also get in on the fun -- there could easily be enough time for them to show up to the fight.
While I think the Xlorep_Darkhelms take on things make for some interesting possibilities I am more inclined to say that there is a serious resource war going on (agafari wood) and that its more than just a mild diversion. If the oba were to send her forces into Tyr Nibenay would storm that forest and harvest the everloving **** out of it while Gulg struggled to take Tyr.
Wouldn't Dregoth, aside from Hamanu, be in a postion to attack Tyr. He would have the element of surprise.
True, but wouldn't Borys come after him? He must wait until the Dragon of Tyr is no more.
On a RP level, I think Nibenay and Lalai-Puy where once lovers. This is why two SKs didn't mind controlling cities so close to each other. That love story couldn't last because of their egos. They haven't attacked each other mostly because they know what the other is capable of.
That's a great idea; I can see Lalali-Puy publicly addressing Nibenay as one would speak of an ex-lover. I can see her face change and fill full of scorn when speaking about him.
I usually run my games in the past and I can see a time in which there wasn't a Gulg, but a Nibenay, ruled not only by a SK, but also a Sorcerer Queen. They rulled the city together for centuries until they had a lover's quarell and broke up; she went her own way (or Nibernay kicked her out). Then, she went and founded Gulg; close to his city to compete for the natural resources, just out of spite!!! In return, Nibenay got rid of all his male templars and made all his templars female and his wives to remind Lalali-Puy that there are plenty of other women out there. I can see stuff like after a raid, one would do something unneccissary , like turning over wagons just so they other knows they did it, on purpose.
Goldomark, consider your of the spurned lover Lalali-Puy and the awaking of Ral swiped for use in my game. I love those ideas.
Myron was killed and replaced by Hamanu.
There might be others.
Since I wrote up the background story for Egendo, I would say that it is a (IMO) decent example of how a Champion could come to be. Similar stories could exist, and perhaps a vanquished Champion returns to finish off their replacement and resume their War.
I always thought that an empire based on one of the elemental advanced beings would be cool. There is a vast sea to the north of the Kreen Empire. In my campaign, it was home to the Empire of Storms, which was ruled by Rain Elemental advanced beings had various interesting sounding locations and names. Stormwatch, Acension Point, the Lightning Brigade, The Thunder Corp. They were always in the background, and never saw the light, but it could work for something if someone wanted something external to come besides the Kreen or the Deadlands. I always thought that the rest of the world would be pretty upset that one little track of land caused so much trouble for the whole planet.
Its city-states are dedicated to the elements, and their leaders seemingly the children of drakes (i.e. a paralell with a Greek demigod). They venerate the elements in the form of powerful drakes inhabiting the region. Many genasi citizens.
In the past, drake ivory came from there. Now that empire is lost to the Tyr Region.
Or it this one of the Alternate Plots, either way I like it.
I must say that It is a wonder that Elemental Advenance beings didn't make more of a mark on Athas. And Ruvokas (the advance Druids).
I understand that SKs might look out for them and that the more they grow in power, the more they spend time in the Elemental planes or on quests for powerful Elemental beings. But it is like they don't exist.
I know we discussed the prozelitism of elemental clerics in another thread. Athasians clerics aren't out for converts like crazy or at all, unlike other settings, but some might be. Elemental advance beings become a very powerful tool for "recruitement".
There is a void. I am curious to see what they did with it.
Well, they had at least a six-thousand year head start on the Defilers. My guess, is that during the Green-Age, instead of Sorcerer Kings, there were Elemental-Kings.
The Dwarven Mining Cartel unleashed a forgotten Champion of Rajaat. The most famous ones where the ones that battle on land. Who remembers Aquus, Drowner of Sahuagen?
The Cartel built a platform on the Sea of Silt, trying to mine the bottem of the sea. They constantly expended a wooden cylinder that went to the bottem of the sea, to mine it's resources. By accident, the Dwarves have discoverd a ancien city that must have rested at the bottem of the sea when it was made of water. Aquus was a sleep in it, but no more.
Seeing the depravety of the world he unleases is undead army of Sahuagen, Ghost Sharks that swim in the air, and ancestral Silt Horrors called Krakens.
The people of Athas are un prepared for this attack that comes from it's dead seas.
"Drowner of Sahuagen"...love it!
- In the 190th King's Age, they missed with the Heartwood Spear. Kalak lives. Before they can be charged with treason, Kalak transforms into a 30th level dragon; Rikus, Agis, Neeva, Tithian, and Sadira are turned into ash. The Dragon Kalak then flies over the Ringing Mountains; unlike Kalidnay's spell, which turned him mad, Kalak improved the metamorphis spell that staved off the madness long enough for Kalak to leave the Tyr Region and get as far away from Borys and the others as possible. By the time Boyrs and the others learned of this, it was too late; Kalak was long gone. What's left of Tyr is easily captured by Urik; Tyr then becomes a Urik client-city wtih a loyal Urik Templar running the city. Any surviving Tyr templar was assessed on their usefulness; any of little or no worth was put into slavery for the Dragon. Urik no pays 2000 slaves per year as he attempts to rebuilt Tyr. Balic, however, seized Tyr's iron mine.
Edit: So no death of Alabach-Re and Borys...Rajaat never returned and there's no Cerulian Storm; all because of one failed to hit-roll.
However, you cannot kill something as powerful as a god without leaving something more than a corpse. The races of the Rebirth first arose due to the lingering spirit of dead gods. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, etc. were created out of the unattached will of slain entities of unimaginable power. Instinctually the new races felt a call to worship but their prayers went unanswered, and more present powers (such as the power wielded by elemental clerics) diverted their attention from the lost pantheon.
Fast forward to the present and you can still see the mark of the gods in each race. For example, a Dwarven focus is Moradin's drive to create perverted by the race's missing connection with their creator.
Weeks after Kalak's death, an enterprising Tyrian merchant leads an excavation of an iron lode theorized to be a hundred times as large as the mines accessed by Tyr. In addition to the incredible amounts of ore, he (and possibly the PC's) discover an immense anvil and forge. After contact with the artifacts, the merchant begins making things. Weapons, devices, and items he wouldn't even have been able to imagine let alone craft. Is it again the will of long dead Moradin? Or do the relics of the lost pantheon have will of their own?
(Imagine if Sauron's ring was a villain all in itself.)
If I was going to do something extensively in Dark Sun, I'd like to explore Lalali-Puy from a different angle. It's somewhat out of place for a goddess of the forest to be a defiler. What if she took the darker side of the preserver route, developing rituals to drain animal life force and funnel it back into the planet? What if she's preparing to do this to the disorganized Tyr now that it doesn't have it's Sorcerer King protector so that she can move into a new forest a little farther away from anyone else? Would she be welcomed by her halfing neighbors, and what would the Dragon think?
Far more likely, when running a Planescape/Spelljammer hybrid game, I would use Athas as a death hole that is marked on the Spelljammer navigational charts as "here there be Dragon". Forget impenetrable sphere. People don't go the the Athas sphere because it's Wild Space more tame fauna are rust monster/kraken hybrids who fly around sucking your breathable air into air sacks while leaving putrid air behind. And be it due to crashed spelljammer or one way portal, no player is going to clean pants once they realize "...we're on Athas, aren't we?"
And speaking of Planescape, I'm thinking that the Doom Guard would love Athas. A dying world is almost as good as a motivational poster when you believe in the inevitablitity of entropy. No creation from destruction, just pure decay pulling everything downward. The Athar might like it's lack of gods, but they're more likely to investigate then set up shop. The Doom Guard would consider a dying prime to be a banner for their philosophy, something to gather around in the wake of the Faction Wars.
So yeah, I'm going to enjoy Athas.
in an effort to protect his spies in the city, and to try an experiment to see if he can help cure the mad king and perhaps turn him towards the light, oronis develops a plan. he will send in adventurers to try and accomplish his work for him. if oronis were to go, war could start.
the players run a game were they heal the mind of daskinor and plant a suggestion deep inside.
inception, ds style.
They may or may not have to help another tyrant SK invade and take over to restore peace. I basically want to mess with my players by making them love being oppressed.
Athas is a world where the coin-toss of the Dawn War landed on the other side. The Primordials ultimately defeated the infant gods of the Astral Sea and returned Athas to an undespoiled paradise of natural beauty and fury, a time known as the Blue Age. The incredible feat of remaking the planet left the remaining Primordials drained, with many of them contributing their essence to Athas itself. Without the deities, powerful forces such as magic were left unstewarded and the seeds of Athas's eventual fate were sewn....
This is similar to the direction I'll be taking. I came across an idea that has funelled my plans, "That which is worshipped is never truly dead." If any of the long forgotten dieties managed to survive, it would be a god of Magic. With all the massive arcane rituals being thrown around, it serves as a limited form of worship to nuture the ailing deity. What happens from there, I'm not sure. In epic levels, maybe the characters become the new gods themselves.
This is similar to the direction I'll be taking. I came across an idea that has funelled my plans, "That which is worshipped is never truly dead." If any of the long forgotten dieties managed to survive, it would be a god of Magic. With all the massive arcane rituals being thrown around, it serves as a limited form of worship to nuture the ailing deity. What happens from there, I'm not sure. In epic levels, maybe the characters become the new gods themselves.
...this "God of Magic" sided with the Primordials at the climax of the war, betraying the rest of the Gods to their death. In exchange, the Primordials gave the God of Magic new power and control over the world of Athas. The new power came with a curse, that drove the God mad with greed and power. The mad God now demands sacrifice in life and blood to use her arcane power (defiling) - she barely notices as her own world deteriorates before her eyes. The Abyss becons to enfold the mad God and her land into its realms.
If you'd like to play the Io theme (Io split into Tiamat and Bahamut), you can imagine the Defiler/mad side of the God looks akin to a Dragon, while the "Good" side looks akin to an Avangion. Maybe both of these transformations are merely an aspect of Her power or former glory.
...just musing.
Reminds me of a WOD idea I had where the BBEG was a malkavian with a split personality.