Anyone else want more lore on Ul athra so when players ask... - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Anyone else want more lore on Ul athra so when players ask...

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
mangled_mike
Dec 16, 2010 23:54:08 Anyone else want more lore on Ul Athra and their cults prior to the next adventure continuation? If this is a major personage and event in Athas's history, Id dearly love to see an eye on dark sun written on Ul athra and the cults. That way when i am asked about them I have something to add. Also, though its true one character gets a ninja note he can choose to share or not with the group about the wyrm gliding over the scenery...theres not alot of idea of what kind of wyrm that player is seeing. If they are seeing it in their minds eye I want either an image to show them or a more full description of what this wyrm is. I don't want them thinking of a huge silk wyrm with a crown perched jauntily on its head unless thats the image that wotc really intends. Thats about it.
#2
rollawaythestone
Dec 17, 2010 2:22:27 My guess is that Ul-Athra is more like a giant kraken than a serpent-like creature. In the Silt Elemental article they mention that the Silt Elementals can grow into kraken-like forms. Being a primordial of silt, this makes sense as some sort of link between these creatures. I also thought I remembered seeing somewhere that the Silt Horrors were descended from Ul-Athra. Could be completed wrong, though.
#3
ritorix
Dec 17, 2010 14:44:31 They are pretty short on details. In my game I'm making him one of the many old "gods" worshipped in Raam before Badna.
#4
xsv-violence
Dec 18, 2010 0:37:24 I view Ul-Athra as the great devourer, a kraken on a vast scale. It's tentacles could reach mile if awoken, and a maw that could swallow a silt vessal whole. As to cults, I kinda liken it to Chuthulu or other Old One cults.
#5
terminus_vortexa
Dec 18, 2010 19:45:05 The representations of Ul-Athra as a serpentine creature may represent the perspective granted to cultists or victims who only ever interacted with a single tentacle. Primordials are not known for dealing openly and honestly with mortals.
#6
lord_rock
Dec 19, 2010 18:15:14 My guys want more about him as well. I am setting him up as a collossal Kraken and thee enemy of the dragon of Tyr. With Tyr the city state turned away from the "dragon's set up" (sorc kings). The cult of Ul-Athra should flourish.

I hope to set Ul-Athra up to oppose the dragon and make my players choose a side. After they choose the 3rd option that may cause both sides to work together will begin to appear. It will be a "comet" on a direct line for Athas... It's not a comet. It's one of the "old ones" ala chuthulu... And it's not friendly to anyone.
Arcane Apocalypse
Raddu76
Dec 21, 2010 14:17:50 Some interesting ideas above....I'm stealing them....

"Sit down children, quiet now. I am old and you must be very quiet to hear my whispers. Plus, it is not proper to tell this story loudly, else the Mouths of Thirst may hear. The night of the Sky's Eye is upon us. This night once in many years when Athas and Ral and Guthay all line up. It looks like that sky is looking back at you. Some say this is the eye of The Dust Kraken, watching us from his prison, Guthay.

How did he get on the moon? The Great One banished him there. In an ancient colossal battle The Great One, Zi' Tho'kliktet, a giant winged creature that looks like a kreen with wings defeated the Silt Bringer, but not until after the Sunrise Sea had be turned to silt and all the ancient boats sunk. A boat? A boat was an ancient vessel that sat atop vast areas of water. Like the silt skimmers of today, but without the giant wheels.

Anyway, before it was banished the Silt Bringer corrupted many of the creatures of this sea and the Silt Horrors were born as well as many other foul creatures that we never see. Creatures with the bodies shaped like mens, but with heads that look like a silt horrors, all bulbous with black eyes and flowing sandy tentacles. These creatures, named by their master as Ul-Athrids still live in the silt to this day.
As the night of the Sky's Eye approaches many misguided treasure hunters search for the ancient Crown of Dust. The Crown was created for Muldrea, high-priestess of Dust Kraken. Muldrea was a great defiler, she was rumored to have brought the Dust Kraken to Athas in the first place, a sickened corrupted primal spirit. Muldrea, before she was a follower of the Dust Kraken, served the Warbringer and was a great general before she learned of his great betrayal and escaped his grasp.

During the final battle between Zi' Tho'kliktet and the Dust Kraken, Muldrea wore and used the Crown of Dust to help her master fight the Great One. During the vicious battle the Crown was sundered into three parts when Muldrea along with her patron fell.

It is whispered that Zi' Tho'kliktet took one piece, that Aru-Madar a powerful champion took one, and the third had been lost to time. Of course who these ancient beings are and where they rest with these treasure is unknown as well.

Some say that if the three pieces of the Crown are taken to the Face in the Stone during the night of the Sky's Eye then the Mouths of Thirst will reenter this world to devour it. "

A few notes about my campaign:

this all lines up with my Arcane Apocalypse backstory.

The Primordials were created as a partial by-product of defiling. Thus they are essentially corrupted elemental beings.

an Avangion fought Ul-Athra and banished it, not the Dragon

Aru-Madar is an ancestor of Darom Madar (From the Vault of Darom Madar). In ancient times the Merchant Dynasties were actually orders of Knights that fought the SK's and the Primordials. Eventually as the great wars died down the Knights had to make money and thus they began guarding caravans and such, eventually becoming traders themselves. (Like the Knights Templar IRL). Once piece of the Crown is in the Vault of Darom Madar and the last piece is in the Chaksa.

Muldrea before she became high-priestess of Dust Kraken, founded the Broken Builders cult.

The Ul-Athrids are....Athasian Illithids. They live beneath the Silt Sea. THe Gith were once their slaves. They are not psionic because IMC psionics are a defense mechanism of Athas, so they are arcane based. They still eat brains, particularly psionic ones.

The Warbringer, Rajaat's betrayal is not that he wanted to bring about the Blue Age again, but he knew that defiling would cause the Primordials to be born and the planet to become corrupted. By the time the SK's realized this it was too late. There were so many primordials that had taken over much of Athas and made it an alien landscape (Think the Far Realm, plus silt, ash, lighting, acid). The SK's realized they could not further the decay if they used Psionics with their magic and together they came to the tablelands from all over Athas (thus the disparate cultures) and created The Periphery (again see my Arcane Apocalypse backstory)

The SK's chanell most of their magical energy through psionics to power the periphery. They have figured out, again through psionics how to empower their followers (Templars) with defiling magic that doesn't lay waste to the world (but what does it lay waste to?).

The gith were once brothers of the Ul-Athrid, but now hate them because when the Gith attempted to reject the primordials the Ul-Athrid enslaved them. They have used dessicating rituals to reject their Primordial ways and Athas has rewarded them with Psionics. They are still corrupt evil creatures who seek to enslave everything but not the all consuming alienness of the primordials.

The draconic beings are direct manifestations of Athas through major psionic uses. The humans become Dragons, Thri-Kreen become insectoid avangions, (Other things?). The Dray were an attempt by Dregoth to fuse people with psionics and advance them. He failed when they came out corrupt with a penchant for defiling.

The Spirits of the Land are the psionic manifestation of Athas, making the land conscious.

Most halflings tribes are escapees from the destruction of the world on the other side of the Ringing Mountains.

#8
xsv-violence
Dec 21, 2010 21:06:37 Very nice, and descriptive!
#9
mgbeach
Jan 09, 2011 22:29:54 @raddu, that is an awesome train of thought! Shamelessly stealing some of it Had somewhat painted myself in a corner riffing on the cult since I didn't have any other info and this helps a lot.
#10
Acrilos
Jan 10, 2011 6:16:55 I currently run a campaign around Ul-Athra (was not intended at the begining but my players chose that path when they found the first part of the crown of dust).

I somewhat changed Ul-Athra for my campaign.
Ul-Athra is a primordial worshipped during the Green Age by druids and shamans. He was considered a powerful force of nature and could be seen as a colossal tempest of dust when manifesting on Athas (much like a colossal dust devil). He could apparently take other shapes as well.
Ul-Athra enjoyed traveling the world of Athas and prefered to live there than into the Elemental Chaos.
When defiling magic appeared and the Cleansing Wars errupted, Ul-Athra tried to help the planet survive the onslaught but it was too late. However, he successfully saved the elves from extinction. He tried to stop the Dragon but was vanquished and forced into an eternal slumber (the Dragon, as powerful as he is, could not kill the primordial who had too much links with Athas due to the time passed on the world). People forgot about Ul-Athra as the centuries passed. A few worshipers remain though but live in seclusion, hidden from Athasian society.

Now my players have recovered the three fragments of the crown of dust and reassembled it, gaining its power in the process. In doing so, the memory of the crown's conscience was restored too and the crown is now capable of locating the place where Ul-Athra sleeps.

My players want to awake Ul-Athra and ally with him to defeat the Dragon and the sorcerer-kings. To do so, they need four elemental relics of the past and the proper ritual. So far they found the one tied to the Earth.

I do not say too much in case my players read the forum.
#11
mgbeach
Mar 29, 2011 23:19:32 Bringing back this old thread, mainly because I used the idea of the Ul'Athrids being the Athasian version of Illithids. In my campaign the Broken Builders (Dungeon 182) revere Ul'Athra and want to bring it back into the world to complete the destruction of Athas. To that end, they have allied with the Ul'Athrids and are attempting to piece together the Diadem of the Sands (Crown of Dust from Marauders of the Dune Sea), which will allow Ul'Athra to touch the world once again.

The players found one third of the Diadem (which they insist on calling a tiara to make me mad) in the Face in the Stone. They have information that another piece lies under Urik and have allied with the Veiled Alliance there to thwart the Broken Builders in theit attempt to obtain it.

The third piece's location is unknown to the party at this point, and I won't reveal it here in case they are reading this post. If anyone is interested in more details of the campaign feel free to message me.

I've pieced together an image of the Ul'Athrid they faced last session from images found online...

UlAthrid

#12
mgbeach
Mar 31, 2011 0:24:02 Here's a second version to which I added a couple of things. The Ul'Athrids in my game use purple orbs for many things, including access to their temples and illumination. So this one carries his around his neck. He wields an obsidian-hafted spear that phases in and out of this plane. When it stabs into an opponent the floating shards manifest and serve to grapple the target to be pulled in close for a meal. It also wasn't clear from the other image that only one hand ends in that crab-like claw. The other is more humanoid.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 mangled_mike Dec 16, 2010 23:54:08	Anyone else want more lore on Ul Athra and their cults prior to the next adventure continuation? If this is a major personage and event in Athas's history, Id dearly love to see an eye on dark sun written on Ul athra and the cults. That way when i am asked about them I have something to add. Also, though its true one character gets a ninja note he can choose to share or not with the group about the wyrm gliding over the scenery...theres not alot of idea of what kind of wyrm that player is seeing. If they are seeing it in their minds eye I want either an image to show them or a more full description of what this wyrm is. I don't want them thinking of a huge silk wyrm with a crown perched jauntily on its head unless thats the image that wotc really intends. Thats about it.
#2 rollawaythestone Dec 17, 2010 2:22:27	My guess is that Ul-Athra is more like a giant kraken than a serpent-like creature. In the Silt Elemental article they mention that the Silt Elementals can grow into kraken-like forms. Being a primordial of silt, this makes sense as some sort of link between these creatures. I also thought I remembered seeing somewhere that the Silt Horrors were descended from Ul-Athra. Could be completed wrong, though.
#3 ritorix Dec 17, 2010 14:44:31	They are pretty short on details. In my game I'm making him one of the many old "gods" worshipped in Raam before Badna.
#4 xsv-violence Dec 18, 2010 0:37:24	I view Ul-Athra as the great devourer, a kraken on a vast scale. It's tentacles could reach mile if awoken, and a maw that could swallow a silt vessal whole. As to cults, I kinda liken it to Chuthulu or other Old One cults.
#5 terminus_vortexa Dec 18, 2010 19:45:05	The representations of Ul-Athra as a serpentine creature may represent the perspective granted to cultists or victims who only ever interacted with a single tentacle. Primordials are not known for dealing openly and honestly with mortals.
#6 lord_rock Dec 19, 2010 18:15:14	My guys want more about him as well. I am setting him up as a collossal Kraken and thee enemy of the dragon of Tyr. With Tyr the city state turned away from the "dragon's set up" (sorc kings). The cult of Ul-Athra should flourish. I hope to set Ul-Athra up to oppose the dragon and make my players choose a side. After they choose the 3rd option that may cause both sides to work together will begin to appear. It will be a "comet" on a direct line for Athas... It's not a comet. It's one of the "old ones" ala chuthulu... And it's not friendly to anyone.
Arcane Apocalypse Raddu76 Dec 21, 2010 14:17:50	Some interesting ideas above....I'm stealing them.... "Sit down children, quiet now. I am old and you must be very quiet to hear my whispers. Plus, it is not proper to tell this story loudly, else the Mouths of Thirst may hear. The night of the Sky's Eye is upon us. This night once in many years when Athas and Ral and Guthay all line up. It looks like that sky is looking back at you. Some say this is the eye of The Dust Kraken, watching us from his prison, Guthay. How did he get on the moon? The Great One banished him there. In an ancient colossal battle The Great One, Zi' Tho'kliktet, a giant winged creature that looks like a kreen with wings defeated the Silt Bringer, but not until after the Sunrise Sea had be turned to silt and all the ancient boats sunk. A boat? A boat was an ancient vessel that sat atop vast areas of water. Like the silt skimmers of today, but without the giant wheels. Anyway, before it was banished the Silt Bringer corrupted many of the creatures of this sea and the Silt Horrors were born as well as many other foul creatures that we never see. Creatures with the bodies shaped like mens, but with heads that look like a silt horrors, all bulbous with black eyes and flowing sandy tentacles. These creatures, named by their master as Ul-Athrids still live in the silt to this day. As the night of the Sky's Eye approaches many misguided treasure hunters search for the ancient Crown of Dust. The Crown was created for Muldrea, high-priestess of Dust Kraken. Muldrea was a great defiler, she was rumored to have brought the Dust Kraken to Athas in the first place, a sickened corrupted primal spirit. Muldrea, before she was a follower of the Dust Kraken, served the Warbringer and was a great general before she learned of his great betrayal and escaped his grasp. During the final battle between Zi' Tho'kliktet and the Dust Kraken, Muldrea wore and used the Crown of Dust to help her master fight the Great One. During the vicious battle the Crown was sundered into three parts when Muldrea along with her patron fell. It is whispered that Zi' Tho'kliktet took one piece, that Aru-Madar a powerful champion took one, and the third had been lost to time. Of course who these ancient beings are and where they rest with these treasure is unknown as well. Some say that if the three pieces of the Crown are taken to the Face in the Stone during the night of the Sky's Eye then the Mouths of Thirst will reenter this world to devour it. " A few notes about my campaign: this all lines up with my Arcane Apocalypse backstory. The Primordials were created as a partial by-product of defiling. Thus they are essentially corrupted elemental beings. an Avangion fought Ul-Athra and banished it, not the Dragon Aru-Madar is an ancestor of Darom Madar (From the Vault of Darom Madar). In ancient times the Merchant Dynasties were actually orders of Knights that fought the SK's and the Primordials. Eventually as the great wars died down the Knights had to make money and thus they began guarding caravans and such, eventually becoming traders themselves. (Like the Knights Templar IRL). Once piece of the Crown is in the Vault of Darom Madar and the last piece is in the Chaksa. Muldrea before she became high-priestess of Dust Kraken, founded the Broken Builders cult. The Ul-Athrids are....Athasian Illithids. They live beneath the Silt Sea. THe Gith were once their slaves. They are not psionic because IMC psionics are a defense mechanism of Athas, so they are arcane based. They still eat brains, particularly psionic ones. The Warbringer, Rajaat's betrayal is not that he wanted to bring about the Blue Age again, but he knew that defiling would cause the Primordials to be born and the planet to become corrupted. By the time the SK's realized this it was too late. There were so many primordials that had taken over much of Athas and made it an alien landscape (Think the Far Realm, plus silt, ash, lighting, acid). The SK's realized they could not further the decay if they used Psionics with their magic and together they came to the tablelands from all over Athas (thus the disparate cultures) and created The Periphery (again see my Arcane Apocalypse backstory) The SK's chanell most of their magical energy through psionics to power the periphery. They have figured out, again through psionics how to empower their followers (Templars) with defiling magic that doesn't lay waste to the world (but what does it lay waste to?). The gith were once brothers of the Ul-Athrid, but now hate them because when the Gith attempted to reject the primordials the Ul-Athrid enslaved them. They have used dessicating rituals to reject their Primordial ways and Athas has rewarded them with Psionics. They are still corrupt evil creatures who seek to enslave everything but not the all consuming alienness of the primordials. The draconic beings are direct manifestations of Athas through major psionic uses. The humans become Dragons, Thri-Kreen become insectoid avangions, (Other things?). The Dray were an attempt by Dregoth to fuse people with psionics and advance them. He failed when they came out corrupt with a penchant for defiling. The Spirits of the Land are the psionic manifestation of Athas, making the land conscious. Most halflings tribes are escapees from the destruction of the world on the other side of the Ringing Mountains.
#8 xsv-violence Dec 21, 2010 21:06:37	Very nice, and descriptive!
#9 mgbeach Jan 09, 2011 22:29:54	@raddu, that is an awesome train of thought! Shamelessly stealing some of it Had somewhat painted myself in a corner riffing on the cult since I didn't have any other info and this helps a lot.
#10 Acrilos Jan 10, 2011 6:16:55	I currently run a campaign around Ul-Athra (was not intended at the begining but my players chose that path when they found the first part of the crown of dust). I somewhat changed Ul-Athra for my campaign. Ul-Athra is a primordial worshipped during the Green Age by druids and shamans. He was considered a powerful force of nature and could be seen as a colossal tempest of dust when manifesting on Athas (much like a colossal dust devil). He could apparently take other shapes as well. Ul-Athra enjoyed traveling the world of Athas and prefered to live there than into the Elemental Chaos. When defiling magic appeared and the Cleansing Wars errupted, Ul-Athra tried to help the planet survive the onslaught but it was too late. However, he successfully saved the elves from extinction. He tried to stop the Dragon but was vanquished and forced into an eternal slumber (the Dragon, as powerful as he is, could not kill the primordial who had too much links with Athas due to the time passed on the world). People forgot about Ul-Athra as the centuries passed. A few worshipers remain though but live in seclusion, hidden from Athasian society. Now my players have recovered the three fragments of the crown of dust and reassembled it, gaining its power in the process. In doing so, the memory of the crown's conscience was restored too and the crown is now capable of locating the place where Ul-Athra sleeps. My players want to awake Ul-Athra and ally with him to defeat the Dragon and the sorcerer-kings. To do so, they need four elemental relics of the past and the proper ritual. So far they found the one tied to the Earth. I do not say too much in case my players read the forum.
#11 mgbeach Mar 29, 2011 23:19:32	Bringing back this old thread, mainly because I used the idea of the Ul'Athrids being the Athasian version of Illithids. In my campaign the Broken Builders (Dungeon 182) revere Ul'Athra and want to bring it back into the world to complete the destruction of Athas. To that end, they have allied with the Ul'Athrids and are attempting to piece together the Diadem of the Sands (Crown of Dust from Marauders of the Dune Sea), which will allow Ul'Athra to touch the world once again. The players found one third of the Diadem (which they insist on calling a tiara to make me mad) in the Face in the Stone. They have information that another piece lies under Urik and have allied with the Veiled Alliance there to thwart the Broken Builders in theit attempt to obtain it. The third piece's location is unknown to the party at this point, and I won't reveal it here in case they are reading this post. If anyone is interested in more details of the campaign feel free to message me. I've pieced together an image of the Ul'Athrid they faced last session from images found online...
#12 mgbeach Mar 31, 2011 0:24:02	Here's a second version to which I added a couple of things. The Ul'Athrids in my game use purple orbs for many things, including access to their temples and illumination. So this one carries his around his neck. He wields an obsidian-hafted spear that phases in and out of this plane. When it stabs into an opponent the floating shards manifest and serve to grapple the target to be pulled in close for a meal. It also wasn't clear from the other image that only one hand ends in that crab-like claw. The other is more humanoid.