They don't need to be long, convoluted, or heavily detailed, just evocative. Look at what the boxed set did with only a small amount of space for any single subject.
GO!
Count me in, but also count me late, as my contribution will be late.
Not a problem. I'm working up one right now myself.
Here are my notes.
A lot more water; The Great Ivory Plain is a vast sea. The Estuaries are seas as well. The Dragon's Bowl is not a bowl, but a vast lake. There's a river that runs from Tyr to Altaruk.
There are more Scrub Plains and Verdant Belts; The Crescent Forest is twice as large.
The City-States weren't considered City-States, they were Capitals of Nation-States; each ruled by a SK. There was enough water and vegitation around to allow that.
The City-States
Balic: Surrounded by vast mudflats and the Sea of Silt slowly soaks up the water in the Estuaries.
Bodach: Sits on the eastern shore of a central sea; It's ruled by Albache-Re who will have to move to Raam years later when the sea dries up and the Sea of Silt moves in.
Draj: The dust bowl to the north is a vast mudflat.
Gulg: Is a small village as a resort for Lalia-Puy.
Kalidney: Sits next to a small sea.
Nibenay: Ruled by both Nibenay and Lalia-Puy as Sorcerer-King and Sorcerer-Queen. Nibenay sits on the shores of the great sea and they rule it as they have the largest navy(thanks to the Crescent Forest's lumber.
Raam: Called, "Ra'am". It's a village next to a vast oasis.
Tyr: The Tyr River runs around it's walls as a moat and flows to Altaruk;
Urik: Is the owner of the Lake Pit. They use it's water to irrigate fields.
One question about color. What color should represent each individual city-state?
Here's my ideas
Balic-White
Bodach-???
Draj-Gray
Kalidnay-Purple
Nibenay-Brown
Tyr-Gold
Urik-Black
Any citizen knows the name of their king, and believe they have ruled their city since time immemorial. But the truth is vastly darker and more frightening, kept under savage lock-and-key by the current rulers of the city-states.
The true horror of wizards, beyond those troublesome meddlers and dabblers in the Dark Arts found and murdered by mobs every so often, is reinforced with generational regularity when powerful wizards rise to challenge the Sorcerer-Kings, and destruction rains down upon a city over which a King and his challenger battle like unchained gods.
For wizards who grow too powerful for their own safety in the city-states flee to the wastes to escape the eyes of the jealous and cautious Sorcerer-Kings, where they grow even more in strength and desire, some eventually dominating bands of criminals, mercenaries, and escaped slaves whom they can forge into armies who ride upon devilish, monstrous beasts, and wield powerful artifacts from lost ages they bring to bear against a city in a bid for greater power and security.
The truth is that every few generations one of the current Kings is murdered and overthrown by another who takes his or her place! Sometimes these usurpers take the name and title of their predescessor, other times they erase the history of their predecessor from existance through brutal "reeducation" campaigns forced on the populace, and the destruction or replacement of monuments and histories so that their reign and power do, in fact, seem eternal and unapproachable.
As such, the Sorcerer-Kings of today's cities are not the same kings they pretend at being. Each king is merely a wizard who has learned this terrible secret of the untouchable immortals, or who is simply gripped by delusions of grandeur and godhood, and is clever, powerful, and lucky.
But the secret and twisted history of the world goes even deeper, for the seven cities thought to be the greatest cities for time immemorial are not the only cities, are not the original cities, and are in fact built on the ruins of dozens of predescessors burned, destroyed, and buried in one of these world-shaking conflicts between wizard and king, abandoned to ruin when a Sorcerer-King, new or old, leads the survivors of such a conflict to a new oasis of life to start again, or to build a new city atop other ancient ruins not so recently defiled.
As well, some few wizards of power across history, rather than assaulting an existing bastion of safety and contending directly with another Sorcerer-King, find or rediscover a forgotten mine, spice, or trade good, and hold it with their armies, building either a new city entire or one atop long-forgotten ruins, crushing and dominating others to serve as both workforce and population for the new metropolis.
This is the game of wizards they have played for thousands of years at the expense of the populace of the world, for it is the price of magic: true safety comes only with thick walls and many slaves. New cities spring up and vanish. Sorcerer-Kings are invisibly overthrown in plain sight. Cities fall into ruin. The past is lost and buried, rewritten at the whim of vain, deceitful men.
The City-States
Balic: Surrounded by vast mudflats and the Sea of Silt slowly soaks up the water in the Estuaries.
Bodach: Sits on the eastern shore of a central sea; It's ruled by Albache-Re who will have to move to Raam years later when the sea dries up and the Sea of Silt moves in.
Draj: The dust bowl to the north is a vast mudflat.
Gulg: Is a small village as a resort for Lalia-Puy.
Kalidney: Sits next to a small sea.
Nibenay: Ruled by both Nibenay and Lalia-Puy as Sorcerer-King and Sorcerer-Queen. Nibenay sits on the shores of the great sea and they rule it as they have the largest navy(thanks to the Crescent Forest's lumber.
Raam: Called, "Ra'am". It's a village next to a vast oasis.
Tyr: The Tyr River runs around it's walls as a moat and flows to Altaruk;
Urik: Is the owner of the Lake Pit. They use it's water to irrigate fields.
One question about color. What color should represent each individual city-state?
While I've been trying to come up with unique icons for the City-States rather then color codes here's my recommendations.
Balic- White (WhitePalace)
Bodach- Blue (surrounded by water)
Draj- Gold (just something about Aztec sun worship)
Gulg- Green (hey it's the only forested city in the box set)
Kalidnay- Black (based on the description of the ziggurat, though that may be post Kalad-Ma)
Nibenay- Purple (spectral opposite of green)
Tyr- Gray (Steely Gray)
Urik- Yellow (Isn't that something like Hamannu's favorite color)
When you read that first boxed set and were given those little details about the SKs, what creative ideas did your mind churn out? Who or what did you think they might be? What sorts of wonderful, half-baked or fully-realized ideas sprang to mind about those mysterious entities?
Actually Greyorm, I like the Champions background. As far as alternate histories, I am working on a wholly different region for my group based on the little bits Sysane has added to his Sundered Regions game. There's some of his work I'm not in agreement with so I'm adjusting and twisting to my liking.
As for original material, I created my own world back in 1984 that lasted with some breaks ('92-'95 Dark Sun overload) until 1999 because I didn't care for any of the established worlds. In '99 people convinced me to go with Third Edition in Forgotten Realms, I adapted eventually.
For me, there were many more Champions than presented. Moreover, whenever a Champion defeated a race, if another race didn't currently have a Champion, the victorious Champion became the new Champion designated to kill that race. Thus, Lalali-Puy might be both Aarakockra Scourge AND Kuo-Toa Flayer, for example.
In my Athas, the timeline is significantly changed. There was a period of thousands of years during which the Cleansing Wars were conducted. The Age of Sorcerer-Kings has likewise lasted for tens of thousands of years (not merely a couple thousands). The Green Age lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, and the Blue Age for, really, billions of years, with the kreen and halflings present for hundreds of thousands of years.
Basically, the halflings existed for around 100,000 years as primitives, followed by tens of thousands of years building up their advanced civilization, followed by tens of thousands of years of decline after the Brown Tide. The kreen existed even longer, albiet with a much, much slower build up to civilization (they didn't become civilized until the Green Age).
There are whole regions of the world controlled by advanced beings almost as powerful as Borys. The entire reason the Tyr Region was settled by the Sorcerer-Monarchs is the Pristine Tower. Nothing else influenced their decision. In the end, Borys wanted quick and easy access to the Tower, and insisted that the other wardens of Rajaat's prison settle in the cities surrounding the tower, ensuring that any other civilizations or advanced beings would have to come through a region controlled by a Champion and his or her city-state to reach the Pristine Tower. The Tower is so incredibly technologically and, with later additions, magically and psionically advanced, that it simply cannot and must not fall in to anyone else's hands.
After the events of the Pentad, Tectuktitlay, killed merely though physical damage, was raised via a potent sacrificial ritual with literal rivers of blood spilled. Andropinus rules from the Black, actually very content and safe to be hidden in such a manner. I'll add more later.
Rajaat promised them he would make them very powerful, and indeed showed them powerful rituals to pull power from the elemental planes, which was the only planes this planet could get to easily, and share that with followers. Rajaat called this the first step to godhood. He also increased their arcane ability and knowledge. In return, though, he asked that they each pick a race and destroy them in his name.
In the middle of the Cleansing Wars, Borys managed to contact another [outer planar] entity. This entity told Borys that Rajaat would not be able to do as he promised. Rajaat had become quite powerful with all of the souls that they had sent him but he was still not a god and wouldn't be able to make them gods. (I haven't decided on who or what this entity was as I am waiting to see what the official history of the new 4E Dark Sun is and pick something from there.) Whether or not this was true, Borys believed it and gathered the other Champions to discuss it with them. They decided there deal with Rajaat was null and void and summoned him to tell him so. Rajaat disagreed and attacked them, trying to claim the SKs. They were able to fight him off but several died, consumed by Rajaat. The others were able to force him back.
The rest of the Champions (including at least Sielba and Kalid-ma as still being alive) knew they would have to hide and stop Rajaat from contacting others or they would be under attack. They gathered at the Pristine Tower and drew upon the power of the Sun to help them hide from Rajaat. They succeeded but at the cost of making the yellow sun, crimson red and causing chaos across the land. Magic was out of control and needed to be contained.
The Champions knew about how to evolve or change into a more powerful being. They decided that was needed to control the magic. Some were avagions but most had chosen the path of the dragon and since they knew that better it was decided to advance someone as far as they could to contain the magic. Borys was chosen as he was furthest along in his own progression, which was further than anyone else. The group of Champions worked a powerful spell and finished his transformation.
Borys spent his time trying to save the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the Champions gathered their cities as close as they could and worked rituals together to protect the areas where their cities were. (I haven't decided if Oronis, or any avangion, could join them or not and did his own working with some other help.) Borys did what he could to contain it but many parts of the world were destroyed. (I see this as stopping the whole world as looking like the Dead Lands so he did do a lot of 'good' in stopping the desctruction of the land.)
Then, for millenia, the SKs ruled the lands, with many kingdoms or other types of rule happening. During this time, others rose in power and wanted what the SKs had. In defending themselves, or in being attacked, the land was slowly destroyed by defiling magic. (I have it add more dice of damage as well as other powerful effects if defiling is used. Since most of the SKs chose the quick path of defiling for power, they retaliated in kind and of course destroyed the land.) The SKs tried different things over the millenia, including a period of kingdoms where they only ruled behind the scenes. Two kings worked and didn't try to usurp their SK masters but enough did try to take over such that after several centuries, this was given up and the SKs went back to ruling themselves. Some tried to call themselves gods or working for higher powers but most merely laid down the law and that was it.
It looked like things would be okay but then Borys, and some others, felt that Rajaat was looking for them and might find them soon. They immediately set about looking for a way to stop him. Unfortunately, Rajaat tricked them and the only way they could hide was by using defiling magic on such a huge scale as to destory the lands. They could give themselves up to Rajaat or fight him.
They obviously chose to fight him.
This destroyed the lands until they found a way to take it from people, which became the levy. But it still required the destructive nature of defiling. The SKs have not found a way around this. But at least they could survive and keep ruling as they wanted. The damage had been done, though, as they defiled the land to gain the energy needed to keep hidden from Rajaat.
Most of the time, the SKs are content to rule and try to do so as benevolently as they can. For some, that's not very benevolent. For others, it's not as bad. However, every time the levy is collected (I changed it to 1000 every year total, usually all from one city), they are reminded that Rajaat is out there looking for them to claim them as his own. All are willing to do whatever they can to avoid that.
The idea of the first campaign is that Rajaat found a crack and is able to contact the world again. Rajaat is trying to influence people to let him come claim the SKs but it will take a while. It's been millenia and Rajaat has the time to wait but the SKs will eventually be his.
That's the general idea I am using in my current game with these players. I have a long term idea on what I want to do with it and how the next couple of campaigns play out. Then, after doing my own thing for six to ten years, I usually reset it and come up with something else. I have switched to Dark Sun after having done this twice in FR. That's why I was so excited about the announcement of Dark Sun being the 2010 world and the next campaign I ran was this one in 4E.
turlough
I...am tiered.
I . . . don't get it.
I like the Champions background as well, but I'm not opposed to alternate ideas. This is actually derived from something I had been thinking of for 4e in general, but that defiling inspired me for originally, so it was sorta always involved with Dark Sun.
The world had become a utopia thanks to nanotechnology. Various excess materials would be broken down and reassembled into whatever was needed or wanted. The solar system eventually reached the point where it was hard to tell what was or wasn't part of the vast computer network that kept the place running. All matter in the solar system became a harddrive (elemental chaos), all empty space the RAM (astral sea) for a complex computer. The world resembled a fantasy paradise as people's imaginations shaped the world into their dreams.
As time went on though, this ability to shape the world according to one's whims led people to stop associating with each other, or even with the AI slave created to keep the system working. They started to go insane from self-imposed isolation. One AI (who had previously been exiled for fighting for equality between organic minds and AIs) realized that this lack of cooperation would eventually lead to all the spare matter and empty space in the system being used up as everyone (humanoid, AI, and everything inbetween) created more elaborate "paradises" (which had long since devolved into nightmares). The solar system would eventually be reduced to a mist of matter trapping all known minds in a slow running abyss.
This AI fought to take control of the entire system, wrestling control of the main CPU. It sought to create an objective reality, allowing people their own space but forcing them to face each other as equals. The AI knew that, given time, it's plans would succeed. But, then probes came. The AI knew that alien beings were coming. Given the way the probes corrupted the system, the AI believed that their alien masters were most likely to take over the entire system as a computer for their own ends, either enslaving or destroying the minds in it. The AIs in the harddrive (elementals) were corrupted into demons, the AIs in the RAM (Angels) were corrupted into devils.
In an attempt to wrestle more power to save the world, it took as much material as it thought it could spare at the moment, and tried to build a Dyson sphere around the sun. It tried to rush and bring its plan to fruition and to build a protective shell around the soal system, but there was no guarentee that the world would be a good one. Still, the risk was better than almost guarenteed extinction.
The AI forced people out of their shells, but it was broken into powerful and deranged fragments in the process. Each fragment tries to keep the world working, but doesn't fully realize what the other fragments are. In trying to keep the world working, the fragments are willing to take any measures necessary. The world was almost brought to how it was before it was taken over by nanotechnology, but it was harsher. People no longer lived forever. Wishes are hard and rarely granted. As generations passed, sanity was recovered and history was forgotten. The world was also broken into three sections, including the world as intended (the feywild), and a safety net meant to catch and preserve data that would otherwise be lost (the shadowfell).
Today, the extremely limited use of nanotechnology is known only to a few "wizards" that misunderstand it. Defiling is the wasteful use of nanotech, turning more complex matter into base components than is needed, and burning out a lot of the nanites in the process. Some of the AIs working in the world as intended sometimes contact people in the material plane to facilitate their goals. Those contacted are misunderstood, and don't completely understand their situations themselves, and are considered shamans, priests, and druids. Some people are capable of forcing the system to bend to their own will, either through strength of body (Martial power) or mind (Psionic power).
The only people who are aware of this are the Dragon and the Sorcerer Kings (all fragments of the liberating AI, attempting to restore themselves to their complete form), the Pyreen (a few individuals from the age of nanotech who have held on to some degree of power), and perhaps a few isolated wizards, shamans, and psions. The "aberrations" from "the far realms" are known to a few more people.
(In other settings, I'd introduce the divine power source as accessing the old main CPU, with really old AIs or "gods" facilitating access but not being required).
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Another idea along the lines of Greyorm's replacable SKs idea:
The Sorcerer Kings don't really exist. Well, not as the individuals that people know. A cabal of wizards and psions created the SKs to keep people from realizing who is really in control. They pick some fool, brainwash him, and set him up as a figurehead. "Kalak" of Tyr, like all the other sorcerer kings, has been killed time and time again, but only remains dead this time because this cabal was either prevented from replacing him with another "Kalak," or because they're up to something...
The Templars are the easiest choice for that cabal. But it's also just as easy to assume that they're another tool for the cabal.
Perhaps the Order is the cabal, and they're allowing Kalak to finally die as an experiment to test a hypothesis that revolution is a constant on Athas.
Perhaps the Veiled Alliance prevented the cabal from placing another Kalak on the throne... Or perhaps they are the Cabal. Maybe they are subjugating the people with the sorcerer-kings in a misguided attempt to get people to value their freedom, or to protect them from what lies in the wastes. Maybe the resistance aspect of the VA is nothing more than extremely common traitors, pretending to be the VA to draw away members from the actual VA. Maybe the VA tells its lower levels they're dedicated to fighting off the SKs to weed out those that would join the VA for gain from those that would serve the VA to the death. "Kalak" may finally be "dead" because they're attempting to move their plans to free people forward, or the resistance may be succeeding, or their program to find the most dedicated members is backfiring.
Maybe, the oppression of the SKs is an attempt by the cabal to create an ubermensch capable of destroying the SKs before leading the people to form a unified empire capable of taking back the planet, or protecting it from some coming threat.
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Maybe the gods do exist on Athas, and are quite interested and invested in its affairs. They're just evil and enjoy torturing everything under the Dark Sun. Abalach-Re might actually be telling the truth when she says that she's getting power from a god. Or perhaps she's only paying lip service to try and hide the fact that, like the other SKs, she's attempting to free the people from the gods. The templars were originally their priests, the sorcerer-kings their high priests, but then the SKs led a rebellion to try and free the world from the gods. Perhaps the elementals are unwitting (or willing) servants of the gods, and the higher ups in the Veiled Alliance are the priesthood of the malevolent gods of Athas.
Maybe Kalak wasn't trying to become a dragon for his own gain, but to help liberate people from Athas. Perhaps he was killed because the gods empowered Rikus, Neeva, Sadira, Agis, and Tithian. Perhaps the dragon's "levy" is not something to empower Borys, but the draconic transformation enabled him to take people to a better plane in limited amounts at limited times.
Athas was always terrible, almost the good gods were killed before its creation. So-called "defiling" might actually be a holy gift left by one of the older benevolent gods meant to undo the work of the current gods before he was killed.
Something like Rajaat (or whatever they are using the levy for) is going to destroy the planet and they are stopping it from doing so but at the cost of so many lives. Every time they have tried to tell someone the truth, no one believes them or it turns out worse, so they don't say.
Every once in a while, Rajaat, or whoever, gets something through and it defiles and destroys the land before the SKs can stop it. Arcane magic is the only thing that can hurt it, not psionic, so it has to be an arcane caster. Unfortunately, the common person distrusts magic and so kill any who start using it. What this means is that, with few exceptions through the years, only the SKs can stand against Rajaat's destruction but the price is high.
Just another idea.
turlough
-Going along the lines of "the SKs are fighting against the gods," maybe they succeeded, but the gods were actually good guys and the SKs were always evil. Abalach-Re's god actually did empower her at one point, but by teaching her arcane magic, not granting her divine power. Perhaps the divine power source still exists, ready to use, and is now actually quite easy to use since noone else is using it, but noone exists to ordain new users of that power. The draconic transformation is just the first step in a complex self-ordination, that would actually turn the sole divine power user into an actual god.
-Everyone on Athas has some psionic potential. Most individuals have nothing more than a defense mode. What if the world is a terrible place because of constantly functioning psionic defence modes making everyone miserable, everyone's weak psionic power warping the world to reflect a feeling of oppression. Again, the SKs don't really exist, they're just a figment of everyone's imagination as the collective consciousness tries to find some sort of explanation for why they all feel miserable.
-Athas is actually metal rich, but the SKs are hoarding it to build massive armories to equip a loyal army capable of wiping out the Kreen empire once an SK manages to develop a culture deathly loyal to him. With Kalak's death, it's only a matter of time (say, however long it takes for Gamma World to come out) before his collection of automatic rifles, rail guns, and body armor is discovered. The SKs are compelled to wipe out the kreen because Rajaat's original plan came from an ancient struggle between the two oldest races, halflings and kreen.
-The SKs aren't immortal, just long lived. But not as long lived as they claim, the idea they've been around for more than a few centuries is a lie to make them appear more powerful than they actually are. Most of them are just under a couple of centuries old. Drey, Nibenay, Borys are the only ones over 200, and Nibenay is the only one close to 250. The SKs are trying to become dragons to lengthen their lifespans, and possibly become truely immortal. This is why the Cleansing Wars weren't completely effective, and this is why the Kreen empire hasn't invaded as a preemptive strike just yet. Kalak died not because of Rikus's ability, but because he was too feeble and tired to properly fight him. There is some suspicion that Borys's levy means his transformation either is not complete, or did not work.
-The kreen are the oldest race, not the halflings. The halflings (and their descendants) were (and still are) an experiment that the Kreen empire watches. Outside of the table lands is actually quite pleasant, but those in it looking out are tricked by an illusion kreen psionicists created to hide the fact that the table lands are just a rat cage. Leaving the cage results in the psionic field poisoning one's mind so that it believes everything is worse than it actually is. The kreen that live in the table lands are descended from criminals that faced death or exile.
-The Dragon always existed. The idea that he was once a human named Borys is a lie created by the Veiled Alliance. The SKs are trying to become dragons not to compete with him, but to be more like the being they believe is their god.
-The SKs didn't rebel upon finding out about Rajaat's plot. The cleansing wars continue even today, with the city states as concentration camps in disguise.
-Kalak wasn't actually trying to become a dragon. He was attempting to summon Shub-Niggurath to restore the planet. ... He didn't fail.
Or I could go olde skool and just use a dot with a circle around it...I can draw the cities out as if you were looking that them three-D. Nibenay would be a square and Gulg would be an oval-circle.
I've got a few ideas.
On Athas, there's a portal to North Africa during the Roman times; the players find it and use it to send an army through that smashes through the Roman provinces of N.Africa. I thought of this so I could use my AD&D2e Campaign Guide to Rome. And I like Roman culture. There are a few differences: magic doesn't work. Any preservers or defilers are useless. Druid magic doesn't work as well. However, Elemental Magic and Psionics do work. And the portal is one way only. The players should be thrilled at the abundance of metal and the power they would have in the Roman World; being psychic and all.
Another idea I have to is that Borys soon realized that if a great calamity struck the Tyr-Region, he might loose his slaves and Rajaat could go free. So, he created another region of city-states and SKs in the Anattan region on the Eastern side of Ur-Draxa. It will be a region just like the Tyr-Region, except for a few differences, such as no Halflings, Thri-Kreen or Half-giants as per Vally of Dust and Fire. There are, however, SKs; they are not champions, but servants of the Dragon who have been rewarded with their own city. There won't be as many cities, as they can only exist in places that have access to water. The SKs, not all will be Dragons. Only one or two will be; loyal defilers to Borys. One will be Kaisharga and one will even be a Templar. I just have to make a map, thought, I don't agree with Brian's version as I don't see a Silt Basin, but river canyons on the Athas World Map. When I get a round to it...
This is a chance to be creative: to rewrite something -- whether you like it, whether you hate it.
So here's another idea I had on potential origin stories:
What no one realizes is that Athas is an ancient prison colony. All its inhabitants are the descendants of violent felon-magicians exiled from their paradise-like home dimension to an uninhabited nightmare wasteland.
Some of these prisoners went mad and turned feral, descended into barbarism and beyond, their descendants roam the deserts today as tribes of gith, as braxat, and others.
The bandit lords who would become the SKs saw what was happening and fought their way into power, cohering various bands of prisoners together into armies, using them to establish cities and civilization to hold back the chaos and madness of the wastelands, to avoid the degeneration of every prisoner into sub-human mutations.
But even they can't prevent it entirely: something in the air, or the sun, or in the magic blood of the people, or a mixture of all these. Things are born to people. Strange, sorcerous power and worse manifests in many -- more strongly in the things that haunt the desert.
The SKs keep the city-state populations terrorized and enslaved because, firstly, the SKs are violent felons and sociopaths, and secondly, rationalize it because they fear the savagery of their fellow prisoners if left to their own devices, of what would become of them -- for they are all the descendants of violent criminals, and that beast lurks just below the surface in the blood of every one of them. They see it in sick enjoyment of the gladitorial games, in the crime-ridden streets and the cruelty of their own templars, in the lies and power-grabs of "preservers", in the savage outlaw bands who roam the wastelands raiding, killing, and worse...
The city-states do not war upon each other, for long-ago, after nearly destroying one another and their populations with their armies in bids for dominance and control, the SKs signed a compact with one another to avoid war and keep the peace, carving out territory for each army and prison group. This compact is kept under heavy magical ward at the height of the Pristine Tower, and details the agreements and duties of each SK. What is written upon it, they are bound to through powerful magic, for none of them trust the others.
In the thousands of years since, they SKs reguarly form mercenary bands from the population, headed by their templars, to explore the deserts. Most do not return and their bones bleach in the black heat of the dark sun. Sometimes they come back with tales of lost cities and troves of treasure and magic in twisting crypts deep underground.
And so the question the SKs keep asking themselves is: if they were the first people to live here, if this dimension was unihabitated...where did all the ruins in the desert come from? What is this world?
And every so often, when not worried about the walls, about mutants, about wizard-usurpers not bound to the compact, their thoughts turn to what lies in the deep deserts beyond the boundaries of the territories of the compact, places they regard with absolute horror and fear...for the dragon comes from somewhere out there. A beast nearly as strong as they, whom they fight when it swoops down towards their territories and bear the scars to prove it, who seems to grow more powerful with each battle and bolder with every passing century. Where did it come from? And what is it...or WHO was it?
Is the sorcerer-king also the dragon? It would make sense. But what if he isn't? What if he's attempting to appease the dragon because it's his master? Or what if he's powerful enough that it's his pet?
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Sorry about that typo, added the second "R" to rules.
Over time, the effects of this "arcane magic" became apparent, and some of those who were taught defiling discovered that they could, with a bit of self-control, still perform the spells, but without the wanton destruction of the land, these "preservers" slowly built in number, and tried to teach more and more of their brothers and sisters in magic of their way -- only to be resisted and even become hunted by the defilers for their weakness, forced into hiding.
The original teachers of arcane magic, now the de-facto rulers of at least a dozen nations -- all that is left of civilization, slowly consolidated their power as they became increasingly aware of what magic is doing to the world, fortifying their capitol cities of Tyr, Urik, Balic, Raam, Nibenay, Gulg, Draj, Giustenal, Yaramuke, Kalidnay, Eldaaritch, Kurn, and others, they each had been indoctrinating their people to their whims. The effects of their prolonged and advanced use of magic began to become apparent on them, twisting their bodies into strange, reptilian abominations, while also granting them immortality. Transforming themselves with magic and psionics, to hide their true forms, each took the role that are now known as the Sorcerer-Kings.
As resources began to dwindle, different Sorcerer-Kings have gone to war, frequently with one of these creatures being slain, their city razed, and population enslaved.
After thousands of years, the Sorcerer-Kings have been at a standstill, perpetually protecting and defending their remaining city-states from the others, while always seeking ways to seize control of one of their peers' domains. The world is a barren wasteland, destroyed by irreverent magic use, and now in its "death throes", with no certainty as to how much longer it will survive. Recently, one of the Sorcerer-Kings has been slain by a group of escaped slaves, upsetting the balance of power that has lasted for millenia. What changes that event will cause on the world is unknown...
I am enjoying the thread, but...ummm...I guess I won't bother posting more of my own re-envisioning?
I did specifically say "Ones that don't involve the 2E setting histories and backgrounds and origin stories" because we've had variations on that stuff for ten years and I want to see what other people can come up with that isn't linked to all that, but I'm pretty easy going as long as you're being creative.
Phoenix, apologies, but what do you mean by "alternate rules"?
A bit rough but a cosmological view:
What happens when a prime world fails? It's cities carried to hell or the abyss. What happens to the remenants? They fall deep into the deepest etheral. Like driftwood on a beach chunks of various primes have gathered. The inherint magic that is common on most primes has died. The only magic available in an area is what was brought by the remnant land when it fell. Those who greedily use the magic exhast it and make the land completely magically inert and rob it of its last traces of elemental life.
This collection of orphan cities and lands that their Gods rejected, the Abyss could not grab, or the astroid missed is known as Athas. The people of this world cried out and remebered worlds of plenty, Gods who heard their prayers, green grass, and oceans of water. The people of this diftwood world warred against their new neighbors who had strange customs and beliefs. Most came to believe Athas is the world that their ancestors came from (truthfully some of it is just not much). Being deep in the dust bin of the etheral has had some effect on the flora and fauna. Psionics have become common within several generations of arriving on Athas. Because of the extreme comeprtion for resources and the expermentientaion of magic, and psionic influences of the world their has been a rapid evolution of many of the species.
Resources are scarce on Athas as it is dying and the entopopy of the multiverse is reclaiming the last remenants of magical or material touched by positive energy. The inhabitants of Athas when they die also get broken down into the raw potential of the deep etheral. Eventually their spirts become the raw material of the etherial plane. Some day the sky will darken and there will be nothing but dross silt and dust.
Early in Athas's history warlords in their grasp for resources fought among themselves. They fought primarily for resources and out of the strangeness of the situation. Powerful warlords banded together and gained control of several settlements and ancient artifacts. An uneasy truce was called when a vast area of the known world of Athas died in one of the epic battles turing many to undead monsters and draining the life out of the rest of the combatants and blackening the area in black life stealing obsidian. The warlords elected one of their own and he became a tax collector of raw life and resources. He would do powerful and dark rituals with these materials to infuse the world with some life to maintain the status quo.
In my setting the story goes as this:
Athas was once a verdant and prospering world (I won't bother with details here) not different from your average high fantasy world: picture a land of vast meadows, huge floating earthmotes, fantastic vistas and stuff like colossal crystals protuding from the ground.
However, magic didn't exist properly, and psionics didn't exist at all. All magic that could be used was ritual magic and in order to channel the energy needed to unleash said rituals (creatively called "mana"), you needed to be in the vicinity of said crystals.
The world was ruled by a chaste called the Ascendants; such beings were also called the Dragontouched. In this world, dragons as a race didn't exist; dracons were a form of evolution. At some point, any creature from any race could develop "marks" that would hint at them beginning the evolution towards dragonhood. The change would be subtle at first, but marked by the capability of channelling crystal magic and performing rituals (all magic was performed by Dragontouched). Over time, the change would speed up in unpredictable ways. Most Ascendants wouldn't reach true dragonform before death. A few ones would eventually turn into full fledged dragons (the classic D&D creature), but such transformation would strip them of their rationality and turn them into cunning, wise but destructive beings in most cases. As such, the Draken (that was the name given to those who would turn into "classic dragons") would be hunted and killed (not without effort and risk) by other Ascendants.
Even without reaching Draken status, the Ascendants acquired characteristics that allowed them to easily rule all other races; not only the control of magic, but picture a "stage seven orc Ascendant" as a 7 ft tall, 35 strenght superbeing with horns and scaly skin.
At some point, a small group of advanced Ascendants started to research a more powerful, more flexible form of magic. They foundt that they could tap into the crystal resources (which rooted deep to the core of the planet) by channelling mana through the soil, and plants, and with greater effort through all living beings. Their first efforts weren't strong enough to show the real, devastating effects this had on the plantlife and soil fertility, but even when they started noticing that, something else had caught their full attention.
They foundt that channelling mana altered their draconic transformation: their transformation became more monstrous and more alien, but also much more powerful. They felt that while natural evolution could lead them to become Draken, "defilying" could turn them into "gods", or Dragons.
The iconic D&D spellcasting was born.
While their councils discussed the consequences of these actions, the most powerful of the Ascendant begun an arms race to avoid being left behind in the power curve. Devastating defilying began; Ascendants would scour their domains for power sources and crystal to speed up their transformation. A war erupted, and amist the chaos, one of the most powerful ones (I may make him small, deformed and call him Rajaat if I feel like) foundt that he was gifted with the capability to channel to levels greater than what his fellow dragontouched could. And so he did - he began absorbing so much mana energy that cataclysmic events followed, something that would shape Athas into a desertic form not far from what it is now. Most of the planet was desertified; entire communities were either killed by the channelling or left to die by finding themselves isolated with nothing but sand for miles and miles.
At some point, he channelled so much energy that the crystal core and the veins and formations simply exploded: earthquakes and further desertification happened, and magic was unleashed into the world.
The Ascendant however did reach "godhood", and he was unleashed into the world. The other, surviving Ascendants tried to fight him but to little avail. Out of fear or pure awe, many sided with the Ascended Dragon and war on the land became a cosmic conflict. They decided their only chance was to have one of them attempt the same process the first Ascended went through, and so one of them went and reached godhood too, by absorbing much of the magic energy that now permeated the air and soil (add further devastation here).
The new Ascended was less powerful than the first, but with the help of the surviving Ascendants they managed to push the Dragon into the planet's core and trap him there. The Dragon was slain, but soon the Ascendants saw that such being could never actually die. Powerful ritual magic was summoned to hold him prisoner, and he was ever since trapped there.
Meanwhile, many Ascendants tried to fasten their evolution, and most of them failed it, and became maddened Draken. They started to fight back on the Council and foundt safety in the various corners of the world.
However, the second Dragon soon started to show sympthoms of madness, and in order to stop him, one of the surviving Ascendants had to undergo partial transformation (here's Borys) to go and stop him. In a moment of sanity, the Dragon told Borys blood was the key, and he cut his own veins open. The council of Ascendants collected the blood and the second Dragon died.
The Dragon's blood was similar to molten metal, and the council forged weapons out of it, and scattered them through the world.
The war had left Athas in a chaotic state: the world was almost completely turned into a desert, entire raced had been erased from its surface, and in general the population had been reduced to 1/10th of what it was before. The Ascendants themselves were cut to a few dozens. More importantly, many mortals started to develop talents for magic, now that it wasn't confined into crystals anymore. And the new generations displayed a form of innate mutation that amplified their mental powers (psionics). The world had become an harsh place, and mortals were evolving to defend themselves from it.
A group of Ascendants realized soon the mortal races would have the power to fight back; but the Council refused to bring further destruction to the planet. They had discovered ways to access magic without having to destroy life further, and planned on setting back on those and renounce to draconic ascention.
So the rebellious group turned to Borys, whose mind was obsessed with keeping the First Dragon in place but who was also fighting the craving for more power his partial transformation had started. Together, they turned onto the council, and through new defilying destroyed it. This last, secret war left only a few Ascendants alive, and no witnesses. The world had returned to a primitive stage; soon all those who knew the real story died, and through superstition and their tremendous powers, the self proclaimed Sorcerer Kings implanted themselves as the rulers of the survivors. They settled for a small region in the southern part of the planet, because most of the rest of the land was still scoured by the Draken who fled during the First Dragon's war, and they didn't felt ready to fight so many of them. They took charge of the mortal beings living there, and forgot (for the present) about the rest of the planet.
And here you have it. It's not much different from the "original story", which is a limit but also a strength, because it should allow me to use most of the future and past fluff: I can easily adapt any Rajaat plotline to my First Dragon, I have Borys and a reason for the levy, I have an explanation for defilying and psionics, I can use (sparsely) classic dragons without breaking the setting, I can use the Rajaat made swords (my players loved them) and I have an explanation for SK that justifies their power. It's a very dragon-centric take on Athas, but I sort of like it.
And I can also use the plot to give a new spin to the SK theme. At the beginning of the game, rumors come from the north that a kingdom is forming, led by someone who calls himself the "God Emperor" who's uniting the people there and who, apparently, is a Dragon slayer... whatever dragons are supposed to be. For all the people of the tableland know, there's ONE dragon and he's unkillable. As the armies of the God Emperor march south, the SK will need to find ways to fight back, and players will need to decide their allegiance. I plan on giving the heroic tier a classic DS spin, and then turn the tables around at paragon by having something even more brutal and barbaric bring an invasion war to the City States, and put the SKs under a stress test.
Rajaat set about creating a way to bring about the coming of a new Blue Age. Despite his tremendous mastery of the Age’s powers, psionics could not accomplish what he desired, and primal came with a pact one had to respect. He needed a power that had no limits, with which he could effect the entire world. Hundreds of years of study and experimentation brought him to magic, consisting of the conversion of the very life force of the world into potential for application.
Even though this new power promised to deliver on all counts, it was the worse abomination he could imagine: robbing the world of its life force, it accomplished the reverse of what he wanted – removing all Rebirth corruption upon its face, handing it back in its restored former state to its rightful owners. The road to restoration would be made even more difficult had the world first to be destroyed to achieve it, but now achieving it was one step closer with power at hand.
Loathing his new power but recognizing its great potential as a many-faceted tool, he came out to the world and announced to the Rebirth races the discovery of magic: one new great art, the greatest of all, one that requires no pact, no pre-existing Will, only the willingness and thirst for power to take it and master it for one’s own need. As the Rebirth races mastered the art, its automatic defiling side-effects followed. But the world was vibrant with life, they told themselves, and their despoiling could not possibly bring it to ruin. Magic was indeed a many-faceted tool, thought Rajaat, for as it served him it also served his grander purpose by bringing the world to slow desolation, and dying Rebirth races, unable to feed themselves in a dying world, would be that easier to eliminate, and by that time he would have enough power to undo the Rebirth and bring about a new Age.
A millenium and a half passed while Rajaat studied magic and its interaction with the Rebirth races, trying to understand how to increase his own power. To his dismay a new philosophy called preserving rose among the races, threatening to undo his purpose. If the races were allowed to use magic without an ever increasing cost to their environment, then they would only become stronger for it and their place in this Age secured beyond Rajaat’s ability to disloge them. He came out to the world a second time, declaring preserving an abomination to be eradicated. Having found humans to be the most apt of the Rebirth races to wield magic, he concentrated his vindications on them, turning them to his cause. First he stoped teaching magic to the other races, only allowing humans as his new students. To these few he taught secrets of magic no one had found in the eon since his first teachings. These defiler warlords became the leaders of great hosts that rose to eradicate the preservers, and war raged for another eon, playing two-fold towards Rajaat’s goals: weakening the Rebirth races through wars and the destruction of their environment.
As the geopolitics of the Age worsened, the declining situation presented itself as the missing element Rajaat finaly needed for his goal of leading the world into the future. He would build upon the wars he had fomented, coopting the great armies and the bloodhaze they created, to further his goal. For the last time Rajaat came out to adress the people, but he adressed only the humans. Playing on their power lust and the sense of importance they had cast upon themselves due to their privileged role in past wars against the preservers, he turned them against the other races, declaring all creations of the Rebirth unclean, inferior, but for themselves. He applied the vast knowledge he had amassed over the eons and turned a select few humans – some new students, some surviving defiler warlords long ago made immortal by Rajaat – into Champions, starting them along a path to power that would lead them to a grandiose transmogrification. Having created unstoppable magic-wielding warriors that usher the world to destruction with the magic they and their armies wield for a holy cause, he unleashed them upon the world.
Those are all some wicked ideas, Ian. In regards to the AI/Dyson sphere: have you seen that write-up of Athas' history someone did for Alternity (IIRC)?
Thanks. Some of them were playing off of some of your ideas, so pat yourself on the back as well. My experiance with Alternity is pretty much just flipping through the main book a little at the LGS, and thinking "it'd be fun, but my group (broke college students) already has d20 future." I'm guessing the DS write up was similar?
Dyson Sphere's have to have their orbits maintained; over millions of years, slight orbital perturbations from outer planets; such as gas-giants or the rare passing of a nearby star, will tug the sphere: possibily, over millions of years, causing the center star to no longer be at the center but closer to one area until the star crashed into it. It would eventually burn a hole through it and exit. Although the Sphere probably will have enough gravity to hold on to it's atmosphere, it would freeze in darkness until even all the component gasses froze. Then, a run-away Dyson Sphere would cause havoc on the rest of the system; Jupiter-size planets would either get ejected or crash into the sphere.
Athas. In the ancient language, it means "cursed." That is what Athas is, a cursed broken forgotten rock at the age of space. How did it come to be cursed? Where did the beings known as the Sorcerer Kings come from? The answer to that question lies not under the sifting sands of Athas, but on one of her moons. Athas was once a verdant plant, a peaceful land where the powers of the mind and the knowledge of nature allowed the people to prosper. However, war would one day come to the planet, and it would be renamed Athas, its people cursed forever.
From the stars they came, on great ships. Some sought the power of the mind that the people had. These people, who came to be known as peacebringers because of the truces negotiated with the people of the one day Athas. For a thousand years they learned the powers of the Will and the Way, and also learned the how to speak with the Spirits that lived within the land. One day, their enemies came, and rained down from the sky lies a plague.
The Sky Lords cared only for the destruction of the peacebringers, for they were ancient enemies. The Sky Lords came on twisted vessels, build from the corpses of a thousand worlds, come to destroy the last remnant. Their magic, arcane in nature, took its power from the life force of those around them. When they arrived, they began their invasion with their traditional announcement of their presence: they drained the sun of power, and turned it into the red orb it is today.
The Wars were terrible, and the battles bitter and fierce. The Sky Lords, in the end, were victorious. Their victory came with a price: their ships were destroyed and their numbers greatly reduced. They had ravaged the world and only a small few remained. Those few remaining Sky Lords wrestled control of the cities close to their invasion site. This site was the anchor point for their most powerful weapon in their campaign: The Dragon. Its voracious hunger consumes it, and it stalks the wastes defiling and devouring all in its path. Given enough power, this weapon could be the key to the Sky Lords release and so year after year they feed their pet.
The Peacebringers remain, scattered across the land in hiding. They hate the Sky Lords, now the Sorcerer Kings, and seek to undo the damage that they have done. They hate the Dragon most of all, and seek its destruction.
While the number of Peacebringers planet-side remain small, those on the Moon of Ral are numerous, and they are charged with keeping the Sky Lords grounded. Sylk Worms travel back and forth, relaying messages and informing the Army of Ral of the happenings in the Tablelands. The Peacebringers are prepared to destroy the system, should the Dragon change further and become the terrible transport that it could be.
Athas lives up to its name. It is cursed
What if Athas was flat, or at least not a planet per se, and existed as a protected area in the elemental Chaos? What if someone resents it being there, instead of on the Prime plane, and has cults and works to destroy it?
What if the god/primordial war was still happening but not "near" Athas? So, the reason that there is no divine power source is because the war hasn't been decided yet.
What if Athas was abandoned by the gods to see if mortals needed them? Given how mortals treated the world, some gods use it as sign they are needed. Others say it is humans that are flawed, compared to what the kreen or other races have done.
What if there is some powerful artifact(s) still out there and it's what has caused the destruction? (Thinking of Exalted again and the South and how there is a flying machine that is on its own.) It's also why the dragon was created, to stop the artifact. However, in their fights, it's been a draw and destroyed the world. In this case, he didn't rage for a hundred years but fought the artifact but is blamed for all of the destruction.
What if, as a variant of the prison planet, Athas was where the gods/primordials experimented and left everything here, taking what they wanted to another world? They create a new variant, drop it in and see how it does for a while and then decide if they want it elsewhere. Again, assuming magic is based on life and plants, it could be that every once in a while, something loses control but the gods/primordials don't care?
That's all I got at the moment.
turlough
Now, what if the ships weren't so much destroyed as built over? So every city is the ship of a Sky Lord, and it's chambers and tunnels run deep down beneath it, full of monsters and traps and lost Sky Lord "technology" etc?
Turlough, the whole "flat plane drifting the Elemental Chaos" is a very neat idea.
I've always played with the idea that maybe the size of Athas wasn't because that was only part of it, but maybe that's all there was. Literally. And who knows what lay beyond that? (I'm thinking of the Elric books, if you've read them, and how unshaped Chaos reigned at the edges of the world.)
The Dragon fighting a powerful, destructive artifact is a fairly neat idea as well.
Here's one for you...
Athas. In the ancient language, it means "cursed." ...
Athas lives up to its name. It is cursed
Good stuff! I like it!
My idea of the players going to Ancient Rome: As soon as the players come in contact with priests of Roman Gods, they find themselves somewhat cursed as the Roman Gods don't like what the Primordials did to their Gods. They do get a bonus for saving throws from Roman Clerical magic.
Blue Age.
The Haflings develop Life engineering and create the "Guardian" (of Athas) Matrix to increase the productivity of the oceans.
Due to an systemic error the Virus "Rebirth" is created, which slowly erases the Guardian Matrix and threatens to destroy the Haflings. Uncontrollable and unpredictable the Rebirth Virus infects most of the living beings changing them, thus creating humans, dwarfs, elves and the other races.
Rebirth
It's not possible to approach the Control/Energy Panel "Pristine Tower" to activate the "Rajaat" protocol because of the mutating radioactive energies from the Rebirth virus. While the "Guardian" Matrix is slowly consumed by the Virus the world mutates and changes to an abomination.
Cleansing
In an desperate attempt to save the World, the Hafling Alar Ch'Aranol and some of his best engineers undergo the Pyreen process which, if successfull, grants them an immunity to the Rebirth virus and it's mutating effects. They become shape changers. Alar Ch'Aranol launches the Rajaat protocol. Though it stops the deadly MUD which consumes Athas and is able to cleanse the Guardian Matrix from the Rebirth Virus it cannot be finished. The Rajaat Protocol was severely damaged by the Rebirth virus and is only capable to stop the process and not to repair the damage done to the Guardian Matrix. It also succeeds to cleanse the world of half the inhabitants infected by the Rebirth Virus before it is destroyed.
However, the corrupted Rajaat files, named Champions, emerge from the Pristine Tower, with a new conscience, they begin to explore the World and claim it as their own.
At this point the surviving Races of the Cleansing (dwarves, evles and some others) face an barren world, harsh and brutal.
Age of the Sorcerer Kings
The failure of the Rajaat Protocol triggered the self destruction sequence "Kreen Empire" in the facilities far to the west. It shall destroy every living being and the Guardian Matrix before it can mutate to an impure abomination.
Alar Ch'Aranol summons his other Hafling scientist and orders them to use the "Shadow Giant" suits to enter the Black, where an Backup of the Rajaat protocol is stored. They immediately begin to reprogram and improve the Backup. However, the advanced and corrupted Champion files sense the danger and aware that they too will be erased, improve one of their own to an DragonKing Guardian so he might seal the Black, preventing the Rajaat 2.0 Protocol.
Alar Ch'Aranol aware of the coming "Kreen Empire" sequence, does everything in his might to erase the champion Files so the Rajaat 2.0 Protocol might finally be launched. Though it will cleanse Athas from all those infected with the Rebirth Virus (everyone except Haflings, that is), it will also restore the damaged Guradian Matrix, whichs only way of defense are the "Spirit" Wardens (Programs responsible for the safety of athas vital parts).