I hope to make this thread as a way to for people to share their own version of Athas to the community. I suggest construct criticism be kept to PMs, but once a thread is made it's not really my right to dictate the rules.
Have fun! ^_^
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As for my own setting. I've taken the 4e Campaign Guide (started DnD during 3.5e and didn't really know anything of Athas till I heard whispers of this amazing setting when Wizards announced their own setting per year policy.). From there I've done a little research and taken bits and pieces of the Points of Light Setting and 2e's history to forge a world I thought would be most interesting to my player characters.
Included notables are...
Arcane magic originates from the Feywild, abuse of Arcane magic destroyed the Land Within the Wind, and contributed to making the Grey as large and overpowering as it is. The Mortal Realm has multiple worlds, Athas was orginally dominated by the halflings, but the other races existed as creations of the gods before the end of the Dawn War, rather than being lifeshaped halflings and more arrived from other planets (who've suffered worse fates than Athas). The Blue Age ended because of conflict between the Primal Halflings and the Psionic Halflings (who's legacy is the Shaper Feature from Psionic Power, and a custom Lifeshaper Epic Destiny). There are also Shardminds, Wilden and Deva.... they live on the moons. Deva can't be killed, so when the Sorcerer-King's cleansed the Deva they just continued to kill them until they stopped reincarnating on Athas. Oh, and Warforged are being created in Tyr as a substitute for slaves.
If people are interested I'll post a full write up, but it's late for me and I'm heading to bed.
Have fun!
What is the true history of Athas in your games? Do you go by the vague hints of things in the first 2e box? The revised edition? Put it together from the novels? Put it together from the 4e game? Or borrow a little of each.
I hope to make this thread as a way to for people to share their own version of Athas to the community. I suggest construct criticism be kept to PMs, but once a thread is made it's not really my right to dictate the rules.
Have fun! ^_^
___________________________________________________________
As for my own setting. I've taken the 4e Campaign Guide (started DnD during 3.5e and didn't really know anything of Athas till I heard whispers of this amazing setting when Wizards announced their own setting per year policy.). From there I've done a little research and taken bits and pieces of the Points of Light Setting and 2e's history to forge a world I thought would be most interesting to my player characters.
Included notables are...
Arcane magic originates from the Feywild, abuse of Arcane magic destroyed the Land Within the Wind, and contributed to making the Grey as large and overpowering as it is. The Mortal Realm has multiple worlds, Athas was orginally dominated by the halflings, but the other races existed as creations of the gods before the end of the Dawn War, rather than being lifeshaped halflings and more arrived from other planets (who've suffered worse fates than Athas). The Blue Age ended because of conflict between the Primal Halflings and the Psionic Halflings (who's legacy is the Shaper Feature from Psionic Power, and a custom Lifeshaper Epic Destiny). There are also Shardminds, Wilden and Deva.... they live on the moons. Deva can't be killed, so when the Sorcerer-King's cleansed the Deva they just continued to kill them until they stopped reincarnating on Athas. Oh, and Warforged are being created in Tyr as a substitute for slaves.
If people are interested I'll post a full write up, but it's late for me and I'm heading to bed.
Have fun!
I will start running my 4e DS with the Freedom adventure (original 2nd ed adventure). I am doing this specifically because it ties the PC's better to the history of DS without just starting off with a generic dungeon or outdoor adventure.
I have yet to discover where the DSCG would differ from the old adventures. I hope it does not do so in a major way in any case.
Not really what I asked, but okay. x3
Well, what I meant was that I am basically going with the 2nd ed information, and doing only a bit of extra work to get in the needed extra "4e DS" elements.
History for me is as it was envisioned in 2nd ed. I can't actually recall it so well anymore, but I will read more when I get a chance.
Not really what I asked, but okay. x3
Well, what I meant was that I am basically going with the 2nd ed information, and doing only a bit of extra work to get in the needed extra "4e DS" elements.
History for me is as it was envisioned in 2nd ed. I can't actually recall it so well anymore, but I will read more when I get a chance.
Ah. Well some background details have changed. (Noteably including that there were Gods on Athas and the reason Athas is stuck in sucksville is because they were all defeated or imprisoned by the primodials, whom took the plane closer to the astral sea, causing elemental influx that makes worshiping the elements seem like a good ideal to some, in addition to the whole defiling thing). So I don't think it's some much extra elements as reimagined elements.
Thanks for the input. Good luck with the game.
Not really what I asked, but okay. x3
Well, what I meant was that I am basically going with the 2nd ed information, and doing only a bit of extra work to get in the needed extra "4e DS" elements.
History for me is as it was envisioned in 2nd ed. I can't actually recall it so well anymore, but I will read more when I get a chance.
Ah. Well some background details have changed. (Noteably including that there were Gods on Athas and the reason Athas is stuck in sucksville is because they were all defeated or imprisoned by the primodials, whom took the plane closer to the astral sea, causing elemental influx that makes worshiping the elements seem like a good ideal to some, in addition to the whole defiling thing). So I don't think it's some much extra elements as reimagined elements.
Thanks for the input. Good luck with the game.
To me, for the present situation in DS, it is does not matter for rules point of view if there WERE gods, if they don't exist now. Sure, at epic levels you might run an adventure that lets the PC's discover if there were gods or not.
The best part is that if you don't reveal if the gods existed or not, the players (and thus PC's) will be in a situation similar to our own - some think there are gods, some don't, others have not decided.
Some of the things that are worshiped are false gods, some non-existent, some could be sorcerer kings etc.
Best not to declare in the beginning that there are no gods. Better to declare that divine characters are not allowed (if you go that way) and the reason is that there is no concrete response to prayers and such, so the classes would not work in the game as intended.
You might even have a "reawakened" god later in the game or some god from another world that makes an appearance.
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
I'm going to avoid establishing any particular true history, but will hint at different things and go where my players have the best reactions.
Thinking along those lines, if I were a player, I would want more explanation to explain Devas. Why are their souls so special and immune to being snared by the gray. With no divine power, their souls would be identical to other souls (unless your gods are caged and this is what little they can do in their state). Of course, if you and your players don't care about this question, then it's irrelevant.
Very creative idea, btw.
The fate of the Dire Itens is unknown, all SKs claim they don't have them, but all of them is suspicious of one another. There is no open war between the city states because of that suspicion:
"What if that crazy abalach-re holds a dire iten and use its godly powers agains't us? keep the guerrila, though, we must show that we might have one as well!"
The Spear that killed Kalak was a Dire Iten, so no other SKs attack Tyr because such iten might still be around.
During the Cleansing Wars, there were more champions around, though not Rajaat's. Those champions were of the races being wiped. A secret society, that in the future will sire the Veiled Alliance, approached the races being 'cleansed' and such races appointed respective champions, this non-rajaat champions were called Crusaders.
This secret society gathered the crusaders and made them Pyreen (epic level and such). The Crusaders opposed the Champions directly and not a single one prevailed.
Some were killed, other imprisoned and some were banished.
Defeating Rajaat's Champions wasn't the intent of the Crusaders. Saving its race from extinction was the true intention. Some Crusaders were succesful, and thanks to them their races are still around.
It was this secret society that warned the Champions about Rajaat's godly murder and the complete genocide he was planning to start using the Dire Itens.
For whatever reason, the sun began changing and the halflings had to work to repair it, but it only made it worse.
huh? I thought the original (and young) blue sun changed color because the halfling biomancers drew lots of solar energy (via the Pristine Tower) to beat back the Brown Tide. Which resulted in the Green Age (and modern races). And then Rajaat rose to power, started the Cleansing Wars with his fellow defiling Champions. Then the Champions used the PT to make Borys into the Dragon, which changed the sun to its present color.
Or is that all revised edition lore?
For whatever reason, the sun began changing and the halflings had to work to repair it, but it only made it worse.
huh? I thought the original (and young) blue sun changed color because the halfling biomancers drew lots of solar energy (via the Pristine Tower) to beat back the Brown Tide. Which resulted in the Green Age (and modern races). And then Rajaat rose to power, started the Cleansing Wars with his fellow defiling Champions. Then the Champions used the PT to make Borys into the Dragon, which changed the sun to its present color.
Or is that all revised edition lore?
This discussion is highly off topic.
This discussion is highly off topic.
It's a valid question because he said it like it was fact. So I was confused.
Why, was he just making it up for the thread?
This discussion is highly off topic.
It's a valid question because he said it like it was fact. So I was confused.
Why, was he just making it up for the thread?
There are private messages for a reason
For whatever reason, the sun began changing and the halflings had to work to repair it, but it only made it worse.
huh? I thought the original (and young) blue sun changed color because the halfling biomancers drew lots of solar energy (via the Pristine Tower) to beat back the Brown Tide. Which resulted in the Green Age (and modern races). And then Rajaat rose to power, started the Cleansing Wars with his fellow defiling Champions. Then the Champions used the PT to make Borys into the Dragon, which changed the sun to its present color.
Or is that all revised edition lore?
That would fill a gap in my memory of the lore. It's been a while. I just remember that the sun was blue, it changed, the halflings tried to fix it, they couldn't, and Rajaat's champions made it even worse with defiling magic.
There are private messages for a reason
And there are thread posts for a reason. He had a question, that's all. I understand it's Your thread but relax. No one is trying to hijack it from you and you're not a moderator. You don't need to slap peoples' wrists if they're not talking about Exactly What You Want Them to Talk About.
Anyway, I mostly ignore the revised edition's stuff but use the generic history in the 4e Campaign Setting as a basis: powerful evil sorcerer leads a war, not necessarily a genocide against non-humans, to fuel his defiling magic and it ends the Green Age bringing in the Red Age, until his Champions betray him and begin the Desert Age. Any specifics for what my Green Age may have been are irrelevant to the setting now because it's a couple thousand years into the past. History is largely unknown so people on Athas don't care so neither do I. If my PCs learn anything then the generic history I just said would be more than anyone else on Athas knows (that isn't a SK or a Mind Lord)
Now first things first, I started playing/DMing (they came at about the same time, as I started with a starter set and some friends, and was elected the DM) around late 3.5 era. Eberron was my first real campaign setting, and warforged have always been one of my favourite races. As a result, I rather felt the need to integrate them into Dark Sun in some way.
In my Dark Sun, Warforged are more or less the same race as Shardminds and Wilden. Basically, all 3 are a different form of a rare occurence - for some reason, magic begins to sort of pool in one spot and over time gains a touch of sentience. Eventually this magical entity gains form by creating a shape for itself out of whatever elements have an affinity for that form of magic. If the magic "pool" is primal in nature, it takes form through wood and plant and such things and becomes a Wilden. If this magic is psionic in nature, it filters through crystals and becomes a shardmind. And arcane magic, rare as it is, finds pices and shards of bone, stone, or metal in order to form a golem humanoid creature.
Now obviously this doesnt do much more than give me an excuse to use the Warforged stat block in the world - this history doesn't match the Eberron fluff at all, these creatures probably look a fair bit different from the typical warforged (except maybe the metal ones, but I would most likely limit PCs to being bone or stone, as even if someone other than a sorceror-king managed to actually obtain enough metal for such an undertaking, it would not last long outside of that same beings protection due to every creature around trying to take it down and steal its iron parts, meaning a metal warforged would be 9/10 chance of being some form of Sorceror King guard or such), and really even the name doesnt work (no forging involved. I would likely just refer to them as Golems or somrthing), but it's what I thought worked well.
Consequently, I think the divine equivalent would most likey be the Devas, but due to the lack of gods, the Devas are now extinct
And perhaps Genasi would be the Elemental power source's equivelent, Im not sure.
Which is too bad, because devas make good psions...
Therefore each deva is the last remainder of a spark of the divine in Athas. As such, they could, possibly, wield divine power (though themselves, ironically), but not completely understand it.
That's just a possibility, though, for both Divine and for deva. can't claim originality on it, though, since I seem to remember seeing on the boards somewhere...
- Mind FLayers tried to put out the Sun
- They screwed right up, sun was going nova, gods tried to sotp it, got kileld/blasted form Athas, Astral links severed by all this
- Psionics being common came form mind flayers, who needed power for their "sun darkening" attmept, so over thousands of years they gifted creatures with spionics, and harvested a fraciton fo this potential over millenia
- Defiling came about by folk mixing psionics with arcane magic and being evil (perhaps inspired by demons who's goal is absolute destruction)
- Athas is vastly ancient, maybe millions of years of civilizations
- The mind flayers gift of psioncis helped trigger vast wars or, they illithids wanted the wars for more use of psioncis so more power, those wars and defiling did the damage as well as the sun nealry going nova
- The Deifler Wars gave birth to So-Uts and other "living weapons", weapons of a scorched earth policy, to destory enemy civilizations, hence so-uts attack metal and buildings, the buildign blocks of civilization, hence, no metals or buildings, no enemy civilization.
- Defiling, the "warped" sun, unfettered psioncis etc all created mutations. Athas, IMHO, is a world of mutations (see the original boxed set on this issue)
my 2 cents
The beauty of dark sun is not really knowing what happened. A good story does not tell you all the answers at the beginning. Not have much information in the books means that the mystery for the players still remains. Is there anything they can do to change the fortunes of Athos, or is it a lost cause? I for one am playing on the mystery and that death lurks around every corner. At low level players should be more worried about surviving than past history. SO there is plenty of time at higher levels for the great reveal, you can only do it once why waste it.
The beauty of dark sun is not really knowing what happened. A good story does not tell you all the answers at the beginning. Not have much information in the books means that the mystery for the players still remains. Is there anything they can do to change the fortunes of Athos, or is it a lost cause? I for one am playing on the mystery and that death lurks around every corner. At low level players should be more worried about surviving than past history. SO there is plenty of time at higher levels for the great reveal, you can only do it once why waste it.
My strategy is different. Slowly reveal the current situation over Heroic Tier, exile the players to the desert for Paragon (People who know too much become a threat), change the world in epic.