Similarly, is there more info on the Dead Lands? I'm trying to grok it; would "Athas' Mournland", to draw a connection to a setting I'm much better-versed in, be an apt description for its narrative purpose?
The Dead Lands' (off map) direction is also indicated on the map.
My belief is they reserved those cities and places for later big DDI articles, giving the authors easy targets to give stellar treatments on.
Not that it matters; it only mentions the name, and that it's far away.
I suppose I don't really need info on them; I can detail them if I want, and if not, there could possibly be some articles, et cetera.
As for the Dead Lands, I know WHERE they are; I'm asking WHAT they're for, narratively speaking. Are they the 'harsh magical wasteland with mysteries and ruins'? I mean, I suppose that covers all of Athas, but you catch my meaning.
As for the Dead Lands, I know WHERE they are; I'm asking WHAT they're for, narratively speaking. Are they the 'harsh magical wasteland with mysteries and ruins'? I mean, I suppose that covers all of Athas, but you catch my meaning.
The Dead Lands can be used for the source of some undead, both mindless and intelligent. The Obsidian Citadel is said to contain a creature raising an undead army to lead into the Tablelands. There are two areas of interest, Small Home and City of a Thousand Dead. Small Home is the ruins of a former gnome village. City of a Thousand Dead was once a huge metropolis humans and humanoids that was razed by Rajaat and now stands as a ruined city of obsidian.
In game terms I would treat the area as Dead Magic (DSCC 135) in its entirety with the occasional spots of Sickening Heat (DSCC 135) and Black Sand (DSCC 134). I would even insert some areas of Defiled Plain (DSCC 142). This could make any adventures in this area very hard, especially on arcane or primal characters, but would showcase how hard it is to survive here.
I've been wanting to get into Dark Sun for a while here, but until the 4e books came out I wasn't able to get more than a cursory understanding of the setting. Now I'm thoroughly engrossed, but I have a question; Where can I find more information on Kurn and Eldaarich? I can only find passing references; I recognize this is likely intentional, but is there any more solid info? Or are they mentioned as sort of 'open' sections of the setting, in case the DM wants to drop in some city-state of their own design?
Similarly, is there more info on the Dead Lands? I'm trying to grok it; would "Athas' Mournland", to draw a connection to a setting I'm much better-versed in, be an apt description for its narrative purpose?
Kurn is ruled by an reformed Sorcerer-King named Oronis, he is now an Avangion. Eldaarich is ruled by an insane Sorcerer-King named Daskinor. Both Cities are described in the Dark Sun Revised Campaign (TSR 2438).
Athas.org has every info about the Dead Lands one could wish for (3rd Ed, for the 2nd Ed raw and ufinished version PM me), there is also a great Fanpage about the Dead Lands, though I can't find it anymore
, maybe I will use an OCR and scan it in.This is your best bet to get the info before (and if) it's updated in a DDI online article.
The gate's still open, although kind of plugged. In short, the dead lands are (soooooo slowly) expanding.
The region is ruled by undead sorcerers, most of whom were high ranking folks during the cleansing wars and managed to seize control of areas after the whole dying incident.
The powers that be have a sort of economy going on where they "mine" for corpses in the obsidian. Just because someone has been buried in molten glass for thousands of years doesn't mean they're not animated undead. You just gotta dig em up and conscript them into your undead army.
There's a single massive tree of life underneath the entire region. It was at the site of the original gate and is basically what's plugging it. Buried under the obsidian, its roots have stretched out across/under the entirety of the region, and some of the larger roots are hollow and provide a safe haven for living creatures to travel through.
I think I remember that the undead of the dead lands think that they're the only "living" creatures left on Athas. Basically they don't realize that there are a bunch of fleshy living folks living up north of them. There's an adventure where Dregoth sends an envoy to try and ally with one of the undead Duchies, which makes them realize they can stop digging in the glass for undead and instead just go north and kill some fresh meat for corpses.
I believe one of the "undead kings" managed to snag the living vortex of one of the deceased sorcerer-kings (I think Abalache-Re, since Dregoth used Tectuktitlay's in his godhood spell) and managed to align with it, granting spells to his followers. I could be wrong about this, though.
Magic doesn't work, since the whole region is almost entirely lifeless (that one tree of life and its roots being the only exception). Preserving and Defiling are useless: only necromancy works (mooching power from the Gray).
The whole thing happened in the middle of the Cleansing Wars: some of the undead factions include both cleansed species (the gnomes and pixies come to mind) and soldiers still loyal (in theory) to Rajaat's ideals or those of his generals.
There's also some kind of alien/elemental intelligence that inhabits the obsidian (and possibly part of what gives the dead lands its weirdly magical nature), although it's not really "awake." Except all the corpse mining disturbs its "body," combined with this huge area where the undead have dug up/cracked the obsidian plain as an attempt to create something of a giant barrier between them and the aforementioned bugs to the south, are all adding up to that obsidian intelligence waking up and being pissed off. In 2e terms it was basically just a ginormous obsidian elemental, but I guess in 4e it could actually be a ginormous primordial.
I think the Dead Lands concept, and all its lore, needs serious changing while passing to 4e. I would thus welcome a DDI conversion.
Will there be a conversion at athas.org of the Secrets of the Dead Lands, for the 3.5 edition? I saw just Terrors of the Dead Lands.
Yeah, the Dead Lands aren't as cool as they should be.
Agreed. I really dislike how the Kingdoms of Gretch are divided up between his (numerous) failed experiments. Way too Ravenloft-esque for me. I also don't like how pretty much every square inch of land is accounted for and under the control of an undead lord. Having the super-immortal obsidian elemental as the "buried juggernaut" was also a huge disappointment. I really think Gerald Arthur Lewis' fan version was much better. A hybrid of the two is how I will approach the Deadlands. None the less, I am thrilled to have finally had the opportunity to view the 2e Deadlands documents
Yeah, the Dead Lands aren't as cool as they should be.
Agreed. I really dislike how the Kingdoms of Gretch are divided up between his (numerous) failed experiments. Way too Ravenloft-esque for me. I also don't like how pretty much every square inch of land is accounted for and under the control of an undead lord. Having the super-immortal obsidian elemental as the "buried juggernaut" was also a huge disappointment. I really think Gerald Arthur Lewis' fan version was much better. A hybrid of the two is how I will approach the Deadlands. None the less, I am thrilled to have finally had the opportunity to view the 2e Deadlands documents
Is Gerald Arthur Lewis's site still online? Can't find it and I haven't printed it back then ^^.
Found it, awesome really.
siltskimmer.org/_access/tdloa.pdf