Excellent formatting for a pleasantly open-minded post.
Thanks. I've been keeping an open mind with the new Dark Sun, since it is my favorite setting, and I'm happy that WotC is doing an official release for it and all
Actually, I also find myself enjoying 4E more than 3/3.5E, which I didn't think I would...
I decided to make it into a blog post here. Comments are welcome. I know others have written posts about the different races & Athas, I just am throwing my hat in the ring, so to speak. I have no DDI access, and can't comment on other races found within anything from DDI. Maybe eventually I'll get DDI, and see other things as well, but for now I'm just talking about the races I know of...
Good post!
Also, Warforged and Shardminds should probably be disallowed; the threat of the Dark Sun and survival in a harsh desert is meaningless for living constructs; it would take away much of the 'teeth' of the setting.
Drow have never really been a part of Dark Sun; no Lolth, and regular elves are sneaky and wicked enough. Would a Drow's arcane racial powers count as defiling?
Also, Warforged and Shardminds should probably be disallowed; the threat of the Dark Sun and survival in a harsh desert is meaningless for living constructs; it would take away much of the 'teeth' of the setting.
Just change the races up. Make them more like thrikreen in their requirements. The PoL warforged and shardmind don't have to be exactly like the dark sun version. In fact, they can be very different.
Drow have never really been a part of Dark Sun; no Lolth, and regular elves are sneaky and wicked enough. Would a Drow's arcane racial powers count as defiling?
Also, Warforged and Shardminds should probably be disallowed; the threat of the Dark Sun and survival in a harsh desert is meaningless for living constructs; it would take away much of the 'teeth' of the setting.
Just change the races up. Make them more like thrikreen in their requirements. The PoL warforged and shardmind don't have to be exactly like the dark sun version. In fact, they can be very different.
This.
Also, the fact that Drow didn't previously have a specific place in Athas doesn't necessarily mean anything.
I mean, there's no Lolth in Eberron, and yet, Drow. Personally, I might just make them part of Eladrin society, if they aren't included when the setting is published. Specifically, they would be the "tip of the spear" for the forces of that society, particularly in fighting arcanists. Their racial powers would be psionic, or shadow based, and would present a twisting of the feywild by those who seek to protect, in order to better be able to protect it.
Either that, or they could be nocturnal burrowers, living in structures similar to the Elves of the Raurin Desert in FR during the day, and hunting at night. The feywild options is a bit more fun, and a bit more twisted, but good things can be done with either.
Warforged could be beings created to hunt and kill defilers. They could also require water in DS, to keep their functions, functioning. They wouldn't drink like other races, but would instead apply moisture to the joints and connections of their bodies, to keep their living wood alive. The would also be just as vulnerable to the ill effects of defilement as other races.
Shardminds, I haven't given much thought to yet, in any setting.
If the non feywild version of drow is used, hobgoblins could take their place in the feywild, as the vanguard of eladrin attack forces. Why? Because hobgoblins in RL folklore were closer to fey than their dnd counterparts, and because it would fun. For me.
Drow have never really been a part of Dark Sun; no Lolth, and regular elves are sneaky and wicked enough. Would a Drow's arcane racial powers count as defiling?
Who needs lolth? I think there could be Athasian Drow. They don't need to be like other settings' Drow. Aelborn was sent to exterminate the Elves... he could have been given mandate to exterminate all Elves in general, not just the Elvish race in 4E terms (so the Eladrin and Drow would fit under the heading). Maybe the Eladrin survived easier because they slipped into the Feywild, while the ancestors of the Drow did so by burrowing deep underground. For fun, I'd imagine that the Athasian Drow society isn't so purely evil... but probably still not too beneficial for others.
I'd also change their racial arcane powers as being psionic, or possibly primal.
Also, Warforged and Shardminds should probably be disallowed; the threat of the Dark Sun and survival in a harsh desert is meaningless for living constructs; it would take away much of the 'teeth' of the setting.
I don't think so. They have a lot of things to be concerned with. The Warforged would primarily be made of wood and stone -- and the wood has serious issues with the dry arid climates of a desert. Not to mention that they might have an issue just walking through dunes and such, as they would probably sink easier into it (think waking through very deep snow drifts). And the silt sea is them basically buried alive, trapped under the heavy weight of the silt for all eternity... not the most pleasant of scenarios for them.
Shardminds might have other difficulties as well. If memory serves, there are animals that eat crystals on Athas. I'd still make either of these rare, but not completely impossible.
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Warforged could be beings created to hunt and kill defilers. They could also require water in DS, to keep their functions, functioning. They wouldn't drink like other races, but would instead apply moisture to the joints and connections of their bodies, to keep their living wood alive. The would also be just as vulnerable to the ill effects of defilement as other races.
Dark Sun has a rather expansive history, with huge wars that took place, the most prominent being the Cleansing Wars, however another one was the Preserver Jihad, that happened just prior to it. Either of those wars could have had one side design the Warforged. The Preservers that were killed off could have built them as an army to fight off the defilers and early Champions of Rajaat, while in the Cleansing Wars scenario, there are quite a few possibilities as to how they could have been constructed, and their creators could easily be non-existent any more. If you want to go the tinker-gnome route, maybe the Warforged are the descendants of the gnomes. Of course they also could be the descendants of the goblins (since there is no real information about goblins on Athas, they were wiped out by crazy Daskinor). They could also be the creation of the orcs, or maybe even trolls. To be real funny, they could have been created by the pixies (not too sure about that one though). Plenty of options, however.
In fact, I'm stealing this from myself for my Dead Lands stuff. Yoink!
Or, given their innate arcane abilities, here's one for you: the drow could be elven undead. Wizards in life, struck down during the cleansing wars, but returned to a semblance of life with foul rituals in some bygone age or kept alive by the elven spirit and burning hatred and anger. It isn't sunlight they can't stand, but the dark sun, which they see as a foul blasphemy against nature. They innately retain some of their ancient wizardly powers -- some returned to following that path, while others have abandoned it.
In fact, I'm stealing this from myself for my Dead Lands stuff. Yoink!
I have a similar idea in that the Drow are elves which live in the Dead Lands depending on shadow and psionic magic. I would tie necromantic magic to them. They would also probably be defilers in that they would be uncaring of the living of any sort.
The 1e kobolds were fury ratlike creatures where as 3.5 introduced their more reptilian form. I would imagine that the reptilian form fits very will in that environment. The "exterminated" kobolds can be assumed as their ratlike form.
Can a hornytoad bullywug squirt blood out of its eyes?
I would imagine the Dray as being much more dinosaur than dragon. Smooth scales that conform like skin, rather than jut out. Sand would become loged in a dragonborns jutting scales and could eventualy irritate or cause infection. The smooth scales may also allow better airflow and moisture control.
The dray breath weapons would be of natural rather than magical origin.
Fire- two compounds in bladders in the dray's body shoot out from under it tounge and when mixed combust into flame.
Acid- like the realworld comodo dragon, the dray's syliva has toxic enzymes in its syliva that it can spit at high velocity.
Dray racial distinction ideas.
These would confrom to eachs breath weapon.
Crest
blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/dilophosau...
a twin crest... this could fit well for fire as the dray can pump blood into this crest as a fiery red warning to potential attackers.
here are some other dinosaur crest ideas
www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/images/ca...
a featherd variant could also be interesting. The bright coloration would make since for its stregth and charisma factor
i have also read that dinosaurs have large fishlike dorsal fins for temperatur control as well.
(ps. im sooo sorry about my spelling and grammer)
The 1e kobolds were fury ratlike creatures where as 3.5 introduced their more reptilian form. I would imagine that the reptilian form fits very will in that environment. The "exterminated" kobolds can be assumed as their ratlike form.
Interesting ideas here. Basically, I'd have the Kobolds be Jhozals, which basically fit with the reptillian form of Kobolds.
I would imagine the Dray as being much more dinosaur than dragon. Smooth scales that conform like skin, rather than jut out. Sand would become loged in a dragonborns jutting scales and could eventualy irritate or cause infection. The smooth scales may also allow better airflow and moisture control.
The dray breath weapons would be of natural rather than magical origin.
Fire- two compounds in bladders in the dray's body shoot out from under it tounge and when mixed combust into flame.
Acid- like the realworld comodo dragon, the dray's syliva has toxic enzymes in its syliva that it can spit at high velocity.
Dray racial distinction ideas.
These would confrom to eachs breath weapon.
Crest
blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/dilophosau...
a twin crest... this could fit well for fire as the dray can pump blood into this crest as a fiery red warning to potential attackers.
here are some other dinosaur crest ideas
www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/images/ca...
a featherd variant could also be interesting. The bright coloration would make since for its stregth and charisma factor
i have also read that dinosaurs have large fishlike dorsal fins for temperatur control as well.
(ps. im sooo sorry about my spelling and grammer)
Interesting. However there are dinosaur-like races for Dark Sun, just no stats for them in 4E that I know of. The Pterrans are basically advanced, more humanoid versions of pterodactyls, and the Ssurans are another race of dinosaur-like humanoids. Then there are the Lizardmen, which according to the lore only exist in one location, way to the North, known as the Last Sea. There definitely are reptillian races for Athas that are more "naturally occuring". The Dray, however, were an experiment of the undead Dragon-King, Dregoth. I like that as their history, and I wouldn't want to change them to something else...
Or, given their innate arcane abilities, here's one for you: the drow could be elven undead. Wizards in life, struck down during the cleansing wars, but returned to a semblance of life with foul rituals in some bygone age or kept alive by the elven spirit and burning hatred and anger. It isn't sunlight they can't stand, but the dark sun, which they see as a foul blasphemy against nature. They innately retain some of their ancient wizardly powers -- some returned to following that path, while others have abandoned it.
In fact, I'm stealing this from myself for my Dead Lands stuff. Yoink!
Interesting idea and concept. I want to see what the shadow power source has to offer before really thinking deeply on the Dead Lands for my campaigns.
So they become the "sorta" deadlands.
Will you keep Reggelids? Alter them in some way? I liked their...indescribable feel. Gnah, I suck with descriptions.
Hmm? I don't remember seeing them in any of the released 4E books defining them as a player-race.
Oddly before seeing this post, I also considered the option of making the warforged require some form of liquid cooling to keep it's life essence alive.
Oh, and if caught by the templars or the VA or a merchant house or an elven tribe or the order or any other powerful group, they would either be confiscated as property, confiscated as contraband, dismanteled to be studied, or forced into service in order to utlilize their services. They would be very rare.
Magic is scarce. An adventuring golem seems odd when looked at from this Dark Sun principle.
Magic is hated. Magic caused the present problems on Athas. A warforged is like a poster child for arcane meddling. They just wouldn't exist on Athas. If they did, and they are some relic of the green age, or some long lost war, they would be promptly destroyed or become anathema. The problems for a PC warforged in any city on Athas are huge - a wizard can hide their arcane power, but can you hide that you are a animated golem?
They have a precedent in Dark Sun 2e. They were included in an adventure, Black Spine, if I remember correctly.
They are weird psionic reptilian-elves. That screams Dark Sun to me.
The amount of Gith roaming the deserts of Athas as a degenerate form of Githyanki/Githzerai also demand that Githyanki and or Githzerai were present in significant numbers on the Athas of old. The time it takes for the Githyanki/Zerai races to devolve and spread over the lands suggests that they are a "significant" part of Athas at one time in its past.
Granted, you would have to grant some sort of haven or enclave where undegenerate Githyanki/Zerai live. But there is already precedent for this in Dark Sun.
I also think that there is a cool story here. The Githyanki and Githzerai might blame the degenerate Gith on the consequences of interbreeding between their dwindling numbers and between the Githyanki/Zerai races. Fostering even more xenophobia, racial pride, and hate between the groups. Even if it is not true.
The problems for a PC warforged in any city on Athas are huge - a wizard can hide their arcane power, but can you hide that you are a animated golem?
Yet a few golems exist. I don't much care for the warforged outside of Eberron, but I think it's possible let them exist in Dark Sun. I can see them being part of a single sorcerer-king's monstrous army, similar to the largely destroyed obsidian golem army of Draj. In fact, they might have been a reserve force of Kalak, and with his death, they begin to break out of secret storage.
Of course, as you suggest, any explanation for their presence will have trouble explaining why they aren't attacked on site. I say, let it happen. If a PC is a warforged, they're accepting that burden, just as does an arcanist who openly defiles.
I'm torn about the Wilden. I like your idea about evolved carnivorous plants, but at the same time I don't think they necessarily fit the setting as a player race. I would consider using them as NPC's if my players adventure in the Forest Ridge, or something, but I can't really imagine them stalking the dunes of the Tablelands.