Ok, I have heard (and even repated) the rummor of the haflings from the earlyer age having bio ships and having a colony inside the dark sun moon. I always understood it as part of the 'greening' of athus. However as it comes up again and again I am yet to see where this started. Can someone tell me where space haflings started...
Not the moon -- the Messenger, the comet that passes by Athas every 45 years, and which failed to make it's scheduled appearance in Free Year 7.
This was a plotline that was going to be explored by TSR before they canceled the setting.
Essentially, there are three Rhul-Than halflings kept in stasis in the messenger, which was actually a life-shaped escape pod. I'm not sure if the composition of the crew is something we came up with later or not, but it was 2 nature masters, and 1 nature bender on the ship, refugees from the Brown Tide.
There are also, potentially, halflings kept in stasis within the tablelands as well. In the Amber Enchantress, Sadira comes across some halflings in stasis deep underground while fleeing from Nibenay's half-centapede son, who's name and proper spelling escape me at the moment. It's sort of a throwaway scene, only a page or two, but it is there.
Rumor was originally leaked by Lynn Abbey, who spent a little bit of time on the DSML. She mentioned it in explaining why she ended RaFoaDK in the way she did -- she wanted to protect Hamanu from the coming mess.
It's been subject to a lot of ridicule since then, but it's possible that it might have been pulled off well. Dark Sun has a history of taking fantasy cliche's and twisting them around. It could have also been done really, really badly. We'll never know, because it wasn't anything more than a sketch when TSR canceled the line.
It's been subject to a lot of ridicule since then, but it's possible that it might have been pulled off well. Dark Sun has a history of taking fantasy cliche's and twisting them around. It could have also been done really, really badly.
I think it could have been done well, but I don't think there is any chance of a consensus among DS fans on what a good take could be. I would surely split fans no matter how it was done.
FWIW, Dark Sun was deeply inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom. The setting's co-creators explicitly have said this. IMO, space halflings fit very well when setting keeps a clear homage to Barsoom. The stronger the setting evokes bog-standard medieval-esque fantasy, space halflings just feel wrong and funny.
Flip, that'd be Dhojakt, the half-cilops. Fun spelling indeed, like behest or whether.
Space halflings really?
I love Spelljammer, but the officla DS history...no thank you.
I'll take Clark Ashton SMith and Robert E Howard stylistics ofr Dark Sun, over technomagic crap , thank you ;)
The Dragon's Bowl could be from a meteor impact... possibly carrying... Space Halflings?
community.wizards.com/wotc_richbaker/blo...
I dunno. But that's certainly one possible scenario mentioned.
The Dragon's Bowl could be from a meteor impact... possibly carrying... Space Halflings?
community.wizards.com/wotc_richbaker/blo...
I dunno. But that's certainly one possible scenario mentioned.
Meh. The messenger was the one with the halflings, and the timeline on that is way, way off.
One theory, by the way, is that the earthquake in FY 10 was caused by the Messenger impacting somewhere beyond the Jagged Cliffs ...
The Dragon's Bowl could be from a meteor impact ... but from the size of it, I'd suspect that such an impact would have been an extinction-level event. No straight scientific backing on that, just my gut instinct at the moment. The timing on that is problematic though -- too early (Blue age) and the ground in question was deep underwater. If it was surfaced before the blue age, then submerged for the latter part, it would have been filled in and smoothed down. An extinction-level event during the course of the Green Age would have messed with everyone not just a particular targeted race.
That leaves a window at the very beginning of the Green Age, just after the Brown Tide receeds the oceans, and before the Rebirth life really takes hold ... The whole world was already suffering another extinction-level event at that point anyway, impact was probably negligable, grand scheme.
Other option, if you go with the comit theory, is that you pretty much have to play the Fantasy-World(tm) card, and some form of magic or psionics was used to mitigate the impact -- or rather, the effects of the impact, since the hole is still there.
Other options: An ancient strip mine, or the site of a massive sinkhole (Athasian underdark go boom?). Wanderer's Journal places that as the mythic birthplace of the Dragon; there might be a kernel of truth to that idea.
Well in my alternate history of Athas, I had the Underdark largely wiped out when the Sun went nova and the gods stopped it (and perished/got blocked from Athas afterwards)
So, a massive sinkhole as the Underdark caves in from apocalyptic earthquakes caused by the Sun's diameter rapidly enlarging and tidal forces etc triggering earthquakes, or the illithids gigantic "Sun Darkening" project backfiring, works for me 
The Dragon's Bowl could be from a meteor impact... possibly carrying... Space Halflings?
community.wizards.com/wotc_richbaker/blo...
I dunno. But that's certainly one possible scenario mentioned.
His mention of the Silt Sea as a result of a massive epic spell from the Cleansing Wars is exactly what I wrote when I did the Other Eras of Play section of the latest DSr7. Keltis, killing Lizard men ends up creating the Silt Sea. Wonder if they read that and decided to lift it?
Regarding the Dragon's Bowl.
Instead of a crater left from an impact it could be that the Messenger comet had originally lifted off from this location in the distant past.
My two bits.
Brilliant! That would also explain the "Sunken City rumored to lie in the submerged caves beneath the [Pit] lake." The rumor had to start somewhere.
Go go go, gnoll moon base!
When thinking about the whole Messenger Comet theory I don't envision that the comet as being composed of rock or ice. I imagine it as an enormous organic ark-like pod that was hurled into space by an equally enormous life shape.
When thinking about the whole Messenger Comet theory I don't envision that the comet as being composed of rock or ice. I imagine it as an enormous organic ark-like pod that was hurled into space by an equally enormous life shape.
Brilliant. I honestly made that kind of connection. But it seems so obvious.
Space halflings?
Pew pew! Pew pew pew! Phhhhccchhw! Pew!