Blue Age? Green Age? Champions of Ra-something?
How big is the world? Is all of Athas a wasteland, more or less, or just the area shown on the map provided in the DSCS? Is anything not a desert wasteland?
The Dragon is a former Champion, yes? What are the SKs goals? Why defile Athas at all? Some "ends justify the means" sort of thing? Or are they just dicks?
Lastly, does anyone have a fairly comprehensive timeline?
Thanks a whole bunch. I'm really digging the tone of the setting, but I like to also dig into the past and secrets of a setting, too.
Lastly, does anyone have a fairly comprehensive timeline?
The original box set was more ambiguous about the history of Athas.
The revised Dark Sun campaign box had this timeline.
The Blue Age
- Water covers most of Athas, and a sapphire sun fills the sky.
- Halflings are the only intelligent race.
- Halfling society, led by the nature-masters, develops into a highly advanced civilization.
- A brown tide contaminates the water and the sea begins to die, ending this age.
- The brown tide spreads; most halflings flee in search of safety.
- Those nature-masters seeking a counter to the tide create the Pristine Tower, which the use to focus the sun's energy in order to kill the brown tide.
- The halflings are successful, but the force of the powers unleashed by the Pristine Tower alters the sun.
- The land contorts dramatically, and much of the halfling civilization is destroyed. A portion of their race survives to evolve into the new races.
- The new races--humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes and others--fill the forests and fertile valleys left unscathed by the receding waves.
- Great cities spring up beneath the yellow sun, including Tyr, Ebe, and Bodach.
- Religions develop, but no true gods exist to empower priests.
- Psionics defelop into the power of this age, reaching fantastic heights and setting an unprecedented standard of living.
- Rajaat discovers the principles of magic, heretofore unknown on Athas.
- Rajaat publicly teaches the techniques of preserving magic, while secretly teaching a select group of students the ways of defiling magic. From this group he selects the most powerful defiler/psionicists to become his Champions.
- Rajaat uses the Pristine Tower to focus the sun's energy, seeking to elevate his Champions' powers. He succeeds, but the sun turns a dark crimson.
- Rajaat orders his Champions to destroy the races created during the Rebirth in an effort to return the world to the Blue Age.
- Many of the nonhuman races are eliminated, including gnomes, lizard men, and orcs.
- The Champions discover that Rajaat plans to give the world to the halflings, not the humans. Led by Borys, the Champions revolt and Rajaat is trapped in the Hollow.
- The remaining Champions become sorcerer-kings, each claiming one of the city-states of the Tyr Region to rule.
- The sorcerer-kings gain god-like powers, including the ability to grant spells to their templars.
- Borys is transformed into the Dragon, a creature of power never before seen on Athas.
- The devastation of the world begun in the last age continues as the sorcerer-kings engage in ever greater defiling magic.
- King Kalak is assassinated and Tyr becomes a free city.
- Rajaat is freed from the Hollow, but only momentarily before he is once again imprisoned.
- Only three sorcerer-kings remain after major events transpire--events that lead to the death of the Dragon and the creation of the Cerulean Storm.
- The Great Earthquake rips through the Tyr Region, opening paths to the lands beyond the cradle of Athasian civilization.
4E Dark Sun has returned somewhat to the original box set making things a little more ambiguous again. It does incorporate some things from supplements that followed, though.
Now:
- They've gone back to just after Kalak's death. The Dragon and all the other sorcerer-kings are all still around, including Dregoth.
- The timeline has been truncated to the Green Age--the Red Age--the Age of the Sorcerer-Kings or the Desert Age. There doesn't seem to be any mention of the Blue Age anymore.
- There were gods but they were either killed or driven away by the primordials leaving Athas now godless.
Hope this helps.
That was very informative.
Some lingering questions, though...
What is "The Brown Tide"? A Magical Invasion of Sand? How did it threaten the halfling civilization? Any info on why it happened in the first place?
Who, or what, is Rajaat? Obviously he (it?) was a powerful magic user and the leader of those who would become the SKs, but that doesn't tell me who he is. Human? Halfling? Something else? He wanted to return the world to the Blue Age. What was his plan? Blow up the world so the water comes back?
Borys is the Dragon, and the SKs look like Dragon-people. Defiling magic turns you dragon-ey. Why? Anything beyond "Just 'cuz it's cool"? Is there something in the cosmology of DS that can explain this connection between magic and dragons, like "They are the embodiment of elemental power" or something? It's okay if there isn't, I just want to know if there is some mystery hidden below the surface that my players could "discover".
Similarly, what is an Avingion? Why is it so special? Any connection between Dragons and Avingions, in a yin-yang sort of way?
When did the former Champions start fighting amongst themselves? Was it during the Cleansing Wars, or after they imprisoned Rajaat?
Speaking of imprisoning Rajaat, what is The Hollow? For all the info I can find on it, it might as well be my butt. It seems like a plane of existence whose sole purpose is to be a place to imprison Rajaat. Basically a giant plot device with no further interaction with the setting.
If I think of any more, I'll be sure to ask. Thank you again.
What is "The Brown Tide"? A Magical Invasion of Sand? How did it threaten the halfling civilization? Any info on why it happened in the first place?
Not clear. Though there is a scene in the Prism Pentad where a character tries defiling a remnant of the primordial ocean, a swirl of brown begins to form. Asked if this hinted at the origin/cause of Brown Tide, Troy Denning quipped, (paraphrasing) "Hmm, you think I'd do that unintentionally?"
Who, or what, is Rajaat? Obviously he (it?) was a powerful magic user and the leader of those who would become the SKs, but that doesn't tell me who he is. Human? Halfling? Something else? He wanted to return the world to the Blue Age. What was his plan? Blow up the world so the water comes back?
Rajaat was a pyreen. With the event from the Prism Pentad, it seems to me more accurate to say Rajaat "rediscovered" arcane magic, rather then invented it.
Borys is the Dragon, and the SKs look like Dragon-people. Defiling magic turns you dragon-ey. Why? Anything beyond "Just 'cuz it's cool"? Is there something in the cosmology of DS that can explain this connection between magic and dragons, like "They are the embodiment of elemental power" or something?
Because marketing folk at TSR insisted Dark Sun's designers put in dragons somehow. Like they insisted the original draft be redone to include dwarf, elf, and halfling races.
When did the former Champions start fighting amongst themselves? Was it during the Cleansing Wars, or after they imprisoned Rajaat?
Upon the initial betrayal. Some champions agreed with Rajaat's plan, others didn't.
Speaking of imprisoning Rajaat, what is The Hollow?
Who knows if 4e keeps this or not. The Hollow is a manufactured dimensional prison deep in The Black. Which begs the question, what is The Black? A plane 4e seems to have dispensed with so as to squeeze 4e's cosmology in.
Primordial Ocean? Is this like a big ol' ocean somewhere on the planet? Or something more metaphysical?
So Rajaat is a pyreen. What is a pyreen?
Thank you everyone for helping me dig into DS.
Their life shaping experiment went wrong and the brown tide began to grow and spread across the world spanning ocean.
Think toxic algae blooms turned up to eleven.
Then they used the Pristine Tower to focus the sun to burn the brown tide and this had the effect of turning the sun from sapphire to yellow, ushering the green age.
Life shaping takes a back seat to psionics as a result of the Rebirth. The Rebirth occurs and the some halflings life shape themselves in the various races as their civilisation declines. Psionics becomes a bit like magitech.
The Pyreens were a rebirth race that had all the good qualities of the races (smart, strong, wise etc). One of them was Rajaat. He developed magic and the rest is history.
Hope that helps.
4e lacks any mention of the Blue Age... until you consider the Dawn War story, which is about a group of godlike creators, dwelling in a worldspanning sea, who are brought down by the forces of the elements themselves.
In other words, maybe the dawn war is just a misunderstanding of the Blue Age, there were no gods, but simply the Rhulisti halflings.
Or maybe the Dawn War did happen, but Rajaat was no simple Pyreen.
A description of the first sorcerer from The Cerulean Storm: "He stood twice as tall as any giant, with a crown of lightning crackling around his head. A constant crash of thunder belched forth from his fang-toothed mouth, and whenever he exhaled, billowing blue fog shot from his gaping nostrils and dissolved in a torrent of rain. His entire body was swaddled in roiling clouds the color of turquoise, and great torrents of salty water poured from the claws at the end of his gangling arms. Even his shadow was part of the tempest, causing the water to chum and froth wherever it fell."
When viewed all together, Rajaat is a monsterous skeleton, colossal in size, with flesh made from clouds, and surmounted by a crown of lightning. He is too powerful to destroy, only imprisonable, and even then, his shadow must also be imprisoned.
Rajaat may in fact be a Primordial.
I'm exagerating of course. What is a pyreen? Does it look human? Tall, short?
I guess my frustration is that a lot of the Dark Sun terminology is self-descriptive, or rather doesn't describe "fantastic details" in a way that those of us who live in non-fantastic reality can understand.
Elves, for example, or often describe as humanoids with lean bodies, pointy ears, and beautiful features.
A pyreen is apparently a pyreen. Not nearly as helpful.
Continuing thanks for everyone who responds!
"Pyreens are humanoid, although they are not identifiable as any of the current humanoid or demi-human races - rather, they have characteristics of all of them. They have the broad bodies of dwarves, the pointed ears of the elves, the eyes of a human or giant, and the childlike face of the halflings. Pyreens are almost never seen in their natural form, for with their druidic abilities they can take the form of any animal. Peace-bringers also have forms in each race and generally travel about looking like any of a thousand faceless wanderers on the roads."
Of course, 4e kinda changes that up, by making Pyreen into an epic destiny, rather than a race.
Basically pyreens won the genetic lottery as they were a Mary Sue race that could do no wrong. Till Rajaat came along. Ragaat was a hugely disfigured pyreen, too.
Elves are 7' tall on Athas.
So Pyreens are one of the rebirth races, right? Tall Skeletons with cloud flesh and lightning crowns?
I'm exagerating of course. What is a pyreen? Does it look human? Tall, short?
... A pyreen is apparently a pyreen. Not nearly as helpful.
Continuing thanks for everyone who responds!
Pyreens are all of the Rebirth races in one body. Elven grace, dwarven fortitude, etc. However, this had the unfortunate side-effect of making pyreens look horribly disfigured. At least, Rajaat was.
And didn't you say you read the DSCS? The pyreen is an epic destiny on page 102.
Cheers.
To quote the dark sun Monsterous Compendium:
"Pyreens are humanoid, although they are not identifiable as any of the current humanoid or demi-human races - rather, they have characteristics of all of them. They have the broad bodies of dwarves, the pointed ears of the elves, the eyes of a human or giant, and the childlike face of the halflings. Pyreens are almost never seen in their natural form, for with their druidic abilities they can take the form of any animal. Peace-bringers also have forms in each race and generally travel about looking like any of a thousand faceless wanderers on the roads."
Of course, 4e kinda changes that up, by making Pyreen into an epic destiny, rather than a race.
Here's a possibility- characters with the Pyreen epic destiny rediscover enough of the lore of life-shaping that they're able to shape themselves into Pyreen. Its also possible that all the Pyreen were shaped instead of being born, which would explain Rajaat's deformities.
A swirl of brown? Brown what? Brown sand, brown energy, brown goop?
Exactly.
It's not really been explicitly described what it exactly was, but it was bad, it spread across the oceans. Algae? Maybe. Doubtful, IMO, when reading the description of the defiling of the brackish pool atop the Pristine Tower in The Amber Enchantress.
Just color? Any description of why it was so bad for the Halflings?
Athas was once covered by an ocean (the primordial ocean, natch), the halflings used a coral that lived in the ocean to craft everything. Think magical biotech. The brown tide was apparently ending their ability to use their biotech talents upon what grew in the ocean. Without an ocean filled the things they manipulated, the halflings way of life was over.
So the halflings call upon the power of the sun, changing the sun's color from blue to yellow, the oceans dry up a bit revealing continents, the ocean-living halflings morph themselves into the fantasy races we are familiar with in D&D. This event is the Rebirth that begins the Green Age.
Primordial Ocean? Is this like a big ol' ocean somewhere on the planet? Or something more metaphysical?
Before Athas was like it is now, it was the Green Age, before the Green Age, it was the Blue Age and the world was covered by an ocean. The primordial ocean.
All this talk about what went before the Green Age is speculative now, for all we know WotC may have decided to trashcan everything we know about the Blue Age. They ditched a bunch of other things 2e fans were familiar with.
They probably want people to be able to invent their own prehistory. The Blue Age, with lifeshaping halflings was kind of a buzzkill to many fans of the setting when it was revealed. The Blue Age was never a "fact" in the first boxed set. Neither was Rajaat. The Black. The Gray. The Hollow. It was all revealed through the Prism Pentad novels which came after the first boxed set.
WotC says they want to go back the the coolness of the first boxed set, this kind of means diminishing/hiding/eliminating/disguising a lot of what later Dark Sun products came up with.
As an example, shadow giants. Shadow Giants, in the Prism Pentad, are projections (not undead) from imprisoned halflings who were Rajaat's assistants. They were trapped in the Black by the same ritual that imprisioned Rajaat in the Hollow. The DS Creature Catalog describes Shadow Giants as . . . "remnants of giants killed by the sorcerer kings in ancient wars. Their hate-filled spirits have found a home in the deathly substance of the Gray". Also, ". . . brohg renegades seek (a shadow giant) out to learn secrets of arcane magic. Shadow giants might ally with their elementally infused cousins, especially the powerful fire and stone giants in the Sea of Silt." The stat block call a shadow giant out as undead.
There is some wiggle room to fit the old history in there, but it is a radical departure if one takes the description rather more matter of fact.
Nowhere in those descriptions does it equate what the ancient halflings did with organic technology or science; that was a later add-on, an explanation of sort, that was put forward in Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs.
I personaly like ancient halflings being masters of life, using the ocean and the coral to better their civilization. WotC_Rodney was apparently aware of these elements, and in his blog proposed that ancient halflings were Primal users, and that explanation still fits with the 3 descriptions above. Long ago halflings would have brought mastery of the Primal power source to the same fantastic heights as the Green Age races later on attained with the Psionic power source.
I stil't can't figure out HOW Rajaat was turning the sun blue again. I know, I know ... maaaaagic, but still. It was like Rajaat is a Blue Lantern who reignited the dying sun, making it blue again. haha
planet.
Just a theory and I have (cannot remember) anything to back it up. But Rajaat was very intelligent and he would have known that nothing would change by simply killing off the rebirth races or by just having halflings left. He had the ultimtate master plan and it's something we've never read about. (DM plot device) But he'd have to restore the sun before he could restore the planet.
fleeting tales whisper of a eras that preceded the Green Age, leaving older and even more mysterious ruins, but no definite knowledge of such fantastically ancient days remains in the world unless the sorcerer-kings know more.
Considering that the Blue age ended nearly 14 thousand years ago, it only makes sense that it's clouded in mystery ... It would have been a mystery even to the Sorcerer Kings.
Consider: Rajaat didn't start teaching them magic until the 125th King's Age -- About 5,000 years before the current time. That is as long as we have had written history here on Earth. That's a 9,000 year gap between the end of the blue age, and the oldest living creatures on Athas. Even Rajaat probably really only knows the Blue Age through stories; he's not born until 300 years into the Green Age.
athas.org/events for a copy of Melka's timeline; I'm working on letting people add product references to it, so you'll know where to look to find more information on particular events.
The original box set was more ambiguous about the history of Athas.
The revised Dark Sun campaign box had this timeline.
The Blue Age
- Water covers most of Athas, and a sapphire sun fills the sky.
- Halflings are the only intelligent race.
- Halfling society, led by the nature-masters, develops into a highly advanced civilization.
- A brown tide contaminates the water and the sea begins to die, ending this age.
Awww..don't be ashamed now...you've left out the part about the super-intelligent psychic dolphins.
Awww..don't be ashamed now...you've left out the part about the super-intelligent psychic dolphins.
zomg Poseidon is Athas!