I am planning on DMing my first game in a few weeks and while coming up with the introduction to the world I would give my players I couldn't seem to find a specific name given to the red sun in Athas. The campaign setting mentions it as the sun, the crimson sun, etc. but doesn't give a solid name for it. I was wondering if there is a cannon name for the sun (from previous editions) or if it has never had an official name. Thank you.
Hello all,
I am planning on DMing my first game in a few weeks and while coming up with the introduction to the world I would give my players I couldn't seem to find a specific name given to the red sun in Athas. The campaign setting mentions it as the sun, the crimson sun, etc. but doesn't give a solid name for it. I was wondering if there is a cannon name for the sun (from previous editions) or if it has never had an official name. Thank you.
"That &^$# Sun" or "That !@&$ing Sun"
At least, that's the only thing I've ever known it to be referred to as.....
Edit (because the original post got cut off): The name of the sun on Athas is really irrelevant. Do you know what the actual name for the sun on Earth is? If yes, how often do you refer to the sun by that name in regular conversation (I'm guessing never, unless you are an astrologer or something).
Since the vast majority of the population of Athas would be unable to conceive of worlds beyond their own, their is no real need for them to create a name for their sun to distinguish it from other suns. "The sun" should be sufficient.
But to answer your question, afaik there is no official name for the sun. One way to screw with your players minds is to have one culture (mine was Draji) call the sun "Pelor, the Burning Hate." That gets the player characters fixated on the sun for some reason - I mean, it's just some random name for the sun that I thought of, with no divine implications whatsoever.
(I don't tell them that, of course)In our real world, different cultures/races have different names for the sun. Athasians will have sufficiently different names for the sun, too, and the difference may not just be in elven-vs-dwarven, but could be in Nibenese-vs-Gulgese as well. Another suggestion for the name of the sun is to look for RL words for it in different languages, pick the most malevolent-sounding one, and go with that.
Or Maura, Azazel, Marida ... the list goes on. Or one could call the sun "Lambeth Kith". Vedra is another good one.
Holler if you know what I'm talkin about! :D
How about Trance Gemini? ;)
Or Maura, Azazel, Marida ... the list goes on. Or one could call the sun "Lambeth Kith". Vedra is another good one.
Holler if you know what I'm talkin about! :D
Andromeda. Specifically the Solar Avatars? Been awhile, but I think that's it.
Andromeda. Specifically the Solar Avatars? Been awhile, but I think that's it.
You get a
.I love Andromeda. That show was just pure awesome, what with all those celestial/cosmic bodies like stars and black holes having their own avatars. And those weren't the only heavenly bodies on that show. mm hmm! ;)
Do you know what the actual name for the sun on Earth is?
the name of earth's sun is Sol, and we rarely use it
the name of earth's sun is Sol, and we rarely use it
That's because Sol is a Latin term for the sun, which also happens to be the name of their sun deity. We still use sol in today's astronomical terms like solar this, solar that etc. Western civilization uses the solar calendar while the Orient East use Lunar calendar.
Also, Sol is not the only name for our sun as it is of Latin etymology. Other cultures have their own language and names so the same could be applied to the Athasian sun. The halflings and Kreen would probably have a more sci-fi sounding name for the Sun while the younger races have a more common/fantastic name or just call it the sun.
I was wondering if there is a cannon name for the sun (from previous editions) or if it has never had an official name. Thank you.
I played in a Dark Sun inspired game called Armageddon for too many years (or not enough years depending on your perspective ;)). We called our sun Suk-Krath. Suk-Krath was also the name for the Plane of Fire, with Krathi being elementalists who chanelled the energies from the Plane of Fire.
Krath was also used as a flavourful expletive, much like frak is in Battlestar Galactica.
AFAIK ours are called Sol and Luna...which mean nothing more than sun and moon in now disused Latin. And guess what? Our world is called Ground, er, I meant Earth.
If you are going to use the old Latin terms for sun and moon then our world would be called Terra [not Earth].
I was wondering if there is a cannon name for the sun (from previous editions) or if it has never had an official name. Thank you.
I played in a Dark Sun inspired game called Armageddon for too many years (or not enough years depending on your perspective ;)). We called our sun Suk-Krath. Suk-Krath was also the name for the Plane of Fire, with Krathi being elementalists who chanelled the energies from the Plane of Fire.
Krath was also used as a flavourful expletive, much like frak is in Battlestar Galactica.
I like Suk-Krath.
Though if you played of the Athas world name you could create some interesting variations... Thaas, Draas, Draos, Draoch (deutch style), I dunno... steal from somewhere. plenty of room for it.
In the Darkover novels, the red giant in the sky is called 'The Bloody Sun'.
Tangent:
In the Darkover novels, the red giant in the sky is called 'The Bloody Sun'.
Are you talking about Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books? 'Cause from what I remember of the series, the red giant is called "Cottman" with Darkover's 4 moons being Liriel, Kyrrdis, Idriel and Mormallor. The Bloody Sun is the title of a book in the series.
It's funny you mention Darkover because it and Dark Sun share many similarities, the foremost being the strong presence of psionics and "bio-engineered" races.
Are you talking about Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books? 'Cause from what I remember of the series, the red giant is called "Cottman" with Darkover's 4 moons being Liriel, Kyrrdis, Idriel and Mormallor. The Bloody Sun is the title of a book in the series.
It's funny you mention Darkover because it and Dark Sun share many similarities, the foremost being the strong presence of psionics and "bio-engineered" races.
The very ones.
Cottman's Star is the Terran Empire name for the star; Darkovans call it the Bloody Sun (because it's about that color). I hadn't remembered the names of the moons.
I never thought of the two worlds as being very alike. (My 'typical Darkover scene' is a redhead on a Alpine mountainside during snowfall.) Athas doesn't care what color your hair is, is mostly known for desert, and it's too dry/warm to snow. I forget the name of elder psychic race that lives on Darkover - chieri? - but they are unique to MZB as far as I know
Darkover was good for flavor, when I first read the novels in high school. It's too bad the later novels turned towards anti-man diatribes in the mouths of the women characters; I lost interest in the series as a direct result.