Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Sword_of_Spirit Sep 14, 2009 23:58:32	I'm looking for the in-setting date of the first Dark Sun campaign setting boxed set.  The second one I know was set in FY 12. If there is an exact date, I'd really like to know what it is.  If there wasn't any exact date or calendar system in the first boxed set, an approximate date before FY 12 would do the job. Thanks to anyone that can help!
#2 phoenix_m Sep 15, 2009 1:25:50	Just before Free Year 1, like days before.  However any time within the 50 or so proceeding years would have worked also.
#3 Pennarin Sep 15, 2009 12:10:29	Yep. The only real difference between, say, the date of the First Boxed Set and 200 years earlier is that Kalak has been building his ziggurat for the century* prior to the First Boxed Set. * Unless it's less than that?
#4 phoenix_m Sep 15, 2009 12:12:58	Pen, the Ziggerat had been in the works for that long?
#5 Pennarin Sep 15, 2009 12:24:05	The answer should be in the opening chapter to The Verdant Passage. Sorry, all of that stuff is in storage.
#6 turlough Sep 15, 2009 14:34:46	That sounds correct, that it has been in the works for decades.  The idea was that, in the Verdant Passage, it was so close to being completed, that he pulled everyone off any other project and put them on finishing his zigurrat.  He was impatient to see it completed!    turlough
#7 eric_anondson Sep 15, 2009 22:37:20	I wished it was clearer why Kalak wanted to rush the construction. Some explanation along the lines of . . . Kalak feared that The Dragon would figure out what Kalak was doing, with everything nearing completion, Kalak had to rush through to the end before Tyr's levy was due . . . when the Dragon would return and the loss of that many slaves would set back Kalak's effort even longer.
#8 Sword_of_Spirit Sep 15, 2009 22:54:08	Thanks!  I used to have the boxed set back in the day.  Never played it, but loved the idea, and I'm excited to give DS3 a shot in the future.
#9 Tyranthraxus Sep 15, 2009 23:57:11	A lot of other City States were also getting annoyed because Kalak was pulling slaves from the only Iron Mines to work on his creation.
#10 KrisKobold Sep 22, 2009 19:34:58	Kalak feared that The Dragon would figure out what Kalak was doing, with everything nearing completion, Kalak had to rush through to the end before Tyr's levy was due . . . when the Dragon would return and the loss of that many slaves would set back Kalak's effort even longer. I imagine the simple anticipation of realising his centuries-old ambitions would have contributed to the increased pace of construction as well. In the long view, Kalak was no doubt a very patient individual, but his characterisation in the Verdant Passage showed him to be very impatient with the rate of progress (and the templars responsible for this, in his view) as the great edifice neared its completion. That said, I think one can definitely make an argument that Kalak wished to have the Ziggurat completed before the Dragon returned for its levy, perhaps discovering what Kalak was planning, though certainly many opportunities would have presented themselves in prior years, if only the Dragon had been the least bit curious. If I were to rationalise it, I'd imagine that Kalak wanted to complete the Ziggurat before the Dragon's return so that he, and not the Dragon, could use the life-force of Tyr's slaves and citizenry for his own planned transformation, rather than to waste them by surrendering them to Borys. Kris
#11 KrisKobold Sep 22, 2009 19:50:02	Returning to the thread's opening topic, the 1991 boxed set's Dark Sun Rules Book assumed the campaign began "on High Sun (the first day of the year), in the Year of Priest's Defiance of the 170th King's Age" (p. 85). The Year of Priest's Defiance would later be called Free Year 1 in Tyr, after the assassination of Kalak. Kris