Where is Altaruk? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 gold_piece Jun 25, 2010 11:06:54	Dark Sun newbie here. Is Altaruk in one of the city states? Or is it separate? I'm just trying to understand how the geography of the region works. Do the city states in the Tyr region cover all the land? Or do they just represent individual separate areas and the remainder of the desert is simply unruled?
#2 turlough Jun 25, 2010 12:02:10	Altaruk is one of the many villages in the wastes and not a city state. www.fortunecity.com/underworld/virtualit... - this shows the area. Altaruk is between Tyr and Balic. As for the rest of your questions, that could open up quite the debate. As the Tablelands aren't a very big area, in terms of square miles, there is a lot of speculation as to why all of the city states are crammed in here. Going by the first boxed set, this is all that exists and everything beyond it is even worse in terms of monsters and trying to survive. The second boxed set, as well as some other supplements, opened up the area a bit more. The problem is that it's unclear why the SKs, as powerful as they are, haven't gone to those opened areas instead of saying so close to their neighbors. (If you go with the Rajaat story, that could be the reason but there is no reason they can't be spread out even with that story.) I would say it's very reasonable to assume that the city states do exert some amount of influence around them. In my own game, I had the first fort outside of Tyr still be controlled by Templars from Tyr to show that sphere of influence. However, imo, not all of the SKs would want to do that. Hopefully this helps! Let me know if you have more questions! turlough
#3 gold_piece Jun 25, 2010 12:32:51	Altaruk is one of the many villages in the wastes and not a city state. www.fortunecity.com/underworld/virtualit... - this shows the area. Altaruk is between Tyr and Balic. As for the rest of your questions, that could open up quite the debate. As the Tablelands aren't a very big area, in terms of square miles, there is a lot of speculation as to why all of the city states are crammed in here. Going by the first boxed set, this is all that exists and everything beyond it is even worse in terms of monsters and trying to survive. The second boxed set, as well as some other supplements, opened up the area a bit more. The problem is that it's unclear why the SKs, as powerful as they are, haven't gone to those opened areas instead of saying so close to their neighbors. (If you go with the Rajaat story, that could be the reason but there is no reason they can't be spread out even with that story.) I would say it's very reasonable to assume that the city states do exert some amount of influence around them. In my own game, I had the first fort outside of Tyr still be controlled by Templars from Tyr to show that sphere of influence. However, imo, not all of the SKs would want to do that. Hopefully this helps! Let me know if you have more questions! turlough Thank you. That's answers my question pretty well. The link doesn't work, but I found Altaruk on a map. I'm going to try to run a short Dark Sun adventure (Blood Arena) and I was a little unsure of the geography. Thanks again!
#4 Alphastream Jun 25, 2010 18:34:21	Altaruk is primarily influenced by the merchant houses within it (with one being tied to a city-state). It is an unusual village in that preservers and Veiled Alliance are tolerated due to one of the leaders being a preserver. You can find some info here, should you want this relative to DDE. I'll repost the Altaruk bit here, should you wish to avoid D&D Encounters spoilers. Altaruk info: What is Altaruk? Altaruk is a small merchant village. It is maintained by three merchant houses (Wavir, Rees, Tomblador) and is heavily fortified (15' wall, 500 mercenaries armed with mekillot-hide shields, wooden lances, daggers of sharpened bone). A powerful Preserver commands the warriors, named Arisphistaneles. Because of this, the Veiled Alliance is openly tolerated in Altaruk. Altaruk is regularly attacked by giants wading in from the Sea of Silt. The village is regularly rebuilt.
#5 gold_piece Jun 25, 2010 21:36:47	Altaruk is primarily influenced by the merchant houses within it (with one being tied to a city-state). It is an unusual village in that preservers and Veiled Alliance are tolerated due to one of the leaders being a preserver. You can find some info here, should you want this relative to DDE. I'll repost the Altaruk bit here, should you wish to avoid D&D Encounters spoilers. Altaruk info: What is Altaruk? Altaruk is a small merchant village. It is maintained by three merchant houses (Wavir, Rees, Tomblador) and is heavily fortified (15' wall, 500 mercenaries armed with mekillot-hide shields, wooden lances, daggers of sharpened bone). A powerful Preserver commands the warriors, named Arisphistaneles. Because of this, the Veiled Alliance is openly tolerated in Altaruk. Altaruk is regularly attacked by giants wading in from the Sea of Silt. The village is regularly rebuilt.
#6 Pennarin Jun 25, 2010 21:55:05	Self. A village is either said to be a client village, under the protection and jurisdiction of a city-state (thus an arcane user not under the thumb of a SK cannot rule there or even be allowed to stay), and producing stuff the city needs to survive, or is not, in which case they are at the mercy of raiders and various tribes.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

gold_piece

Jun 25, 2010 11:06:54

Dark Sun newbie here.

Is Altaruk in one of the city states? Or is it separate? I'm just trying to understand how the geography of the region works. Do the city states in the Tyr region cover all the land? Or do they just represent individual separate areas and the remainder of the desert is simply unruled?

turlough

Jun 25, 2010 12:02:10

Altaruk is one of the many villages in the wastes and not a city state.

www.fortunecity.com/underworld/virtualit... - this shows the area. Altaruk is between Tyr and Balic.

As for the rest of your questions, that could open up quite the debate. As the Tablelands aren't a very big area, in terms of square miles, there is a lot of speculation as to why all of the city states are crammed in here. Going by the first boxed set, this is all that exists and everything beyond it is even worse in terms of monsters and trying to survive.

The second boxed set, as well as some other supplements, opened up the area a bit more. The problem is that it's unclear why the SKs, as powerful as they are, haven't gone to those opened areas instead of saying so close to their neighbors. (If you go with the Rajaat story, that could be the reason but there is no reason they can't be spread out even with that story.)

I would say it's very reasonable to assume that the city states do exert some amount of influence around them. In my own game, I had the first fort outside of Tyr still be controlled by Templars from Tyr to show that sphere of influence. However, imo, not all of the SKs would want to do that.

Hopefully this helps! Let me know if you have more questions!

turlough

gold_piece

Jun 25, 2010 12:32:51

Altaruk is one of the many villages in the wastes and not a city state.

www.fortunecity.com/underworld/virtualit... - this shows the area. Altaruk is between Tyr and Balic.

As for the rest of your questions, that could open up quite the debate. As the Tablelands aren't a very big area, in terms of square miles, there is a lot of speculation as to why all of the city states are crammed in here. Going by the first boxed set, this is all that exists and everything beyond it is even worse in terms of monsters and trying to survive.

The second boxed set, as well as some other supplements, opened up the area a bit more. The problem is that it's unclear why the SKs, as powerful as they are, haven't gone to those opened areas instead of saying so close to their neighbors. (If you go with the Rajaat story, that could be the reason but there is no reason they can't be spread out even with that story.)

I would say it's very reasonable to assume that the city states do exert some amount of influence around them. In my own game, I had the first fort outside of Tyr still be controlled by Templars from Tyr to show that sphere of influence. However, imo, not all of the SKs would want to do that.

Hopefully this helps! Let me know if you have more questions!

turlough

Thank you. That's answers my question pretty well. The link doesn't work, but I found Altaruk on a map. I'm going to try to run a short Dark Sun adventure (Blood Arena) and I was a little unsure of the geography.

Thanks again!

Alphastream

Jun 25, 2010 18:34:21

Altaruk is primarily influenced by the merchant houses within it (with one being tied to a city-state). It is an unusual village in that preservers and Veiled Alliance are tolerated due to one of the leaders being a preserver. You can find some info here, should you want this relative to DDE. I'll repost the Altaruk bit here, should you wish to avoid D&D Encounters spoilers.

Altaruk info:

What is Altaruk?
Altaruk is a small merchant village. It is maintained by three merchant houses (Wavir, Rees, Tomblador) and is heavily fortified (15' wall, 500 mercenaries armed with mekillot-hide shields, wooden lances, daggers of sharpened bone). A powerful Preserver commands the warriors, named Arisphistaneles. Because of this, the Veiled Alliance is openly tolerated in Altaruk. Altaruk is regularly attacked by giants wading in from the Sea of Silt. The village is regularly rebuilt.

gold_piece

Jun 25, 2010 21:36:47

Altaruk is primarily influenced by the merchant houses within it (with one being tied to a city-state). It is an unusual village in that preservers and Veiled Alliance are tolerated due to one of the leaders being a preserver. You can find some info here, should you want this relative to DDE. I'll repost the Altaruk bit here, should you wish to avoid D&D Encounters spoilers.

Altaruk info:

What is Altaruk?
Altaruk is a small merchant village. It is maintained by three merchant houses (Wavir, Rees, Tomblador) and is heavily fortified (15' wall, 500 mercenaries armed with mekillot-hide shields, wooden lances, daggers of sharpened bone). A powerful Preserver commands the warriors, named Arisphistaneles. Because of this, the Veiled Alliance is openly tolerated in Altaruk. Altaruk is regularly attacked by giants wading in from the Sea of Silt. The village is regularly rebuilt.

Pennarin

Jun 25, 2010 21:55:05

Self. A village is either said to be a client village, under the protection and jurisdiction of a city-state (thus an arcane user not under the thumb of a SK cannot rule there or even be allowed to stay), and producing stuff the city needs to survive, or is not, in which case they are at the mercy of raiders and various tribes.