Random Custom DS Notes

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

zombiegleemax

Nov 06, 2005 6:43:12
In my spare time i do some doodling. Some of you won't like this, but hey.

Nerad wasn't just avangion number 2. He was a champion and later sorcerer-monarch of a city across the silt sea. He eventually abandoned the city when the guilt hit him. Eventually he had a run-in with oronis and became an avangion. As for his city: Borys sent a dead lord (Lord Regent) to administer the city as an extension of Ur Draxan rule.

Ornonis isn't the first avangion. The "Great One" was a rhul-thaun fluke. A rhul-thaun (or maybe even rhulisti) that mastered both psionics and preserving. His name: Dorag Thel. Dorag Thel, rather than some old druid (see forest maker and the artifact skull of dorag thel) was the first preserver. Eventually Dregoth caught up wth him and killed him, and what he saw further inspired his dragon metamorph spells. (that last bit with dregoth i haven't exactly worked out yet, but there's some connection between the two) when dregoth was assassinated, abalache-re stole the skull from dregoth's vaults with all the other booty she scored. as for oronis, well he develops essentially the same spell dorag thel used, based on accounts of the first one and maybe some labs he came across throughout his career as a champ.


there's more, not in any finished form (not that that stuff was finished, but hey). mostly involving some cities on the other side of the valley of dust and fire. another 7 or 8 I think. ranging from a champ who became obsessed with her assigned race and eventually tried to become one of them to an advanced earth elemental who barely rivals the champs to the lord regent-administered city to a racial fanatic (still attempts to continue rajaat's wars against the inferior races) to a water drake that consumed a champ and became a sorcerer-monarch to a champ whose mortal descendents rule the city-state as a dynasty, advised by their still-living ancestor whose identity remains unknown to everyone.


Like I said, I know a lot of people won't care, some won't like it for all sorts of reasons, but maybe some will, or the ideas will inspire them in turn. SO what the hey. What I'm basically doing is expanding and re-writing (or re-thinking) a lot of dark sun while doing my best to stick to the flavor. I've re-written most all the races (all have crunch finished, a few have finished fluff), compiled skills and feats, and ever so slowly next i'm working on classes. it's all for my own personal stuff, and i know i'm essentially re-inventing the dark sun 3.5 wheel here, but different strokes for different folks, right?

for one thing, i know some people would really hate there being not 15, but 27 champions of rajaat (with their 27 races). Coming up with new nasty nicknames for these guys is a bit of a chore (Sahuagin Dessicator, Vraelin Flayer, Rava Butcher, Magera Naught . . . )


For kicks, here's a list of the 27 races slated for death. some are simply the ones you know, renamed.

Singular Plural Adjective
*Aarakocra
*Bakali: lizardfolk
*Bhuka: goblins
*Dwarf
*Giant
*Gith
*Gnomoi: gnomes
*Huldra: sprites (and pixies and other little fey)
*Kenku
*Kobold
*Magera: ogres
*Mischta: ogre magi
*Nikaal
*Protean: changelings
*Pterran
*Pyreen
*Raan: elves.
*Rava: shifters
*Sahuagin
*Sharakim: orcs
*Ssurran
*Tarek
*Tari
*Troglodyte
*Troll
*Vraelin: yuan-ti
*Wemic

One thing I know will stand out are the gith. They're not natives, nor are they a rebirth race. They've been around since the beginning of the green age though. my rationale is that rajaat wouldn't know any better. if you can guess where i got the new names from, congrats: yer a geeky geek. ;)
#2

methvezem

Nov 06, 2005 11:15:59
If you can guess where i got the new names from,

Some are from Taladas for sure.
#3

zombiegleemax

Nov 06, 2005 16:15:15
On an impotant note, arthas seems to lack any natural dragons, might it be the finished job of a Champion?
Champions obviously known what a dragon was 'cause they recognized Boris after his transformation for the dragon he became.

Also, ku-toa, illithid and other subterran dwellers are optimal candidates for races to be eradicated...

if Athas has any underdark will be intresting to see what will emerge from it
(i like the idea of a victorious champion, obsessed with his assigned task, who returns at the pristine tower, ashamed by the lenght his task requied, only to find his peer has rebelled to his beloved master and nearly destroied the land he fougth to purifie)
#4

Pennarin

Nov 06, 2005 17:48:04
On an impotant note, arthas seems to lack any natural dragons, might it be the finished job of a Champion?
Champions obviously known what a dragon was 'cause they recognized Boris after his transformation for the dragon he became.

You seem to be missing the point: Athas already has dragons, beings that are made, not born.
The Champions called Borys a dragon because they gave him that name, not because he looked like a pre-existing creature. The modern day association between the term dragon and the look of a dragon is because of Borys.
Before Borys was made into a dragon, there were no dragons, and the term meant something else (it can be an invented term, or a pre-exisiting term meaning something like strength or power or any other number of meanings*).

* Kaisharga means undead in ancient halfling, so maybe dragon can mean something like god. Btw, it is the Champions who first created kaishargas, so they are the ones who named these undead creatures, so Champions do know ancient halfling as a language, so its possible dragon is indeed an ancient halfing word.
#5

kalthandrix

Nov 06, 2005 19:13:05
Yes- no core book dragons in Athas- the closest thing to a generic dragon that DS has is the elemental drakes- some similarities between the two.

Dragons on DS are much cooler and much, much more powerful then any dragon in the MM or other related books.
#6

zombiegleemax

Nov 07, 2005 9:54:04
You seem to be missing the point: Athas already has dragons, beings that are made, not born.
The Champions called Borys a dragon because they gave him that name, not because he looked like a pre-existing creature. The modern day association between the term dragon and the look of a dragon is because of Borys.
Before Borys was made into a dragon, there were no dragons, and the term meant something else (it can be an invented term, or a pre-exisiting term meaning something like strength or power or any other number of meanings*).

exactly my point, since Athas is isolated from the rest of creation (aka the palnes), the champions managed to eradicate their chosen race (the one who did).

But the weren't blind, and plane hopping magic is only difficult to obtain not absent, so may be they had actually quite a good idea of what a dragon was... they just found a better version for themselves

Yes- no core book dragons in Athas- the closest thing to a generic dragon that DS has is the elemental drakes- some similarities between the two.

Dragons on DS are much cooler and much, much more powerful then any dragon in the MM or other related books.

and they still call drake the elemental monster and dragon what they became
#7

Pennarin

Nov 07, 2005 12:58:28
I'd be greatly surprised if any single Champion (besides Dregoth) travelled to any other plane besides the Gray, and then only as a method of travel, during the Cleansing Wars. So no Black, Deep, or even Elemental Planes. Why would they go there? Goblins sure don't live or travel the Elemental Plane of Fire!

So, without planar travel, no meeting of D&D dragons and such. Plus, nearly everyone agree that Dregoth's Mirror is the only thing that allows for easy planar travel outside of the Gray. So its possible that Dregoth saw a dragon in another reality, but its just as possible he picked up the name dragon in the rhulisti texts under Giustenal.