athas info help- The giant Kreen head

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

balican_gigolo

Mar 30, 2005 22:23:12
I might be starting a PBEM soon, I just need to finish writing the storyline. The problem is, I'm in China and ALL my DS stuff is back in Canada, so I have to work frmo what I can download for free or remember. I've got a few questions about the Ds world as I'm not sure where the adventure will lead yet.

what info is there about that big giant kreen head northwest?west or Urik. I know it's mentioned in Dragon's crown for sure, but I can't remember any info on it. Also, any quick run down of riders of the jagged cliff(I've never read it) and I remember some temple or ruin way north of Urik, in the area of where the Pyreen grove is. I might be mistaken.

Anyway, any help and info about things in this part of athas would be awesome!
#2

balican_gigolo

Mar 30, 2005 22:29:59
Actually, I checked out the place on digital wanderer. It's called Godshold. way up from Urik. any info on that other than what's on digital wanderer website?
#3

Pennarin

Mar 31, 2005 0:32:52
Kamelion will make availlable online a web-project that, among other things, mentions Godshold and stuff. Its very good fluff, no rule mechanics at all.

Godshold, says the author, was the spiritual center, like the Vatican, of the Green Age's Great Pantheon, the widespread religion that everyone followed from sometime during the Green Age until "civilization's fall" (if I may say so) somewhere during the Cleansing Wars.

The actual Godshold entry in the Revised Boxed Set mentions that the lawmakers of the domains collected their gods into one pantheon and dedicated a northern domain to its preservation. Godshold is a temple with surrounding facilities, protected by a helluva of raaig.
It is said mysteries of the ancients' gods can be found within its walls.
#4

Kamelion

Mar 31, 2005 1:48:49
The Godshold information at Digital Wanderer is a direct quote from the Wanderer's Chronicle, so there is no additional information on Godshold in the published DS material. There is some discussion of the Green Age pantheon and its possible significance in this old thread - as usual, it's a contentious issue ;).

The big fat kreen head in the Hinterlands is called the Chak'sa. It was originally a statue with a kreen head on one side and a human's on the other (and perhaps was actually a full-size edifice atop a huge body). The human face is described in Dragon's Crown as looking "uncannily like Korgunard's". The statue bears and inscription that says "When the age of the Great One is come, make ye a joyous light". When the platform by the statue if stood upon, its faceted eyes emit beams of purple light that sweep the sky like searchlights. The kreen bring their dead and lay them to rest nearby.

In addition to the information given in Dragon's Crown, it also features centrally in The Taste of Fear, the adventure from Thri-Kreen of Athas. Most significantly, it triggers ancestral memories within the kreen of a time when humans and kreen dwelt together in a great city and were watched over by a kreen known as the Great One and a human avangion. This compares quite interestingly with the entry in Terrors of the Deadlands that mentions The City of Strong Walls, where various Green Age races take refuge from the Cleansing Wars and are watched over by two Great Ones - a mighty kreen and a winged halfling-like creature that may or may not be an avangion. In Taste of Fear, the beams of light no longer sweep the sky but point out across the dunes to the north.

Taste of Fear contains quite a few nuggets on the Chak'sa - more than it is easy to quote here - but this is the general gist of it. You might want to consider spending the $5 to buy the pdf from svgames.
#5

Pennarin

Mar 31, 2005 2:25:46
Wow, that was one hell of a thread!

Well, the Revised Boxed Set actually mentions there were "gods" and they were assembled into a "pantheon", so Kam's mention of a named god in TotDL supports that bit of info more.

In short: Green Age people believed in gods like Earth's pre-christian civilizations did, and Godshold was a center of worship for them.
#6

balican_gigolo

Mar 31, 2005 6:47:30
wow, thanks for the info guys. That will help me so much.
#7

balican_gigolo

Mar 31, 2005 21:41:22
I also have another question..
What's average temperature during the high sun season? Sun ascending season and sun descending season?
#8

Kamelion

Apr 01, 2005 15:47:54
I am without my books at the moment (I am actually on holiday in Spain, heh heh, letting the cerveza settle before bedtime ;) ) but my recollection is that temperatures during the year range from 100 degrees to 150 degrees at the hottest part of the day during High Sun. A bit like where I am now, come to think of it...