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alternate elf history

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
king_cromag
Apr 09, 2008 14:59:23 Take a deep breath...Relax...I thought this could be a fun topic, and I am not trying to disrupt canon. I just thought it would be fun to speculate on.
This is going to take some thinking outside the box.

I was looking through the "Elves of Athas". Their creation story sounds like they are the survivors of a group who arrived via a spelljammer or another elves in space option. It is found on pages 6-8. Basically they talk about living in the sky, exploring travelling through the stars having some adventures, and finding Athas and living in the wilderness. It also mentions them being small and frail (typical elves).

I am not purposing blending the two systems (dark sun and spelljammer), but it would be an intersting altenate history to explore. What would be the repurcussions of this being true (which I am not saying it is necessarily).
#2
xlorep_darkhelm
Apr 09, 2008 16:15:10 I don't follow. Come again?
#3
king_cromag
Apr 09, 2008 16:41:24 Sorry, I was wondering if anyone had played with the idea of elves not being from Athas. In the book "Elves of Athas" pages 6-8 in the creation story it talks about them coming from the stars to the wilderness of Athas. On the spelljammer boards this caused a bit of hostility when the idea was broached.

I was looking for story ideas. I am considering playing with this idea.
#4
xlorep_darkhelm
Apr 09, 2008 18:54:28 Never considered them as being anything but from Athas. Mainly because there is a LOT of materials supporting the claim that the Athasian Elves are one of the Rebirth races. Especially given that they were targeted by Rajaat and all.
#5
darthcestual
Apr 09, 2008 19:53:19 Considering I came up with back story for eons before the Blue Age, I can buy into the idea easily.:D Ok, say the elves came to Athas from the stars and into the wilderness. What is the circumstances of their arrival? Was their SpellJammer craft a colony ship that was intentionally coming to Athas when it was lush? Was it a military vessel looking to establish an outpost? Could their already be an outpost on/in/of one or both of Athas' moons? Did the elven vessel have to make an emergency landing here and the elves prospered? Narrowing down a couple details can get you headed down the path you want. Are you wanting to explore long lost elven ruins, recently uncovered by a month long sandstorm? Does an elf tribe maintain an ancient shrine to the throne of a great ancient elf king? (The SpellJammer helm) Perhaps some sun-baked crazy has a fragment of stone he found in a cave that he claims is part of a great written history of the SPAAAAAAAACE ELLLLLLLLLVES! Maybe it's their secret, and if anyone found out about it, they'd hunt them down.
#6
phoenix_m
Apr 09, 2008 20:35:17 There's nothing saying you cannot have both, Jammer-elves arive, then the rebirth happens, converting (OR blending, now thats an ugly visual) the Rhulisti and the Elves in to the current elven species. The Elf ship becomes the Messenger - all problems solved elves are still a rebirth race, and from another world. It's not like details of the past haven't been lost before.
#7
king_cromag
Apr 09, 2008 21:18:14 My thoughts are Athas might have been more active in the planes at one time. My thoughts are the githyanki and githzeri have both been on athas. Mindflayers are listed as a possible "underdark" creature for Athas as well. If you throw space elves in the mix, you get a different blue or green age athas. I am not saying Athas would be the center of commerce, but maybe explorers came and some of them stayed. What if the closing of the "sphere" of Athas was due to interlopers from beyond.

Here is an idea, no real basis for it, but I am playing with it. An Elven scoundrel named Coraanu Star Racer has been doing the best impression of Han Solo, he can. He has gathered a motley crew (mostly elven). They make a huge score and need to lie low. Star Runner finds an old map about this out of the way sphere. He tries to talk his crew into going there. The majority are ok with it. They have an adventure or two. Maybe fight some githyanki on the way. Their ship is damaged and they decide to stay on Athas. The gith who they fought follow them and eventually colonize Athas as well (secretly - the black spine module mentions other gith strongholds on Athas). They accidentally lead Mind flayer to Athas or bring a prisoner to one of their strongholds and the zeri blow up they psionic bomb changing athas forever.

I know there is alot of room for improvement, but what do you think? Let me state this up front I am not trying to tturn Athas into the Forgotten Realms. I just am playing with an alternate timeline from the elven creation myth.

The following are not my creations but looking on the internet today I found some write ups of other peoples take on Athas and spelljammer. So I think there are some possibilities.

http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/CrimsonSphere/

http://www.geocities.com/dregoth_2000/aspaceh.htm

So what do you think is in Athas space? On their moons? Or what is your take on the hidden history of Athas?
#8
Zardnaar
Apr 10, 2008 0:02:06 I don't think you can spelljam to Athas.

I had PCs spelljam there once before I knew the above and they filed their cargo hold with metal two handed swords. They fled under bombardment from Kalak minus their toys.
#9
king_cromag
Apr 10, 2008 1:22:06 I am thinking that at one time it was possible but it is not now. The question would be how long it was possible and why was it stopped.

I think Dark Sun was closed off (by TSR) to preseve that Dark Sun Feel and also to prevent the rest of the Multiverse from being conquered by Athasians!

The initial contact could have happened at least for the elves in th blue age. The gith, I have not pinned down the time frame. It is pre psionics at least being commonly found on Athas.

Besides gith, mindflayers, are there anything else that is definitely not from Athas. (Mind flayers might be a stretch, but they have so much backstory that I would like to preserve it or retool them into something less iconic).

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 king_cromag Apr 09, 2008 14:59:23	Take a deep breath...Relax...I thought this could be a fun topic, and I am not trying to disrupt canon. I just thought it would be fun to speculate on. This is going to take some thinking outside the box. I was looking through the "Elves of Athas". Their creation story sounds like they are the survivors of a group who arrived via a spelljammer or another elves in space option. It is found on pages 6-8. Basically they talk about living in the sky, exploring travelling through the stars having some adventures, and finding Athas and living in the wilderness. It also mentions them being small and frail (typical elves). I am not purposing blending the two systems (dark sun and spelljammer), but it would be an intersting altenate history to explore. What would be the repurcussions of this being true (which I am not saying it is necessarily).
#2 xlorep_darkhelm Apr 09, 2008 16:15:10	I don't follow. Come again?
#3 king_cromag Apr 09, 2008 16:41:24	Sorry, I was wondering if anyone had played with the idea of elves not being from Athas. In the book "Elves of Athas" pages 6-8 in the creation story it talks about them coming from the stars to the wilderness of Athas. On the spelljammer boards this caused a bit of hostility when the idea was broached. I was looking for story ideas. I am considering playing with this idea.
#4 xlorep_darkhelm Apr 09, 2008 18:54:28	Never considered them as being anything but from Athas. Mainly because there is a LOT of materials supporting the claim that the Athasian Elves are one of the Rebirth races. Especially given that they were targeted by Rajaat and all.
#5 darthcestual Apr 09, 2008 19:53:19	Considering I came up with back story for eons before the Blue Age, I can buy into the idea easily.:D Ok, say the elves came to Athas from the stars and into the wilderness. What is the circumstances of their arrival? Was their SpellJammer craft a colony ship that was intentionally coming to Athas when it was lush? Was it a military vessel looking to establish an outpost? Could their already be an outpost on/in/of one or both of Athas' moons? Did the elven vessel have to make an emergency landing here and the elves prospered? Narrowing down a couple details can get you headed down the path you want. Are you wanting to explore long lost elven ruins, recently uncovered by a month long sandstorm? Does an elf tribe maintain an ancient shrine to the throne of a great ancient elf king? (The SpellJammer helm) Perhaps some sun-baked crazy has a fragment of stone he found in a cave that he claims is part of a great written history of the SPAAAAAAAACE ELLLLLLLLLVES! Maybe it's their secret, and if anyone found out about it, they'd hunt them down.
#6 phoenix_m Apr 09, 2008 20:35:17	There's nothing saying you cannot have both, Jammer-elves arive, then the rebirth happens, converting (OR blending, now thats an ugly visual) the Rhulisti and the Elves in to the current elven species. The Elf ship becomes the Messenger - all problems solved elves are still a rebirth race, and from another world. It's not like details of the past haven't been lost before.
#7 king_cromag Apr 09, 2008 21:18:14	My thoughts are Athas might have been more active in the planes at one time. My thoughts are the githyanki and githzeri have both been on athas. Mindflayers are listed as a possible "underdark" creature for Athas as well. If you throw space elves in the mix, you get a different blue or green age athas. I am not saying Athas would be the center of commerce, but maybe explorers came and some of them stayed. What if the closing of the "sphere" of Athas was due to interlopers from beyond. Here is an idea, no real basis for it, but I am playing with it. An Elven scoundrel named Coraanu Star Racer has been doing the best impression of Han Solo, he can. He has gathered a motley crew (mostly elven). They make a huge score and need to lie low. Star Runner finds an old map about this out of the way sphere. He tries to talk his crew into going there. The majority are ok with it. They have an adventure or two. Maybe fight some githyanki on the way. Their ship is damaged and they decide to stay on Athas. The gith who they fought follow them and eventually colonize Athas as well (secretly - the black spine module mentions other gith strongholds on Athas). They accidentally lead Mind flayer to Athas or bring a prisoner to one of their strongholds and the zeri blow up they psionic bomb changing athas forever. I know there is alot of room for improvement, but what do you think? Let me state this up front I am not trying to tturn Athas into the Forgotten Realms. I just am playing with an alternate timeline from the elven creation myth. The following are not my creations but looking on the internet today I found some write ups of other peoples take on Athas and spelljammer. So I think there are some possibilities. http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/CrimsonSphere/ http://www.geocities.com/dregoth_2000/aspaceh.htm So what do you think is in Athas space? On their moons? Or what is your take on the hidden history of Athas?
#8 Zardnaar Apr 10, 2008 0:02:06	I don't think you can spelljam to Athas. I had PCs spelljam there once before I knew the above and they filed their cargo hold with metal two handed swords. They fled under bombardment from Kalak minus their toys.
#9 king_cromag Apr 10, 2008 1:22:06	I am thinking that at one time it was possible but it is not now. The question would be how long it was possible and why was it stopped. I think Dark Sun was closed off (by TSR) to preseve that Dark Sun Feel and also to prevent the rest of the Multiverse from being conquered by Athasians! The initial contact could have happened at least for the elves in th blue age. The gith, I have not pinned down the time frame. It is pre psionics at least being commonly found on Athas. Besides gith, mindflayers, are there anything else that is definitely not from Athas. (Mind flayers might be a stretch, but they have so much backstory that I would like to preserve it or retool them into something less iconic).