I've got a few ideas, but i was wondering if anyone had any cannon on that particular subject.
Originally posted by Phoenix_Down
according to the Wanderer's Journal, one of the first things Oronis did was secretly free the slaves of Kurn... my question is, how did he fulfill his part of the Levy?
The paragraph before that phrase with the slaves.
A long time passed and the city became a forgotten city. It stopped mercantile activity with the other city-states.
We can presume Keltis annihilated his designated race before the rebellion against Rajaat because in the text there is no sense of urgency from the Dragon's rampages. Those other city-states and their governments would be Cleansing Wars cities, most governed by groups or royalty, only an handfull by champions. I would say only Kurn, Urik and Tyr were governed by SKs (see the novels). The other champions were busy with the own corner of the war.
So he got off the radar of the others long before the revolt against their master, a hundred years after which the levy was imposed.
Since we're not in Star Trek or a D&D world with omniscient gods, the champions who banded together to strike at Rajaat, and who later payed the levy, probably didn't even include all the champions, just those they knew were still alive and could locate or convince to take part, or not to interfere.
Later the Dragon never got that far to collect the levy. I keep searching for the reference but can't find it: somewhere it states that one of the paranoia bouts of Daskinor resulted in him raising an army for the next Dragon's visit. The Dragon didn't bother to come back after that. He stopped coming for Kurn since the cities stood alone too far from the others. I guess its when the Dragon first collected his levy that he discovered Keltis and Daskinor were still in fact alive, if not well. They, as for some others, did not participate in the champions's revolt (for example, Kalak wasen't there: Andropinis and Hamanu said they didn't trust him, so we can assume he's not named because he's wasen't included by the others*).
* It may be because he hadn't, in game terms, the Champion of Rajaat template, he wasn't one of them. This last part is sketchy since it asen't been decided yet by the brass if he was or wasen't, since it comes solely from the RaFoaDK, and the Prism Pentad is sketchy around the dragon status of Kalak, was he a non-champion human trying to reach full dragonhood in one stride, or was he an immortal champion, already a dragon, trying to reach full dragonhood in one stride...
Balance as not judged yet...
Originally posted by Psionycx
Or perhaps he couldn't due to some constraint related to maintaining the bindings on Rajaat's prison?
You can look at the cities of the Tablelands as quarries of a peculiar kind (i.e. like machines).
I could not say what the levy is for, young master, but I can tell you how we arrive at it each year. You say you can't understand how a city can lose a thousand heads and not grow small...
You know of the quarries of our king, where the slaves that don't belong to a household go at night? It is where most of them work in the day, making mud and stone bricks. Your father bought me there, since I was working as the regulator's accountant and he needed someone capable with numbers...
It take years for an untrained eye to notice there is always enough slaves to man the quarries. I see them as a giant beast that produces youngs and feed on them, keeping itself alive, all the while digging its barrow a little further each day...in our case producing bricks.
I would tell you the same is true of our city, young master. It is like our quarries, a giant beast our king has erected out of the sands, going through the motions each day to provide a thousand slaves year's end.
The villages we trade with do not have quarries to brick their walls, and those outside the perview of our king, we raid for slaves. If our city was as small as they, we would be prey for our mighty neighbors.
You would think as a people we make goods for trade, while in fact we raise slaves for the levy, and grow strong so as not to be counted among its numbers...
- The lesson of a scribe-slave to its young master
Later the Dragon never got that far to collect the levy. I keep searching for the reference but can't find it:
The reference is in the timeline:
"171st King's Age (-1,463)
Silt's Reverence
Daskinor Goblin Death slips into insanity following this year's levy, and builds an army to slay the Dragon upon his return the following year. Borys learns of his plot, and not needing the levy to maintain Rajaat's prison never returns. Keltis, Lizard Man Executioner, has an attack of conscience and denounces being a sorcerer-king. Over the next centuries he strives to become something more noble. Because of the actions of nearby Daskinor, Borys never returns to Kurn and both cities become isolated from the rest of Athas."
-sniff :D-
Well, some of the dates and events of the eventually official timeline* are funky at best. Its a mix between all the novels and accessories whose dates don't match anyway, and who are not in accord as to the precedence of events (what came before and after). It looks more of the dates a learned scribe in service to Nibenay would write than DS designers...
*Gab, I think, said the timeline really is official, but I wonder if it will be possible for athas.org to retouch some of it, as some of the members of this board did at home. And new official dates will have to be added, dates of events that have not yet occured.
Originally posted by Pennarin
They, as for some others, did not participate in the champions's revolt (for example, Kalak wasen't there: Andropinis and Hamanu said they didn't trust him, so we can assume he's not named because he's wasen't included by the others*).
* It may be because he hadn't, in game terms, the Champion of Rajaat template, he wasn't one of them. This last part is sketchy since it asen't been decided yet by the brass if he was or wasen't, since it comes solely from the RaFoaDK, and the Prism Pentad is sketchy around the dragon status of Kalak, was he a non-champion human trying to reach full dragonhood in one stride, or was he an immortal champion, already a dragon, trying to reach full dragonhood in one stride...
Actually, I'd have to disagree - Kalak was the Ogre Doom, and a Champion of Rajaat. If you recall, Lynn Abbey made Lalai-Pui the Ogre Doom in her book, instead of the Aarakocra Annihilator (or whatever her name was). That was another one of those things that, unfurtinately due to Lynn Abbey's inability to access what was going on with Dark Sun, she fudged up a little.
This limited range must have finally made him give up on the Northern Cities (along with the assassination plot by our boy Daskinor). This does bode well for other Champions existing beyond the known Tyr region that did not necessarily assist in Rajaat's trapping or stay in Borys' range.