THE BAD GUYS DIDN'T WIN, EVERYONE LOST.
Often said comment about Dark Sun is that it's a setting where "the bad guys won". Well it's more a case of "everyone LOST" actually when you think how pitiful the world has become.
Some ideas from this:
--The "good" folk LEFT Athas ages ago, realizing their world was doomed, they fled via the Planes or Spelljammer, or are maybe in suspended animation deep below.
--The "good " folk died saving the world from catastrophy, which they barely averted, leaving the world a ruin and without their presence.
NO GODS
This is one of Athas unqiue and interesting points.
--There never were any gods.
--The gods ability to link to Athas was damaged by The Grey and thus thier influence and protection atrophied.
--The gods died in catastrophic wars that reduced Athas to it's current condition.
--The gods died preventing the cataclysm that wrecked Athas.
--Gods abandoned Athas due to the actions of the mortals (arrogance, not worshippign correctly, no repsect or mayeb attempting to attack or be gods)
MAGIC AND DEFILERS
Personally I never liked the official "magic comes form living things" slant in much of Athaisan material. What I preffered was that magic, like in most campaigns, is an enigmatic force with no obvious explanation (it's maybe just the basic underpinning of reality, the Quantum physics). However, Defilers learned to tap into the life forces of other creatures, augmenting their power. Thus you have an arms race with defilers vying for power, causing more havoc, using more defielr magic to defeat rivals and those trying to stop their destruction...
--Think of the havoc they'd wreck. Many wizards get caught up in their art and don't care too much about consequences. Defiling is an easier route to power. So imagine where half the wizards become defilers, and thus more powerful than the ones who can best stop them (other wizards). How many decent wizards would take up defiling just to survive or defeat defilers?
ATHASIAN UNDERDARK?
Note that the Underdark isn't mentioned much in Athasian materials.
--Perhaps many folk retreated underground when things went bad above?
--Could the forces of evil below have caused the havoc above? (In my campaigns the mind flayers tried to cause the Sun to go out, hence causing all the troubles)
--Is the Underdark non-existant or was wrecked in the troubles that befell the upper world?
--Is there NO Underdark? (there doesn't have to be one at alll)
SORCER KINGS
Ok, so what are the potent tyrants who rule the city states?
--Are they demigods of earlier times?
--The remaining vampires of a swarm of undead who blighted the world, now herding and controlling their "cattle"?
--Fiends who have assumed power on Athas, turning it into a hell of thier own?
--Defiler lich's who's arcane might is unsurpassed using the deaths in the arenas to fuel their unlife?
PSIONICS
You don't HAVE to have psionics in Dark Sun you know, but it does give the setting flavour. So, where did so much psionics come from?
--Mutation caused by any number of reasons.
--Deliberately introduced by psionic races for their own reasons.
--Like the githyanki and duergar, are Athasians ex-slaves of the mind flayers?
--Are psionics and defiling linked some how? Perhaps the discovery of one lead to the discovery of the other, or they both came from an era of advanced research?
HISTORY
Ok, so, what the heck did happen to make Athas such a devastated place?
--Nuclear war, literally. Is Athas the Earth or an alternate Earth millions of years from now?
--Catastrophic magical war. Armies of fiends and angels...plagues...undead in the millions...defiler legions...
--The Sun merely went into it's death cycle, it's currently a red giant, radiation from this not only roasted Athas, but induced mutations.
--Green house effect, caused by defiling, or some other reason.
--The Black and the Grey are the "polluted" Astral and Ethereal planes awash with the filth from the great wars that destroyed the world, or with a "poisonous residue" from defiling.
--The gods died, and this triggered the current troubles.
--The gods abandoned Athas, perhaps Atahsians in power and arrogance felt they no longer needed the gods, and today's troubles are due to the gods' rebuke.
I took some inspiration from Dragonball Z, and had 7 "dragon stones" scattered across Athas. Once every millenium, they could be gathered, and someone could make a wish.
There's two catches. First, every wish has a price. Secondly, it has to be a wish that has never been wished before. So, if someone tried wishing for immortality, it wouldn't work, as someone already wished that. This, of course, gives a plot device to add in later when the players wonder who this immortal is, and discover his identity (which, of course, is quite sinister).
The idea I had in mind is that the players could have a choice when they gathered the dragon stones. They could use the stones for selfish reasons. Or, they could wish the world was green again. The catch, though, is that the price for a green Athas is the loss of magic. Considering one of my players was a defiler, that choice would have proven somewhat difficult. Could he give up his magic so that the world may live?
There was also a rebellion going on, where one of my players was organizing an army - sort of a resistance movement.
Unfortunately, the game didn't get very far, and we didn't get to see the end result.
Their life-shaping is a highly advanced form of bio-engineering coupled with nano-machines... Yeah, let's see how much techno-babble I can work in!
The spawning of the new races from the halflings I would limit to dwarfs, elves, and humans. The halflings are probably aghast that their compatriots have devolved into the brutish apes they came from (humans), freakishly tall versions of themselves (elves, no body hair right?), and squat mono-maniacs (dwarves, also no body hair). This would 'explain' why these races can interbreed. As if fantasy needed explanation but, whatever...
Other life forms are then extrapolated from these three New Races: elves - gith, dwarves - hej-kin, humans - giants etc.
Things like braxat and dune freaks could be 'aliens' who accompanied the life-shapers, or who found themselves stranded on Athas later on.
Athas could have once had a thriving system of inter-planar gates, bringing all sorts of weirdness to the planet, but these gates were shut either deliberately or by mistake in some sort of accident or conflict. The SKs may be trying to research this gate system to escape from the world and leave it to Rajaat.
Of course this could all be the ramblings of a deranged mind, unhinged by the heat...
My adventure had the PCs being recruited by templars of Kurn and being trained to kill the "Vrykolaks" while being sent out on a quest to find ancient weapons of great power to combat Dregoth himself, Boomer Suits from Bubblegum Crisis. :D
I had a huge AD&D campaign set in that world once, lots of fun, and has a different touch.
Anyways, think about it:
The Blue Age, filled with water, brown tide eats away at the sea and the land, lots of thin pointy eared sea-faring humanoids...
There's some parrallels... ;)
They are divided into Clans (I use Vampire the Masquerade for clan info) and run most of the Underdark... except for the core, which is ruled by the Destroyers. The Champions of Champions. Rajaat new the greatest threat came from the Vampire Nations, as thier Magic was anchient and more pure than merley defiling plants, so he sent 5 great beings (that all made Boyrs look whimpy) to the Underdark, to conquer it... whilst they did not succeed, they didn't fail.
Other nifty stuff in my home-brew athasian underdark:
Link to grey doesn't exist underground
Link to *white* (new, custom plane) does (doesn't exist on the surface)
* White is the source of immortal magic
* The Gods (Three) exist, in a weakened state, in the Underdark, worhsipped by Underdark Humans, and the Vampires. They cannot survive on the surface.
* Caine, the Original vampire, has become a god.
* Vampies imbue blood to restore mortal life force spent whilst accessing the white, they think the blood actually powers thier powers.
Nibenay knows of the underdark, and is seeking to establish trade links....
It did remind me of a sort of aquatic Athas, glad someone else thinks fondly of the series!
Originally posted by Shei-Nad
Remember Pirates of Dark Water?
I had a huge AD&D campaign set in that world once, lots of fun, and has a different touch.
I gave my Elf Ranger the sur name Darkwater!... hehehe Jenolyn Darkwater, and his pet Gorgemeira... Now there was an original last name... not..
The character, who after going through a campaign was later in life able to singlehandedly wipe out a pack (I think 8 or so) hill or stone giants, a fire elemental, and a few others from the intro to the Return to the Tomb of Horrors set. . (Everyone else fell asleep, and it just got boring that my character was able to handle everything, so we stopped for the night, never resumed.)
In essence, he had fast healing 5, a few lich abilities (he donned some cursed armor that turned him into a lich, group members had to beseeh mielikki to change him back to non-lich, but the armor was still cursed and he could change back at any time - this from the same DM that threw in some cursed Blue gloves that turned my female Tiefling Mage/Thief into some evil male Demonlord for a short time - well, until he tried to settle a dispute over a wand of wonder and snapped it, killing most of the party, except himself (herself)... the game ended there for obvious reasons.