Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Mulhull Jul 12, 2004 20:23:48	I was just wondering has anyone ever run an alternate campaign regarding dark sun, that is- that does not follow what happened in the novels or the game material. Say perhaps you ran a game where Kalak DID become a dragon and went over the mountains and starting defiling the forest ridge, or a game where all of the SK's and SQ's are still alive, and Rajaat didn't kill any of them. I heard some people say that Troy Denning utterly wrecked Dark Sun in the prism pentad by only having a few evil SK's still alive. And also, why were all the SK's confined to the Tyr Region of Athas, or near it? I thought the war defiled the entire planet, but that all is disputable considering the forest ridge, and the Crimson Savanna are still seemingly untouched by defiling magic. It said that Rajaat did not assign a champion to kill Thri-kreen (and the other kreen species) because he though they were animals, but how long has the crimson savanna been there, how could he NOT notice they were intelligent if they had cities and could use elemental magic and psionics? Borys apparently never defiled the savanna when he was alive. And one more thing, in the Green age the sea of silt was sea of water, but what about the valley of dust and fire, was that there as well, and Ur-Draxa? If it was a sea of water back then, well then wouldn't it have spilled into the valley and covered it? Perhaps the valley was like a huge crater in the ocean back then covered with water.
#2 dracochapel Jul 12, 2004 20:33:22	I ran a campaign where only Kalak died, though the rest of the events happened but Abalach-Re didnt get killed (she was only seriously injured) and tek and andropinis also survived. I had the Dragon die though. The PC's spent their first couple of adventures helping the construction of a trading post in the forest ridge. They were sick of halflings by the end :D Then they went to Raam to try and carve out a power base while abalach was injured and (especially) ignorant of the going ons in her city. I had Raam basically have the unrest like if she was dead, but then she recovered and became a really harsh SQ - decided to show everyone who was boss. One of the things i like about the new Paizo setting is that the sk's have returned/been replaced, after all that hope and effort the "heroes" couldnt get anywhere further than tyr. He didnt assign a champion to the kreen cause they were not descended from the halflings and had been around since the blue age with the halflings. They were probably on the list of things to kill either right before or right after he got rid of the humans (maybe planned to use the champions one last time to kill the kreen then get rid of humans). I imagine urdraxa was originally like crete or minoa, an old volcanic island in the middle of the sea. Maybe the cleansing wars stirred the volcano up, or maybe it had never stopped flowing lava Left out a bit - i think the SK's stayed around the Tyr region (+ north and south) because thats where the rebirth races were. The kreen were left to themselves because they were isolated from the tablelands and i dont see any reason why there has to be any one else in the world. Maybe its a small world or maybe the sea of silt is HUGE. Or there is land on the other side but its either not occupied or there is something else there (i prefer that the dead races stay that way) some other race that isnt kreen or halfling based.
#3 Mulhull Jul 12, 2004 23:17:02	It said in the thri-kreen of athas book (back in 95 or 96) that he didn't assign a champion to the kreen because he thought they were animals, still makes me wonder how long the crimson savanna has been there, and why it didn't get defiled back in the cleansing wars, or by Borys after he became a dragon, it said in the original dark sun boxed set that Borys travels all over athas.
#4 dracochapel Jul 12, 2004 23:25:31	it said in the original dark sun boxed set that Borys travels all over athas. Yeah, but that is written from the perspective of the Wanderer, and probably should say "all over known athas". Whether Borys did or did not travel to other places(such as the savanna, the deadlands, the far north or past the sea of silt) would not be known to the wanderer at that time.(he might have more of an idea later when he does explore some more places). I'd say the savanna has been the way it has since the green age, and the Dragon probably avoids that area - he'd be unlikely to know much about the kreen and im sure theres enough of them in the empire to kill him. The savanna was off limits to the tablelands until recently, and since there arent any of the rebirth races there its unlikely rajaat would have forced his champions to go there, and if they had whats to stop the kreen killing them?
#5 zombiegleemax Jul 13, 2004 0:37:51	And also, why were all the SK's confined to the Tyr Region of Athas The speculation is that they had to remain in proximity to Rajaat's prison since they needed so many beings to be sacrificed every year in order to keep the Warbringer in the Hollow. We can only presume that the Tyr Region is the closest area that was able to support enough people to keep the levy going. That's my thinking on it. They could have settled further out, but it would have been even more difficult to get the would-be-sacrifices out to Ur-Draxa then. So it boils down to simple laziness. I thought the war defiled the entire planet, but that all is disputable considering the forest ridge, and the Crimson Savanna are still seemingly untouched by defiling magic Speculation once again, but the way I work it, the Clensing Wars were a global affair. The reason for places like the Crimson Savanna is that areas outside the Tyr Region have had the benefit of 2,000 years of regrowth since the end of the Clensing Wars. Socially, the kreen don't practice magic, so there's no ongoing defiling to taint the ecosystem. Borys apparently never defiled the savanna when he was alive. Defiled land is not ruined forever. Bory's rampaging was likely worse the closer you got to his home of Ur Draxa, but I'm fairly sure he would have ravaged areas further away in a more scattered fashion. But once again, that was some 1,500 years ago, more than enough time for the land to become moderately fertile again (but even still, its only fertile enough after all this time to support only grasses and weeds). Also, I doubt that in his madness, Borys sat down with a map of the globe and systematically plotted out how to best defile every sq. mile of Athas. Some areas probably got passed over (its still a pretty big world). If you look at it that way, there's no reason why there couldn't be places like the Crimson Savanna and other small isolated forests. It said that Rajaat did not assign a champion to kill Thri-kreen (and the other kreen species) because he though they were animals, but how long has the crimson savanna been there, how could he NOT notice they were intelligent if they had cities and could use elemental magic and psionics? Borys apparently never defiled the savanna when he was alive. He didn't see them as animals. He saw them as being part of the Blue Age that he was trying to restore Athas to. Rajaat wasn't just trying to flood the world, or just kill off everything and hand it over to the halflings; he was trying to recreate the Blue Age itself. Kreen were a piece of the puzzle in Rajaat's vision of the Blue Age, hence they were exempt from genocide. And one more thing, in the Green age the sea of silt was sea of water, but what about the valley of dust and fire, was that there as well, and Ur-Draxa? If it was a sea of water back then, well then wouldn't it have spilled into the valley and covered it? Perhaps the valley was like a huge crater in the ocean back then covered with water We do still have islands on earth that have large valleys well below sea level that are not instantly inundated. Why should the Ur Draxan region be any different. Just because its a valley isn't really a relevant issue. As for whether the city itself was there, there's no canon on its founding. In my game, Ur-Draxa was the capitol of the first large scale empire in the early Green Age and while the current natives (before the Cerrulean Storm) are not descendants of the empire, the history of the city lent itself even more to their superiority mentality.
#6 Pennarin Jul 13, 2004 1:27:43	Originally posted by Mach2.5 As for whether the city itself was there, there's no canon on its founding. In my game, Ur-Draxa was the capitol of the first large scale empire in the early Green Age and while the current natives (before the Cerrulean Storm) are not descendants of the empire, the history of the city lent itself even more to their superiority mentality. 167th King's Age (-1,771) -Ral's Agitation In an attempt to increase her power, Sielba, Queen of Yaramuke attacks Urik. Hamanu easily defeats her army and personally slays the sorcerer-queen. On the heels of victory, Urik's army sacks Yaramuke and burns the city to the ground. To appease the Dragon's wrath for killing a sorcerer-queen, Hamanu presents Borys with a levy of Yaramuke's riches-which pleases the beast and spares Urik. -Silt's Defiance Borys uses the booty gained from Yaramuke to build Ur Draxa, which becomes the greatest city on all of Athas. At the center of the city Borys places the Black Sphere for him and his city to protect. Ur-Draxa would probably, at the time of its founding, already have been in the middle of a silt sea, not a sea of water. If there were silt shooners at the time, then it might have become part of athasian society, if not, then it was from the day of its founding until the time of Rajaat's short-lived liberation: a cut-off, populated island. 160th King's Age (-2,310) -Wind's Fury The great cities of Ebe, Waverly, and Arala are swallowed by the expanding Silt Sea, though later it recedes from Waverly. The nearby city of Bodach is spared, but becomes surrounded by silt.
#7 zombiegleemax Jul 13, 2004 7:21:32	Borys uses the booty gained from Yaramuke to build Ur Draxa, which becomes the greatest city on all of Athas. At the center of the city Borys places the Black Sphere for him and his city to protect. I stand corrected. Thanks Penn.