- he opens up a portal, sending the slaves to the crater of bones (is that rigth?), where he completes the ritual;
- Borys leeches their life-force, storing it in his osidian orbs, or;
- he leeches their life-force and somehow directs it directly to Rajaat's prison, or what?
Is there anything official on this?
I wonder, what exactly is the ritual Borys uses when he takes his levy each year? The SKs send a 1000 slaves out in the desert and...
- he opens up a portal, sending the slaves to the crater of bones (is that rigth?), where he completes the ritual;
- Borys leeches their life-force, storing it in his osidian orbs, or;
- he leeches their life-force and somehow directs it directly to Rajaat's prison, or what?
Is there anything official on this?
Not entirely sure of the exact ritual Borys used, but I don't think he sacraficed all the slaves from the levy to keep Rajaat's prison in place. I think he used some to replenish the slave stock of his city Ur Draxa as well.
Also the Dragon leeches the energy of a number of slaves and stores it into an obsidian orb. After a city's levy has been used, he seems to physically travel (by walking?) the distance to another city, there to repeat. I guess he does open up a portal to send the slaves to Ur-Draxa...
It begs the question though: why does it take so much time between each harvesting if he's willing and able to use magic or psionics to move himself or slaves around instantaneously?
Anyway, once finally back to his city, the Dragon goes to the Black Sphere and renews the spell that binds his master by using the energy in the orb(s).
In only 50 years the dragon kills twice the ppl living in the cities.....
The reason is taking so much time is not cause hes not fast or such. It's just cause he want the Sk to have the time to get there slaves.
As for the levy, in my game, each city have its delevery point. Urik is in the middle of the smoking crown (called ``Dragon nest`` by the Urikite). Tyr have its own in the Ringing moutain (``called Mountain of the Dragon``). Nibenay deliver in the Ivory plain north of Mekkilot mountain (a place templar call the ``Slave tomb``). Gulg deliver in the Ivory plain south of Mekkilot mountain (``The bone desert``). Balic on the Dragon Palate (its why its called like that). I havent figured out yet where Abalach-Re and Tectutilay send there. In my campaign, the PC went in the smoking crown and saw the Dragon nest. They didnt know what it was for but they were pretty scaried by all the pile of bone. Also,slaves are moved in column with templar and guard keeping them from escaping. The high-templar are the only one who know what happens with the slave. All the other think they are heading for some place, like Makla obsidian quarries in the case of Urik. When they are very near the place, they move by night and the regular guard are left behind. High templar summons creature to patrol around the column in case slaves escape or a tribe try to rescue them. Then, when they arrive at the place, they told the slave to camp here. The templar move away on mount and get the hell out of there. Before the slave realise they are now without guard, the Dragon arrive. Of course, when the column leave the city-state, there more than 1000 slaves since they lost a couple during the travel (exhaustion, escape, natural hazard).
That the way I think it is done.
Tectutitlay have his pyramide in front of the arena and drain the life of gladiator and make sacrifice (source: WJ). The Oba of Gulg have her ``Bone village``, an hidden place in the forest where she brings slave to drain them (source: City state of Gulg).
As for Nibenay, its probably the thing is scribe are searching for in the old ruin in the Nagaramakam. (source: WJ)
Kalak and Kalidnay were the most brillant of the gang since they figured how to achieve dragonhood in a short time.
Abalach-Re try the same (source: Forest maker.)
The Dm can decide for Hamanu, Daskinor and Andropinis.
In my campaign, were in free year 1. Nibenay is level 25, Hamanu is 23, Tec is 22 the rest are 21 except Kalak (is dead but achieved 23 before dying).
Then there the avangion Kornugard and Oronis. They try doing good thing to achieve being a full avangion.
What looks wrong about the levy: each city has to fullfill the levy and hand the dragon 1000 lifes. that means, each year 7000 ppl die only at the dragons hand ( or are transported to Ur Draxa but that doesnt matter in this case ). If i count all ppl living in the cities i get only about 200000 ppl alltogether. ok, there are many villages around but within a few years or decades, just everyone should be dead. there are not enough ppl born to replace them.
In only 50 years the dragon kills twice the ppl living in the cities.....
I posted this a long time ago, hope it helps, fluff-wise.
I cannot 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 such a place as a giant beast that produces youngs and feeds on them, keeping itself alive, all the while digging its barrow a little further each day...in this 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 trading goods for a living, while in fact our true purpose is to 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
What looks wrong about the levy: each city has to fullfill the levy and hand the dragon 1000 lifes. that means, each year 7000 ppl die only at the dragons hand ( or are transported to Ur Draxa but that doesnt matter in this case ). If i count all ppl living in the cities i get only about 200000 ppl alltogether. ok, there are many villages around but within a few years or decades, just everyone should be dead. there are not enough ppl born to replace them.
In only 50 years the dragon kills twice the ppl living in the cities.....
Ya I know. I already tought about that problem. It's one of the many inconsistencies of Dark Sun. But if you do the math, it really work. Troy was not that dumb.
Balic: 27 500
Draj: 15 000
Gulg: 8000
Nibenay: 24 000
Raam: 40 000
Tyr: Near 15 000
Urik: 32 000
Total: 161500
Then, most of the village have a population around 500 to 1000. Let say there like 15 village so that make 15 000 people.
Then, there the elve population that move from city to city. I'l say there about 25 000 elves in Athas (count the tribe in Elves of Athas). Add the slave tribe, so let say, another 10 000. We dont count the thri-kreen or thing like Belgoi and Tarek.
So your right, that make 200 000 people in the Tableland.
But, life is harsh, specially for the slave. They must have a pretty high birth ratio considering ****ing is the only fun thing they can do and the noble and merchant want more slave to work and sell.
Let take Tyr for exemple: Veiled alliance book say that the slave outnumber the free in a ratio 2 to 1. That make around 10000 slaves. If these slaves make children, we need two slave (one male,one female, mul cannot) to make a baby, so that make around 5000 new child being born slave each year. Even if they are still too young to work, someday they will. So every year a city like Tyr lose 1000 slave but gain around 5000. The balance is 4000. Each year, there new slave that get enough old to work. So the city never get depleted of slave. Its like in the real world, we never get depleted of adult people since the young get older. But even with that, Tyr slave balance is not very high. If you take Raam with a population of 40 000, 60% being slave, that make 24 000 slave. So again, about 12 000 new slave are born each year in Raam. They have a balance of 11 000 slave. Raam must be a pretty big provider of slave on the market. Gulg have a little population of Slave (5000), they must import slave like Tyr since they only have 2500 slave born each year (balance 1500).Balic (80% are slave) must be another big provider of slave for the market. The biggest inconsistensies is in Dune trader. They say that Draj is the city providing most of the slave but they only have a population of 9000 slaves.
So yes, the Dragon levy work. Athas population is not depleted by the Dragon levy. The toll is very high, but that add to the mood of the setting.
Athas is a bad place to be.
Troy was not that dumb.
Okay, so you're saying Mr. Denning was dumb, just a little bit. :D
Besides, Borys probably has contingencies if slaves are missing.He could be amassing the slaves' life-force every year, while the spell only needs to be renewed every five. I don't think he'd take risks letting Rajaat out.
Wow... reading this thread really makes me see Borys as an evil anti-Santa Claus.
-Mommy, is Santa Claws coming for me this year?
-Only if you're lazy, dear.
Wow... reading this thread really makes me see Borys as an evil anti-Santa Claus.
-Mommy, is Santa Claws coming for me this year?
-Only if you're lazy, dear.
1.) In the metaporphosis spell it always says hit dice and not lifes. Counting Kael´s argument, that the score "1000 lifes" is used for a nice climax i guess the dragon needs only 1000 HD's. i know, most slaves are at 1 HD but there should be a few ppl with more than 1 HD within their ranks.
2.) I remember a letter printed somewhere in a 2nd Edition rulebook ( i dont have time to look it up atm but will do it later ) about the dragon levy of good old Yaramuke. It says that in times with too less slaves, the levy was paid with animals like mekilots. those animals hava a lot HD and would lessen the number of slaves.
Another 2 reasons just came to my mind that lower the slave cost:
1.) In the metaporphosis spell it always says hit dice and not lifes. Counting Kael´s argument, that the score "1000 lifes" is used for a nice climax i guess the dragon needs only 1000 HD's. i know, most slaves are at 1 HD but there should be a few ppl with more than 1 HD within their ranks.
2.) I remember a letter printed somewhere in a 2nd Edition rulebook ( i dont have time to look it up atm but will do it later ) about the dragon levy of good old Yaramuke. It says that in times with too less slaves, the levy was paid with animals like mekilots. those animals hava a lot HD and would lessen the number of slaves.
You might be thinking of some flavor text in valley dust and fire where it lists off some tribute Hamanu gave Borys to calm him down after Hamanu had devastated Yaramuke.
1.) In the metaporphosis spell it always says hit dice and not lifes. Counting Kael´s argument, that the score "1000 lifes" is used for a nice climax i guess the dragon needs only 1000 HD's. i know, most slaves are at 1 HD but there should be a few ppl with more than 1 HD within their ranks.
2.) I remember a letter printed somewhere in a 2nd Edition rulebook ( i dont have time to look it up atm but will do it later ) about the dragon levy of good old Yaramuke. It says that in times with too less slaves, the levy was paid with animals like mekilots. those animals hava a lot HD and would lessen the number of slaves.
That would make sense, plus in 2nd ed. material like IT, slaves were usually considered 2nd level fighters. In 3.5, they can easily be 2nd to 6th level warriors or experts which would bring the levy numbers, in terms of individuals, down. Although, you have to consider that a 4th to 6th level slave is probably worth keeping unless he's a trouble-maker or getting old. So the real count would be around 400 to 600 slaves or a 1000 HD.
1.) In the metaporphosis spell it always says hit dice and not lifes. Counting Kael´s argument, that the score "1000 lifes" is used for a nice climax i guess the dragon needs only 1000 HD's. i know, most slaves are at 1 HD but there should be a few ppl with more than 1 HD within their ranks.
It was made perfectly clear that the levy was 1000 humanoids/city/year. This then would imply the dragon needed several thousand HD of creatures.
It was made perfectly clear that the levy was 1000 humanoids/city/year. This then would imply the dragon needed several thousand HD of creatures.
Okay, okay, a thousand slaves a year per city it is... for yours and my campaign but it doesn't have to be for everyone (after all, it is sligthly unrealistic), and you have to admit that "made perfectly clear" is kinda contradictory considering all the inconsistencies of DS. ;)
Thanks for helping me