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Dark Sun in Homebrew

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
Mar 27, 2005 8:17:23 I'm going to add some Dark Sun aspects to my Homebrew. Specifically, one of my nations is going to reflect Athas. Oh, I'm not going to add Sorcerer Kings. But there is some aspects I wanted to add.

What do you guys think?
#2
zombiegleemax
Mar 27, 2005 10:21:16 We need more info to give you opinions. What are you including? What is the rest or your campaign world like?
#3
zombiegleemax
Mar 27, 2005 12:02:46 It's quite simple, really.

This piece of my world is based on the Middle East. The Campaign Setting revolves around a couple of nations:

Khem. Inspired by Ancient Egypt, Khem is a nation ruled by psychics and religion. From time to time, the Dynasties of Khem passes from the Psionic factions and the Religious factions. The current Pharoah is an arrogant Psychic Warrior which demands respect. Also, from time to time, the attitudes of the people change according to the current regime. About 75% of the people have strong psionic talent (I.e. the Hidden Talent feat).

Four hundred years ago, the Psychic Dynasty back then repelled the Orc Invasions. The psionic Pharoah was killed though, and he was replaced by a new Relgious Pharoah and a new Dynasty that lasted 130 years. However, before the Orc Invasions, Khem was conquered by the Grey Elves.

BFenteia. Inspired by 1st Century Israel. Only recently, Fenteia has thrown off the yoke of the Blood Rex tribe of Orcs. Fenteia is a nation of six tribes: Over which the Tribes of Benjamin, Reuben, and Judas have control. Recently, the Grey Elves and then the Orcs had split Fenteia into three parts.

Fenteia proper was ruled by the orcs. But the overthrow of their Orc Overlords have allowed them to install a Republic that is much like Rome's. Due to tribal intermixing, 10% of the population of Fenteia have little psionic talent (wild talent feat).

Lorieas. Lorieas is an Elven kingdom, directly north of Fenteia, inspired by Rivendell. Most elves here are full blooded Grey Elves. However, their Nobility and Aristocracy claim descent from the ancient kings of Fenteia. The Fenteians hate this claim and will go out of their way to avoid Lorieas on their way to the land of Samaria.

Lorieas was conquered by the Orcs as the orcs themselves destroyed their Empire. To put off their orc masters, the elves invoked the powers of their deities and the elf warrior deity maimed the cheif orc deity. After that, the elves of Lorieas established a benevolent monarchy. However, in the distant past, the elves of Lorieas were split along racial, religious, and political lines. The group that schismed from the Loriean Grey elves journeyed to the canyons of Bastor to form their own civilization. As a result, less than 4% of the Loriean elves have some sort of psionic talent.

Samaria. Inspired by 1st Century Galilee. The tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Dan hold sway over this small kingdom. Both Ephraim and Manasseh hold strong genetic ties to Khem as a full 20% have some psionic talent (wild talent feat) and 2% have strong psionic talent (Hidden Talent feat). Samaria was conquered by the Orcs as they worked to destroy the Grey Elf empire. However, in little less than fifty years, Samaria had utterly kicked the Blood Tooth, the Bood Wolf, and the Cerulean Storm orc tribes from their lands, and banished those tribes to the east. Wars between the orcs and Samaria are constant from then on.

Samaria is controlled by a Monarchy that had waxed and waned in power. The current King is a psion, and feigns weakness while the feudal barons maintain control. In truth, however, the King of Samaria is a very savvy psion king, and manipulates the barons against each other while quietly ruling his small beleagured kingdom.

Bastor. This land is inspired by Athas. It's directly east of both Fenteia and Lorieas. It is a lawless land of desert plateaus, deap canyons, and high, lush mountains. To the south, Bastor's limits start on the Dune Sea that stretches to the south for some 300 miles.

Bastor's people live in city states or in traveling caravans. Although conquered by the orcs, and one time Bastor was a province and protectorate of Khem, and thus a lot of people of Bastor have a lot of Khemite blood in them.

Instead of worshiping Khem's gods, the Bastorans have turned to the four elements and the four para-elements for spiritual guidiance. The Clerics of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water and the clerics of Rain, Sun, Magma, and Silt all guide the people. Bastor is a brutal land, and it's people (humans, elves, and pterrans) are considered immodest by the Fenteians and the Samaritans.

The Canyons of Xeph. Long ago, Xeph led his people, the disenfranchised psionic elves of Lorieas, to the Canyons of Bastor. Inspired by Lothorien, the Canyons of Xeph is technically in Bastor's borders. However, the People of Xeph, or Xephs, have created a kingdom in the Canyons. Their land is beautiful, and at night glows with psionic might.

The Xephs are monotheistic and have strong psionic talents. In fact, the entire race is psionically endowed. Over time, the Xephs have gained a swarthy, dark brown skin due to exposure to the Bastor sun.

The Three Islands. There are three islands on the Great Sea. Amazonia and the Halfling Island. Both have strange cultures, but only one was the orcs successful in destroying society.

Amazonia is ruled by human women. Warrior women. It is a large island with rivers and verdant forests. When the orcs came, the Amazons managed to repell their invasions utterly, and throw off their Grey Elf masters at the same time. The Amazons have very little or no psionic talent (this is not true, many amazons have strong psionic talent, they just don't noticeably use it).

The Halfling Island is a lush jungle island. Once, it contained an advanced halfling civilization where the Halflings traded with all others. However, the coming of the orcs destroyed their thriving society, UTTERLY. When the orcs left, intent on just pillage and razing, the halflings that were alive had degraded into a savage people. As a result, the clerics of Khem turned their island into a jungle island in order to mask the Halflings from the people of Khem. A few halflings do make it to the other nations, however.

The Island of Minos is inspired by Minoan Crete. The humans there have no psionic talent, but enjoy bull dancing and a few other things. The Island of Minos is a monarchy.

The Fire Mountains. The fire mountains is populated by dwarves, who were created from wind and fire. The three dwarves are split by appearances. The fire dwarves have red swarthy skin and are hairless, but have talents with fire (smithing, engineering, war). The wind dwarves have light skin and long hair that seems to sway on it's own. They have talents with wind (music, sculpting, painting, and artifice). The Dark Dwarves are exactly like the Duergar from the Monstrous Manual.

Beyond the Dune Sea. Beyond the Dune Sea is the land of the Sorcerer Kings. Half-giants are from this land. The Dune Sea separates the lands above from the land of the Sorcerer Kings, so the Sorcerer Kings have little influence, if any, on the kingdoms above.

Orc Horde. The Orc Horde is made up of dozens of orc tribes, many of which have lost their promience. The Horde is currently split, but every once in a while, a powerful War Chief can unify the Horde, becoming a High King or Khan. The orc tribes are controlled by the War Chiefs, the Trade Chiefs, the Storm Shamans, and the Far Seers. Currently the orcs are split idealogically.

Races

The Player Races I'm including are:

Humans, Aarakocra, Bastoran (Athasian) Elves, Elans, Grey Elves, Dwarves (fire, wind, and duergar), half elves, half orcs, half giants, halflings, pterrans, and xephs.

The character classes include:

the Standard character classes from the PHB, Psion, Psychic Warrior, Soulknife, and Wilder.
#4
zombiegleemax
Mar 27, 2005 12:59:08 Wow. My hat goes off to you. I like this a lot. I love the historivcal parallels! It'll be a while before I can come up with anything to suggest, because what I see is so cool, I have to figure out the right way to aproach it. I run a multiplanar campaign. Can I borrow this world?
#5
xlorepdarkhelm_dup
Mar 27, 2005 14:47:59
I'm going to add some Dark Sun aspects to my Homebrew. Specifically, one of my nations is going to reflect Athas. Oh, I'm not going to add Sorcerer Kings. But there is some aspects I wanted to add.

What do you guys think?

Actually, one of my worlds for my Homebrew setting, which I call Samarnia, superficially has some similarities with Athas - it's a desolate, barren wasteland, destroyed by arcane magic. The differences lie in that for the most part, the surface of the world is virtually uninhabitable, there is no standting surface water anywhere, and massive cracks riddle the entire surface, radiating outward from what once were great cities of an ancient civilization. Magic doesn't suck life from plants, but rather the Arcane magic attracts "force-storms" that are powerful magical storms of multicolored lightning which inflict terrible damage (arcane magic users are like lightning rods to these things - really bad for them). Divine magic is unheardof, as the world actually inflicts terrible pain upn any Deity that goes to it (or even sends their energy to it). Psionics are the only real "safe" energy to use. Most people live deep in the earth, lining the walls of the massive cracks (the cracks themselves lead down eventually to lava in most cases) as well as digging into caves as well. Plus, most of the races have changed radically in culture, appearance, and more as they have adapted to this very hostile and unforgiving environment. I have even considered bringing in some sense of the Advanced Being concept into this setting.

Primarily, what caused this "shattering" of the world, was the ancient civilization, known as the Urloc Empire, had enslaved all other races, for thousands of years. Eventually, there was a slave revolt, first on the other two worlds the Empire existed on, and the Urlocs retreated to this world, they attempted to use a powerful magical ritual to protect this world from the slave revolt, and tapped into the core energy of the world - unknowngly tapping into the core energy of their own creator (the god of magic) - they were unable to control the energy, and it literally ripped their world apart as they effectively killed their own god. The backlash from all of this also collapsed their civilization, and transformed them into the pitiful Goblinoid races which are incapable of wielding magic. The Shattering also affected the other two worlds in a variety of ways, but it was most devistating to Samarnia itself.

(someday, I'll actually take the time to get a website up with a full presentaion of my Homebrew setting, which I call currently "The Four Worlds" - consisting of 3 Fantasy settings, and 1 Sci-Fi setting, all interconnected with each other, and yet separate and distinct from each other).
#6
beyowulf
Mar 27, 2005 16:58:36
BFenteia. Inspired by 1st Century Israel. Only recently, Fenteia has thrown off the yoke of the Blood Rex tribe of Orcs. Fenteia is a nation of six tribes: Over which the Tribes of Benjamin, Reuben, and Judas have control. Recently, the Grey Elves and then the Orcs had split Fenteia into three parts.

Fenteia proper was ruled by the orcs. But the overthrow of their Orc Overlords have allowed them to install a Republic that is much like Rome's. Due to tribal intermixing, 10% of the population of Fenteia have little psionic talent (wild talent feat).

Some good stuff, but wouldn't some of your players think it strange that RW Israelite tribes wound-up in your homebrew campaign world?
#7
zombiegleemax
Mar 27, 2005 18:08:39 Yes . . . and no. Depends on what sort of players that they are.

If I were to play this with some Israelis, yeah, maybe.
#8
zombiegleemax
Mar 27, 2005 18:09:46
Wow. My hat goes off to you. I like this a lot. I love the historivcal parallels! It'll be a while before I can come up with anything to suggest, because what I see is so cool, I have to figure out the right way to aproach it. I run a multiplanar campaign. Can I borrow this world?

hmm . . .

Can I finish the production design first? :D
#9
zombiegleemax
Mar 27, 2005 18:20:49 I'll abstain from incorporating it into my game until you give the good word. ;)
#10
zombiegleemax
Mar 27, 2005 18:49:59
I'll abstain from incorporating it into my game until you give the good word. ;)

Okay. It might be better if you wait for the production design to finish, at any rate.
#11
zombiegleemax
Mar 28, 2005 19:40:03
Samaria

I used to date a Lebanese girl named Samara.

I really liked Dark Sun before Encyclopedia Athas came along and unearthed all it's secrets. I was perfectly content in thinking the SKs were really just powerful sorcerer and not generals of some long ago army.

I love homebrew settings. I cannot stop thinking new ones up. The most recent one I thought of, was a D20 future desert land ruled by Illithids and worked by enslaved humans using Tiberian Sun and Ages of Empires graphics. I was originally going to make it out for Cyberpunk 2020, but nobody except a few die hard fans still plays it anymore.

I was going to make a little desert kingdom using Age of Wonder graphics, however, I haven't gotten a round to it yet.

While reading a National Geographic at the dentists this morning, I thought of an ancient world where the other races, such as orcs and dwarves etc. do not exist, but rather, Neanderthals, H. Erectus and Flores man exist along side humans.

Make it stop!

Hey Sir Elton, have you ever heard of The Everchanging Book of Names? It's a great name generating program that generates names by cultures.
#12
zombiegleemax
Mar 30, 2005 18:39:52 Yes, actually.

Oh, to whom it may concern. I'm almost done with my production design on my homebrew. :D

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2005 8:17:23	I'm going to add some Dark Sun aspects to my Homebrew. Specifically, one of my nations is going to reflect Athas. Oh, I'm not going to add Sorcerer Kings. But there is some aspects I wanted to add. What do you guys think?
#2 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2005 10:21:16	We need more info to give you opinions. What are you including? What is the rest or your campaign world like?
#3 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2005 12:02:46	It's quite simple, really. This piece of my world is based on the Middle East. The Campaign Setting revolves around a couple of nations: Khem. Inspired by Ancient Egypt, Khem is a nation ruled by psychics and religion. From time to time, the Dynasties of Khem passes from the Psionic factions and the Religious factions. The current Pharoah is an arrogant Psychic Warrior which demands respect. Also, from time to time, the attitudes of the people change according to the current regime. About 75% of the people have strong psionic talent (I.e. the Hidden Talent feat). Four hundred years ago, the Psychic Dynasty back then repelled the Orc Invasions. The psionic Pharoah was killed though, and he was replaced by a new Relgious Pharoah and a new Dynasty that lasted 130 years. However, before the Orc Invasions, Khem was conquered by the Grey Elves. BFenteia. Inspired by 1st Century Israel. Only recently, Fenteia has thrown off the yoke of the Blood Rex tribe of Orcs. Fenteia is a nation of six tribes: Over which the Tribes of Benjamin, Reuben, and Judas have control. Recently, the Grey Elves and then the Orcs had split Fenteia into three parts. Fenteia proper was ruled by the orcs. But the overthrow of their Orc Overlords have allowed them to install a Republic that is much like Rome's. Due to tribal intermixing, 10% of the population of Fenteia have little psionic talent (wild talent feat). Lorieas. Lorieas is an Elven kingdom, directly north of Fenteia, inspired by Rivendell. Most elves here are full blooded Grey Elves. However, their Nobility and Aristocracy claim descent from the ancient kings of Fenteia. The Fenteians hate this claim and will go out of their way to avoid Lorieas on their way to the land of Samaria. Lorieas was conquered by the Orcs as the orcs themselves destroyed their Empire. To put off their orc masters, the elves invoked the powers of their deities and the elf warrior deity maimed the cheif orc deity. After that, the elves of Lorieas established a benevolent monarchy. However, in the distant past, the elves of Lorieas were split along racial, religious, and political lines. The group that schismed from the Loriean Grey elves journeyed to the canyons of Bastor to form their own civilization. As a result, less than 4% of the Loriean elves have some sort of psionic talent. Samaria. Inspired by 1st Century Galilee. The tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Dan hold sway over this small kingdom. Both Ephraim and Manasseh hold strong genetic ties to Khem as a full 20% have some psionic talent (wild talent feat) and 2% have strong psionic talent (Hidden Talent feat). Samaria was conquered by the Orcs as they worked to destroy the Grey Elf empire. However, in little less than fifty years, Samaria had utterly kicked the Blood Tooth, the Bood Wolf, and the Cerulean Storm orc tribes from their lands, and banished those tribes to the east. Wars between the orcs and Samaria are constant from then on. Samaria is controlled by a Monarchy that had waxed and waned in power. The current King is a psion, and feigns weakness while the feudal barons maintain control. In truth, however, the King of Samaria is a very savvy psion king, and manipulates the barons against each other while quietly ruling his small beleagured kingdom. Bastor. This land is inspired by Athas. It's directly east of both Fenteia and Lorieas. It is a lawless land of desert plateaus, deap canyons, and high, lush mountains. To the south, Bastor's limits start on the Dune Sea that stretches to the south for some 300 miles. Bastor's people live in city states or in traveling caravans. Although conquered by the orcs, and one time Bastor was a province and protectorate of Khem, and thus a lot of people of Bastor have a lot of Khemite blood in them. Instead of worshiping Khem's gods, the Bastorans have turned to the four elements and the four para-elements for spiritual guidiance. The Clerics of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water and the clerics of Rain, Sun, Magma, and Silt all guide the people. Bastor is a brutal land, and it's people (humans, elves, and pterrans) are considered immodest by the Fenteians and the Samaritans. The Canyons of Xeph. Long ago, Xeph led his people, the disenfranchised psionic elves of Lorieas, to the Canyons of Bastor. Inspired by Lothorien, the Canyons of Xeph is technically in Bastor's borders. However, the People of Xeph, or Xephs, have created a kingdom in the Canyons. Their land is beautiful, and at night glows with psionic might. The Xephs are monotheistic and have strong psionic talents. In fact, the entire race is psionically endowed. Over time, the Xephs have gained a swarthy, dark brown skin due to exposure to the Bastor sun. The Three Islands. There are three islands on the Great Sea. Amazonia and the Halfling Island. Both have strange cultures, but only one was the orcs successful in destroying society. Amazonia is ruled by human women. Warrior women. It is a large island with rivers and verdant forests. When the orcs came, the Amazons managed to repell their invasions utterly, and throw off their Grey Elf masters at the same time. The Amazons have very little or no psionic talent (this is not true, many amazons have strong psionic talent, they just don't noticeably use it). The Halfling Island is a lush jungle island. Once, it contained an advanced halfling civilization where the Halflings traded with all others. However, the coming of the orcs destroyed their thriving society, UTTERLY. When the orcs left, intent on just pillage and razing, the halflings that were alive had degraded into a savage people. As a result, the clerics of Khem turned their island into a jungle island in order to mask the Halflings from the people of Khem. A few halflings do make it to the other nations, however. The Island of Minos is inspired by Minoan Crete. The humans there have no psionic talent, but enjoy bull dancing and a few other things. The Island of Minos is a monarchy. The Fire Mountains. The fire mountains is populated by dwarves, who were created from wind and fire. The three dwarves are split by appearances. The fire dwarves have red swarthy skin and are hairless, but have talents with fire (smithing, engineering, war). The wind dwarves have light skin and long hair that seems to sway on it's own. They have talents with wind (music, sculpting, painting, and artifice). The Dark Dwarves are exactly like the Duergar from the Monstrous Manual. Beyond the Dune Sea. Beyond the Dune Sea is the land of the Sorcerer Kings. Half-giants are from this land. The Dune Sea separates the lands above from the land of the Sorcerer Kings, so the Sorcerer Kings have little influence, if any, on the kingdoms above. Orc Horde. The Orc Horde is made up of dozens of orc tribes, many of which have lost their promience. The Horde is currently split, but every once in a while, a powerful War Chief can unify the Horde, becoming a High King or Khan. The orc tribes are controlled by the War Chiefs, the Trade Chiefs, the Storm Shamans, and the Far Seers. Currently the orcs are split idealogically. Races The Player Races I'm including are: Humans, Aarakocra, Bastoran (Athasian) Elves, Elans, Grey Elves, Dwarves (fire, wind, and duergar), half elves, half orcs, half giants, halflings, pterrans, and xephs. The character classes include: the Standard character classes from the PHB, Psion, Psychic Warrior, Soulknife, and Wilder.
#4 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2005 12:59:08	Wow. My hat goes off to you. I like this a lot. I love the historivcal parallels! It'll be a while before I can come up with anything to suggest, because what I see is so cool, I have to figure out the right way to aproach it. I run a multiplanar campaign. Can I borrow this world?
#5 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Mar 27, 2005 14:47:59	I'm going to add some Dark Sun aspects to my Homebrew. Specifically, one of my nations is going to reflect Athas. Oh, I'm not going to add Sorcerer Kings. But there is some aspects I wanted to add. What do you guys think? Actually, one of my worlds for my Homebrew setting, which I call Samarnia, superficially has some similarities with Athas - it's a desolate, barren wasteland, destroyed by arcane magic. The differences lie in that for the most part, the surface of the world is virtually uninhabitable, there is no standting surface water anywhere, and massive cracks riddle the entire surface, radiating outward from what once were great cities of an ancient civilization. Magic doesn't suck life from plants, but rather the Arcane magic attracts "force-storms" that are powerful magical storms of multicolored lightning which inflict terrible damage (arcane magic users are like lightning rods to these things - really bad for them). Divine magic is unheardof, as the world actually inflicts terrible pain upn any Deity that goes to it (or even sends their energy to it). Psionics are the only real "safe" energy to use. Most people live deep in the earth, lining the walls of the massive cracks (the cracks themselves lead down eventually to lava in most cases) as well as digging into caves as well. Plus, most of the races have changed radically in culture, appearance, and more as they have adapted to this very hostile and unforgiving environment. I have even considered bringing in some sense of the Advanced Being concept into this setting. Primarily, what caused this "shattering" of the world, was the ancient civilization, known as the Urloc Empire, had enslaved all other races, for thousands of years. Eventually, there was a slave revolt, first on the other two worlds the Empire existed on, and the Urlocs retreated to this world, they attempted to use a powerful magical ritual to protect this world from the slave revolt, and tapped into the core energy of the world - unknowngly tapping into the core energy of their own creator (the god of magic) - they were unable to control the energy, and it literally ripped their world apart as they effectively killed their own god. The backlash from all of this also collapsed their civilization, and transformed them into the pitiful Goblinoid races which are incapable of wielding magic. The Shattering also affected the other two worlds in a variety of ways, but it was most devistating to Samarnia itself. (someday, I'll actually take the time to get a website up with a full presentaion of my Homebrew setting, which I call currently "The Four Worlds" - consisting of 3 Fantasy settings, and 1 Sci-Fi setting, all interconnected with each other, and yet separate and distinct from each other).
#6 beyowulf Mar 27, 2005 16:58:36	BFenteia. Inspired by 1st Century Israel. Only recently, Fenteia has thrown off the yoke of the Blood Rex tribe of Orcs. Fenteia is a nation of six tribes: Over which the Tribes of Benjamin, Reuben, and Judas have control. Recently, the Grey Elves and then the Orcs had split Fenteia into three parts. Fenteia proper was ruled by the orcs. But the overthrow of their Orc Overlords have allowed them to install a Republic that is much like Rome's. Due to tribal intermixing, 10% of the population of Fenteia have little psionic talent (wild talent feat). Some good stuff, but wouldn't some of your players think it strange that RW Israelite tribes wound-up in your homebrew campaign world?
#7 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2005 18:08:39	Yes . . . and no. Depends on what sort of players that they are. If I were to play this with some Israelis, yeah, maybe.
#8 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2005 18:09:46	Wow. My hat goes off to you. I like this a lot. I love the historivcal parallels! It'll be a while before I can come up with anything to suggest, because what I see is so cool, I have to figure out the right way to aproach it. I run a multiplanar campaign. Can I borrow this world? hmm . . . Can I finish the production design first? :D
#9 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2005 18:20:49	I'll abstain from incorporating it into my game until you give the good word. ;)
#10 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2005 18:49:59	I'll abstain from incorporating it into my game until you give the good word. ;) Okay. It might be better if you wait for the production design to finish, at any rate.
#11 zombiegleemax Mar 28, 2005 19:40:03	Samaria I used to date a Lebanese girl named Samara. I really liked Dark Sun before Encyclopedia Athas came along and unearthed all it's secrets. I was perfectly content in thinking the SKs were really just powerful sorcerer and not generals of some long ago army. I love homebrew settings. I cannot stop thinking new ones up. The most recent one I thought of, was a D20 future desert land ruled by Illithids and worked by enslaved humans using Tiberian Sun and Ages of Empires graphics. I was originally going to make it out for Cyberpunk 2020, but nobody except a few die hard fans still plays it anymore. I was going to make a little desert kingdom using Age of Wonder graphics, however, I haven't gotten a round to it yet. While reading a National Geographic at the dentists this morning, I thought of an ancient world where the other races, such as orcs and dwarves etc. do not exist, but rather, Neanderthals, H. Erectus and Flores man exist along side humans. Make it stop! Hey Sir Elton, have you ever heard of The Everchanging Book of Names? It's a great name generating program that generates names by cultures.
#12 zombiegleemax Mar 30, 2005 18:39:52	Yes, actually. Oh, to whom it may concern. I'm almost done with my production design on my homebrew. :D