Pre-Blue Age Athas - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Pre-Blue Age Athas

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
darthcestual
May 04, 2005 21:34:28 Years ago I had written a massive DS campaign, including a dozen or so big maps that explored Athas beyond the areas provided by the game and it's various expansions. The plot was a long convoluted mess that climaxed with the confrontation with Dregoth, whose spawn were actually a form of vampire, the Vrykolak. It would be a good soild year's worth of playing time, let alone how many years the characters aged.

I've never managed to get past 2 or 3 pages of the 50+ I'd written and have always kept that epic game in the back of my mind. Unfortunately sometimes, my mind works in epic scales...

I started to wonder about the state of the world of Athas and how it came to be that way. Oh, we all know about The Age of the Sorcerer Kings, The Cleansing Wars, the Green Age and the Blue Age... but what was before?

Why are there no gods here? The lack of metals? Why no "real" dragons when it seems most of the other fantasy races existed at some point in history?

I decided to explore this prehistory and run an adventure set in each age at a pivotal moment. What may seem a minor event sends ripples through the ages, culminating in the adventure I wrote years ago. I've also altered my original plot a bit, including a puppet-master who is behind Dregoth's rise to power and made Dregoth's vrykolak identical to the vampires from the Blade movies, mainly for their suseptibility to silver. I've gone 5 "Ages" pre-Blue Age, leaving at least 10-50,000 years between. It's a rough estimate. The ages are from the earliest:

-The Age of Wonder-
-The Silver Age-
-The Golden Age-
-The Dark Age-
-The White Age-

I also set adventures in the Blue and Green ages that follow.

-The Age of Wonder- Athasia is young. For centuries, only the gods could grant their priests extraordinary powers called the Divine Magics. Through these magics, the churches carved out great theocratic empires from the wilderness. The peasants clung to their faith as the undead and savage races roam the wilds. However, recent generations have been born with power and abilities not granted by the gods, and this has the churches worried. Is their powerbase being threatened? The gods have offered no answers. These "psions" as they are called, are regarded with fear and suspicion by the faithful, since this is the atmosphere of tension the churches have created with their sermons that terrify. Underground groups of psions band together for protection and to explore their abilities. Some groups have sought to found their own communities in the wilderness beyond the reach of the churches. Carlyle, a raksasha, has situated himself to influence the the elders of the Pantheonic Church, spreading fear of the psions, while manipulating the hoards of undead to keep the holy forces busy.
-Adventure- A group of psions has set out into the wilds to found their own community. The Church has sent spies to track and infiltrate the group if possible. Carlyle sends vrykolak and ghouls to hound their every step, but the psions are confidant under the guidance of their leader Tyrokaan and the great warrior Judah.

PCs can either be church operatives, psion refugees, or hired protection. I was really going for an "X-men" feel here with the background of a strong theocracy running the world and heavy influences from the gods. The abundance of undead would also strengthen the importance of classes with divine magics. This is otherwise a normal fantasy setting with the exception that dragons do not exist... yet.

I'll post more in the coming days of the other Ages.

Comments?
#2
terminus_vortexa
May 04, 2005 21:44:45 Interesting stuff. I look forward to seeing more!
#3
eric_anondson
May 04, 2005 23:30:32 I've done a similar thing with mine. That is, developing an extended prehistory before the Blue Age. In fact, I have it down that the dates that are recorded in "Tablelands" records are functionally off, and the Blue Age was further back in the past. And then Pre-history extends before the Blue Age.

I also sketched out an ambitious plan to have PCs adventure at the pivotal points in each era, all the way up to the "current" era of Dark Sun as we are familiar with. Cool to see that I wasn't the only one with this idea!
#4
zombiegleemax
May 05, 2005 4:55:51
I started to wonder about the state of the world of Athas and how it came to be that way. Oh, we all know about The Age of the Sorcerer Kings, The Cleansing Wars, the Green Age and the Blue Age... but what was before?

Why are there no gods here? The lack of metals? Why no "real" dragons when it seems most of the other fantasy races existed at some point in history?

I had always gone with the general background for the Blue Age found in the Prism Pentad, when life existed before magic and psionics, resulting in a very different world.

I remember sketching out ideas and maps for the Blue Age a long time ago, basing the races around lifeshaping abilities:

The Halflings as described in the 'Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs', who shaped and modified other creatures to suit themselves. The Halfings lived on a mass of Islands dotted throughout the (now) Tablelands and Jagged CLiffs.
Their lifeshaping abilities were far above the ability of those surviving on modern Athas.

The Kreen, occupied an area to the west and north of the Crimson Savannah, they came to specialise in shaping themselves. The original kreen were winged and could fly from island to island. The kreen developed a variety of castes and sought to develop more powerful and intelligent versions of themselves, the Zik-Chil came to dominate the development of the kreen...

The Nikaal, far to the east of the Tablelands (way beyond Ur Draxa). If I remember correctly they had limited chameleon like lifeshaping abilities and were able to alter the shape and abilities or other creatures. Eventually they created many slave races, breading a variety of creatures as to act as warriors, servants and beasts of burden (most of which could produce true lines).

As for the lack of metal and gods. These were abundant during the Green Age (I also spent a lot of time creating a timeline of events :D ). I had this age last for a very long time, when it was most like a 'normal' fantasy world except that psionics ruled, and priests gave names and faces to the elemental forces - creating gods. The rise of the Champions and their power to grant spells resulted in the unilateral death of any organised faiths, priesthoods and their temples, who could challenge their power.

By the time of the Cleansing Wars most of the (easy to find) metal sources in the Tablelands had been used. As for Dragons, I use Drakes, it seemed more fun to keep them to the domain of the Sorcerer Kings.
#5
greyorm
May 05, 2005 9:26:11
-The Age of Wonder- Athasia is young.

Sorry, but for some reason upon reading this, I immediately had a flashback to the original He-man cartoon. HE-MAN! "I am Prince Adam, and along with my faithful pet tiger, Cringer..."
#6
zombiegleemax
May 05, 2005 16:29:48 When I think of pre-Blue Age Athas, I think way, way, way back when the only intelligent beings were Thri-Kreen and lizardmen. They lived on a continent surrounded by a great sea. A vast mountain range divides the continent with Lizardmen living on the monsoon side and the Thri-Kreen living on the rain-shadow side. The only creatures around were giant reptiles, large insects, gator-like amphibians and armored fish. There were no birds, just gliding reptiles and flying insects. The seas were filled with armored fish, some giant, reptiles and sea scorpions. The halflings resembled monkeys and lived in the monsoon jungle, trying not to be eaten by the lizard men. There was not grass, fruits or flowers. Just meat, seets, roots (primative potatoes) and vegitables to eat. The trees resembled giant ferns. The bright blue sun warmed the land to 130 degrees during the day time. The Fern-trees grew larger than Redwoods. Superhurricanes would form around the equator, dumping massive amounts of rain on the monsoon jungle. The floor was almost always flooded. On the other side of the mountains, rain was rare. However, the thri-kreen learned to adapt. Sometimes, they would march over the moutains to the jungle to get food, however, the lizard men would fight back and a war would break out. Not a war for honor or riches, but for survival. What would happen if the PCs discovered a way to travel back in time?
#7
dawnstealer
May 05, 2005 16:46:15 Couldn't be lizardmen: they were created by halflings at the Pristine Tower at the start of the Green Age.

My theory involved a great intelligent plague or seeping chaos that spread across the outer plans in time immemorable. Fearing their own death, the powers trapped it on the elemental planes and then tossed it into its own demirealm, taking a good bit of the elemental planes along with it. The process sent the blight into dormancy.

Also trapped on these planes at the time were several intelligent creatures. They fought for dominance with one another but eventually settled on the fact that maybe this wouldn't be so bad: without the powers around, they could become the powers. Of course, first they would need followers and worshippers. They created the stars and the sun. Their first planet was guthay, a small and dead thing that nothing would grow or live on. The second was better, but no cupcake: it's atmosphere burned flesh and the first animals died within seconds. Ral was a failure. The third attempt begat Athas and it was perfect. They covered it with water and began to create creatures. They became more practiced and continued until finally they created the Rhulisti.

The Rhulisti, in their many quests for knowledge, accidently woke the blight out of its torpor, unleashing it on Athas in a Brown Tide. They (with the now-Elemental Lords) fought it back and managed to send it into torpor again. With the help of the Pristine Tower, it was frozen and known now as the Black.
#8
darthcestual
May 07, 2005 12:39:49 Glad to see I'm not the only one who gets all epic-y.

-The Silver Age-

Carlyle has orchestrated the spread of the Vrykolak undead specifically due to their vulnerablity to the precious metal silver, as it becomes ruined when used to slay the creatures. They can be hurt or destroyed by other means, sunlight, fire, massive damage, decapitation, and the divine magics, but silver in as small of amount as a single silver coin will destroy them instantly if it comes in contact with their blood. So, silver is in high demand not only for the weaponsmiths and the brave warriors who hunt the vrykolak, but by everyday people who wish to protect themselves. And since silvered weapons quickly loose their potency, they must re-silvered on a regular basis. Raw silver ore is less damaging to the creatures than the refined product, so mines and forges must be heavily guarded as the vrykolak use cunning tactics and hoards of the savage races to disrupt or stop silver production.

-Adventure- The silver road from the mining town of Cliffside to their sponsor-village of Cael Tyrokaan has been under attack by vrykolak and their thralls. Reports from survivors say the vrykolak appeared to be monks. Adventurers were sent to the nearby monastary Temple of the Leaning Rock in the mountains to investigate and never returned. Village elders belive the monks have met with foul play and this new threat must be dealt with.

If the PCs succeed in clearing the temple, they will discover an ancient tomb older than the monastary beneath and will witness Carlyle escape through a wall of shadow with the last of the vrykolak monks, Endicott, the former abbott.
Upon returning to Cael Tyrokaan, news reaches the village from the Holy Lands, the gods have bestowed divine weapons upon the Paladin orders to combat the plague of undead.

On Carlyle: I realize I should probably go in a little deeper on Carlyles' role as the puppetmaster behind everything. He has an interesting history. He was the villan in a series of dreams my best friend back in California was having. The dreams came to him over the course of a few months, and he said they were vivd and quite distingushable from "regular" dreams. They came piece by piece in no particular order, and like a puzzle we found this story unfolding. Of the Lady of Fate, the Bloodsteel Guns, The Worm, and Carlyle. Carlyle is humanoid, a little over 6 feet tall with a slim build. His flesh looks like obsidian, cracked and split where his face and body need to flex, with yellow light seeping through the cracks. His eyes are totally red save for 3 horizontally slitted pupils in each eye, and when he speaks, smoke flows out of his mouth. A beautiful image of a villan if I ever heard one.
So, with the recent re-hash of my Dark Sun concepts and a request from my occasional gaming crew for something on an epic scale, I borrowed Carlyle and put him at the heart of not only Athas' woes, but possibly threatening every realm across the Planescapes and beyond.

More to come...

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 darthcestual May 04, 2005 21:34:28	Years ago I had written a massive DS campaign, including a dozen or so big maps that explored Athas beyond the areas provided by the game and it's various expansions. The plot was a long convoluted mess that climaxed with the confrontation with Dregoth, whose spawn were actually a form of vampire, the Vrykolak. It would be a good soild year's worth of playing time, let alone how many years the characters aged. I've never managed to get past 2 or 3 pages of the 50+ I'd written and have always kept that epic game in the back of my mind. Unfortunately sometimes, my mind works in epic scales... I started to wonder about the state of the world of Athas and how it came to be that way. Oh, we all know about The Age of the Sorcerer Kings, The Cleansing Wars, the Green Age and the Blue Age... but what was before? Why are there no gods here? The lack of metals? Why no "real" dragons when it seems most of the other fantasy races existed at some point in history? I decided to explore this prehistory and run an adventure set in each age at a pivotal moment. What may seem a minor event sends ripples through the ages, culminating in the adventure I wrote years ago. I've also altered my original plot a bit, including a puppet-master who is behind Dregoth's rise to power and made Dregoth's vrykolak identical to the vampires from the Blade movies, mainly for their suseptibility to silver. I've gone 5 "Ages" pre-Blue Age, leaving at least 10-50,000 years between. It's a rough estimate. The ages are from the earliest: -The Age of Wonder- -The Silver Age- -The Golden Age- -The Dark Age- -The White Age- I also set adventures in the Blue and Green ages that follow. -The Age of Wonder- Athasia is young. For centuries, only the gods could grant their priests extraordinary powers called the Divine Magics. Through these magics, the churches carved out great theocratic empires from the wilderness. The peasants clung to their faith as the undead and savage races roam the wilds. However, recent generations have been born with power and abilities not granted by the gods, and this has the churches worried. Is their powerbase being threatened? The gods have offered no answers. These "psions" as they are called, are regarded with fear and suspicion by the faithful, since this is the atmosphere of tension the churches have created with their sermons that terrify. Underground groups of psions band together for protection and to explore their abilities. Some groups have sought to found their own communities in the wilderness beyond the reach of the churches. Carlyle, a raksasha, has situated himself to influence the the elders of the Pantheonic Church, spreading fear of the psions, while manipulating the hoards of undead to keep the holy forces busy. -Adventure- A group of psions has set out into the wilds to found their own community. The Church has sent spies to track and infiltrate the group if possible. Carlyle sends vrykolak and ghouls to hound their every step, but the psions are confidant under the guidance of their leader Tyrokaan and the great warrior Judah. PCs can either be church operatives, psion refugees, or hired protection. I was really going for an "X-men" feel here with the background of a strong theocracy running the world and heavy influences from the gods. The abundance of undead would also strengthen the importance of classes with divine magics. This is otherwise a normal fantasy setting with the exception that dragons do not exist... yet. I'll post more in the coming days of the other Ages. Comments?
#2 terminus_vortexa May 04, 2005 21:44:45	Interesting stuff. I look forward to seeing more!
#3 eric_anondson May 04, 2005 23:30:32	I've done a similar thing with mine. That is, developing an extended prehistory before the Blue Age. In fact, I have it down that the dates that are recorded in "Tablelands" records are functionally off, and the Blue Age was further back in the past. And then Pre-history extends before the Blue Age. I also sketched out an ambitious plan to have PCs adventure at the pivotal points in each era, all the way up to the "current" era of Dark Sun as we are familiar with. Cool to see that I wasn't the only one with this idea!
#4 zombiegleemax May 05, 2005 4:55:51	I started to wonder about the state of the world of Athas and how it came to be that way. Oh, we all know about The Age of the Sorcerer Kings, The Cleansing Wars, the Green Age and the Blue Age... but what was before? Why are there no gods here? The lack of metals? Why no "real" dragons when it seems most of the other fantasy races existed at some point in history? I had always gone with the general background for the Blue Age found in the Prism Pentad, when life existed before magic and psionics, resulting in a very different world. I remember sketching out ideas and maps for the Blue Age a long time ago, basing the races around lifeshaping abilities: The Halflings as described in the 'Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs', who shaped and modified other creatures to suit themselves. The Halfings lived on a mass of Islands dotted throughout the (now) Tablelands and Jagged CLiffs. Their lifeshaping abilities were far above the ability of those surviving on modern Athas. The Kreen, occupied an area to the west and north of the Crimson Savannah, they came to specialise in shaping themselves. The original kreen were winged and could fly from island to island. The kreen developed a variety of castes and sought to develop more powerful and intelligent versions of themselves, the Zik-Chil came to dominate the development of the kreen... The Nikaal, far to the east of the Tablelands (way beyond Ur Draxa). If I remember correctly they had limited chameleon like lifeshaping abilities and were able to alter the shape and abilities or other creatures. Eventually they created many slave races, breading a variety of creatures as to act as warriors, servants and beasts of burden (most of which could produce true lines). As for the lack of metal and gods. These were abundant during the Green Age (I also spent a lot of time creating a timeline of events :D ). I had this age last for a very long time, when it was most like a 'normal' fantasy world except that psionics ruled, and priests gave names and faces to the elemental forces - creating gods. The rise of the Champions and their power to grant spells resulted in the unilateral death of any organised faiths, priesthoods and their temples, who could challenge their power. By the time of the Cleansing Wars most of the (easy to find) metal sources in the Tablelands had been used. As for Dragons, I use Drakes, it seemed more fun to keep them to the domain of the Sorcerer Kings.
#5 greyorm May 05, 2005 9:26:11	-The Age of Wonder- Athasia is young. Sorry, but for some reason upon reading this, I immediately had a flashback to the original He-man cartoon. HE-MAN! "I am Prince Adam, and along with my faithful pet tiger, Cringer..."
#6 zombiegleemax May 05, 2005 16:29:48	When I think of pre-Blue Age Athas, I think way, way, way back when the only intelligent beings were Thri-Kreen and lizardmen. They lived on a continent surrounded by a great sea. A vast mountain range divides the continent with Lizardmen living on the monsoon side and the Thri-Kreen living on the rain-shadow side. The only creatures around were giant reptiles, large insects, gator-like amphibians and armored fish. There were no birds, just gliding reptiles and flying insects. The seas were filled with armored fish, some giant, reptiles and sea scorpions. The halflings resembled monkeys and lived in the monsoon jungle, trying not to be eaten by the lizard men. There was not grass, fruits or flowers. Just meat, seets, roots (primative potatoes) and vegitables to eat. The trees resembled giant ferns. The bright blue sun warmed the land to 130 degrees during the day time. The Fern-trees grew larger than Redwoods. Superhurricanes would form around the equator, dumping massive amounts of rain on the monsoon jungle. The floor was almost always flooded. On the other side of the mountains, rain was rare. However, the thri-kreen learned to adapt. Sometimes, they would march over the moutains to the jungle to get food, however, the lizard men would fight back and a war would break out. Not a war for honor or riches, but for survival. What would happen if the PCs discovered a way to travel back in time?
#7 dawnstealer May 05, 2005 16:46:15	Couldn't be lizardmen: they were created by halflings at the Pristine Tower at the start of the Green Age. My theory involved a great intelligent plague or seeping chaos that spread across the outer plans in time immemorable. Fearing their own death, the powers trapped it on the elemental planes and then tossed it into its own demirealm, taking a good bit of the elemental planes along with it. The process sent the blight into dormancy. Also trapped on these planes at the time were several intelligent creatures. They fought for dominance with one another but eventually settled on the fact that maybe this wouldn't be so bad: without the powers around, they could become the powers. Of course, first they would need followers and worshippers. They created the stars and the sun. Their first planet was guthay, a small and dead thing that nothing would grow or live on. The second was better, but no cupcake: it's atmosphere burned flesh and the first animals died within seconds. Ral was a failure. The third attempt begat Athas and it was perfect. They covered it with water and began to create creatures. They became more practiced and continued until finally they created the Rhulisti. The Rhulisti, in their many quests for knowledge, accidently woke the blight out of its torpor, unleashing it on Athas in a Brown Tide. They (with the now-Elemental Lords) fought it back and managed to send it into torpor again. With the help of the Pristine Tower, it was frozen and known now as the Black.
#8 darthcestual May 07, 2005 12:39:49	Glad to see I'm not the only one who gets all epic-y. -The Silver Age- Carlyle has orchestrated the spread of the Vrykolak undead specifically due to their vulnerablity to the precious metal silver, as it becomes ruined when used to slay the creatures. They can be hurt or destroyed by other means, sunlight, fire, massive damage, decapitation, and the divine magics, but silver in as small of amount as a single silver coin will destroy them instantly if it comes in contact with their blood. So, silver is in high demand not only for the weaponsmiths and the brave warriors who hunt the vrykolak, but by everyday people who wish to protect themselves. And since silvered weapons quickly loose their potency, they must re-silvered on a regular basis. Raw silver ore is less damaging to the creatures than the refined product, so mines and forges must be heavily guarded as the vrykolak use cunning tactics and hoards of the savage races to disrupt or stop silver production. -Adventure- The silver road from the mining town of Cliffside to their sponsor-village of Cael Tyrokaan has been under attack by vrykolak and their thralls. Reports from survivors say the vrykolak appeared to be monks. Adventurers were sent to the nearby monastary Temple of the Leaning Rock in the mountains to investigate and never returned. Village elders belive the monks have met with foul play and this new threat must be dealt with. If the PCs succeed in clearing the temple, they will discover an ancient tomb older than the monastary beneath and will witness Carlyle escape through a wall of shadow with the last of the vrykolak monks, Endicott, the former abbott. Upon returning to Cael Tyrokaan, news reaches the village from the Holy Lands, the gods have bestowed divine weapons upon the Paladin orders to combat the plague of undead. On Carlyle: I realize I should probably go in a little deeper on Carlyles' role as the puppetmaster behind everything. He has an interesting history. He was the villan in a series of dreams my best friend back in California was having. The dreams came to him over the course of a few months, and he said they were vivd and quite distingushable from "regular" dreams. They came piece by piece in no particular order, and like a puzzle we found this story unfolding. Of the Lady of Fate, the Bloodsteel Guns, The Worm, and Carlyle. Carlyle is humanoid, a little over 6 feet tall with a slim build. His flesh looks like obsidian, cracked and split where his face and body need to flex, with yellow light seeping through the cracks. His eyes are totally red save for 3 horizontally slitted pupils in each eye, and when he speaks, smoke flows out of his mouth. A beautiful image of a villan if I ever heard one. So, with the recent re-hash of my Dark Sun concepts and a request from my occasional gaming crew for something on an epic scale, I borrowed Carlyle and put him at the heart of not only Athas' woes, but possibly threatening every realm across the Planescapes and beyond. More to come...