Making Aber-Toril into Athas

[Calion]

This is inspired by an old post I ran across: "Is Dark Sun an alternate future Forgotten Realms?" Now, I'm not interested in whether that was in the designer's minds, or whether that notion is supported by canon; fairly clearly the answer to both questions is No. However, the original Dark Sun Boxed Set implies that Athas was once much like other D&D worlds, until Defiling magic came along and messed things up. Later lore mostly contradicted that notion, but that was the version of Athas I fell in love with, and that's how it is in my campaigns.

Now I find myself running Forgotten Realms (don't ask why; it's a long story). I apparently have a deep aversion to playing standard D&D settings stock; I always heavily modify them in some way (I once turned Greyhawk into Middle Earth, for instance). So I was looking for some angle to make the setting my own, and came upon the idea of making the Forgotten Realms setting into a proto-Athas.

The problem, however, is that, while I am fairly knowledgable on Dark Sun lore, I know almost nothing about Forgotten Realms. Perhaps this would be better asked in a Forgotten Realms forum, but I was hoping for some ideas and tips on how this could be accomplished; how the lore of FR could be shoehorned into the backstory for Athas. So—tips? Thoughts? Ideas? Thanks!

 

[MwaO]

Well, FR keeps messing around with deities killing each other. Ao is kind of the super-deity who doesn't get involved.

So...let's say one deity gets the idea that instead of trying to get a single portfolio, they want Ao's portfolio. They start handing out defiling magic as a way to convert Abeir-Toril's raw energy into power. And at first, it doesn't blow up all the plants. Gives a +1 to hit/-1 DC to saves or something else equally innocuous. Come back a year later to where you cast that spell and all the plant life seems a little off or shaky or what have you, but a group of arcane casters starts to grow to like using it and don't stop. After about 10 years, it goes to where the defiling magic is.

Okay...so diety goes after Ao with all this extra power and both die. In fact, all deities die as apparently part of Ao was keeping the deities alive. As Ao's last desperate act, he infused Abeir-Toril's sun with a remainder of his deific energy, causing it to grow larger, red and hot, but allowing Abeir-Toril to survive. This also blows up the weave and the only casters able to cast properly are the arcane defilers. Say that's 40 years ago and finally the first casters capable of casting magic with the new rules without defiling are growing up. There's your party.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Ao

 

[Calion]

That is interesting. According to the 4e Dark Sun book, "Long ago, when the planet was green, the brutal might of the primordials overcame the gods. Today, Athas is a world without deities."

Now, I'm not at all married to that. But it seems (from what little I know about FR) to work well with FR lore.

Also, I just discovered that Toril had a Blue Age, just like Athas!

 

[thanson02]

Well, Aber-Toril sundered a long time ago, then crashed into each other, then resundered. You could use Dark Sun as the Aber side. You could also use Dark Sun as Returned Aber format, but with the gods starting to make their mark on the land again.

I know I was playing around with the idea that the first level of the Abyss was like Dark Sun, but with a crap ton of demons everywhere, but Aber works too.

Sent from my XT1096 using Tapatalk

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I would focus on the former Imaskari lands, aka The Old Empires. Pre-4E these were, inter alia, Chessenta, Mulhorand, Thay, Unther, and the area around the Raurin Desert. Besides already including a lot of desert, these are the lands more influenced by ancient real world human cultures and Athas, of course, is heavily influenced by the ancient Mesopotamian city states. So, culturally it's a good fit.

Imagine Szass Tam succeeding at his Dread Ring ritual - defiling by another name - and thoroughly consuming Thay. That becomes the catalyst for the discovery of defiling magic by others and, before you know it, another crappy novel has killed Mystra for the nth time and you're well on your way to Dark Sun.

Damn, that could actually work....

 

[Eltab]

Part of the mystique of Dark Sun is - nobody knows the true history of the world (and the handful of people who do, aren't telling their shameful secrets).
"History" on Athas is cyclical, not the linear we know from IRL and most other D&D settings. Things happen in our world that show people trying to accomplish goals. In contrast, on Athas, everything has been the same since forever and nobody should expect anything different ... until yesterday when a Gleam of Hope struck the world. But that might just be a bump on the wheel of time, not a real tangent line.

Plus, there have been plenty or Realms-Shaking Events already and a very vocal subset of fans (large? small? I don't know) have hated that fact. I would not try to open that can of worms, or force it into FR.

Also consider that in FR, forces of Evil are (mostly) contained and balanced by forces of Good. On Athas, Evil has almost completely won - 99% of the way to obliterating even the memory that Good existed. The Gleam of Light that just occurred made the world 100% more hopeful than it used to be, but that only means that Evil today is 98% of the way to permanent total victory. The PCs get to try to make that 97%, or join (deliberately or as a puppet) the Evil forces trying to reclaim that lost ground.

 

[Calion]

"History" on Athas is cyclical, not the linear we know from IRL and most other D&D settings. Things happen in our world that show people trying to accomplish goals. In contrast, on Athas, everything has been the same since forever and nobody should expect anything different ... until yesterday when a Gleam of Hope struck the world. But that might just be a bump on the wheel of time, not a real tangent line.

That's true from the inhabitants' perspective, but not from the GM's. There is a long linear history of Athas.

Plus, there have been plenty or Realms-Shaking Events already and a very vocal subset of fans (large? small? I don't know) have hated that fact. I would not try to open that can of worms, or force it into FR.

I'm not sure what you mean here.

Also consider that in FR, forces of Evil are (mostly) contained and balanced by forces of Good. On Athas, Evil has almost completely won - 99% of the way to obliterating even the memory that Good existed. The Gleam of Light that just occurred made the world 100% more hopeful than it used to be, but that only means that Evil today is 98% of the way to permanent total victory. The PCs get to try to make that 97%, or join (deliberately or as a puppet) the Evil forces trying to reclaim that lost ground.

Yes, exactly. So the Green Age of Athas was a time before evil became ascendant. This is the calm before the storm, the time before the arise of Rajaat and the discovery of defiling magic.