D&D 5E "Doom Sun" − reconstructing a 5e Dark Sun setting for the DMs Guild

[Shardstone]

Yeah. Norwegian. (Swedes, Danes, and Icelanders are too.)



The Dark Sun setting is very religious. But it is nontheistic.

Athas isnt about gods. To try to force gods into it undermines the premise of the setting.

To get a better understanding of what nontheistic religions are like, including monism and animism, is helpful to the flavor of the Dark Sun setting.

True, but Doomspace having gods in it now with the Dark Sun turned into the Eye of Doom (I'm calling this the Dead Sun from now on) is very much a big premise of the setting. The people don't accept the gods (cuz they maybe caused this), but the Gods can now enter Doomspace and screw around. In the Dead Sun I'm planning now, I'm def having the Raven Queen come in; where better to hunt tragedies then this place? She'll probably be called something different by the people of Athas-Fyreen and the scattered doom'd moons, but she fits like a glove to the setting now.

Dead Sun can't truly replicate Dark Sun down to the last theme. Or rather, it can, but it really presents a very fertile setting for you to expand, introduce, and remix new ideas. For example, if Fyreen is doomed due to being too close to the Dead Sun, the Sorcerer-King Dragons in my version of the setting will be going to the scattered moons and taking what resources they can find there, as well as trying to rule those people. They still defile, and they are still gish-clashed 20th level sorcerers/psionics, but their city-states are replaced with the moons and their conflict is now throughout Wildspace (and probably centered on Fyreen for some reason I haven't thought of yet).

Anyway, the point I'm getting at is, having divinities come into the setting only to be rejected post-Dead Sun is something that is very much a "fitting" idea for Doomspace.

 

[Yaarel]

True, but Doomspace having gods in it now with the Dark Sun turned into the Eye of Doom (I'm calling this the Dead Sun from now on) is very much a big premise of the setting.

Dead Sun works.

Most people recognize that Fyreen is "Athas-esque".

Whether Fyreen is "Athas-enough" to be Athas is debatable either way.

The people don't accept the gods (cuz they maybe caused this), but the Gods can now enter Doomspace and screw around. In the Dead Sun I'm planning now, I'm def having the Raven Queen come in; where better to hunt tragedies then this place? She'll probably be called something different by the people of Athas-Fyreen and the scattered doom'd moons, but she fits like a glove to the setting now.

The presence of objectively existing gods makes the planet unlike Athas.

The Doomspace Fyreen is a place of deific assaults.

Dead Sun can't truly replicate Dark Sun down to the last theme. Or rather, it can, but it really presents a very fertile setting for you to expand, introduce, and remix new ideas. For example, if Fyreen is doomed due to being too close to the Dead Sun, the Sorcerer-King Dragons in my version of the setting will be going to the scattered moons and taking what resources they can find there, as well as trying to rule those people. They still defile, and they are still gish-clashed 20th level sorcerers/psionics, but their city-states are replaced with the moons and their conflict is now throughout Wildspace (and probably centered on Fyreen for some reason I haven't thought of yet).

Anyway, the point I'm getting at is, having divinities come into the setting only to be rejected post-Dead Sun is something that is very much a "fitting" idea for Doomspace.

It creates a dilemma. The Fyreenians who "rebuked" these gods were correct. The fact that these gods turn out to be genocidal proves the rebuke is accurate.

Meanwhile what to do now? Both the kings and gods suck. ... And the planet has less time to solve these problems.

 

[Yaarel]

In a strict reading of the Doomspace description, here is a possibility.

• The gods definitely destroyed the crystal sphere.
• The planet Fyreen is definitely falling into the black hole.
• But nobody knows what the connection is.

Maybe the gods destroyed the sun?

Maybe not?

Is something else going on?

 

[Jer]

It creates a dilemma. The Fyreenians who "rebuked" these gods were correct. The fact that these gods turn out to be genocidal proves the rebuke is accurate.

Unless there's more than what you posted, the gods might not be the cause of the sun going dead. That part is explicitly a "some say" rumor in the excerpt, not truth. It could be that the sun was killed in some other way than a fit of pique by rejected gods but people are looking to blame something.

ETA: We cross-posted but yes. Heck it could be the sun's destruction was a side effect of the crystal sphere being destroyed. Still caused by the gods, but accidentally.

 

[pukunui]

Dead Sun can't truly replicate Dark Sun down to the last theme. Or rather, it can, but it really presents a very fertile setting for you to expand, introduce, and remix new ideas. For example, if Fyreen is doomed due to being too close to the Dead Sun, the Sorcerer-King Dragons in my version of the setting will be going to the scattered moons and taking what resources they can find there, as well as trying to rule those people. They still defile, and they are still gish-clashed 20th level sorcerers/psionics, but their city-states are replaced with the moons and their conflict is now throughout Wildspace (and probably centered on Fyreen for some reason I haven't thought of yet).

Perhaps they are competing to see who can loot the most stuff / resources from the planet before it falls into the black hole.

 

[Yaarel]

Unless there's more than what you posted, the gods might not be the cause of the sun going dead. That part is explicitly a "some say" rumor in the excerpt, not truth. It could be that the sun was killed in some other way than a fit of pique by rejected gods but people are looking to blame something.

ETA: We cross-posted but yes. Heck it could be the sun's destruction was a side effect of the crystal sphere being destroyed. Still caused by the gods, but accidentally.

At this point: perhaps the gods destroyed the crystal sphere in order to save Fyreen from the black hole?

Nobody knows.

I suspect the adventure(s) relating to Spelljammer explore what factually happened. But the description invites plot twists.

 

[Yaarel]

5e needs a more neutral term for inhabitants of the astral sea.

I have zero interest in referring to creatures as "gods" if my characters dont view them that way.

Earlier editions had "outsiders", "immortals", "supernals", sometimes "celestials" in a wider sense.

I think I will start referring to them as "astrals". This includes everyone, astral elves, githyanki, angels, devils, celestials, fiends, aberrations, aasimons, demons, and creatures that call themselves gods.

 

[Shardstone]

I think...

I am going to say that the Dragon-Kings went to the Moons and are trying to take them over to reestablish their sovereignties. "Moons of the Dragon-Kings" has a great vibe to it.

I created a very electic pantheon of invader powers for my Dead Sun. All of them will be renamed in Doomspace, but their original identies are Raven Queen, the mother of demons Pale Night, Zariel (who will litter soul-damning war machines across fyreen for the people there to use), Celestian from Greyhawk, and Y'chak the Violet Flame (an Elemental Evil). The idea is a Pentad (lol) of Invader Divinities that all want different things from Doomspace and are put into conflict (and are still rejected by the people of Doomspace, who resent all of them).

These are not the ones that destroyed the Dark Sun to create the Dead, and when I run my Dead Sun campaign I will probably make the mystery of the sun one of the core mysteries to be solved of the campaign. Am playing with the idea that whatever it is an exit to another Multiverse free of all the baggage of this one, something beyond the stars and the Astral Sea, where the people of this long-tortured wildspace system at last can be at peace. At least for a while, before they inevitably get dumped on, as history goes.

 

[Shardstone]

5e needs a more neutral term for inhabitants of the astral sea.

I have zero interest in referring to creatures as "gods" if my characters dont view them that way.

Earlier editions had "outsiders", "immortals", "supernals", sometimes "celestials" in a wider sense.

I think I will start referring to them as "astrals". This includes everyone, astral elves, githyanki, angels, devils, celestials, fiends, aberrations, aasimons, demons, and creatures that call themselves gods.

I use Powers, but Astrals are good.

 

[Shardstone]

Perhaps they are competing to see who can loot the most stuff / resources from the planet before it falls into the black hole.

Yes. Get what they can from Doomspace and get the heck out of there. They make their Moon Kingdoms really just out of a need to slate their extreme narcissism before they leave.