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1991 Dark Sun Setting Overview and Speculation
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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 8537266" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>Nah, the elves and humans came later. It goes something like this:</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">In the Blue Age, the sun is blue, and the world is mostly covered in water with scattered islands here and there. The dominant life form are halflings who mostly don't use magic or psionics, except for a small bit of elemental cleric magic, but instead have devoted their efforts to the science of life-shaping.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">As they reach a population where it's getting hard to support themselves via what's available in the ocean (I'm assuming life-shaping assisted kelp/algae farming and fishing and the like), they decide to perform an experiment that's supposed to make the oceans more fertile. This does not work out well, and instead a "Brown Tide" spreads and starts to choke off the oceans entirely.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">In desperation, they use the magic of a place called the Pristine Tower (whose origins remain unclear), with the ability to draw power from the sun and which also has extreme mutagenic properties. They manage to destroy the Brown Tide, but in the process the oceans mostly dry up and the sun turns yellow. In addition, many of the halflings mutate into different forms, turning into other races (humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, lizardfolk, giants, etc.).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">This is what marks the start of the Green Age. Green Age Athas would be somewhat recognizable as a regular D&D setting, but initially the main supernatural power is psionics which is developed to a very high degree.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Among the new races created by the Pristine Tower are the pyreen, which share features of many different races. One of these, Rajaat, turns out deformed and bitter, however, and believes the world would be better off if returned to its former stage and returned to the halflings. But he doesn't really have the ability to make his plan a reality, so he looks for ways of doing that.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Rajaat eventually manages to invent arcane magic. I think he first discovers defiling, and then refines techniques for preserving. He thinks this would be a great way for halflings to take over the world again, but as it turns out halflings can't use arcane magic.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Side note: this is a continuity issue in the 2e material. In the original boxed set, halflings can advance to 16th level as wizards, but only as preserver illusionists, and two of the novels (The Verdant Passage and The Amber Enchantress) feature halfling characters that clearly use arcane magic and visibly draw power from nearby plant life. In the revised boxed set and in the later novels (can't recall if it's the Obsidian Oracle or the Cerulean Storm), it is explained that halflings can't use arcane magic, and that the halflings in previous books used elemental/clerical magic instead, which is BS. My headcanon is that halflings are unable to use <strong>defiling</strong> magic, which made them useless to Rajaat's plan.</li> </ol></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Rajaat teaches preserving magic to the world at large. Among his pupils, he identifies some who he believes would be suitable for his plans, and secretly teaches them more powerful defiling magic.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Rajaat then imbues the most powerful of his secret pupils with additional power from the Pristine Tower, turning them into "dragons" (21st level defiler/preservers, at that point still mostly human with some draconian attributes) and charges each of them with extermination of one particular race. This drains more power from the sun, which turns red, and it also signals the start of the Cleansing Wars.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">As the Cleansing Wars go on for some time, Athas does not fare well. Both sides use defiling magic extensively, turning large areas of the world into desert. Some of the Champions fulfill their genocidal goals, but eventually they figure out that once all the elves, gnomes, dwarves, etc. are dead, Rajaat will turn on them and the humans. Before this can happen, they turn on Rajaat, but can't really defeat him. Instead, they imprison him in another plane.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Borys, one of the former Champions, is charged with maintaining Rajaat's prison, and again the power of the Pristine Tower is used to advance him into a full dragon. The pain and power drives Borys mad with rage, and Borys goes on a rampage for a century. This is essentially what turns the whole world into a desert. The remaining Champions retreat to fortified cities where they become the Sorcerer-Monarchs we know and love.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">After about a century, Borys comes back to his senses and learns that Rajaat's prison is about to break. He calls on his former allies to provide him with thousands of people he can drain the life of to reinforce the prison, and they do so. This will then go on for quite some time.</li> </ol></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 8537266, member: 907"] Nah, the elves and humans came later. It goes something like this: [LIST=1] [*]In the Blue Age, the sun is blue, and the world is mostly covered in water with scattered islands here and there. The dominant life form are halflings who mostly don't use magic or psionics, except for a small bit of elemental cleric magic, but instead have devoted their efforts to the science of life-shaping. [*]As they reach a population where it's getting hard to support themselves via what's available in the ocean (I'm assuming life-shaping assisted kelp/algae farming and fishing and the like), they decide to perform an experiment that's supposed to make the oceans more fertile. This does not work out well, and instead a "Brown Tide" spreads and starts to choke off the oceans entirely. [*]In desperation, they use the magic of a place called the Pristine Tower (whose origins remain unclear), with the ability to draw power from the sun and which also has extreme mutagenic properties. They manage to destroy the Brown Tide, but in the process the oceans mostly dry up and the sun turns yellow. In addition, many of the halflings mutate into different forms, turning into other races (humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, lizardfolk, giants, etc.). [*]This is what marks the start of the Green Age. Green Age Athas would be somewhat recognizable as a regular D&D setting, but initially the main supernatural power is psionics which is developed to a very high degree. [*]Among the new races created by the Pristine Tower are the pyreen, which share features of many different races. One of these, Rajaat, turns out deformed and bitter, however, and believes the world would be better off if returned to its former stage and returned to the halflings. But he doesn't really have the ability to make his plan a reality, so he looks for ways of doing that. [*]Rajaat eventually manages to invent arcane magic. I think he first discovers defiling, and then refines techniques for preserving. He thinks this would be a great way for halflings to take over the world again, but as it turns out halflings can't use arcane magic. [LIST=1] [*]Side note: this is a continuity issue in the 2e material. In the original boxed set, halflings can advance to 16th level as wizards, but only as preserver illusionists, and two of the novels (The Verdant Passage and The Amber Enchantress) feature halfling characters that clearly use arcane magic and visibly draw power from nearby plant life. In the revised boxed set and in the later novels (can't recall if it's the Obsidian Oracle or the Cerulean Storm), it is explained that halflings can't use arcane magic, and that the halflings in previous books used elemental/clerical magic instead, which is BS. My headcanon is that halflings are unable to use [B]defiling[/B] magic, which made them useless to Rajaat's plan. [/LIST] [*]Rajaat teaches preserving magic to the world at large. Among his pupils, he identifies some who he believes would be suitable for his plans, and secretly teaches them more powerful defiling magic. [*]Rajaat then imbues the most powerful of his secret pupils with additional power from the Pristine Tower, turning them into "dragons" (21st level defiler/preservers, at that point still mostly human with some draconian attributes) and charges each of them with extermination of one particular race. This drains more power from the sun, which turns red, and it also signals the start of the Cleansing Wars. [*]As the Cleansing Wars go on for some time, Athas does not fare well. Both sides use defiling magic extensively, turning large areas of the world into desert. Some of the Champions fulfill their genocidal goals, but eventually they figure out that once all the elves, gnomes, dwarves, etc. are dead, Rajaat will turn on them and the humans. Before this can happen, they turn on Rajaat, but can't really defeat him. Instead, they imprison him in another plane. [*]Borys, one of the former Champions, is charged with maintaining Rajaat's prison, and again the power of the Pristine Tower is used to advance him into a full dragon. The pain and power drives Borys mad with rage, and Borys goes on a rampage for a century. This is essentially what turns the whole world into a desert. The remaining Champions retreat to fortified cities where they become the Sorcerer-Monarchs we know and love. [*]After about a century, Borys comes back to his senses and learns that Rajaat's prison is about to break. He calls on his former allies to provide him with thousands of people he can drain the life of to reinforce the prison, and they do so. This will then go on for quite some time. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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