Are there beholders in Dark Sun?

[ourchair]

The tone and tenor of the 4e Dark Sun material seems to be "if you want it in there, it's in there," as opposed to 2e's DS model of "only what we allow."

Hm, the tone I seem to be getting from 4e DS is a little bit of a more restrictive version of that. It's like "if you want it in there, it's in there," holds but "only if it makes really good sense to do so and you have a way of twisting it."

If anything, the Dark Sun Campaign Setting is less afraid -- compared to ALL the other setting books -- about 'kindly suggesting' not to twist things against the intended ecology of the world, but while retaining the 'it's your campaign, and if you're the DM then do what you want' tone that permeates the aggregated 4e literature so far.

In any case, I'd totally have more chitinous or reptilian versions of beholders or play up their aberrant keyword rather than just plopping them in unmodified.

 

[Filcher]

Are there beholders in Dark Sun?

Yes, but they resemble shriveled raisins.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

That hat is a life-shaped artifact if I ever saw one. Dark Sun had those in 2e days. So if not a beholder cult, your DM could allow it for that alone.

It belongs in Dark Sun.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Perhaps beholders, like the sandworms of Dune and dragons of Athas, are not a separate species, but rather the end result of the a accumulation of power...

 

[pneumatik]

Possible plot-


Walk into a city-state. Several nobles wearing the beholder hats. Templars are jealous. They want some also.

They corner you and the group with a bogus law being broken. Suffer or get us some beholder hats.

Must investigate, roleplay with nobles (not easy as it sounds on Athas). Meanwhile the Alliance is now tracking you also. They corner you- "Either drop this or aid us in their destruction"

Learn Albech-Re has created them and plans on releasing them within "x" city-state as a means to destroy the city-state.


battle takes place below ground. May (or not) involve the Alliance, Templars or other parties (hat party.... these worshippers are not under a beholder's control)

Or Albech-Re could have created a limited number of hats and given them to nobility only, knowing everyone would want them and would fight over them. The fight would show the true colors of his subjects and servants, and he could manipulate the results to put certain people in certain positions or to consolidate power. Eventually things would get so bad that people would ask him for help, which he would only give in exchange for that hats. So now the power structure is shaken up, people owe him explicit favors, and he has the coolest hats.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Hey all,
Great news!! Truth, Justice, and the Beholder-kin way have upheld once more as one of the GMs is fully on board with the idea! And both GMs seem very creative and laidback, so I don't imagine the other GM will have much heartburn.

As a player, I have to ask... do you really want to establish the existence of beholders in the world you're playing in?

[SIZE=-2]*Side note: You have multiple DMs? Interesting.[/SIZE]

Good point, maybe this beholders in Athas thing was a little shortsighted. At least when my character's about to be killed by a beholder I'll have a good excuse to cry out in Hestonian form, "We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You added beholders to Dark Sun! Ah, damn you! Damn you all to hell!"

That aside, there are two DMs because the game is an episodic sandbox-style game that's a sort of pickup game. Players make up quests and post them, then other players and one of two established DMs sign up to play or run the session.

That hat is a life-shaped artifact if I ever saw one. Dark Sun had those in 2e days. So if not a beholder cult, your DM could allow it for that alone.

I'm not very familiar with DS, what are life-shaped artifacts?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'm not very familiar with DS, what are life-shaped artifacts?

Short backstory:

2e-era Dark Sun history posits that halflings were the creator race of the setting. At the origin of history the planet was covered by an ocean inhabited by halflings who knew how to manipulate species of organisms in the briny waters into anything they needed. Fantasy biotech.

Something happened to the ocean waters to threaten the living "stuff" in the water so the halflings drew upon the energy of the sun to defeat the threat resulting in the oceans drying up a bit. The halflings willfully mutated themselves into the standard fantasy races.

Further changes to the setting (more morphings of races and creatures for instance, more drying up of water . . .) will come to drift the setting into the game setting as played.

But what are life-shaped artifacts? Fantasy biotech that survived from the Blue Age of Athas.

Some Dark Sun fans liked it all.
Some Dark Sun fans liked the idea of it of it but didn't like the implied history.
Some Dark Sun fans hated the idea of it and didn't like the implied history either.

The current release of Dark Sun purposely leaves that history as only a possible history if the DM desires to.

 

[Korgoth]

Even the fact of that hat, one of the awesomest ever conceived, aside, beholders totally belong in Athas.

The reason nobody lives underground on Athas is that the underground is full of cthulhu. That's the only reasonable explanation!

But yeah, given the style of DS fantasy, beholders are definitely weird enough to fit right in.

 

[occam]

Whatever else, this remains true. Dark Sun is worthless without a decent hat.

Unless you're bald.

 

[ourchair]

Unless you're bald.

In which case muls get off easy in the fashion department.