Athas located in the Feywild? In the Abyss? or in the Nine Hells?

[Jack99]

In my Dark Sun campaign, my players have, after unwillingly helping install a new sorcerer-king in Tyr, stumbled over clues that Athas is maybe not what they thought it was.

They are currently investigating this, and the plan is that by the end of level 10, they figure out that Athas is in reality not a world on it's own, but instead a part of a once healthy and verdant world that was pulled into another plane. Maybe as an evil experiment, maybe a curse, maybe something entirely different. Either way, my hope is that my players will want to rectify things, to "liberate" Athas and return it home.

This might feel a bit "gotcha!", but the idea is to turn the campaign completely on it's head, into something different. TBH I used to love Dark Sun, but have found that traditional D&D might suit me better as a DM.

Originally, I thought Athas might be in the Abyss, but now, I am not so sure. Maybe the Feywild or the Nine Hells could work equally well. But, at the moment, I am a bit at a loss, and 10th level is approaching quickly.

So, if anyone has any ideas on how this could work, then I am looking for:
1) Location - on which plane is Athas?
2) BBEG - who was the person(s) behind the act?
3) Reason - why was it "sent" there?

Also, if you feel this is the stupidest idea ever, please feel free to point out why. I realize that I should have planned and decided on this before the campaign even began, but lack of prep-time and no breaks between campaigns have made it impossible for me to get things done as I wish.

Cheers,

 

[DracoSuave]

Elemental Chaos is the only answer that actually explains what makes Athas different. Not the Abyss, it isn't actively -evil-, but it just doesn't care.

 

[Will Doyle]

Back in 3E, I ran a large section of my campaign set in this icy world based on the Frostburn book. The characters woke up there after a TPK, and adventured there for a few levels. Ultimately they discovered that this new world was actually a demiplane that existed within their own Archmage's crystal ball. When they saw her face looming in the skies, it was one of the best twists I've run.

Not that this helps your case much, but it's an idea. So, loosely based on this:

Perhaps Athas exists on the Plane of Dreams (mentioned in one of the books, can't remember which)?

Some powerful being - let's say a dragon - is stealing the thoughts of people from the real world, and giving them life in Athas; its own dream creation. Either for it's own amusement, or to gain power in some way.

The PCs uncover this, find a way of confronting the dragon in Dream-Athas, and in destroying it, end the world as they know it. This could have the side effect of ending the PCs lives as well - or more interestingly, cause the dream beings of Athas to spill over into the real world. This means they could meet themselves - the real people who dreamed them in the first place.

 

[Rune]

1= Have to second the Elemental Chaos. It could even explain why the deities are estranged. (Or, after being so long forgotten, actually dead).

2= I would think it was a byproduct of the Sorcerer Kings' raping of the world with defiling magic.

3= Which would make it an accident. How cool would it be to return Athas only to have the Sorcerer Kings start defiling the Natural plane?

 

[Jack99]

Elemental Chaos is the only answer that actually explains what makes Athas different. Not the Abyss, it isn't actively -evil-, but it just doesn't care.

Other than no gods, what are you thinking about?

 

[Nullzone]

I would tend to agree, Elemental Chaos makes a certain amount of sense. Alternately, a demiplane on the edge of the EC. (This seems to add a bit more plausibility without upsetting the fact of "WTF why did nobody else notice all this".)

As for who did it/why, I would probably want it to be something like there being some great evil that was trapped in Athas and banished with it by the gods themselves. The only way to contain the evil was to banish the entire region. This sets up an interesting "oh god what have we done" moment; the players restore Athas to its former glory, but set the evil loose on the natural plane. Now they need to stop it. Seems to make a good setup for paragon/epic...

 

[Dice4Hire]

I would probably go with a locked astral domain if I wanted to do this.

 

[Jack99]

I thought about the demi-plane idea, and kinda liked it. I am not sure if I will use it, but this was the idea it inspired:

The Tarrasque is not just a huge abomination, but a mythical god-killer and a ravager of worlds. Asleep since the dawn of times, the gods long feared that it would awake.

When it awoke, and started to destroy the multiverse, one plane at the time, the gods became desperate to kill it. Problem was, they could and dared not face it themselves.

In order to avoid confrontation they pooled all their power and they ripped a big part of the (one?) mortal world out of the multiverse and placed it in a secret demi-plane. They also imprisoned the Tarrasque and using local circumstances (the sorcerer-kings who ruled that part of the mortal world), they fueled the prison by the despair in the world.

Back when Athas was part of a “real” world, the world was strong enough to handle the sorcerer-kings’ defiling magic, it could withstand the strain and punishment without dieing. Once in the demi-plane, that was no longer the case, and slowly Athas has become what it is today, slowly dieing, slowly augmenting the despair the gods needed to keep the Tarrasque’s prison forever.

Quite happy with what they had done, despite the consequences for a lot of mortals, the gods forgot all about Athas and the demi-plane, thinking they had rid themselves of the Big T for ever..

But magic works in mysterious ways. In Sigil, far away from the gods, and driven by inexplicable dreams, Gorgyr, a young fledging mage drew a map of an unknown world. The map clearly became infused with magic, and soon he found that by focusing his mind on certain locations on said map, he could see the world, that he thought he had created in his mind. He could even see the imaginary people inhabiting it.

For years, Gorgyr studied this miniature world of his. Of course, it was something of a shock for him to realize that they had a long history and thought they were part of a real world. It took some more years, but eventually Gorgyr found out where the original Athas came from, and thus realized that this was not merely something from his imagination.

To say that Gorgyr was obsessed about the miniature world, would be an understatement. He wanted desperately to liberate it, but he had no idea how, nor the magical skills to even begin to contemplate how to.

He did manage one thing though. He learned how to communicate in a rudimentary way with some people in the map-world. He told and showed them to build elemental temples that together would fuel a gateway out of the map-world and into Gorgyr’s workroom.

Years passed, and the temples were not completed, and Gorgyr was getting old. But he was determined to liberate the map-world or at least the people of the map-world, and he was not about to let death stop him. Luckily he had finally (barely) achieved enough power to transcend to lichdom, so he had found a way to pursue his quest.

With the temples completed, Gorgyr (now a lich) started to impart knowledge of the real world into those he could contact. He also told them of the temples, and how it was a way out. Unfortunately, quite a few went mad, while others were killed. In fact, a statistically unexpected high number of those he told the truth died violent and sudden death. But Gorgyr could not figure out how the templars knew. No one ever came through the elemental temple-portals, and eventually, Gorgyr gave up hope, shoved the map in a corner of his tower in Sigil, and went on to study other things...

Now, years have passed, and Gorgyr is about to have some unexpected visitors.. Of course, since Gorgyr knows nothing about the Tarrasque, there is a good chance that paragon tier could turn into finding a way to liberate Athas from the demi-plane, and epic tier into finding a way to stop, slow down or kill the Tarrasque.

 

[DracoSuave]

Other than no gods, what are you thinking about?

The fact that the world is intimately connected to the primordials? That it has no connection to any astral entities, but that it has so many elementals and elemental things running around?

In 2nd edition, it was actually cut off from the other prime material planes. Sigil had very few doors leading to it, other outer planes had nothing, and it was the hardest to reach sphere through spelljamming. Clerics and druids, instead oif gods, worshiped the elements themselves, earth, air, fire, and water, and that elemental worship pulled it away from the Astral and towards the Ethereal.

 

[Jack99]

The fact that the world is intimately connected to the primordials? That it has no connection to any astral entities, but that it has so many elementals and elemental things running around?

In 2nd edition, it was actually cut off from the other prime material planes. Sigil had very few doors leading to it, other outer planes had nothing, and it was the hardest to reach sphere through spelljamming. Clerics and druids, instead oif gods, worshiped the elements themselves, earth, air, fire, and water, and that elemental worship pulled it away from the Astral and towards the Ethereal.

Yeah, guess I had a brainfart for a short while. Never post when drunk or when you have a sick 2 year-old crawling all over you!