[Dark Sun, any edition] New Athas

[tinkerer]

Powerful casters in order to defeat a massive invasion of Illithid and Aboleths from the Far Realm use ancient forbidden divine magic that gets out of control. This causes the gods to sever ties with the people.

Aboleths are defeated by tainting and destroying the waters in which they live. But as a spell out of control or a curse from the dying aboleths the waters are depleted well beyond intended.

Gith have not yet gained their freedom from the Illithids and thus are one of many slave races of the Mindflayers when the invasion began.

Trying to fight psionics with arcane magic results in "upgrading" arcane to tap directly into life force of plants (and animals) but permanently alters arcane mastery such that one cannot use it anymore without life force.

The heavy use of primal magic thins the barriers between the elemental chaos and the world. Being so close to the elemental chaos, the massive destruction of life, and the gods abandoning the world result in the shadowfell and feywild being ripped apart.

 

[Timeboxer]

So... What about a Dark Sun campaign where the whole campaign setting is a brand new event?

For some reason, the following alternate universe Athas occurs to me.

• Stars from the Far Realm devour the domains of the gods in the Astral Sea, and begin to cause the Far Realm to bleed into the Prime Material.
• Most people are driven mad, and basic cultural knowledge is lost forever.
• Surviving sane people cluster into pockets of civilization; the rest become savages in the wilderness. The psychic backwash from the Far Realm begins to create psionic abilities.
• All of Athas is defiled within weeks by Rajaat, the Peacebringer, and his Champions, the Slayers of Stars, in order to defeat/imprison the stars outside of Creation and prevent Athas from being annihilated entirely.
• The ruptured barrier between Athas and the Far Realm cannot be repaired, because not enough life exists on Athas to power such a spell.

 

[darjr]

Hearing that the Grey is tantamount to the shadow fell I thought:

Welcome to the devils abode, where you're punished for wrongs committed on the prime material. The sorcerer kings are all his lieutenants.