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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 9535554" data-attributes="member: 6796468">Based on the Dark Sun Canon? I think it's screaming as -it- dies. Twice the mortals on Athas have stolen massive quantities of power from the Sun. In the Blue Age the sun was a brilliant azure ball in the sky, blazing over a world covered with oceans until the year of Ral's defiance in the 8th King's age (which is generally believed to refer to an 8th dynasty of different lineages of rulers). That age came to an end when the rhulisti (Life-Shapers, incredibly powerful magic users who could create life from practically nothing) tried to double the amount of life the oceans of the world could support. Their experiments went awry and created the "Brown Tide" which was a fetid murk that quickly spread, killing anything and everything it touched.The only way to destroy the brown tide was to use the power of the Pristine Tower to channel the power of the sun into the oceans and burn the brown tide away. This also burned away a ton of water. And the vast ocean that covered almost all of Athas retreated for the first time, revealing heretofore unknown lands that soon bloomed with life. The sun went from Blue to Yellow, drained of some of it's power by the actions of the halflings in the Blue Age. And so began the Green Age. A time of unprecedented growth and diversity, Athas became your traditional fantasy setting for D&D. All the heritages and animals and plants you'd normally expect, plus a few Athasian specific ones. Cities and villages and dungeons and so on and so forth. Until the 190th King's age.The Green Age is when Psionics were born, and Arcane Magics were discovered among the Pyreen, specifically a young Rajaat. He learned of the magic of the ancient Life-Shapers and the side-effects it could cause and researched them over the course of several centuries before he started to use arcane power... Which turned out to be destructive to life itself. He was initially horrified and quickly learned how to cast weaker magics without causing harm, inventing Preserving.Initially, he was pretty chill about everything. He started teaching magic to -some- heritages and not others. Teaching them, always, to preserve. But along the way, those he taught felt it was unfair to the other heritages they weren't -also- taught how to do magic. Unfortunately, Rajaat had chosen not to teach them for a REASON. And a bunch of them started Defiling because it was easier, faster, and stronger than Preserving magic. Rajaat was so pissed that he worked to set up pogroms to slaughter Defilers across Athas, which caused new problems as they fought against their own demise. And there were always more preservers teaching people who shouldn't have magic how to use it.For a thousand years, Rajaat set about trying to contain the monster he unleashed to the point that even Preservers were hunted down and slaughtered. The world had been drastically changed by the Defilers and vast swaths of the world became deserts of stone and blasted crag, sand and silt, where nothing could live. But in the end there was no way to undo what had been done. So he became cynical, hateful, and destructive. He set upon a course to "Restore the Blue Age" by wiping out everyone who wasn't a halfling or a human... and he'd kill the humans, himself, later.Then he recruited 14 human Champions to go wipe out entire heritages of people. To empower his Champions for this task, he took them to the Pristine Tower and used the Dark Lens to focus the power of the yellow sun into them, making them immortal near-godlike beings of immense power so they could see their grim task done, no matter how long it took. This caused the Yellow Sun to darken to a cinder-red, presaging the blood that was to come. The Cleansing Wars were even -more- defiling heavy than the previous thousand years of warfare.One of them failed so spectacularly at his job, Rajaat had him killed and replaced by one of his underlings making 15 champions. Another was murdered by their companions after completing his mission to wipe out the kobolds. The pixie-genocider was also beheaded. And both their heads were reanimated and used as advisors. And then one ruled a city-state that fell in war and died, leaving the 11 Sorcerer Kings the setting is known for.And then Rajaat was betrayed by his Champions as he sought to kill them all, along with humanity, for whatever ridiculous plan he had that would somehow return the world back to the oceans of the Blue Age.So yeah. The Sun went from a blue Main Sequence star to a yellow Main Sequence star and is now in a Red Giant state. As a red giant the surface area of the star, itself, is cooler. But due to it's increased surface area it is dumping way more total heat out into the solar system, which is why Athas is a big ball of sun-blasted sand.The next phase of Athas's star is a White Dwarf, which is dead. The nuclear fusion has ended and the only energy left is slowly radiating off into space until there's nothing left.So Athas's Red Giant Star is screaming as it dies, gurgling out it's last cries, murdered by Rajaat a thousand years ago or more at the start of the Cleansing Wars.</blockquote>

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