Isolation of the Dark Sun multiverse

[Mark Hope]

The theory a friend of mine, and the DM for a 1st edition campaign I was in, came up with made a great deal of sense.

The reason, he said, that Athas is isolated from the Outer Planes is because the plane is sitting in the eye of a permanent psychic wind, an astral hurricane as it were.

The psychic wind snaps the silver cords used to project between the planes, and would be very disruptive to Outer Planar connections if it were something like a permanent storm. Think of the astral equivalent of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.

That explains why the Astral is referred to as "the Black" on Athas; it's a side effect of the astral winds.

Travel through the Ethereal, "the Gray" is not affected very much; the Inner Planes are easily reached.

Well, the Black isn't the same as the Astral - DS has both - it's a separate plane that doesn't really have any equivalent in other cosmologies (although it shares some similarities with the Plane of Shadow). They Grey can be equated with the Ethereal with greater ease, though (athas.org uses a system similar to this). Cool idea about the psychic wind, though - that's a really interesting take on Athas' isolation.

 

[Roman]

Good explanations and theories! It does seem, however, that the case for the inner planes being separate or common can go both ways. I think I would rule in my campaign that they would be separate, though I would entertain the fact that the barriers between them and their Great Wheel equivalents are weaker and easier to breach and travel through than most other means of escaping Dark Sun.

 

[Roman]

There is also the githyanki gate to the Astral from Black Spine and a handful of summoning spells and items. I wouldn't go on record as saying that this is a 100% comprehensive list, but it's a good overview. There should be a few more tidbits forthcoming from Athas.org in the next few months, as they are releasing some previously unpublished TSR-era materials that deal with planar connections here and there (specifically, the Secrets of the Dead Lands and the Faces of the Far North and Lost Cities publications). These are still in the final phases of development, though, so I'm not really at liberty to discuss more until the finished products are released.

I am looking forward to it.

BTW: You also mentioned Dark Sun being a closed crystal sphere. Does this crystal sphere officially include only Athas and its Sun, or also other planets and if the latter, is there any official info on them?

 

[Mark Hope]

I am looking forward to it.

BTW: You also mentioned Dark Sun being a closed crystal sphere. Does this crystal sphere officially include only Athas and its Sun, or also other planets and if the latter, is there any official info on them?

Well, DS material makes no reference to crystal spheres, but canonically speaking, the Athasian "solar system" is known to contain at least 5 celestial bodies. There is the sun (an immense, bloated crimson monster), Athas itself, its two moons (a little one called Ral and a big one called Guthay) and a periodical comet called the Messenger, which returns to Athas every 45 years. There are scattered references here and there in DS mythology about creatures living on the moons (one DS legend claims that Silk Wyrms come from there, for example), but no references to other planets or bodies that I am aware of. The maps of the Tablelands do have some rather interesting crater-like features, so it's clearly feasible.

As mentioned above, undeveloped DS lore reveals that the Messenger is a spacecraft with those three ancient rhulisti in hibernation inside, but it's not clear whether the Messenger was supposed to be a comet that was co-opted as a vessel, or a vessel that was mistaken for a comet. This material was never released and is non-canonical (and widely derided by many fans, although I quite like the idea) and, at last report, there are no plans to develop it any further.

Some fans have come up with interesting ideas about Athas actually being a moon of Guthay, and not the other way round. In this conception, Guthay is a vast gas giant. I don't use this myself, but it is a neat idea. There were also a few templates made for creatures from deep space that were pretty cool as well - but that's all fanon ...

 

[Roman]

Very interesting indeed, though I must confess that I do not like the idea of the messanger comet being a spaceship.

Now that I think about it and the Great Wheel ceased to be the default unifying cosmology in 3E/3.5E and the Forgotten Realms even switched to a custom-created cosmology of its own, it may perhaps have been wise to sever Dark Sun from the Great Wheel too and avoid these issues.

On the other hand, though, I do like the idea of an overarching cosmology unifying the worlds...

 

[Roman]

Hmm, I have another question related to this matter. Dark Sun does not and cannot have gods as the conduits of divine power simply do not exist. Still, the sorceror kings are able to grant spells to their templars. Why is this the case?

I do recall that I was interested in this issue before and the answers I obtained were somewhat conflicted, some positing that the transformation of the champions by Rajaat (spelling?) through the dark lens changed their nature in such a way as to enable them to grant spells to their followers and other explanations claiming that somewhere at the beginning, possibly/likely during the transformation into dragons, vortex-like creatures living in the positive energy plane (!) attached themselves to the sorceror kings and these enable them to channel positive (!) energy to their followers. Supposedly, also these vertex-like creatures are now extinct in the positive energy plane, so other such attachments are impossible.

Can anybody explain or elaborate?

Edited to add: I also recall something to the effect that the Sorceror Kings cannot use their spell-granting power they use to grant spells to the templars for themselves personally and that this vexes them enormously. Is this actually the case and if so why?

 

[William Ronald]

Hmm, I have another question related to this matter. Dark Sun does not and cannot have gods as the conduits of divine power simply do not exist. Still, the sorceror kings are able to grant spells to their templars. Why is this the case?

I do recall that I was interested in this issue before and the answers I obtained were somewhat conflicted, some positing that the transformation of the champions by Rajaat (spelling?) through the dark lens changed their nature in such a way as to enable them to grant spells to their followers and other explanations claiming that somewhere at the beginning, possibly/likely during the transformation into dragons, vortex-like creatures living in the positive energy plane (!) attached themselves to the sorceror kings and these enable them to channel positive (!) energy to their followers. Supposedly, also these vertex-like creatures are now extinct in the positive energy plane, so other such attachments are impossible.

Can anybody explain or elaborate?

During part of 2nd Edition, spells of a limited level could be gained by faith alone. (This is somewhat similar to Eberron, where no one can definitely say that the gods exist. Theoretically, in Eberron, someone who believes strongly in the power of Tommy the Talking Turtle has the same access to clerical magic as the followers of the Celestial Host. ) I am not familar with Dark Sun, but a similar mechanic could be used to explain the existence of clerical magic.

Also, Athas still had access to the elemental planes, so entities of that plane may have granted spells to people on Athas. This might explain much, even if those entities did not take direct action in the affairs of Athas.

As for cosmology, I don't see why the Great Wheel could not easily be part of an even more complicated cosmology, with some thinking that the Great Wheel was the sum of existence. (I never really was much of a Planescape fan or foe, but I did like the 1st edition concept of the spike at the center of the Plane of Concordant Opposition being the World Mountain/World Tree/Center of All Things from varius belief systems from the real world, being perceived by beings in many different ways. (Okay, my reading of Joseph Campbell is showing.) Mind you, I like the idea of multiple cosmologies in 3rd Edition, because it does give DMs a bit more freedom.)

 

[Roman]

During part of 2nd Edition, spells of a limited level could be gained by faith alone. (This is somewhat similar to Eberron, where no one can definitely say that the gods exist. Theoretically, in Eberron, someone who believes strongly in the power of Tommy the Talking Turtle has the same access to clerical magic as the followers of the Celestial Host. ) I am not familar with Dark Sun, but a similar mechanic could be used to explain the existence of clerical magic.

I don't think it worked this way in Dark Sun, but there were other ways to get 'divine' magic.

Also, Athas still had access to the elemental planes, so entities of that plane may have granted spells to people on Athas. This might explain much, even if those entities did not take direct action in the affairs of Athas.

Yes, IIRC elemental entities did grant spells to elemental clerics.

 

[Mark Hope]

Hmm, I have another question related to this matter. Dark Sun does not and cannot have gods as the conduits of divine power simply do not exist. Still, the sorceror kings are able to grant spells to their templars. Why is this the case?

I do recall that I was interested in this issue before and the answers I obtained were somewhat conflicted, some positing that the transformation of the champions by Rajaat (spelling?) through the dark lens changed their nature in such a way as to enable them to grant spells to their followers and other explanations claiming that somewhere at the beginning, possibly/likely during the transformation into dragons, vortex-like creatures living in the positive energy plane (!) attached themselves to the sorceror kings and these enable them to channel positive (!) energy to their followers. Supposedly, also these vertex-like creatures are now extinct in the positive energy plane, so other such attachments are impossible.

Can anybody explain or elaborate?

It's a matter of some contention in the DS community, further confused by one or two of the novels that directly contradict the game material (and not helped by the fact that these novels are very popular on the whole). As far as the game material goes, it works as follows:

Athas doesn't have the conduits that connect the prime plane to the outer planes, hence it does not have - and never had - deities. It does, however, have powerful spirits that can grant spells to those who follow them (such as druids and rangers), and powerful elementals on the elemental planes who can grant spells to their followers (such as clerics).

As for the sorcerer-kings, they were originally powerful defilers and psions who were granted immortality by the First Sorcerer Rajaat, when he made them into his Champions for the genocidal Cleansing Wars. Harnessing the energies of the sun through the Pristine Tower (an ancient rhulisti place), this transformation also gave them the power to drain life energy through the use of obsidian orbs. He also hinted at a level of power beyond this, power that would combine their magic and psionics and elevate them to near godlike status. It was at this time that Rajaat's use of the Pristine Tower turned Athas' sun from yellow to red.

Rajaat was eventually betrayed by his Champions (a rebellion led by a Champion called Borys) and imprisoned in a weird little plane called the Hollow by the power of an artifact called the Dark Lens. Borys allowed the other surviving Champions to take control of a city-state each (some had died and others had been slain in the rebellion for siding with Rajaat). Thus the Champions became the sorcerer-kings of their chosen domains. Borys then used the Dark Lens to transform the sorcerer-kings into Athasian Dragons (advanced beings that meld psionics and magic - the same beings previously hinted at by Rajaat). In the resulting conflagration of energies, the sorcerer-kings were unwittingly connected to creatures called Living Vortices. The Living Vortices (which spanned the prime, the ethereal and the elemental planes) created conduits between the sorcerer-kings and the elemental planes, allowing the sorcerer-kings to grant spells to their worshippers. It is important to note that the sorcerer-kings were pretty much ignorant of how they gained the ability to grant spells - it was more or less an accidental side-effect of their transformations into fledgeling dragons.

The sorcerer-kings then used the Dark Lens to transform Borys into a fully-developed dragon, and he took up guardianship of the Hollow, periodically claiming a levy of souls from the other sorcerer-kings in order to reinforce the wards around Rajaat's prison. As for the Living Vortices, yes, they are now extinct as a species. However, the adventure Dregoth Ascending reveals that Living Vortices can survive the death of the sorcerer-king to which they were attached. So, with a number of deceased sorcerer-kings on Athas, there may well be a handful of Living Vortices still in existence.

That's the short version, anyhow...

 

[Desdichado]

On the other hand, though, I do like the idea of an overarching cosmology unifying the worlds...

That's still present, in the form of the Plane of Shadow connecting multiple cosmologies. For what it's worth, I think that's a much more elegant and usable solution than spelljaming or the Great Wheel (IMO, a distinct Greyhawkism) uniting all settings if you actually want characters to be able to travel to different settings.

Although I also feel that each setting having it's own cosmology is a feature, not a bug. It's a good thing as it allows the setting to be able to set itself apart more in terms of feel and tone. Although folks like Shemeska might disagree, I've never thought that Planescape was a good one size fits all cosmology. It's good as a setting in and of itself (with the exception of the cant--bleagh) but that's where it's utility ends, IMO.