What, if any, non-canon large organizations do you guys have for your Dark Sun campaign?

Canon wise we have various organizations such as the Veiled Alliance, The Order (and other lesser independent psionic groups), The sundry Merchant Houses, The Night Runners, one might include the City-States, then you have a plethora of minor groups (villages and tribes).

In my own campaign I thought of adding another organization (maybe two depending on the reaction here). It seems that the Wanderer’s Journal exists as an in-campaign document; to that end, I’m sure some individuals have heard about it, seen it, even possibly read portions of it, Inspiring them and maybe others they tell to set out to explore. Certainly the majority would fail at this endeavor, but a few people like guides, hunters and rangers who already live a similar wandering lifestyle may very well exceed in the limited exploration and cultural contact. This would be the origins of an organized group dedicated to guiding travelers through the wastes while exploring and pathfinding on the side. These activities would very well lead to a home base side of record keepers someplace centrally located in the Tablelands, with a strong trade routes and well properly defended, lets say Nibenay (hee hee).

Now as we know the Shadow King is always looking for the well educated for uses within the Naggaramakam, so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch for his templars to be watching and listening for individuals bearing news of exotic locals. After an interrogation or two someone would have most likely figured out the design and purpose of this group, Nibenay or one of the higher ranking templars realizes the potential of supporting (or at least not interfering with) an independent group of wandering researchers willing to poke their noses into the dark holes of Athas. Thus the Wanderers are created, with a bit more fleshing out to do.

The source of inspiration for this organization was the 3.0 PrC Royal Explorer from Song and Silence Guidebook and the Wanderer’s tales.

Let me know what you guys think.

Since the “known world” in only a small portion of Athas, a group focused to explore all the planet is a very interesting idea.

You already mentoned Nibenay, but even Oronis seems to be a very scholary being, focused in knowledge. And also, Nibenay is a SK that want knowledge only for himself and his loyal servants, while for the Avangion of Kurn is ok to spread the knowledge for all the people.

In post-Pentad setting, even the Trade Lords of Balic may support the Wanderers if they’re seeking to explore the eastern side of the Sea of Silt: a sort of Athasian version of “Spain supported Cristopher Columbus”.

Currently in Free Year 3, as far as Trade Lords supporting the Wanderers that was the starting goal. Unionized scouts, if you will, selling their skills to every merchant house equally and fairly. The exploration aspect is basically a side-effect of trying to locate speedy and safer treks through the desert.

Eventually I intend to have contact with the agents of Oronis, just not yet.

Anyone else have any input?

That said, a group focused on exploration could still provide valuable knowledge to the common people of the Tyr region, especially in Free Tyr where knowledge & literacy are now welcomed. But if your PCs contact Oronis, wouldn’t it seem odd if he needs some adventurers who are nowhere near as powerful as him to explore Athas for him? Heck, he travelled through time, so I’d wager he’s probably travelled Athas fairly extensively as well, and of course he could simply use clairvoyance to check up on various areas from time to time. (Yet it’s said he doesn’t know that lizardmen still exist, and relatively close by at the Last Sea – another wall-banger.) Of course, plot-wise it would be a bit of a downer to have him merely reveal the entire geography of Athas to your PCs in one shot. I’m not quite sure how you’d resolve this… This is the problem with introducing any high-level NPC allies into a campaign. They either steal the spotlight from your PCs with their epic-level abilities, or they don’t use their powers and rely on your PCs for everything which doesn’t make much sense.

Raistlin, your focusing on the second half of the concept, I mentioned the Wanderers are primarily employed by merchant houses, I only mentioned Nibenay’s support because having an un-affiliated network of information gatherers may prove to be useful in the future. I never wanted the group to on par with the Sorcerer Monarchs/the Order/Pyreens as those are all epic leveled.

Now that you are going into the psionic aspect, keep in mind that areas can be warded or shielded from such abilities, plus if these are so common why do people need physical spies and assassins (bards).

Yeah, I like the concept of the “Wanderers” and I can certainly see how they’d be useful to the merchant houses. I guess what I was trying to say is that “if” you include encounters with the Pyreens or Oronis or another epic-level NPC, then you’ve gotta figure your PCs may simply ask them about Athas’ overall geography, and it will seem strange indeed if they say they don’t know or they suddenly turn evasive & won’t answer. One could see why a sorcerer-king would keep them in the dark, but not one of the good guys. It will look like an obvious plot contrivance to force the Wanderers to keep on wandering.

The same goes with clairsentience & teleportation… Of course Ur-Draxa, the sorcerer-king’s palaces, the Kreen Empire’s capital & the like will be warded against this, but I don’t know of any reason that the Annatan Wastes, the Crimson Savannah, the Last Sea, or the far side of Athas would be warded like that. If you have even mid level NPCs in your world, e.g. in the Veiled Alliance & various psionic academies, they’ll be able to scry & teleport to these areas & probably will have done so several times even before the Age of Heroes. Heck, Tarandas formalized the study of psionics over 800 years before Free Year 1! I can see how commoners & slaves could be ignorant of things outside the Tyr region, but I think that mid-level students of magic & psionics would know quite a bit more. The only way they wouldn’t is if you drastically scaled back the ranges for teleporting & scrying, or made entire continents “warded” somehow…