I played Dark Sun for 3 years with AD&D 2nd ed. rules back in the early ‘90s when I was in high school, and now I’m in the process of starting up a new DS campaign using a 3.5 ed. Iron Heroes variant. Anyways, I look back at my DMing for Dark Sun under 2nd ed. as mostly a success: I kept metal & magic weapons to a minimum, forced players to rely on their innate abilities & skills rather than their possessions, made sure openly practicing magic in a city-state got a swift response from the templars. I also managed to keep a gritty anti-hero tone where it wasn’t always clear who the “good guys” were rather than let it turn into a straightforward good vs. evil campaign where the virtuous, eco-friendly preservers & druids have to save the world from the mean old sorcerer kings. However, looking back, I think one big mistake I made was not “thinking like a Dragon King” – i.e thinking in terms of how they’d probably govern their city-state and the level of control they could exercise.

If you want to figure out how much control the DKs can exert over their cities, you’ve first got to figure out about how large the “police force” is for each city-state, which includes fighters in the city guard, templars, court defilers, and court psionicists. Then you’ve got to compare that to how many people they’re trying to police and the size of the dissident groups (i.e. mostly the Veiled Alliance, but also elves, thieves and unruly slaves). Let’s start by looking at wizards… I recently re-read “The Veiled Alliance” supplement, and they state that only about half of one percent of the population can cast preserving magic, and thus there’s about 40-60 preservers in a city-state, with almost all of the preservers above 5th level being involved with the Veiled Alliance, and each Alliance has about 15 preservers above 8th level (page 95). Then they say that preservers are outnumbered about 3-5 to 1 in the city states by defilers, so 120-300, which is just over 1% of the total population. There’s 40-70 defilers above 9th level, almost all of which are working for the local sorcerer king, and then there’s 40-100 defilers at levels 5-8, and about twice as many (80-200) at levels 1-4. Although it’s not specific, there’s the implication that most of the lower level defilers are not authorized by the sorcerer king and don’t work for him. Even still, this means that the sorcerer king has about as many court defilers above 9th level as the Veiled Alliance does total # of preservers! This sounds like a rather high amount of wizards, looking at both preservers & defilers we’ve got 160-360 total per city-state…

To get an idea of the number of court psionicists, I looked at “The Will and the Way” supplement. The only city-states where it gives actual numbers for the amount of psionicists training at the state academies are Balic (100 students at Balic’s Cerebran), Draj (200 at the House of the Mind), and Gulg (250 at the Seers’ Dagada) – see pages 10-12. I think we can assume that these figures are roughly representative of the other city-states. The book makes it clear that about half of the student base has only a little psionic potential, so means that there are only 50-100 per city who fully develop their powers and become a psionicist instead of just a wild talent. However, it also says that not all the academy graduates end up working for the sorcerer king – probably 50% or so work for the nobles or merchants. Even so, I’d say this still leaves perhaps 25% of the students training at the state academies (25-50 psionicists) working for the sorcerer king. This sounds rather strange when you consider that psionics is supposed to be more common than magic on Athas, but we’ve got 3 times as many wizards as psionicists in most city-states. Even if we assume that maybe only 25-50% of a city’s psionicists are currently studying at the state academy, bumping the total number up to 100-400 that makes their numbers about equal to the wizards, where I always kinda figured there’d be at least twice as many psionicists as wizards. Personally, I suggest flipping the numbers of psionicists and wizards, so that would mean 150-300 psionicists and only 50-100 wizards per city-state, and there’d be 40-70 court psionicists and 25-50 court defilers.

When we try to estimate the number of guards & templars, there’s no official numbers listed anywhere that I’m aware of. If we figure there’s at least twice as many templars in a city as there are psionicists (preservers & defilers) that makes 300-600 templars. Then if we assume there’s about 4-5 times as many guards/soldiers as there are templars, that means roughly 1200-3000 total guards/soldiers per city. This number sounds kinda small when you think of the descriptions of Tyr & Urik’s armies in the novel “Road to Urik”, but considering the city-states have a total population of about 30-50,000 people I can’t see their active guard contingent numbering over about 5% of the total population.

So when we look at a city-states total “police force” (and flip the numbers for psionicists & wizards as I suggested above), we’ve got:
1) 25-50 court defilers
2) 40-70 court psionicists
3) 300-600 templars
4) 1,200-3,000 guards
From here, you can calculate how many are actively “on patrol” at any one time in the city & the surrounding countryside. I figure they work in three 8-hour shifts (and they don’t get a lot of vacation, lol!), so probably a third are active at any one time. I’d then say that 60% are patrolling the city, 30% are patrolling the surrounding market towns, and 10% are “on assignment” in other city-states or out in the wilderness on missions.

So if your PCs try to do what Sorak did in the novel “The Seeker”, i.e. stark hacking down templars & half giant guards with his magical elven sword in the middle of Nibenay with the help of the Veiled Alliance & some rebellious elves, you can figure they’ll face a total city police force of 5-10 court defilers, 8-14 court psionicists, 60-120 templars, and 240-600 guards. Even if/when they escape to the local countryside & try to flee, they’ll have to slip through an area protected by 2-5 court defilers, 4-7 court psionicists, 30-60 templars, and 120-300 guards. This is rather sobering, and makes you realize that engaging the city guards in an open battle or starting a rebellion is a daunting task even without the sorcerer king becoming personally involved!!!

The next step in “thinking like a Dragon King” is realizing that the sorcerer kings are epic level NPCs that have all been around for several millenia, and thus they are in all likelihood “crazy prepared”. A lot of the game designers and novelists that worked on the Dark Sun world in the ‘90s apparently didn’t realize what this would mean in terms of game dynamics, and especially for resistance groups like the Veiled Alliance.

Heck, the same “Veiled Alliance” supplement that said the Dragon Kings had as many high-level court defilers as the Veiled Alliance did total members suggests having PCs sneak into Andropinis’ palace and break or steal things as part of their inititiation into Balic’s Veiled Alliance!!! In the “Dragon’s Crown” adventure, the PCs sneak into Hamanu’s palace using nothing more than potion fruits of invisibility and a “secret” sewer access that leads up into his cellar.

Hmmm…. I don’t know about you, but if I was an epic-level defiler/psionicist I’d probably have a bunch of magic wards & deadly traps, gardens full of carnivorous plants, crypts full of undead, golems and invisible stalkers and the like protecting my palace against would-be thieves & assassins. I’d also have the place warded against scrying, teleporting, invisible or ethereal invaders, etc. If you look at the “Crystal Poles” in the Athasian Emporium supplement (p.94), these offer protection against scrying & invasion that I’m imagining all DK’s must have for their palace. Since the book mentions that some of the Merchant Houses & Veiled Alliances possess one of these poles, it’s quite realistic to assume DK’s have several or their equivalent. Realistically, breaking into a Dragon King’s palace should mean almost certain death or at least capture for anyone below Epic level. If you want to look at the kind of defensive network a Dragon King could build over several millenia, check out the description of Ur Draxa in the “Valley of Dust and Fire” supplement. Obviously, the other DKs are not going to barricade their entire cities like that, but I’d think their palaces should be almost as impregnable as the Dragon’s. (If you want to provide a challenge for low-to-mid level PCs and allow them to do a little B&E, I’d say that the homes of higher level templars, nobles and merchant houses should provide a sufficient challenge.)

Of course, if I was a DK, my traps & warded areas wouldn’t just stop at my palace doors. With several thousands years of rule, I’d have permanent “dispel magic” & “dispel psionics” zones at the city gates & various areas throughout the city, various clairvoyance/clairaudience devices for spying on the populace, golems disguised as statues that can animate when needed, cistern fiends & water weirds guarding the city’s water supplies, obsidian retrievers or intellect devourers guarding my treasure, etc. Heck, we know the DK’s have giant undead war beetles and drik war machines for war and levitating silt skiffs for trade, so it stands to reason they’ve got some pretty decent inventions to deal with criminals and resistance groups within their own cities.

If any of you have seen the movie “Minority Report” (based on the Philip K. Dick novel), you can see how just 3 beings with precognitive powers could be harnessed to create a police state where crime was virtually impossible to get away with undetected. And we know the DKs have court psionicists with clairsentience powers similar to this. Of course, PCs and NPC resistance groups like the Veiled Alliance have access to magic & psionics that could counter this type of surveillance, but if you look at recent sci-fi films like “Jumper” and “Push” (or of course the “X-Men” films) you can see the way a government would try to control & apprehend people with magic or psionic powers. Remember the “Mutant Registration Act” from the first “X-Men” film? Well, we know from “The Will and the Way” that Hamanu makes all foreign psionicists coming into Urik register and wear a special ceramic token on their clothing at all times, and psionic residents have to shave their heads & get forehead tattoos that denote their level of training.

The DKs would probably have specialized “wizard slayer”, “psionicist slayer” and “cleric/druid slayer” strike teams outfitted with special training & equipment, maybe even some magic items, aimed at hunting down & eliminating enemies of the state. All this just goes to show you how difficult it would be for dissidents to even exist inside a DK’s city-state, much less flout his authority & attack his templars like we see in some of the novels & published adventures.

Keep in mind that there would need to be some crime or there wouldn’t be enough criminals to fill the slave/levy quotas. You also need to remember that each SK has a different approach to ruling, Hammanu and Tectuktitlay seems to be very hands on vs. say Nibenay, Abach’Re or Kalak (in his last years) who seem to let subordinates deal with the local level issues. With your “Sorak would face” example, I’m sure there comes a point where the cost of dead guards out weighs the benefits of upheld laws and someone says “just let them get out of the city, we’ll deal with them later”. Other wise, yes you have several good points there, I must say I like the idea of specialist teams for non-standard opponents, the SWAT of Dark Sun.

“Keep in mind that there would need to be some crime or there wouldn’t be enough criminals to fill the slave/levy quotas. "

Sure, there’s still gonna be some crime – but mostly covert crimes like smuggling, bribery, theft, and the occasional assasination, NOT openly attacking guards in the street or starting riots. At this point, there’s a large enough slave population (about 50% of the total population in most city-states I think) that the birth rate among the slaves should be enough to fill the Dragon’s levy and provide enough workers without a lot of criminals needing to be added. There was a discussion awhile back that dealt with these kind of issues of demographics: http://arena.athas.org/forums/the-pit/topics/mu…

After looking at the size & power of the DK’s police force, I think the Veiled Alliances & the “Veiled One” prestige class might need to be re-worked. Look at the prestige classes for the Auditor, Chasseur, Dead Heart Interrogator, Monarch’s Chosen, Myrmeloen, Royal Defiler, Templar Knight, as well as the prestige classes for the various city-states’ templars. This is what the Veiled Alliance is up against…

So, other than Myrmelons that have already infiltrated their ranks, what are the biggest dangers the Veiled Alliance members face from the DK’s followers? As far as detection goes, the Templar Knight can “Detect Magic” as a power, and the Chasseur has “Identify Spellcasting”. The Auditor gets bonuses to Clairsentient psionics, which can also be used to detect magic & gain all kinds of information. And of course, certain templars will probably scan the city on a daily basis casting “detect magic”, “detect secret doors”, and “detect invisible”. Not only will spellcasting be very difficult under these conditions, but also any protective spells the Veiled Ones have active on their persons or any magic items they have on them can be spotted this way. And then if one gets caught, he’s gotta withstand the Dead Heart Interrogator. As if his special abilities aren’t enough, look at the “Templar’s Ultimatum” poison in the Athasian Emporium book (p.55). And even if a wizard chooses to die rather than be captured, the interrogator has “Speak with Dead” as a class ability & can use this to interrogate his ghost!

Another problem the Veiled Alliance would probably face is the psychological control the DK and his minions have over the populace. In the 2nd ed. “Dragon Kings” book, 4 of the 10th level spells the DKs had (Just Sovereign, Masquerade, Recruitment, Reverse Loyalties) were basically different versions of a “Mass Charm” spell which seemed to have been designed to subjugate their populace in the event of riots or rebellions. I’m not sure how this has translated over to 3rd & 4th edition rules, but enchantment/charm type spells still allow the DK & his templars to keep control of the people. Look at items worn by Templars in the “Athasian Emporium” supplement like the Cassock of Ordinance (p.75), Chamberlain Insignia (p.76), Sycophany Vestment (p.102), all of which amplify the templar’s psychological control.

Realistically then, Veiled Ones need some impressive anti-detection, anti-interrogation & anti-enchantment abilities & spells to even function in a city-state. More on this later…

Okay, so here’s my suggestion for re-working the Veiled One prestige class:

Requirements
To qualify to become a Veiled One, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Skills: Bluff 8 ranks, Disguise 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks.
Feats: Eschew Materials, Skill Focus (Bluff), and either Still Spell or Silent Spell
Spells: Able to cast 2nd level arcane spells. Must know at least one spell that foils detection/scrying on the wizard’s person (e.g. misdirection, nondetection_) and one spell that foils detection/scrying on objects (_Nystul’s magic aura, illusory script, obscure object).
Other: Must be accepted into the Veiled Alliance, and be capable of casting wizard spells.

Class Skills:
The Veiled One’s class skills are a mixture of those for wizards & rogues. Their class skills (and key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Literacy (none), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Speak Language (none), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis).
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class features
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Veiled Ones gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Spell Archive: At 1st level, Veiled Ones gain access to shared spell resources. Each level gained in the Veiled One class grants the wizard three new spells rather than the ordinary two. However, two of the three spells must be taken from the divination, abjuration, enchantment or illusion schools.
Suppress Truth (Su): Like Myrmeleons, Veiled Ones quickly become accustomed to concealing their activities. By 2nd level Sense Motive checks made against Veiled Ones suffer a -4 penalty. Furthermore they receive a +2 bonus to Will saves against spells or psionics that reveal his thoughts or lies (detect thoughts, discern lies, zone of truth etc.).
Veiled Magic: At 4th level, Veiled One’s get a +3 bonus to caster level checks made to resist detection or scrying spells with their own spells (e.g. detect scrying, nondetection), and opponents have a -3 penalty on Will saves to see through the Veiled One’s illusion spells aimed at concealment or non-detection (e.g. Nystul’s magic aura, misdirection, invisibility). Casting a spell so intricate that it gives this +3 bonus (or -3 save penalty) takes much longer (1 round per spell level) and its verbal & somatic components can’t be concealed during casting, so it’s best cast in private areas before entering public. Veiled Ones refer to this as “donning the Veil.” If a Veiled One wishes to conceal the verbal & somatic components or use a shorter casting time, they can – but the spell just functions as it would normally without the +3 bonus or -3 save penalty.
Fast Concealment: Like Arena Mages, by 5th level, Veiled Ones have become so good at concealing their spellcasting using the Bluff skill, that it is no longer a move action but rather a free action.
Headstrong: At 6th level, Veiled Ones get a +3 competence bonus on saves against compulsion and fear effects.
Glyph resistant: At 7th level, Veiled Ones get a +3 competence bonus on saves against glyphs, runes, symbols.
Bonus Feats: Veiled Alliance wizards have access to a substantial amount of knowledge. At 8th and 10th level the Veiled Ones gain a bonus feat that can be any metamagic feat, item creation feat, or a Skill Focus feat the wizard qualifies for.

This is some seriously awesome stuff, Raist. Keep it coming. One thing to keep in mind, though: even with modern day surveillance equipment, technology and training, our government and police forces still can’t keep a handle on the criminal element. Many times, the criminals are in so deep with the government, or government officials, that they aren’t chased after or get token punishments. So, even with the spell-casting might available to the SKs, it might be good to make allowances for these sorts of situations.

Another thing to consider might be that most of the templars, wizards, and psions in SK employ are fairly low-level, with only a few of higher level, impacting the amount of spell-casting that can happen in terms of “ferreting out the bad guys” on a daily basis.

Plus, not only does good old fashioned failure of communication enter into it, but politics would play a role in criminals and VA members “getting away”. That helps cut back on the “know everything, everywhere, all the time” vibe. Perhaps look at crime and criminals in the old Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc for ideas on how such organizations might thrive, or at least exist/survive, under a totalitarian government.

Glad you liked it, Greyorm! And that’s a good point about how corrupt templars & guards might just “look the other way” as long as the Veiled Alliance pays them off and doesn’t cause too much trouble. We can see this happening in the novel “Brazen Gambit” where the dwarf templar in charge of inspecting imports in Urik is being paid off. BTW, it’s funny that you should mention the Soviet Union, since I just ran across an interview Lynn Abbey did and she mentions “I was reading Mikhail Gorbachev’s autobiography and thinking about the challenges to a fundamentally decent man trapped in an utterly corrupt society. For Gorbachev, that society was the Soviet Union, but it wasn’t long before I was extrapolating from the Soviet Union to the DarkSun milieu and my barroom scholar, Just-Plain Pavek”. – http://www.lynnabbey.com/html/brazen_gambit.html

I think the overall strategy of the VA in most city-states would be to “seem” like a disorganized group of miscreants & smugglers so that the local DK & his top templars would feel safe enough to leave them alone for the most part and focus on other things. This means that the street battle that Sorak gets in with Nibenay’s guards in “The Seeker” would not probably be something Nibenay’s VA would relish. In fact, it would probably cause the Shadow King to take a break from his studies to crush the VA and execute as many of their members as possible. Instead, the VA is better off using more subtle means, like bribing or even infiltrating the templars, subvert key officials with enchantment spells or even “magic jar” them, and from there they would gather information & hatch their plans. Their ultimate goal would be an assasination of the DK like the one that happened in Tyr – the first thing Kalak knew about it was when the Heartwood Spear impaled him!

Of course, one of the major reasons the DKs don’t completely ferret out & eradicate the VA is because they also have to focus on their other potential enemies, like agents of the other DKs, Rajaat & his shadow giants, the Kreen Empire to the west, the Order (especially if they’ve got the Psionatrix from the “Dragon’s Crown” adventure), the Rhulisti of the Jagged Cliffs, the Psulorns, upstart defiler dragons like Farcluun & Dote Mal Payn, the possibility of a Githyanki invasion (from the “Black Spine” adventure), the Yuan-Ti living in the caves of the Ringing Mountains, the illithids living in the “Dark Cupola” of the Annatan wastes, whatever powerful undead sorcerer (the necromancer Qwith?) who might lurk in the Dead Lands, etc. In fact, one can see how occasionally the VA and a DK might temporarily team up to fight one of these threats, as they did against the Order in the “Dragon’s Crown” adventure or against Rajaat at the end of the novel “Rise and Fall of a Dragon King”.

I was looking through the various monster manuals for Dark Sun, and I noticed that there’s a large number of domesticated or tameable animals that are used by the templars & guards of the various city-states. Obviously, this amplifies the already considerable power of the DKs! Back when I DM’d, I never really implemented this and PCs and NPCs just had your typical draft animals like erdlus/crodlus, kanks, inix and mekillots, and of course the farmers had your basic herd animals like aprigs, sygra, z’tal and carru.

The “Athasian Emporium” supplement has a great section on poisons (p.49-55) that shows that quite a few animals can be used for creating poisons, although we can probably assume that the more dangerous among them are not tamed but merely have their poison sacs harvested when they’re slain in the wild. Those that we know are tamed are the mulworm, kivit, pulp bee, jankz and kip. Others like the dust glider, silt spider, silt serpent, gold scorpion and dragon beetle could possible be bred & harvested for their poison, but it would be unusual & thus more dangerous.

Anyways, aside from these poisonous creatures, I’ve listed some others below that would be useful for the templars & city guards, sorted roughly by size & type, along with their primary use(s):

Bioweapon Animals:
(in addition to the poison animals listed above)
Cerebral Parasites – used for incapacitating psionicists (found in Gulg’s dungeon in “Asticlian Gambit” adventure & in Kalidnay in “Merchant House of Amketch” adventure)
Sitak Parasites – reside on wild sitaks & cause “sitak fever” in handlers, but must be removed when sitaks are tamed – could be used as a bioweapon, esp. by Gulg
Purple Caterpillar – used for torture & feeble-minding by slave masters
Tas’l Worm – used to lower a creature’s resistance to telepathy
Shaqat Beetle – normally rather harmless, but can be used as a vector for parasites (e.g. House Shom of Balic infects them with cerebral parasites in the “Merchant House of Amketch” adventure)
Agony Beetle – used by templars for torture & as sling bullets by halflings
Sa’rikka Beetle – used in special “rha’kut arrows” by Silt Stalker elves (Nibenay/Giusternal/Raam area)
Brain Mole – used for incapacitating/killing psionicists (found in Gulg’s dungeon in “Asticlian Gambit” adventure)
Kip – used for their pheromones, esp. by dwarves of Kled
(I also threw in some more of these critters in my campaigns, such as rot grubs, ear seekers, throat leeches, gold bugs, book worms, and even the basilisk and the rust monster. The back story was that they were all created as bioweapons during the Cleansing Wars.)

Familiar/Messenger Animals:
Ock’n – kind of a boring pet & limited in value, but useful for its resin
Hurrum – kind of a boring pet & limited in value, since all it does is hum pleasantly
Psionocus – artificially created as familiars by psionicists; can also be used for their poison
Sitak – used for relaying messages telepathically, esp. in Gulg
Kes’Trekel – used as watch birds, esp. by merchants
Wrab – used as pets & gauges of rhetorical skill by the Tyrian Council
Critic – used as household pets & danger sensors (prominent in Urik in the novel “Rise & Fall of a Dragon King”)
Jankz – used for primarily for poison, but might also make a good pet
Zhackal – used as evil pets by some nobles
Kivit – used for poison but might also make a good pet, esp. for druids
Z’tal – usually just used for its meat & scales, but might make a good pet
Giant Wasp – used as pet by wasp herders of Kurn
Rohorind Raptor – used as hunting bird by Rohorind halflings up north
(The original Dark Sun boxed set also included a variant list of wizard familiars along with the 1st level “Find Familiar” spell: bat, beetle, black cat, pseudodragon, rat, scorpion, snake. I might include some of the animals from the “Improved Familiar” feat like the shocker lizard, stirge, monstrous spider, flying snake, and perhaps even the homunculus – since if psions can make a psionocus it makes sense that wizards can construct their own familiar as well.)

Tracker/Guard Animals:
Aurumvorax (Golden Gorger) – used as guard animal by Tyrian templar in the PC game “Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager”
Lirr – not usually tamed, except as animal companion for druids
Ruve – companions for good-aligned wizards, clerics & psions, esp. Villichi, more common up north on the Trembling Plains
Plains Cur – trained as herd dogs by the Eloy half-elf tribe of the Trembling Plains
Rasclinn – used as hunting partners, esp. by rangers & reavers
Baazrag (Lesser Boneclaw) – used for hunting vermin & for pulling carts by nobles of Tyr & Balic, cleaning vermin from sewers in Tyr
Jhakar – used for tracking & guarding, esp. by Draxans & Eldaarich’s Neshtap, and occasionally as animal companion for druids
Sand Howler – used as trackers & guards
Gorak – used as trackers
Tigone – used as hunting partners by halflings (Sorak in the novel “The Outcast” has one as his pet)
Kirre – hunted by halflings, but not usually tamed (The Sage in the novel “The Seeker” has one as his pet)
Kir’ren – flying relative of the Kirre, sometimes used as hunting companion by Rohorind halflings or guard animals by nobles & templars of Kurn & Eldaarich
Harnaq Terrier – used as guards for harnaq cows by the herders of Kurn, also used for their poison
Daggoran – used as vermin killers & trackers in Draj
Feylaar – created as shock troops by one of the deceased sorcerer-kings, but currently untameable
Thrax – appear to have been magically created as assassins back in the Cleansing Wars or early Brown Age, but no official info on by who…
Bog Wader – used for guarding water holes, esp. by some slave tribes & Thri-Kreen in the Tyr Region
Kluzd – not usually tamed, except as animal companion for druids
Athasian Bear (Klaar) – there is some indication these were kept as guards by dwarves in the past, but now appear to be untameable
Baazrag (Greater Boneclaw) – unlike its smaller relative it’s not usually domesticated, except as an animal companion for druids, but animal tamers in Tyr & Balic might be able to tame them
Hatori – not usually tamed, except as animal companion for druids
Fanner Beast (Subterranean Lizard) – used as guards by Dray
Cistern Fiend – used for guarding wells, and can also be used for their poison
Cilops – used for tracking, esp. by Nibenay

Special Mounts:
(aside from typical animals like erdlu, crodlu, kank)
Giant Dragonfly – used as mounts by Rohorind halflings of the north
Kalin – used for riding & warfare by Dray
Pterrax – used for airborne warfare & transport by Pterrans in the Hinterlands & humans of the Silt Archipelago
Aviarag – used for airborne warfare & transport, but only by good-aligned handlers
Dragonne – could possibly be used for airborne warfare & transport, but not mentioned anywhere…
Roc – used for airborne warfare & transport, esp. by Draxans (Nibenay also sends one to his mercenary Valsavis in the novel “The Nomad”, and there were lone individuals in the “Forest Maker” and “Dragon’s Crown” adventures that were roc riders not in the service of a DK)
Wyvern – possibly used for airborne warfare & transport (wyvern riders appear in the PC game, “Dark Sun: Shattered Lands” outside of Draj)

Heavy Draft/War Machine Animals:
(aside from typical heavy draft beasts like the inix & mekillot)
So-Ut (Rampager) – appear to have been magically created as war machines, but no official info on by who… (appear in Draj’s army as part of the final battle in the PC game, “Dark Sun: Shattered Lands”)
Jalath-gak – used for land transport by Kreen Empire
Ruktoi – used for silt transport by House Wavir of Balic
Watroach – used as undead war machines by various city-states
Rhezzata Beetle – used as undead war machines by various city-states, esp. Nibenay & Raam
Silt Horror – probably only useable by psionic beastmasters
Sharg – brought to Athas from outer planes by Dregoth, but is of very limited use for now since it must live in water
Slimahacc – used as draft beastsby Pterrans
Behir – probably only useable by psionic beastmasters
Dracolisk – probably only useable by psionic beastmasters
Drakes, Elemental & Paraelemental – probably only useable by drake guardians and psionic beastmasters
Cloud Ray – probably only useable by psionic beastmasters (used by Shammu, a beastmaster from the Order in the “Dragon’s Crown” adventure)
Korinth – used for patrols by Draj
Megapede – probably only useable by psionic beastmasters
Drik – used for war machines by Urik & Raam and for transport by Eldaarich’s Neshtap
Nightmare Beast – appear to have been magically created as war machines, but no official info on by who…
Stalking Horror (Moon Beast) – powerful summoned creature of mysterious origins, linked to certain magical artifacts, but no official info on who might control it…
Tarrasque – used as ultimate war machine by Draxans in the PC game “Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager”
Note: Chapter 6 of the “Legends of Athas” supplement lists several epic monsters that might also fit into the DK’s arsenals, such as the Living Vault, Colossus, Umbral Blot (Blackball), Devastation Vermin, Ruin Swarm.

I think that just as the armies of each city-state are different, I’d expect they’d use some different animals. Where the moster manual entries or events from the DS novels or adventues connected an animal with a certain city-state, I’ve noted it above. Personally, as a DM, I’d suggest dividing up the other animals among the various city-states so they have a roughly equal number of bioweapon animals, familiar/messenger animals, tracker/guard animals, special mounts and heavy draft/war machine animals. After all, the city-states of the Tyr Region have maintained a rough balance of power for centuries, so if some of them like Urik, Draj, Raam & Nibenay have guard animals, special mounts and war machines but you don’t give any to Tyr, Gulg or Balic, then it’s tough to see how they didn’t get conquered or destroyed.

The other factors to consider in each city-state’s army are any powerful artifacts they might have (e.g. Psionatrix, Skull of Durag-Thel, Eye of the Psulorns, Kalid-Ma’s Orbs, Star of Badna), any magical constructs they might use (e.g. golems, undead, guardians), summoned creatures (e.g. elementals & elemental beasts, shadow giants, various planar creatures) and other sentient creatures they may ally themselves with, which I’ll cover next…

As far as the major factions of Athas go, I listed most of them two posts above: the various Dragon Kings, Rajaat & his shadow giants, the Kreen Empire, the Order, the Rhul-Than, the Psulorns, the Yuan-Ti, the Illithids, and any epic-level undead in the Dead Lands. After looking at Chapter 6 from the “Legends of Athas”, the True Drakes, Primal Elementals & Ruvokas could certainly lead elemental factions on Athas. The Mindlords of Saragar are fairly powerful as well, and other lost cities controlled by guardians are a possibility. The Pyreens are another powerful force, and if they are allied with the Villichi, one or more Avangions (The Sage, Oronis, Korgunard), the druids & Veiled Alliance (as we see in the “Tribe of One” novels), they’d represent a very powerful faction indeed. The “Shadow of the Void” and “Shape of Fire” are very powerful undead, and would probably either be leaders of an undead factions or war machines for them, unless they are controlled by a Dragon King. The “Worm That Walks” seems like a natural leader or war machine for the Psulorns, and the same goes for the “Brain Collector” and the Illithids (if you choose to use the Illithids in Athas). The Githyanki & their Gith followers could be another powerful faction whether or not their invasion of Athas from the “Black Spine” adventure succeeds, since they’re obviously aware of Athas. I would expect the Dragon Kings to keep close tabs on these major players at all times & constantly work to undermine them as they’re all potential threats to their rule.

Minor factions would include some of the more powerful intelligent monsters & humanoid races like the Giants, Braxats, Magera, Belgoi, Dark Spiders, Scrabs, Pterrans, Aarockocra, Tari, Nikaal & Ssurans. (Tareks & B’roghs & some of the other monster races seem too stupid & disorganized to form important factions.) The Halflings, Dwarves & Elves of Athas could each become important factions, though still probably minor ones, if they could unite under one leader (hinted at for the elves in the “Tribe of One” novels). I’d expect the Dragon Kings to ally themselves with these various groups, or work to undermine them if they see a potential for these minor factions to join one of the major factions listed above.

Lastly, for former leaders in a genocidal war, the Dragon Kings have appeared in most of Dark Sun’s materials as strangely tolerant rulers who show very little racial favoritism & don’t seem to concern themselves too much with the racial demographics of their city-states. Personally, I think that even though they’ve overcome the “human supremacy” type racism they once promoted under Rajaat, they’d probably still have certain racial policies. Thri-kreen could be very useful as soldiers for a DK, but keeping the thri-kreen population in their cities down would certainly be a priority once the Kreen Empire becomes a potential threat. The same goes with elves or dwarves if these races begin to unite under an elven or dwarven king. The breeding programs for muls & half-giants would seem like another area of interest for the DKs, as well as possibly creating or finding other “super soldier” races (as Dregoth did with the Dray, and Andropinis did with the Maenads in Paizo’s version of Dark Sun). Any way you look at it, the DKs are not likely to adopt a “laissez faire” approach when it comes to the various factions & races or Athas, even if their strategies aren’t apparent to the average Athasian…

Now that I’ve given some guidelines for figuring out how powerful the Dragon Kings really are & what PCs can expect when they go up against them, let me finish this up with some of the obvious plot holes that relate to the Dragon Kings:
1) As stated above, the Dragon Kings seem pretty incompetent when it comes to rooting out the Veiled Alliance in their cities, and also can’t eliminate the Villichi or the Pyreens, yet they were powerful enough to imprison Rajaat & take out Dregoth & Kalid-Ma.

2) According to the “Dragon Kings” book, all the DKs are between 21-23 level, although they became dragons at level 20 about 2000 years prior. Were they just slacking off all that time, or what? Some might say it was because the defiler metamorphosis spells are so complex & costly or that experience for the next level becomes exponentially higher. However, the revised boxed set bumps the surviving DKs up a level or two in the span of a decade or so, despite the fact that neither Hamanu, Nibenay or Laila-Puy pulled a Kalak and incinerated a bunch of people to power their metamorphosis. What gives?

3) The Dragon Kings apparently have an extremely bad case of “butter fingers” when it comes to magic artifacts, yet strangely this doesn’t seem to bother them too much, since they usually don’t try very hard to recover them once they’re lost. They let a couple dwarves steal the Dark Lens, lost all the magic swords Rajaat gave them, and apparently lost all the orbs of Kalid-Ma. Hamanu is especially bad at this, since he also lost the Obsidian Man & Sun’s Terrible Glory as well. “Legends of Athas” states that these items have popped up in the hands of mid-level NPCs over the years, but apparently none of the DKs could ever recover them. But your PCs certainly can!

4) In addition to losing artifacts, the DKs seem either to not care about finding more treasure & magic items or are just really bad at it. The dwarves in Kled had the Scourge of Rkard, Belt of Rank, Crown of Dwarven Kings & Duryn’s Anvil for centuries, yet no one DK tried to steal them – although they did steal a dwarven history book, the “Book of the Kemalock Kings”. Also, you’d think the ruins of Yaramuke, Bodach, Kalidnay, Giusternal, etc., would’ve been completely looted when they sacked these cities, but when your PCs go there they almost inevitably find all kinds of cool stuff leftover. In the novel “The Nomad”, we’re told that Bodach’s horde puts all the other DK’s to shame, and the undead there are no match for one elfling with a magic sword, yet apparently none of the DKs ever bothered to go & scoop it up!

5) Abalach-Re invented half giants, created the Star of Badna, led the raid that slew Dregoth, and perverted the Skull of Dorag-Thel to serve her ends, but is somehow unable to control Raam’s populace. Early supplements like the “Wanderer’s Journal” & “Dragon Kings” book say she’s afraid of being assassinated by her own people, and doesn’t understand what’s happened to her – and actually believes she derives her power from a being called Badna. Sounds like the designers had two completely different conceptions of Abalach-Re that were never reconciled.

6) Although they’re super powerful and in the past have been quite capable of planning missions to personally take out high-level threats, beginning in Free Year 1 the DKs suddenly become very reticent to do much personally & leave even the most important assignment to incompetent underlings. In “Arcane Shadows,” Korgunard casts his avangion metamorphosis spell right in Urik and when he flees Hamanu sends some templars after him but the attempt to capture him seems rather half-assed, so that 5-7 level PCs can foil them. And then you’ve got the novel “The Nomad,” where Nibenay wants someone to track Sorak, steal a magic breastplate from him, and then kill both Sorak & the avangion known at The Sage. Does he send a high-level hit squad of royal defilers & court psions? No, he sends Valsavis, a high-level fighter with an immunity to telepathy, but who has no way of countering Sorak & Ryana’s psychokinetic abilities & no magic weapon to defend himself from the undead in Bodach. Needless to say, this guy really never stood a chance. You can just picture Nibenay smacking himself in the head after this one & going “Doh!” like Homer Simpson.

7) Although the sorcerer-kings have high-level divination magic & clairsentient psionics at their disposal, there seems to be an awful lot the don’t know. They don’t know where the Veiled Alliance HQs & Villichi convents are. We’re told Oronis doesn’t know there’s lizardmen still alive up at the Last Sea. And if I remember correctly, it’s stated that the DKs don’t know what’s going on in the Dead Lands or in the Kreen Empire. But within a decade or so of adventuring, your PCs will often visit all of these areas & unlock all kinds of mysteries that the DKs apparently couldn’t solve over the last couple millenia…

8) On almost any other world, immortal epic-level wizard/psions would be ruling vast empires that spanned continents, not just little-city states with populations of 15-40K clustered in an area the size of Pennsylvania. I’ve read that 4th edition plans to increase the size of the Tyr Region which of course would allow territory that each city-state controls to expand as well, maybe up to the size of a small kingdom. Still, it’s hard to see why they’d be content with this and not try to expand into empires. They would probably start by conquering the various free cities & slave tribes, rebuilding some of those ruins as secondary cities, and conquering the Forest Ridge for its natural resources. You’d expect this all would’ve happened right after the Cleansing Wars, so that by FY1 you’d be looking at each Dragon King commanding an empire, with perhaps some of their allies or henchmen controlling city-states in borderlands & outlying areas.

I think the real thing to remember is that the Sorceror Kings think more like Kings (ie retired characters), and less like an adventuring party. They most likely spend most of their time doing kingly things, like solving petty trade disputes, averting slave revolts, and minor border problems. As much as they are supported by their massive infrastructure, they are also weighed down by it.

Moreover they have spent the last 1000 years being used to things staying the same no matter what they have done. They are complacent. They worry little about their personal safety, because they spend so little time not in a walled off fortress surrounded by stupidly powerful templars and defilers who worship them. They worry more about the other sorceror kings, and less about other groups. If something comes up that really annoys them, then they dispatch a group to deal with it. However much like a king they spend probably at best 10 minutes on this problem, and then its back to helping House ??? open a trade route through some other area. This further assumes that they don’t pull a Henry the VIIIth and never leave the bedroom.

Now my real problem is that the Prism Pentad overreaches on what a party should be able to accomplish. Then again thats fiction for you. In a less dramatic setting the death of Kalak would probably have been the end of things. Maybe Sadira becomes a sun mage and a pseudo-ruler for Tyr.

My personal idea about Abalach-Re is that the Sorcerer Queen is just “having fun”: playing the role of the weak and incompetent ruler.

In truth she’s a powerful and cunning ruler. Remember the “Forest Maker” adventure? She found a way to jump form a 1st stage dragon to a 5th stage one, with guile and deception. It was a better plain that Kalak’s one: more subtle, more secret and without the risk to trigger a rebellion in Raam.

The SK is CHAOTIC Evil, so she simply does not care if her city is a mess, with nobles acting like raiders. Nobles simply aren’t powerful enough to face her. And also, other SK are not very tempted to conquer such a city.

All Athasians know about Hamanu power and might, but almost no one realize how much dangerous Abalach-Re truly is.

Good points, guys! Hades – I agree that the best way to resolve things with Abalach-Re is to make her “seem” crazy or incompetent but have her be really dangerous behind the scenes. But I still tend to think she wouldn’t let Raam fall into borderline anarchy, since this would erode her power base.

Like Phil said, I think almost all Dark Sun fans are in agreement that the accomplishments of “Sadira & Co.” in the Prism Pentad were ridiculously unbelievable for mid-level characters, especially towards the end where they face off against the dragon with no psionic protection, and then the lil 1st level sun cleric Rkard banishes Rajaat with his light spell cast through the Dark Lens! Plus, killing off the Dragon & three of the sorcerer-kings like that really changed the setting too much & took away potential challenges from your PCs. It seems most DMs & players have resolved this by just accepting the first two books as canon, and then possibly allowing Sadira to become a sun mage to protect Tyr, but ruling that Tithian does not get the Dark Lens and the Dragon and the other DKs don’t get killed off.

Still, I gotta disagree with Phil about the DKs getting caught up with trade disputes & slave revolts to the extent they can’t crush rebel groups or recover lost artifacts. However, I like your idea about them growing complacent & bored over such a long time period (like ancient vampires in other settings), and the idea about them “never leaving the bedroom” or just getting addicted to carnal pleasures in general. Another possibility is having some of them travel the planes for long periods of time (a la Dregoth), slip into reveries for days or weeks on end like we see with Hamanu in “R&FoaDK”, or develop borderline insanity (although not as extreme as Daskinor).

As far as fixing the other plot holes I mentioned above, I’d suggest the following:
1) Expand the size of the Tyr Region to at least the size of Europe (take those hexes and make each 25-50 miles instead of 5), and give each sorcerer-king a kingdom or at least a “sphere of influence” that extends out from his city-state for several hundred miles. Plus, increase the populations of the major city-states to at least 200-300K like classical-era Alexandria or early medieval Baghdad. If the Athasian desert can support monsters the size of driks & cloud rays, I think the Athasian city-states & their verdant belts can support a population on par with the ancient or medieval desert cities of Earth.
2) Put powerful artifacts & massive treasures back in the hands or sorcerer-kings or other powerful factions, not just lying around in ruins being guarded by zombies or being held by mid-level bandits & slave tribes. If your PCs search ancient ruins that are relatively close to city-states, they can maybe get some +1 iron weapons or minor magic items if they search real hard, but not much else.
3) Play the DKs as much more savvy & dangerous, and save them as antagonists for epic-level or near-epic-level campaigns. Doing things like the “Black Flames” adventure where your beginning level PCs end up in the middle of a battle between Abalach-Re & an upstart defiler dragon is just stupid. Templars, scheming merchants, evil slave tribes, elven raiders, undead, and desert monsters should be plenty challenging til then…
4) Balance the “rebel” and “dragon king” factions by making defilers, templars & court psions really strong on offense but weaker on detection abilities, and then make preservers, druids & the Villichi strong on defense, evasion & information gathering but weaker on offense. This way it’s plausible that the preservers can’t overthrow the DKs, yet they can survive because the DKs & their henchmen can’t find them.

In my campaign I solved theses questions like this: 1- Alliance wizards just don’t fight the SK and his defilers all the time, insted they just try to survive and stay hidden. Most batles are caused by the younger, energetic, wizards who end up dying so the older ones are pragmatic and not hunted since they don’t make trouble. Although templars do hunt then they have many other duties and only act seriously when the Alliance becomes more active. I think that in times like these each cities Alliance may have been destroyed one or more times, so the present ones are much more quiet. 2- SK ‘re really complacent and busy with their own studies and spying their rivals. They also kill much of their time with carnal pleasures and managing their templars/ defilers so anyone becomes too powerful. 3- I chose to make the artifacts or really well guarded or in the hands of another power group. The dwarven relics’re safe in Hogaly ruins. The Lion King regalia’re in a special safe warded with potent magic and guardians in a hidden location of Guiustenal. Some others’re with different SK or some guy that they allow to keep just to see wath will be done with it and because he does not represent much of a treat( some bandits or warlords for exemple) 4-I kept the cities size and say these dosen’t increase because the farms can’t sustain more people. Some client villages were taken for their strategic value but the other tiny villages are just not worth the troops to defend. SK and defilers’re not the best guys to restoure an enviroment for farming, even the druids and more eco friendly preservers don’t create fields like that. Besides, they are already busy enough fixing the damege dealt by rogue defilers and thenselfs.

About crime and the Dragon levy. Normal criminals and elves don’t treat the SK too a poit where they really fear then. any cause enough harm to require a more active retaliation. Besides, they can be actually usefull. Crimanals have their belongings confiscated and become slaves/arena combatants. Elves give some trouble but bring much goods/infomation/exotics that can’t always be obtained by regular merchants and form a channel to bring looted products back to the markests. All this allied to the templars corruption and the negligence of many SK allow the existance of theses goods. The same works for the Alliance, altough they must be more secretive and less problematic to survive.

As for the levy and it’s impact at the cities demography and politics. A slave based society like those present in DK usually can’t keep their slaves numbers with out smuggle. Rome and Brazil( my home) were good exemples and both needed to bring slaves from outside. The fact is that slaves are usually just not well cared and have big mortality rates. Adding the considerable Dragon levy and the brutality of DK AND the deaths at the arena I say that smuggling and the use of vagabonds and the poor are all essential to keep the system working. Just as many tribes and villages are too small to be worth conquering I think there’re many potential slaves out there in the open.

You said: “A slave based society like those present in DK usually can’t keep their slaves numbers with out smuggle”
Hmmm… I’m not sure about Rome & Brazil, but in the early US before the Civil War, the population of black slaves in the South continued to grow even after importation of slaves from Africa was banned in 1808, since the slaves were having children at a faster rate than they were dying. Now even though Athas is certainly harsher than the US, people on Athas are much tougher, disease does not seem very prevalent on Athas (like it was on Earth in the past), and the templars have magic to heal slaves and possibly control their breeding. We know they breed muls, so I’m guessing they can also tend to regular childbirths. Therefore, I think it’s likely that each of the city-states have a slave population that is mostly self-sustaining.

You said: “Just as many tribes and villages are too small to be worth conquering I think there’re many potential slaves out there in the open.”
If these tribes & villages are too small to be worth conquering, then there cannot be enough potential slaves out there. Some of the trade outposts & villages have several hundred people, maybe 1000 max, but the tribes would probably only have 50-150 (like nomadic tribes on Earth). There’s about 20 villages & outposts in the Tyr Region and I’d figure there’s about 50 tribes (ex-slaves, elves, thri-kreen & gith). If you figure 500 people average for a village & 100 average for a tribe, that means 10,000 total people live outside the city-states in the Tyr Region. Even if you made the villages larger (1000 people average) and doubled the number of tribes to 100, then you’d still only have 20,000 people – smaller than any of the city-states & very spread out. If the sorcerer-kings started really going after these people, pretty soon the deserts would be completely uninhabited except for the monsters.

I can’t really tell much about your US exemple as I don’t know details about this case. My exemples about Rome and Brazil are true but after thinking it over a litle bit I have some ideas. Slave populations should keep thenselfs stable but the slavers are essential to refill their numbers after some disaster/ help with the levy and sustain the arena deaths. You really got a poit with diseases so the slaves survival rate should be bigger. Most slaves’re not as cared as muls since they are substantially expencier but their owers should try to keep then alive more than in my exemples. Also, I don’t think templars would care to heal normal slaves but some should be. Concerning the too small to conquer I wanted to say that it’s not worthy to send 200-300 soldiers too conquer a 100-200 big village who can’t produce that much food for the city and need to be defended etc. It’s much simpler to let the merchants make the expances and trade with then, sending some 30-40 riders to attack by surprise and get 10-30 easy slaves and be able to repet this every once in a while. Keeping most villages you give way too much trouble and they are tempting targets for slavers. The books also talk about the villages in the wastes beeing targets of such attacks.

All this reminds me of some medieval/ancient situations where groups would sistematicaly raid each other with’out actually conquering each other. Like the vikings used to do? Deploying armys is incredible expensive so I thinkit may be more atractive to just raid once in 3-5 years to get some slaves and let the traders do the resto of the work. What do you guys think ?