Incorrect, It’s just after Kalak’s death, the campaign guide mentions he was was killed by Rikus, Sadira, and friends (or at least the Veiled alliance of Tyr), and the Heartwood Spear is called out as the weapon used in a Dragon Article, even in 4e.
I’m honestly amazed at how it seems like no one on this site has ever actually read the 4e materials, especially given that the Dark Sun 4e reboot was by far the best received of the 4e settings.
Ah, gotcha. I glanced over the material back when it came out, but I was never a big fan of 4e, and I didn’t know enough people who were to really get into it. It’s not particularly surprising, really - I would have considered playing 4e to play Dark Sun, but by that point I, like most people who didn’t like 4e’s changes, were playing Pathfinder.
Either way, resetting the metaplot to the beginning is the best option IMHO.
Can you clarify? For instance, what about the history of Athas as revealed in the Prism Pentad, etc?
What most complaints I’ve seen revolve around, and that I can see merit it, is when Sorcerer Kings were getting killed left and right, Borys was killed, and similar events. It’s hard to have A) A grim Sword and Sorcery setting built on Big Damn Heroes who change the face of the world every few years and B) Having The Good Guys smite the Bad Guys repeatedly also doesn’t really fit the genre.
The history of the Green Age and the Blue Age is fine, and I would use them in my games. They’re ancient history, but there are useful story opportunities and character options that can be introduced with them, like using Life Shaper as a 5e Artificer, if there was a plot that reintroduced ancient halfling knowledge. The Green Age would also be a great setting for a spin off, especially the lead up to the Cleansing Wars, or even the Cleansing Wars, if a group wants a very Grim Dark game where the PCs know they’re on the losing side.
Humph.
I don’t understand why we need choose to stop the setting timeline.
FY1 to FY10 have been developed and quite well. Yes, the Prism Pentad does kill a lots of peoples. Does it mean it must stay “cute” after FY10 ? As far as I am concern, other bad guys or awaiting less powerful SK could just take a step to take the place of those who died.
But still, athas.org here made an really good work on those Free Years and I’d be damn to dump what’s been so nicely done. Let me say it: I play with and without the expanded timeline (from the 1st to the 2nd boxed sets).
We need to focus on settling things that doesn’t seems to work, not those who have been already written.
If you want to develop new things, you can build them before FY1 or after FY10. There is enough place to play. What’s been created already shouldn’t disappear. We should make use of it for a better timeline and find little fixes (or big on some things maybe).
Someone want to play FY1 to 10 ? Heck! The material will exist! You want to play before or after FY ? Geez, by all mean, have fun!
I don’t think that’s anyone’s intention. The idea is to establish an agreeable starting point for the campaign, with the prism pentad as just an option for how events can unfold, but its your choice to if you do so, you are not obligated by the metaplot.
Full disclosure, i adore the prism pentad. Yes, its not an amazing piece of literature, not by a long shot, but it was my introduction into dark sun and it did a good job of capturing the mystery of athas and how different it is compared to other settings, but im not blinded to its many faults, if fy 1 is a consensus among the community as the best starting point for the campaign, im on board with it, because this means that the choice on how the world advances is back in the players and dm’s hands, and that should always be the case, at least in my opinion.
Just an example. In FR or Warhammer, when they changed edition, some gods and important characters died and others rose instead. Maybe some peoples didn’t like the change, but it’s done.
Athas’ Charter does not permit any edition but 3e. So unless and until WotC says otherwise…
If there are votes, I would vote against any non-3e project. Do it elsewhere, fine I’ll support you, but not on Athas.org.
Regarding changes to lore and timeline and so forth… why not side step it?
Start producing material set somewhere else on Athas outside of the known world. What ELSE happened on Athas while all the official stuff was happening? There’s a whole world out there, why stay inside the fishbowl?
Just a thought.
Ravenloft sidestepped things like that by introducing ‘Dread Possibility’ ideas.
Did it work out well?
I have always ignored 5, 6 and 9.
Yes. The Dread Possibilities in Ravenloft worked out great.
Do you mean 3e or 3.5e?
Apologies that I keep flipping back and forth on the terms I use.
I use the concept of “the 3.0 material not updated is still valid for 3.5, and 3.5 is part of d20, everything official that fits that definition goes” for my 3rd edition.
In that case there is the mighty Lasher! A prestige class I’ve always thought of as fun. 
I do not like the revised setting as a whole, and try to stick to the original boxed set as much as possible, even though I’ve used some pieces of things after the revised setting.
Why couldn’t the SK’s who were killed in the PP come back via contingency-like spells especially within the realm of psionic enchantments.
The perma-death of Kalak can be explained by having to ritually cleanse yourself of all enchantments when casting the metamorphosis spell. Pg. 38 of DK states “Generally, any divergence from the letter of the spell description or any interference with its casting results in the failure of the spell and the death of the caster.” Which made it even possible to slay an epic level being by mere 16th level characters. I italicized ‘generally’ because this allows for corner cases (such as Kalid-Ma).
I think folks should collaborate to build out parts of this and still keep the verbiage 'Blue Age, The Gray, The Black, Green Age, etc that were introduced in later but intentionally make things vague like 4e did.
No reason they couldn’t at all. More to the point, the only reason that the Sorcerer Monarchs turned out to be such pushovers was that it was required to make the plot work.
The easiest way to handle it is to say that all the SM’s that got killed by the Heroes of Tyr (except Kalak) were actually simulacrums, not the real deal. That way the entire Prism Pentad story actually happens, but the setting is kept in it’s original state at the end.
That could still leave Andropinus trapped and Abalach-re to return to Raam (after Dregoths invasion, she’s not stupid, perhaps that’s why she waited). The only other ones besides Kalak to die would be Techtuklay (because Rajaat) and Borys.
I’d say it’s up to everyone to decide because we must remember that Rajaat IS the creator of magic. Therefore, any magic or contingency could just not work if he decides so. After all, if his will is to kill them, do you really think he would let them save their life with something he knows exactly how to counter?