Athasian Timeline not correct?

#1

Hi Folks,

i have read the last weeks the complete books from first edition to 3.5 edition and i have some question to the time line and the logical of it. i hope u all can help me with this some wonders to clear.

First i will post here the Athasien Time line for the 164.Kings age because they mark the born of the sorcerer Kings.Down of it i have some question to discuss and i hope u all can help me with this a lot.

  1. Kings Age

year 1 – Rals Fury
year 2 – Friend Contemplation — Hamanu kills the last Troll ( Timeline athas.org)
year 3 – Desert Vengeance ---- Borys kills the last Dwarven King ( Timeline athas.org)
year 4 – Priest Slumber
year 5 – Wind Defiance
year 6 – Dragon Reverance
year 7 – Mountain Agitation
year 8 – King Fury
year 9 – Silt Contemplation
year 10– Enemy Vengeance
year11– Guthay Slumber

year 12– Ral Defiance
year 13– Friend Reverence
year 14 Desert Agitation
year 15 Priest Fury
year 16 Wind Contemplation
year 17– Dragon Vengeance
year 18Mountain Slumber
year 19 King Defiance
year 20– Silt Reverence
year 21– Enemy Agitation
year 22– Guthay Fury

year 23– Ral Contemplation
year 24– Friend Vengeance
year 25– Desert Slumber
year 26– Priest Defiance
year 27– Wind Reverence
year 28– Dragon Agitation
year 29 Mountain Fury
year 30– King Contemplation
year 31– Silt Vengeance
year 32– Enemy Slumber
year 33- Guthay Defiance

year 34– Ral Reverence
year 35– Friend Agitation
year 36– Desert Fury
year 37– Priest Contemplation
year 38– Wind Vengeance
year 39Dragon Slumber
year 40– Mountain Defiance
year 41– King Reverence
year 42– Silt Agitation
year 43– Enemy Fury
year 44– Guthay Contemplation

year 45– Ral Vengeance
year 46– Friend Slumber
year 47– Desert Defiance
year 48– Priest Reverence
year 49 Wind Agitation
year 50– Dragon Fury
year 51– Mountain Contemplation
year 52– King Vengeance
year 53– Silt Slumber
year 54– Enemy Defiance
year 55– Guthay Reverence

year 56– Ral Agitation
year 57– Friend Fury
year 58– Desert Contemplation
year 59Priest Vengeance
year 60– Wind Slumber
year 61– Dragon Defiance
year 62– Mountain Reverence
year 63– King Agitation
year 64– Silt Fury
year 65– Enemy Contemplation
year 66 Guthay Vengeance

year 67– Ral Slumber
yaer 68 Friend Defiance
year 69 Desert Reverence
year 70– Priest Agitation
year 71– Wind Fury
year 72– Dragon Contemplation
year 73– Mountain Vengeance
year 74– King Slumber
year 75– Silt Defiance
year 76– Enemy Reverence
year 77– Guthay Agitation

  1. Kings Age

year 1 - Rals Fury

First question: witch year the champions come back to rajaat tell him they have failed his mission?
Second question: when they start the revolt against his master and how long the fight go on?
Third question? What u say wich level the champions must have to use the dark lens, fighting his mater and become the sorcerer kings ?i say the must have a minimum of lvl 20 in Def/Psionic to become a advanced being.
Fourth question? how long the kings need prepare the spell to transform borys in the dragon?
Fifth question? when the kings start to claim the citys?

after this i have some more questions to show that the timeline have some mistakes for me but later more…

hope of ur help

greetings kiraz

#2

Which ruleset are you asking about? 3.5?

Athas.org did a 3.5 version that answers your questions about the Dark Lens and Advanced Being transformations. Link to PDF below.

http://www.athas.org/products/loa/documents/36

#3

hi redking,

i am a little bit confused with the timeline.so i have all dark sun Produkts from 1.ed to 3.5… i will give u a example
also the elve tribe from the clear water tribe visit Tyr short after Kalak claims the city. Under history of this clan stands they arrived Tyr 800 years before Tyr after some days later Kalak rise to the new King.
if u count from year 0 backward so you will be in the 180. Kings Age.

that means Kalak hold Tyr since 800 years? and the other sorcerer kings? but here in the timeline stands the champoins claims the cities in the 164.kings age after they transformed Borys in the dragon?

What have Kalak so long? So he had about 1000 years to do nothing? and why he is only lvl 21?

and why Dregoth was about lvl 29 so short after? before the other kills him in 164.kings age.

something is for me not logical

grettings kiraz

#4

Yes there are problems with the Timeline of Athas.

1 - the champions did not tell Rajaat that they failed their missions. They went to him and rebelled.
2 - The fight against Rajaat seems to have been only one surprise attack. So it lasted maybe a day.
3 - Questions about level requirements depend on what edition of D&D you are playing.
4 - I do not know, but they would have cast it within the same year they overthrew Rajaat. They could have been preparing or researching the spell before hand.
5 - It varies, some had already claimed cities before the rebellion, while others did so in the aftermath of the rebellion against Rajaat.

Yes there are many problems in various Dark Sun Products that do not follow the timeline. I tend to treat them as false legends.

For the level question on Kalak and Dregoth, again it depends on what edition.

If you find any problems in the timeline please post them to the forum.

#5

There is also a full copy of the timeline available at http://athas.org/events/

I’ve been doing some work on this one recently, reworking it’s general presentation and structure, but it is contextually complete, for the original setting material

That is, the original sourcing of the timeline was a document compiled by Kevin Melka and posted to the Dark Sun Mailing LIst back in the late 90’s. Kevin was the final setting lead before the Dark Sun line was retired in '97 (or thereabouts)

Currently absent is anything relating to the DS4 reboot timeline , which I’d like to fix (and also figure out how to indicate …) and I’d like to move through and add source information for various events. Not every event is actually linked to a published source, IIRC.

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#6

Is there a link to that timeline in PDF?

A pair of questions of my own:

The timeline says

Enemy’s Agitation (Free Year -14327): Evil elemental clerics form an alliance with the nature-benders.

King’s Slumber (Free Year -14274): First appearance of elemental clerics on Athas.

Are those dates accurate?

And, how much of this timeline applies to the 4e reboot?

#7

No PDF version at the moment.

I’d have to check, as those dates definitely look to be an inconsistency. I think it may have been like that in the original timeline, and not just a transcription error on my part …

As for accurate to 4e … the Age of Heros sections may drift, depending on the events of your game.
DS4 is otherwise mostly silent on history, making no mention of the Blue Age at all in the DSCS. It names the period when the Cleansing Wars occurred the “Red Age”, and refers to the current Brown Age as the “Desert Age”.

The major deviation seems to come on page 208 of the DSCS, were it says:

Towards the end of the Green Age, the gods of Athas were destroyed or driven away by the vicious primordials, leaving the shrines of that time silent and empty. The destruction of the deities introduce a fault in the world: the possibility of arcane magic,. A powerful psion named Rajaat discovered this flaw and mastered the arcane arts. Because arcane magic was fundamentally flawed, it was inherently destructive – it defiled the world with each use. Rajaat taught dozens of students the basics of magic, but saved the deepest secrets of defiling for a select group of disciples.

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#8

Yes, those are the accurate dates in the original timeline. However, the original timeline did not have the Free Year references. Apparently the author did not check the calendar to see that Enemy’s Agitation comes before King’s Slumber in the same King’s Age.
In the timeline in the last version of DS3 the timeline was changed to read:

“Year of King’s Slumber (Free Year –14,274)
First appearance of elemental clerics on Athas.
Year of Enemy’s Reverence (Free Year –14,271)
Evil elemental clerics form an alliance with the nature-benders.”

changing Enemy’s Agitation to Enemy’s Reverence.
Another possibility is to move the formation of the alliance to the next (5th) King’s Age.

As flip said there is no pdf of the original timeline but a version with some corrections is in the last version of DS3 on athas.org.

#9

Updated on-site, thanks

#10

About Kalak (and other SKs that remained low-stage dragons) maybe that’s because advancing in the dragon class is hard and time consuming.

Using the original (AD&D rules) iirc at each stage you’ve to do a Constitution check and if you fail it you die (some SKs didn’t wanna get the risk). With 3.5 rules there’s the time, the cost and the backlash damage.

Then at 5th stage you enter in the rampage phase. Iirc Nibenay, a 4th-stage dragon, could theoretically progress but he’s waiting, 'cause he wanna find a way to control the rampage phase (and MAY have found a way with the unique wild talent of Siemohuk, his 14-years old high templar)

And about Dregoth be able to become a 9th stage dragon in so few time… Some people think that he created the defiler metamorphosis spells and started his metamorphosis during the Cleansing Wars (there’s a pic of him when he defeated the giant king, and he seems a 4-ish stage Dragon). But we don’t know how he managed to control his rampage state.