Seeing a post (“Whale Sign!”) Over on the FB Dark Sun group made me wonder: Athas has sharks and dolphins (sentient, psionic ones…someone was reading Douglas Adams). Do we think Athas ever had whales? If so would they be like dolphins and be sentient, psionic mammals?
I’m not sure there are whales on Athas. It is tottally posible, but they’d be sand whales, just as the one in the fb post, those you mention are water animals I think. The 4e book says that you can take water monsters and change the swimming speed for burrowing speed. aaaaand there is a picture of a killer wale swimming on sand.
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I don’t know about psionic whales, but those are SHARKS.
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I could see psionic whales. Like everything Dark Sun, it is taking the common conception and adding something unique.
The key parts that make us think of a whale are: 1. Massive 2. Songs 3. Floating
So what could make it Athasian? It could live in the silt sea, it could use it’s song as a psionic weapon. The whale music could act like sirens in greek mythology to pull sailors to their doom.
In the bigger picture ask how the silt sailors deal with them? Do they have mystics on board to fight them psionically? Do they use less fantastic means, like a drum that interferes with the song of the whale to prevent crew members from throwing themselves into the sea?
I don’t see why not.
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I like the idea of siren whale song. Taking a few ideas further in the real world Sperm Whales hunt and eat giant squid so having Athasian Whales primarily subsist off Silt Horrors tracks.
If sentient and they managed to adapt to silt instead of water (were they ancient friends of Rhulisti nature-masters?) it stands to reason as a species they’d be pissed with the land dwelling races for destroying their world and ancient civilisation. Maybe the whales adapted while the dolphins couldn’t and the two species have never reconciled since (“We don’t speak of whales”).
Cheers for the inspiration guys…I’m thinking lifeshaping or psionic whales with serious attitude issues 
I like the idea that they are a life shaped creation (maybe sharing an ancestry with the Con-evauth/soar whales from WRotJC), vaguely modeled after dolphins, but mutated by whatever turned the sunrise sea into the silt sea.
regardless of their origin, the source of the enchanting song heared from the siren’s song island can come from a beached whale, or more likely, a stranded one, which somehow got trapped in a silt basin somewhere within the island and desperately calling for help.
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I thought there were whales that floated in the sky. I’m vaguely remembering something in the Jagged Cliffs region. I’ll have to check my books when I get home.
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You’ve got the life-shaped gon-evauth soar whale but it’s not really a whale, more of a life-shaped dirigible used for transportation.
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For my Sundered Regions part of Athas I have beasts called Hulgors or Silt Whales. They are basically larger but more docile versions of bulettes that have Body Equilibrium as innate psionic ability to “float” on silt.
The folks in that region use them as a mode of transportation along the silt coast.
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I believe Silt Horrors and Sand Terrors and essentially the Athasian version of the whale, no? Huge predatory beasts lurking in the unassailable depths…
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Sysane, I draw nearer to vivifying this region of the world. To that end, what other lore or details do you have about the hulgors? What do they look like?
Some extra Athasianess, as DocCastle suggests above, would be most welcome. I am as yet unsure if I shall incorporate hulgor or not. For if they are in the Anattan continent, why are they not on the western side of the Sunset Sea? Or are they? Food for thought…
Here’s some inspiration if you need it:
Beyond being docile whale like bulettes, they were near hunted to extinction by silt dwelling giants. They were saved by the people of Sharn who drove the giants from the coast near Hulgor Isle.
The Island is where the hulgor birth their young and where the Sharnites build specialized howdahs to harness on to them for travel.
In the wild, hulgors hunt silt horrors for food.
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4 years on and my Ghesh-Utuil are still languishing in development hell. Growing up is definitely a trap when it comes to having time for hobbies!
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Ecologically speaking something has to be controlling the Silt Horror population
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