So, something I thought about in relation to Birthright, but then looped back around to Dark Sun…
When Daskinor is called “Goblin Death”, do you think his campaign included Hobgoblins and Bugbears, also goblinoids, or just a single species known as “goblins”?
2 Likes
It’s a valid question. If it is yes then “Pixie Blight” might also mean a great deal more. Haven’t seen any information about it either way.
I would think of it as a DM choice in individual campaigns.
Something like if you wanted to attach minotaurs to beasthead giants in order to add them to your campaign.
Or if you wanted to add Kalidnay to Dark Sun (instead of Ravenloft) you might have the Maenads (DnD 3.5) be Kalidnay natives trapped in the Black and changed over centuries. Have them able to cross over from time to time.
1 Like
If bugbears and hobgoblins ever existed on Athas, I’d think they’d be part of Daskinor’s mission. Dregoth seems to have been assigned all variants of giants.
Hmm, maybe hobgoblins (given that they’re usually presented as hyper-martial goblins) didn’t originally exist but were a Cleansing War invention of desperation rather than a natural (sub)species --goblins enhanced into “supersoldiers” by a combination of magic and psionics (psychometabolic stuff to improve growth and telepathic stuff to shape their minds)?
And yeah, it seems likely that Wyan Pixie Blight might also have gone after whatever other similar fey types existed. (Though RAFOADK says Sielba had sprites, for some odd reason.)
3 Likes
Eh, after several thousand years, details get lost, especially since the Champions didn’t heavily advertise their past, with a number changing their names.
2 Likes
Yeah, but Hamanu ought to know, I’d think.
2 Likes
Right, but Lynn Abby wasn’t there, so she’s working off 2nd hand knowledge… 
1 Like
For Goblins, I used the more base type as seen in the various additions via Athas.org. Hobgoblins and Bugbears, I personally have had them appear as augmented goblins, altered alchemically, magically, and psionically as shock troops and soldiers to stand up to Daskinor’s army. They were all included in Daskinor’s task.
They tended toward deep underground warrens and preferred more “natural” beauty than the dwarves. Every city has a main plaza where the goblins gathered for ceremonies surrounded by homes for the city leaders and links to other plazas. Smaller plazas could be reached via the warrens and were occupied by very large extended families. All cities had a connection to the surface with additional plazas where trade was conducted. Since underground was where everything from food was raised (mostly fungi and lizards) to where they lived, the surface area was rather small. Goblins preferred enclosed spaces that even when worked, had a rough unworked look and feel to them.
I added Cielbia, Sielba’s twin sister to solve RaFoaDK. Pixies and Sprites were different in my world.
Pixies were tiny, butterfly winged creatures with a very long life span and life cycle unique in all of Athas. They had only one gender, at the end of their natural lives they become seedlings, grow up as trees, grows fruit, the fruit ripens over years and a new Pixie is born when it grows heavy enough to fall to the ground and crack open. They were often druids and fiercely protective of their groves which they often secreted in large woods. Wyan won so quickly because they couldn’t really move. They were tethered to their trees. Burn them and they couldn’t reproduce, kill them and they couldn’t become trees, the war is won. Rajaat had a Champion for them due to their power with nature magic.
Cielbia was tasked with the extermination of the Sprites, small, dragon-fly winged, highly psionic beings that lived near rivers and steams. While only slightly larger than a Pixie, they lived a normal life cycle of 150 years. Every Sprite was naturally psionic and many became powerful psions and water clerics. They successfully adapted the Earth Sphere spell of the Dwarves to imprison Cielbia.