I gave up on the fiction after the first book, so my impressions are based on the original boxed set, what I’ve read recently in 2e adventure modules and what I’ve read on Athas.org. I’m going to try to guess where the problems are and please feel free to educate me.
-
Only 2 out of 7 Sorcerer Monarchs are female? No idea know how that compares to Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms.
-
Abalach-Re presented as ineffectual. All I can say to that is I’m happy to see that most of the people on Athas.org have a much greater appreciation for Abalach-Re and see her at least an equal to any of the other SKs. If I remember right, she’s also the only SM to make an appearance in 2 modules, if appearing in a module counts for anything.
-
Lalali-Puy presented as too sexual (?). On the positive side she was the only SM that was actually loved by her people. But Gulg never seemed like one of the heavy hitters in terms of city states.
In terms of character development, I don’t recall that any of the SM’s had any sort of in-depth character development in the original boxed set.