How many of us have wished that Kender could be wiped off the face of Krynn? Admit it - you’ve thought about it at least once. Meet the 16th Champion of Rajaat, Kurnos ‘Kender Render’.
Kurnos started his cleansing in the north, sweeping south west. Unlike the campaigns of the other champions which were largely military and comprised of large battles, the Kender never gave battle or tried to hold territory. The Kender were masters at hiding, infiltration, theft, and escape. Furthermore, the unique evolution of Kender on Athas made them different to those of Krynn. Kender on Athas have the psi-like ability to turn invisible once a day for three minutes (CL 3). Therefore Kurnos’ cleansing overlapped the areas where the other champions were active. Instead of soldiers, Kurnos had templar and psion investigators to root out the elusive Kender. Ultimately, Kurnos was successful in his cleansing. Although the Kender are a forgotten race, their legacy is still felt. The formalization of organizations of assassins that pretend to be entertainers or other innocuous occupations (known as ‘bards’) originated with the Kender resistance during the cleansing wars.
There are no living Kender, but undead Kender still exist. These kleptomaniac undead steal whatever is precious to the living. To the undead Kender, it doesn’t matter whether what is stolen is valuable or simply of sentimental value, as long as it leaves a living being feeling sadness and loss. Some of the more degenerate undead Kender will take a life, leaving the tears of loved ones in their wake.
In the Age of the Sorcerer Kings, Kurnos holds a city state far to the South West of the Tablelands, well past the Blue Shrine. Now styled as Savron, King of Thule. Thule is isolated by distance rather than choice. With nary a serviceable road from Thule to the rest of the Tablelands, only products with the highest profit margin from the other city states flows to Thule, notably iron ore from Tyr.
The Kender would absolutely have been eliminated. I approve of more forgotten champions. What would be Kurnos city state be like? We need a culture we missed in the first ones.
Southwest seems like a poor location since eventually you get squeezed between the cliffs and the dead lands. It would seem like either South East across the Sea of Silt, or further North from Kurn would be a better idea. I wonder if using Arala in the Northern Anattan Wastes would be a good idea (maps from Brian)
This is what Brian wrote eons ago to describe the area:
“here is the northern edge of the Anattan Wastes. a dry and barren area of rocky badlands, sun-scorched peaks, hot sand dunes, and crusted salt-flats. in the western section of the major land mass is the ancient city of Arala (or another - i’ve been trying to integrate some of the mythos cities into the maps, cities where the Champions originated from, in this case Sacha). in the Sunrise Mountains there is rumored to be a glittering tower of gold though none have returned to verify this. a few oasis, very few, spot this region; and a ruin sits on the eastern coast near the thin spires of black rock known as the Wailing Towers…”
The idea could be that Kurnos and Sacha were rivals during the Cleansing Wars racing to see who could accomplish their task first. After Rajaat’s imprisonment and Sacha’s punishment, Kurnos took Arala as their own. They can still move goods via the sea of Silt, and across to the Western side of the Sea, (and psychoporters are always great).
This gives you a couple of ways to introduce. 1. A party could research Arala (because Sacha is known as Sacha of Arala) looking for a ruin only to find a real live city. 2. Sacha could try to go home to reclaim some of his power. 3. Tracing back a strange caravan with strange high end goods.
As I had no Kender in Athas before I am somewhat excited for trickster undead poltergeist style Kender who want to encourage a party to destroy the monster that destroyed them.
Or just trickster undead poltergeist style kender who can harass and annoy a party on a recurring basis. Like Mister Mxyptlk, but even more annoying.
Sorry to say (not too sorry) but kenders do NOT go at all with the Dark Sun campaign setting feeling, so Kurnos Kender Render have a place
Also note that races wiped entirelly from Athas such as gnomes have special abilities (even some not common knowledge such as the rare mutation who happen when illithids try to birth a new illithid into a gnome brain) or strong ties with gods who lives in the outer planes who NOT go at all
with the setting mood
