Hi everyone!
I’d like to talk about Oronis of Kurn. As far as I know, he’s the only official Avangion in Dark Sun. Do you use him in your games? I don’t use him, but his presence is there.
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In mine, he’s currently a stage IV Avangion, hidden away in Kurn. He’s technically a member of the Avangion Council (a group of mostly stage I Avangions created founded by one of my PCs through the use of Korgunard’s Annulus) but doesn’t participate as he doesn’t agree with the goals or existence of the Council.
I play him as a benevolent guide of the local population, but very afraid. He wants to return the world to the Green Age, maybe eventually the Blue Age, starting with the area around Kurn, then slowly move further and further out, converting the rest of the world.
He’s afraid he’ll lose his humanity so he long ago stopped progressing as an Avangion, he tries desperately to hold on to what humanity he still has which is one more reason he was so devastated when his wife ran off.
He’s afraid of being discovered. He can’t stand up to the Dragons as knows it. Every Avangion that exists threatens his discovery, so he doesn’t want anything to do with them.
He’s afraid he’ll fail if he leads, so he will only guide. Under his leadership, Kurn was a slowly failing city before he became an Avangion. He was great at destroying things and killing people, but leading in peace time wasn’t his forte.
He’s afraid of losing people he cares about, he sees friends die or go mad so he isolates himself even more. Every now and then, an aspiring preserver tries to get Oronis to teach him, but he refuses because he doesn’t want to get close to people. The older he gets, the less likely he is to allow connections to others except in truly exceptional circumstances.
All in all, he’s fairly ineffective himself, Kurn’s political system wasn’t even set up by him, he was afraid of becoming a Dragon and what he would do after seeing the Sea of Silt for the first time and realizing he created it. When he went into seclusion to try to figure out what to do next he left his templars and nobles to figure out how to run things and they came up with the system.
He is however a great researcher and has come up with many spells to help undo the damage he has done, however most of the spells are hidden away or only used by a small group within Kurn, limiting their effectiveness.
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I don’t currently use him, but he is there. I might introduce him, once my PCs are much higher levels. I don’t want him to be a major player, as I want the PCs to be the major players.
I may follow SeruZmaj’s example and make him a hermit.
So, that’s not counting Korgunard, nor Oronis’ previous Avangion apprentice that died, nor the 2 from scattered short stories in various 2e DS products, or the kreen’s Great One - who is (despite some people’s efforts to walk it back) clearly described as “an Avangion” in TKoA?
Granted Oronis is the most often used, actually described, and for sure still-alive Avangion.
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Nerad died nearly 500 years ago, Korgunard had to basically beg Oronis to get access to the Avangion transformation. The Kreen’s Great One I’ve got pegged as either Oronis when he finally gets out of his funk (perhaps by the council being wiped out) or my PC if he makes it all the way through the transformation first (time travel during the time they are in the glass case).
I don’t know of any other named Avangion’s unless you are counting Rafernard from Forest Maker. I don’t have him as an Avangion in my world, purely a fiction created by AR but suggested he was one transformed by the Annulus if someone wanted to run another version of the Council and use him as a secret captive of AR to pull off Forest Maker. I don’t think Xaymon (Korgunard’s apprentice) was mentioned anywhere as actually becoming an Avangion but he was the second Avangion to be transformed and join the Council in my world. Nethas from Legands of Athas was the third Avangion to be transformed by the Annulus in my world.
They were shortly after joined by another four (three humans and a half elf), a fifth (human) is about to be transformed and three more are being watched but only one is within a few years of being able to use the Annulus (half elf). Nanda Shatri is on the candidate list as is Atzetuk, but the Council isn’t aware he’s being taken over by Tek’s throne.
All this is to much to fast for Oronis, especially since my PC has rapidity made it to a 3rd stage Avangion and has no intention of stopping. If the Council actually manages to pull off one more more of the dozen potential plans they have going on, it may be enough to get Oronis more active, or it may force him to become more active if they kick the wasps nest. Only four of the Council know about Oronis, so he may get away without being discovered by the SMs if things go bad.
In the game I am in, only one PC knows that he is an Avangion. The rest of us know him as Keltis. He’s been instrumental in our preserver character becoming an Avangion, and pretty influential in other moments.
My character lied/cheated her way into a trade house that was destroyed in Guistenal, and ended up being able to clue in Oronis about Draegoth’s existence.
The DM ran him as being reluctant to help any preservers ascend, as no one had been able to effectively do so in this timeline we were running. As a result the player who wanted to go Avangion was well over level 30 by the time he was able to do so, as we were constantly short on funds (Athas be broke yo). Thankfully we were able to use his focus structure after some epic diplomacy checks.
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Well, after the fall of the Dragon, in My Athas he become very active. He was already the patron of good templars and Paladins.
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The avangion that people have difficulty naming is Amiska, from a short story by Lynn Abbey, about a young Urikite templar.
Oronis is the source of the transformation process, followed by Nerad his apprentice, then Korgunard, then Amiska (she could have been the apprentice of one of the last two, or Oronis), and there’s some concensus on the Great One of old being a backward time travelling late stage avangion from the future (so, Oronis or Amiska).
There’s also the avangion in the Sorak novels. Poor canon, that one.
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Ahh, I had forgotten Amiska, that short story is in Black Flames called Service. I’d have to find my notes, but I think I had her listed as Nerad’s apprentice. I don’t think I ever actually used her in any interactions with my groups over the years…
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There is an Avangion in the Tribe of One Trilogy as well. The original Wanderer is an elf that is currently time shifted in Bodach before the city’s fall. The only way to access this “time” is a hidden portal in the undead infested ruins of modern Bodach.
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Yes that’s the one mentioned here:
Yeah Xaymon is only a 13th lvl preserver/13th lvl psionicist. He is described in one of the dragon magazines articles written by Ed Bonny.
Also Amiska just became an Avangion in the story Service, she casts her ritual in the northmost oasis seen north of Urik on the maps. She seems familiar with the Urikite Templars and could possibly be from Urik’s alliance as was Korgunard.
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There is some ambiguity if “The Sage” is “The Wanderer” iirc, but it has been a while since I read the novel
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I can’t argue with that. Just like I can’t argue that most of the novelization outside the Prism Pentad can be argued as dubious canon with Life and Death of a Sorcerer King being the most glaring example. So any potential game masters have to decide what canon is in Dark Sun or whether or not the players will even get close to anything in the meta.
Bear in mind, this could also be on purpose. Literacy is not common on Athas. The sorcerer-kings have a monopoly on those that are literate (so history is usually what the sorcerer-kings SAY it is). If the Sage “was” the Wanderer as well, there is nothing to say someone else didn’t pick up the mantle of the Wanderer after he disappeared (and that’s just the easiest response to how). The Veiled Alliance also has serious interest in hiding the truth for their own sake/survival.
Bear in mind even if we go into the expanded Dark Sun campaign material we have halflings using biotechnology and hints in the Mindlords material that Athas may at one point in time been as developed as the steam age. Athas is given a very “John Carter of Mars” feel by these supplements.
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And then there’s those that prefer the canon of Rise and Fall.
But mostly I prefer to point out that, for example, Denning and his novels do not mention whether or not the Champions had templars prior to the rebellion against Rajaat. That tidbit, and the very existence of conveniently extinct elemental vortex creatures, is the product of not a novel but a game supplement.
I don’t know for you, but I tend to look at game supplements as having to bend themes, logic, whatever is needed to be bent to please some arbitrary rules enforced by the game itself.
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