There are localized Underdark areas on Athas they could live in, and if there aren’t in a specific area they can get their “workers” to dig one out, I’m sure.
I think labeling them as “Underdark” is generous, but agree that there are scattered underground pockets that they could hunker down in.
The ‘Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide’ from 2e gives many variations of so called “Underdark” it doesn’t have to adhere to the FR version of an entire planet wide Underdark. There are 4 theories presented in the book, The hallow earth theory, the Swiss cheese theory, the isolated pockets theory, and the partial connection theory. Athas would probably fall between the Isolated pockets theory or the partial connection theory.
That book is well worth looking at before you pass judgement on what your Underdark looks like.
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I’m familiar with the Dungeoneer’s Guide. I just don’t believe Athas has anything remotely expansive to be called an Underdark. There’s surely large caverns and cave networks but nothing like other worlds like Oerth or Faerun.
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I don’t subscribe to the “lots of water in the Athasian Underdark” pitch, but there should be at least SOME life underground.
Here IRL on earth with (relative to FR) only the barest hint of an underground environment, life still often thrives underground. Not to the extent where it would support a colony of Drow, but bats, cave fish, blind insects, etc.
If we turn that idea up to “11” for Dark Sun and toss in psionics, we should at least get psionic mosses and bats and monsterous spiders catching the bats, if not a lot more terrifying things. Hej-Kun already live down there.
Given this, a complete lack of Athasian Underdark seems like either a lack of consideration towards setting-logic or personal preference (no judgement either way).
But the Athasian Underdark probably shouldn’t be teeming with life like mushroom forests and Mind Flayers colonies if you’re a stickler for canon.
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It’s Dark Sun, and therefore “not your father’s underdark”. I am sympathetic to the “isolated pockets” underdark suggested upthread by Jason_Goff. The isolated pockets works better because you don’t have to account for an entire Forgotten Realms type underdark, and you don’t have to explain why people cannot access deep earth ore deposits.
Just because there is life down there doesn’t mean that it’s the kind of lifestyle that most surface dwelling humanoids could survive. The creatures down in the underdark pockets would be adapted to it.
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I agree with redking. Many staples of Dark Sun would be lost, if an Athasian Underdark were expansive. Such as: The Harsh sun beating down on the PCs, no shade to be found, little plant life to be found, bands off marauding elves and thri-kreen running across the desert sands, etc…
Pockets of underground exploration work just fine and force the PCs to the surface.
I feel an expansive underdark would make it feel like you’re playing forgotten realms with psionics.
To get back on topic, if illithids are introduced, they should be more monstrous. Savage, with shoulder spikes and tentacle spikes. Athasian illithids should have spikes!
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It depends on your timeline. If, as you say, the illithids have been on Athas for a long time, then natural selection would have it’s effect. In my example, if the campaign starts at Free Year 10, the illithids have been on Athas a mere 4 years.
You’ve given me an idea, however. Without the elder brain to nurture the strong tadpoles and absorb the weak tadpoles, there is no way of ensuring quality illithid breeding. Therefore, 9/10 illithids born on Athas can be like the savage yaggols from the Dragonlance setting, and some failing to even full go through ceremorphosis, becoming half-illithids (as in the 3.5e template).
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Similar to Dragonlance’s Yaggol.
http://www.mojobob.com/roleplay/monstrousmanual/y/yaggol.html
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I may use that Yaggol in my campaign… I read something recently in a source book about Mind Flayers that have either separated themselves from an Elder Brain or been exiled from one and they become very crazy, so I hear… I don’t remember what book that was, maybe Dungeoneer’s, maybe something else.
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How about instead of more savage you go the other way with them?
Their minds have become so developed and advanced and they are so reliant on psionics for everyday things that they have all but abandoned using physical means for most everything. With generations of neglecting their bodies, they have evolved to become a head attached to a mostly withered husk of a body. Their head possesses a tight, expressionless face with a superior brain trapped inside. They hover in place as gaunt, pale white humanoids with minimal movement from their extremities. Their nearly naked bodies reveal little care for physical needs as they manipulate their surroundings with the power of the mind.
Any you can still give them spikes:
Their once menacing spikes protrude from their body with a rubbery curled appearance.
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Interesting concept, although if you are changing the mind flayers so much, you might as well create a unique creature for this purpose.
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Yeah. Maybe I took it too far.
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No, Rovewin, you did not. The entire point is to change them from what we see in other settings. I don’t understand why people want to change Dark Sun, by adding things from other settings to it. Dark Sun is unique. If you’re going to add things, you must change them to make them as unique as Dark Sun itself.
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Yeah, I’m not seeing the “too far”. That could have just been description - there’s no specific need to change the mechanics/ stats to allow for that description, unless you want to.
Especially if you just give them a psionic Mage Hand effect that mimics what they’d normally do physically.
It COULD also have been a description of their changed (mechanical) abilities, if you want(ed). My point being it doesn’t have to be.
(I do understand that redking is quite excited about 3e mechanics and probably sees everything though that lens; no judgment. 
)
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Illithid ceremorphosis would spawn some unique Athasian variants.
Half-giant sized or mull physiqued mindflayers. Silt dwelling neothelids.
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I’d like to see the mechanics fit the fluff. I was a 2E holdout forever, probably until 2008. 3.5e finally turned me around when I realized that when done properly, the mechanics can fit the fluff in 3.5e. 2E fluff was the best, but the mechanics didn’t really represent it.
Here is Pennarin’s Illithid Project. It was never finished, but here is the outline. Proposes a mind flayer killing champion called Barien.
While I liked Pennarin’s illithid stuff, I personally like my illlithid to be non-indigenous to Athas.
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