I can attest to this. I don’t know why it was like that back then, but that was how it was.
I was focused on translation Ananasi (old World of Darknes) to polish,
I distinctly recall a post by a Templar to the WotC forums (don’t recall which one anymore) updating everyone on project status.
I and at least 5 other people immediately volunteered to assist on the projects, but got only radio silence. 
That’s one of the major reasons that we’ll (the current Pristine Tower dev group) always prioritize finding a place for anyone that wants to help develop content for Dark Sun. 
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I remember this. It was very much a closed shop.
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Yup. And maybe it was due to all the 13 yr olds who were doing 3e stuff badly or whatever.
Recriminations be damned, I’m happy to learn from past mistakes and move on.
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Couldn’t have said it better.
Yesterday is gone, but we are alive and kicking now. The Pristine Tower lives!
And this stands as an open invite to everyone. If you fancy helping us on any ongoing project, or would like support on the project you’re currently working on, come join us on our Discord server!
Just contact me, @Grummore, @The_DMs_Revenge, or @raddu and we’ll bring you in. 
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Bah! Excuses, all of you!
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My, working with you!
Already 15 years…
Anyhow, I’m mapping for those enthusiasts now 
And helping on items when I can 
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What a fascinating and challenging topic. I had not reviewed these various Mind Flayer posts in earnest until now. Amazing that such work has been put into the prospect of Mind Flayers on Athas, and if nothing else, the inclusion of the Dark Cupula on almost every serious map of the Anattan continent has led many of us I think to serious contemplate their inclusion.
Redking presents my hesitation well. Mind flayers are a difficult proposition for many reasons. Canon, established timelines, considerations of tone, and the consideration of injecting more “traditional” monsters into the unique bestiary of Athas definitely present challenges.
We do however have the precedent of Black Spine. According to this campaign boxed-set, both githyanki and githzerai hazarded upon Athas thousands of years ago. Thus, it could be argued, it is not impossible that illithids found their way to the universe of the Dark Sun as well.
To me, illithids are horrific monsters. True abominations. Ceramorphosis is shockingly disturbing. If Rajaat assigned a Champion to annihilate such parasitic and wantonly evil beings, in this case, Rajaat was right. If we are to place them in the world, I would cast my vote for them being in origin alien to the planet, much as the giythyanki and githzerai. I would prefer them in a small, isolated region. They are monsters best presented, in my opinion, when the campaign wishes to channel H.P. Lovecraft. They should be the stuff of a short adventure, a romp into the aberrant. Appropriately played, illithids of almost any variety are extremely powerful, even for Dark Sun heroes, and are very challenging. Geniuses and dominators, they would certainly have an array of mind-scrubbed servitors and layers of psionic defenses and more. Even a Champion would have been pressed to have cleansed them.
Therefore I consider their presence on Athas, though as an exception. A single ship may have crashed, somehow navigating to Athasian Space, or a single party may have breached the planar gulfs between universes and arrived on Athas. No further should come. Nor do I like the idea of them constantly threatening all of Athas. Perhaps they did, for one moment, as did the githyanki in Black Spine, but that moment has past. Any remaining threat, for now anyway, is in a realm which one ought not to go. If they were otherwise, we would suspect that the Dragon and/or combined might of the SKs would have annihilated them in the past. Therefore, in a discreet realm of supreme evil, let them remain, says I.
As to the Dark Cupula, I still maintain strong reservations. All respects to Sysane, but I see no need for it. The illithids would have most certainly remained underground, and therefore there would be no reason to dim the sun around their lands. Or so I assess.
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Athas lacking a true underdark would prevent them from retreating beneath the surface. Also for my game, illithid were prisoners of war and imprisoned in a life-shaping induced stasis. Their prison is located in the center of the Cupola which they have repurposed.
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Sysane, who currently lives around this tower at the center of the Cupola? Who are they in past and present? What do they know? Do they have a special purpose there, or is their presence simply residual, an indifferent people taking advantage of the shade?
Also, I presume this tower is essentially impregnable, a product of the Blue Age that cannot be undone by might, magic, or the Way. If not, I would imagine some powerful force on the Anattan continent would have inspected its interior by now. If you could elucidate on what you imagined this tower to be, and the nature of the Dark Cupola itself (the nature of its power, its purpose, etc.) I would much appreciate it.
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Also, on this matter of an Athasian underdark, it seems to me there is nothing canonical that vetoes it. Black Spine provides examples of extensive underground tunnels (though effectively all artificial), and I find no reason to deny the existence of extensive cave networks, as often enough exist in the real world. Though I too am not overly a fan of an Athasian Underdark proper, a la Forgotten Realms. Not everything needs to be a copy of another.
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This should address the “why” of the tower:
Illithid-Rhulisti History
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Long before the 1st World’s Age the rhulisti were a thrall race to the ancient Illithid Empire. Where the gith forerunners were prominently warriors, the rhulisti served the Empire as artisans tasked with producing life grafts, symbionts, and other biologic creations. Its unknown if the illithid appropriated rhulisti biological science or if the rhulisti adopted and advanced the illithid’s existing knowledge.
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At the time of the gith forerunner revolt the rhulisti also rose up (referred to as the Great Upheaval) using their biologic creations to rout the illithid and their occupation of Athas.
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Gith also have a presence on Athas during this period, but not in the same numbers as the rhulisti. Aiding the halflings in the Great Upheaval the gith left Athas pursuing the fleeing illithids. Leaving behind brethren unable to break their thralldom, the gith swear to return one day and free them.
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Illithid unable to escape were taken as captives and forced into a stasis-like imprisonment via life-shaping. Kept alive due to the rhulsiti belief of "All life is sacred’’ in addition to information and bargaining leverage in the event of the illithids return. Gith unable to break their thralldom are also suspended.
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Rhulisti build a towering life-shaped pillar-like structure and complex to keep the remaining illithid (less than 200), illithid tadpoles (hundreds), and gith (under 300) in a suspended state.
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Githiyanki remembering illithids once had a foothold on Athas return centuries later seeking to eliminate the remaining mindflayers and free their thralled brethren. The githiyanki rebuild and repurpose Yathizor, a former gith slave pen facility.
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During the Rebirth, rhulisti infused the new races with dormant psionic potential as a precautionary safeguard in case the illithid returned. This triggers in the Rebirth Races when the githzerai Psionic Devastator is detonated against the githyanki in the early Green Age. The mind bomb also weakened the illithids’ forced stupor.
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Once awakened, gith were similarly impacted like their western counterparts. IIllithid were relatively unharmed (stunned for a few days) due to the extra precautions taken by the rhulisti in suppressing their active psionic minds while suspended. During that time tadpoles, illithid, and gith fully impacted by the bomb wander into the Mooncrest Mountains.
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Illithid remain secluded and unnoticed for a century as they regain their bearings in the new world and plot their next moves. During this time they begin unlocking the secrets of their life-shaped prison.
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Mindflayers are trapped in Athas space due to the Grey and being in a sealed crystal sphere. Unable to retreat beneath Athas because of lacking a true underdark, the illithid transform their prison into a small city over the centuries. They repurpose the pillar/tower (The Tower Consummate) to create the Dark Cupola (In reality, it just slows down the rate of light passing through the dome giving the illusion its shadow when its not – pseudo fantasy BS science). The Dome is powered via draining victims of psionic strength.
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The Cupola was much smaller in the Green Age. Near the end of the Cleansing Wars hundreds of refugees fled to the Mooncrest Mountains entering the Cupola in desperation. Now supplied with increased ceremorphsis stock and fuel to power the Tower Consummate the Cupola increases in size. The Cupola originally encompassed only a 6 mile radius and remained that size for most of the Green Age. The shadowy dome has roughly “doubled/tripled?” in size each time its grown
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Fair. Could they have found a subterranean location? Maybe. They could also try to escape Athas altogether. But what fun is staying with the illithid status quo?
I believe the 2e accessory the Illithiad touched on them building sun blocking domes on the surface. I spun the Dark Cupola off of that.
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Good stuff. I appreciate the info Sysane.
It seems I am building a “stylized” incorporation of this. But I fear the details and even the substance of my incorporation will have to stay off this site for a time, lest a stray curious player of mine discover some secrets.
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If you have Githyanki, your gonna have Mind-Flyers too.
And not related to Dark Sun, but a while back, like long-while, I ran a Cyberpunk: 2020 game involving kidnapped-humans, an alien, wet, Mars-like planet, with a crashed Illithid-ship, in a crater and the Githyanki hunting everyone down: the Githzerai sparing humans. Lots and lots of pscionics and sword-play. And raising humans for food.
Took place on the closest star to Earth, about 50,000 years ago or so (I forgot the name, but it wasn’t Alpha Centuri, it was a Type F-Star).
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Very interesting list here. Funny you mention star class I’ve been trying to figure out what class of stars Athas would need to have to fit every age (assuming constant planetary orbit)
“Nearest F-type star: Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris, 11.46 ly)”
Those are the closest-stars, now; stars drift and some get closer and further with time. Alpha-Centauri is getting closer to us and will be within 3 LYs, or so, in about 50,0000 years or so (practically right next door!).
If Athas started out, under a Type O star, which is blue, well, besides there’s not enough time to form planets until the star goes supernova.
Now, to have a blue-star to yellow, it would have had to shed several stellar-masses, and the energy-output would be that of a supernova, that would have focus enough energy, the Death-Star couldn’t even match and the planet would be incinerated.
Going from a type-G star to a type-M, is easier, but still, using up stellar-masses. Mostly likely, Athas is a super-Earth orbiting beyond the habitable-zone, until the Type-F star, started to go into it’s red-giant phase, and the HZ moved to its current-location.
Athas then, was most likely terra-formed, by the Illithids, using their Gith-slaves, all the life on Athas was imported; it’s unlikely, that, in the only few billion-years Athas has been around, it would have evolved complex-life under a near Mars-like environment: however, for a Type-F star to go from Blue, to Yellow to Red, takes hundreds of millions of years. So, it may not have been the Mind-Flayers that terraformed Athas, but something else (Dark Gods?).
Now, the Dark Sun is getting hotter and hotter, but, it will be millions if not hundreds of millions of years before Athas is uninhabitable.
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This reminds me of an exert from the Road to Urik;
Neeva and Rikus are setting up a tent in the desert; after they got it set up, they both went to sleep. Some hours late, Neeva wakes up and says, "Look up towards the heavens; what do you see?
Rikus replies: “I see millions of stars”.
Then Neeva says, “What does that tell you?”.
Rikus says, "There are millions of galaxies and billions of planets: and the fact Ral is in Hoard, means it is early morning, and it should be a clear-day tomorrow: “What does that tell you Neeva?”.
“That you are dumber than a Mekillot: some one stole our tent”.
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The main problem with Illithid being on Athas is another threat that I don’t think was ever handled well.
The Psurlons.
They supposedly play the githyanki and illithid against each other, are supposedly rivals with the illithids when it comes to psionic might, and have had a long vested interest in Athas due to the planet’s ability to take insane amounts of psychic damage. They are supposed to be great manipulators and deceivers (despite what their stat blocks actually reflect).
If you decided that the psurlon fill in a similar niche as illithid on other worlds they would need some tweaking but could very easily fill the role.
Suggestions:
Redundant Organs: Like several types of worms, psurlon have multiple vital organs including brains and hearts. For obvious reasons this would make them immune to critical hits and precision damage.
Chorus of Minds: Due to the fact that psurlons have multiple brains, enchantment/charm/mental control used against them automatically fail. Also anytime that they would need to make a Willpower saving throw they roll twice and take the better result.
Focused Mind: A psurlon may use one of its psionic abilities as a free action once per round.
Breath through Skin: Also like worms, psurlon breath through their skin. This allows them to breath inside earth or silt without difficulty. This also makes them extremely vulnerable to gaseous attacks and poisons (-4 penalty to save) as such attacks enter directly into their circulatory system.
The psurlon were originally something else entirely. Something likely more human. They have the ability to start changing others into proto-psurlons with psionics and grafts. Grafts which are likely the psurlon’s own removed organs that will regrow once they fully heal.
Throw in the fact that the whole race wants to merge their mental power into a psionic gestalt…
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