The Moons of Athas

Setting
41

One thing that irks me slightly with Dark Sun is the (to myself at least) inescapable notion that the Sorcerer Kings would just bail. I struggle to believe that The Grey represents an insurmountable barrier to magic users of such power.

Perhaps the moons of Athas serve as Pleasure Planets of the Sorcerer Kings? It sounds enough like the title of a weird fiction novella to be true at least.

They would still be drawn back to Athas & the tablelands in order to maintain their city-states, if only in the interest of maintaining Rajaat’s prison via the Dragon’s Levy. I doubt they could delude themselves into thinking they might avert their old master’s wrath by squatting on a nearby moon…

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42

When it comes to the SMs, one thing to remember is they are dragons. They are very powerful, but at the same time they are very protective of what they have. I tend to play them as obsessive and possessive, aside from extreme reasons they don’t like to leave their city states. As rebellious champions, they only really fear their master, Rajaat. In their eyes, if not in reality itself, he could chase them anywhere, any time, in the cosmos. They can not hide from him. The best they can do is keep him contained.

Combine those two things and there’s a fairly good chance they’ll stick around home and not run off to some other place.

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43

If you have tides on Earth, why not tides on Athas in the Sea of Silt?

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44

The Grey Death is high tide? Does deep water get drawn closer to the surface of the Sea of Silt, causing mudflats to expand?

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45

The silt tides would likely be a LOT higher/stronger, but wind might play a big part too, because silt blows around really easily. Plus, two moons might jack the tides around weirdly (from our PoV).

TLDR, silt tides should definitely be a thing IMO, but I’d personally just keep them narrative rather than scheduled for ease of use…

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46

FWIW I am detailing a tides chart in Stargazers for those interested in using /something/ that addresses tides.

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47

That, and the tides could be controlled magically / pscionically.

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48

Am I the only one thinking:

“There’s a vast ocean on that moon? We must create a portal into its depths, so we can have all that water!”

“What do you mean an ocean can be any liquid, not just water??? Shut the portal, all that toxic stuff is poisonous!”

“The portal… WON’T… close!!!”

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49

Mmmm, no, you’re not the only one.

When we did the refresh on Crimson Sphere, I pushed to ensure that the water & liquid on Lirua was highly dangerous or unavailable, rather than being completely removed completely because “Dark Sun is dry…”

Pg 18: "One might think that a world of frozen water would attract prospectors from across the system, but its ice is harder than granite and dangerously cold to handle. The seas and lakes that dot its surface look to be composed of water at first glance, but are deadly to consume, causing fatal internal frostbite to those foolish or desperate enough to drink from them, and their liquid instantly boils into toxic gas in all but the coldest environments. Liru is a cold, frozen world whose resources are difficult to gather. "

Its not specifically defined, but the seas and lakes are liquid ammonia or hydrocarbons like ethylene in my head… :laughing:

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