Underdark of Athas

#1

I have recently been working on developing an underdark city for Athas. I was going to give what ideas that I had so far and listen to some community suggestions/feedback. Thanks in advance.

The Sunken City is located in the underdark beneath the crescent forest. It is actually three different communities put together.

The upper city that is built into the stalactites on the roof of the large cavern has a strong dwarven presence and is dominated by their ancient architecture. Despite the city’s age, sturdy stone bridges connect the many structures built into and out of the hanging rock. It is controlled nominally by the dwarves provided that they do not cause trouble with the aboleth rulers.

The middle city is more accessible to most and is built on the islands and large fungi to be found in the great cavern. It is an area for trade and a neutral meeting ground for various groups of Athas’ underdark. It is policed by the kuo-toa, who ferry non-water breathers into/out of the middle city.

The lower city is populated only by aboleth and kuo-toa. Others can only allowed to travel here by invitation of the aboleth. Violation of this is punished by death.

Lower city locations:
Palace of the Ancient-This alien palace is home to all the aboleth (all 4 of them) on Athas. It mainly refers to the huge sleeping ancient aboleth that is hidden in the lower part. The aboleth that anyone would actually meet is the one calling itself “the Voice”.

The Cathedral of the Depths-The kuo-toa temple dedicated to water. The aboleth have “convinced” the kuo-toa that the Ancient is a god and grants them their power over water.

Locations in the Middle City:
Dark Water Monastery-Headquarters of a cult of water worshiper surface race members that the aboleth created in an effort to wipe out silt clerics and ultimately the Dust Kraken.

The Sunless Sea Market-A huge number of exotic shops, stalls, bazaars, and emporiums filled with all manner of goods (legal/illegal/magical).

The Aboleth
These 4 aboleth are the only remaining “active” aboleth on Athas. The rest have either been forced into hibernation or perished (despite the fact that an aboleth shouldn’t be able to permanently perish).

The Ancient is a size huge Psion(Seer)20/ Cleric(Water)20. It spends most of its time doing two things: 1) psychically looking through space/time to locate and find ways to destroy the Dust Kraken; 2) using its power to bring more water to the Sunless Sea.

It is responsible for creating the kuo-toa. In the ancient past it ate a halfling shaper and managed to gain a flawed understanding of shaping. Because of this and regular psionic tampering by the aboleth, the kuo-toa tend to deteriorate mentally.

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#2

Cool idea, but, umm, if you’re looking for feedback, it doesn’t feel particularly Dark Sun-ish to me (which is fine - you do you, its your game). This city would drop quite well into Greyhawk or the Realms, except for 2-3 small details, so there’s nothing much about it screaming Dark Sun!!! to me.

Once again, its a cool concept, but if you’re looking for advice on how to tweak it, I’d suggest swapping out the non-Athasian monsters and/or leaning much harder into Dark Sun themes.

  • We don’t usually see dwarves living underground because its such a standard fantasy trope. Instead, maybe you could replace them with another Athas-specific people that lives underground: mindhome folk (what I’d personally go with), gith, and dark spiders immwdiately come to mind, though there’s probably others that might work.

  • A big lake of water is pretty off-trope for Athas, maybe it could be shrunk down to a spring or underground “oasis”.

  • Similarly, kuo-toa lack a good DS twist like halflings or elves got, so they could use replacement or some kind of reskinning, IMO. If it was me, I’d maybe use or make them gith that have been heavily modified via life-shaping or mutations, becoming even more hideous.

  • The aboleths also feel pretty out of place, despite the psionics, so I’d change them to psurlons or maybe a chanth to serve the same role.

  • The population seems oddly cooperative for an Athasian community, so I’d maybe also add some more tension, perhaps with rebels in the upper community (where you have the dwarves now) striking out against their monstrous ruler(s) below and their collaborators, and others (probably the leaders and their minions/guards) in that community tasked with rooting the rebels out or see the community severly punished.

Once again, i think its a fantastic and well-developed idea, but if you’re looking for feedback on how to make it feel more Athasian, there’s my 2 bits.

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#3

Most of the water on Athas is subterranean with the exceptions for the Last Sea, Kreen lands, Forest Ridge, and Jagged Cliffs. So it stands to reason that there might be at least one place below the surface with large amounts of it. And what is called a sea on Athas is basically a large lake (looking at the Last Sea). And then there is the Vanishing Lake that bubbles up from below for a while then disappears.

The dwarves of Athas past did build underground with Kemalok being the largest example. The dwarves of the Last Sea still reside underground. And if you take Villages of the Wastes, then there is a colony of degenerate dwarves living underground on an island in the silt sea.

The dwarven community itself will trade with the middle city but is mostly insular. There are only a few hundred of them and the city has only been rediscovered a few decades ago. At one point they fought the aboleth and their servants, but hostilities ended within a few months after the shoreline of the Sunless Sea receded by over ten feet. Afterwards, a cold peace has existed between the two communities.

The aboleth are out of place but also out of time. When would they have come to Athas? Back in the Blue Age or the beginning of the Green Age? The rest of their kind on Athas have either been forced into their dream comas or died despite the fact that they should be able to psionically rebuild themselves on the elemental plane of water. This is not a thriving colony of aboleth. This is just what is left. Their watery abode continues to shrink despite everything they do, somehow other aboleth in the long dream state are dying permanently when that should be impossible, and they are beginning to feel a distinctly alien feeling of time running out for them.

The aboleth servants don’t have to be kuo-toa. They can mutate people into Skum but there isn’t much flavor to using them in the world. Whatever they make would likely be unstable mentally because the aboleth themselves are.

Both humans and halflings of Athas have sometimes shown mutations such as webbed fingers and toes. Sometimes halflings even show features of dead races of Athas.

The way I would picture kuo-toa on Athas would be subterranean albino angler fishmen. They lack movement vision but have darkvision. They become more more fanatical as madness grips them. They are natural water clerics but have little ability for social interaction with anyone but themselves and the aboleth.

I haven’t flavored the population yet but cooperation isn’t the correct word. It is a city controlled by powerful alien psionic overlords with a small army of fanatical followers with a dangerous caveat to boot. The aboleth and their followers are the ones creating/summoning the water. The aboleth want trade in the city so that they psychically probe outsiders for information in pursuit of their goals and possibly look for agents to work for them on the surface.

As for the psurlon, they have a small enclave in the city. They have an agreement of non-interference as long as the aboleth alert the psurlon to illithid incursions on Athas. Despite the agreement it is dubious whether the psurlon are not interfering with the aboleth. They have no interest in the aboleth getting more powerful but if they have been undermining them it’s very well hidden. Most likely they would like the aboleth and the Dust Kraken destroyed and would move secretly to ensure the mutual destruction of both.

The population of the middle city includes gith, dark spiders, yuan-ti, mutated giants (fomorians), and a small amount of surface races. A large portion of the city is transient using the city for trade.

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