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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#4

The Upper City’s History (Hamarglar) Part 1- The Beginning

The small dwarven city of Hamarglar was founded relatively early in the Green Age. When dwarves found rich veins of silver and iron ore what was then a small outpost turned into a larger community within a relatively short amount of time. While not as prosperous as Kemalok or a center of worship like Hogalay, it became a place of trade and great forges for making armor and weaponry.

During these years of prosperity, the city was made into a wonderous spectacle. Great dwarven stone smiths built much of the city from the stalactites hanging from the roof of the great cavern over the Sunken Sea. Sturdy bridges connected various spires. Great effort, time, and magic was used to reinforce the structures’ stability.

By the time of the Cleansing Wars, the mines were mostly tapped out and Hamarglar was in decline. The city had continued to survive by being a crossroads for trade in the underdark and because of its excellent craftsmen. Its end was nigh though as Borys began his genocide by going after the city and several other nearby dwarven settlements.

The siege of the city was bloody but relatively brief. During the month-long battle, the dwarven defenders managed to inflict sizeable casualties on Borys’ legion due to their strong defenses. The Champion had also managed to bring down five of the dozen city spires during the bloody conflict. After the fall of the fifth spire, a gap was opened large enough for Borys and his army to break into the stronghold and butcher the remaining dwarves.

Borys left to continue his campaign and replenish his troops leaving nothing but the dead behind him. Days later, in one of the fallen spires, something stirred in the wreckage.

#5

Some examples include Guistenal, beneath the Black Spine Mountains, Under Tyr, The iron mines of Tyr for established ones in canon. If you look at the computer games, there is the Dragon Spine Temple, Cedlite village to name a few.

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#6

The Upper City’s History (Hamarglar) Part 2- The Meorty

After days of struggle, Norrir Longgrip managed to pull himself from the wreckage of one of the fallen spires. He had failed at his mission to protect the city, and the only reason that he had not risen as a dwarven banshee was that he was already undead.

The city elders had long ago offered him the opportunity to help expand and protect his beloved Hamarglar, when his age began to slow him down. He agreed knowing that his powers as a powerful earth cleric and skilled telekinetic would be kept sharp as a meorty. In those bygone days, Norrir continued to help construct the city, protect it, serve it, and maintain its law. He had become known simply as “Architect” by the populace, who respected their ancestor’s peerless focus.

Norrir took several days to appraise the state of himself and then the city. He marveled at the fact that somehow his body managed to reconstruct itself. He had understood that this new state was hardy, but now a new understanding came to him that he could likely only be destroyed by a specific method.

As he surveyed the remains of the city, he encountered many of his slaughtered kinsmen now transformed into banshees. Being in a unique position, he could speak to them and find out what their unfulfilled foci were. In some cases, he could put them to rest by simple means, while others, he would need to fulfill more stringent demands. He also had his own function to fulfill as well.

The dwarven meorty began to slowly and meticulously rebuild the city as only an obsessive undead dwarf could. He had reanimated the corpses of Borys’ fallen and put them to work. First, they buried the ones they slaughtered, and then they were put to work moving rock. Any attempted graverobbers that came upon the scene were added to the parade of corpses. Narrir continued to rebuild his beloved Hamarglar. His very existence would allow no less.

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#7

The Upper City’s History (Hamarglar) Part 3- The Shadow

Norrir and the undead under his control continued to toil to rebuild Hamarglar. Time was meaningless to him as it marched forward. It only seemed to be marked either by thieves trying to break in or one of the numerous banshees finally meeting some condition so that they could fade into the Gray. This was perfect for the meorty, who pursued his path.

Then it started very subtly. Someone began magically scrying various parts of the city. Beasts from the underdark were flushed into the city soon afterwards. It was followed by more scrying and more probing attacks. Some of the undead would be destroyed each time softening the defenses of the city, but Norrir took pains to keep himself concealed as much as possible. This new unseen enemy was gathering knowledge before it’s big push. The meorty could not count on his seeming invulnerability against this new more capable and persistent foe. If he was revealed too soon, this raider may even figure out a way to destroy him.

After several weeks of attrition, much of the undead in the city had been destroyed. His hidden enemy finally began to be bold enough to reveal themselves. A group of a dozen elves calling themselves the Shadows. This group was led Fhade, a defiler who could draw power from the Black. They were apparently part of some larger organization. Fhade wanted to claim the city’s riches so that he could make a bid for control of the Shadows.

Despite how desperate things had become for him, Norrir had managed to glean one piece of good news. None of the other Shadows knew where Fhade’s group was or what they were doing. The elves were not expecting reinforcements, so it would be up to Norrir to make sure none of them escaped. The second battle for Hamarglar was immanent.

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#8

The Upper City’s History (Hamarglar) Part 4- Battle in the Spires

The final assault of the Shadows began with a familiar tactic. More beasts were flushed into the city, but this time the elves followed soon after. They worked with incredible coordination, dispatching the city’s undead defenders. Norrir was unsurprised that they had a cleric among their number, protecting the other elves. He was quite filled with dread over the fact that their leader possessed some powerful magic device that obliterated one of the dwarven banshees.

The meorty understood that the situation was even more dire. It was likely that whatever magic Fhade possessed was likely to work against him as well. There would be no chance to reform his body. He was on equal footing with the elves that were attacking his city. This would become equally lethal for both sides.

Norrir pulled back some of the city’s defenders. He needed to make sure that Fhade thought things were going mostly according to plan. He focused the defenders onto two tasks: destroying all of the beasts, and resetting the traps placed around the city. He then ordered the defenders that he pulled back to conceal themselves and to wait for his signal.

After he psionically confirmed that the other undead had completed their orders, Norrir ordered them to attack the elves. It wouldn’t do for his opponent to think this was going to easy. After the failed assault, he thought that it was time to really sell the deception. The meorty joined the second assault. He cast several spells and used the Way against two of the elves before retreating. The look of glee in Fhade’s eyes as he fled told him everything that he needed to know.

Now, deep inside the city, Fhade and the Shadows were lured into the killing ground. Norrir gave his signal and dispelled the protective magic on the Shadows’ cleric. Two dwarven banshees made short work of the unshielded elf by aging and draining the life from him. Fhade quickly returned the gesture destroying one of the banshees. Swiftly it devolved into a bloody melee between the combatants.

Norrir and Fhade began a personal battle of elemental earth magic and the Way against sorcery as the everyone else tore into each other. For some reason that Norrir could not understand, Fhade wasn’t using the magical relic against him. Perhaps it needed some special condition to be used? It was not likely to stay that way forever. The meorty pressed his assault tearing at the wizard’s mental defenses and blasting away his magical ones. Norrir’s own defenses began crumbling as well as the two exhausted their resources. Finally, whether due to undead resilience or luck, the meorty struck Fhade down.

The elves that were not slain in the initial ambush and melee attempted to retreat. In doing so, they ran into the undead that Norrir had conceal themselves. Traps and ambushes finished off the last of the invaders.

Unforunately, Norrir Longgrip was now stuck with a dire choice. The city’s defenses were devastated and needed more manpower. He was forced to use his fallen enemies, and he would need to make many of them namechs. It was a bad choice and their was no choice.

Fhade of the Shadows opened his eyes again.

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#9

The Upper City’s History (Hamarglar) Part 5-The Aboleth Conflict

The aboleth were different than any of the previous threats on the city. Norrir had no idea how long they had been in the depths of the waters below. Perhaps they had been there all along? But it wasn’t until decades (?) after the assault of the Shadows, that he first became aware of them.

The meorty knew that the aboleth would be a problem if Hamarglar was ever inhabited by the living again. Because of this, he began strengthening the city once again but also formulating a plan to go on the offense against his neighbors when the time came. It was fortunate that time had taught him to be proactive, because he didn’t have to wait long for conflict.

The aboleth managed entice a large tribe of gith into their service and used them as proxies in their battle. The gith were eager to exploit the dwarven stronghold with little encouragement (psionic or otherwise) and began their assault with zeal. Unfortunately for them, Norrir after centuries of fighting much wilier foes and not to mention having the tactical advantages of high ground, home ground, and that his enemies wanted to take the city intact…made sure that the conflict proved to be extremely one sided.

After only a month of skirmishes, the psychic image of one of the aboleth appeared to the meorty to parlay. It pointed out that the water level had decreased dramatically during the brief conflict, and it was willing to negotiate for peace between aboleth and the undead. Norrir agreed to an end of hostilities given three terms: 1) there would be no further attempted incursions into Hamarglar; 2) any future living citizens of Hamarglar would be allowed water rights, 3) that an outpost be built as a neutral meeting place on the surface of the lake.

The whole conflict ended as quickly as it had begun, but it left all groups eyeing each other warily.

What started as an outpost on the lake would later become called the city Htak’azech. Literally, gith for ‘wait to attack’.

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#10

The Upper City’s History (Hamarglar) Part 6-The Historian

The growth of the city Htak’azech beneath them brought benefits over time to the undead inhabitants of Hamarglar. Various thieves were attracted by the promise of vast treasures and most came to bloody ends concluding with undeath. Because of this influx, Norrir pushed forward with the repairs to the city. Within a few years, the city was finally rebuilt as close to the way it was originally as possible. With this several of the remaining banshees were put to rest.

A few months after this, the meorty was met with a pleasant surprise (for once). A dwarven historian called Amibela sent a request to speak with the undead through the gith outpost. She wanted to chronicle the history of the city so that she could share it with other dwarves. Norrir was cautiously optimistic at the chance to finally speak with a living dwarf and agreed.

During their discussions, the meorty came to understand that the bard was an idealist but actually cared about her people. He began teaching her not only about the city’s history but also its laws and its cultural value to the dwarven people. Amibela and Norrir together began a plan to attract likeminded dwarves to recolonize Hamarglar.

Slowly and methodically, Amibela used her travels as an entertainer to find prospective settlers to the city. The process was hazardous despite the time and care taken, and nearly caused her death on two occasions. After several years of hard work, a small dwarven community was again within Hamarglar.

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#11

The Upper City’s History (Hamarglar) Part 7- The Present

The past several decades passed more or less peacefully for Hamarglar. The living population of the city reached several hundred dwarves and they began helping repair and improve it. Craftsmen and farmers alike do their work and sell what extra they possess in the markets of Htak’azech below. Amibela has become the city’s historian and one of its elders. As they become more prosperous, they plan to create their own merchant house.

Despite the prosperity of the dwarves, troubles brew beneath the surface.

The Namech Fhade.

Fhade is bound to obey Norrir and cannot harm the meorty, but he continues to scheme for his freedom. His long undead existence has changed things but also granted him new opportunities. He has abandoned the path of the shaowcaster and embraced the path of the necromant. His undead state has made the connection to the gray much stronger. It has also made him much more aware of the powerful magic item that he brought to the city.

Though locked in the city’s vault, the jewel calls to Fhade. It promises to increase his necromantic power and even enhance his undead state. Apparently, pursuing the path of the necromant was the trigger to unlocking its greater powers, and the jewel reached out sensing his nearby power.

Fhade has also managed to discover what method would be required to permanently destroy Norrir. He plans to expose this knowledge to one or more of the city’s enemies and leave no trail back to himself. If at all possible, he will make sure not to be present in Hamarglar if someone with the knowledge comes looking to destroy Norrir.

Fhade’s ultimate plans are to destroy Norrir, steal back the jewel, loot Hamarglar, and gain enough power to seize control of the Shadows (which he is aware still exist). If the jewel is powerful enough to do as it claims, then he will use it to turn himself into a t’liz or a kashiarga.

For now, he plays the resentful but obedient servant to Norrir. He makes a good show of struggling against his master’s chains, but always does as he is bade. His time will come and he can afford to wait.

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#12

Dreams of the Ancient Aboleth Part 1- Before the Beginning

"Yes, I suppose it is my turn. In a time before time and before gods, our chthonic creator seeded us across countless worlds. You want to know about the gods? I will come back to it then, for now let me continue…

The most ancient of each world is the parent of all the aboleth of that world. It is a being of immense psionic power capable of peering across time and into alternate realities. It looks through all these possibilities and seeks to use this for the betterment of the aboleth.

No, this does not make us infallible. I will get to the questions, you need to understand certain things before I explain the rest.

We are all Immortal. No, I do mean with a capital “I”. Even a “slain” aboleth will psychically reconstruct itself on the elemental plane of water. Each one has genetic memory of everything that its parent knew. We are not as powerful as the first. The power gets diluted over the generations but as we age our psionic might does grow.

Every member of my race is a scientist. It is an alien word here, but it simply means we wish to understand everything about everything. Once one of us knows, quickly the rest of us learn it from telepathic contact. The knowledge will be applied quickly and the aboleth become more.

Because of all this, we are prideful and arrogant…not at all without good reason. We can touch others and over time change them so that they can only live under water. We can enslave minds. With all of these abilities, we dominated the countless worlds in the primordial dark."

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#13

Dreams of the Ancient Aboleth Part 2-The Blue Age to the Edge of the Green Age

"When light came into the countless worlds, we were forced to retreat. This was unknown and somehow unseen by the most ancient aboleth of each world. On every world, we were forced to adapt…we were forced to learn how to adapt.

On Athas specifically, we created psionic parasites to keep other races from ever becoming a possible threat. We made sure to make the parasites harmless to us and closely monitored them to ensure they did not mutate into a threat later. It is rather amusing now. This act may have been what later saved most life on Athas…and conversely doomed us.

We watched the other races with some curiosity, especially the halflings. The ancient halflings had scientific minds that interested us, and that was something truly rare. But my kind were surprised to find that many of the halflings’ technologies made the most brilliant of their kind difficult to approach. So our own curiosities in those bygone ages had to be sated from afar.

The great problem for the aboleth came near the end of the age. The illithid made an incursion onto Athas and set up multiple underground bases. They began their own experimentation and kidnapped halflings in hope of learning their secrets. We covertly tried to work against the illithid, but they were a complete unknown to us at the time. The aboleth had no racial memory of them and they had shown up out of nowhere. The only thing working in our favor was that the parasites hampered them.

Then came the second incursion. This time it was the githyanki. They were also an unknown at the time, but it was much easier to figure what they were after. They built their underground bases and began striking out against the illithid. We were only too happy to find ways to nudge them towards the illithid. We were also overjoyed that the parasites hampered them as well.

The hidden war raged beneath Athas’ surface for at least a century before the end.

The third incursion brought the whole thing to a catastrophic ending for all involved, including the aboleth. The githerzerai arrived and began spying on the conflict. They were horrified to discover the parasites, and they believed them to be a new illithid weapon. Not wanting this new horror unleashed across the planes, they sent a message back for their leaders to do the unthinkable.

The thought bomb exploded on Athas.

The halflings and thri-kreen did not seem to notice.

Most of the illithids died immediately. Some others had their brains scrambled into drooling idiocy. Still others turned on their own kind in a murderous killing frenzy. None survived.

Huge amounts of the githyanki died outright, while a minority of them survived in a degenerate state.

The githerzerai were completely obliterated by their close proximity to the thought bomb.

And my kind, the aboleth, had been changed irrevocably. The impossible had happened. Athas had killed us."

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#14

Dreams of the Ancient Aboleth Part 3- Mucus and Thought Bombs

"The thought bomb slew most of the aboleth, and worse yet, none of those that perished could psionically reconstruct themselves on the elemental plane of water. Only the youngest survived and by that I mean those less than a century old. Perhaps, it was because we were not psionically matured enough for the bomb to outright slay us. But we were soon to learn that we had been greatly diminished as well.

Apparently, the bomb damaged our mucus glands. As a species, we had no idea how critical this was. Of course, we understood that it was necessary for transforming other creatures and for our own comfort. But it was more. In this age, some of the survivors went into the long sleep to recover and never woke. Reproduction became more and more difficult. Our growth was stunted. Finally, any of us that expired could not reform ourselves on the elemental plane of water.

The aboleth of other worlds quarantined us for a millennia until they were sure that our condition was not contagious. During this time, they also sought out the githerzerai in their home plane of limbo. I am not sure of the exact details of what happened, but since then no other thought bomb has ever been used. From sparse communication that I have had with elder aboleth of other worlds, the knowledge to make such a weapon no longer exists.

I am the last surviving child of the eldest aboleth on Athas and, because of this, I have the greatest potential. I am the closest one to our creator. I sought to stop the chaos, and unite the survivors so that we could possibly heal ourselves. My parent would have been able to do it easily.

I am not my parent.

We could no longer make aquatic slaves, so we began squabbling over possession of them. This continued until aboleth were slain. This was then exacerbated by them using their aquatic slaves to attack each other. Dead aboleth. Dead slaves.

It took me some time but, I managed to kidnap and consume one of the halfling life shapers. After learning what I could from him, I applied the knowledge to making a new servitors for us.

Several of us had already been busy capturing and experimenting on many of the surviving githyanki. The main foci of the experimentation was repairing enough of their minds to be useful and enhancing their reproductive rate. The plan was to make them our servants out of the water.

Armed with this stolen knowledge, captured githyanki, and my own psionic might, I began my own experiments. The result was our new servitor race: the kuo-toa."

#15

Dreams of the Ancient Aboleth Part 4-Gods of Athas

"The next…what? The gods? Fine.

Yes, well understandably I don’t like talking about the gods. It’s a sore spot with my kind, but in the interest of our agreement…

First thing that I will point out is actually you. I’m aware of how old you are, and if there were gods on Athas at one point you should know. But that’s the problem, I don’t need to ask or telepathically probe to know the truth. Your own knowledge of it is fragmented.

To explain, I’m going to have to tell you about some other worlds, creatures, and places.

First, there is an ancient githyanki ruin on one world with a vault that can only be accessed with a silver sword. This is despite the fact that this ruin has been there long before the githyanki appeared on the scene.

Second, there are creatures called kraken on various other worlds. They have managed to survive the destruction of their reality. No not their world…their reality. They also aren’t the only creatures to do this. There are also the spellweavers. We suspect the psurlons may have done this as well.

Third, there are creatures that have managed to travel from the far future. It took us a great deal of effort to discover but it is true.

What does all of this have to do with the Athasian gods? There are multiple signs that there has been some sort of temporal incursion event regarding these gods. You have contradictory memories about their existence yourself, but you are also aware of ruins of temples dedicated to these beings. In addition, some of these temples have undead that are somehow still granted power by these gods. If you consider the gods as a power source, then it makes no sense that these undead still gain power with the source itself removed.

With the knowledge of these other cases concerning alternate realities and temporal echoes, it is likely the gods did once exist on Athas, but something removed them. There is a frightening thought."