What Happened to the Lord Mariner and His Fleet?

[phaaf_glien]

Reviewing the Cerulean Storm, it seems to me that the Lord Mariner was not among those Dead Lords destroyed by the Heroes of Tyr during their battle at the Baxal Shoals. Indeed to my knowledge, we never see the Lord Mariner, although we are told on page 209 of CS that the Spirit Lords were commanded by the Dragon to disperse themselves throughout the fleet, and to search in squadrons for the heroes amidst the various channels of those forested shoals. It is my understanding that in the narrative of the battle, the Heroes only encountered but one of these squadrons, and this squadron in fact did not include the Lord Mariner, for all the Spirit Lords described were more or less specifically identified.

All this said, I query, whatever became of the Lord Mariner and his fleet? The absolute devastation of Ur Draxa and the Broken Plain immediately surrounding the super city surely did not instantly destroy these magical ships made of basalt stone, nor do the undead crews require ports for normal resupplies, at least as far as I can understand, and therefore could still easily be operational. Therefore, what became of them? What might be the ambition of the Lord Mariner after the fall of Ur Draxa, and where might such an undead abomination take his fleet after the cataclysm of his homeland?

Perhaps some of you have explored this in your games thus far. As I often like incorporating the adventures and campaigns I see posted about on Athas.org, I was looking to see if anyone had used the Lord Mariner and his fleet. What might any of you tell me about this? Is there a piece of lore that I am missing?

I speculate that the Lord Mariner at least at one point possessed command of a port out of which his fleet was based, and where more such ships could be constructed and enchanted, somewhere along the silt-stormed coast of the Valley of Dust and Fire. I also speculate that before the Dragon’s death, his task was to patrol the perimeter of the Great Ash Storm, so as to counter any daring admiral who might attempt to sail against the power of the Ur Draxa and launch an amphibious invasion of the Valley, should any be so bold! Being undead, the Lord Mariner and his fleet, as well as perhaps surviving Spirit Lords, might still maintain a power base there, and may be attempting to rebuild a nucleus of Draxan culture amidst the clouds and mists of the Cerulean Storm.

Anxious to hear your thoughts!

[redking]

phaaf_glien! Welcome, friend! We were great mates back on the Wizards forum, debating various Dark Sun topics and points of canon with the forum dwellers. On to the topic at hand!

Luckily, we have the Beyond the Prism Pentad sourcebook which was written to wrap up any unanswered questions and it surely answers your question. Oops. No, it turns out it doesn’t answer this question or many others, which is why I dislike that supplement.

What really happened? Troy Denning wrote 5 very interesting books about the Dark Sun setting but he left a ton of unfinished business. The Lord Mariner should still be out there. Ur-Draxa is can still be rebuilt. According to the Valley of Dust and Fire sourcebook, which I definitely believe over the Prism Pentad supplement, killing the Dragon and making him stay dead is no easy thing.

For my campaign or headcanon, I don’t do the dead Sorcerer Monarchs. Then what the heck happened during the Prism Pentad books? My personal fix for the the story of the novels if you want to make it an event that happened is to sidestep the consequences of those events.

The Sorcerer Monarchs are wary of Rajaat and also of each other. Once they realized that Rajaat was able to break some bonds of his prison and affect Athas, they took all precautions to defend themselves. Starting at Free Year 10 , none of the Sorcerer Monarch’s encountered by the protagonists of the novels are the real deal. The real SMs are holed up in extra-dimensional “panic rooms” because they fear a one-hit kill by Rajaat.

From the timeline, FY 10 -

Sadira kills Abalach-Re with the broken tip of the Scourge of Rkard on the Ivory Plain. The sorcerer-queen’s body is completely consumed by a black ooze leaking from the broken tip.

Sure, but that Abalach-Re was a simulacrum in my personal canon. The rest of the events also took place, with Tec’s simulacrum getting its head crushed, and Andropinis’ simulacrum being confined to the Black, and the Dragon being “killed” (again, a simulacrum).

So the story arc happens, but the consequences are different. We have the Tyr storms. We have Tithian imprisoned with Rajaat. But none of the SMs are dead, and life goes on. All of the SMs, when they think the others aren’t looking, attempt to recover the Dark Lens from the lake of lava. But its gone. Where did it go? That’s a mystery.

That basically resets the campaign to where it was right at the start. That’s IF you want to the Rajaat and cleansing wars route. I am a first box set originalist, so I prefer the mystery of Athas’ history. Rajaat is easy to refluff as an Elder Evil and nothing to do with cleansing wars.

[Sysane (Bryan Bock)]

I haven’t used the Lord Mariner per se, but for my game I had a detachment of surviving Dragon Warriors relocate to the east of the Silt Sea to the Iron Citadel’s sister base, the Obsidian Citadel. They are lead by the Lord Warrior’s second in command, Amandia. She’s detailed in Valley of Dust and Fire accessory.

[phaaf_glien]

redking, great to see you still on here, as well as the other Old Silters and lore-masters of Athas.org.

You know, keeping the SKs alive is certainly an understandable decision. I myself have played in a timeline before the Tyrian revolution, and it was a glorious thing to see the templars of the Tyrant of Tyr still at the height of their powers, and the classic institutions of all Seven Cities still maintained for heroes to encounter, and players to enjoy.

Although suburb novels, we lose the wonder and mystery of much of the entire campaign world with the publishing of the Prism Pentad. As you say redking, the quintessence of the setting was captured by the first box, and I like to return there as much as possible with the telling of the Dark Sun story. Let the mystery of the sorcerer-kings remain hidden to all players for as long as you can, and for new players under the Dark Sun to wonder at the ruins of a desolate world.

But long have you and I been of the same mind on this redking.

Good to see you all keeping the Dark Sun still lit gentlemen. Cheers.!

dark sun vigil|565x500

[phaaf_glien]

Sysane, this is excellent. It seems to me there would be at least some outpost or nucleus of Draxan society to survive the cataclysm. The Citadel’s aerial assets should have allowed for at least the possibility of escape from the Storm.

And a splendid map by the way, from you and your team, from yesteryear. I have admired your maps from afar, or what snippets of them I have been able to collect, over the net. Indeed, I have always been interested in your notes and concepts for the Sundered Regions. If you have discussed or shared them elsewhere, or if you would otherwise like to share your lore on these lands, I would surely be interested. Also, if you do not mind divulging, what program was used to render the map of the Sundered Regions?

Good to see you still on here Sysane.

[redking]

This is from The Valley of Dust and Fire. Here it clearly states that there are 25 spirit lords serving under the Dragon. The Lord Mariner isn’t the only one unaccounted for.

The Lord Templar would likely have an interest in rebuilding Ur Draxa.

The Lord Vizier and his powerful group would have been useful in the fight against the Heroes of Tyr. They never saw action.

There are likely plenty of survivors from Ur Draxa.

[Sysane (Bryan Bock)]

Great to see you still around too phaaf

Thats my thinking as well. Roc’s could have easily escaped the Valley during the events of the Cerulean Storm. There isn’t a huge contingent of Dragon Warriors at the Obsidian Citadel. Maybe a dozen or so of actual roc riders and double the number in Draxian retainers.

Appreciate the kind words on the map. Made 20+ years ago with Phoenix. I have no idea what we used. I only have pdf versions of it now. I’ll create a new thread for the Sundered Regions stuff. Only have a few maps and a rough outline of the area that I’ve been refining here and there over the years.

[Killer_DM (Robert Druschitz)]

I always thought that the Ur-Draxans would have satellite towns where slaving would occur to supplement the Levy. Not to mention spies in the various city-states.