Let’s not forget Borys became a full Dragon in a single step. That’s why he went insane for about a century. But the other SK aren’t aware of that. As far as they knew(at the time) once you complete the process boom you go nuts in the head for a century, after that you get to start thinking again. They attacked Dregoth out of fear that he would rage. Not over his relative power. If they knew at the time he would have been fine in his brain they probably would have left him up to Borys to deal with.
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I use Dregoth as the origin of the dragon metamorphosis spell. The few times he went insane he took steps to minimize the time and positioned himself near giant strongholds away from civilization.
The other SMs didn’t find out until well after they killed him that the insanity begins much earlier in the process (hence Nibaney’s obsession with controlling the rage and the rest of the SMs suddenly stopping forward movement on becoming a dragon).
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Umm, isn’t Dragon Rage specifically called out in 3 or more levels of 2e and/or 3e’s Dragon Metamorphosis spells?
So, its just inherent to the process RAW.
I agree a person can/should be able to mitigate the rage, if they can figure out how.
You are correct that the rage is RAW, which has opened up the long standing headache of how Dregoth managed to get to level 29 without going insane.
Not really a headache. Clearly Big D took a different approach to the metamorphosis. Other SMs have tried shortcutting it with varying degrees of success/failure. He’s shown that he’s smarter than the other SMs and learned from their mistakes.
CbtSS even eludes as much:
“The Dragon had gone insane shortly after coming in to his power, so there was more to
learn about the process. But in that learning would come the answers he sought.”
Honestly of all the SMs Dregoth is the only one that hasn’t tried cheating the metamorphosis. Short of the rules contradiction, seems like the rage is induced by trying to advance too fast rather than following the slow and staged path to full dragonhood.
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I agree, though that might just be because slow careful plodding advancement isn’t a thrilling plot.
No more thrilling than the avangion’s advancement 
I was never a fan of the auto-rage in the later stages of the metamorphosis. Felt it should have been an increasing chance that it COULD happen vs instantly flying into a fit for months on end. The 3e rules helped with this a bit, but not fully to my liking.
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Defilers and Preservers, in one of the only good things it did, actually did implement this back in 2e.
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The 2e Defilers and Preservers book lists the transformation stages, and even then, from level 25 thru 28, aspiring dragons had to make Death Saves or enter a mindless fury for a month. It’s reasonable to believe that Borys jumping the curve, so to speak, caused mindless fury due to the agony of the change and animalistic urges (the reason listed for the mindless fury) far beyond the norm for a slower transformation, and it’s also reasonable to believe that a more cautious Sorcerer King could enchant items, magically or psionically, to held restrain those impulses.
Kalak also tried to jump the curve, which begs the question - did Borys’ extended madness result from an “incomplete” transformation that unleashed the full dragon transformation but didn’t have the energy the complete the change, and thus Kalak may have avoided it, or was it an inevitable result of a rapid Dragon transformation?
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Kalid-Ma also tried to fast track the metamorphosis and instantly succumbed to the rage. It took combination of Kalak, Hammanu, and Borys to end his rampage.
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I thought Kalid-Ma got sucked into Raven Loft.
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Depends on the canon you follow. In DS accessories, Psionic Artifacts of Athas specifically, under the Orbs of Kalid-Ma its states as such.
Some have used a combo of RL and DS lore on Ma stating his psyche was pulled into the DemiPlane of Dread leaving his rampaging body on Athas.
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I think one thing I missed was density? (unless that’s covered in weight)
The greater the density harder it is to wield but the more force it will impart when it hits.
I’m getting way to detailed on this…
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Borys was transformed by the combined powers of 12 other Champions, using the Steeple of Crystals and the Dark Lens (IIRC). Kalak was going to use the life force of tens of thousands of citizens (potentially hundreds of thousands of HD). In either case I’d say that’s enough power to complete the transformation.
I’ve always taken the view a short-cut Dragon metamorphosis is way too much agony for anyone to bear, hence going into automatic animalistic rage for a lengthy period. A Dragon going through their metamorphosis stage by stage has a chance to avoid the rage (as per D&P, Nibenay’s plan etc) because they’re giving themselves time to acclimate to the pain and their new form. A short cut booster Dragon can’t.
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I suggest that Bards be more like crystal singers, and draw the crystals from the poisoned soil of Athas as a byproduct of the poison the process also extracts. I suppose this should go under heresies, though I see it more as explaining the how and why of bards being poison masters and providing a methodology. And explain why so much crystal is available. And I still think glass-steel should totally be a thing in Dark Sun.
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I really like this idea. I think a lot could be done with this.
It would make Psion’s particularly dependent on Bards for their own work.
I’m using crystals in place of scrolls and potions (magic fruit always seemed weird to me --but not in a good way) in my Athas.
YAMV
I think I should have added “unchecked proliferation of rust monsters” as one possible cause for metal loss on Athas…
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My reason for the loss of metal is a bit of a hot take. My D&D campaigns are all connected to one another through Spelljammer and Planescape, so the relationship between mortals and gods has been a recurring theme. One of the reasons my version of Dark Sun is so awful is because the gods were all killed and each of the 12 major deities left a particularly nasty curse upon the world.
The God of Death broke the cycle of the afterlife for the Athasian Crystal Sphere while the God of Magic ensured normal arcane magic could never function on Athas. The Sea God’s death created the sea of silt, the Fertility Goddess’ death created the obsidian fields, while the Sun God’s death turned the sun red and punishing. It was the Tyrant God’s curse that caused metal ore to sink deeper into the earth so that few would enjoy the gift of iron.
While deep mining was theoretically possible, metal became not just harder to access, but harder to find as well. With passing generations the secrets of iron grew scarcer as other problems grew more pressing. Today those who still hold mastery of iron are few, yet the gift of iron promises supremacy to more than one aspiring tyrant.
Edit: On an off note, the corpses of these gods still linger in the world. Heretics are able to abscond with a portion of these dead gods and use these fragments as holy symbols. However these fallen deities are insane and vengeful things that pervert their old concepts into terrible forms. Whatever they once were is gone forever. As Steven King once said “Sometimes dead is better.”
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I’ve often been tempted to mix Timothy Zahn’s Spinneret novel into Athas as an explanation for where all the metal went… =D
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Better add that one to heresy 