Athas Lore Primer

Summary

No law rules the blasted wastes of Athas, except the laws carved by blades or shaped by magic. Civilized realms suffer under the oppressive rule of sorcerer-kings. Will you rise up, with allies to guard your back and your water? Or will the scorched lands under the dying sun claim yet another band of fools?

History

On the Athas World History timeline, you can see the list of the ages. They encompass the long history of Athas from a bird's eye view, the finer details of these ages are hard to come by. Especially prior to the current age, history was only recorded when the sorcerer-Kings saw fit, and it was destroyed just as easily when they saw fit.

Cities

Tyr

Overview

Tyr is located on the Tablelands, near the Ringing Mountains. It is one of the few city-states on Athas with an active iron mine and is thus quite wealthy. It is ruled by the tyrannical sorcerer-King Kalak and has been ruled by him for the last 900 years. Though Kalak employs a group of city elders as an advisory council, his decrees change purely on his own whim without any outside influence.

Districts

Tyr resembles one large circle conjoined with another smaller circle. Ringing the circles are large, ancient stone walls 30ft. high. The area within the smaller circle is for the rich and wealthy, as well as the plants and gardens kept by Kalak. The larger circle encompasses the rest of the rabble of the city, and the center houses the newly constructed ziggurat. Though a racially diverse city, elements of districts and sometimes entire districts heavily favored specific races. For example, there is an entire part of the bazaar where only elves were allowed to sell their wares.

• Camel Cross Causeway
• Stelae Bazaar
• The Brickyards
• Alabaster Square
• The Warrens
• The Ziggurat of Kalak: The newest project of Kalak that rises nearly 200ft. above the city wall in multi-colored brilliance. Beneath, in an inverted symmetrical shape are the Blood Pits of Tyr;--the premiere gladiatorial arena where slave and freeman fight for freedom and coin.
• Suncrest City
• Suncrest Tower

People of Significance

• Sorceror-King Kalak. A ruthless ruler of Tyr, this human sorcerer was once tasked with eliminating the race of Ogres from Athas. In this endeavor he was successful. The templars of Tyr revere him with a near god-like status, but nearly everyone else despises his longstanding tyranny. He is theorized to be the strongest sorcerer-King alive on Athas.
• Vivaldi Vordon III. Leader of the house of Vordon, this elderly dwarf has an antagonistic relationship with Kalak. As the premier trade house of Tyr, Vordon and his house are frustrated with the diversion of wealth commanded by Kalak towards the construction of the Ziggurat which has decimated the profit margins.
• Rikus. The Mul champion of the Blood Pits and a well-loved fighter by many people, this former slave of Tsalaxa has long since won his freedom but continues to fight for the fame, glory, and wealth it brings.
• Norzaphir Hel-kibut: A prominent philosopher on The Way, a catch-all term for psionic study, Norzaphir resides within the Suncrest Tower. He makes frequent trips to The Brickyard to test his theories on the plethora of slaves there.

Balic

Overview

Located in the middle of the Estuary of the Forked Tongue in the Tablelands, Balic is known for its white marble which is prevalent throughout the city's architecture. The palace of Balic, called The Megaleneon, is located atop a stony, fortified bluff in the center of the city and the sorcerer-King Andropinis resides there. Though technically elected through democratic means, Andropinis was elected for life and still rules effectively as a dictator now 700 years later. This city is also famous for its skilled potters. For any travelers bold enough to venture into the Sea of Silt, Balic represents a natural departure point.

Districts

• The Criterion: The local arena
• The Shipyard
• Villa
• The Agora

Factions

There are many different factions across Athas, these listed are those prominent within Tyr and Balic. A faction's loyalties are driven by the trade relationships they foster or antagonize. Trade houses are one of the largest types of factions. Organized along family lines with a matriarch or patriarch at its head, a major house controls dozens of caravans, maintains estates in several different cities, sponsors trading villages, and employs (or owns) thousands. They are one of the few factions that can travel from city-state to city-state safely assuming the desert doesn't interfere and have outposts at nearly every city. While not as strictly powerful as a sorcerer-King, they wield enough influence to sway decisions when they want, though their merchant's code would forbid political involvement.

• House Vordon: This house is the largest and oldest in Tyr and specializes in the iron trade, especially to Altaruk, Balic, and Urik. They hold sway over large parts of the city, including trade tariffs or restrictions on those entering through the Camel Cross Causeway. They are cut-thought and efficient, taking their trade perhaps a little too little with the way they run business. They are, however, considered reliable and relatively honest, they simply have no place for competition.
• House Troika: A newer trading house, Trokia specializes in the trade of obsidian, rice, water, wood.
• House Stel: Based in Urik, it's not surprising that House Stel is the most militant of the trading houses. Stel deals in weapons, ceramics, obsidian, wood, feathers, slaves, and gold. There are more rumors about them dealing with Elves, and therefore stolen cargos than any other house. They are universally despised, but no other house wants their large share of the weapons market to suddenly change hands to a competitor.
• House Tsalaxa: Based in Draj, House Tsalaxa is a very successful Merchant House catering to nobles. They trade in hemp, grain and slaves but also more risky commodities, such as artwork, ornate weapons, and exotic slaves.
• House Wavir: Based in Balic, House Wavir deals with grain, ceramics, and precious gems. It is unique in that it has no slaves nor deals with them as it was founded by ex gladiators and freed slaves.
• House Inika: Small and considered insignificant, Inika sells kola nuts, exotic feathers, and spices. Its shrewd owners creat far more profit than their size would suggest though.
• Alabaster Hegemony: This group of end-time prognosticators coined the term 'White Age' and seek to accelerate the defilement of Athas while simultaneously decrying defilement performed by those outside their order. Revered with a general mystic and distaste, the only reason this order exists is due to their large public donations towards Kalak's ziggurat, which earn them a certain amount of leniency.
• Templars: These are the city enforcers directly empowered by the sorcerer-King. In Tyr, their ruthlessness matches that of their employer, and they regularly terrorize the people for fun or political gain.
• Duneraisers: Though not a trade house to get around some technicalities, this faction carries the same respect as one. They supply and specialize in the capture, breeding, and trading of Kanks and other mounts or grunt work creatures. They operate by handing out contracts on specific parts of the land or on breeding pairs, encouraging internal competition. The secrets of their breeding and taming processes are a well-kept secret.
• The Addar's Eye: This is an exclusive, furtive group that specializes in the sale of information and poisons; often claiming the two are just halves of the same coin. Their motivations, besides profit, are not well known, and any trading house is banned from doing business with them. Their members are marked with a snake eye tattoo under their left armpit.
• Chaos Glades: Commonly referred to as "The Glades", this group is led primarily by Genasi druids. They want to maintain a balance and respect for the elemental forces of Athas and despise defilement and defilers. Since the law is on their side, they enjoy a good relationship with the Templars, and despise the Hegemony. However, to the falsely accused, there is little difference between the Glades and the Hegemony.
• Nas Quatali: An effective and feared mercenary group that specializes in spear and bow combat. Often hired to protect trade caravans or important journies by nobles.

Regions

The Tablelands

The Tablelands are the most often traveled lands in the world of Athas, being only slightly less deadly than all surrounding geography. It covers a large area of about 260,000 km² (100,000 sq miles) and consists mostly of barren desert, arid badlands, with intermittent patches of mud, vegetation, or forest.

Sea of Silt

One need only see the ruins of the ancients that litter its shores to realize that Athas was not always the arid waste it is today. Some people believe the Sea was once filled with water, so much water that one could stand on a shore and not see the other side. The silt itself is a grayish powder, like very fine and dry dust. It runs through the fingers like water, leaving not a trace on one's hands. The slightest trace of moisture causes it to stick and clump; it can cake the eyes, nose, and throat in seconds. Breathing the airborne silt slowly lines the lungs with powder and chokes the life from even a Giant.
Like water, silt has a devilish ability to find its way into everything. A traveler walking along the borders of the Sea of Silt on a windy day finds boots, packs, and even pockets filling with gray dust. Most of the time it is merely annoying-but contamination of a canteen or food supplies is a sore blow to the wayfarer on short rations.
Silt is heavier than air, but far lighter than water. Stories tell of inventors who tried to copy the hulled, wheelless vehicles the ancients used to travel through water. The silt is so light, and of so little substance, that even the most carefully built boat sank through the dust to rest on the bottom. Others tried to strap great baskets to their feet, hoping that these could support their weight over the silt. They were no more successful. The silt actually becomes hard-packed a few meters below the surface, but this is of no help to a Human as the level within the first two meters is extremely loose and fine.
Water sinks rapidly through the silt. A gallon of water thrown into shallow silt leaves a foot-wide muddy shaft through the dust down to the rock below. This rapidly fills over and collapses, but some Sages observing this effect have speculated that a sufficient amount of water, such as one good rain, could pound the entire Sea into a single mudflat. Of course, the terrible heat of the sun would soon dry the mud back into silt.
In the very center of the Sea of Silt is a valley, a wound in the very earth itself. A furnace wind screams endlessly through this devastated realm, carrying away the silt in an eternal pall of choking dust, scouring the earth to bare rock. If someone passed into this valley, he found fire and death. The earth is warped and barren, devoid of life. The sun is hidden behind the endless clouds of blowing dust. And at the heart of this tortured place, a ring of burning rock encircles a the sunken city so large the eye could not encompass it in one glance.
To be sure, Giants can wade the silt, and silt skimmers can travel its shoals. But only fliers can cross the deep silt easily. Even strong fliers such as Rocs shun a broad expanse of open silt. It is simply against their nature to fly out of solid land, and the rider who attempts to force his mount out over the open silt invites a tragic end.

The Gray Death

Silt travelers must be forewarned of the Gray Death: suffocation from windborne dust while wading or flying above the silt (or even traveling near its borders) on windy days. The lungs and the throat slowly clog with dust, and unprotected characters traveling in these conditions suffer as if they were drowning. Breathing through a thin, fine cloth is adequate protection for most humans and humanlike creatures. The cloth must be kept damp and clean, which consumes ½ gallon of water per day.

The Dead Caldera

The Caldera consists mostly of a huge plain of black obsidian, caused by a magical catastrophe during the Cleansing Wars.

Current Day

The current year is 344th year of the king, or 6844 year of the world. Tyr is a bustling city of trade and prosperity but the domineering focus of the conversation is the large ziggurat under construction in the center of the city. Its gaudy appearance dominates the skyline and the extravagant display of wealth mocks the suffering slaves and poor that toil away under its shadow. Not all are opposed though, for underneath it, in the Blood Pits, a high-stakes tournament of martial prowess takes place daily as gladiatorial combats make those that own fighters rich. And even for some slaves and poor folk, the entertainment the Pits provide is all they have to look forward to on their dreary, hot days. The Alabaster Hegemony recruits members to its ranks under the thinly veiled threat of a public accusation of defilement. The House of Vordon works tirelessly to reestablish its dominance in the iron trade with all the large construction occurring. Merchants and slave owners are abuzz in the Bazaar, selling their wares to the many new tourists visiting to see the ziggurat. Tourists come to see the great city, hoping to catch a bloody fight, and to immerse themselves in the ancient city. Templars watch on the prowl for criminals amongst the throngs of people, hoping to catch a thief or pickpocket in the act and arrest them, sending them off to slavery for a small crime, or death in the case of a harsher crime. An agent of the Addar's Eye watches carefully as people enter the Camel Gate, noting those of importance whose arrival could fetch a good price amongst the nobility. However, many of the people of Tyr huddle in the shade away from the sweltering sun, avoiding others as they peddle their meager trade, hoping to survive another day.