Oh, and when it was shifted back in time most, but not all, inhabitants just disappeared, for some reason leaving a handful of survivors who neither knew how they survived, nor what happened to the rest.
1 tripod in 3 trenchcoats replied to 1 tripod in 3 trenchcoats's status
1 tripod in 3 trenchcoats replied to 1 tripod in 3 trenchcoats's status
It used to be permanently shifted into he future by half a second to keep a terrible enemy away, but at one point they still invaded somehow. Which overloaded the time circuits so bad it became untethered in time and reality. Most inhabitants and invaders simply vanished, some survived half mad, and some became something else.
BeefGriller (he/him/his) replied to 1 tripod in 3 trenchcoats's status
1 tripod in 3 trenchcoats replied to BeefGriller (he/him/his)'s status
@BeefGriller maybe they were from an alternate Dark Sun kind of world. That might work.
(Although without the whole defiler/preserver dichotomy, more like a generic post-apocalyptic fantasy where evil won; or maybe a bit like Earthdawn's kaers protecting the last of humanity/dwarvendom)
BeefGriller (he/him/his) replied to 1 tripod in 3 trenchcoats's status
@kyonshi The defiler/preserver lore was integral to Dark Sun (and quite prescient). Having said that, perhaps the dwarven time fortress, being a half-second “in the future,” began draining the landscape from that time reference, inadvertently (or maybe even deliberately) causing the “present” landscape to begin dying, spreading from the fortress’s location.
1 tripod in 3 trenchcoats replied to BeefGriller (he/him/his)'s status
@BeefGriller I always found that to be one of the weaker parts of Dark Sun. I would have liked it better if it wasn't this kind of moral choice you had to make, but instead the state of Athas just would come about from the bad guys winning so long ago.
BeefGriller (he/him/his) replied to 1 tripod in 3 trenchcoats's status
@kyonshi I can see that. I think its primary purpose was to separate the PCs from the “bad guys” - the only defilers allowed to practice were the Dragon Kings’ own loyalists. If a PC were to do so, both the “good guys” and the “bad guys” would be after them.