chapter 1
Welcome to Athas.
Athas, the world of the crimson sun and the great desert. Athas used to be a prosperous land with great green jungles and great seas, the people lived in harmony in the age of peace, but when there is good in the world there will always be an evil. In Athas like many other worlds the greatest of the evil was the people and their greed. What truly destroyed Athas was a form of arcane magic, called the defiling magic.
To cast arcane spells a mage is forced to tape to an energy source. Energy source for arcane magic usually comes from places like the weave, fade, warp, and dimensions that are mostly made of energy. there are limits to how much magic someone can use, and that limit depends on the caster and the source. In form of Arcane energy source, Athas had almost close to nothing.
The people of Athas used druidic magic that took energy from nature, or elementalists spells that could take power from elemental plane, but these powers are limited. Nature magic and elemenalist magic are really powerful, but they don't have variety of spells.
one an unknown druid decided to study the lifeforce of creatures. This druid managed to take the lifeforce of the creatures he studied and turn it to energy. This unknown druid managed to turn the energy and create some sort of arcane magic. This unknown druid is called the first sorcerer, and every information about him has been erased.
Arcane spells weren't necessarily more powerful, but what they had was variety. At first arcane spell casters took just a little life force from the world, without killing the creatures. they could cast spells by taking power from plants animals or even people but they didn't need to drain the life to be able to cast their spells. Arcane magic seemed peaceful at first, but there are always greedy people that want more.
wizards started to test their power to its limit, trying to get the strongest spells out of it. The wizards started to drain life to see how much power they can get, and the result was the intoxicating feeling of power that came by the death of the living creatures, and that marked the birth of defiling magic.
defiling magic was even more powerful than its counterpart which was called the preserving magic. Preserver mages would always think about the protection of nature but they were ignored, after all Athas had great jungles there was no way all of these jungles could be destroyed. The defilers and preservers hated each other throughout the history but the defilers were always more powerful.
the age of green ended when a group of human defiler sorcerers started a war, people refer to that as the great war. The great war was against everyone that wasn't on the side of the warbringers, and since they were humans, that meant most of the other races were enemy.
The great war truly scared Athas. In the great war many races were extinct, the jungles destroyed, the Athas sun turned red, and the seas vaporized. The humanity turned out as the victor of this war, and they became the rulers of Athas, and the warbringers named themselves Sorcerer-Kings or queens of Athas.
the preservers were proven right after the war but at what cost. The prosperous land of Athas was now a desert with little life left in it, water was now sacred and rare, the mines of Athas started to run dry and the sun itself started to change.
The Sorcerer-Kings outlawed magic of any kind, the only people that could practice magic were the Sorcerer-Kings themselves, their servants and anyone the Sorcerer-Kings deemed worthy. The problem with the Sorcerer-Kings wasn't just the magic, it was the fact that they were all self-centered monsters, and the defiling magic made them immortal.
Magic is not the only power in Athas. the intelligence creatures of Athas always had abilities called psionic abilities. when the world turned to a wasteland, animals and plants started to develop psionics powers too.
psionic abilities were power of a persons will or mind. Everyone had some sort of psionic ability. some examples of psionic abilities are things like small telekinesis and telepathy, or it could be something unique like a smith that can sense metal. Even plants had some psionic abilities, they could find water in the land and pull the water to themselves but that psionic wasn't very powerful.
Magic was hated by the people, but psionics was not only normal but people would respect a psionic master. The problem with psionics is the fact that it takes a lot of energy from the body and the mind of the caster. Psionic are not illegal in the cities ruled by Sorcerer-Kings, the Sorcerer-Kings also had a lot of psionics powers themselves.
Athas is the world of survival, every day everything will tries to kill you or enslave you. Death is more common than water in Athas. The rulers are monsters and the people would sell their own family if it benefits them.
But even in this world good people can be found. good people that are willing to actually help people in need of help while asking no recognition for their work, no matter how small the help they give these people are the real heroes no matter what world they live in.
Our story is about Caldon, a psionic warrior and a person that can't be considered good or bad, he is just a survivor. Caldon is a man of knowledge and wanderlust, Caldon loved to learn new things, that is why he learned how to control his psionics, and the reason he is a psionic warrior is the wanderlust. Caldon learned a few spells from preservers, but he learned the spells just because he liked learning. the spells are mostly small protection spells
Caldon was a 185cm(6 feet) human guy with short brown hair black eyes and olive skins that was turning darker because of the sun. Caldon travels a lot so he has good muscles, he isn't a giant or as muscular as an arena fighter but he is fit. Caldon has tattoos of two snakes coiled around each of his arms, he can use his psionics to animate them for a short time, the animated snakes are not venomous but they can do some damage.
Caldon had traveled the desert a lot so he usually wore light caravan armor. light caravan armor is a combination of several different materials, thick chitin bracers provide efficient protection to the forearms, while thick leather protects the shins and knees. leather kilt and shirt of thick cord layers protect the body and provide sufficient cooling. The clothing came with a Shemagh that he could use to cover his head and face.
Caldon had a road companion, it was a kank. A kank is a large, 2.4 meter (8 foot) long insect, commonly used as a personal mount. These insects cannot be used as food for their meat smells horrible, but they produce highly nutritious globules of honey. A Kank could eat anything so it was cheap to keep one.
Caldon usually travels with caravans, offering them protection, he got paid for it, but he mostly did it because he loved to travel. This time Caldon didn't come with any caravan he was near a platform in the great alluvial sand waste.
Caldon was holding his obsidian sword in one hand and a tortoise blade in the other hand. Obsidian could be found in Athas a little easier than metal, so people made weapons from it and his sword was one of them. The tortoise blade consists of a footlong dagger mounted to the center of a shell. He had other weapons like Puchik which was a bone punching dagger but he got the sword recently so he was using it now.
Caldon has been camping here for a while. The reason he came here is what happened two years ago in this place. the first time he came here was two years ago and it was by accident. Caldon saw travelers from other world that came to Athas by accident, and they landed here on this stone platform.
Caldon used the help of his friend Aristes, to keep this platform under an eye. Aristes is a wizard and psionic master, that lives in a small settlement near this area. Caldon visits Aristes a lot, since Aristes is one of his only friends.
The first outworld travelers died before Caldon could help them, but soon more came to this world. The travelers all used powers that were in their blood or elemental magic to travel so they didn't need to stay for long. Caldon had interaction with the travelers and hearing what their world looks like made Caldon want to leave Athas with those travelers, but they always left him here, the travelers were not willing to trust a guy from an apocalyptic world. That made Caldon really angry, he realized he needed to do something himself.
Caldon asked Aristes if he can keep an eye for travelers that use arcane magic, and Aristes told him that was possible. After a few months Aristes felt someone trying to use an arcane teleportation spell to come to Athas.
On the other side of the portal was Faerûn a world that looked like most of medieval fantasy worlds. The wizard on the other side was trying to cast a gate spell, this spell allows the caster to travel between worlds but this wizard didn't know he had to have a destination. The wizard was not weak or new to magic, he was just unlucky and he trusted the wrong guys.
The wizard of the Faerûn was a half elf called Yorkas. Yorkas was a blade singer. a blade singer is a wizard that is trained with martial weapons and could use music as a form of magical defense. Yorkas was 175cm(5.7feet) had short black hair and blue eyes, his skin was white, but in the sun his skin turns a little golden. He wore fine elven robes and usually had a sword with him, but today he was training so he didn't have it with him.
"you can do it Yorkas, you just need more power." that was one of his classmates named Lucan, a high elf. Yorkas was a half elf and the other elves usually looked down on him. The fact that Yorkas was a better wizard than most full elves, turned a lot of elves to his enemies, Lucan was one of them.
Lucan and some of the other elves wanted Yorkas dead, but they weren't going to challenge him since Yorkas was more powerful than them. Lucan and his three friends acted like they were Yorkas's friend and acted like they were just helping, but that was a lie, the elves decided to get rid of Yorkas by sabotaging his spell and protection spells in the room, and point his spell toward the void.
Yorkas was a little naïve and Lucan and his gang were the only friends he had so he believed them. he did what exactly the Elves asked him to do. The problem with a bunch of weak mages sabotaging a powerful mage is that it will always end disaster.
Yorkas was trying to cast one of the most powerful spells known to any mage. It took him a couple of days to complete it, today he know he was going to complete it. Yorkas made a gate appear but he couldn't see the other side, he could feel a warm air coming from the gate so he knew he was almost done.
Yorkas though his spell was incomplete, but the only reason that he couldn't see the other side was his so called friends. Yorkas gave the spell some more power in hope of seeing the other side. The extra power given to the spell was too much for the spell and with a flash of light Yorkas found himself on the ground of a stone platform. Yorkas looked up and saw a happy looking guy staring at him.
"you are a half elf and you are unarmed that is good." Said the happy guy while lowering as his weapons." My name is Caldon, and I am here to welcome you to Athas, the dying world."
"the dying what?" Yorkas was shocked by the effect of the spell, but hearing about a dying world was more shocking.
"THE DYING WORLD. I'm sorry to inform you about this but the spell you used might be the reason of your death in the future. But you don't have to worry about me I mean you no harm." Said Caldon
Yorkas was having a hard time keeping calm and seeing the kank didn't help him." Am I in danger." He asked while trying his best to sound brave.
"currently, no, but your friends are." Caldon said while pointing at the desert.
"my what now?" Yorkas asked while looking the direction Caldon pointed. There he saw four elves on the sands." What the hell is going on."
"your friends are on the shifting sands. I would say they are going to sink in the sand but I think the sandworm would get to them first."
"the what?" At that moment a giant worm's head emerges, revealing a triangular maw filled with triple rows of jagged teeth and pulled one of the elves under the sand. Yorkas in a panic wanted to run to the elves but Caldon stopped him. "listen the sands will swallow you. you have to stay on sturdy land".
Yorkas lifted his hand and tried to feel the weave for a spell but nothing came to him. even the little energy that his body stored from the weave started to leave, he was a wizard without magic in this world." What the fuck is happening to me".
another worm came out of the sand, it bit the lower half of the elf and started to pull him down. another came out of the sand and bit the upper half of the elf, both worms struggled a little with the elf and ripped in two. both worms went back under the sand with a chunk of meat.
Caldon used his psionics to levitate one of the elves that was nearest to them, and that elf was Lucan. Lucan felt the levitation and didn't resist, he then looked at Yorkas and screamed "help me you low born garbage, if I die my family will skin you."
Hearing what Lucan had to say, Caldon was encouraged to move him a little slower. as Caldon expected a giant worm attacked and grabbed Lucan's legs, with a powerful pull the lower half of Lucan was ripped off. Caldon just killed someone indirectly but no one needed to know.
"I'm sorry for your friends." Said Caldon doing his best to sound sincere" I did all I could, but in Athas surviving is not easy."
Yorkas was devastated but he had questions, so he looked at Caldon and asked." How did you know someone was coming here."
"I was keeping a watch on this place for a while. I found out that someone was using a spell to come here so I came to help." Caldon answered.
"why do you want to help." Yorkas just heard the person he called friend insult him for his race so he was not willing to trust people so easily again.
"I want your help to get out of this world, and go to a safer world." The answer Caldon gave to Yorkas calmed him a little.
Yorkas sat on the ground but another question came to his mind" you said you were monitoring this area and discovered the magic, can you tell me what went wrong?"
"yes I can actually." Caldon was right he knew what went wrong ." my friend Aristes explained it to me. apparently if you choose the void as the location of your spell you will be transported to a world like this one."
it was Lucan that chose the location for the spell as a way to help him. did Yorkas ever have a friend.
Yorkas wanted to stay there and think but the heat and the thirst that he felt was terrifying. Yorkas looked up at Caldon to ask something, but before Yorkas could say anything, Caldon dropped a set of desert clothing and a water skin in front of him.
Yorkas immediately grabbed the water skin and started to drink. "don't drink all of the water we need it for later," said Caldon while getting the Kank ready for travel " you should wear the cloths too if you want to survive."
Yorkas drank some water then wore the Cloths, the cloths were a little long for him. Yorkas had a thin body with some muscle, but the muscles were more for the looks than strength.
"hey by the way, my name is Caldon."
"I'm Yorkas."
"well Yorkas welcome to Athas, the world of the dark sun."