The Blue Age is the name for the earliest known period of Athasian history. The period lasted until the Year of Ral’s Defiance in the 8th King’s Age, and stretched much farther back into history than the creation of the Calendar of Kings itself.
History[]
During the Blue Age, Athas was far removed from the desert wasteland that it would later become. Instead of widespread wastes, the planet was covered by vast oceans, and instead of the crimson sun, a bright flame of azure burned in the sky. What few landmasses that existed during this time were marshes, swamps, or forested islands.
The rulers of this world were the rhulisti, the ancient halflings, whose floating cities dotted the endless sea and whose society had flourished for a time the measure of which is unknown today. The rhulisti were the only intelligent people on Athas during this time, although some primitive thri-kreen were also said to exist, and despite lacking both psionics and arcane magic, they managed to create a society more sophisticated and advanced than anything that existed by the time of the Liberation of Tyr. These halflings had learned to work with the forces of nature rather than oppose them, and formed a bond with nature unlike any other people in the history of Athas.
The greatest of the rhulisti were known as the “nature-masters”, or “life-shapers”, people able to manipulate nature itself. This practice began by growing and shaping a rocklike plant found beneath the waves into anything they desired, such as tools and even entire buildings. From this basic substance the nature-masters went on to learn how to control the very building blocks of life, and they found that both plants and animals could be redesigned just as easy as any regular tool, molding living buildings, vehicles, and other useful objects from their subjects. For each generation that passed, the rhulisti learned more and more about nature and the ways to manipulate it, however, they possessed an immense respect for life, and refused to view their creations as mere commodities, neither abusing the knowledge they had gathered or to take any of it for granted. The world of the Blue Age was wondrous and alive, and it bowed to the commands of the halflings who inhabited it.
The rhulisti prospered for centuries, and they founded many communities and cities, including a series of settlements on a string of islands, which would one day become the tops of what’s known as the Jagged Cliffs. Greatest of the halfling cities was Tyr’agi, located among the swamps and vine-draped trees in what would later be known as the Tyr Valley.
During the Year of Ocean’s Slumber (later known as “Silt’s Slumber”) of the 4th King’s Age, a cabal of corrupted nature-masters, known as the “nature-benders”, was discovered. The nature-benders were conducting horrible and immoral experiments with life, bending nature in ways it was never meant to bend. Following this, in the Year of King’s Slumber, elemental clerics first appeared on Athas, and the most sinister members of the elemental cults went on to form an alliance with the nature-benders in the Year of Enemy’s Agitation. These ill-natured halflings would go on to be defeated in a war that spanned between the years of Island’s Agitation (later “Desert’s Agitation”) and Ral’s Vengeance of the 7th King’s Age. Sadly, some of the creations of the nature-benders still existed during the days of the 190th King’s Age.
The End of the Blue Age[]
While the knowledge possessed by the rhulisti was vast, it was far from complete, and somewhat ironically, it wasn’t a war or evil nature-benders who caused the Blue Age to come to an end, it was an accident, and nothing more. In the Year of Ral's Defiance of the 8th King's Age, the nature-masters of Tyr’agi were researching ways to increase the eternal ocean’s capacity to sustain life, looking to hopefully double the number of creatures and plants it produced. This experiment went awry, however, as a fetid surge of brown began to spread across the waves. The Brown Tide, as it was called, was lethal to anything it came into contact with, and as the halflings panicked, fleeing into great, subterranean strongholds or mountain forests, the endless sea slowly began to die.
It was a desperate time, calling for desperate measures, and the few nature-masters that remained in Tyr’agi sought to save whatever they could, even if it brought an end to the Blue Age. In the Year of Friend's Reverence, the nature-masters created and gathered in what would later be known as the Pristine Tower and discovered a solution, albeit one that required vast amounts of energy. This process involved channeling the azure sun’s power through the tower itself, and by using their mastery of nature, the halflings were able to do just that, destroying the Brown Tide.
However, this event changed the very nature of the sun itself, as it changed into a brilliant yellow sphere. This in turn had profound effects upon the world, as the seas began to evaporate, revealing large expanses of fertile lands. The Blue Age had come to an end, but the world had survived, and a rebirth was upon Athas.
Sources[]
- Dark Sun Campaign Setting. Richard Baker, Ari Marmell, Chris Sims. Wizards of the Coast, 2010.
- Dark Sun Campaign Setting: Expanded and Revised. Bill Slavicsek, and Dale Donovan. TSR, Inc. 1995.
- Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs. Monte Cook. TSR, Inc. 1995.
- Timeline of Athas. www.athas.org