Roll for Lore

No intro needed, this is episode was a blast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dark Sun is one of the most brutal, strange, and unforgettable campaign settings in Dungeons & Dragons history.

In this episode of Roll For Lore, we dive into the world of Athas, the post-apocalyptic setting introduced for AD&D 2nd Edition in 1991. We cover the rise of the sorcerer-kings, the Cleansing Wars, Rajaat, defiling magic, the destruction of the natural world, and how Athas went from a lush planet to a deadly wasteland beneath a crimson sun.

We also explore what everyday life is actually like in Dark Sun, including slavery, gladiatorial combat, psionics, merchant houses, city-states like Tyr and Urik, the scarcity of metal and water, strange Athasian food, and why arcane magic is feared while psychic powers are completely normal.

If you love Dungeons & Dragons lore, classic TSR campaign settings, AD&D 2nd Edition, Dark Sun, Athas, sorcerer-kings, psionics, or post-apocalyptic fantasy, this episode is for you.

Welcome to Athas. Try not to die of thirst.
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Tharizdun doesn't get a chapter in most Forgotten Realms books. He gets a footnote, a whisper, and a very large lock.

This episode digs into the Chained God: the interloper deity who wandered in from Oerth, went irretrievably mad, and, depending on which edition you're reading, planted the seed that grew into the Abyss. We trace his fall, his imprisonment by the same gods who couldn't stomach what he'd built, and the alias he wears when he wants something done: the Elder Elemental Eye.

Then there's the Toril problem. Tharizdun isn't a Faerûnian god, but he keeps turning up anyway. A cult in western Chessenta in 1340 DR that hired bandits and consorted with demons before an alliance wiped it out. The plague demon Murmur seeding a new order inside the Firestorm Cabal in 1479 DR. The elemental cults of the Dessarin Valley that became Princes of the Apocalypse. Plus the permanent confusion with Ghaunadaur, who also answers to Elder Eye, because naming things is hard.

And the dogma, or what passes for it. Tharizdun has been mad and chained so long he can't actually tell anyone what he wants. His worshippers get shrieking babble and have to interpret. What they've landed on: channel him power, recover his relics, and unmake the world so he can walk out.

Tharizdun, Chained God, Elder Elemental Eye, D&D lore, Dungeons and Dragons gods, Forgotten Realms deities, Greyhawk gods, the Abyss origin, Princes of the Apocalypse, Elemental Evil, obyriths, Dawn War, Ghaunadaur, Elder Elemental God, Dessarin Valley cults, Firestorm Cabal, Murmur plague demon, Chessenta, D&D cosmology, mad gods D&D, Temple of Elemental Evil, D&D podcast, D&D history podcast, Faerun lore

#Tharizdun #ChainedGod #ElderElementalEye #DnD #DungeonsAndDragons #DnDLore #ForgottenRealms #Greyhawk #TheAbyss #PrincesOfTheApocalypse #ElementalEvil #Ghaunadaur #DnDGods #DnDPodcast #TTRPG #DMTips #Faerun #RollForLore
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The Imaskari built the greatest magical empire in the history of Toril, and then they did something so monstrous that it took their victims' gods four thousand years to make them pay for it.

This episode traces the full arc of Imaskar, from a fertile basin in −8350 DR to the dust desert it is today. We cover the Lord Artificers who ruled without gods, the portal network that let them conquer a continent by stepping through walls, and the kobold kingdom they erased using golems built specifically for the job. We get into the plague that drove out their priests, and the decision that doomed them: Lord Artificer Khotan opening a gate to a world without magic and dragging back hundreds of thousands of people who would become the Mulan.

Then we go underground. Deep Imaskar, the City of the Great Seal, where one wizard-lord's household hid for nearly four millennia behind a ward so powerful it convinced all of Faerûn they were extinct. We cover the necromancer coup, Chaschara's revolution, the invasion that came through their own portal, and the Elder Evil Pandorym, waiting inside a demiplane that the merchants of Vaelan were quietly mining and selling as luxury prosthetic limbs.

And we finish in the present, because the new Unearthed Arcana playtest brings the Deep Imaskari back with the Path of Unlight barbarian and the Imaskarcanist wizard, and this time they intend to conquer the Underdark.

Sources include Lost Empires of Faerûn, Underdark, The Grand History of the Realms, and Bruce R. Cordell's Darkvision.

Imaskar, Imaskari, Deep Imaskar, Forgotten Realms lore, D&D lore podcast Unearthed Arcana Underdark Options, Path of Unlight, Imaskarcanist, Unlight D&D, new D&D subclasses 2026. Underdark, Great Seal, Raurin, Plains of Purple Dust, Mulan, Mulhorand, Lord Artificer, Imaskarcana, Celestial Nadir, Pandorym, Elder Evils, Ususi Manaallin, High Imaskar, Faerûn history, fallen empires D&D. who were the Imaskari, why did the Imaskari go underground, what is Deep Imaskar, how did Imaskar fall, D&D ancient empires, Forgotten Realms Underdark cities, Path of Unlight barbarian explained

#DnD #DungeonsAndDragons #ForgottenRealms #DnDLore #Imaskar #DeepImaskar #Underdark #UnearthedArcana #PathOfUnlight #Imaskarcanist #TTRPG #DnDPodcast #LorePodcast #Faerun #ElderEvils #DnD2026
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This is a great place to start if you are new to Dungeons and Dragons and DnD lore and you want to know what the Dungeon is all about, we will talk about famous Dungeons and the real world origins. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.