Listed below are the seven main backgrounds that any given athian posses, below that are listed
the specific regions that a player may come from. Check out the interactive map as well
to get a better feel for the layout of Athas.
Every group has found a way to survive in the harsh, barren environment. All of
the area’s people fall into seven types: city dwellers, villagers, merchant house
dynasties, herders, raiders, hunter-gatherers, and hermits.
The city-states bustle with life, human and demihuman enclaves surrounded
by golden fields of crops and built atop sizable oases. These cities stink of garbage
and the sweat of the masses, but they’re paradise to the hungry and thirsty of
Athas. Walls keep out dangers—though they also lock in the residents.
A few short months ago, almost all of the city-states were ruled by sorcererkings
and their bureaucracies of nobles and templars. Now only Urik, Nibenay,
and Gulg still bow to the absolute authority of their respective sorcerer-kings. The
other city-states fall under a variety of leadership styles, depending on who seized
power in the aftermath of the recent struggle. Whatever the case, each city-state is
an autonomous domain struggling to produce enough food to feed its population.
Villages are little more than clusters of mud-brick shelters erected at small
oases in forlorn locations, like the edge of a salt flat or beneath a rocky overhang.
Some villages are ruled by officious bureaucrats, others by minor despots or
charismatic leaders. A few have developed democratic councils. At best, most villages
are semipermanent. Eventually a village dies as its oasis dries up, raiders
come calling, or a Tyr-storm sweeps out of the east to tear through the fragile community.
Dynastic merchant houses are sophisticated trading companies operating networks
of commerce that extend for hundreds of miles. These networks transcend
political boundaries and span all social classes, for merchant-house caravans and
the traders who run them are welcome in almost every city-state, village, and oasis
in the region. From desolate trading posts in the bleakest corners of the Tablelands
to elaborate emporiums in the heart of each city-state, the merchant houses move
goods from place to place in hope of earning big profits. Families own most of the
merchant houses, passing ownership from one generation to the next. While not
technically citizens of any city, the matriarchs and patriarchs of the merchant
houses generally live in royal fashion in the city-states. Younger family members
and hired agents either live on the trade roads as caravan workers, as traveling
buyers seeking new trade routes or new supplies of goods, or in the various villages,
forts, and outposts along the caravan routes.
Herders wander the scrub plains, stony barrens, and sand dunes in nomadic
fashion, pausing wherever they find pastures for their herds to graze. Herders usually
gather in small bands, for their lifestyle can rarely support more than five to
ten extended families. They raise everything from kanks to crodlus, erdlus to carrus.
Fiercely independent, herders tend to govern themselves through councils of
elders. Usually, a psionicist or magic-wielding patriarch serves as leader of each
council.
Others living in the wastes beyond the city-states engage in more hostile
approaches to earning a living. These groups become raiding tribes, procuring
what they need to survive by pillaging caravans, poaching herds, and plundering
weak villages. Cutthroats, thieves, and murderers, raiders hide in the desolate salt
flats or among the canyons of the rocky badlands, emerging only long enough to
strike before running back to their hole with whatever spoils they can carry. Selfstyled
warlords command each raiding tribe, but most are nothing more than bullies
leading by ruthless example. They hold their position through violence and
treachery with the help of well-rewarded guards-and sometimes even potent
defilers.
Many consider the hunting-gafhering clans to be the most primitive of the
social groups living in the Tyr Region, but they’re also the most versatile. They’re
encountered anywhere: hunting snakes in the salt flats, gathering roots in the stony
barrens, even stealing eggs from nests perched high atop craggy peaks. The huntergatherers
live in small groups made up of no more than three or four immediate
families and are led by respected elders or powerful warriors or priests.
Lastly, there are more hermits living in the Tyr Region than one would think,
given the desperate struggle for survival. Few travelers will ever meet them, however,
for by their very nature, hermits have withdrawn from one society or another
to live a lonely existence among the wastes. Some become hermits of their own
volition; others are forced into this life by circumstances they can’t control. Many
druids, for example, tend and protect an isolated stretch of territory in relative
seclusion, while practitioners of the Way seek the solitude of the wilderness to
enhance their skills. Add to these the number of outcasts thrown to the wastes who
manage to survive through skill, luck, or rugged determination and the hermit population
grows quickly.
In Athas, where you character comes from can help
dictate his speech, clothing, world view, and values. In
the context of the game, these cultural differences are
expressed in the choices of class, skills, feats, and prestige
classes that characters from different regions make
Balic
The city‐state of Balic sits at the eastern tip of the
Balican Peninsula, the piece of land which splits the
Estuary of the Forked Tongue into its northern and
southern branches. Balic is currently ruled by a
triumvirate made up of its largest merchant houses.
Classes: Bard, gladiator*, templar*.
Skills: Perform (any).
Feats: Performance Artist*.
Prestige Classes: Dune trader*, master shipfloaterAPXII,
shadow dancer, shadow templarAPXI, shadow wizardAPXI.
Barrier Wastes
The Barrier Wastes is the desolate area that cuts across
a massive portion of the Jagged Cliffs region, and it is
home to the Bandit States, a collection of violent
humanoid raiding tribes.
Classes: Barbarian, fighter.
Skills: Intimidate, Survival.
Feats: Intimidating Presence*, Wastelander*.
Prestige Classes: Master scout*, kikAPXII, savageAPXI.
Draj
Draj is a warrior city‐state mostly human but
intermingled with the other common races, situated on a
vast mud flat east of Raam.
Classes: Fighter, gladiator*, templar*.
Skills: Intimidate, Knowledge (nature).
Feats: Astrologer*, Mekillothead*.
Prestige Classes: Arrow knightAPXI, ceruleanAPXI, dune
trader*, eagle knightAPXI, jaguar knightAPXI, moon
priestAPX
Eldaarich
Eldaarich occupies a small island in the Sea of Silt, just
off the mainland. This human city‐state is ruled by the
mad Daskinor and his ruthless red guards.
Classes: Gladiator*, templar*.
Skills: Intimidate, Sense Motive.
Feats: GrovelFFN, Paranoid*, Reign of TerrorFFN.
Prestige Classes: Brown cloakWotDL, executionerFFN, red
guardWotDL.
Forest Ridge
The Forest Ridge stretches all along the western side
of the Ringing Mountains, hugging the spine of the range
from north to south. This is where most halflings come
from.
Classes: Druid, ranger.
Skills: Knowledge (nature), Survival.
Feats: Cannibalism Ritual*, Jungle Fighter*, Nature’s
Child*.
Prestige Classes: Elite sniperAPXI, grove master*,
halfling protectorAPXI, tribal psionicistAPXII.
Gulg
The predominantly human city‐state of Gulg sits
inside the southern portion of the Crescent Forest, almost
directly east of Tyr.
Classes: Gladiator*, templar*, ranger.
Skills: Knowledge (nature), Survival.
Feats: Jungle Fighter*, Nature’s Child*.
Prestige Classes: AmbofariAPXII, dune trader*, hunter
nobleAPXII, elite judagaAPXII, master scoutAPXI, Oba’s
servantAPXI.
Jagged Cliffs
One of the mist isolated places in Athas, the Jagged
Cliffs are home to the rhul‐thaun, descendants of the
rhulisti, and the distant relatives of the modern halflings,
and keepers of the life‐shaping arts.
Classes: Fighter, ranger.
Skills: Climb, Craft (life‐shaped)LSH, Knowledge (lifeshaping)
LSH.
Feats: Cliff CombatLSH, Vertical OrientationLSH.
Prestige Classes: CliffclimberLSH, life‐shaperLSH,
windriderLSH.
Kurn
Kurn lies in a fertile valley hidden among the White
Mountains themselves. The mostly human residents of
Kurn are among the most sophisticated and cultured
people of Athas.
Classes: Cleric (air), templar*, wizard.
Skills: Bluff, Knowledge (arcana).
Feats: Companion*.
Prestige Classes: Dune trader*, double templarWotDL,
Kurnan makerFFN, Kurnan spymasterFFN, loremaster.
Nibenay
The city‐state of Nibenay is located east of Tyr at the
northern tip of the Crescent Forest and it is famous for its
artisans and musicians.
Classes: Bard, gladiator*, templar*.
Skills: Craft (any), Knowledge (nature), Perform
(any).
Feats: Artisan*, Astrologer*, Performance Artist*.
Prestige Classes: Dune trader*, mystic dancerAPXII,
soulknifeAPXI, wife of NibenayAPXI.
Raam
The city‐state of Raam is located east of Urik and is
one of the largest and most chaotic cities in the
Tablelands. It also has one of the most mixed populations.
Classes: Gladiator*, templar*, psionXPH.
Skills: Craft (any), Intimidate.
Feats: Artisan, Mansadbar*, Tarandan Method*.
Prestige Classes: Dune trader*, kuotaghaAPXI, servant
of BadnaAPXI, psiologist*.
Saragar
Home to the Last Sea of Athas, Saragar is the
legendary region where the Green Age still exists. Their
residents are mostly human and elves and psionics is
everyday life.
Classes: Druid, psionXPH, psychic warriorXPH,
wilderXPH.
Skills: AutohipnosysXPH, Knowledge (psionics)XPH.
Feats: Psionic Schooling*.
Prestige Classes: MetamindXPH, psion uncarnateXPH.
Sea of Silt
An endless plain of pearly powder, The Silt Sea is
home to powerful, aggressive, and primitive giants. Most
humanoids use it as a way of transportation using
specially crafted vehicles.
Classes: Barbarian, cleric (silt), ranger.
Skills: Knowledge (nature), Survival.
Feats: Giant Killer*.
Prestige Classes: Elementalist*, master shipfloaterAPXII.
Trembling Plains
The Trembling Plains are named for the enormous
herds of mekillot that stampede across the plains during
early Fruitbirth season, shaking the ground. It is home to
humans, dwarves and half‐elves known as Eloy.
Classes: Fighter, ranger.
Skills: Survival.
Feats: Elfish EloyFFN, LongshanksFFN, Wind RacerFFN.
Prestige Classes: Wind walkerFFN.
Tyr
Located in a fertile valley in the foothills of the
Ringing Mountains, Tyr was the first city‐state to
successfully revolt against its sorcerer‐king and to unban
preserving magic.
Classes: Gladiator*, wizard, templar*.
Skills: Craft (any), Diplomacy.
