The Dragon of Tyr, making a dapper pose for the camera.

This entry appeared among the monsters, right where you’d find standard dragons in another monster book. I thought this was odd, because he’s the only dragon in Athas and also one of its more important “personages”, so why isn’t he in that section?

The answer, I suspect, is because to be in the Personages section the character has to be someone who could be a potential ally to the PCs, and the Dragon of Tyr is not someone any party of PCs should be allying with. Instead, he’s the final boss of Dark Sun.

Nevertheless I’m talking about him here, because he is an important personage and knowing his story gives a lot of context for the sorcerer-kings you’ll also find in this section.

The Lore

Everyone in Athas knows and fears the Dragon of Tyr. This great and terrible monster comes in from somewhere on the other side of the Sea of Silt every once in a while, and demands a huge tribute of treasure and slaves. Even the sorcerer-kings fear him, and so they scramble to meet his demands. Once that’s done, the Dragon flies home with his loot, leaving the region alone until his next appearance.

All of this is common knowledge. Only the sorcerer-kings themselves know the full story: the Dragon was once one of them. His original name was Borys the Butcher, and like his colleagues he was one of the fifteen secret apprentices of Rajaat the Sorcerer.

You see, arcane magic on Athas is a truly unnatural phenomenon, a flaw that slipped into the world when the primordials defeated the gods way back when Athas was still green. Rajaat was the first mortal to discover and master arcane magic. He was also the first to learn that you could pull more power from the life around you to cast bigger spells - in other words, the first defiler.

Rajaat taught dozens of pupils, but he only taught the secret of defiling to his inner circle of fifteen secret apprentices. For Rajaat was a major asshole, and when he felt his Champions were ready, he ordered them to go out on a worldwide genocidal rampage to cleanse Athas of all the species he deemed “impure”. So much defiling magic was flung around in those wars that Athas’ previously green ecosystem was completely destroyed, starting the world’s transformation into the desert it is today.

In time, even the Champions became convinced that all of this was a bit too much. Led by Borys, they turned on their master and managed to imprison him in a pocket dimension outside of time and space. Once Rajaat was out of the picture, the former Champions quickly conquered or built city-states in one of the last habitable regions of Athas, setting themselves up as the Sorcerer-Kings.

By then, they knew that attaining the pinnacle of power as a defiler would lead to transformation into a dragon. Borys, who had taken it upon himself to guard Rajaat’s prison, successfully argued that the other Sorcerer-Kings should help him speedrun the transformation, since he’d need the power to contain their former master forever. And so they did.

The ritual for the final transformation required the sacrifice of every citizen of Ebe, the island city Borys ruled. Borys renamed the resulting hellish wasteland Ur Draxa, the City of Doom. The Dragon dwells in the ruins of Ur Draxa’s palace to this day, leaving the city only to collect his tributes.

The city itself is inhabited by a very large number of undead, and by the living slaves brought in as tribute. The city’s day to day operation is in the hands of the Dead Lords, a council of liches who serve the Dragon.

The Dragon keeps their soul vessels (the book uses the p-word here) hidden deep within his palace to ensure compliance. He is wise to do this, for the Lord Vizier who leads the council has his own agenda. He’s secretly researching a way to cross into the Astral Sea and escape Athas altogether, and often sends his personal minions out on missions to recover any bit of planar lore he hears about.

The Numbers

We get stats for the Dragon of Tyr and for the Lord Vizier in this entry. The two are completely different, of course, so we’ll cover all their traits in their respective entries.

The Dragon of Tyr

The only dragon in Athas is a Gargantuan Natural Magical Beast with the Dragon tag (obviously). He’s also a Level 33 Solo Controller with 1216 HP, Darkvision, ground and flight speeds of 10, and a teleport speed of 5. He can hover, too. His alignment is Chaotic Evil.

The Dragon’s Actions trait means old Borys doesn’t roll initiative at all. He has three whole turns per round at initiative counts 40, 30, and 20. He cannot delay or ready actions.

His basic attack is a massive Reach 4 Claw that damages and strips all necrotic and psychic resistance on a hit (save ends). His bite deals more or less the same damage and immobilizes (save ends), with a Slow aftereffect (save ends).

He can also use wider swipes to perform the Raking Claws attack, attacking all enemies in a Close Blast 4 for slightly less damage than the single-target version and also sliding them 2 squares on a hit.

That’s it for physical attacks. Now for the spells and psychic powers, because of course he has both!

The Dragon’s Defiling is a hazard all on its own, targetting all creatures in a Close Burst 5 and dealing necrotic damage on a hit. He can use the energy gathered with this to cast Defiling Death (ranged 10), dealing heavy necrotic damage and ongoing 20 necrotic damage to the target (save ends). After the first failed save, the ongoing damage increases to 30!

The Dragon of Tyr starts the fight with Defiling Death charged, and once it’s cast he must hit with Dragon’s Defiling to recharge the attack.

Once the Dragon is bloodied, he can use his Breath of Shredding Sand, attacking all creatures in a Close Blast 20 and dealing the same amount of damage as the bite on a hit, half on a miss. Fortunately this is an encounter power and doesn’t recharge.

Finally, if the PCs manage to surround Borys, he can use a Telekinetic Pulse (encounter), a Close Burst 5 that deals the same damage as the bite, pushes its targets 5 squares, and knocks them prone. On a miss, it deals half damage and pushes 3 squares.

The Dragon can use his move action on a Psionic Uplift, automatically pushing every adjacent enemy 2 squares and flying his Speed + 2 (i.e, 12 squares). If an enemy ends its movement within 4 squares of the Dragon, he can hit them with his Lashing Tail as a reaction, dealing the same damage as the claw and knocking them prone. And when the dragon is first bloodied, Telekinetic Pulse recharges and he can use it immediately as a free action.

The physical attacks all target AC, the necrotic and tekekinetic ones all target Fortitude, and the sand breath targets Reflex. As the most powerful arcane caster in the whole world, you can say he knows pretty much every ritual in the game for use outside of combat.

The Lord Vizier

This is the oldest and most powerful lich among the council of Dead Lords, which makes him their leader. Ostensibly, he un-lives to serve his master the Dragon, but as we saw he’s also privately looking for a way off this dying rock. He is a Medium Natural Humanoid with the Undead tag, and Level 26 Elite Artillery. He has Speed 6, and Darkvision. He’s immune to diseases like all undead, and has Resist 15 Necrotic and Resist 10 Poison. His alignment is Evil.

The Lord Vizier has a Necrotic Aura (5) that deals 10 necrotic damage to anyone who enters it or starts their turn inside. Like all liches, he’s Indestructible while his soul vessel remains intact: when reduced to 0 HP, his body and possessions become dust and reform within 1d10 days near the vessel.

He wields the Dead Lord’s Scepter, and his basic attack is to bonk someone with it, dealing lightning-and-necrotic damage. His basic ranged attack is the Grasp of the Dead spell (range 20 vs. Fortitude), which deals necrotic damage and lets one undead creature adjacent to the target make a free melee basic attack. If the attack hits, the creature marks the target for a turn.

He can also cast a Plume of Death (area 2 within 10 vs. Fortitude, recharge 5+), a fireball-sized spell that deals acid-and-necrotic damage and summons a Vizier’s Skeleton on a square within the burst.

As a move action, the Lord can draw on his secret knowledge and perform a brief Planar Displacement, teleporting 15 squares and leaving a brand-new Vizier’s Skeleton in the origin square.

Vizier’s Skeleton

These sophisticated undead minions are constantly produced by the Lord Vizier’s special attacks, and he will probably have a whole bunch of them on hand when the fight starts in addition to some powerful non-minion undead. They’re Medium Natural Animates (undead) and Level 26 Minion Brutes who fight with Deadflame Swords that do fire-and-necrotic damage, and can shoot Chill Shards (Ranged 10) to do cold-and-necrotic damage.

Encounters and Final Impressions

When met outside his city, the Dragon is always alone and on a specific mission. He will usually completely ignore most people who have nothing to do with his goal, believing they are beneath his notice. Of course, if those people are stupid enough to pick a fight with him, he is only too glad to oblige, completely confident of his victory and with good reason.

If he is attacked in Ur Draxa, I imagine the Dead Lords would join the fight too. Better bring an army or ten.

The Lord Vizier generally obeys the Dragon’s every order and kills whoever he wants dead. I wonder if he can be met in friendlier terms when following his own agenda. Epic PCs would make perfect agents for recovering that lost lore without the Dragon noticing.