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This barbaric sword and sandal world has been captivating the imaginations of players with its ruinous aesthetic and unforgiving difficulty since 2e. In it, the bad guys have already won and consolidated their power; the rule of the Sorcerer Kings is absolute, and challenging any one of them would make for an entire campaign of deadly adventure. The Gods, if they ever existed at all, are silent or dead, totally eliminating the idea of help from on high. This leaves the Sorcerer Kings or nature itself as some of the only available patrons of magical power. Meanwhile, the planet itself is the most likely way for an adventurer to perish, as the boiling suns and harsh environments constantly threaten to overtake adventurers who can't locate water and shelter. Dark Sun is heavily steeped in the genre of sci-fi and fantasy known as dying earth. Dark Sun who is responsible? Wizards did it. Taking the high road of a Preserver is long and difficult but allows for spellcasting without the terrible cost, while Defilers use their magic wantonly, uncaring and willing to sacrifice the environment for short term personal power. This war of philosophies makes for an excellent backdrop in campaigns and a dire choice for any player rolling up a wizard. Everything is hardened by the harsh setting -- or, to put it another way, anything that isn't very dangerous doesn't survive here Dark Sun long. The nature of Dark Sun 's harsh environment also drives individuals into desperation, resulting in more conflict. Although small oases of safety exist, truly safe places are rare and must be approached with caution for the dangers that could be lurking just beneath a veneer of silt. This sense of desperate survival can make for some interesting but tough roleplaying choices for heroes. If they encounter strangers guarding water, do they risk a tough fight by trying to barter, or should they just surprise attack and decide that might makes Dark Sun It's a brutal world, so either Dark Sun could be the right one. Because they are so common, some people on Athas dedicate their entire lives to the study of psionics, opening the way for new classes and character concepts. Originally designed as a departure from more classic high fantasy, everything in Dark Sun is a little twisted. Meanwhile, Dark Sun Sun is also known for popularizing some lesser-used fantasy races, such as the tireless Mul hybrids, titanic Half-Giants and the insect-like Thri-Kreen. They can all be found in the popular Forgotten Realms default 5e setting, but they are all featured more prominently in Dark Sun. These topics, along with all Dark Sun subject matter, need to involve a frank conversation with the play group. Dark Sun Dark Sun post-apocalyptic settings like it are more about the themes and the promise of difficulty than a particular set of rules. At the end of the day, playing Dark Sun is a commitment by the group to engage in fantasy that isn't so much bright and shiny as it is something dark and smoldering. Matt Beilman is a writer and editor Dark Sun in Vancouver, Canada. A Dark Sun creative writing alumni, professional communicator Dark Sun co-creator of webcomic Scorched Dark Sun, Matt uses his kung fu grip over the English language to write fiction and to tell stories about stories. By Matthew Beilman Jun 19, Share Share Dark Sun Email 0. Continue scrolling to keep reading Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Ape Escape Needs to Make a Comeback. Dragon Age: Who Is the Maker? The Burnt World of Athas, A Dark Sun Wiki

The crimson sun scorches the life from anything that crawls or flies, and storms of sand scour the foliage from the barren ground. This bleak wasteland is Athas, and it is my home. Dark Sun a crimson sun lie wastelands of majestic desolation and cities of cruel splendor, where sandal clad heroes battle ancient sorcery and terrible monsters. Life hangs by a thread in this barren land, it is unforgiving to the weak, and now it is up to you to write your own story in blood and glory. From the first moments of dawn until the last twinkling of dusk, the crimson sun shimmers in the olive-tinged sky like a fiery puddle of blood. It climbs toward its zenith and the temperature rises relentlessly: degrees by midmorning, at noon, - sometimes even - by late afternoon. A man cannot drink fast enough to replenish the fluids he loses. As the days drag on, he feels sick and feeble. If he does not have enough water, he grows too weak to move. His mouth becomes Dark Sun and bitter, his lips, tongue, and throat grow swollen. Before long, his blood is thick and gummy. His heart must work hard to circulate it. Finally Dark Sun system overheats, leaving him dead and alone in the sands. There are no rivers or lakes and pockets of Dark Sun are concentrated in isolated oases where water is more precious than life. But, this is not all a wasteland. Under the sands lie ancient ruins, testament to a time before the desert, and the city-states are a Dark Sun in Dark Sun of themselves. Life on Athas is brutal and short. Bloodthirsty raiders, greedy slavers, and hordes of merciless savages Dark Sun the deserts and wastelands. The cities are not much safer; each choke in the grip of an immortal tyrant. Slavery is widespread on Athas, and many unfortunates spend their lives in chains. Every year, hundreds of slaves, perhaps thousands, are sent to Dark Sun deaths in bloody arena spectacles. Charity, compassion, kindness—these qualities exist, but they are rare and Dark Sun blooms. Only a fool hopes for such riches. Most weapons and armor are made of bone, stone, wood, and similar materials. Mail or plate armor exists only in the treasuries of the sorcerer-kings. Steel blades are nearly priceless; many Dark Sun never see such weapons during their lifetimes. Reckless use of Dark Sun magic during ancient wars reduced Athas to a wasteland. To cast an arcane spell, a magic user siphons power from the living world. Nearby plants wither to ash, crippling pain wracks animals and Dark Sun, and the soil is permanently sterilized. It is possible to cast spells with care, avoiding any more damage to the world, but defiling is easier and faster than preserving. As a result, sorcerers, wizards, and other wielders of arcane magic are reviled and persecuted across Athas regardless of whether they preserve or defile. Only the most powerful spellcasters can use their arcane abilities without fear of reprisal. Terrible defilers of immense power rule all the city-states. These mighty spellcasters have held their thrones for centuries; no one alive remembers a time before the sorcerer-kings. Some claim to be gods, and some profess to serve gods. Some are brutal oppressors, while others are subtle in their tyranny. The sorcerer kings govern through priesthoods or bureaucracies of greedy, ambitious templars, who channel their power. In all appearances, they are gods of this world. Athas is a world without deities. Dark Sun clerics, no paladins, and no prophets live here. Religious orders are dedicated to sorcerer-kings who claim godhood. Old shrines and crumbling temples lie amid ancient ruins, testimony to a time when unknown agents spoke to the people of Athas. Those who lay claim to clerical powers do so through worship of the elements: the sun, the sand, the storm, and the rarest of all, water. The desert planet has its own deadly ecology. Many creatures that are familiar sights on milder worlds Dark Sun long Dark Sun died out or never existed on Athas. The world has no cattle, swine, or horses; instead, people tend flocks of erdlus, ride on Dark Sun or crodlus, and draw wagons with inixes and mekillots. Wild Dark Sun such as lions, bears, and wolves are almost nonexistent. In their place are terrors such as the id fiend, the baazrag, and the tembo. Perhaps the harsh environment of Athas breeds creatures tough and vicious enough to survive it, or maybe the touch of ancient sorcery poisoned the Dark Sun of life and inflicted monster after monster on the dying world. Either way, the deserts are perilous, and only a Dark Sun or a lunatic travels them alone. Typical fantasy stereotypes don't apply to Athasian Dark Sun. In many fantasy settings, elves are wise, benevolent forest-dwellers who guard their homelands from intrusions of Dark Sun. On Athas, elves are nomadic herders, raiders, peddlers, and thieves. Halflings aren't amiable river-folk; they're xenophobic headhunters and cannibals who hunt and kill Dark Sun in their mountain forests. New races thrive here: the monstrous half- giant, the insectoid thri-kreen, the half-breed mul. There are no paladins, bards serve Dark Sun assassins, and the mental force of psions can be found even amongst the lowliest beggar and slave. It is a call Dark Sun take up Dark Sun and dagger, to flee the cities, to go and see what Dark Sun out in the barrenness. The DARK SUN setting isn't a place for your typical bearded dwarf with a love of beer and gems, Dark Sun halfling, or charging knights and gnome wizards. In this setting, some races don't exist, and the dwarf might instead be a hairless devotee to the sun, the halfling a stealthy cannibalistic hunter, and any wizard likely hides her spellcasting lest a mob hang her for defiling what precious life Dark Sun to the earth. Half-giants and thri-kreen are part of the dominant races, and the scarcity of metal Dark Sun crafters to creative uses of alternative materials and an entirely different economy. Dark Sun book expands your usual options and will help you and your friends create characters uniquely invested in this world. Athas waits to challenge you. Whether you are a mul gladiator, competing for the cheers of thousands, or the elven trickster selling contraband goods as part of your Dark Sun for the Veiled Alliance, or a thri-kreen hunter enthralled by the irregular behaviors of humanoids, you will face the same basic question: are you here simply to survive, or do you dare to do more? This guide provides the racial traits and roleplay aspects of the eight available classes: dwarf, elf, half-elf, half-giant, halfling, human, mul, and thri- kreen. The traditional classes and archetypes may Dark Sun been modified or do not exist. This Guide lists any changes to each class. The classes of Athas are: barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, empath new fighter, monk, psion newranger, rogue, warlock, and wizard. The Paladin and Sorcerer do not exist. Consult this Guide's Equipment section in Part 6 for purchases, currency, and changes in material. Because of the rarity of metal and water, the economy and gear of Athas has developed quite differently from other settings. For example, the primary currency is a "ceramic piece cp ," not a gold piece, which is far more valuable on Athas. Psionics are common on Athas, though few consciously master the "Will and the Way. Dark Sun need a sorcerer king. Clerics must pray to the elements. Wizards leech life from plants. Soldiers need someone to make and maintain armaments. Consult the Wild Talent section in Part 4 if you are a non-psionic character. Most campaigns begin Dark Sun a unifying starting hook or story. The DM is encouraged to run a Session 0: Prologue, in which players should bring a character concept to the table and utilize that session to finish making characters as a group. The Dark Sun is encouraged to roleplay how they arrived at their current situation with one another, and work together in developing a narrative that may affect your choice of Dark Sun scores, features, and background to your character. The DM should notify players in advance which optional rules will be in use and which supplements are permitted beyond this Guide. Part 9 contains a section for homebrew, optional rules, but these are also not necessary to enjoy the Dark Sun world. Anything can be done, with enough determination. On Athas, dwarves are not subterranean miners but rather, a long-lived, slowly dying race known for their relentless focus on a task to the single exclusion of all Dark Sun. Once his mind is committed to a task, it is Dark Sun impossible to sway him away from it as he will fail to listen to reason. Dwarves live for their focus, for those who die unable to complete a focus return from the dead to haunt their unfinished work. A dwarf rarely divulges his focus to anyone. Their frames are massive and an average dwarf weighs in the vicinity of pounds. Life in the Athasian wastes makes them Dark Sun, tanned, and callused. Dwarves are hairless and find the very idea of it repulsive. Those who help him are respected, sensible companions. Those who hinder him are obstacles that must be removed. There is very little room for compromise Dark Sun a dwarven mind. Focus is the central point Dark Sun your existence, and no simple job will suffice. Work with your DM to come up with a starting focus and a new one if completed. None Dark Sun be easy to complete and should take at least 1 week or longer to finish to be worthwhile. For example, Grelak, protector Dark Sun his village, makes the retrieval of a sacred book stolen by raiders his focus. After a week of gathering clues, he sets out to liberate the artifact from its current owner in a trading post weeks away. On the way there, he gains the benefit of his dwarven focus for anything that would slow him because he is trying to reach the book. Dark Sun - 1d4chan

It is true that the Dragon Kings amused themselves with their petty wars, rattling sabers to punctuate the passing Dark Sun ages. It is true that, occasionally, another city would be swallowed by the wastes. But there were no surprises. The Dragon Kings steered everything from their omnipotent perches, content in Dark Sun superiority, but ever thirsting for challenge. All that has changed. The Tablelands have been thrown into Dark Sun, the likes of which have not been seen since times forgotten. The Dragon Kings have been thrown into confusion, grasping Dark Sun the tedium they so recently lamented. And yet I fear the worst is yet to come. Change is in the air, and change has never come gently to Athas. Thematically appropriate theme. The Dark Sun is set in the world of Athas, a dying planet. Once full of happiness and sunshine, the planet was drained of all resources during the long and rich history the creators came up with. There is no water, no minerals, and no hope: only cannibal halflings, a lot of sand and a dying sun. The world is so fucked up it makes Mad Max's setting look like a hippie paradise. Kinda looks like Barsoom on massive grimdark crack. Everyone wears Female Fantasy Dark Sun yes, even the dudesand according to the developers, this was the entire reason they picked a hot climate for the setting instead Dark Sun an icy one, despite the fact that Dark Sun Female Fantasy Armor in the desert would result in a quick death from sunstroke and dehydration ; if they wanted everyone to wear Female Fantasy Armor then a hot and humid environment like a jungle or a tropical place, such as the setting for the comics series Shanna the She-Devilis the ideal choice less clothes keeps you cool when it's hot and humid, means less things to get caught in foliage or get pulled by predators Dark Sun rivals. The only few realms remaining are fascist police city-states ruled by wizards all of them varying shades of evil whose Dark Sun magic is responsible for fucking up the planet in the first place, and who're slowly losing their humanity as they turn more and more into dragons. Beyond civilized lands everything eats everything. The best weapon you can find is the femur of your party's cleric after being eaten by something that looked like a rock and the best armor is mostly the remains of a giant cockroach. There are no gnomes, orcs, kobolds, or furries because all of them Dark Sun exterminated by some jerks with psychic brains and magic hands. They were the Champions of Rajaat, and they and the Sorcerer-Kings are Dark Sun one-and-the-same. The original Dark Sun setting got pretty harshly wrecked by advancing novel continuity. Once a buncha tie-in protagonists have already killed all the iconic Dark Sun and started fixing the setting's problems, what's there left for you to do? In response, 4e went full-reboot and adopted an Eberron -style anti-continuity system: every campaign begins in exactly the same time and place, Dark Sun the story Dark Sun advances. It was, especially for a 4e idea, incredibly Dark Sun, and will probably carry over into any attempts to adapt the setting for 5e. Thus far, the closest Wizards of the Coast has come to actually adapting the setting over to 5e is a few ideas about how to change over any adventuring paths to Athas, though the design team has repeatedly mentioned they intend to try in the future. Co-creator of 5th Edition and creative lead designer Mike Mearls has stated that he's pretty much converted Dark Sun to 5th, Dark Sun if only for an office campaign. Most of the less-popular generic fantasy races were exterminated a long time ago, good riddance! This means no gnomes! First reason why this setting is full of win and awesome. Sorcerer Kings were the Dark Sun chosen by Rajaat with the deepest reservoirs of hatred read:racists for everything. Except halflings. Or was it humans. These were usually the big bad dudes that Dark Sun campaigns revolved around killing. Unfortunately, author Troy Denning killed off most of them in the series The Prism Pentadthus giving the campaign setting nothing left to live for. TSR Dark Sun out a small post-novel supplement entitled "Beyond the Prism Pentad", which also included references to a product called "Dark Sun: A New Age Dark Sun that was never released, to try and save what little scraps of the setting was left after Denning's royal buttfuck of it all. It didn't work. As a result TSR brought it out back and shot it while you cried in your mother's arms. How fun is that shit. The reasoning being the Dragon entered a period of Animalistic Rage. And of course only the DM could properly portray that shit, moron. Go sit on the couch and shut up. Granted, it was better than giving players literal dragon-god-like power, give the tendencies of the sorts of player willing to commit the atrocities necessary to become a dragon to steal, fuck and kill everything they see including their fellow PCs. Fighting him was detailed in what was generally agreed to be the single hardest module ever made, The Valley of Dust and Fire. Wonder how those " Prism Pentad " dipshits managed it Athas is The Gray is essentially the afterlife of Athas; a dreary, endless limbo realm of dismal mists, which serves to blockade Athas from both the Ethereal Plane proper and the Astral Plane. Depending on who you ask, it's either Athas's "Border Ethereal" or an analogue region for the Astral Plane. The Black is analogous to the Plane of Shadowand mostly serves as a prison for Rajaat. It's noted that Athas is unusually close to the Elemental Planesand this is, in part, Dark Sun the world is so screwed up. Athas can actually interact with the Great Wheeland be reached by Spelljammersbut it's extremely difficult to do so - the whole Dark Sun is effectively a sealed zone, as if something trapped the entire pocket of reality inside a locked room. As beloved as it is by the fandom, Dark Sun has Three major things tend to be either loved or hated by fans of the game. A lot of people are less than impressed with the revelation that halflings were the precursor race and that Dark Sun became such a fucked up world because one psycho wanted to go back to the days when halflings and technically thri-kreen were the only extant race. As mentioned above, the changes of the Prism Pentad tie-in novels really messed up with the status quo of Dark Sun. Beyond killing off a bunch of Sorcerer-Kings, it also created the Cerulean Storm, an enormous perpetual rain storm wandering randomly across Athas, bringing water back to the planet but Dark Sun the same time doing so with such violence that it's almost as bad as the original drought. This module, which reveals there is one last Dark Sun on Athas, is pretty controversial for various different reasons. Such as the existence of a place where a secretive bunch of psion-lords use telepathy to force people to comply with social standards, the existence of a large Dark Sun of water on Athas, the fact that it retcons that lizardfolk aren't extinct but then, ssurans were basically fireproof lizardfolk under a different name all along and nobody batted an eye at themor the fact that it has actual telepathic dolphins and surfing rules in it. Dark Sun the other hand, some people like Dark Sun idea of doing The Prisoner by way of Mad Maxand the actual content isn't quite as stupid and poorly-written as its reputation suggests, with lots of discussion of how Dark Sun Athasians would react to seeing the titular Last Sea when enough water to fill a bathtub is wealth beyond measure. While by third edition official support for non- Forgotten Realmsnon- Greyhawk settings had largely been dropped, two separate updates for Dark Sun material exist. In a surprisingly Dark Sun move by Hasbro, fan groups were given official permission to update several Dark Sun settings to 3rd edition for free or one not so free in exchange for a check. A separate update was published in Dragon Magazine This one is far more divergent than the fan conversion, setting the timeline forward years to restore the status quo after the Prism Pentad fuckup. This update uses the standard 3rd edition class lineup, making Templars just Clerics of their respective Dragon King Dark Sun of their own class and having Paladins actually exist. Since the psioncs book was already needed for psionics, Half-Giant and Thri-Keen, the other races from that book have been thrown in for Dark Sun hell of it. Surprisingly, when Dark Sun made it into 4th edition, it was welcomed with great warmth and enthusiasm. Dark Sun might be because WoTC had learned from the mistakes Dark Sun Forgotten Dark Sun and so whilst there were changes to 4e, none of them were Dark Sun setting-breaking as the Spellplague, and many actually regarded these changes as being for the better. Cosmology : Athas is now a world where, during the Dawn War Dark Sun, the Primordials won and killed the Gods. The Dark Sun Chaos replaces the Elemental Planes. The Gray is still around, and Dark Sun the local name for the Shadowfellbut the Black isn't mentioned. If one makes it through the Gray into the Astral Seait's empty; the Gods are dead, their halls are abandoned, and there's nothing but ancient celestial ruins and cosmic Dark Sun to scavenge through. The Feywild exists, but has been almost completely destroyed by defiling and its remaining pockets are zealously guarded by the Eladrin. The moons of Ral and Guthay are rich, verdant worlds in their own right, according to astrologers, but beyond the rumored existence of unpredictable "moongates" that allow access to them, nothing more is mentioned. Dray went from an obscure race hidden in one module to being mentioned in the core, although mechanically they're just reskinned Dragonborn. Eladrin and Tieflings are in the setting now, as the bitter survivors of the nearly-destroyed Feywild and fiend-worshipping cannibal raiders from the depths of the wastelands respectively. A Dragon Magazine article states that there are Genasi on Athas who were originally created to rule the mortal races for the Primordials after they Dark Sun off, but they screwed up so badly they were overthrown and then Rajaat came along. Some races and horses previously stated to be extinct are present. ShamansArdentsBards and Warlords Dark Sun up the healer's niche. Defiling is no longer a variant Wizardbut a power that any Arcane Dark Sun can risk using. Templars went from their own class to Dark Sun your choice of either Dark Sun theme or a subclass for the Warlock. There is NO metaplot, no timeline advancements, nothing; officially, all Dark Sun 4e material is set at this starting point and it's up to the individual DM to decide what, if anything, has happened since Kalak was Dark Sun. And there was Much Rejoicing. Hey, you remember that bit up at the top where Elemental Shamans summon water elementals for people to drink, since there's supposed to be no water left on the planet? Well the thing Dark Sun, assuming everyone's bladders and sweat glands are functioning properly, this by itself should logically be enough to gradually repair Athas. That said, as Dark Sun of water Dark Sun gradually start to form and grow more accessible and these would be bodies of actual waternot urine and sweat, as there's a reason Earth's oceans are still composed of water and not prehistoric dinosaur urinethere'd be less and Dark Sun reason to keep Dark Sun elemental-summoning shaman around. Of course plugging this hole is as simple as positing a route for water to be lost from the environment. Maybe sandtrout are sequestering it underground. Maybe the Primordials are taking some to be dicks. Dark Sun water from elementals eventually drifts back to the Elemental Chaos. A Dark Sun plot hole to work out is, how has no one figured out that full body robes are much better protection in the desert than going borderline-naked? Do the locals all have inherited UV protection? Dark Sun shit, it's actually finished! Namespaces Page Discussion. More More. Page actions Read Edit History. Wiki tools Wiki tools Upload file Special pages. Page Dark Sun Page tools. Userpage tools. Mystara Blackmoor - Pelinore.