Dark Sun

For other uses, see Dark Sun (disambiguation)}}}.

Dark Sun is a discontinued Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting featuring the fictional desert world of Athas. The main themes of this setting include ecological disaster, resource depletion, survival of the fittest and the wide-spread use of psionic abilities.

Contents

History

The Dark Sun setting started in October 1990 with the release of the Campaign Setting book by Timothy Brown[Wizards of the Coast Website - History of D&D]. It continued throughout the buyout of TSR, Inc. by Wizards of the Coast in 1997 and ceased publishing with the last accessory in October 1996. While the TSR name was still used on many of the core rule books, the published novels switched to using Wizards of the Coast at this time.

The World

Once a blue planet teeming with life, Athas has since been stripped of its fertility by the use of corrupting magic known as Defiling, and the decay of its sun. It is a sun-burnt land forsaken by the gods, water, and hope. The natural resources have been depleted and a lack of metal has resulted in the use of wood, obsidian and bone for weapons, tools and common equipment. In such a harsh and unforgiving land, even the most mundane of creatures have developed Psionic abilities in the constant struggle of survival of the fittest.

In such a world as Athas, a death by natural aging is considered to be a great honour and an event worthy of celebrations.

Geography

Sea of Silt

Water has long since ceased to flow on the surface and can only be found in the last sea, some oases, tiny lakes and streams, as well as west of the Ringing Mountains in the Forest Ridge. Not only are the mountains nearly impassable (the name Ringing Mountains refers to the lightheaded feeling one feels from lack of oxygen when traversing them) but the Forest Ridge is the home of halflings, which in the Dark Sun world are small creatures that live in tribes in the forest and do not hesitate to capture and eat intruders to their realm. This makes the prospect of going west across the mountains a near impossibility.

In the place of an ocean, the world of Athas, due to defiling magic, has a sea composed entirely of silt. The silt is incredibly dangerous as it is not capable of supporting the weight of humanoid creatures, and the particles themselves are extremely fine and get into the lungs quite easily. A strong wind from the Silt Sea can cause people from nearby villages to have to remain indoors all day, though with a certain amount of water some people often make use of a mask-like object called a silter which is placed over the mouth and nose and kept wet in order to help the user breathe.

The silt actually becomes packed a few metres below the surface, but this is of no help to a human as the level within the first two metres is extremely finely packed. However, giants often make use of the packed silt roads further below and can be seen wading chest-deep through the silt. Humans have sometimes built crafts that can navigate these silt roads much like giants do, though the going is much slower and both humans and giants still have to deal with the creatures that live in the sea.

There are also shipfloaters, which are psionicists who, through use of a large obsidian orb to focus their power, can telekinetically levitate and sail the ship as if it were sailing through water.

City States

The rulers of the isolated city-states are called Sorcerer-Kings and, in most cases, are secretly the Dark Sun equivalent of dragons. Templars can serve and worship these Sorcerer-Kings as a source for their spells (which are actually granted by something known as living vortex), while Clerics worship Elemental forces (Air, Fire, Water and Earth) and Druids follow powerful entities known as Spirits of the Land.

The campaign setting of the Dark Sun world generally takes place in the Tyr Region of the world of Athas, an area that spans from the Silt Sea in the east to the Hinterlands in the west and a bit beyond, plus south to the dead lands and north to a certain extent. There are cities further to the north and the south but the land is extremely unfriendly and most people do not wish to risk a journey of such length, and the location of other cities beyond the region is uncertain at best. As a whole, life within the Tyr Region itself is hard enough, and though characters in the campaign setting begin on a much higher level than those of other campaigns, this is also accompanied by a severe practicality, that risking one's life for adventure or altruism is a foolish notion, and survival from day to day takes precedence.

Balic

The southernmost city of the Tyr Region, formerly ruled by the sorcerer-king Andropinus. It is situated on the edge of the Silt Sea, and is the only city in the region to have a tradition of elected government.

Draj

Located on a vast mud flat in the northeastern area of the Tyr Region, Draj was formerly ruled by the "god-king" Tectuktitlay, and he has been replaced by his putative son, Atzetuk.

Gulg

Ruled by the forest-goddess, Lalali-Puy, Gulg is unique among the city-states due to its construction from living materials of the forest instead of stone and brick.

Nibenay

Nibenay is located closer to the centre of the Tyr Region, just to the east of the city-state of Gulg. Nibenay is ruled by a sorcerer-king called simply "the Shadow King," and he is the most reclusive of them all. The Shadow King will often stay out of sight for years or more due to lack of interest in governmental affairs and having other more important projects to work on.

Raam

Formerly ruled by the sorcerer-queen Abalach-Re, Raam was fermenting with revolt even before her death and is now filled with chaos, an armed camp divided among various struggling factions.

Tyr

Tyr is located just to the east of the Ringing Mountains. Tyr was ruled by the sorcerer-king Kalak until his overthrow on the verge of his ascension. It is now the only free-city of the region, banning the practice of slavery.

Urik

Ruled by the totalitaring Hamanu, Urik has become a closed city since the Great Earthquake, only rarely sending out trade caravans and remaining otherwise sealed.

Races and Monsters

Due to the harsh conditions of the planet, all the forms of flora and fauna have evolved to be extremely hardy and powerful as compared to their counter-parts on other D&D worlds. Most, if not all, races on Athas have a unique self-defense mechanism that consists of psionic ability, enhanced strength, augmented agility, increased mass, lower food/water intake, superior visual/aural capabilities and/or various physical weapons.

There are many differences between the similar races found in other D&D worlds as compared to that of Athas. Athasian races are considered to be more highly evolved than that of other worlds. For instance, an Athasian elf is faster, stronger and larger than any other elves from other D&D worlds. An Athasian human is also capable of being much stronger, faster, hardier, smarter, wiser and charismatic than other humans of alien origin.

This evolution is because of the following reasons:

Many natural resources have been depleted by Defiler Magic.
The harsh environs have induced a societal change to a primitive and basic government control. Athas adopts a Darwinian approach whereby the weak perishes, the strong survives and the strongest will rule. Therefore, the weaker of the species have long been weeded out, leaving only the stronger ones to pass on their beneficial genes.
Unlike other worlds, there are no "commoners" in Athas. Every "villager" is trained to defend herself against voracious creatures of the wild. No one is spared from such training. Those who can't train will just have to be the meals of raiding monsters in their next attack.

Playable races

While the world of Athas has many of the "normal" D&D races, they are substantially different; for instance, most halflings are vicious cannibals, elves are desert-running nomads, and dwarves are bald, with a tendency to become mentally focused or obsessed on achieving designated goals (like the derro).

Official Races
*Aarakocra - A race of winged bird men, formerly appearing as monsters in other settings
*Dwarf
*Elf
*Half-Elf
*Half-Giant - More intelligent than their counterparts in other worlds, but with a tendency to change personalities over time
*Halfling
*Human
*Mul - A dwarven-human half-breed
*Pterran - A Shamanistic race similar to lizardmen bearing the heads of pteradactyls.
*Thri-Kreen - A race of savage mantis men, formerly appearing as monsters in other settings
*Dray
Paizo version
*Elan
*Maenad

Classes

In AD&D (2nd edition) Player characters in Dark Sun were markedly tougher than other campaign settings, most starting at third level with attributes on a 5-20 scale as opposed to the normal 3-18 scale (attributes was defined playing 4d6 + 4, ignoring the lesser dice). 3rd edition uses the standard attribute generation method, since attributes need not be so high to make a difference (in AD&D an attribute less than 14 isn't worth very much, but beginning in 3.0 edition even an attribute of 12 gives a positive bonus).

Most characters also possess some degree of psionic talent, making even the lowest slave surprisingly formidable.

Magic Users

There are a number of distinctions between magic users:

Priests

Elemental Clerics draw their power from elemental sources and frequently come into conflict with one another
Druids, who draw their power from Nature (or what's left of it) and are often the most vocal and violent opponents of Defilers
Templars, who are granted their power by the Sorcerer-Kings themselves

Wizards

Arcane spellcasters draw their power from life itself. Most wizards draw their power from plants. There are two basic types of wizard:

Defilers, who draw their power quickly, killing plant life around them, and significantly sterilizing the soil those plants were in, rendering it impossible to grow new plants there for centuries. This defiling of the land is why the once healthy planet is mostly a desert.
Preservers, who draw their power more carefully, enabling them to cast their spells without destroying plant life, but sacrificing spellcasting power.

Most ordinary people on Athas don't know of the difference, and treat all Wizards as being Defilers, responsible for the destruction of Athas.

Sorcery is almost unheard of, though it has been noted in dragon-descended individuals.

A handful of Wizards can power their spells from other sources - the Sun, or the Cerulean Storm itself.

Psionic Classes

Schools of the minds exist, mostly maintained by and serving the Sorcerer-Kings. Psionics is about as common in Dark Sun as Arcane Magic is on other D&D worlds. It is accepted as a normal part of life, as compared to Arcane Magic.

Characters

The City-States of Athas described in the original rulebooks are ruled by several "dragon kings," former Champions of Rajaat, the first sorcerer of Athas, who was obsessed with returning the world to its Blue Age, and orchestrated the extermination of all the "impure" Athasian races created since then (all but the native halflings, and the thri-kreen, which he believed were animals). When the champions learned that Rajaat intended to destroy the humans as well, they rebelled against him. The rebels could not slay their master, and imprisoned him in a place called "The Hollow" instead. Afterwards, in order to maintain Rajaat's prison, they worked in concert to turn one of their number, Borys of Ebe, into a fully-fledged dragon, capable of maintaining their erstwhile master's magical prison.

There are also other characters which play a major part in the storyline/game products of the Dark Sun world; among them include:

Agis of Asticles—a psionicist senator/nobleman from the city state of Tyr who plays a major role in the Prism Pentad novels by Troy Denning, the freeing of Tyr, and the pursuit of Tithian.

Tithian Merciles—a nobleman who formerly served as Kalak's high (top) Templar and who, after his death, crowns himself as King of Tyr amidst a crowd where he also abolishes slavery. Later, it is revealed that he is extremely power-hungry and evil himself, wishing to become the new Sorcerer-King of Tyr, and an attempt to free Rajaat.

Sadira—a half-elf former slave in Tyr who was taught the ways of a preserver as a young child, she is also instrumental in the freeing of Tyr and subsequent transformation into a unique class called the sun wizard, and who pursues Tithian.

Rikus—another ex-slave gladiator from Tyr who is a Mul.

Source Material

Official Material for 2^nd Edition

[Amazon.com] - Book reference information[Waynesbooks] - Book reference information

Rulebooks
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Accessories
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Adventures
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Box Sets
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Web References
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Official Material for 3^rd Edition

While the campaign is no longer supported with published rulebooks, rules for the 3.5 edition (d20) have appeared in several places. Both Athas.org and Paizo's renditions of Dark Sun are official versions approved and sanctioned by Wizards of the Coast, even if they are mutually exclusive, and provide two different renditions of the setting.

Athas.org

Users from [athas.org] created the basic rules, two monster manuals, several adventures and other accessories.

Paizo's Dark Sun

A special feature in Dragon Magazine #319 (the May 2004 issue) and a parallel feature in Dungeon Magazine #110 revived the setting for the revised Third Edition (3.5) Dungeons and Dragons game. (The rules for defiler wizards appear in Dragon #315, and additional monsters in Dungeon #111.). There were also many fan-created online resources written prior to this feature.

In place of the higher dice for ability scores, the abilities of all of the player character races have been improved. Each (including humans) has an additional bonus to one or more ability scores, an innate psionic power, and often other bonuses. Every race has a level adjustment, meaning that a PC of the race counts as a PC of higher level than he actually is for purposes of balance.

Paizo rendition of Dark Sun

Novels

Prism Pentad - Troy Denning
# The Verdant Passage (October 1991), by Troy Denning, (ISBN 1-56076-121-0)
# The Crimson Legion (April 1992), by Troy Denning, (ISBN 1-56076-260-8)
# The Amber Enchantress (October 1992), by Troy Denning, (ISBN 1-56076-236-5)
# The Obsidian Oracle (June 1993), by Troy Denning, (ISBN 1-56076-603-4)
# The Cerulean Storm (September 1993), by Troy Denning, (ISBN 1-56076-642-5)

Tribe of One - Simon Hawke
# The Outcast (November 1993), by Simon Hawke, (ISBN 1-56076-676-X)
# The Seeker (April 1994), by Simon Hawke, (ISBN 1-56076-701-4)
# The Nomad (October 1994), by Simon Hawke, (ISBN 1-56076-702-2)

Chronicles of Athas
# The Brazen Gambit (July 1994), by Lynn Abbey (ISBN 1-56076-872-X)
# The Darkness Before the Dawn (February 1995), by Ryan Hughes (ISBN 0-7869-0104-7)
# The Broken Blade (May 1995), by Simon Hawke (ISBN 0-7869-0137-3)
# Cinnabar Shadows (July 1995), by Lynn Abbey (ISBN 0-7869-0181-0)
# The Rise & Fall of a Dragon King (April 1996), by Lynn Abbey (ISBN 0-7869-0476-3)

Computer Games

- Strategic Simulations, Inc.
- Strategic Simulations, Inc. and Mindscape
- MMORPG developed and hosted by the T.E.N. Network
- A new product being developed by Zen Interactive ([Official Website])

Footnotes

External links

[Darksun MUD] - A text-based gameworld based on the campaign material of Dark Sun, currently in Alpha stages of production.
[ArmageddonMUD] — A text-based gameworld heavily influenced by the Dark Sun setting that has been around for over a decade.

[The Burnt World of Athas] — Officially recognized by Wizards of the Coast as the home of the Dark Sun setting, now updated to 3.5 edition rules. Please note that the rules as presented by The Burnt World of Athas (Athas.org) do not agree and are not compatible with the Dark Sun rules as presented in Paizo's Dragon and Dungeon Magazine. Also, due to the unique situation regarding Dark Sun in 3e/3.5, both variants (Athas.org's and Paizo's) are considered official. Beyond the scope of merely bringing the old Dark Sun to 3.5e rules, Athas.org also has license to release two books that never before were released (were only roughtly put together) by TSR — Dregoth Ascending and Secrets of the Dead Lands. Both of which are being brought forward to 3.5e rules, and have some playtest versions out now. Athas.org also is working on the extreme high-level Epic rules, including (but not limited to) rules for making a character into an Athasian Dragon.

[The Wizards.COMmunity Dark Sun forum] — the official Dark Sun forum community, operated by Wizards of the Coast. Many of the members of the Athas.org team post regularly, and receive feedback about Dark Sun's development from here. There also are those few individuals who prefer the Paizo version of Dark Sun, who post their ideas with like-minded folk as well.

[Grummore's ultimate Dark Sun Links]
[The Athasian Elf] — A tribute to the Dark Sun world.
[City of Silt] — The most comprehensive site about the Dark Sun city of Balic.
[TSR Archive] Dark Sun product list

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