For thousands of years, the Tablelands have remained
untouched: its politics frozen in a delicate stalemate, its life
in a balance even more delicate. It is true that the Dragon
Kings amused themselves with their petty wars, rattling
sabers to punctuate the passing of 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
their superiority, but ever thirsting for challenge.
All that has changed. The Tablelands have been
thrown into turmoil, the likes of which have not been seen
since times forgotten. The Dragon Kings have been thrown
into confusion, grasping for 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.
-- Oronis, Sorcerer King of Kurn
Dark Sun is Different from Traditional D&D.
Many monsters, prestige classes, spells or magic items from the core rulebooks simply are not available in Athas. Many races were extinguished from Athas during the Cleansing Wars. This is because Athas has a very different background than most D&D settings. Check with your DM to see which options you have to choose from before building your character.
Tone and Attitude.
Athas puts the survival of the fittest concept to its fullest. Those who cannot adapt to endure the tyrannical sorcerer-kings, the unrelenting sun, or the many dangers of the wastes will certainly perish. Illiteracy and slavery are commonplace, while magic is feared and hated. The term “hero” has a very different meaning on Athas.
A Burnt World.
Thousands of years of reckless spellcasting and epic wars have turned Athas into a barren world, on the verge of an ecological collapse. 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, creating temperatures up to 150° F (65° C) by late afternoon. Waters is scarce, so most Athasians need to come up with alternative solutions for dealing with the heat or perish.
A World Without Metal.
Metals are very rare on Athas. Its scarcity has forced Athasians to rely on barter and different materials, such as ceramic, to use as currency. It also hampers industrial and economic development as well; mills and workshops rarely have quality tools to produce everyday products. Even though most Athasians have developed ways of creating weapons and armor made of nonmetallic components, but the advantage of having metal equipment in battle is huge.
The Will and The Way.
From the lowliest slave to the most powerful sorcerer-king, psionics pervade all levels of Athasian society. Virtually every individual has some mental ability, and every city-state has some sort of psionic academy available. Athasians use the term Will to refer to someone’s innate ability for psionics and the Way for the study of psionics.
A World Without Gods.
Athas is a world without true deities. Powerful sorcerer-kings often masquerade as gods but, though their powers are great and their worshippers many, they are not true gods. Arcane magic require life force, either from plants or animals, to be used. All divine power comes from the Elemental planes and the spirits of the land that inhabit geographic features.
Planar Insulation.
Barriers exist between Athas and other planes. In the case of other planes of existence, the Gray impedes planar travel, except to the Elemental Planes. Consequently, travel via spelljamming is impossible, and planar travel is much more difficult. The same holds true for those trying to contact or reach Athas. The barrier formed by the Gray impedes travel in both directions.
The Struggle For Survival.
The basic necessities of life are scarce on Athas. This means that every society must devote itself to attaining food and safeguarding its water supply, while protecting themselves from raiding tribes, Tyr–storms, and other city-states. This essentially means that most Athasian must devout a large deal of their lives just to survive.
The Seven City-states.
The Tyr Region is the center of the world of Athas, at least as far as the people of the seven city-states are concerned. It’s here, along the shores of the Silt Sea and in the shadows of the Ringing Mountains that civilization clings to a few scattered areas of fertile land and fresh water. The majority of the population lives in the city-states of Tyr, Urik, Raam, Draj, Nibenay, Gulg, and Balic. The remainder lives in remote villages built around oases and wells, or wanders about in nomadic tribes searching for what they need to survive.
New Races
In addition to the common player campaign. character races found in the Player’s Handbook, players can choose to play aarakocra, half-giants, muls, pterrans, and thri-kreen in Dark Sun. Aarakocra are avian freedomloving creatures, but extremely zealous and xenophobic. Half-giants are creatures with great strength, but dull wits. Muls are a hybrid race that combines the natural dwarven resilience and stubbornness with the adaptability from humans. Pterrans are reptilian natureworshipping creatures that are always in the pursuit of their “life paths”. Thri-kreen are insectoid creatures that roam the Athasian wastes in search for prey.
Wizardly magic is the cause of most of Athas’s problems, mostly due to the defilers and the sorcerer-kings. As such, wizards are almost universally feared and shunned. The use of wizardry in many of the city-states is a criminal offense punish able by death. In the communities beyond the walls of civilization, wizards can sometimes find homes, but more often they find suspicion, fear, and death
