History TabletopGame / DarkSun

The setting of Dark Sun is Athas, a once-beautiful fantasy world turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland by centuries of corrupt magic and genocidal warfare. Most of the setting's land mass is made up of desert. Metal is extremely rare, requiring weapons to be made of less durable alternatives like bone, wood and obsidian ([[BreakableWeapons with game mechanics for their breakage during combat]]), and a small, pathetic iron mine that wouldn't be considered even slightly worthwhile on another world is instead here a priceless resource that has made the city-state that owns it rich, with wars having been fought over its possession. There are no actual gods, and most of the standard fantasy races players might expect to find are either extinct or drastically different from their normal forms; one of the common player character races is the Thri-Kreen -- four-armed humanoid insect mantis men. Even normal everyday flora and fauna have been twisted into deadly, grotesque mockeries of themselves; Athasian bears are gigantic clawed monstrosities with an insect-like carapace, and dangerous mobile carnivorous plant life dots the landscape. Horses are long extinct such that no one even remembers them, and common mounts are instead such things as the giant ant-like kanks, the scaled and beaked ostrich-like lizard crodlu, and the huge howdah-carrying inix lizards.

* CulturalTranslation: InUniverse. Urik government got a clue about Kreen pack mentality long ago and established a simple policy: gate guards explain to every entering thri-kreen that the city is a large pack and the newcomer is welcome to join any of its many clutches, but must obey the laws of the pack. Humanoids in the city have little to no problems with local thri-kreen as a result.

[[VideoGame/DarkSun Three video games]] set on Athas were released by SSI in the mid-90s. The first, titled ''Dark Sun: Shattered Lands'' centered on the city-state of Draj. The player's party begin as gladiators in the city's arena, but soon escape to the surrounding wilderness. At the same time the sorcerer-king of Draj is preparing to crush the defiant settlements of free people around the city. The player takes on a central role in uniting the disparate villages and searches for ancient lost magics to help in the upcoming battle. The second game, ''Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager'' takes place around Tyr. The player becomes entangled in the activities of the Veiled Alliance, working against the Dragon who has put into motion plans to awaken and control the titular Ravager (actually a tarrasque). The third game was an early MMORPG titled ''Dark Sun: Crimson Sands'', with Tyr and its surroundings as the stage again. Plagued with technical problems, it never quite took off and closed down after three years.

-- '''The Wanderer'''

* FantasticNuke: The 4e Monster Catalogue claims that when Borys of Ebe ascended to become the Dragon of Tyr the ritual drained the LifeForce of everyone in his city-state. Kalak's ritual would have done the same had he not been assassinated during it.

* NonCombatEXP

Dark Sun games are designed to be as deadly as the setting suggests. When other settings in 2nd Edition had ability scores for player characters running 3-18, Dark Sun ran them 5-20, along with secondary bonuses such as immunity to certain spells and even regeneration, on top of psionic powers for everyone... and they started out at level three just to give them a fighting chance. All of this means that even fairly standard Dark Sun characters were outright ''superhuman'' in comparison to those from any the other D&D world; but all this is relative to the dangers they will encounter. To make this clear, the boxed set also introduced the "character tree": players were advised to keep three backup characters, who would level up with their main character, in case their current one died... which they commonly did.

[[quoteright:314:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darksunlogobetter_9764.jpg]]

** Canonically, Athas is such a hellhole, that the only place that's worse is ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}''.

* TheDarkArts: Defiling is more or less abhorred by everyone, up to and including other defilers (they don't want competition.)
* DarkFantasy: ''Dark Sun'' is not your usual gonzo EpicFantasy experience. The world has been ruined by years of magic abuse and genocidal conflict, slavery and cannibalism are just everyday norms, every city-state is run by infallible and unimaginably powerful and wicked sorcerer-kings, and there's hardly any good in the world, just sand and misery.

* DaylightHorror: [[AfterTheEnd Due to the circumstances]], you don't need to crawl into some obscure dungeons to witness evil in all its glory. Just by walking around the main street in any city, you'll see people suffering under harsh enslavement and the brutal enslavers treating them like animals. And the good people --if there are any-- are [[AndIMustScream unable to change an iota of this monstrous situation]]. Death by psionic locusts seems merciful compared to slavery.
* DeathOfTheOldGods: Pre-4e Athas never had deities period. In 4e, they all died fighting the primordials so long ago that most people aren't even aware they ever existed.

* DragonsAreDemonic: Unlike most of ''D&D'', there are no "good" dragons on Athas. Just ''starting'' to become one requires an act of genocide, and continuing down that road means giving up more and more of yourself, and the better parts of your personality, to animalistic rage.
* DragonsAreDivine: While ''Dark Sun'' lacks true deities the Sorcerer King of Tyr, who is draconic, would qualify as they are the closest thing the setting has to gods.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: There's a monster called the Tembo (which is sort of a [[MixAndMatchCritters combination of dinosaur and cougar thing.]]). In addition to being AlwaysChaoticEvil, they like to [[WouldHurtAChild eat kids]], [[EatsBabies even babies.]] As such, even other evil monsters and people can rarely stomach working with them.

* FantasticNuke: The 4e Monster Catalogue claims that when Borys of Ebe ascended to become the Dragon of Tyr the ritual drained the LifeForce of everyone in his city-state. Kalak's ritual likely would have done the same had he not been assassinated during it.

* CrapsackWorld: The world is dying, the people responsible are in control of everything, what's left of civilisation may collapse utterly if they are removed, most people can't even believe in heroism anymore because sheer survival tends to require brutality and selfishness, and those who achieve power tend to to do so only because they are at best ruthless and more likely utter bastards. That more or less sums up the situation of Athas in a nutshell.

''Literature/ThePrismPentad'' takes place in Athas.

Dark Sun games -- as one might guess -- are notoriously deadly. In 2nd Edition, in addition to the psionic powers that every player character began with, they also started out at level three just so they would have a fighting chance. Also, PC ability scores, which ran from 3-18 (on a scale of 1-25) in all the other D&D worlds, ran from 5-20 (or even up to ''24'' with racial modifiers.) This gave Dark Sun player characters levels of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma that were normally reserved for ''god-like beings'' on other worlds, and which came with appropriately impressive secondary bonuses such as immunity to certain spells and even regeneration... attributes that could normally only be gained through powerful magic items, all simply from having such powerful inherent characteristics. All of this means that even fairly standard Dark Sun characters were outright ''superhuman'' in comparison to characters from all the other D&D worlds; a psionic Thri-Kreen Gladiator with the strength of a Stone Giant, wielding an obsidian sword in each of its four hands, is a perfectly valid character in a Dark Sun game. And if its non-metal swords happened to break in combat, well, that was OK... it could just use its natural claw attacks and poison bite. Did I mention its natural armor as good as chainmail from its carapace? But all this power is relative -- power is needed to survive in the world of the Dark Sun, which is so deadly that the boxed set also introduced the "character tree": players were advised to keep three backup characters, who could also gain levels when their current character leveled up, in case their current one died... which they commonly did.

* AlienSky: Athas has two moons; Ral and Guthay. Ral is the largest and is a green color. Guthany is smaller and is gold colored. The sun also looked weird in ages past: During the Blue Age, it was a deep blue like an ocean. During the green age it was yellow, and in the present it is scalding and red. The changes to the sun (which wouldn't follow a normal star due to no change in the sun's size) were due to overuse of magic.

* ApocalypseHow: Planetary Societal Collapse. Defiling magic has rendered the whole planet uninhabitable except for the Tyr region. The remains of society exist in the dozen-or-so city-states most of which are ruled by the tyrannical sorcerer-kings. Any groups living outside a city have reverted to hunter-gatherer tribes or roaming bands of marauders. Technology has regress to the point that metal smithing has become a lost art, any form of worked metal is seen as a priceless piece of LostTechnology.

* AlienSky: Athas has two moons; Ral and Guthay. Ral is the largest and is a green color. Guthany is smaller and is gold colored.

!Contains examples of:

* AlwaysABiggerFish: The sorcerer-kings are all immensely powerful, but they're nothing compared to the Dragon of Tyr, who is canonically unkillable. And all of them combined were no match for their mentor, the OmnicidalManiac Rajaat. Rajaat was/is so powerful he fought ALL the sorcerer-kings (including the one who would become the Dragon of Tyr) to a standstill. Yeah, he's so powerful that the setting's equivalent of gods all working together couldn't kill him, only seal him away. [[spoiler: Oh, and the seal is not permanent and needs to be reinforced yearly or else he'll break free]].

** Kalak, former sorcerer-king of Tyr, also looked like an ancient old man, and was even more transparently evil than most of his fellow sorcerer-kings.
* EvilVersusOblivion: The sorcerer-kings are evil and have always been evil, but even they have no wish to see [[OmnicidalManiac Rajaat]] kill everyone.

** The Draxan minions of the Dragon of Tyr have quite a lot in common with their [[Literature/TheDraka almost-namesakes from Stirling's novels]]: Being outnumbered ten to one by their slaves, which they make up for by treating them worse than any other slaveholding society that ever existed on their planet, being fond of genocide, and having a warrior society where martial (OK, and magical/technical) prowess trumps everything.

* FlyingSeafoodSpecial: Now, there is not much of ''water'' to swim in, is there? Choice examples include the "Cloud ray", a huge levitating manta that can devour everyone in a village if it's hungry, and the "Floater", a somewhat-sentient hydrogen-supported jellyfish.
* GaiasLament: Athas. Used to be a nice place. Now it's just a dying world of deserts and misery.

* GodhoodSeeker: [[{{Dracolich}} Dregoth]] spent centuries exploring other planes via his Planar Gate, seeing the Gods of other settings. He plots to become an actual god in the adventure ''City by the Silt Sea''. [[spoiler: It's outright stated he's going to fail, as the strange nature of Athas makes godhood impossible.]]
* GoodIsNotNice: The Veiled Alliance is an order of preservers across Athas dedicated to undermining the sorcerer-kings, stopping defilers, and ending the societal persecution of preservers. Sounds like your standard Good Guys, right? Well this is [[BlackAndGrayMorality Athas]], the Alliance two biggest priorities are to itself and other preservers, if non-wizards suffer or die because of their actions, [[IDidWhatIHadToDo so be it]].

* HumansAreBastards: Aside from the normal horrible conduct most people must get up to just to survive in a world as harsh as Athas, the original campaign setting boxed set notes that humans are the vast majority in the templars and nobility because they "have a talent for treachery and political intrigue".
* HumansAreSpecial: Avoided and played straight. The humans weren't the original inhabitants of the planet (those were the ancient halflings), but they ''are'' the only ones able to become sorcerer-kings.

** Ironically, averted by the Dragon of Tyr. It played at being a god millennia back and got bored with it, and it's secure enough in its power that it doesn't need to bother with manipulating its people through worship.
* AfterTheEnd: It is painfully clear that Athas ''used to be'' a nice place. Tombs and ruins from the Green Age dot the Tyr region, hinting at a wondrous time when the world was full of water, fertile soil, and metal. Of particular mention is that since metal is (now) so rare, even a mundane iron sword is accorded the respect (and the price) that a magical blade would fetch in a traditional D&D world.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: An intentional part of the setting is the concept of "What will you do if the circumstances are bleak enough?" The inherent concept of ''Dark Sun'' is that even heroic characters might have to commit immoral acts just to survive. One of the first adventures for the setting opens with the party being part of a band of slaves whose slavers have perished, but there isn't enough water to sustain everyone. The party is thus given a SadisticChoice: do they kill the other slaves to spare them the agony of death by thirst, steal all the water and abandon them to the wild, or insist on sharing the water and risk no one surviving? Depending on a particular campaign, though, this could be darkened to [[EvilVersusEvil Black and Black Morality]], or lightened to GreyAndGrayMorality.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The usual CharacterAlignment[[invoked]] system of D&D is unchanged in Athas, and the conditions and culture of Athas are irrelevant; slave-ownership, for example, is canonically incompatible with a good alignment.

* DarkerAndEdgier: See above. Then compare to most other D&D settings at the time.

* MergerOfSouls: The Zwuun, a mysterious entity that resides south of the city-state of Nibenay believed to be the combined life force of many ancient preservers. It is said to be benevolent and helpful, providing useful information to those who find it (provided its in a good mood).
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Thri-Kreen have four arms, as do the giant-like brohgs. Thri-Kreen are a playable race.

** All the sorcerer-kings are powerful enough to be PhysicalGods in their own right, but each has their own contingent of elite followers and small armies worth of Templars backing them up. Adding to this each rarely leaves their stronghold (see CrazyPrepared above) and have had centuries to prepare for and counter any would-be assassins.

** Sure, if you're good-aligned, it's possible to avoid the ecological problems that come from using arcane magic. It's naturally harder, slower, and is less powerful. Plus, even if you've advanced enough that [[FertileFeet plantlife starts coming back due to your spells]], people ''still'' will react towards your arcane magic like they [[BurnTheWitch react to a defiler's magic]]. Oh, and if you do manage to get powerful enough to start restoring plantlife, you basically paint a huge target on yourself for the sorcerer-kings to focus on.

** Kalak, former sorcerer-king of Tyr, also looked like an unbelievably ancient old man, and was even more transparently evil than most of his fellow sorcerer-kings.

* {{Fanservice}}: The artwork in spades. WordOfGod has it that the designers threw out the alternative of a ''frozen'' dying world specifically because the concept-art didn't have enough skin.[[note]]Of course, wearing nothing at all in a desert is a good way to die from sunburns[[/note]]

* LordBritishPostulate: The ''Valley of Dust and Fire'' module describes the Dragon of Tyr's city. If the [=PCs=] face the Dragon in combat, the module suggests that, properly run, the [=PCs=] should never be able to destroy the Dragon, and if the [=PCs=] win, the Dragon probably has a contingency spell or other cheat available to keep it alive anyway. It's been around for millennia, it doesn't exist to be killed by some epic-level adventuring party, and (more importantly by the standards of Creator/{{TSR}} at the time) the Dragon's death would [[OffTheRails completely annihilate the status quo]] and the {{Metaplot}}. This trope ''only'' applies to the AD&D version of the game.

* MagicIsEvil: Played with. Arcane magic is inherently evil, but there are ways of casting it that don't involve killing plants and sapping the life from the soil. However, the "healthy" way of casting magic is inherently more difficult, which means that people looking for a quick route to power generally choose the evil way. Thus, even if your wizard has never hurt a fly, people will still be trying to kill them for being an evil spellcaster.

* NintendoHard: ''Valley of Dust and Fire'', the module detailing the city of Ur Draxa, home of the Dragon of Tyr. It is by far the single most impossible and impenetrable fortress ''ever statted in the history of AD&D''. Yes, that ''includes'' the module where you have to go to Orcus' layer of the Abyss and steal his wand, ''and'' the friggin' TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors. It is entirely possible for a high-level adventuring party to die without ever having made it within ''thirty miles'' of the place, just from the ''weather''. Not to mention the ''surrounding sea of lava''. Which can only be crossed by a series of jumpgates ''directly linked to the Dragon's mind''. Then you reach the outer walls. Which are 720 feet high ''and a quarter mile thick''. And have no gates, but instead require you to win a psionic power contest with a ginormously powerful psionic construct before the passwall portal will temporarily dematerialize for you. Did we mention that the gate sends out a mental alarm whenever unauthorized psionic contact is initiated? Assuming you've gone through all this, congratulations, you're now past the introduction and actually get to try and survive in the city. Good luck! And no, it ''doesn't'' let up once you get past the outer defenses.

** Andropinis is an able statesman, and his citizens have rights, boast genuine civic pride, and are even allowed to vote for various offices in the city-state. Granted, if a candidate Andropinis doesn't like wins an election, he's known to have them executed and call for a revote, but the other sorcerer-kings don't even give you the ''illusion'' of choice.

** Oronis of Kurn takes the cake, since he's the only sorcerer-king to not only repent for past sins and become a Preserver and budding Avangion, he's actively trying to improve the state of Athas.
* Really700YearsOld: The sorcerer-kings. They are all thousands of years old, and even the ones that look like old men still don't look ''that'' ancient.

* AfterTheEnd: In more than one adventure, it is made painfully clear that Athas ''used to be'' a nice place.

* EndOfAnAge: Very much so. Tombs and temples from the Green Age dot the Tyr region, all of them either empty or filled with stuff that is very good at killing you. Of particular mention is that since metal is so rare, the techniques for doing stuff with it (i.e. blacksmithing of any sort) have been lost for generations. This means that even a mundane iron sword is a priceless relic of a far more technologically advanced time.