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Unique Races of Athas

Aarakocra

In contrast to the noble eagle folk of the Forgotten Realms, Athasian aarakocra are a race of humanoid vultures who raid and scavenge across the blasted wastes of Athas. In 2nd edition, aarakocra player characters are specifically believed to come from the northern tribe of Winter's Nest, who are in allegiance with the hidden city-state of Kurn, ruled by the repentant Sorcerer-King Oronis.

Adaptational Villainy: Aarakocra in the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk are noble, peaceful, shy and retiring people with little hostility for the outside world. The aarakocra of Athas come in two flavors; tribes who guard their territories with xenophobic paranoia but won't go looking for trouble, and tribes who actively raid, murder and pillage. Their monstrous writeup in Terrors Beyond Tyr explicitly describes them as having "little empathy for land-bound races".
Bird People: The aarakocra are a race of humanoid birds, possessing arms that combine the function of wings and hands.
Black Magic: In 2nd edition, some tribes of aarakocra practice defiling magic — player characters, due to being associated with the Winter's Nest tribe, are forbidden from using it and instead can only practice preserving magic. Later editions allow aarakocra to be whatever kind of mage they desire.
Blow You Away: Aarakocra worship the elemental powers of air and sun, and can summon air elementals to defend their tribes from invaders or to add muscle to their raiding bands.
Promoted to Playable: Aarakocra weren't actually a playable race in the initial version of the Dark Sun setting, but were offered as a new player option in the Revised Edition of the campaign.
Thinking Up Portals: Aarakocra favor the Psychoportation school of Psychic Powers, which revolves around teleporting.
Vile Vulture: To emphasize their more monstrous and aggressive nature, Athasian aarakocra resemble humanoid vultures in contrast to the eagle-like appearance they possess in other settings.

Dray

A race of humanoid dragons created by Dregoth in the lost city of Giustenal, dray represent Dregoth's vision of the future; humanity ascended to the power and majesty of the dragons. Currently, two generations of dray exist. The first generation, the prototypes, are unstable and prone to mutations; they have been driven to the outskirts of the city in favor of the second generation, where the transformation was perfected. One of the most obscure native races of Athas, dray debuted in the adventure module City by the Silt Sea, and were more prominently introduced to players in the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition adaptation of Dark Sun, which presented them as a native alternative to Dragonborn.

Body Horror: 1st generation dray suffer from imperfectly formed bodies that leave them with random portions of their body that never shifted from human to dragon.
Draconic Humanoid: Dray are the spitting image of Athasian dragons in miniature, save for their lack of wings.
Fantastic Racism: 2nd generation dray, having been indoctrinated from birth by Dregoth in their cult of racial supremacy, despise all non-dray; humans are pitied and forced to become new dray, their "destiny", whilst non-humans are fit only to be destroyed. 1st generation Dray lack this trait.
Immune to Fire: In 2nd edition, dray lack a Breath Weapon, but compensate by being totally immune to fire attacks and ambient heat, as well as having a vastly reduced need for water — traits that make them naturally suited to survive in the scorched wastes of Athas.
Retcon: 4th generation tweaks the dray formula notably. In this edition, the dray were created before Dregoth became a dracolich, rather than after, but he grew unhappy with most of his creations and drove them out. There's no 1st generation/2nd generation split in 4e. 4th edition dray now mostly survive as small, scattered tribes and family groups that roam the harsh wasteland, remembering little save that their creator turned on them and cast them away — they have no idea as a collective that Dregoth still survives as an undead Athasian Dragon, and they don't actively serve him. Most are ruthless mercenaries, and they often pursue the paths of the slave trader and/or Defiler, arguing that the former is repayment for the crueltly that the world has shown them and justifying the latter by the simple paradigm that only power matters.
Was Once a Man: Regardless of edition, the ancestors of dray were humans forcibly transformed into Draconic Humanoids by Dregoth's Black Magic. In 2nd edition, Dregoth still uses his Dray Transformation ritual to alter those few humans (or human-looking half-elves) that enter New Giustenal into dray.

Half-Giant

A race artificially engineered by the sorcerer-kings as mighty warriors and ultimate laborers, half-giants tower over other humanoids but require proportionally vast quantities of food and drink to survive. For all their physical prowess, half-giants are known to be mentally unstable.

Chaotic Stupid: Half-Giants suffer from a mental affliction that makes them prone to very erratic behavior. To represent this, players were forced to change one axis of a half-giant's Character Alignment each day — either the Lawful-Chaotic or Good-Evil axis.
Dumb Muscle: Half-giants are enormously strong and tough, but their minds tend to be underdeveloped, childish and weak-willed.
Our Giants Are Bigger: Half-giants were magically bred from giantish stock as a race of slaves.
Pretty Fly for a White Guy: A racial trait of half-giants is that they often imitate other races cultures to compensate for lacking one of their own.
Super-Toughness: 2nd Edition had a rule that Half-Giant PCs doubled their Hit Dice roll for every level, leading to this. This is also combined with their Constitution bonus. A Half-Giant of a warrior class and 22 Constitution would get 12 to 26 Hit Points per level.
True-Breeding Hybrid: Half-giants may have been created from giant and human stock a long time ago, but they are now a true-breeding race in their own right. In fact, half-giants actually can't crossbreed with either humans or giants anymore, which at least is a step up from the poor muls.

Mul

A Servant Race bred by forcing humans and dwarves to procreate, muls inherit the best traits of their parents and are legendary for their strength and stamina.

Death by Childbirth: When they were first created, muls were stated to frequently cause the death of their mothers due to their size and the immense strain they put them under during their gestation. Their second monster writeup in the "Terrors Beyond Tyr" sourcebook gave specific numbers; human mothers carrying muls have a 60% chance of dying due to the stress of their 12-month pregnancy, and then a 60% chance of dying during childbirth, whilst dwarf mothers have only a 40% chance of death in either pregnancy or childbirth due to their superior hardiness. That said, the presence of an experienced midwife with familiarity with mul pregnancies does give the mother a +10% chance of survival. And even if the mother survives long enough to give birth, there's a 25% chance the baby mul will be stillborn, regardless of what happens to their mother. Doing the math... this means there's only a 30% chance that an attempt to breed a mul will succeed with a human mom (who herself has only a 16% chance of surviving the whole process), or a 45% one with a dwarf mom (who has only a 36% chance to survive). Understandably, this aspect was largely ignored in later editions.
Determinator: Muls are famous for their physical and mental endurance. Once they put their mind to something, they do not give up. They can work at shifts that would kill a human, and endure ridiculous amounts of punishment. This makes them incredibly prized as both laborers and gladiators, and is the primary reason why they are bred.
Half-Human Hybrid: They are the children of human-dwarf pairings. Like many real-life hybrids — but unlike many fictional hybrids such as D&D usually has — they're traditionally portrayed as being as sterile as mules, hence the name.
Happiness in Slavery: As noted above, muls are excellent laborers and gladiators, but are also expensive to breed — and difficult to contain if they become disgruntled. Thus, slave owners tend to be "protective" of their mul slaves, pampering them in ways that would be unthinkable for a human slave. In the end, between this and the simple fact that they know no other life, many muls end up feeling like their slavery isn't that bad of a deal.
Lighter and Softer: Neither their 3rd edition writeup in Dragon nor their 4th edition writeup mentions their propensity to kill their mothers in pregnancy or childbirth. Their 4e writeup also doesn't mention muls being innately sterile, and their Dragon article on muls in the Nentir Vale setting explicitly says that muls can have kids, they just tend to choose not to.
Multiple-Choice Past: Downplayed; whilst muls in Athas have remained consistent, 4th edition also provided an alternative past for them so they could be incorporated into the Nentir Vale or homebrew setting by making them the true-breeding result of a drow slave-breeding program that escaped drow control.
Servant Race: Their racial hat; muls only exist because they are so useful as a work-force that powerful tyrants are willing to force humans and dwarves to breed on an industrial scale.
Super-Toughness: Muls are incredibly resistant to pain, disease, and poison.
True-Breeding Hybrid:
- Explicitly averted in their original lore, which calls them out as being sterile.
- In the Nentir Vale setting, muls are capable of propagating by breeding with each other, humans, or dwarves. However, the lingering trauma from their origins as a Slave Race and their somewhat rocky relationship with their parent races means that many muls choose not to breed.
Wicked Wastefulness: Not on the part of the muls themselves, but what their original concept represented: all the evils inherent to using a Breeding Slave in the first place, and then the further danger that breeding muls specifically puts the mother in, and all for a luxury item that'll live for less than one full generation without being able to contribute to the next beyond their labor.
Writers Cannot Do Math: The population numbers for muls given in official 2nd edition sources are drastically higher than they should be, given the explicit mechanics of how likely a mul breeding attempt is to produce a living mul infant. This is probably one of the reasons why muls being so deadly to breed was quietly dropped from canon.

Pterran

A race of humanoid pterodactyls, the pterrans are the degenerate descendants of pterafolk, a barbaric and cruel race of shapeshifting pterodactyls. Pterrans have physically degenerated from their ancestors, being trapped in the flightless humanoid form, but have culturally advanced compared to their kin, having risen from brutish and vicious raiders to a peaceful people united by a deep religious reverence for the Earth Mother, the personification of Athas.

Horse of a Different Color: Pterrans favor riding the pterrax, a massive Terror-dactyl creature that some rumors suggest may be related to them in some fashion.
Lizard Folk: As lizardfolk are officially extinct on Athas, pterrans largely take their place as a reptilian humanoid race.
Promoted to Playable: Pterrans weren't one of the original playable races of Dark Sun, but were instead offered as a new player option in the Revised Edition of the campaign.
Religious Bruiser: Pterrans are one of the only races on Athas with a wide-spread tradition of religion — the other being the dray, who have deified their dracolich creator Dregoth. They're also extremely physically strong and hardy creatures.
Serrated Blade of Pain: The pterrans use weapons called "thanaks" as an equivalent to axes, which are described as rows of pterrax teeth fastened between two sticks to form a blade resembling a saw.
Terror-dactyl: Pterrans are based very firmly on old pulpy views of pterodactyls, as are their pterrax steeds.

Thri-Kreen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/88268_620_121.jpg

Ferocious pack-hunting humanoid mantises, thri-kreen roam the blasted wastes on an eternal search for food. Rumor has it that a great empire of civilized thri-kreen lies beyond the Tablelands.

All There in the Manual: The AD&D 2nd edition sourcebook "Thri-Kreen of Athas" was and remains the biggest devoted source of material they have. That said, much of the things established in that sourcebook have never been used again, such as the kreen subraces — though the names of those subraces were mentioned as thri-kreen "communities" in 4th edition.
Armed with Canon: There are actually multiple thri-kreen player character statblocks in both 2nd and 3rd edition.
- In 2nd edition, there is the difference between the thri-kreen in both the Original and Revised Dark Sun Boxed Sets, and the thri-kreen in Player's Option: Skills & Powers.
- In 3rd edition, thri-kreen were printed in the Monster Manual II and then reprinted in Savage Species. They then received alternative versions in Dragon #319, the Expanded Psionics Handbook, and the Forgotten Realms sourcebook "Shining South", all of which differed from both the MMII/Savage Species version and from each other.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: Thri-kreen are man-sized mantids, with their 2nd edition artwork giving them rather grasshopper-like legs. They have four arms, which end in multi-fingered grasping hands, and two legs, and this separates them from their Trin cousins, who have four legs and the traditional raptorial claws. In 2nd edition, it's even a weakness of the thri-kreen that they have an easier time using telepathy on insects than on mammals, such as humanoids, who have the reverse penalty.
Breakout Character: Thri-kreen are generally accepted as the most famous and memorable of the races of Athas, and have spread to other settings due to that popularity.
Chameleon Camouflage: In 3rd edition, one of the common traits of their multiple contradictory statblocks is an affinity for the psionic power "Chameleon", which lets them psionically blend into their background for pseudo-invisibility. They had no such ability in 2nd edition, and 4th edition stripped it from them. 5th edition saw it return.
Fantastic Naming Convention: In "Thri-Kreen of Athas", we learn that "kreen" is the actual racial name of the mantis-folk; "thri" and "tohr" are cultural prefixes that indicate whether they are nomadic or settled in nature. Also, kreen subraces that have full-fledged nations always have names starting with a "j" (Jeral, J'ez, J'hol), whilst those who have no nations of their own have names starting with a "t" (To'ksa, T'keech, Tondi).
Genetic Memory: Thri-kreen pass on considerable amounts of knowledge about hunting, communication and proper behavior through pure instinct, so even a thri-kreen that hatched and grew to maturity in total isolation could integrate seamlessly into thri-kreen society.
In a Single Bound: Thri-kreen have always had tremendous leaping abilities.
Insectoid Aliens: Spelljammer lore reveals that there are actually multiple planets where thri-kreen are found, and they even have their own spelljamming empire. Their possible connection to the Xixchil is unknown.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Traditionally, the most dangerous thing about thri-kreen is that they have four arms, which allows them to make four claw attacks (plus a bite attack); "Thri-Kreen of Athas" includes mechanics for specializing in either or both of these natural attacks, which can allow them to make a massive number of attacks per round. They can also use weapons in their four arms, but the mechanics for doing so means that they usually aren't much more dangerous than a dual-wielding humanoid, outside of having multiple weapon options — "Thri-Kreen of Athas" does include optional mechanics to let them quad-wield, which does make them very dangerous.
One-Gender Race: The kreen subrace called the Tondi are an all-female species that reproduces by parthenogenesis. They can still successfully mate and produce hybrid offspring with males from other kreen subraces, but kreen have a cultural aversion to this.
Pink Means Feminine: The Tondi, an all-female kreen subrace, are pink with purple highlights. Subverted in that the J'hol subrace have males and females, and are still depicted as quite pink.
Promoted to Playable: The thri-kreen originated as monsters in the Shining South region of the Forgotten Realms before they were upgraded to a major playable race in the Dark Sun setting.
Retcon:
- The kreen appearance has become increasingly more humanoid over the editions, going from a giant mantis with humanoid limbs to a multi-armed biped with insectile aspects.
- When they first appeared in the "Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix I", Tohr-Kreen were described as an all-around superior species to Thri-Kreen, being physically and mentally superior in every single way. Then "Thri-kreen of Athas" retconned that original version of tohr-kreen into actually being biologically and mentally modified drones created by the Zik-chil to serve as spies on the humanoid races of the Tyr Regions and missionaries to try and civilize the thri-kreen, with their proper names being "Zik-trin'ta".
- The kreen subraces are an unusual example; they've never been explicitly retconned, they've just never been mentioned outside of the single Dark Sun AD&D sourcebook where they were introduced. 4e does mention some of them as names of distinct kreen factions.
Slaying Mantis: The thri-kreen are overwhelmingly associated with the praying mantis as their "base inspiration", though there's also elements of wolf-pack in them.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The one advantage that the T'keech are known to have over their kinsfolk: they're a jungle-adapted species, meaning they don't suffer from the chitin-rot and respiratory infections that plague other kreen subspecies in regions that are too humid. Of course, as they live on Athas, the only place that meets that description is the lost rainforests of the Ringing Mountains.
Underground Monkey: There are six different kreen subraces on Athas. There are also the Trin (savage and barely sapient mantis-folk, described as being to kreen what neanderthals are to humans) and Zik-chil (biological engineers who may or may not be the same thing as the Xixchil of Spelljammer). As for the kreen subraces...
- The sandy yellow-tan To'ksa and Jerals are extremely similar, with only abdomen size and shape, hand structure, antennae length, neck length and the positioning of breathing holes indicating which are which. The to'ksa are hardy but more savage and feral, the "iconic thri-kreen", whilst Jerals are comparatively frailer but smarter and more civilized, the "iconic tohr-kreen". They are the only subraces with official stats.
- J'ez are intelligent but warlike and aggressive black-colored kreen with extremely distinctive circular mouthparts full of fangs. They serve the tohr-kreen nations as philosphers and generals with equal aplomb.
- J'hol are adapted for life in mountains and rocky badlands, and have the most humanoid appearance of any kreen subrace.
- T'keech are green kreen adapted for life in comparatively lush environments, which restricts them in the present day to oases.
- Tondi are an all-female kreen subrace based on Orchid Mantids, whose elaborately spiky physiology lets them imitate ohi flowers or outcroppings of rock crystal.
Women Are Wiser: The all-female Tondi are known to have a deep, instinctive appreciation for nature, leading many to become herbalists or even full-fledged druids.

Sorcerer-Kings of the Tablelands

In General

The sorcerer-kings are the rulers of the city-states that are the sole remaining known major outposts of civilization in the blasted hellscape of Athas. Seemingly immortal, these powerful psionicists and mages have ruled since the dawn of time, as far as the ignorant masses are aware. The defilers that would become sorcerer-kings were originally disciples of the pyreen sorcerer Rajaat, and today they work to keep him imprisoned.

Deity of Human Origin: Whilst not gods yet, the sorcerer-kings are often worshipped like gods by their people, and theirs is the only permitted religion on Athas — and the only one that survives outside of the worship of nature and the elemental powers. Further clouding the issue is the fact that all templars receive their spells from their sorcerer-kings in much the same way that clerics do from their gods in other D&D settings.
Draconic Humanoid: All of the sorcerer-kings have at least partially begun the Rites of Draconic Ascension, a series of Black Magic rituals fueled by Human Sacrifice that combine magic and psionics on an epic scale to begin transforming themselves into dragons.
Enemy Mine: Sorcerer-kings are naturally about as cooperative as sharks, competing over scarce resources and territory on top of just generally being power-hungry assholes, but they all send tributes of slaves to the Dragon for Human Sacrifice to keep Rajaat from tearing free from his prison; even the least sane and most short-sighted of them understand that that outcome would be a disaster for all of them.
Evil Overlord: All of the sorcerer-kings are this kind of Big Bad. Even Lalali-Puy, the sorcerer-queen who cares the most about being a Villain with Good Publicity, will quickly show her evil side if you become any kind of threat or obstacle to her.
Evil Sorcerer: The sorcerer-kings are the first ever cabal of mages on Athas, learning from the pioneer of arcane magic himself, Rajaat. They used those powers to launch genocidal campaigns that have all but scoured Athas of life, and now rule like tyrants over the few vestiges that survive.
Fantastic Racism: Zigzagged. In their "youth", the sorcerer-kings were blatant human supremacists, being recruited by Rajaat and goaded into launching the Cleansing Wars by appealing to their desire for a human-dominated world. They only turned on Rajaat after learning that humanity exterminating all of the demihuman races outside of halflings was phase one, and phase two would have been the genocide of humanity so that his true master race, the halflings, would inherit the ruins. But, in the present, they have largely given up on those views, caring more about ruling what's left of the Tablelands than the precise species of who they're ruling over.
Faux Affably Evil: Except for Kalak and Tectuktitlay (who make no effort to hide their sociopathy), Nibenay (who makes no effort to interact with the public unless he absolutely has to), and Oronis (who is no longer evil), the sorcerer-kings put varying degrees of effort into not coming across as demonically evil psychopaths, be it doling out the Bread and Circuses, engaging in only Pragmatic Villainy, or even pretending they're Just the First Citizen. Yet evil is what all of them (save Oronis) are, and when push comes to shove, all of them will stop at nothing to get what they want or to eliminate any threat to their rule.
The Ghost: Highly unusually for major NPCs in a TSR setting, the sorcerer-kings were originally left as mysterious figures about which players and even Dungeon Masters knew little, aside from short, broad overviews of their characters given in the "Atlas of Tyr" portion of the original setting boxed set. Only a few would receive mechanical overviews in assorted sourcebooks before 2nd edition ended; Kalak in the "City-State of Tyr" sourcebook, Hamanu, Nibenay and Lalali-Puy in "Beyond the Prism Pentad", Dregoth in the adventure "City by the Silt Sea" and Abalach-Re in the adventure "Forest Maker". Kalid-Ma would actually be invented in a Ravenloft sourcebook. It wouldn't be until 4th edition that all of the sorcerer-kings would receive explicit lore writeups paired with stats, in the "Dark Sun Creature Catalog"... with the exception of Kalid-Ma, who appeared in an "Eye on Dark Sun" article in Dungeon #190.
Magic Knight: All the sorcerer-kings are some flavor of multiclass psion/wizard, but they are depicted as being just as dangerous in close combat as they are with their psionics and magic.
Not So Invincible After All: Kalak's death shocked the Tablelands by revealing that the sorcerer-kings aren't so invulnerable as everyone feared. The Prism Pentad pushed on with the deaths (and literal banishments to other planes) of several more sorcerer-kings, leading to the Revised Edition of the setting being focused on dealing with the turbulent "new era" of Athas.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: In order to just start the journey to become a dragon, the original disciples of Rajaat had to commit a genocide. Ever wonder why there aren't any kobolds, goblins, pixies, orcs, ogres, gnomes, wemics, or trolls in Athas? A complete genocide isn't necessary, as many of the sorcerer-kings targeted races that still exist, but large-scale death is still pretty bad.
Psychic Powers: Part of what makes the sorcerer-kings so powerful is that they are both archmages and masters of the psionic arts.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Each sorcerer-king is far and away the most powerful individual in their respective city-state, to the point where they could and in some cases have crushed rebellions single-handedly.
Really 700 Years Old: All of the sorcerer-kings are millennia old, but none of them (even Kalak) look it. Unlike most examples of the trope, absolutely no one is unaware of their collective immortality.
Sorcerous Overlord: Whilst how openly a sorcerer-king reveals their proficiency in the magical arts varies, all of them use their magic as the foundation of their rule. They are even able to imbue others with the power to cast spells, similarly to how gods can empower priests.
0% Approval Rating: With the exception of Lalali-Puy, and to a significantly lesser extent Hamanu and Andropinis, none of the sorcerer-kings enjoy the popular support of their people, and it is explicit that they remain in power only because of their supernatural might and the backing of their templars and their armies.

Abalach-Re

The sorcerer-queen of Raam. Unusually for her peers, Abalach-Re does not openly rule her city-state, but instead claims that she is merely "The Great Vizier", appointed to rule by a divine power called "Badna" that will strike her dead and replace her should ever she be deemed a failure. Her citizens (correctly) see this as a pathetic ploy to deflect blame for her own ineptitude and incompetence, near-openly reviling her for her weakness. As such, Raam is traditionally the most anarchic of the city-states. It has largely avoided being conquered due to the sheer numbers it can wield, and the ferocity of its citizens when fighting in self defense.

Adaptational Attractiveness: The Prism Pentad novels make no mention of the disfigured visage she sports in the tabletop game itself.
A God I Am Not: In contrast to the other sorcerer-kings, Abalach-Re claims merely to be a servant to an actual deity, Badna, rather than a deity in her own right. Nobody believes it, even if the fear of Abalach-Re's wrath forces Raam's populace to pay lip service to Badna.
Butterface: She is depicted as having a shapely body, but a magically deformed face.
The Caligula: Abalach-Re isn't merely an evil tyrant, but an incompetent and unstable one.
Combat Pragmatist: Her main tactic revolves around turning herself invisible and teleporting in the battlefield casting spells.
Cover Identity Anomaly: Zig-zagged in the Forest Maker adventure when Abalach-Re sets a trap by impersonating an Avangion. As she has no experience with Avangions, she doesn't know how to act like one beyond posturing as a forest-loving Big Good... but the PCs might still be deceived because they know nothing about Avangions, either!
Disc-One Final Boss: She's the biggest obstacle fought by the heroes in the first part of the final Prism Pentad book. Fighting her also showcases how much stronger the group has become .
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Given the desert nature of Athas, her pale complexion stands out, paired with her black hair.
Femme Fatalons: Has large claws on her fingers.
Flunky Boss: She brings along her whole army to lay waste on Tyr's forces, supporting her soldiers with her magic.
God Save Us from the Queen!: Unlike Lalali-Puy, she makes no attempt to hide her immense cruelty.
Hated by All: A zero percent approval rating is standard issue for most sorcerer-kings, but no one has less respect for their resident tyrant than the people of Raam.
Hate Sink: She's a leading competitor for the title on Athas, which is no mean feat given the setting's brutality and evil. Like the other sorcerer-kings, Abalach-Re is an evil, genocidal tyrant. Like the other sorcerer-kings except Oronis, she has no remorse at any point about what she did. Unlike the other sorcerer-kings, the mixture of her cruelty, pettiness, hypocrisy, and incompetence make her as hated almost as much as she is feared, because she cannot even function as a proper ruler for her own city-state. The people of the Tablelands have bent their necks to immortal dictators for untold centuries, but an immortal dictator that is obviously weak is something else, and in the meta, she lacks the Evil Is Cool credit of many of the other sorcerer-kings.
I'm Melting!: She's destroyed and corroded by the black goo oozing from the fragment of the Scourge she's impaled with after Sadira twists the blade in her back.
Just the First Citizen: Calls herself "The Great Vizier" and claims to be merely the mouth-piece for Badna, who truly rules over Raam. Unlike Andropinis, who has the statesmanship (and restraint) to pull this trope off, she is too sadistic and irresponsible for anyone to buy into it.
Totalitarian Gangsterism: What her rule over Raam amounts to. She is too tyrannical and brutal to be loved, but also too incompetent and unstable to be able to control her city and its people. Which is why she is essentially the nastiest and most powerful gang leader in her city rather than a proper ruler.
We Have Reserves: Show little concern for her troops, not caring if they're in the blast radius of her spells.

Andropinis

The sorcerer-king of Balic, Andropinis refers to himself as "Dictator" and claims to have been elected to his position as "Dictator for Life" over seven centuries ago. He is described as resembling a "stately old man". That is largely where his original lore ends.

Adaptational Ugliness: In the original tabletop game source, Andropinis is depicted as an elderly-looking powerful sorcerer, not as a monstrous, spiky hogman.
Adaptational Villainy: By the time of the second edition, Andropinis was firmly Lawful Neutral and had shades of being Affably Evil through his faux-democratic regime. In the books he's much more brutal and cruel to his Patricians.
A God Am I: Defied openly. Andropinis is an all-powerful dictator and has his subjects waiting on his every word like any other sorcerer-king, but he claims to be Just the First Citizen rather than a monarch or a god.
Ancient Grome: Essentially what Balic is in a nutshell, with a higher ratio of Greece to Rome.
Banana Republic: Rules over a Bronze Age-flavored version of this. Balic is officially a democratic republic as a city state, with the Dictator being a Constitutional office. Unfortunately, the people who appointed him did not realize he was immortal when they gave him a lifetime appointment and as a result he rather nakedly rigs the elections he cares about, mostly by making it publicly known which candidate he favors, and then murdering the wrong candidate if they win (before holding another vote). It says a lot about the state of the world that this makes Balic one of the less terrible city-states to live in.
Bait the Dog: One of his most common traits. He allows elections, but is known to periodically murder anyone "wrongly" elected, and the few times he accepts an election going the "wrong" way he works to neuter or co-opt the would-be-reformer or protest candidate. He also has created a propaganda machine dedicated to Balic's freedom and civic greatness, both real and imagined, and a cult of devotion to Balic's landscape and reclaiming defiled land.... so that he can defile it again when the time comes.
Bread and Circuses: One of his preferred strategies. Balic's civic pride and the relative power of its citizenry is one of the greatest strengths he has in foreign policy, but also one of the greatest threats to his internal power. As such he spends much of his time appeasing the masses, so they will go along with what he wants without too much "correction".
Exact Words: If anyone is ever bold enough to point out that other officials in Balic only hold temporary voted positions, Andropinis reminds them that he was voted "Dictator for Life" and it's hardly his fault that he shows no signs of dying.
Fangs Are Evil: All his teeth are sharp tusks.
Just the First Citizen: Unlike some sorcerer-kings, Andropinis prefers to present himself as "merely" a Permanent Elected Official, instead of a king, a god, or a god-king.
Laser-Guided Karma: Rajaat grabs him and seals him in the Black, like he and the others did to Rajaat. According to extra materials, he was released from his prison, though he still lost his domain over Balic.
A Lighter Shade of Black: While Andropinis is evil by pretty much any metric except a few quirky alignment charts that have him be Lawful Neutral, he is a competent ruler and moderately enlightened despot who reigns with a much lighter touch than other sorcerer-kings. He originally gained the title of Dictator for Life by a genuine feat of contribution to the city, and its republican civic culture was "merely" perverted rather than completely destroyed. He is not particularly loved, but he is respected.
People's Republic of Tyranny: Runs a Bronze Age Greece/Rome flavored version. Balic Templars and thus the government officials below Andropinis are actually elected by vote from the city-state's freeman population, and serve 10-year terms. Andropinis, however, isn't above meddling in the votes — both by telling the people who to vote for, and executing "wrongfully" elected individuals before demanding recasts — and his position is unshakeable. Even so, it's worth noting the other sorcerer-kings don't even pretend to believe in democracy. Balic is no less of a tyranny than the other cities, but is disguised as a republic where Andropinis is elected (for life, obviously) and his templars are elected by the people (and eliminated by Andropinis if he doesn't like them).
Pig Man: Hinted to look like one, give his description.
President for Life: Taken to the next level, since he was actually voted dictator for life. And legitimately too! The issues arose when Andropinis showed his true colors, both as a person and as an immortal sorcerer-king.
Pragmatic Villainy: One of his defining character traits and a reason why he has been so successful.
Repressive, but Efficient: For all his posturing, Andropinis is still a dictator who has kept tight control over Balic and its people for hundreds of years. Even so, he is one of the best statesmen on Athas and it shows, as he has maintained and even expanded the power of his state even though his rule is less iron-fisted than his peers and even allows a certain degree of genuine democratic sentiment to manifest. In the end, Balic's citizens may have a tyrant at the helm, but they enjoy a higher quality of life and have more civic pride than most other city-states.
Spikes of Villainy: He has bone spikes protruding from his elbows and when he turns around, Tithian notices several spikes along his spine.

Hamanu

The sorcerer-king of Urik. Styling himself the great Warrior-King of the Tablelands, Hamanu eagerly wages wars of conquest on the other city-states, and leads his forces from the front in battle as he does so.

Adaptational Ugliness: The books emphasize his lionine appearence, while in the tabletop game he's depicted as a normal, handsome man.
A Father to His Men: It's noted in the original boxed set that Hamanu's forces are genuinely loyal to him, inspired by his willingness to both join them in martial drills and to lead them from the front in battle.
A Lighter Shade of Black: The Lion of the Desert is evil by any standard, but he is a consistent, rationalistic tyrant. While his government is totalitarian and brutal, it is also incredibly consistent and reasonable by the standards of his peers and his code of laws is dedicated to establishing a coherent legal system for everyone. He is also quite meritocratic, rewarding talent right alongside loyalty. More fervently, he is interested in finding a way to return Athas to the green world it once was.
Animal Motifs: Lions, as seen with the symbol of Urik, his appearence and attitude.
Big Bad: Of the second volume of the The Prism Pentad, leading the city whose army is threatening Tyr.
Control Freak: A more positive example than most, because Hamanu is one of the closest sorcerer-kings to being truly totalitarian, effectively micromanaging every aspect of life, politics, and existence in Urik... but he actually is good at managing things.
Curb-Stomp Battle: He crushes Rikus and annihilates the Legion all by himself.
Expy: He is essentially a roman a clef of Babylonian Emperor Hammurabi.
For the Lulz: He's been shown to be quite sadistic with his own men. Like forcing one of them to fight a sword-wielding Rikus "unarmed".
Frontline General: While Hamanu likes to plan and fight, he is the only sorcerer-king who can regularly be seen fighting on the frontline with his army.
Heel–Face Turn: Despite his previous hostility with Tyr, he ultimately parts from the heroes in good terms.
I Have Many Names: Hamanu competes with Tectuktitlay for the role of sorcerer-king with the greatest number of extravagant (and ludicrous) titles. Those titles mentioned in the published sourcebooks include "Lion of Urik", "Lion of the Desert", "King of the World", "King of the Mountains and the Plains", "The Mighty King", and "The Bringer of Death And Peace".
Kill It with Fire: Back in the days he was called "Troll Scorcher", responsible for wiping out the Trolls with fire.
Made of Iron: He took a steel dagger in the heart and survived without much annoyance, despite the initial pain.
Magic Knight: He's one of the physically strongest Sorcerer Kings, and not afraid to take things mano a mano if he has to.
No-Sell: He's totally immune to the Scourge of Rkard, because Rajaat made him a champion later in order to substitute another one.
One-Winged Angel: Turns into a giant lion man in order to crush the Tyrians.
Panthera Awesome: His symbol is a walking lion, he looks like a lion and can turn into one.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite being no less cruel than his fellow sorcerer-kings, Hamanu's draconian laws enforce meritocracy and overall make Urik a powerful and safe city to live in.
Repressive, but Efficient: Perhaps the greatest example of this trope in the setting. Hamanu is a philosopher-king as well as a sorcerer-king, and while he micromanages everything he can, he is undeniably competent, especially compared to many of his peers. As with Andropinis and Lalali-Puy, he receives a certain amount of honest respect alongside the usual fear.
Totalitarian Utilitarian: A micromanaging absolute monarch, but one dedicated to rational governance and the return of the world to its former green prosperity.
Utopia Justifies the Means: "Utopia" might be pushing it, but he is fanatically dedicated to the concept of turning Athas back into a lush, green world.... under his management, of course.
Villainous Valor: He is not called the Lion for nothing. He is regularly willing to fight his way with the army and is brave to a fault. Unlike many of his peers, he's also extremely diligent and incorruptible, with a rational, if iron-fisted, approach to government.
Weaksauce Weakness: To ordinary steel, amazingly enough. Granted, it still takes a lot to slay him, and "ordinary steel" isn't in ample supply on Athas anymore.
You Have Failed Me: In the third Prism Pentad book, it is mentioned en passant that Hamanu slaughtered the entire Lubar family for failing to stop Rikus' army.

Kalak

The sorcerer-king of Tyr, it says everything about Kalak that he calls himself "The Tyrant of Tyr". Nakedly honest about his position of absolute authority, Kalak ran Tyr with brutal efficiency for over a thousand years... until twenty years before the present of the original boxed set, when he seemed to go senile, appropriating massive amounts of slaves to construct a mysterious giant ziggurat. Kalak pursued this project with such obsessive focus that he barely seemed to notice (or care) that Tyr was falling into anarchy.

In truth, Kalak had developed a powerful arcano-psionic ritual that — with the ziggurat as a focal point — would allow him to complete the entirety of the draconic ascension in a single fell swoop, a goal for which he was perfectly willing to sacrifice the entire population of Tyr. He would have succeeded if it were not a conspiracy by his right-hand man Tithian, which culminated with a party lead by Rikus killing Kalak mid-transformation. Kalak is now the first slain sorcerer-king in modern Athasian history, signaling that the long reign of the sorcerer-kings may be coming to an end.

In the City-State of Tyr sourcebook, Kalak is described as having the appearance of a deceptively frail, diminutive man with wisps of gray hair about his temples but otherwise balding, always wearing purple robes and a golden diadem, and with a palpably bitter demeanor.

At Least I Admit It: In life, Kalak referred to himself as the Tyrant of Tyr, and he wasn't kidding, as he had no issue casually killing even his own templars in broad daylight if they irritated him, and was prepared to sacrifice his entire city-state for no better reason than to increase his own power. While he may not have advertised the latter plot, it remains that Kalak had no taste for the Faux Affably Evil posturing that most of the other sorcerer-kings engage in.
Ambition Is Evil: As if being a cruel and sadistic tyrant wasn't enough, he wishes to further increase his power by becoming a Dragon himself, putting him a step above his colleagues and killing all the people of Tyr.
Bald of Evil: He doesn't have a strand of hair on his head, which also better showcases a set of scales on his head.
Big Bad: The main antagonist and threat of the first book.
The Caligula: What he became in the later stages of his rule. To the wider world, he seemed to go insane or senile, letting his city-state crumble while engaging in horrifyingly intense slavery to create his ziggurat. The truth was that there was a method to the madness, but it does nothing to change the fact that he tried to sacrifice everything (and everyone) he had built up in a mad dash for power.
Despotism Justifies the Means: The Tyrant of Tyr was open about tyranny being both means and end, and everything he did was to satiate his power.
Establishing Character Moment: Oversees the building of the latest palace, shows little care for the suffering of the slaves and brutally executes one of his own templars to set an example for Tithian.
Evil Old Folks: He looks extremely ancient and is completely devoid of good qualities.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Twice, first in the arena, forcing his henchmen to carry him to safety, and later in his Dragon larva form, which proves fatal.
Killed Off for Real: He's only alive in the original boxed set and the attendant "City-State of Tyr" sourcebook. He gets killed off in The Prism Pentad novels, and thus is dead in both the revised boxed set and in the 4th edition reboot of the series.
One-Winged Angel: What he's going to do. Thankfully he's attacked while still in larval phase, making that a Clipped-Wing Angel.
Red Right Hand: He has claw-like hands and the sides of his cranium are covered in scales.
Repressive, but Efficient: For a thousand years, Kalak's rule was noted as brutally enforced and nakedly self-serving, but remarkably efficient. It was only when he went power-mad and became willing to sacrifice Tyr to become a fully-fledged Dragon that the city started to crumble into anarchy.
Sorcerous Overlord: A nearly omnipotent wizard who rules an entire country with an iron fist.
Stronger Than They Look: For all his powers as a sorcerer-king, Kalak was content with the appearance of a frail, balding (if undeniably evil-looking) old man.

Kalid-Ma

The sorcerer-king of Kalidnay, before the well-meaning sabotage of the templar Thakok-An inadvertently trapped the city-state in the Demiplane of Dread and compelled Kalid-Ma into a deep mystical slumber.In 4th edition, Kalid-Ma's mind has been trapped in a set of five obsidian spheres, with his fractured psyche trying to reassemble the quintet. If this happens, and the collected orbs are then brought to Kalidnay where it lies in the Grey, the sorcerer-king will be restored as a fully-formed spectral dragon of living shadow.

And I Must Scream: Trapped in an enchanted slumber in 2nd edition, and has his mind split between five obsidian orbs in 4th edition.
Gender Flip: Kalid-Ma was originally referred to in the Ravenloft sourcebook "Forbidden Lore" as a sorcerer-queen who was revered from afar by a male Thakok-An, and this interpretation continued into the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium II. However, when the Ravenloft setting was reworked in the boxed set "Domains of Dread", their genders were swapped around, with Kalid-Ma becoming a male sorcerer-king and Thakok-An becoming female templar.
God Save Us from the Queen!: The original depiction of Kalid-Ma was as one of the few sorcerer-queens of Athas.

Lalali-Puy

The sorcerer-queen of Gulg. Ruling over the last forest of Tyr, Lalali-Puy is known to her people as the "Oba", meaning "Forest Goddess", and is genuinely beloved by her people. She fights an endless war against Nibenay, who rapaciously attacks her domain for its wealth of valuable timber and other plant resources.

Adaptational Nice Guy: She's depicted as "evil" in the tabletop game, but even there, it is said that she's the closest thing the setting has to a "good" sorcerer-king. Except Orionis, although he isn't exactly a sorcerer-king anymore.
Antiquated Linguistics: In the tabletop game, it is mentioned how Lalali-Puy talks in old, outdated language that her entire court must speak as well.
Arch-Enemy: Nibenay, her most common enemy, who has no respect for her beloved forest.
A God Am I: She is actively worshipped by the people of Gulg, who believe her to be either a goddess that emerged from the forest to guide and protect them or the only deity that did not forsake Athas as it died. Of course, she does nothing to discourage such beliefs.
A Lighter Shade of Black: Like all the sorcerer-kings, Lalali-Puy is objectively evil, but she is far less so than every single one of her peers and the most likely to be redeemed. She rules over her city and its people as a dictatorial but loving mother, adopted the moniker of godhood only after it was acclaimed by her people, and generally serves as a sharp contrast to the other sorcerer-kings.
Cute Little Fangs: The only obviously monstrous trait consist in small fangs pressing against her lower lip.
Deadpan Snarker: Enjoys throwing some snarking at the expenses of the sealed tyrant Tithian.
Ms. Fanservice: She is the most attractive of the sorcerer-kings, and the illustrations of her play this up.
Mr. Exposition: Explains the history of old Athas to our heroes.
Noble Demon: She's seen in a far better light than her colleagues and is basically the only sorcerer-king who's genuinely adored by her subjects.
Offstage Villainy: She's officially a villain, but unlike most of the other sorcerer-kings, she is rarely depicted actually doing anything evil. She is brutal to the nature-spirits of Gulg that she usurped the power and role of, but that's mostly in her backstory rather than her actual in-game appearances.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: In 4th edition, she is the only sorcerer-king who utilizes Primal^note magic and extends this ability to her Templars. She does this by imprisoning primal spirits, the animistic entities from which this magic is derived, and torturing the power out of them. As a result, Athas' primal spirits hate Lalali-Puy with a vengeance and are eager to see her and her Templars destroyed.
Villain with Good Publicity: Even in the original boxed set, it's noted that she's the only sorcerer-monarch whose people genuinely love her.

Nibenay

The sorcerer-king of the city-state of the same name, the Shadow King is a mysterious and enigmatic figure who largely rules from seclusion, with his will being carried out by his all-female Templars. The reason for his seclusion is to cover his distinctly inhuman appearance, as Nibenay is the most draconic of the reigning sorcerer-kings.

Adaptation Deviation: In the game source, Nibenay is so reclusive and mysterious that no one knowns his true appearence. In the last novel of The Prism Pentad, he has to appear in clear sight along all the other Sorcerer Kings and appears as a smaller, humanoid counterpart of the Dragon.
Amazon Brigade: Nibenay's Templars are exclusively women, who are ceremonially wedded to him and considered his brides by law and tradition. Not all of them actually have sex with Nibenay, but at least some do.
An Arm and a Leg: Loses an arm to Rikus' sword, blaming Hamanu for this. He later starts regrowing a limb, but he accidentally breaks it in Lalali-Puy's hand when she tries to reason with him.
Arch-Enemy: Lalali-Puy, sorcerer-queen of Gulg, is his most common enemy. Largely because their city-states are in relatively close proximity and Nibenay covets the wealth of natural resources that her forested realm represents.
Battle Harem: The Templars of Nibenay are known as the "Shadow Brides" and are handpicked by the Sorcerer King for their skills and their beauty. They aren't his sexual harem per-se, although some of them are his consorts.
Casting a Shadow: As his Nom de Guerre suggests, Nibenay is a master of the magical creation and manipulation of darkness, as well as a powerful illusionist.
Covert Pervert: His templars are all women and their uniform is a simple golden skirt, and nothing else.
Egopolis: Nibenay named his city-state after himself. That's an impressive level of ego even compared to the likes of Tectuktitlay.
Emperor Scientist: Nibenay is one of the most intelligent of the remaining Sorcerer-Kings, and much of his seclusion is spent experimenting with new magic.
Evil Sorcerer: Like all the other sorcerer-kings, he's a tyrant who rules a despotic regime, in his case from the shadows.
The Man Behind the Man: Due to his manipulative nature and preference for secrecy, Nibenay prefers to let his entourage of beautiful templar concubines rule the city while he pulls the strings from the shadows and only enforce his presence on matters of personal interest.
Nom de Guerre: Nibenay is known by his people as "The Shadow King".
Orcus on His Throne: Invoked, he'd rather stay hidden from everyone but the closest members of the court. The only time he leaves his throne room is when Borys commands it... or when a rebellion erupts in his city-state.
Reasonable Authority Figure: The Marauders of Nibenay adventure portrays Nibenay as this trope (at least for a day), as he doesn't get upset when the PCs invade his sanctum to bring him out of his mental battle with the Zwuun (which is wrecking his city-state), and afterwards even organizes a peace conference with the Veiled Alliance and the city's other bickering factions.
Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Because Nibenay rarely interacts with his populace, rumors that he has died are frequent, and that in turn occasionally inspires rebellions against his rule. These insurrections always end with Nibenay appearing just long enough to go Person of Mass Destruction on the now-doomed rebels before returning to seclusion.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: He's occasionally depicted as a tall, slender blue humanoid covered in scales with a human-looking face molded on a reptile's head.
Shrouded in Myth: He calls himself the "Shadow King" and likes to stay unseen, so that no one really knows how he looks like.
Was Once a Man: Of all the living sorcerer-kings, Nibenay has come closest to completing the rites of Draconic Ascension, and now looks more like a wingless dragon with inky black scales than a human. He uses illusion magic (and his famous seclusion) to hide this from his people.

Tectuktitlay

The sorcerer-king of Draj. Calls himself "The Mighty and Omnipotent Tectuktitlay, Father of Life and Master of the Two Moons", which should tell you something about his ego. Whilst he rules over one of the most fertile city-states, he is constantly at war with the other sorcerer-kings, seeking victims to offer up as Human Sacrifices to his own glory.

A God Am I: Tectuktitlay is one of the few sorcerer-kings who actively demands to be worshipped as a god, and has gone to elaborate lengths to construct a mythos about himself. This isn't a God Guise. He truly considers himself a god according to the manual. Considering that he, like his peers, can bestow powers to his templars, this is not a completely empty claim, though his followers still worship him out of fear of retribution.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Really arrogant and quick to resolve to violence to solve his problems.
Boisterous Weakling: Relatively Speaking. Tectuktitlay is one of the evilest of the rulers in this setting, and by far the most fanatical about being worshipped as a god and positioned as the most powerful. He is also in the running for being the weakest of the sorcerer-kings, a fact that likely drives him to ever greater atrocities. Of course, being a sorcerer-king (which also comes with vast physical and psionic might), he is still heads and shoulders above everyone who isn't a sorcerer-king (or the Dragon).
The Brute: Amongst the Sorcerer Kings he's the most violent and brutal, lacking finesse and tact.
The Caligula: The members of his council have been blinded and had their tongues cut for no other reason than petty cruelty.
Feathered Fiend: He has the appearence of a monstrous bird humanoid. Oddly enough, he looks like a human in the tabletop game.
Hate Sink: While none of the sorcerer-kings are good people except Oronis, they tend to be more three-dimensional and complex in spite of being genocidal dictators. Tectuktitlay however is not merely a genocidal totalitarian, but also a zealously egotistical monster and kind of a pathetic asshole at heart with no redeeming features as a sentient being.
Mayincatec: His domain of Draj is described in these terms. King Tec has also a thing for pulling the still-beating hearts out of his victims' chests.
Nom de Guerre: Again: "The Mighty and Omnipotent Tectuktitlay, Father of Life and Master of the Two Moons".
Overly Long Name: His full name is Tectuktitlay, but he's simply called "King Tec" in book even by the narrative.
Pride: Even in the middle of a world-threatening situation he still wants to be called by his full name by the other Sorcerer Kings. (That being: the Mighty and Omnipotent Tectuktitlay, Father of Life and Master of the Two Moons).
Small Name, Big Ego:
- Despite his Nom de Guerre and the fertility of Draj, Tectuktitlay is not regarded with much respect by other Athasians. The in-universe narrator for the boxed set openly states that Tectuktitlay is almost certainly not the strongest of the sorcerer-kings, and speculates that he was originally a relatively young and weak defiler who lucked into finding an extremely fertile spot of unclaimed territory in the mudflats and founded Draj, which eventually led to his being recognized as a sorcerer-king.
- He's still an incredibly powerful and terrifying Sorcerer King, but he's the weakest of the Sorcerer Kings (at Challenge Rate 22, contrasting the others who are around 25/28). Nevertheless, he's incredibly full of himself and constantly tries to make his colleagues address him by his full, bombastic title. Unsurprisingly, Rajaat crushes him like an ant.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He's the sorcerer-king we learn the least about.

Oronis

The sorcerer-king of Kurn. He was once a genocidal Champion of Rajaat little different than the others who would become the sorcerer-kings. At some point after Rajaat's defeat, however, he came to regret his path in existence. Such was his remorse that he reversed his progress in dragon transformation, and instead became the first Avangion of Athas.

The Atoner: His hat in recent lore is that he's the only sorcerer-king actually trying to make Athas a better place, and that his remorse over committing genocide against the lizardmen is what drives him.
Big Good: Downplayed. He's the most powerful Good-aligned being known to exist in the present of Athas, but the need to remain hidden (lest the other sorcerer-kings dogpile him as they did Dregoth before him) somewhat hamstrings his ability to function as a Big Good. That the second aspiring Avangion screwed up and got killed off doesn't make Orionis feel any more confident about trying to lead more do-gooders down his path.
Cincinnatus: New Kurn is noted to be a true democracy, and unlike Andropinis, Oronis has completely retired from politics to allow his people to rule themselves without his interference.
Good Counterpart: The only genuinely good sorcerer-king, who has repented of his role in Rajaat's genocides, and is intent on healing Athas for its own sake.
Heroic Willpower: He was somehow able to reverse his transformation into an Athasian Dragon, and is now midway down the path of the Avangion.
Hidden Elf Village: New Kurn, a city built away from the minimally-managed Kurn with the intent of becoming a haven for what remains good and fertile on Athas, and possibly the genesis of a new Green Age.

Daskinor

The sorcerer-king of Eldaarich.

The Paranoiac: While most sorcerer-kings have some shades of this, Daskinor is arguably the worst case of a bad lot., essentially closing off Eldaarich from the outside world and fanatically searches for any real or imagined enemies.

Dregoth

The undead sorcerer-king of Giustenal. Dregoth became fascinated with the Rite of Draconic Ascension; not only was he the only sorcerer-king after Borys to attempt to complete it, but he became fixated on the idea that it wasn't humanity, but a race of dragons evolved from humanity who should rule over Athas. His experiments led to his near-complete ascension into a fully-fledged dragon — but this alarmed his fellow sorcerer-kings, who slew him and lay waste to his city-state. However, Dregoth had prepared contingency spells, which revived him as a lich-like undead being and he went underground — literally, setting up a new base beneath the ruins of Giustenal and working to both create his dray army (or to recreate it, in 4th edition) and to find some way to complete his own draconic transformation and from there become a god.

Came Back Wrong: In a sense. While reviving as a dracolich-like monster allowed Dregoth to survive his assassination by the other sorcerer-kings, it also halted his ascension as a dragon (at least by any process known to the sorcerer-kings).
Dracolich: Of all the sorcerer-kings, Dregoth had come the closest to completing the Rites of Draconic Ascension... but fearing a repeat of the near-disaster that was Borys' ascension, the other sorcerer-kings killed him. He then came back as a unique lich monster.
Fantastic Racism: Alone amongst the sorcerer-kings, he's still caught up in the idea of human supremacy... except his views have shifted somewhat. Now he believes that dragons are the true master race, with humans second (and only because they can be turned into dragons); non-humans are scum fit only to be slaves or exterminated.
- He also looks down on his deformed "first generation" dray and cast them out of New Giustenal to fend for themselves.
- In 4th edition, dray are a playable race because Dregoth actally became dissatisfied with most of his creations prior to the invasion of Giustenal and drove them from the city, keeping only a small number that he judged "sufficiently pure", whom he would breed his "true" dray from after returning as Athas' dracolich.
Godhood Seeker: He wants to finish becoming a dragon, and then ascend as a proper god. The latter is explicitly impossible on Athas, but he does not realize that.
Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: The other sorcerer-kings are unaware that Dregoth is still around (albeit in undead form), which has allowed him to operate in secrecy for the last two thousand years.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: How Dregoth's assassination was described. The other sorcerer-kings didn't just attack him all at once, they assaulted him with psionic attacks, pounded him with their spells, and even hit him with physical weapons and their fists.
Ultimate Life Form: Dregoth views dragons as the ultimate life form, and the only beings fit to inherit Athas.

Borys | the Dragon of Tyr

Originally known as Borys of Ebe and now simply as "The Dragon", it is the sole fully transformed dragon known to exist on Athas. It was once a contemporary of the other sorcerer-kings before it successfully completed the Rites of Draconic Ascension in a bid to keep their former master, Rajaat, imprisoned. Now it regularly collects tribute from the sorcerer-kings to help keep Rajaat sealed, and the sorcerer-kings willingly grant it because they have no wish to to see Rajaat return, either.

Bald of Evil: As a human, he had no hair except for a savage long beard.
Big Bad: The Dragon is the most powerful and the most evil being active in the Tablelands. He's the main threat of the setting, an evil force who roams Athas and forces the cities into offering mass human sacrifices for a mysterious purpose, which turns out to be keeping the even more monstrous Rajaat sealed.
Breath Weapon: Its breath weapon is a stream of superheated sand.
The Dreaded: The Dragon terrifies everyone on Athas and no one, not even the sorcerer-kings, dares to defy him.
Evil Versus Oblivion: The Dragon is unquestionably evil (and arrogant), but it also works to keep Rajaat sealed. The latter is an Omnicidal Maniac who (if free) would do much worse things to the Tablelands than the Dragon does.
Hero Killer: Literally with Caelum and Magnus, who he offs with extreme prejudice.
Hopeless Boss Fight: The Valley Of Dust And Fire sourcebook openly encourages the DM to make any encounter with the Dragon this, even if the players can track it down and attack it in its lair.
Karmic Death: He spent his life as a Champion of Rajaat in an attempt to eradicate the Dwarves, and once wielded the Scourge of Rkard before turning against his master and sealing him in the Void. He's finally slain by Rikus, a half-dwarf, with his own sword and the power of the Void.
Lean and Mean: He's very slim-built as a Dragon, with the narration remarking that even an elf would look fat beside him.
Our Dragons Are Different: No wings, shell-covered torso, very slim body, he spits superheated sand, and is a master of both sorcery and psionics. However, he has sometimes has wings in the tabletop game depiction. Furthermore, Athasian Dragons are more or less the apex form of all evil spellcasters, attainable through power and bloodshed.
Orcus on His Throne:
- Downplayed to the inhabitants of the Tablelands, as he frequently wanders Athas and has no trouble showing up where he wants to sow destruction and death.
- The inhabitants of the Dragon's lair and city, Ur Draxa, have begun to see the Dragon as this, as it has grown less and less interested in managing the city over the centuries, and often spends long periods of time elsewhere in the world or simply lurking in its private sanctum.
Small, Secluded World: Ur Draxa is not merely secluded from the Tyr Region, but located in a hellish wasteland which is deep within the vast Sea of Silt and hidden by a Great Ash Storm which functions as its Wall Around the World. Unsurprisingly, almost no one in the Tablelands has any clue that Ur Draxa even exists.
Was Once a Man: It started as a human, but is now a fully-fledged dragon.
Weaksauce Weakness: His stomach is full of obsidian orbs, required for his spellcasting. With the orbs gone he's forced to rely on plantlife to fuel his magic, like all sorcerers.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: His sacrifices keep the even more dangerous Rajaat sealed, which is why all the sorcerer-kings go along with it.

Others

Rajaat

A pyreen known as the First Sorcerer, Rajaat appeared first in history teaching Preserver magic to the people in the Green Age. Any good will he may have earned from this was lost, unfortunately, as he later gathered the fifteen disciples that would eventually become the sorcerer-kings and taught them Defiler magic as part of the path to dragonhood.

This was not done out of kindness to the sorcerer-kings, however, as he really planned to have them wipe out all of Athas' "inferior" races, including eventually humanity, so that he could return it to its original rulers, the halflings.

The sorcerer-kings eventually discovered his mad plot and turned against him, imprisoning him in a place called the Hollow, a prison that is maintained by yearly sacrifices to the Dragon of Tyr.

The Archmage: By far the most powerful being ever to walk Athas and so strong even the Sorcerer Kings are nothing to him.
Beauty Equals Goodness: While his fellow pyreen as a whole are both paragons of virtue and possessed of a combination of the best, most attractive traits of Standard Fantasy Races, Rajaat was... different, and that was before he became ...something worse.
"Rajaat was deformed and ugly of both heart and body. In his youth he had high ideals and great plans, but these became as twisted as the body and spirit that housed them.
By all accounts, Rajaat was hideous. He had a huge head with a flat, grossly elongated face. His eyes were half-covered by flaps of skin. His long nose, lacking a bridge, ended in three flaring nostrils. His small, slitlike mouth was marked with tiny teeth and a drooping chin. His body was contorted and weak, with humped shoulders and gangling arms."
Big Bad: He's the reason that Athas is the post-apocalypse hellhole that it is.
Blatant Lies: He told his followers that humans were going to be the only race left on Athas. It was actually Halflings.
Dystopia Justifies the Means: Defiling magic's horrific cost and pointless destruction were all by design.
Fantastic Racism: His loathing of other species drove him to genocidal world-destroying extremes.
Final Solution: Rajaat planned to exterminate every race on Athas other than halflings. Notably, to accomplish this, he used humans.
Humanoid Abomination: When Rajaat makes a brief reappearance at the end of The Prism Pentad, he's described as having transformed from an admittedly ugly humanoid mutant into a monstrous being of elemental matter.
The Man Behind the Man: He's the one who taught the Sorcerer Kings how to use defiling magic.
Misanthrope Supreme: And not just humans, either. Rajaat hated all the non-halfling races.
Omnicidal Maniac: Of all the myriad sapient species of Athas, the only one he deems worthy of existing is halflings by virtue of being the Precursors (even though no modern halfling likely knows of their glorious past). All others are only worthy of genocide.
Sealed Evil in a Can: The Dragon of Tyr keeps Rajaat imprisoned in a pocked dimension, but doing so costs so much energy that the other sorcerer-kings must yearly sacrifice a thousand slaves each to him.

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