History TabletopGame / DarkSun

** One in every 30,000 (or 3,000 in the fanmade 3e) human babies is a Villichi -- an albino psionic amazon [[HumanSubspecies subspecies of humanity]]. It is widely known that when a Villichi baby is born, her sisters will inevitably show up to collect her... and woe unto the local community if they find that any harm has come to her. The Villichi (and their psionic powers) are so scary that killing one of their babies is among the few taboos respected ''everywhere on Athas''. What makes it this trope is that even the ''sorcerer-kings'' think twice before harming a Villichi baby.

* DarkFantasy: ''Dark Sun'' is not your usual gonzo EpicFantasy experience. The world has been ruined by centuries of magic abuse and genocidal conflict, slavery and cannibalism are just everyday norms, every city-state is run by unimaginably powerful and wicked sorcerer-kings who have absolute power, and there's hardly any good in the world, just sand and misery. Oh, and all the elves, dwarves, and halflings? They're all savage and nasty compared to the usual ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' knockoffs.

* DarkFantasy: ''Dark Sun'' is not your usual gonzo EpicFantasy experience. The world has been ruined by centuries of magic abuse and genocidal conflict, slavery and cannibalism are just everyday norms, every city-state is run by unimaginably powerful and wicked sorcerer-kings who have absolute power, and there's hardly any good in the world, just sand and misery.

* EvilVersusEvil: What 90% of politics on Athas consists of, especially when it comes to the [[SorcerousOverlord Sorcerer-Lords]] and the Dragon. Every Sorcerer-Lord [[spoiler: save one]] is evil by any sane measure, and while their moral spectrum runs from the level of pure evil to "relatively" AffablyEvil, all are genocidal tyrants.

* GoodIsNotSoft: Avangions embody the pinnacle of preserver magic, learning to work magic and psionics into a force of restoration that breathes life back into the deying world of Athas. They even lose the ability to fight as they complete their transformation, countering the dragons. But they are still fully capable of wielding a massive arsenal of offensive spells and psionics, have no moral restrictions on their status, and are more than capable of slaughter on a massive scale if that is the only way to stop further ravaging of the world.

* HorrifyingTheHorror: The Githyanki are known as the most feared and badass warriors in the multiverse. They live on the corpse of a god, are immortal, and dedicate their lives to raiding whatever they can get their hands on. The initiation ritual for young Githyanki is ''killing a mind flayer'', a nightmarish {{cthulhumanoid}} with genius-level intelligence, mighty PsychicPowers and a diet made up exclusively of sapient brains. When the Githyanki discovered Athas, they packed their bags and went straight home, sealing the portal behind them.

* GenreThrowback: ''Dark Sun'' is an escape from the traditional Tolkienian HighFantasy of regular ''Dungeons & Dragons'' back to the weirder stuff of the pulp era, particularly the [[JustBeforeTheEnd Dying Earth]] works of Creator/JackVance and Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith, and PlanetaryRomance fiction like the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series (albeit with a much DarkerAndEdgier tone than the ''Carter'' books got).

* SingleBiomePlanet: Defied, barely. The terrain of Athas ''is'' mostly variants of "desert wasteland" (sandy wastes, rocky badlands, stony barrens, salt flats, etc), but it also has mountains, forests, a Last Sea, and even ''worse'' wasteland variants (the dust basin that is the Sea of Silt, the frigging entirety of the Valley of Dust and Fire, etc).

Dark Sun is also known for its {{metaplot}}, some element of which is present in all editions of the setting. The bare bones is as follows: the Tyr region is dominated by seven tyrannical city-states, the most powerful of which is, naturally, Tyr. Each city-state is ruled by an oppressive sorcerer-king (or, in some cases, sorcerer-queen); powerful spellcasters that are universally cruel and nigh immortal (the youngest sorcerer-king has over eight centuries under his belt). Tyr's sorcerer-king is Kalak, and on the verge of his ascension the unthinkable happened: Kalak was slain at the hands of a slave revolt. Power immediately shifted hands to his former High Templar and killer, Tithian, who quickly outlawed slavery and declared Tyr to be a Free City. There are even talks of setting up a senate, giving people rights, and establishing a rudimentary justice system. However, all is not well in Tyr. Multiple factions with opposing interests are vying for both power and a place in the new government, and almost all of them need to be in agreement in order for anything to get done. On any given day, the Free City of Tyr is teetering between anarchy and [[DividedWeFall full-blown civil war]]. If that weren't enough, the vultures have begun to circle; with Kalak gone, the numerous bandits and raiders of Athas have declared open season on Tyr's trade roads. Worse, word of Kalak's death has begun to reach the ears of his rival sorcerer-kings, who, aside from consolidating their own power bases to ensure that they avoid Kalak's fate, have begun their machinations against a Tyr they view as hopelessly exposed. The first truly good thing in written Athasian history has happened in Tyr, but it is a meager candle in the face of the tidal wave of darkness hoping to extinguish it.

* AlienSky: Athas has two moons; Ral and Guthay. Ral is the largest and is a green color. Guthay 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 were due to overuse of magic. (Real stars also change colour, but on longer timescales and accompanied by changes in size.)

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: One of the more iconic monsters of the setting is a four-armed ogre-like giant. In 2nd and 3rd edition, it's referred to as a "B'rohg", with an apostrophe. In 4th edition, it dropped the apostrophe.

In 2023, Wizards of the Coast announced that it had no plans for Dark Sun in the foreseeable future, citing the setting's "problematic" themes. Needless to say, D&D fans were outraged.

* 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 [[InherentInTheSystem unable to change an iota of this monstrous situation]]. Death by psionic locusts seems merciful compared to slavery.

* 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 were due to overuse of magic. (Real stars also change colour, but on longer timescales and accompanied by changes in size.)

** Thematically remains, though simplified, in the 4e version. The Avangion, Dragon King, and Pyreen are epic destinies for Arcane characters, Arcane characters who can use Arcane Defiling, and Primal characters respectively.