The D&D Setting WOTC Abandoned...TWICE!

there is an official DND setting so controversial that Wizards of the Coast has abandoned it not once but twice a fan favorite to some and completely unknown to others today I want to introduce you to athas the burning world of the Dark Sun campaign setting I'm going to introduce the setting explain some of the history and discuss how best you can use this material in your games so if you're even slightly curious about the Blasted wastes under the Dark Sun stick around for the ride [Music] the world is on the brink of Extinction plants and water are scarce due to the mistakes and abuses of the past civilization barely exists except for isolated city-states ruled over by their own mad Knight Immortal monarchs psionic Powers run rampant through the flora fauna and people and there are no Gods the closest thing to Divine powers are those who borrow power from primordial places from the Sun the sand or the Earth itself how did we get here much like with the sword Coast a lot of the material we have on the world of Athos is confined to one specific region the table lands as far as the populace knows this is the only region left habitable on the planet the sea to the east has transformed into a dust bowl filled with silt so fine and numerous that it is nigh unnavigable without protection expertise or luck the land to the South is coated with obsidian as far as the eye can see and rumors abound that this obsidian is where the undead are generated to the West the ringing mountains Tower over the table lands with rumors that great beasts and Savage humanoids make their home there and the north well the few people who tried leaving that way tend not to come back and find little but death but it's not just the landscape or the beasts that want to kill you if you want to find out more about some aphasian beasties click right here by the way no the world is so harsh that even the people that live there are twisted versions of their fantasy archetypes elves don't live very long their tribal Nomads known for their agility and long fast Legs live but easily breakable it's clear why they're among the shortest lived peoples after all they tend to make their lives outside the cities free perhaps from tyrannical influence but not from the Myriad beasts that scatter across the desert wastes dwarves are single-minded creatures stubborn to a fault they cannot stop pursuing their purpose until it is completed if they fail they either become a husk shell of their former self or die trying and if a dwarf dies its dead self continues trying to reach the goal as a side note it doesn't do to have too much hair in the desert so a faceian dwarfs are entirely bald halflings are an intriguing one rumors abound that they once had some great Lost Civilization but now well they're Savages plain and simple now they inhabit some of the only forested areas known to man and Beast and their diets do consist mostly of the local beasts but the halflings have often historically been known to be loose on their definitions of humanoid and Beast and humans of course we're there in the middle of an ecological Disaster Area humans are relatively unchanged from most fantasy depictions except if you can believe it we're a little greedier and more selfish in this world and of course there's the unfortunate reality that all of the sorcerer Kings beings of great power and brutality who rule this land are all humans and or all nigh Immortal although a brief look around atheus will tell you that that is not a trait most humans share there are other peoples too from the three cream human-sized antiloid people with innate telepathic abilities and a strange ecology hailing from far beyond the table lands and The Mists of time to the half Giants who like any giant themed race really should stand at over 10 feet tall but are relatively gentle their followers not leaders and they change their spots to suit their environment athus is filled with interesting takes on fantasy and science fiction Concepts there are even species born from experimentation with life itself the sterile Mull a combination of the best parts of humans and dwarfs and of course the mysterious Dre but what of these great settlements that ostensibly keep their citizens safe let's talk about the cities of Athos tier the starting Crucible for many stories told on athers is built on the ruins of itself going Generations back based on Ancient Phoenician civilization tier is a Melting Pot a cultural center and is famed for its Grand and ambitious building projects balik is a democracy in the same way that modern Belarus is based on a fusion of Greco-Roman civilization this is perhaps the most familiar cultural Touchstone in dark Sun's Grand menagerie of ancient civilizations it sits overlooking the silt sea and is the only city that really fully engages with the silt sea as a resource for travel trade and interesting things to find auric is inspired by ancient Babylon right down to its leader hermanu who Echoes Hammurabi in both name and legalism a meticulously designed city auric is remarkably functional and well-oiled with a strong military presence a uniformed feel and a hyper-vigilant authoritarian government gulk is based on Central African kingdoms and is a lot more communitarian than many of the other cities it has a sorcerer Monarch who is shockingly willing to actually engage with her citizens contained within a rare forest gold is a city of hunters and gatherers who live in communal shared pods within the city's natural barriers nibene also sits near gulgs forested place but has very very different routes based on the Khmer Empire this city is famous for its intricate architectural detailing reminiscent of Angkor Wat itself ruled by a king in the shadows who nonetheless has a palace shaped like his head in the very center of the city it's a place of contradiction and of death as motifs of death are all over this Grand architecture of the city Ram is based on the ancient Indian mauryan empire a large-scale Iron Age Dynasty that encompassed much of what modern India is today Ram has a caste system which just about serves to keep the population in check while their Monarch claims to be a prophetess and lives very much outside this rigidly enforced system and thraj is inspired by Aztec culture from great step pyramids to blood sacrifices its ruler considers all crimes to be punishable by death sentences which are carried out by his famed Moon priests he has also banned any historical learning or discussion of the past he claims to be a God himself and who are his citizens to deny him that now there are other places of interest in the world but these are the ones with the powerful tyrannical sorcerermonics in play this really goes to show the broad net of cultural influences this setting casts and how far it's willing to go to avoid classic fantasy tropes this can certainly lead to the flattening of the cultures it takes and is inspired by but most of this is hopefully so couched in the ancient history of our world that it's easy enough to avoid offensive essentializations unfortunately the history of Athos is not a pretty one as intimated already there are themes of psionic control ecological collapse forced labor and cultural cleansing these things are relatively Central to the history of Athos and form the foundation of much of the setting I will discuss at the end of this video how to best mitigate some of the uh rather negative effects bringing these things to an unprepared table can have so make sure you stick around for that suffice it to say dark sun is a dark fantasy setting with some seriously problematic elements and I can see why when Wizards of the Coast took over from TSR they weren't too Keen to bring the setting up to date into Third Edition I can also see why it didn't survive its transition from being a published setting in fourth edition into fifth tastes sensitivities and the things we're willing to put up with from our games change over time and it's perfectly reasonable and understandable that the world needs to change along with our media but I just so happen to think there is still some value and interesting things that can be mined from this setting and if your table is comfortable enough it's a very interesting place to take them with proper safety tools and maturity so if you want to skip ahead to avoid some of this dark history or you're looking to play in a dark Sun campaign and don't want to spoil some of this interesting stuff for yourself please feel free to skip ahead right here for the rest of us I will be presenting this as a legend some of this is definitely accurate some of it has speculative elements much of it is reconstructed from various disparate sources after all part of the fun of playing in Athos is discovering for yourself just what has come before so the beginning it starts with halflings they and the queen shared the world developing their very own unique styles of living the world was covered in ocean with the odd dotted Island this was the blue age the halflings tinkered with life-shaping powers becoming able to mold life into their chosen image but they went too far they created a plague called the brown tide which wiped out almost all life in the Bountiful Seas whether through embarrassment or a desire to leave a legacy other humanoid races were born into this world through this life-shaping magic some speculate that the life Shapers transformed themselves into these new forms others that they built these forms and simply disappeared but before they left these forerunners left a monument powered by their life-shaping magic designed to reverse as best they could the brown tide and so the world changed again the green age had begun the Seas receded somewhat and plant life sprung up flourishing with these newly created races life-shaping magic was lost but these new species found themselves capable of using psionic powers to protect themselves in this burgeoning flourishing new green age then the world changed again a creature called rajat twisted and tortured discovered in his long life a power that would soon become known as magic but not as we know it athers has no magical weave to tug upon no nature was the Catalyst for this magic either by drawing small portions of life out of the plants around you preserving them for future use or drawing all the power from the plants and the soil below them to create more potent and malleable spells when he had mastered it rajat taught this magic to his students the most greedy among them humans all he taught defiling magic and he took them as his personal disciples their goal to eliminate all other species through a series of horrific Wars entire species were wiped off the planet goblins Cobalts ogres and gnomes all no longer live had lied these wars were not to give his disciples the world but rather to clear the way for the restoration of what had come before placing halflings as the one and only custodians of the world never mind the thoracreen nobody else seemed to the champions of rajat rebelled against him undergoing transformative rituals that powered their magic to great extents they succeeded but at a great cost one event in particular saw the creation of athens's one true Dragon which tore through the already ravaged land pockmarked with evidence of defilement of the very soil the world began to die as the sorcerer Kings retreated to their city-states and ruled for Millennia Petty infighting and power grabs led to the loss of a few monarchs but those who remain are Hardy they rule with powerful psionics potent magics and have outlawed any attempts to come even close to their power much of the population now exists for one purpose to satisfy the desires and the vanity of their sorcerer King and to be disposed of when their usefulness dissipates so if you're interested in this setting how should you play it first let's talk safety I know this will be an annoyance to some who would prefer their games presented without pulling punches or avoiding taboo yet I think that especially with sensitive topics it's always worthwhile to discuss responsible storytelling when a setting has things like systematic cleansing Wars and the enslavement of Sapient peoples we must remember that such things may well have affected those at our table personally or dredge up intergenerational trauma or deeply unpleasant personal associations while I would love to say dark sun is for everyone especially as most stories told in this setting are of a relatively hopeful struggle against the brutality of tyrannical oppression it's clear that without heavy alterations some of these themes that may be problematic to your players are kind of baked in it is entirely possible to sanitize certain problematic aspects or just not bring them up and run an excellent Dark Sun game after all your table is your table and your players are your responsibility the utter breadth of setting information adventures and strange historic occurrences makes the history and present of this world fairly malleable especially as certain Concepts just simply aren't very well explained across any of the source materials one thing to note is that it's generally a very bad idea to Spring this setting on players it takes a certain mindset to play in this world and someone searching for escapism from the brutality of life may find themselves in a difficult spot personally I feel like the cleansing Wars are a very good place to start for sanitizing some of athens's most horrific Parts as it really only requires a reframing of the concept or simply a suggestion that these races never existed on Athens in the first place you could also look at historical examples of serfdom and other forms of control to replace the rather heinous mind-reading mind-controlling ultimate enslavement that can happen due to psionics if you'd like to get started with dark Sun the main recommendation from the community is actually to play it in second edition it's what the setting was built for and many of the mechanics make the most sense there I have also had some success using 5th edition and have heard very good things about Savage worlds as a system as well for running Dark Sun however dark Suns fans aren't starved for interesting and free content athos.org is a very useful repository founded using the ogl in Third Edition after what C decided they were abandoning the setting after they took over all of D D's licenses another excellent resource is the Dark Sun Grand compendium collated by Overlord 1024. it is an entirely system agnostic law document and contains pretty much everything you might want to know about atheus from City demographics to a grand best theory of the law of the beasts that keep pathos on its toes indeed the whole community of R Dark Sun is very helpful when it comes to answering questions on the game and creating fascinating fan made content so please do check it out if you want to run Dark Sun in 5th edition which is still the most popular ttrpg system there are many conversions available available some on the subreddit the main things you're going to want to change about 5e if you're going to make the setting work by going it alone are the defiling versus preserving Arcane magic dichotomy I find giving defiling magic something of the sorcerer's metamagic is a decent stop gap for that and of course psionics which I recommend stealing some of the unearth Arcana Mystic 4 as well as the brilliant second edition Source book entitled The will and the way and finally if you want to try and run a module from Dark Sun try Freedom it's a great introduction to many of the themes and there are some pretty good conversions to a lot of different systems floating around out there or if you're slightly higher level and looking to see some of the horror Madness and wackiness that this setting could actually have within it I can only wholeheartedly recommend the city by the silt sea which is one of my favorite modules from any published setting but with all that said I hope this has primed you or filled you in on what this fascinating setting has to offer and I've got you excited to read up on this Twisted atmospheric and very unique take on fantasy and a reminder to all you Dark Sun fans I have barely scratched the surface on some of the interesting law and locations contained within the setting I could speak for days on the giant clans of the silt sea the lone evangian the [ __ ] the Surfers of saraga but I simply haven't the time at this moment and for new fans I hope that's enough of a teaser to keep you interested for all the things that you're going to find out about this strange World in any case I've been Tom otherwise known as the grunge Master thank you for watching and I will see you in the next video

Channel: The Grungeon Master

Views: 13,390

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Id: 86xh8QNAR7k

Length: 24min 10sec (1450 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2023