Verden - Dark Sun

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“I live in a world of fire and sand. The crimson sun scorches the life from anything that crawls or flies, and storms of sand scour the foliage from the barren ground. This is a land of blood and dust, where tribes of feral elves sweep out of the salt plains to plunder lonely caravans, mysterious singing winds call travelers to slow suffocation in the Sea of Silt, and selfish kings squander their subjects’ lives building gaudy palaces and garish tombs. This bleak wasteland is Athas, and it is my home.”

— The Wanderer’s Journal



Links
Dark Sun Primer
Verdens Kort - Udenfor Tyr Regionen
Verdens Kort - Fokus på Tyr Regionen



Eight Characteristics of Athas

The world of the Dark Sun setting is unique in several ways. Many familiar trappings of the Dungeons & Dragons game are missing or turned on their heads. Athas is not a place of shining knights and robed wizards, of deep forests and divine pantheons. To venture over the sands of Athas is to enter a world of savagery and splendor that draws on different traditions of fantasy and storytelling. Simple survival beneath the deep red sun is often its own adventure.

Newcomers to Athas have much to learn about the world, its people, and its monsters, but the following eight characteristics encapsulate the most important features of the Dark Sun campaign setting.

1. The World Is a Desert

Athas is a hot, arid planet covered with endless seas of dunes, lifeless salt flats, stony wastes, rocky badlands, thorny scrublands, and worse. From the first moments of dawn, the crimson sun beats down from an olive-tinged sky. Temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees F. by midmorning and can reach 130 degrees or more by late afternoon. The wind is like the blast of a furnace, offering no relief from the oppressive heat. Dust and sand borne on the breeze coat everything with yellow-orange silt.

In this forbidding world, cities and villages exist only in a few oases or verdant plains. Some places don’t see rain for years at a time, and even in fertile regions, rain is little more than a humid mist that falls during a few weeks each year before giving way to long months of heat and drought. The world beyond these islands of civilization is a wasteland roamed by nomads, raiders, and hungry monsters.

Athas was not always a desert, and the parched landscape is dotted with the crumbling ruins of a planet that once was rich with rivers and seas. Ancient bridges over dry watercourses and empty stone quays that face seas of sand tell the tale of a world that is no more.

2. The World Is Savage

Life on Athas is brutal and short. Bloodthirsty raiders, greedy slavers, and hordes of inhuman savages overrun the deserts and wastelands. The cities are little better; each chokes in the grip of an ageless tyrant. The institution of slavery is widespread on Athas, and many unfortunates spend their lives in chains, toiling for brutal taskmasters. Every year hundreds of slaves, perhaps thousands, are sent to their deaths in bloody arena spectacles. Charity, compassion, kindness—these qualities exist, but they are rare and precious. Only a fool hopes for such riches.

3. Metal Is Scarce

Most arms and armor are made of bone, stone, wood, and other such materials. Mail or plate armor exists only in the treasuries of the sorcerer-kings. Steel blades are almost priceless, weapons that many heroes never see during their lifetimes.

4. Arcane Magic Defiles the World

The reckless use of arcane magic during ancient wars reduced Athas to a wasteland. To cast an arcane spell, one must gather power from the living world nearby. Plants wither to black ash, crippling pain wracks animals and people, and the soil is sterilized; nothing can grow in that spot again. It is possible to cast spells with care, preserving the world and avoiding any more damage to it, but defiling offers more power than preserving. As a result, sorcerers, wizards, and other wielders of arcane magic are reviled and persecuted across Athas regardless of whether they preserve or defile. Only the most powerful spellcasters can wield arcane might without fear of reprisal.

5. Sorcerer-Kings Rule the City-States

Terrible defilers of immense power rule all but one of the city-states. These mighty spellcasters have held their thrones for centuries; no one alive remembers a time before the sorcerer-kings. Some claim to be gods, and some claim to serve gods. Some are brutal oppressors, where others are more subtle in their tyranny.

The sorcerer-kings govern through priesthoods or bureaucracies of greedy, ambitious templars, lesser defilers who can call upon the kings’ powers. Only in the city-state of Tyr does a glimmer of freedom beckon, and powerful forces already conspire to extinguish it.

6. The Gods Are Silent

Long ago, when the planet was green, the brutal might of the primordials overcame the gods. Today, Athas is a world without deities. There are no clerics, no paladins, and no prophets or religious orders. Old shrines and crumbling temples lie amid the ancient ruins, testimony to a time when the gods spoke to the people of Athas. Nothing is heard now but the sighing of the desert wind.

In the absence of divine influence, other powers have come to prominence in the world. Psionic power is well known and widely practiced on Athas; even unintelligent desert monsters can have deadly psionic abilities. Shamans and druids call upon the primal powers of the world, which are often sculpted by the influence of elemental power.

7. Fierce Monsters Roam the World

The desert planet has its own deadly ecology. Athas has no cattle, swine, or horses; instead, people tend flocks of erdlus, ride on kanks or crodlus, and draw wagons with inixes and mekillots. Wild creatures such as lions, bears, and wolves are nonexistent. In their place are terrors such as the id fiend, the baazrag, and the tembo. Perhaps the harsh environment of Athas breeds creatures tough and vicious enough to survive it, or maybe the touch of ancient sorcery poisoned the wellsprings of life and inflicted monster after monster on the dying world. Either way, the deserts are perilous, and only a fool or a lunatic travels them alone.

8. Familiar Races Aren’t What You Expect

Typical fantasy stereotypes don’t apply to Athasian heroes. In many Dungeons & Dragons settings, elves are wise, benevolent forest dwellers who guard their homelands from intrusions of evil. On Athas, elves are a nomadic race of herders, raiders, peddlers, and thieves. Halflings aren’t amiable riverfolk; they’re xenophobic headhunters and cannibals who hunt and kill trespassers in their mountain forests. Goliaths—or half-giants, as they are commonly known—are brutal mercenaries who serve as elite guards and enforcers for the sorcerer-kings and their templars in many city-states.

Link til fuldt kort

What remains of Athasian civilization is cupped in the broad plains and deserts between the mighty Ringing Mountains and the impassable Sea of Silt. This wide area is known as the Tyr Region after its oldest city, although these days, Tyr is no more powerful or influential than its neighbors. (In fact, Tyr, mired in turmoil, is desperately vulnerable at the moment.) Beyond the borderlands of this region lie desolate wastes; some people believe that the Tyr Region is the last habitable area on Athas, and that all the people remaining in the world live in these lands.

The sorcerer-kings have ruled the Tyr Region for longer than anyone can remember. For generations, no one contested their power and lived to tell about it, but everything changed recently when a spear impaled Kalak, the sorcerer-king of Tyr. Kalak’s death and Tyr’s liberation marked the beginning of a new era, shaking thrones that had not been threatened in countless years. Rumors of Tyr’s newfound freedom spread like wildfire across the Seven Cities, giving pause to sorcerer-kings who hoped that thoughts of rebellion would not spread to their own domains.



The Seven Cities

Tyr, The Free City

Ruler: King Tithian of Mericles

Tyr is a flashpoint of intrigue and change on Athas. Its Golden Tower and sealed Ziggurat are unique wonders that awe most visitors.

Population: Roughly 15,000 within the city walls, and about as many in the noble estates and villages of the Tyr Valley. Humans are the majority, constituting two-thirds of the population. Dwarves, elves, goliaths, and muls make up most of the rest.

Water: Seventeen public wells reach down below Tyr to tap one of the deepest, oldest aquifers on Athas, fed by runoff from the nearby Ringing Mountains. A Tyrian Guard detachment protects each well. Tithian (under pressure from others) has declared that each citizen is entitled to one hand-carried container of water per day. Those who try to get around this law risk being exiled. The city-state also has many private wells, such as in the King’s Gardens and in the Templar District.

Supplies: A wide variety of basic supplies is available in the Caravan and Merchant Districts, as well as in the Elven Market in the Warrens. Most days, a ragtag bazaar springs up near the Stadium of Tyr.

Defense: Most of Tyr’s army disbanded after Kalak fell, but the templars are currently rebuilding it as the Tyrian Guard. An uneasy mix of soldiers who formerly served Kalak, noble house contingents, revolutionary fighters, and freed gladiators and slaves, the Guard forms a standing army of about five thousand warriors of varying quality. The marshal is a mul ex-mercenary named Zalcor. In addition to the Guard, many noble and merchant houses keep large contingents of private soldiers on hand.

Inns and Taverns: The Caravan District and the Merchant District have more than thirty inns and an equal number of taverns between them. The Warrens offers more squalid spaces, including abandoned buildings that host squatters.



Balic, City of Sails

Ruler: Dictator Andropinis

The wealthiest of the Seven Cities, Balic is a mercantile power known for its democratic systems, although Dictator Andropinis is the true authority in the city-state.

Population: Roughly 24,000 people live in Balic, with more in the nearby countryside. About half the population is human. Dwarves, muls, elves, and half-elves are present in large numbers. Balic is also home to small numbers of minotaurs and half-giants.

Water: A system of five public wells and extensive subterranean cisterns supplies Balic with water. Most noble villas have their own cisterns. The city-state depends on the intermittent rainfall of the months of Sun Descending to replenish its water stores. In dry years, the praetors enforce strict water rationing.

Supplies: Balic’s exports include grain, salt, olives wine, livestock, leather, marble, and a small amount of copper.

Defense: Balic faces few threats from other city-states, but giants and desert raiders are drawn to the fields and manors outside the city walls. Five legions of one thou sand soldiers each garrison the city and its fields. Most able-bodied free citizens are conscripted into the legions as young adults for three years of service.

Inns and Taverns: The Olive Tree, just off the Road of Legions in the Arena Precinct, offers cheap but secure lodgings for travelers. The Furled Sail is a rough, dangerous place that caters to the crew and passengers of silt skimmers moored in the harbor. The Thespian House in the Market Precinct, known for its bawdy productions, secretly serves as a meeting place for the Veiled Alliance.



Draj, City of the Moons

Ruler: Tectuktitlay, the Father of Life

Commanding the landscape for miles around, blooddrenched Draj is home to a warlike people whose loyalty to their sorcerer-king is as unwavering as their ferocity.

Population: About 18,000 people live in li~raj, plus many more—mostly slaves and guards—in the surrounding fields. Humans account for just. over half the population of the city-state. Elves and dwarvesare the largest minorities; many dwarves toil as slaves in the fields. A few muls, halflings, thri-kreen, and others round out the populace.

Water: The boggymudflats surrounding Draj release little usable water, but deep wells in the Gift tap into the water table below.

Supplies: Draj is an agricultural center, with abundant grain and hemp fields that can feed the city-state many times over. Textiles such as cotton, linen, and silk are major exports. The city’s distance from Tyr means that some commodities, specifically metal goods, are hard to acquire.

Defense: The city-state has an enormous military. Some five hundred jasuan knights make up the core of the defense and receive support from another three thousand lesser warriors. The moon priests can press slaves into service if they see the need to do so.

Inns and Taverns: Unfriendly to travelers, Draj offers few inns and fewer taverns. Most accommodations are run by House Tsalaxa, cater to caravans, and stand near the Golden Moon Gate.



Gulg, The Forest City

Ruler: Lalali-Puy, the Oba, Queen of Gulg, the Forest Goddess, the Mother of Trees and Beasts

Gulg persists as it always has: simple, unchanging, and devoted to its queen.

Population: The smallest of the city-states, Gulg has a population of only 13,000 within the city wall, plus small outlying dagadas in the nearby forest and plains. Nearly all Gulgans are human, with elves, dwarves, and muls as the largest minorities. A small thri-kreen community is counted among the judagas.

Water: Most individual dagadas have a well for their citizens. The Oba maintains cisterns throughout the city for the use of residents; by law, all Gulgans are entitled to water. The cisterns are not guarded—fear of the terrible curses placed by the nganga to punish water thieves keeps the citizens honest.

Supplies: Any items beyond simple stone or bone tools and weapons are difficult, if not impossible, to find in the city-state. This supply problem is due to Gulg’s primitive culture and its draconian trade laws. As part of its isolationist policies, GuIg places heavy restrictions on trade with the outside. Merchants from outside the walls can trade only with the city-state; buying from or selling to individual citizens is strictly forbidden. Nonresidents can buy and sell goods from the merchant house emporiums by the Queen’s Gate, but except for House Inika few maintain much stock in GuIg.

Defense: Lalali-Puy can count on the devoted service of more than two thousand judagas to meet any threats to Gulg. In a dire emergenqc thousands of militia could be raised from the dagadas. Most young adults in the citystate have some familiarity with the spear and bow.

Inns and Taverns: Outsiders usually settle for the merchants’ lodges or the travelers’ dagadas outside the city wall. Within GuIg, most dagadas have a few empty guest huts, but such accommodations are rarely made available unless travelers are known and trusted by the dagada.



Nibenay, City of Spires

Ruler: Nibenay, the Shadow King

Nibenay is an ancient, decadent city-state under the rule of a distant and mysterious sorcerer-king.

Population: Roughly 24,000 people live in Nibenay proper, with a similar number in outlying tenant farms and villages. Most of the population is human, with sizeable minorities of half-giants, elves, and half-elves.

Water: The city-state sits atop bubbling hot springs that well up from deep below ground. The noble houses own all the springs, so anyone who wants water must purchase it from them.

Supplies: Nibenay is wealthy and extravagant by the standards of most other city-states. Anything a traveler could want is for sale in the markets, legitimate or otherwise. The city produces timber, stone, spices, nuts, and various dry beans (the staple food).

Defense: The Shadow Guard is an elite palace guard of half-giants numbering a thousand strong. The Temple of War supplements these defenders with five thousand janissaries (loyal slave-soldiers), including small numbers of dray mercenaries.

Inns and Taverns: Numerous inns serve travelers in Nibenay, with the highest concentration in and around the Sages’ District. The noble district of Cliffside features more opulent inns for visiting nobles, and those looking to keep a low profile can find flophouses in the Hill District. Abandoned quarters are scattered throughout the city.



Raam, City of Unrest

Ruler: Abalach-Re, the Grand Vizier

Raam is a city-state of strife and squabbling factions. With the frequent unrest and riots, most structures outside the sorcerer-queen’s palace incur damage.

Population: More than 40,000 people live in Raam, making it the most populous of the city-states. Another 40,000 or so dwell in the warlord-dominated estates sur rounding the city. Humans constitute less than half the population. Elves and dwarves are the most numerous minorities, and muls, half-giants, and half-elves make up most of the rest.

Water: Raam draws water from a deep reservoir below the city, which provides enough to sustain the populace and irrigate the fields beyond.

Supplies: Although the renowned mines have been picked clean and the current troubles have all but paralyzed trade, Raam retains enough commodities to lure merchants. The city exports silver, gemstones, flint, silk, rugs, art, and textiles, among other goods.

Defense: The mansabdars form the heart of the largest army in the Tyr Region, leading thousands of wretched slave soldiers. In addition, Abalach-Re hoards weapons, armor, and equipment in an enormous armory beneath her palace.

Inns and Taverns: With the city’s trade in disarray, many inns and taverns have closed, their buildings joining the scores of empty, shuttered shops. A few determined places remain open near the city gates, where they compete for increasingly rare customers.



Urik, City of Lions

Ruler: Hamanu, King of the World, King of the Mountains and the Plains, King of Urik

As much an imposing fortress as it is a city-state, Urik is protected by intimidating walls and fearless defenders.

Population: About 20,000 people live within the city walls, and more occupy the surrounding plantations. Humans make up three-fifths of the population. Goliaths are the most numerous minority race, followed by dwarves, muls, and halflings. Thri-kreen, elves, and other races are represented in Urik as well.

Water: Cisterns gather runoff from the Ringing Mountains, and deep wells throughout the city supply neighborhoods with drinking water. The irrigated lands around Urik draw water from the few oases found nearby. The city-state has ample water supplies.

Supplies: Urik enjoys a robust economy and is famed for its pottery. Obsidian weapons and tools are common Vast herds in the surrounding lands produce leather meat, chitin, and kank nectar.

Defense: Urik’s armies are without peer. Not count ing the Imperial Guard, which consists of a thousand half-giants, Hamanu can field an army of ten thousand slave warriors and professional soldiers. He is also served by a company of two hundred halfling scouts and slavecatchers sent as a gift from Urga-Zoltapl, chieftain of the Forest Ridge town of Ogo.

Inns and Taverns: Travelers can find accommodations throughout Potters’ Square and the Obsidian Quarter. Urik prides itself on uniformity, so most inns and taverns are identical, with few qualities to set them apart. Only the Old District has unique places with rich character.