What is Dark Sun?

Dark Sun is a world ravaged by magic. Imagine a post-apocalyptic-world like in Mad Max. Desert all around. Now take off the metal and put the people in a pseudo-medieval context, but keep in mind the post-apocalyptic scene. Add psionics and destructive magic. Add monsters that make you scream in terror. Now congregate the people into a few cities, making the rest of the desert almost inhabitable. Make these cities out of mud bricks and stone like in the old Arabian cities. To rule these cities, put some powerful entities know as "Sorcerer-Kings", beings of unspeakable power that are able to grant clerical spells to a class loyal to them know as "templars", whose responsibility is to keep the order and peace in the city, but most often serve their own purposes, ignoring the needs of the people.

Add a sea of silt where silt skimmers fight a never ending war against giants and silt storms. Mix in a vast area of obsidian where it is infernally hot in the daytime and is filled with undead at night. Add a lava gorge where a change of wind may mean your death as the air blows across the great lava lakes. Throw in the jagged cliffs where ancient halfling masters tamper with life itself to create living items and halfling wind riders soar the sky. Add the Great earthquake that formed the Great Rift that allows a previously isolated empire of insectmen the chance to invade.

Now let's get back to the pseudo-medieval context. Remove the elves and replace them with Athasian elves, a mistrusting race of desert runners who live only for the now and enjoy acts of cheating and robbery. Remove the dwarves and replace them with Athasian dwarves, a race of sturdy humanoids without any sort of kingdom or mountain home. These dwarves live only to fulfill the quests they set their minds to in life, fearing they will turn into undead otherwise. Remove the halflings and replace them with (*shrudder*) Athasian halflings, a race of savage, man-eating humanoids that live in one of the only forests of the Tyr Region, in close contact with nature and with a close sense of racial unity, but consider anything but a halfling as potential food. Add other character races such as muls, the never tiring fighting machines; aaracokra, the great winged wizards; saurian like pterrans that ride the sky on pterrax; and half-giants. Remove most other typical races and monsters such as trolls, goblins, orcs, gnomes, pixies, etc. Add a strange entity know as Rajaat, the first sorcerer, who existed in the past, the possible cause of all this destruction. Add madness, brutality and a constant struggle for survival, and there you have it.

WELCOME TO DARK SUN

Updates

 DS PbeM Game Part I, DS PbeM Game Part II, Miscellaneous Dark Sun, email me

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All material, not specifically stated otherwise, is copyright of Fabian Benavente (1998).

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