The Burnt World of Athas

This is the first of a series of reposted blog articles from designers of Dark Sun 4th edition. These articles have been scattered through various reorganizations on Wizards’ site, and are now hard to find, or have vanished completely. We are collecting them here with permission from the authors.

This article was originally posted by Rodney Thompson, September 14, 2009. You can find the original here.

Thri-kreen stalk the athasian wastes, using every advantage they have, from their ancestors wisdom to their own psionic powers.

Below are racial feats and utility powers suitable for thri-kreen in your 4th edition D&D game.

An earthen sandcrafter brings strange crystal statues to the Oba’s domain.

After the event of the Prism Pentad, the Sorcerer-King Andropinis has fallen, or has he?

The gap between the Stormclaw and Black Spine Mountains is some fifteen miles wide, and those who have never been there must wonder why the route through is termed a ‘pass’, or why Nibenay bothers to maintain a fort to guard the road.

As dawn broke over the distant Black Spine Mountains, we stripped the dead sand devils of their weapons and armour – their iron blades alone would more than pay for the cargo I had defiled – and dragged their corpses out into the desert a couple of hundred yards from the road.

Niklas once again explores rumors of an ascendant being, this time among the ssurrans of the Scortched Plateau.

This is a May of the Dead post, part of a Blog Carnival hosted by The Going Last Podcast. In this post Geneome discusses converting the AD&D 2nd edition Dead Lands Net Project to 4e.

Trained in the way by both his parents as a young dwarf, Zxavier is a purist of mind and thought.

The mountains had grown from a blurred, uneven line on the horizon to a recognisable part of the landscape by the time the sun sank beneath the western horizon.

This is a May of the Dead post, part of a a Blog Carnival hosted by The Going Last Podcast. As you may surmise the May of the Dead post has to do with undead, in this post The Wanderer, an Athasian who is famous for exploring the mysteries of the Dark Sun world tracks down Hak'Trin, rare undead thri-kreen.

A battle in the salt flats between two athasian priests of opposing elements. AD&D 2nd edition spell stats.

An assortment of weapons used by the birdmen from the Sands of Athas netzine for AD&D 2nd edition.

The skimmer’s crew took the news surprisingly well. Neren and Enamdis called a brief halt and gathered them together below the quarterdeck to explain what was likely chasing us and to make preparations for a possible night attack.

A part of The Sands of Athas netzine, Perilous Pages: Spellbooks and Scrolls Under the Dark Sun discusses the unique role of spellbooks on Athas.

This place resonates with echoes of long forgotten wars. While the names of those forgotten may never be uttered again, their deeds live on in glimpses of psychic memories.

Tramatic Turbulence is a High-Science psionic power created from one of Troy Denning’s novels for AD&D 2nd edition rules.

We heard the cry of the lookout, perched upon his small platform near the top of the skimmer’s mainmast, and saw the vessel alter course towards us.

A dwarf, following his Focus.

Violent and aggressive, Tarek tribes terrorize the mountains they inhabit under the commands of their earth shamans.