I wanted to make a character drawing of a half-giant but I can't really seem to find much offical art (exeption being goliaths)

I get the bacis idea of how they are absurdly huge and hard facial features, but not many visual refrences.

Kalidnay, the Dread Domain of Dark Sun

The commission for my Dark Sun Dread Domain of Kalidnay has finally been completed! You can see the finished artwork here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeenbXKFkbL/

I wanted to share some information about the setting and the characters featured in the commission.

The Dread Domain of Kalidnay

The city of Kalidnay was devoured by the Mists of the Gray after a shard broken from a planar gate allowed Kaili-Ma to contact the Dark Powers in her pursuit of greater power. Hundreds of years have passed since Kalidnay was swallowed by the Mists. Kaili-Ma has become a living corpse, while Thakok-An, the domain's Dreadlord, has turned her attention toward psionics as a means of increasing her power. Fearing that any pursuit of pure arcane power would ultimately destroy the plane itself, she has begun developing her own transformation through psionics.

Now, a group of foolish terrorists seeks to bring about her destruction.

The Characters

Vinter: A mul who was subjected to horrific experiments by the templars of Dreadlord Thakok-An. These experiments involved implanting multiple minds into a single body in an attempt to cultivate greater psionic power.

Elris: A former Veiled Alliance wizard who, during the Battle of Tyr, drew upon far too much of the land's life force and became a defiler. Eventually, he was swallowed by the Mists and brought into Kalidnay. He now seeks a way to cast arcane magic without draining the life from the land, a goal he will never truly achieve. Although he tries to avoid using arcane magic, the enemies he faces often leave him with little choice.

Thra-Zixx: A thri-kreen who was experimented upon by the Oba, who sought to remove his racial genetic memory and implant a spirit of nature within his body. Upon arriving in Kalidnay, the party discovered numerous life-shaped items. Thra-Zixx began incorporating these creations into himself, gradually transforming into a monstrous being that has become something entirely different from what he once was.

Mitzy: Originally an NPC shipowner whom the party recruited alongside her husband to help them escape the city in exchange for their safety. Unfortunately, her husband died during their adventures. The party eventually recruited Mitzy as their shipwright, and over time, she developed into a powerful ship captain and rogue. She now acts as the party's right hand, managing their affairs whenever they are away.

The Bill: A dwarf cleric originally born in Kalidnay and blessed with the power of elemental air. Through deception, he was convinced to renounce elemental air and become an earth cleric, only to be tricked once again into abandoning that faith to serve as a templar channeling dark power through the Gray. Upon discovering the truth, he found a way to channel this power independently. However, his newfound strength comes at a terrible cost, as the very power he wields is slowly devouring him. With his time running out, he has dedicated his focus to dealing with our lovely Dreadlord.

Albrecht: A first-generation dray who has spent much of his life suffering through betrayal, manipulation, and imprisonment. After being rescued by the party, he awakened an immense talent for telekinesis. Having endured so much suffering himself, Albrecht has dedicated himself to ensuring that others never experience the same fate. He understands that the path he has chosen will likely end poorly for him, but he intends to follow it regardless.

Farkos: A half-giant templar from Urik who, upon coming into contact with the Dreadlord's attempt to replicate the Dark Lens, known as the Psionic Lens, became infatuated with the idea of ruling as the perfect ruler. Wielding an ancient spear imbued with immense power from the Elemental Plane of Air, Farkos seeks to overthrow the Dreadlord and claim what he believes to be his rightful seat as the ruler of Kalidnay.

Now I kinda miss playing and visiting this place .

Just a few more days to back the book!

I know that there is a lot of skepticism regarding WOTC’s upcoming Dark Sun release, I’m also skeptical. But, I still think it could be good(or at least have enough building blocks that it can be rule zeroed into something better). All that aside, this specific part of the release, the comic, has me hyped. From the description, it looks like it will be a good, brutal time. And with Dan Abnett writing, I think it will be sufficiently dark and gritty. Then again, I could just be huffing copium. What do you guys think?

Work in progress. Criticism welcome

I read the 2e box set thing that includes raves and classes and it says that when a defiler casts a spell, there is an aura effect around the caster that causes everyone else to be wracked with pain.

This pain is represented by an initiative penalty that is equal to the level of the spell.

Other assorted information includes: If the defiler stands in one place and keeps casting, the soot circle gets bigger, plants die, the defiler needs about 30 percent less xp than other wizards to level up, delifer/preserver is not a class so they can still be illusionists/necromancers/any school/subclass, yata yata.

(I am willing to bet that if 5e dark sun gets published, wotc will ignore the fact that defiler and preserver is not a subclass, and thus should be able to pick a subclass. They will treat it like a subclass.)

The issue is: It does not say how lomg this initiative penalty lasts.

Nor does it say if it stacks.

Just says that the pain wrack cannot stop someone from having their turn, only delays it.

Does it last only long enough to delay one turn?

Does it delay one turn per spell level?

Does it last for the remainder of combat?

Dare i say, does it last forever?

The book does not say!

Nor does the 2e dnd wiki have a page about "initiative penalty" rules, so i can only assume that defiler magic was the only thing in 2e that had such an effect. (Or just one of the very few things)

Can someone find an answer and give it to me?

Thanks in advance!

(2e is very very vague)

(Sorry if this was asked in another thread, but I didn't see it. I'll delete if redundant.)

Anyone else thinking about investing in the new Dragon Kings RPG books? They're being put out third party as the "spiritual successor" to Dark Sun.

I know some here have expressed concerns about how WotC will do on the official books. I'm definitely considering backing the project.

What is up kank herders? I have been printing and painting heaps of stuff for my current Dark Sun campaign. I started the players off with A Little KNowledge to get into Freedom, I just think those two are wicked adventures, I ran them years ago, and always dug that campaign. I expanded it, added some more ruins, and encounters.

But I want the Fortress of the Jura Dai from, A Little Knowledge, to be more put together than in the module, and just this old epic end encounter to that intro adventure. Depending on how the party goes forward with it that is, with whatever they decide to do....they were too scared to go into the weezer hive so hopefully they aren't terrified of this! It is still printing but should be done in a week or so.

It is modular, so this will mostly work as sections in other areas of Athas as either ruins, or a prison attached to another building, even probably in Tyr as the slave pits.

Either way I am pretty stoked on how the thing, and others are looking and just wanted to share some progress of the Athas I am making for my party on the table. I included a few other shots of ruins and some set-ups from other sessions with other stuff I have been using and printing.

I have been using a lot of Underdark Stuff by Gamescape3d, some printable scenery rocks, a game board I made myself, and then models from the Dark Sun Boxed Set that someone painted up for me and then whatever matches the vibe, like these giant wasps I found and painted to be the weezers.

I have been going pretty hard just because I am an artist for work and it is fun for me to just paint and make stuff number one. We haven't used miniatures for 6 years because it has been all computers and our last couple of campaigns were recorded as a podcast. But for this campaign, i said, I didn't care about the podcast, I wanted light, music and minis in the campaign and I was gonna figure out how to stream...so we are streaming the sessions on Twitch for this campaign. But that is a new thing. I just wanted to play with toys and have music in the background for Athas vibes.

Athas neeeeeeds that great music I think to really set the tone personally.

Thanks for looking!

Rock on!

Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands is back!

If you were around for the old emulators, you already know the pattern. A server pops up, runs for a while, the dev disappears, everything goes offline, and the community scatters. The last big attempt was genuinely solid — about 95% complete — but the creator dropped off the map with no handoff or code release, and although he tends to reappear from time to time who wants to invest time into a server that might be available to play on or might be offline for months at a time?

That’s basically what pushed me to start DSOS.

The difference is that this server has been running for almost a year straight. No disappearances, no months‑long outages. Just steady updates, new features, and a ton of fixes. The whole thing was rebuilt from scratch, and it keeps expanding week after week.

This isn’t a temporary emulator. It’s a fully revived Athas.

What’s New in DSOS

Combat

Combat finally behaves the way it always should have:

• Attack cadence works correctly, no more losing attacks because a mob died mid‑round.
• Backstab actually functions.
• Fleeing doesn’t break turn flow.
• Multiplayer combat syncs properly instead of just showing animations.

Itemization

For the first time ever, the game actually has a more complete feeling loot table:

• +1, +2, +3 tiers for all major weapons and armor.
• New items made from bone, obsidian, chitin, etc.
• Unique item names so relics feel like relics.
• Client‑side item editing is now possible, which opens the door to future content the original devs never could have added.

Merchants & Economy

Shops aren’t stuck at 12 items anymore:

• Multi‑page inventories.
• More coherent, themed shop lists.
• Some items moved around to make the economy feel more alive.
• Loot tables expanded to support the new item system.

High‑Level Progression (16+)

Retail client bugs made high level play basically broken. All of that has been fixed:

• XP tables corrected.
• Healers properly restore levels above 15.
• Spell/PSI selection works.
• Fighter bonus attack at 19 implemented.
• HP calculations fixed.
• Early multiclass support in progress.

Monster Behavior

Monsters finally behave consistently:

• Status effects sync correctly.
• No more crash inducing stacking bugs.
• Effects clear properly on death.

World Stability

A bunch of long standing world bugs are gone:

• Region item limit bug fixed.
• Ground item interactions repaired.
• Critical item slot bug eliminated.

Client Modding

The original executable has been cracked open:

• Auto‑patching launcher keeps everyone updated.
• Multiple client patches delivered cleanly.
• Ability to modify the client means future features that were impossible in 1996 are now on the table.

This is honestly the biggest breakthrough in the whole project.

Why DSOS Matters

Because it’s stable.
Because it’s active.
Because it hasn’t disappeared.

It’s a living MMO again. Updated constantly, expanded carefully, and online every single day.

If you’ve been wanting to revisit Athas with other players, real progression, new items, and a world that doesn’t randomly vanish, DSOS is worth checking out.

Join the Community

If you want to hop in, DM me for the Discord link or check the replies below.

Bring water. The wastes don’t get any kinder.

Re-posted with less 'flair' as to not be confused with AI content.

Hi all,

The first part of the supplement is just finished. I am now moving on to the next section, which contains a detailed description of the characters.

Enjoy!

the Unwanteds

I'm so stoked. I just wanted to share with someone who might actually not roll their eyes at how excited I am to get to play a Dark Sun game and actually get to be a PLAYER!

Anyway, I'll probably start a monthly journal or something with the adventure and game updates if the mods here don't mind.

Can't wait to show my friends what Thac0 means 😂

I’ve been reading this guys comments and he definitely makes his videos, at least about Darksun , based upon requests from his viewers. Gotta love that.

Greetings, wanderers of Athas,

The Crimson Sun rises over the Tablelands once more. I am continuing to develop my server emulator project for Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands, and a newly updated version is now live.

Updated for the final official v2.8 stack, this release brings essential QoL improvements and hotfixes to help you survive the harsh desert wastes and defiler magic.

You can obtain your travel permit to Tyr at the Templar Bureau here:

https://discord.gg/TDyzXXj4Pd

Keep your eyes on Kalak’s Ziggurat and your hand on your obsidian blade!

Excerpt for this month's "A day in the life of"

Read the rest at Burnt World of Athas - A Day in the Life of #9 - Xoratual, Gladiatorial Stable-Slave

As they dropped the body on the stable floor, two deep thumps resonated through the room. I let out a loud sigh. The day wasn’t supposed to start like this. My new apprentice, Temys, approached and stopped beside me. He couldn’t have seen more than fourteen summers, and he was shaken by the sight.

“Is he dead?”

I let out a second sigh. “Yeah. Don’t know about where you’re from, boy, but in Draj people cut in half tend to be dead.”

The color drained from Temys’s face, and he grabbed my forearm to steady himself.

“But… but they were just supposed to do some sparring.”

I could see sweat forming on his hand, which felt cold against my arm.

“Yeah, that isn’t our problem. That’s for Master Liugtak to worry about,” I said. I took a good look at Temys and felt bad for him. “Don’t worry boy. I’ll take care of the mess. Go get the gear that needs fixing and make sure the gladiators’ meals are ready.”

“Yes, old one,” Temys said with relief and reverence.

I stretched my back. My spine cracked loudly, sending a sharp mix of pain and relief. I let out a low grunt.

“Old one? Tsk. Call me Xoratual, boy, or I’ll regret carrying all that dead meat for you.”

The body parts were a bigger issue than simply cleaning up. I had to decide whether to feed the body to the cilops right away or wait for Master Liugtak to inspect the damage.

The cilops the stable housed was a picky bastard. The giant centipede liked its meat fresh, and would sooner try to rip the flesh off my arm than touch anything that had been dead for more than a couple of hours. I had plenty of scars to prove it.

Accidental deaths during gladiator training no longer bothered me. But this one was different. The dead man was Hanador, one of the stable’s veterans, and the culprit was our new acquisition — a tortle. And an unhinged one, at that.

Tortles might look slow and stupid in their shells, but those who survived an encounter with one never made that mistake twice. This one had no interest in being a gladiator. That made it worse - he’d rather rip a man in half than perform for the crowd. Sheer madness.
A croaking roar interrupted my thoughts, “You want WADAH! You want WADAAAH!” Temys’s terrified scream echoed down the corridor right after.

I rushed out. The body would have to wait for Master Liugtak.

In the next room, an enraged kenku had cornered Temys, all his black feathers puffed up, his beak snapping at the boy, who was shielding his head with his arms. “No, no, I don’t want water, I don’t need! I don’t need it, sorry!”

“Work! Work! Idiot bird!” the crow-man shrieked, swiping at Temys with his sharp talons despite heavy ropes restraining him.

“Krawraw, please! Enough with the tantrum,” I said.

Krawraw stared at me balefully. He wasn’t the best fighter we had, but he didn’t need to be. The crowds loved him and had bet on him for years.

I raised my water gourd.

“Catch.”

He snatched it midair with his winged arm.

As he drank the water, Krawraw kept giving me the evil eye, the boy really had riled him up.

“By the God-King, give the boy a break, he’s new.”

Krawraw shook his head slowly, then hurled the empty gourd. It flew straight into Temys’s face with a loud smack.

“You want WADAH, you idiot bird!”

“Boy, let’s go!” I helped the poor lad to his feet. “Krawraw, keep your anger for the arena, will you?”

The kenku tried to stare me down, his large pitch-black eyes unblinking.

“Give us the gear that needs fixing before tonight’s fight. Then the food will come. They even put some nuts in it today.”

The kenku started shouting again, but he started gathering the gear we’d have to mend later. That was good enough for me.

Temys remained mostly silent as we did the rounds of the other gladiator chambers and after a while he almost whispered, “What’s wrong with him? He offered me water, and then just…”

“Yeah, you don’t have kenku back in your village, do you? Krawraw is alright. It’s just you need to understand that he doesn’t really speak. Everything that comes out of that stupid cawking beak is something he’s heard before. Repeated many times.”

Finally, I saw Master Liugtak rushing down the stairs, clutching a wine jug, which wasn’t improving his mood. He jerked his head toward the room where Hanador’s remains still lay and swore under his breath.

When I got to the room, he was pacing angrily.

“By the bloody moon of Guthay, what is that mess?”

That’s Hanador’s top and bottom halves, I almost spat.

“There was an incident with the tortle. He isn’t willing to train, but he knows how to fight if forced to.”

“Obviously,” Liugtak said. He stared down at the remains with a sour expression. “Shit, I was going to sell him next week.” He kicked Hanador’s head half-heartedly.

Liugtak stared at the body parts for a moment in silence, deep in thought, then blurted out, “I’m hungry. Let’s grab something to eat at the stands outside. We need to discuss tonight’s fight.”

Which meant, I’d be watching him eating.

We left the stable through the walled yard, which lay just by the Palace of Gladiatorial Combat, the arena where sacrifices to the God-King and gladiatorial combats were held.

A few food stands stood in the shadow of the vast pyramidal Father and Master Temple. We could hear the shuffling of feet and wood cracking against wood from the other nearby yards as gladiators trained for that evening’s fight.

Master Liugtak sat at a table. As usual, I remained standing. I knew better than to expect a seat. While he got comfortable, I discreetly stretched my neck and back, trying to work out the kinks.

A servant appeared almost immediately, “The usual, honored guest?” she asked, bowing her head.

“The usual, girl. Also some extra bread, and a chai with a drop of wine.”

She backed away without raising her head.

He looked at me. He was fifty-something, heavy without being fat. He’d bought the stable twelve years ago. A spoiled and bored noble that needed to be entertained. The thing was, he found making money as entertaining as a bloody gladiator fight.

“Sit down Xoratual, you ain’t hungry, right?”

Surprised, I took a bench. He didn’t wait for an answer.

“That was an ugly morning. Hanador was supposed to bring me his weight in ceramics, which I rightfully counted on.”

He paused, and looked around conspiratorially before lowering his voice. “There’s nearly a whole stable’s worth of gladiators that have just arrived from Nibenay. The owner died or something, and the family is selling everything. Anyway, there’s a lot of exciting new blood in that lot.”

I nodded.

He waited, but I just kept nodding.

The food arrived quickly, and he stuffed himself “I want to talk to you about Krawraw,” he said with his mouth full.

Here we are, I thought.

He tapped his wooden fork against the table before getting to the point. “He’ll be fighting this first timer tonight. A scrawny elf who got on the wrong side of a moon priest.”

“I know. It’ll be more of a show than a fight.” I said.

“I’ve taken a position for Krawraw’s defeat.” He took a gulp of the chai and winced. The way he always did when it was too sweet. “A position?” I asked.

With his thumb, he pushed the last bit of food onto his fork. “Yes, a bet on his defeat. We triple the winning prize if it’s a fatal one.”

We.

“Ok, but aren’t Krawraw’s fights a steady source of income?” I asked.

“Nah. Not like they used to be.” He swallowed the last bite.

“Besides, those odds are too good to pass up. I still owe the final payment on that damn tortle. If we get this right we’ll get two or three gladiators just as good as him. New exciting fighters for the plebs to bet on,” He said without embarrassment, smiling at me.

“Uh, ok, I’ll take care of it,” I said.

He patted my hand. “Look, this needs to work.” He paused, eyes narrowing. “You’ve always been a hard-working slave. I’d never dare (...)

Rest at Burnt World of Athas - A Day in the Life of #9 - Xoratual, Gladiatorial Stable-Slave

art by Kasper Povlsen https://www.instagram.com/artofsandullos

Hello! New Dark Sun fan here looking into the setting a bit more cus I'm excited for the new Dark Sun books. I had an idea for a thri-kreen character I want to play and part of the design was to have his lower arms be amputated basically. I'm a long time Destiny fan and for those who don't know in Destiny there is a race called the eliksni who have the same basic arrangment of limbs as thri-kreen and a sort of caste system the lowest of which are called dregs. When an eliksni is demoted to a dreg, they have their lower arms cut off and have docking caps placed on them to prevent them from regrowing. I wanted to use this sort of practice for my thri-kreen considering the brutal nature of the setting. Is there any basis in Athas for a thri-kreen to have a similar custom?

I acquired an extra set of the Prism Pentad books as part of an estate sale. They're not brand new, but they're in pretty good condition for books that someone's read.

I love Dark Sun physical products and they're a pain to get.

I don't want money or to sell them. I figured I'd put it on here and see if anyone else had an extra copy of a Dark Sun manual or something and wanted to trade so both our collections could grow.

So I’m a big fan of genies, and feel like they’d mad a good fit for Dark Sun given how they’re a major elemental creature and also I feel like they’d have an interesting interaction with the prevalence of slavery in dark sun. Some Templar having a genie slave or something would be pretty cool I think. Plus I’ve been using the Al-Qadim monstrous compendium a lot in my dark sun campaign and am eager to use some of the tasked genies in it cuz I think they’re rad.

But genies just don’t feel super fitting in dark sun in terms of their general vibe and visual identity. So I was wondering if yall had any ideas for how to sort of dark sun-ify genies, either in appearance, mannerisms, or lore?

He talks about how he started in the gaming industry , how dark Sun came about , what happened when Wizards Bought TSR , and his personal Thoughts on 5th edition