Isn't it funny? the teleserie "Lovecraft country" was all the writter hated.
Then can't slavemasters be showed in children cartoons?...
In the episode "Troubles in Arcadia" of He-Man and the masters of the universe the male population was slavered by the women.
Slavery can be showed in the fiction, even in productions for children. The self-censorship shouldn't be the first option. It is wrong, if it appears in the TTRPG is because they heroes are going to eradicate. Maybe the mistake was if it was too easy and fast when it costed a lot of time and sacrifice in the real life.
D&D is +12y, among other reasons because rules are too complicated for preteen children. I suppose teenages can enjoy fiction set in postapocaliptic worlds when the bad guys have done some horrible things.
I guess Hasbro/WotC should have come to true and profesional psychologists to ask advice about potentially sensitive content.
My opinion is we should know what are the criteria by the "modern sensibilities" to verify this to be clear and coherent.
DS is daylight grimm but there is also enough space for the hope. The evil lords rule, but soon they start to fall. Who said it had to be easy and painless?
* Aren't the gnolls created to be a genocide force? They have to be terminated or they will terminate you. Diplomacy is not an option with them.
* Eugenetic supremacism is wrong. That detail can be rewritten very easily. Here the solution is easy, you have to explain your genetic code doesn't matter when your civilitation or society is doomed toward the self-destruction by fault of endless internal conflicts and civil wars.
Here I really worry about World of Darkness to be a Overton window about possible elite supremacism (and negative priming)
... and also we have to say the supremacism is wrong because the Natural Law teachs us we have to respect the human dignity.
* What if psionic powers could be used for reverse engineering with remains of lifeshape creations?
What if the rushtili created a plan B for the green age in case of a new apocaliptic disaster to save population, biotech and civilititation? And this was activacted and worked not too bad.
What if there were different alternate timelines of Athas, and most of them horrible happen? An invasion by the sheens (biomechanical horrors), a merger between the material plane and pieces from the infernal planes, conquested by the Vodoni empire (a faction from Spelljammer), cultists of Tharizdun created a plague of elemental mutants and summoning Lovecraftian kaijus...
* What if the sorcerer-kings were "glamour-gatherers"? They caused suffering, but also allowing hope, because those feelings can be used to "fill" their psionic power-point pool, like a variant of defiler magic. Then they would allow some slave running way from time to time, because when these reached the freedom, they will sense hope and suffering. And these feelings can create "glamour", a type of mana what can be gatherer by the sorcerer-kings and other defilers.
And even in the afterlife the sorcerer-kings don't allow the eternal rest. The souls of the sentient beings are blackmailed by the sorcerer-kings. If they don't obey their will, they will be exiled to the Grey. If they are pleasued with their work, they can be rewared reincarnated into living constructs as workers, and later within biological bodies. The ultimate reward is to be reincarnated into elans(psionic specie).