Wizards of the Coast Re-Registers Dark Sun With USPTO

Wizards of the Coast recently filed an application to register Dark Sun in the US, a sign that D&D could be bringing back the campaign setting in the near future. The trademark claim was filed on October 13th, 2025 and is poised to replace a previous trademark that was cancelled by the USPTO in 2024. The trademark, like most involving D&D properties, covers both "downloadable electronic games," "games and playthings," and "entertainment services." Similar active trademarks exist for other D&D campaign settings such as Spelljammer and Forgotten Realms, although neither of those have lapsed in recent years.

We'll note that, as the previous Dark Sun trademark lapsed a year ago, this could be a case of simple paperwork, or it could be the latest sign that a Dark Sun product is eminent. Earlier this year, Wizards released an Unearthed Arcana for the Psion class and several subclasses that all but spelled out a return to the setting, complete with mentions of sorcerer-kings, gladiatorial fights, and preservers and defilers.

 

[Maxperson]

I mean...they will. And they will probavly get away with it, too.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

OK, I have got an idea of how to create a right Dark Sun version of Dragonlance. We start with an alternate timeline, explained better in the short story "There Is Another Shore, You Know, Upon the Other Side"

(Copied and paster from other web)
In this alternate timeline… the Kingpriest succeeded. He conquered not only the world… but the gods themselves.

This timeline begins when the Graygem of Gargath fell into the Kingpriest’s hands, everything changed. He no longer sought to cleanse evil—he sought to own the light. The gem, having trapped Chaos itself, gave him the power to command divinity. He bound the True Gods in mortal form, stripped them of their thrones, and declared himself the Godking of Krynn.

Under his rule, Istar became the center of all creation… and all who lived upon Krynn bowed to him. The world that followed was not destroyed by fire—it was consumed by order. From the shores of Ergoth to the deserts of Khur, every kingdom became a Dominion of Istar. The banners of the blue eye and golden sun fluttered above every city. Laws of purity replaced laws of freedom.

The Knights of Solamnia rebelled, but were driven down and broken by the magic of the Godking’s priests. They served as paladins of the Godking’s peace—hunting wizards, heretics, and any who defied Istar’s perfection. Everywhere, the Eye gazed down—the symbol of the Godking’s sight and judgment. It was stamped into coins, carved above doorways, branded into slaves. Even the heavens bore his mark.

The True Gods still existed, but they were broken— stripped of their power, imprisoned in mortal form.

...

And here the troubles go worse. Some humanoids hunted dragons, and when these were killed the hunters absorbed their power and acquired draconic features. Those were the origin of the overlord dragons. At least this is the official version. Really some dragons to escape their fate they put their souls and essences into magic jewels that would be used by the overlord dragons. Teorically these keep their free will and this is true but not totally true.

The necromancer Fistandantilus couldn't allow this and he casted a great ritual to summon some divine power what could help, and this divine help arrived, but not in the way somebody could guess. The summoned power was... the god Raistlin from the alternate timeline where he caused the cataclysm.

You can imagine during more a century where is a war not only in Krynn but in the rest of Wildspace. The tirany of the Kingpriest ended, but the sacrifice was so great that it was almost a Pyrrhic victory. The arcane magic couldn't work in the same way because the gods of the magic lost their powers and when Fistandalntilus discovered the defiler magic, you can imagine what was going to happen.

And if it was not enough, Krynn has got a parallel layer, Sithicus, like the Krynn version of the Shadowell, with its own dark domains. Here lord Soth earned his redemtion and he was forgiven, being something like a celestial construct and all the members of his family are alive (even his first wife and his firstborn) but he is rejected by his second elf due his evil actions in the past.

In Sithicus plants can survive and recover after suffering defiler magic, but they are "tainted" and humanoids don't want, and they shouldn't live near tainted zones because they could suffer mutations or "dark gifts".

 

[TheSword]

I'd love to see a TV series based on the Prism Pentad.

PP gets a bad rap with some folks but for me it was pretty formative - not just for my love of Dark Sun but as D&D as a whole. It was one of the first D&D novels I read which really focused on a small group of adventurers and told from all their viewpoints. Ordinary folks rather than the great and good of the setting like some of the other books I was reading at the time… Eddings, Jordan etc. The fact that they became the new authority was even more interesting.

I also think the Kalak transformation ritual was one of the most dramatic things I’d read at that point. A sorcerer king transforming into a dragon slowly and painfully. Viscerally. By sacrificing the population of his city. The stakes felt massive, not just because of what would be lost but because of the horror that would be created from the ashes. I also think they did a really good job of upping the ante when the heroes took over.

That said the setting has managed that a few times… notably City by the Silt Sea and Black Spine. I’m very excited for what they could do.

 

[Hermes_Alexandria]

OK, I have got an idea of how to create a right Dark Sun version of Dragonlance. We start with an alternate timeline, explained better in the short story "There Is Another Shore, You Know, Upon the Other Side"

Interesting take. For an apocalyptic Dragonlance, the 5th Age (with the mega-dragons terraforming Ansalon) already provides a good framework.

The challenge with using Dragonlance as the Green Age is the fundamental incompatibility in their lore:

• Magic Source: Dragonlance is tied to the moons; Athas is tied to plant life.
• Divinity: Dragonlance has direct, interventionist gods; Athas has elemental temples and absent gods.
• Psionics: Psionics are core to Athas but are largely absent in Dragonlance.

For me, the best thing about Athas was always its isolation from the D&D metaverse and its freedom from standard tropes (even if that's not canonical for all editions, it is for my table).

"The-Green-Age-is-another-D&D-setting" hook is cool, though. I've always thought Greyhawk would be a better fit than Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms if you had to pick one.

 

[Superchunk77]

PP gets a bad rap with some folks but for me it was pretty formative - not just for my love of Dark Sun but as D&D as a whole. It was one of the first D&D novels I read which really focused on a small group of adventurers and told from all their viewpoints. Ordinary folks rather than the great and good of the setting like some of the other books I was reading at the time… Eddings, Jordan etc. The fact that they became the new authority was even more interesting.

I also think the Kalak transformation ritual was one of the most dramatic things I’d read at that point. A sorcerer king transforming into a dragon slowly and painfully. Viscerally. By sacrificing the population of his city. The stakes felt massive, not just because of what would be lost but because of the horror that would be created from the ashes. I also think they did a really good job of upping the ante when the heroes took over.

That said the setting has managed that a few times… notably City by the Silt Sea and Black Spine. I’m very excited for what they could do.

I still get those same vibes from the PP novels to this day. That meta plot for me was so cool when I read it as a teen. And while the writing in those novels is relatively simple compared to what I read now, its still good. And as for formative modules, how can you forget Dragon's Crown? That one is by far my favorite Dark Sun campaign of all time. City by the Silt Sea is a fantastic ruins exploration, but the adventure is a little bit rough. Any adventure that pits you directly against a sorcerer-king is a bit hard to swallow for me. Black Spine is also good, but doesn't it take place mostly on the Astral Plane?

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Interesting take. For an apocalyptic Dragonlance, the 5th Age (with the mega-dragons terraforming Ansalon) already provides a good framework.

The challenge with using Dragonlance as the Green Age is the fundamental incompatibility in their lore:

• Magic Source: Dragonlance is tied to the moons; Athas is tied to plant life.
• Divinity: Dragonlance has direct, interventionist gods; Athas has elemental temples and absent gods.
• Psionics: Psionics are core to Athas but are largely absent in Dragonlance.

For me, the best thing about Athas was always its isolation from the D&D metaverse and its freedom from standard tropes (even if that's not canonical for all editions, it is for my table).

"The-Green-Age-is-another-D&D-setting" hook is cool, though. I've always thought Greyhawk would be a better fit than Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms if you had to pick one.

I never understood the "Dark Sun is future Dragonlance" angle. There's literally no common touch points at all, the maps share nothing in common. Dark Sun has halflings as a big part of its setting, whereas Dragonlance bans them.

The only commonality seems to be no orcs.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The alternate Dragonlance timeline "Istar triumphant" based in the short story "There Is Another Shore, You Know, Upon the Other Side" allows a lot of changes to be closer to the DS style. For example if the gods of magic lost their divine powers then the consequences would be serious. Now the Krynnian deities are inmortal humans and theorically only the clerics of the godking could cast divine magic.

Other idea to create an alternate version of Athas is an almost dessert plane where the biopunk ( living machines) work and it is the "home" of several Hasbro franchises: Transformers, M.A.S.K, Robotix, Visionaries and even the forgotten Inhumanoids. Also we could add a reimagination of Golden-Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones.

* The DS franchise has two parts, the TTRPG and the metaplot established in the PP novels. The priting of new novels shouldn't be too complicate but we need good writters for a good story and this is the key. The best writters would rather to create their own franchises when they have total control. And the TTRPG can be radically different in each tabletop, not only because the list of banned or allowed PC species&classes isn't the same but because the PCs will be who defeat the sorcerer-kings and then the continuity can't be like in the PP novels.

* What happened in the Athaspace before the age of the sorcerer-kings?

* Clerics of the cults of ancestors should be possible in DS, for gameplay effects they would work as necromancers.

* Were the "Seven Kings" from the folklore tales "real" characters? Were three suns in the Athaspace? Could the "King Snakewing" be a possible antagonist? If this was possible, was he hidden because he is weaker than Borys the dragon?

* What if the Brown-Tide was caused intentionally by an Athasian god to punish mortals who had stopped to worship deities? And it wasn't the rest of gods' fault but when the Athasians used the pristine tower instead asking help to gods then these felt betrayed. The Athasian gods knews thanks their prophetic gifts what the cleasing war was to happen and then they warned, but only the true believers could escape toward astral domains. The rest of Athasians were cursed with a punishment, they would reincanate into Athas time after time but their souls wouldn't arrive to the Upper Planes until they recovered their faith in the Athasian gods.

Or the Pristine Tower was sabotaged by the "two-fallen-sun" to take revenge, and the energy used against the Brown Tide was drained from the Sun God, and this was a sacrilege for the Athasian gods. Athas was saved but the Sun god became catatonic or like this.

And spiritual powers from other plane could travel to Athas to create new cults working like living vortices to allow casting divine magic to their clerics. Some "living vortices" were special lineages of planar dragons who learnt to use divine or primal magic instead arcane.

 

[Hussar]

My problem with the mashup is that the two settings, apart from sharing very little by way of geography or history, share nothing in terms of theme. Dragonlance is pretty bog standard epic fantasy. It's not concerned with any of the things that Dark Sun is concerned with.

It's exactly the same if you tried to mash up Forgotten Realms and Dark Sun. I mean, if it floats your boat, go for it, but, typically if you're doing mash ups, there has to be some common thread between the stuff being mashed up. Dark Sun focuses on the notions of having to scrounge for every little scrap. The world is actively hostile and wants to kill you. Everything around you is driven by scarcity. Dragonlance is pretty much the opposite of that in every way. The environment in DL is benign. There is little to no scarcity. People are fighting over ideology, not tomorrow's meals.

I guess I just don't get the appeal here. If I'm going to play in Dark Sun, why would I want to play "before the Sorcerer Kings"? There's a thousand settings that do pretty much exactly that. The whole point of playing in Dark Sun is to play IN Dark Sun. I strongly resist the notion of bringing any sort of divine magic into Dark Sun. Again, that's the POINT of Dark Sun. That there aren't any gods. I so hate it when people seem to want to jam every little thing into every single setting.

It's like when they, for some bizarre reason, added devils to Dragonlance. Why? There was absolutely no need for the Hells to exist in Dragonlance. They completely retconned the entire cosmology just so that it would dovetail into Planescape.

Can we not have just one setting that isn't yet another kitchen sink setting? I don't want clerics in Dark Sun. I don't want druids. I don't want paladins. All that stuff is FANTASTIC in other settings. But, what doesn't exist in Dark Sun is just as important as what does.

Of course, I know that I've already lost this argument. I will guarantee that the new DS will have every single PHB class and race in it. They might have cosmetic changes, but, at the end of the day, Dark Sun won't be any different than any other base standard setting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Dragonlance is pretty bog standard epic fantasy.

Tied to the belief system of a real world religion, that isn't particularly compatible with Dark Sun.

I don't want druids.

Didn't Dark Sun have druids from the start? Dragonlance, on the other hand (inconsistently) has no druids.

 

[Chaltab]

Yeah Dark Sun's always had druids. They're really important in maintaining what's left of the ecosystem.