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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 9246256" data-attributes="member: 6796468">Dark Sun was INCREDIBLY and INTENSELY modern in how it did things!For one, the Gods were Dead (Nietzsche) and the only morality that existed was what we created for ourselves (Moral Relativism was rampant in the setting) with the assumption that most people simply wouldn't create a moral identity without deific reinforcement (Cultural Christianity). It was an attempt to break away from "Traditional Fantasy" and branch out to something more modern weighed down by a LOT of baggage...For another Magic was destroying the world. Of course magic was a stand in for aggressive pollution and industry ignoring environmental concerns rather than an aspect of the natural world as it had traditionally been portrayed. Similarly, "Capitalism is Bad" was writ large across the setting through the Sorcerer Kings who were concerned only with their benefit and to hell with the world and all the people in it.Plus you had people fighting against the pollution like Planeteers in the Preservers who were trying to bring the magic back, and an alternate system of more democratized non-destructive power through Psionics which required you to look inside yourself and build yourself up through hokey 90's understandings of both 1800s parlor mysticism and orientalist ideas about meditation, chakras, and more, which carried into 3rd edition with SO MANY CRYSTALS. Seriously. New Age Mysticism is a huge part of Psionics in Dark Sun and 3e.Like Ruin Explorer pointed out Chattel Slavery was the form employed on a specific slave race who were specifically bred to be better slaves, which gets into a whole OTHER discussion.The entire setting was also based on and built around Mad Max in it's style and aesthetic which had no ties to traditional clothing styles and fairly loose connections with the Punk scene post 70s.And, let us not forget, SURF DRUIDS. Nothing more traditionally fantasy than someone cramming Surfing into a genre. And a ridiculous part of 90s culture thanks to TMNT.<img src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91+L03qd+AL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="https://wavepoolmag.com/wp-content/uploads/surfing-escape-from-LA-movie.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Dark Sun was modern sensibilities FOR ITS TIME.Sure, a lot of what Dark Sun did wouldn't fly, today, without serious revision. And WotC are big cowards for not being willing to take the risk and spend the money it would take to -make- it fly, today. But it was 100% a product of the 80s and 90s in all the best and all the worst ways.</blockquote>

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