It's Dark Sun

[The Little Raven]

The 4e alignment bar is a poor fit for Athas. 4e goes LG-G-N-E-CE. Where as on Athas the primary line of conflict is closer to LE vs CG. Two alignments that no longer exist.

Good: Freedom and kindness.
Evil: Tyranny and hatred.

That sounds perfect for Dark Sun's themes of slavery, struggles for freedom, genocide and the like, with LE (now Evil) being the alignment of tyrants and CG (now Good) being the alignment of freedom fighters.

 

[Spatula]

Not running Dark Sun with psionic classes (PHB3), or shamans (PHB2) as 2e clerics, is pretty a big deal though.

Psionic classes, sure. Shaman as 2e elemental clerics is conjecture - I'm going to hazard a guess that there will not be a direct translation of that class to 4e - and in any case Athas gets along just fine, if not better, without the concept (IMO).

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

If memory serves correctly, Rajaat used humans to carry out the Cleansing Wars because halflings couldn't become trained as wizards (this being 2E, where many non-human races had class limitations).

Your memory is correct. 2e Halflings couldn't be magic-users (preserver or defiler) and had level caps in most everything else, humans could be anything at any level. Humans could do it better than halflings.

Rajaat was born as a hideously malformed pyreen. I believe it was stated (or at least implied) that he blamed his physical appearance on the Rebirth, the event which caused the Blue Age halflings to transform into various different races. So his desire to return Athas to a world populated exclusively by halflings was essentially triggered by his self-loathing at being ugly.

It may have been stated somewhere, but I don't recall where. But I agree that it has been strongly implied. I've never been satisfied with just that as his reason.

Some find it either tragic on a Greek drama scale, or remarkably lame. There are days I go between the two.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Good: Freedom and kindness.
Evil: Tyranny and hatred.

That sounds perfect for Dark Sun's themes of slavery, struggles for freedom, genocide and the like, with LE (now Evil) being the alignment of tyrants and CG (now Good) being the alignment of freedom fighters.

I'm with this kid. CG is Good in 4e, and LE is Evil in 4e.

 

[lvl20dm]

I'll be interested to see how much of the history from the Prism Pentad is used in this edition. If memory serves, I don't believe the original box even told you what the Sorcerer-Kings were (nor did it tell you what The Dragon really was either). I expect we'll get more history than the original box (and hopefully more geography), but it is conceivable that much of the setting's background developed in novels will disappear or be drastically altered.

They might inject more mystery into the setting in order to give the DM more creative control over his campaign. Eberron has never explained The Mourning, and I think that is a credit to the setting.

We have been told that we will see an Elemental power source, and that it has a unique feel. I could see the first class of that source introduced for Dark Sun.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Personaly I'm really excited for this. I started playing DnD in 2002, so I completely missed out on a lot of cool 2e things like Dark Sun and Planescape. My first exposure to Dark Sun was the Dragon/Dungeon feature on it, which got me intruiged (I like the focus on psionics, because I really liked the Expanded Psionic Handbook).

As for the whole feywild debate, I'd like to weight in the opinion of a relative young'un who doesn't have as much history of the setting and past experiences and lore coloring his opinions... You know, just for a fresh perspective.

The Feywild should be extinct. Not non-existant, extinct. Athas once had one, but Defiling magic drained the Feywild first. The Feywild is not only "nature" turned up to 11, but also magic. Arcane engery suffuses the Feywild. If Defiling magic drains energy, then it might be the case that the original users of Defiler magic didn't even necessarily know they were defiling. They just tapped into this apparently limitless source of energy. Little did they know that they were destroying an entire plane of existance. And once the Feywild was siphoned off completely, with not even a dry husk to leave behind (because even a husk has inherent fey energy in the Feywild), the defilers were addicted to the practice and began using the only other source of energy available: Athas.

How's that sound?

I like it a lot. In a way that explanation can also be used in explaining how Athas is removed from the normal Planar Cosmos. Magic the very fiber of the universe was unraveled with the loss of the Feywild.
Like when you break a cookie it isn't perfect little breaks. That is why there might be a piece left around, why the connection to the Elemental Planes is there. It ripped itself completly from the Outer Planes (hence no gods).

 

[occam]

if it was happening often enough to mention, it would essentially remove a chunk of the inescapable harshness that is part of the setting's appeal; saying "You have to endure this ecological apocalypse...unless you make some difficult skill checks" is an entirely different kind of feel than "You have to endure this ecological apocalypse." In the former, "Oh, it's tough, but I can get out." In the latter, it's just tough. You should not be able to get out.

The Astral Sea, sure, you wouldn't want to make that easy to get to. But there's no reason the Athasian versions of the Feywild and Shadowfell have to be any nicer than the world itself; they are reflections of the world, after all. The Feywild exaggerates the natural aspects of the world, so the Athasian Feywild could be even harsher than Athas itself, while still retaining an eldritch beauty, like the depths of the Sahara. The Shadowfell isn't nice to begin with. I think those two planes, at least, wouldn't necessarily disturb the feel of Dark Sun too much.

Although I like Novaseaker's idea of an extinct Feywild, as well.

On a more general note... the return of Dark Sun. Wow. I really thought that would never happen.

 

[Andor]

On a more general note... the return of Dark Sun. Wow. I really thought that would never happen.

I know. It gives me hope that we may one day see the return of my beloved SpellJammer.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I know. It gives me hope that we may one day see the return of my beloved SpellJammer.

spell jamming has been somewhat fdolded in as planar jamming...how ever this does allow me to live in hope for Birthright

 

[Scribble]

The Astral Sea, sure, you wouldn't want to make that easy to get to. But there's no reason the Athasian versions of the Feywild and Shadowfell have to be any nicer than the world itself; they are reflections of the world, after all. The Feywild exaggerates the natural aspects of the world, so the Athasian Feywild could be even harsher than Athas itself, while still retaining an eldritch beauty, like the depths of the Sahara. The Shadowfell isn't nice to begin with. I think those two planes, at least, wouldn't necessarily disturb the feel of Dark Sun too much.

Although I like Novaseaker's idea of an extinct Feywild, as well.

On a more general note... the return of Dark Sun. Wow. I really thought that would never happen.

Maybe fold the two together?

Make the feywild an "extinct" plane but one that you can still get to, it's just like you said... Athas turned up a notch.

Maybe make the shadowfell's history one of it came about after they destroyed the feywild... a negative shadow sort of.