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.

 

[Superchunk77]

I would cut paraelemental clerics tbh. They weren't in the OBS and added little to the setting.

I disagree. They were first presented in Earth, Air, Fire and Water, but they made great anti-heroes compared to the elemental clerics. Kinda like Athas' version of the anti-paladin. I had at least players who really enjoyed playing them. Especially rain and silt clerics.

 

[Zardnaar]

I disagree. They were first presented in Earth, Air, Fire and Water, but they made great anti-heroes compared to the elemental clerics. Kinda like Athas' version of the anti-paladin. I had at least players who really enjoyed playing them. Especially rain and silt clerics.

The other reason is a new Darksun doesn't have the page count to add everything from DS splatbooks.

I dont see them doing paraelemental domains for example.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

A setting is not only a group of names of places but it is also iconic characters, heroes or villains. The iconic heroes of DS are the main characters from the saga "the prism pentand", and the iconic villains are the sorcerer-kings, and several don't survive the novels.

You could create new factions or antagonist groups but to introduce iconic villains for DS is different.

And DS needs a special visual look to hook new fans.

Let's remember Athas was affected by the abyssal plague, due the creation of the voidharrow by the god Tharizdum, the chained god.

* Now I am thinking the formians could conquer a lot of domains in other planes, but when this happened those regions were fragmented and expelled, becoming demiplanes or astral domains, and then some formian realms could be within the Grey.

* What if there were dragons in Athas before the cleasing war? The could survive because Rajaat's plan was to be their last target because they were too powerful, but after the betray or rebelion of the champions the dragons disappeared. They knew what was going to happen and they the chose to disapear without any trace. Among other reasons because they noticed they couldn't, or they shouldn't cast arcane magic, or they could be hunted and catched to be used like living-vortices allowing templars to cast divine-magic.

* Could flora from the elemental planes to survive in Athas? Something like the red weed or red creeper from the War of the Worlds. The article "Arcane Botanica" from Dragon magazine #357 says the plants from the elemental planes aren't easy to be cultivated in the material plane.

* Other idea is there is a secret sea within a demiplane. The bad new is its is plagues with biopunk horros like the horror manga "Gyo", something style cyborg-fishes. The good new is these can be eaten.

* What is the status of Kalidmay? Maybe the dark domain is now within the "Endless-Night" (Athasian shadowfell) and this could be a double-edged sword because now there are more space of "ordinary" life but it is full of monsters or supernatural predators. Or after the "shatering" of the demiplane of the dread (I would dare to bet it could be Vecna's fault because he wants revengue against the Dark Powers) now Kalidmay is the "core" of a new demiplane. Who would created a demiplane like this? Divine powers who wanted something like the Wall of the Faithless. It would be a right place for the souls without loyalty to any deity but they weren't too sinner to deserve a worse punishment. Here the divine magic can work thanks the "aspirants" but these can attack each other to steal their divine spark. The penance for the "aspirants" is they have to learn the difference between authority and the true leadership.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

If the new DS is as good an update as VRG was, then it will be just fine…

 

[Staffan]

I disagree. They were first presented in Earth, Air, Fire and Water, but they made great anti-heroes compared to the elemental clerics. Kinda like Athas' version of the anti-paladin. I had at least players who really enjoyed playing them. Especially rain and silt clerics.

The problems with para-elemental clerics are two-fold.
1. Lore-wise, they intrude on things previously established, like this passage from Terrors of the Desert: "The four elementals represent the forces that shape the everyday lives of the inhabitants of the beleaguered planet. Air represents the act of living, as a child gulps it when first entering the world, and a dying man exhales it is as his last act before death. Water is life itself, always in need and never taken for granted. Earth represents the world, always changing, always harsh, but dependably always there. Fire represents the heat of the sun, the burning desert, and all that was lost." Now all of a sudden Sun and Fire are distinct from one another for no good reason. It also messes somewhat with the options for druids, who often picked guarded lands that would give them access to two elemental spheres (e.g. a volcano to get major access to fire and minor to earth). With para-elements in play, that makes less sense.

2. They introduce a dichotomy where we have Good elemental clerics (or at least ones who are charged with restoring the land) and Evil para-elemental ones. To me, elements work best when they are disinterested in mortal affairs. Some clerics use the powers granted by the elements to help others, and others for selfish purposes. The elements don't give a bleep. Sure, some Earth elementals represent things like soil growth, and they would like to see the world flourish again... but others are more about naked rock, and couldn't care less about it. And then trying to fit fire into this paradigm, where they want to encourage the growth of both cities and vegetation because that gives them something to burn, instead of associating them with the Sun, felt really weird. As does treating Rain as something separate from Water.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

One thing they won’t be doing in anything 5e is resurrecting any “you must have this alignment” rules.

As for elemental clerics in Dark Sun, I feel that the Elements should be impersonal power sources that people can learn to tap into, as depicted in the original boxed set. There is no place for the idea that they should have any inherent moral code. A lot of Dark Sun's "problems" are caused by the multitude of splat books and novels, not part of the original setting design.

It's also worth noting that cleric domains/spheres in 2nd and 3rd edition functioned very differently to cleric subclasses in 5e, and are not really comparable. There are several existing 5e cleric subclasses that can be fluffed as drawing on elemental powers, without needing to make a horde of cookie cutter new subclasses.

I also think that downplaying alignment supports the Swords and Sorcery aspect of Dark Sun. The genre is traditionally morally grey, and Conan fares vary badly if graded on the D&D alignment system.

 

[tetrasodium]

WotC will probably avoid the word Savage due to its historical use as a slight against indigenous people, but that doesn't really change much. The world can still be a nightmare by another name. "Harsh", I think, is probably most descriptive.

I don't think savage worlds gets much flack over its name. The entry in question describes how the world is savage across that and the other 8 points too. If you look at the 8 points themselves

Spoiler: said 8 points

The word is definitely not used in the "old fashioned + offensive" definition your entire concern rests on it using. Even skimming the 2e book it seems to be using the violent flavors of definition

It's more the matter of scale for Dark Sun. One race enslaving a few hundred people versus a whole portion of the planet relying on mass slavery to run entire cities, or serve as annual sacrifices to a defiler dragon to power world shattering magic.

Not just world shattering, borys the dragon is keeping someone far worse (Rhajat) sealed with that power

I was more talking about having elemental and para-elemental domains for clerics.

Having a full on modular cleric base class for cleric & a few others would certainly support the lore & concept better than a subclass players would just ignore or whine about being so narrowly limited. A good slate of lore appropriate base classes/modular class features appropriate for this kind of thing would be a good inclusion for a darksun book

I guess it will be only some pages about the lore, like the articles from Dungeon magazine #110, describing the region of Tyr, the city-states and the sorcerer-kings (let's suppose they are still alive because the events of the novels haven't happened yet).

D&D hasn't been designed for a right power balance with the firearms and advanced technology.

The books will be level PG13, not telling too much about that kind of details. Adult players don't need it to be told in the books.

My opinion is the banning of PC species or classes could be against the current WotC strategy for 5e. What if a player wanted to add diopsids as playable specie?

View attachment 421810

Banning setting inappropriate races and classes should be the default for any darksun book and it does NOT go against established precedent (see pg 4). The AL guidelines even do it for eberron and Fr games with setting specific guidelines for certain adventures§, darksun should be exen more explicit. Even beyond that, why on earth would that be a choice for a player to decide for the gm what extinct races to add rather than being a default the gm could decide leeway on if it fits the game they are running to allow a player to play as?

§ players frequently ship even reading it but it's good to have that support. A dark sun players book should 109% have the limits even more clear

I'm developing a new campaign. Arcane age Netheril influence.

No one's playing a wizard.

I have zero doubt. I tried telling players that wizards had access to a sharn campaign related library that contained spell books for"literally every wizard spell plus potentially some custom ones over time" for one campaign and had a warlock a sorlock plus some martial types along with maybe a druid or clert(I forget which)but zero interest in wizard across a 5player group even then

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

In my tabletop I can use the races/species and classes I want, for example a totemist shaman or a gnome because a reincarnation spell worked in a different way. Maybe the hej-kin are the "evolution" of the Athasian gnomes. Some races could survive hiding in underground caverns. And weren't they detected by the champions of Rajaat? They did but Rajaat thought it wasn't necesary because with the return of the blue age those zones would be flooded. And what if a player wanted to play un updated version of the shadowcaster class from 3.5 Tome of Magic?

Isn't that curious? Any players don't like the changes in DS and this makes me to remember Rajaat. The reason of the disaster is Rajaat wanted to return to the blue age but his actions made everything worse. He didn't want to accept the changes of the green age.

* Other idea is monsters from the demiplane of the nightmares, like the surreal and bizarre creatures from the videogame "Scarlet Nexus". Do you remember the trope of a meteor falling on the earth causing a zombie outbreak? let's imagine a "meteor" falling within the plane of the dreams causing a monster-outbreak.

* What if the brown tide that caused the end of the blue age wasn't originated in Athas but from other world? Maybe the experiment was something like a planar gate or their own spelljammer but accidentally a plague was brought. And maybe the brown tide wasn't caused by an accident but sabotage by an evil faction.

* What would be the fate in the afterlife of the iconic heroes of DS and their loved beings?

 

[tetrasodium]

In my tabletop I can use the races/species and classes I want, for example a totemist shaman or a gnome because a reincarnation spell worked in a different way. Maybe the hej-kin are the "evolution" of the Athasian gnomes. Some races could survive hiding in underground caverns. And weren't they detected by the champions of Rajaat? They did but Rajaat thought it wasn't necesary because with the return of the blue age those zones would be flooded. And what if a player wanted to play un updated version of the shadowcaster class from 3.5 Tome of Magic?

Isn't that curious? Any players don't like the changes in DS and this makes me to remember Rajaat. The reason of the disaster is Rajaat wanted to return to the blue age but his actions made everything worse. He didn't want to accept the changes of the green age.

* Other idea is monsters from the demiplane of the nightmares, like the surreal and bizarre creatures from the videogame "Scarlet Nexus". Do you remember the trope of a meteor falling on the earth causing a zombie outbreak? let's imagine a "meteor" falling within the plane of the dreams causing a monster-outbreak.

* What if the brown tide that caused the end of the blue age wasn't originated in Athas but from other world? Maybe the experiment was something like a planar gate or their own spelljammer but accidentally a plague was brought. And maybe the brown tide wasn't caused by an accident but sabotage by an evil faction.

* What would be the fate in the afterlife of the iconic heroes of DS and their loved beings?

I can't help but notice that through all of this concern over player desires to play something not in athas that you didn't even hint at the idea that the gm might even have the slightest of say over exceptions they choose to allow players in the game they are gming. All of those maybe's and what if's are squarely answered by "talk to your gm and see if you can get approval. Those are high level setting decisions that do not in any way deserve to have a rulebook sandbag the gm by failing to support them with a focus on opening the barn door rather than making the fence clear to players.

That's a critical distinction because it makes the difference between setting the stage for a player unaware of or unconcerned about the lore and setting baselines locking horns with the gm over the shared fiction vrs a player who is expected to understand enough and willingly agrees to follow any conditions applied to what could be an exception the gm would be justified in revoking if ignored

 

[DarkCrisis]

These "WotC" is going to do "insert fan fave location book" always turn out the same.

They are never EVER splat books. This won't be an in-depth lore telling of Dark Sun and/or any city/state/region. Just like all the others from Icewind Dale to Dragonlance to WotC-made new setting it will be an adventure book with the most minimum of setting info.

Though what little they do mention could be heavily changed much like in Dragonlance.

Honestly, I expect the lore in this adventure book to be just "Gods left, planet dying, ever watch or play Fallout?"

I would not be surprised in the least if they try to sale this as "D&Ds answer to Fallout".