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.

 

[Zardnaar]

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

Hell they restore it as well.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Dark Sun has halflings as a big part of its setting, whereas Dragonlance bans them.

Both settings turn halflings into terrifying monsters.

 

[Zardnaar]

Both settings turn halflings into terrifying monsters.

Dark Sun ones less horrific.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Let's remember the action-live serie "Once Time Upon" what was a complete reimagination of Disney tales.

A mash-up setting may need a new geography of the continents starting completely from zero. Really it would be more like a spiritual succesor of both previous franchises. We shouldn't worry about the continuity because it is in an "alternate timeline". Can't you enjoy "Phineas and Ferd: Special Star Wars" because "it is not my Star Wars"?

Isn't D&D about to have got an open mind and a lot of imagination? If we want to be creative to have original ideas then we have to know when to break some boundaries. The fluff/background/lore should be source of inspiration for your own stories, not a straight jacket for your creativity.

* I miss more "big bad bosses" in adition to the sorcerer-kings because it is like a 80 Saturday morning cartoon based in toys there the villains are always the same group.

* Can you imagine how a child from 80s in the videoclud could be fascinated with the covers of low-budget Mad Max rip-off style "Wheels of Fire"?

 

[Staffan]

It's exactly the same if you tried to mash up Forgotten Realms and Dark Sun.

At one point I had a theory that Dark Sun was the future of the Realms, but that was mostly an idle thought based on a point or two of geography (I think there was a tower on an island in the Silt Sea that was reminiscent of a tower on an island in either the Moonsea or the Sea of Fallen Stars). But this was back when very little about Athas' history had been developed, and later developments in the Dark Sun line made it clear that the Green Age was very different from any other D&D setting. Primarily, the Green Age was highly psionics-based, with arcane magic being a later addition, and there's no D&D setting that does anything like that.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Dark Sun ones less horrific.

Yeah, they only eat your flesh, whereas the Dragonlance ones destroy your soul.

 

[Bitbrain]

I think it makes more sense for Eberron, since they are burning through their magical energy at an alarming rate.

This what I’ve gone with in my home game mega-setting: Eberron is the Present, Dark Sun is the Far Future.

 

[Imagine That TTRPG]

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 the same for me. I read that Greyhawk: Mika the Barbarian trilogy when I was young, then Dragonlance, and then Prism Pentad. I loved that series. Troy Denning does an excellent job with magic. If Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman added him to their writing, that magical battle between Raistlin and Fistandantilus would've been amazing!
Anyway, I haven't visited Athas since Prism Pentad. Thanks for mentioning the newer works. I'll be sure to check them out.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I legit wonder if the skyrocketing popularity of the fallout franchise is why Dark Sun is getting a looky-loo. I know a lot of people who're excited about the new season of the Fallout show who've never played the games, and I wouldn't be surprised if they might do a marketing push for Dark Sun around that time.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Can we use the tag "Hyborian-punk"? Because this setting is like a mixture of Mad Max and Conan the barbarian.

We could create an "Athasian" version of other setting, and here we could enjoy total creative freedom to add and remove things as we please but I suspect one of the key elements are interesting "big bad bosses" with their own personality and city-states with their own identity.

* Acording the tale of the tree-suns people there were three noble rulers, and there was a confrontation where two of them betrayed the third. This asked help to the elemental powers and these punished the traitors. Those two suns would become the moons.

The pag 17 of the 4ed book says about the two moons of Athas:

Athas has two moons, Ral and Guthay. Ral, a mottled green in color, is the closer of the two. Sages who have scried Ral report that it is covered in great green seas and mountain-islands of dizzying heights. Guthay, the smaller and more distant moon, is a golden orb mantled in steaming mists beneath which lie scarlet jungles and marshy seas.

Should this mean those moons have got "biosphere" and they could be useful to reforest Athas? Maybe they are ruled by some "moon god" or like this.

Other idea is Athas has been "recreated" like the Dark Powers from Ravenloft setting when these create a dark domain.

* What if Rajaat wasn't originally a bad guy but he was tainted or affected by a blad influence, maybe the Pristine Tower? Or the Pristine Tower was sabotaged by some hostile power, maybe to "hurt" the solar god or like this.

Or the mutations by the Pristine Tower is because this was caused to heal rhustili (original Athasian halflings) and creatures from the blue age.

* Maybe the Brown-Tide wasn't an accident but a failed weapon in the war between the nature-masters and the nature-benders, two factions of lifeshafters.

* What if the ancient rhustili weren't true natives of Athas but they came from other world? This first world could be a fabulous spin-off.