Timothy Brown, one of the designers behind Dark Sun, has discussed how the distinctive Dungeons & Dragons setting was created, why its environmental and social themes were not intended as a political statement, and how his new project Dragon Kings develops similar ideas.
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The harsh world that became Dark Sun
Released in 1991 for the second edition of D&D, Dark Sun was published by TSR, the company that owned the game before Wizards of the Coast acquired it. Troy Denning and Timothy Brown were the principal designers of the original Dark Sun Boxed Set.
The project began under the working name War World. TSR wanted a new universe that might replace Dragonlance, which some staff believed would not last. Brown and Denning took on the difficult brief: create a war-ravaged world that felt unlike the familiar fantasy of settings such as the Forgotten Realms.
Brown looked to the rise-and-fall adventures of Conan and the harsh atmosphere of Dune, along with other pulp fiction. The resulting setting, Athas, was a desert world where survival, scarce resources and brutal power structures shaped everyday life.
Artist Gerald Brom was central to the setting’s identity. Rather than simply illustrating ideas supplied by the writers, Brom was encouraged to draw unusual creatures, weapons and environments while the designers built the world around his work. His imagery helped inspire Athas’s shortage of metal and the use of bone and insect materials for weapons.
The initial concept excluded familiar fantasy peoples, but feedback convinced the designers that players still wanted elves, dwarves and halflings. They remained, although each was radically reworked. The setting included psionic elves, cannibal halflings and other unsettling variations on traditional fantasy species.
Why Dark Sun became politically charged
Athas’s history is built around destruction. The Champions of Rajaat, fifteen powerful and largely insane students of the equally unstable sorcerer Rajaat, attempted to exterminate every non-human species. This backstory helped explain both the world’s post-apocalyptic condition and the altered nature of its inhabitants.
Magic is also tied directly to the planet’s decline. Rajaat created Defiling Magic, which draws energy from the environment. Every spell removes life from the world, helping explain why Athas became a barren wasteland. The ultimate ambition of defilers is to become dragons, although only one person completed the long and punishing transformation.
Those ideas naturally invite readings about environmental collapse, resource hoarding, inequality and capitalist greed. Brown, however, says the designers did not set out to make a political work. The environmental themes followed from the decision to make survival in a declining world more important than it was in conventional fantasy settings.
Brown’s position is that players can interpret any connections to real-world events for themselves. He recalls no discussion with Denning or Brom about taking a political stand while the setting was being developed.
Scarcity and exploitation were still deliberate parts of the setting. The wealthy hoard resources, the poor suffer, and slavery exists throughout Athas. Brown says these elements were presented as consequences of the world’s conditions rather than as an attempt to make a contemporary political argument.
Dark Sun’s treatment of slavery has remained particularly controversial because it depicts humans enslaving other humans, rather than assigning the practice solely to obviously evil fantasy creatures. Brown says the original designers treated slavery as evil and assumed heroic player characters would oppose it. Later discussion has focused on whether that approach adequately addresses the real histories and trauma associated with slavery. Recent statements about adapting Dark Sun indicate that a forthcoming line of books will avoid references to slavery and change the setting accordingly.
Brown was surprised that readers connected so strongly with the setting’s political implications. In 1991, online discussion was not part of everyday life, so he did not see those reactions as they developed. He believes later internet conversations helped frame Dark Sun as a political work, even though that was not the designers’ stated aim.
Dragon Kings pushes the idea further
Brown’s new project, Dragon Kings, is being developed by Strange Owl Games as a spiritual successor to Dark Sun. Its creators include Brown, Troy Denning, Gerald Brom, Bill Slavicsek, Rich Baker and Shane Hensley.
The project follows Brown’s 2014 work that introduced Khitus. Brown and Hensley had approached Wizards of the Coast about acquiring Dark Sun, but the requests were declined, leading them to create their own setting instead. The updated Dragon Kings expands that world and brings it to the current fifth-edition D&D rules.
Khitus is more hopeful than Athas, but it also features limited resources and dangerous magic. The key difference is where the consequences fall: in Dark Sun, magic damages the planet, while in Dragon Kings, magic is a living force that can punish the caster, their loved ones or the world around them.
Wizards have developed ways to limit sorcery’s retaliation. Some of the most disturbing methods involve drugged captives being forced to love a wizard so that the magic’s wrath can target them instead.
Dragon Kings also includes a desperation system. Actions and events increase a desperation value, and higher desperation makes certain tasks harder. Players can take steps to reduce that value, adding a mechanical response to a world becoming increasingly unstable.
A separate Dragon Kings product will provide conversion guidance for groups who want to use second-edition D&D rules. The project is funded, and its BackerKit campaign is scheduled to end on 5 November. You can view the Dragon Kings BackerKit campaign for more information.
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