Darksun

Darksun is a discontinued Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting based on the harsh world of Athas, which was once a life-teeming ocean blue planet, but which has since been stripped of its fertility by uncontrolled use of defiling magic, although a small offshot of magicians called preservers tends to maintain life and ultimately restore the primeval lushness. It is a sun-burnt land forsaken by the gods, water, and hope. Another characteristic of Athas life is its lack of any serious mountain chains and therefore scarcity of metal and stone. Wood, obsidian and bone are used for weapons, tools and structure building.

Unique Characteristics

Player characters in Darksun are markedly tougher than other campaign settings - most start at third level with attributes on a 4-24 scale as opposed to the normal Dungeons & Dragons 3-18 scale. Most characters also posses some degree of psionic talent, making even the lowest slave suprisingly formidible. Athasian races include half-giants, more inteliigent than their counterparts in other worlds, muls, the unique dwarf-human breed, thri-kreen, a race of savage mantis men, and Aarakocra, a race of winged bird men. Even "normal" D&D races are substantially different - for instance, most halflings are vicious cannibals!

Psionics is highly developed on Athas even in animal minds, and almost every individual is born with a wild talent or two. Schools of the minds exist, mostly maintained by and serving the dragon kings.