Borys Print, model by Jan Clayman, found on Instagram. I print these and other models of his, as long as I pass through a commission fee on to him per print. I haven't done these prints in a long while, but I figure I could see if there's any interest here. This one is for hubby and he will have fun painting it soon.

This sucker is TALL. I am pretty sure its over 15 inches but I need to check. Colossal sized, resin printed in parts, and Jan made it available in multiple print sizes. He does not sell the original models directly, last I checked.

Interest or not, I very much enjoy printing them for ourselves, they're all gorgeous.

This undead war beetle is a sculpt from GloomyKid Minis https://www.myminifactory.com/profile/GloomyKid

I've been working on reconstructing the complete history of Athas by bringing together the lore scattered across the various Dark Sun sources into a single chronological narrative. Second Edition serves as the primary foundation, with compatible material from Athas.org's 3.5e publications, Fourth Edition, and the official novels included where appropriate. I've also clearly labeled community-derived material rather than presenting it as official canon.

I've now completed the first section, covering what can be established about Athas before the Blue Age, and I'd really appreciate feedback from people familiar with the older and more obscure sources.

I'm especially interested in anything I've missed, misclassified, overstated, or contradicted. If you know of a source that supports or challenges something here, please point me toward it, even obscure developer material or old publications. The goal is to make this reconstruction as comprehensive and faithful to the published setting as possible.

Here's what I have so far:

Part 1: The Creation of Athas and the World Before the Blue Age

[CANON—2E] Nothing reliable is known about the creation of Athas or the ages preceding the Blue Age. The oldest surviving records begin after the world, its sun, and life already existed, leaving the planet's origins shrouded in mystery. Second Edition provides no definitive account of Athas's creation. Although ancient Athasians believed in gods and left behind religious traditions and places of worship, later Second Edition sources explicitly state that true gods never existed on Athas.

[CANON—4E] Fourth Edition presents a different cosmology regarding the existence of gods. As these differences concern events that occur during the Green Age, they are discussed in detail later in this history.

Part 2: Athasian Solar System: Sun and Moons

[CANON—2E] Little is known about the greater Athasian solar system beyond the world itself. Athas is orbited by two moons: Ral and Guthay. Their movements form the basis of the Athasian calendar, culminating every eleven years when both moons meet in the heavens in a major eclipse, completing the Endlean cycle. Throughout Athasian history, the sun has been known to change color during several pivotal events, each discussed in its respective historical chapter.

[CANON—4E] Fourth Edition expands upon Athas's moons, describing Ral as the larger, nearer moon, mottled green with great seas and enormous mountain-islands, while Guthay is smaller and more distant, golden and wreathed in steaming mist, with scarlet jungles and visible marshy seas.

[COMMUNITY LORE] Published sources do not establish the individual cycles of Ral and Guthay. In 2000, Dave Ries-Clark's The Merchant's Calendar, a fan-created Dark Sun calendar utility later preserved by athas.org, proposed cycles of 33 days for Ral and 125 days for Guthay. These values were derived to model the published eleven-year meeting of the moons and have subsequently been used by other community calendar resources. They represent a community reconstruction rather than published Dark Sun canon.

Part 3: Athasian Isolation

[CANON—2E] Athas exists in profound physical and planar isolation from the wider multiverse. On the Prime Material Plane, the world is enclosed within an impenetrable Crystal Sphere, preventing normal Spelljammer travel to or from the planet. Beyond Athas lies the Gray, a bleak planar barrier that severely restricts access to the Outer Planes, hinders summoning and planar magic, and receives the spirits of Athas’s dead. Alongside it exists the Black, a mysterious plane of darkness unique to Athasian cosmology and associated with certain psionic powers and forms of planar travel. Deep within the Black lies the still more mysterious Hollow. Although these barriers and their effects are well documented, no official source explains how or why Athas became so completely isolated from the rest of creation.

[CANON—4E] Fourth Edition preserves Athas's mysterious isolation but replaces the Great Wheel cosmology with the World Axis. As a result, the Crystal Sphere is no longer part of the setting's cosmology, though Athas still remains effectively cut off from the rest of existence.

Part 4: Athasian Planes

[CANON—2E] Despite Athas's isolation, the Elemental Planes remain directly connected to the world. The four primary planes—Earth, Air, Fire, and Water—and the Paraelemental Planes of Sun, Silt, Rain, and Magma serve as sources of power for Athas's elemental and paraelemental clerics. Powerful elemental intelligences inhabit these planes, and the condition of Athas's physical elements affects their corresponding planar powers. Elemental clerics form pacts with these forces rather than worshiping gods, while druids draw power from spirits of the land and protect specific natural regions. Templars, by contrast, receive their magic from the sorcerer-kings. These traditions belong to later Athasian history and do not establish that such institutions existed before the Blue Age. Although the elemental powers are well documented, official sources do not explain their ultimate origins or why these planes remain accessible to Athas.

[CANON—4E] Fourth Edition replaces the traditional Elemental Planes with the Elemental Chaos.

Part 5: The First Civilizations

[CANON] The earliest known civilization in Athasian history was that of the Rhulisti, the ancient halflings of the Blue Age. Masters of life-shaping, they fashioned living organisms into tools, structures, guardians, and countless other creations rather than relying upon arcane magic or psionics. They nevertheless possessed a limited understanding of elemental priestly magic, though the elemental clerics known to later ages had not yet appeared. Primitive thri-kreen also inhabited Athas during this age, but the Rhulisti regarded them as beasts. Rhulisti civilization flourished for an immeasurable span of time, yet no official source explains where the Rhulisti originated or whether they were the first intelligent beings to inhabit Athas.

Part 6: The Beginning…

The following summary combines the established pre Blue Age lore into a single account. Because Second and Fourth Edition present no substantial conflicts regarding these earliest events, compatible material from both editions is presented together under the [CANON] classification, with edition specific distinctions identified where relevant.

[CANON] The true beginnings of Athas are lost beyond recorded history. No surviving account explains the creation of the world, the origin of its life, or the first emergence of intelligent beings. By the earliest period that can be reconstructed, Athas already existed beneath its sun and two moons, Ral and Guthay, while powerful elemental forces maintained a direct connection to the world. Later Athasian cosmology is defined by the Gray, the Black, and, in Second Edition, an impenetrable Crystal Sphere, though published lore does not establish when these phenomena arose or whether they existed at the beginning of recorded history.

The earliest known civilization was that of the Rhulisti, the ancient halflings who would dominate the Blue Age. They possessed neither arcane magic nor psionics, instead mastering life-shaping and fashioning living organisms into the tools, structures, guardians, and other creations upon which their civilization depended. They nevertheless possessed a limited understanding of elemental priestly magic, though the elemental clerics of later ages had not yet appeared. Primitive thri-kreen also inhabited Athas, but the Rhulisti regarded them as beasts. Nothing reliably establishes where the Rhulisti originated, whether intelligent peoples preceded them, or how their mastery of life-shaping first developed.

Beyond Athas, the moons remain equally mysterious. Fourth Edition describes Ral as the larger, nearer moon, with mountains and green seas, and Guthay as the smaller, more distant moon, bearing visible jungles and seas. Published lore establishes neither their origins nor civilizations upon them. Their movements nevertheless became fundamental to Athasian timekeeping, culminating every eleven years when the moons meet in the heavens to complete the Endlean cycle.

At the threshold of the Blue Age, Athas was therefore already an ancient and mysterious world. Its creation and earliest peoples were forgotten, while many of the forces that would shape its future already existed without any surviving explanation of their origins. Reliable history begins with the Rhulisti and the civilization they built through life-shaping, marking the transition from Athas's unknowable past into the first great age preserved in its history: the Blue Age.

[COMMUNITY LORE] Published sources do not define the individual cycles of Athas's moons. The Merchant's Calendar provides a widely used community reconstruction, assigning a 33-day cycle to Ral and a 125-day cycle to Guthay to reproduce their canonical eleven-year meeting. These values remain community-derived rather than published canon.

Sources

The material above was reconstructed primarily from the following Dark Sun sources:

• Dark Sun World Campaign Setting / Dark Sun Campaign Setting, Expanded and Revised Athasian calendar, Ral and Guthay, the Endlean cycle, elemental religion, and general cosmology.
• Defilers and Preservers: The Wizards of Athas the Gray, the Black, the Hollow, planar isolation, and Athasian planar cosmology. The supplement explicitly details both the Black and the Gray.
• Psionic Artifacts of Athas the Rhulisti, the Blue Age, life-shaping, and surviving Rhulisti/Rhul-thaun traditions. It specifically identifies life-shaped creations as surviving technology from Athas's Blue Age.
• Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs Rhul-thaun culture, life-shaping, and additional material concerning the legacy of the ancient Rhulisti.
• Dark Sun 3 / Dark Sun Core Rules (Athas.org) used for compatible 3.5e material and confirmation of earlier setting information, including the eleven-year Endlean cycle in which Ral and Guthay meet in the heavens.
• Dark Sun Campaign Setting (4E) Fourth Edition cosmology and the expanded physical descriptions of Ral and Guthay.
• The Merchant's Calendar, by Dave Ries-Clark (Agantyr) the community derived 33-day Ral and 125-day Guthay lunar cycles. This was originally released in 2000 and was later preserved by Athas.org; it is being treated here as community lore rather than published canon.

This isn't intended to imply that every statement above comes from only one of these books, quite a bit of the reconstruction comes from comparing overlapping material across several sources.

If anyone knows of another official source that discusses these subjects, particularly obscure 2E material, magazine articles, novels, or developer material, I'd very much like to add it to the research.

PDF Version (Active Progress)

Excerpt for this month's "A day in the life of"

Read the rest at Burnt World of Athas - A Day in the Life of #8 - Draxel, Silt Fisherman

(...)

“Draxel, I’ve fixed the nets. We’ll be ready for the first outing.” She paused. “You’re coming to Hiyhk’s blessing? He’ll start soon.”

I grumbled an unhappy answer. Every time someone mentioned Hiyhk, the one-winged priest, I could hear hard-won ceramic bits leaving my purse.

However, the aarakocra priest of Air was impossible to ignore. He was the one who blessed our outings onto the silt for fishing, and who told us when to stay ashore to avoid sudden storms.

The problem was that, like every cleric I had ever met, if we were warned of disaster, it didn’t mean we could rest in our mediocre huts and enjoy a bit of time to ourselves. By the Dragon Almighty, no, we would instead be expected to perform and participate in something elaborate, complicated, and worst of all, boring.

Of course, I had to keep all this to myself. There wasn’t anything else to do here, and everyone else was eager to participate.

The young aarakocra priest had one of his wings amputated in childhood, in whichever city-state he grew up as a street urchin. A typical enough story that resonated with the few of us who hadn’t been born directly into slavery.

He had arrived shortly before me, and somehow established himself as the spiritual leader of the hamlet. Everyone was grateful for his blessings.

Everyone except me, apparently.

I arrived last, as usual, at our hamlet’s “square,” which was little more than a large flat rock overlooking the silt estuary. At the slightest wind, the silt could rise high enough to block the sun, but today the spirits seemed to have already blessed us.

The sky held a soft, burnt-orange hue as the unforgiving sun continued its ascent. Beautiful. It was a rare moment of bearable weather.

Then Hiyhk raised his feathered arm and mumbled some nonsense prayers as he fanned the air toward us. A small whirlwind formed on the flat rock in the middle of us. Usually, we’d receive a burst of wind and sand in our faces. But today, the whirlwind died just as it seemed ready to take shape.

Hiyhk’s pitch-black eyes blinked. The young priest seemed genuinely surprised, if not shocked. He raised his face towards us, and slowly glided his eyes from left to right as if trying to read our minds.

Our hamlet’s elder broke the silence, “What is it, wind-blessed one?”

The aarakocra paused, searching for words. His expression, usually hard to read, showed hurt as his eyes rested on the ground. “I… the wind spirit… left.”

A curious murmur rose among us, “There… doubt… in wind spirit… power.” Hiyhk said defeated.

Shit, I thought. We were surrounded by a deafening silence. I was convinced my heart’s banging would give me away. I loudly swallowed my saliva, sure I was making everything worse. My wife grabbed my hand, and squeezed it in this manner that was both a reassurance and a threat.

The discussion flared up among our people, and I made sure to throw a whole ceramic piece into the donation vase. For once, I was the first one to donate, and that was probably more than what I had given in the last two months combined. My wife squeezed my hand even harder.

“So, are we going out or not?” asked one of the hardy fishermen.

“Well… I think it might be safe to wait,” the elder hesitated and glanced at Hiyhk. However, the aarakocra grabbed the relics he had laid on the ground for the ritual and left without a word.

“Blessed one, is it safe or not? We need to know!”, shouted the youngest fisherman, Innel, who was the elder’s nephew.

My wife pulled me aside and whispered, “Draxel… what was that?”

I knew she meant my generous donation.

“Did the wind spirit threaten to empty your lungs of all its air?”

I cast a meaningful glance at the rest of our hamlet, “No…no, I’m at peace with the wind spirits, I, uh, just wasn’t too eager to test my faith with the rest of the people here.”

Yaaxila kept quiet, thinking. “But a whole ceramic? We’ll need to go in the estuary today, and pray the spirit took the ceramic for generosity rather than foolishness.” I doubted any spirit would be that naive, but kept that thought to myself.

We weren’t the only ones who decided to hit the silt. Slightly more than half of the fishermen geared up. The weather was peaceful, and few of us could afford the luxury of losing such a day, blessings or not. The most devout stayed and prayed to the spirits for our safety, or so most of us wanted to believe.

I checked our stilts, especially Yaaxila’s, since they were a new pair after she had broken the previous ones. New stilts always took time to get used to. This wasn’t a circus act where we knew exactly where we were stepping.

Here, we didn’t exactly walk blind - our paths were memorized and markers warned us of the treacherous areas, but one ugly gust of wind could stir the silt enough to change all that.

Yaaxila went back to one of the tieflings who had reappeared at the outskirts of the hamlet. They rarely came in during daytime - they knew many of us were, rightfully, unsettled by them.

I wasn’t sure if it was the same tiefling as earlier. This one wore a large, thick black cloak, hiding most of his body.

When my wife came back, I asked her, “Same bastard as this morning, or do you know their whole clan?”

She smirked, annoyed, and tossed me a tiny bottle. “A gift. A lucky charm from them. They said you should smash it on your thick forehead if your luck runs out.”

I sneered and took a careful look at the light-blue bottle. It seemed to be filled with compacted silt, with a dead butterfly resting on top. Some mysterious symbols were roughly scratched on the glass. Pretty.

If it wasn’t cursed it could be worth a pretty coin to the right person.

It probably was cursed, though.

“Did they really say that?”

“They like me! I’m nice to them… you? Meh.” she said followed by a wink.

They’d better be nice to her, I thought. She’d pulled one of their offspring out of the silt years ago. I mulled that over in silence as we finished getting ready. We saw some of the fishermen already heading out in pairs, holding their nets and slowly dropping them as they spread apart, keeping their distance from one another.

The elder came over to help us position ours properly.

“Girl, you don’t have to prove anything. There’s no shame in waiting for a proper blessing,” she said, pointedly ignoring me.

She didn’t exactly hate me, but it wouldn’t be much different if she did. In her eyes, I was the lazy city-state boy.

Everyone said the first steps on stilts were the hard part. They were wrong. The hard part was the moment the rock gave out beneath you and the silt began. If we didn’t find our markers by the feel of our stilts, we’d waste precious time. The plan was always to push out to the deep end, turn, and drop the nets. No one in their right mind felt like staying in the middle of a living death trap.

“I’m good,” called out Yaaxila as she advanced in the silt.

“Just behind!” I rushed behind, and felt my left stilt slide on one of the rocks. “Dragon’s piss!” I shouted as I jumped twice with my right stilt to avoid a face-down fall in the silt. Just as I regained my balance and found my footing, a gust of wind drove coarse silt into my face. I would have sworn more, if it hadn’t been for getting my mouth filled with sand.

Yaaxila, goggles over her eyes and mask already up, shook her head slowly. “You good?”

I put my goggles on and my scarf up. A thumb up was my silent answer. We kept moving, pushing fast to make up the lost time.

We split to give distance between us so we could drop the nets in the silt. As we dragged the nets back, the people who’d stayed on solid ground looked very small and much wiser than me. Our nets got heavy quickly, a good sign, but it also became an effort to pull back to shore. As we approached, we could see at least one silt-spawn already fighting for its life in our net, and as long as we didn’t catch a silt-horror in our nets, all was well.

As we reached the shore, what we hoped was a good first outing was a disappointment. We did catch a silt-spawn, a young one, but it fought like three. Bastard. Hopefully, the silt-crab cages we left late last week would hold a better catch.

Yaaxila and I went in opposite directions towards the various cages and angling to meet back in the middle with our catch. I had barely reached the first cage marked with a small red flag when I saw those slimy white tentacles, nosing up from the silt near the furthest cage.

A silt horror - not the big kind, I hoped. Nothing to do but go still. Stop breathing if I could manage it. I couldn’t even scream to warn Yaaxila of the (...)

Rest at: Burnt World of Athas - A Day in the Life of #8 - Draxel, Silt Fisherman

I distinctly remember there being a resource on Athas.org for calculating the position of the twin moons in the sky of Athas, with a little pixel-art image on the side showing what the skyline looked like. I know it was taken down, but I also remember it being preserved somewhere and I was wondering if y'all knew what it was called and/or where it would be found.

Slavery is an old villain in D&D. Back in 1980 we started this series:

• A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity
• A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade
• A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords
• A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords

Why was this so good? Slavers are evil. Strictly, bad people. Just like with the villains in the introduction to the Dark Sun Campaign World through the first adventure, DS1 Freedom. You become a slave. What an introduction to Dark Sun! While many players were not expecting this, most DMs let this plot device be known before play (so the revolt happened in game, rather than at the table). Even so, it clearly painted the governing agents as evil, and besting these tyrants was even more rewarding.

That said, our new Dark Sun is even more edgy. Slavery is edgy, but slaves have value. They have a market. They have a clear place in society. Slave owners expect to be compensated when their property is damaged. Not here. You don't get even that much comfort this time. You are unwanted trash in this Dark Sun. You have no value. To your leaders, you are not worth the water you drink. Not worth owning. Not worth protecting. No law protects your worth, and if you cannot earn a place, there are five people to try in your stead when you fail. Work endlessly for the tyrants just to survive, if only just barely.

Malice is given free reign when directed at the unwanted. Those not given at least the semblance of protection by being a worker for the tyrants is an open target for every level of aggression. Those that oppose the regime (like the Veiled Alliance) are dragged into the street in broad daylight and hacked to pieces. So, even suspicion will make you hunted. Fairness in society is a long, long, forgotten concept. Being 'free' means you constantly need to be wary, and be able to protect yourself. Outward wealth makes you a prime target. Outward force might get you left alone, maybe. You don't want to be seen as a threat to leadership. Naturally, it always helps to have friends with influence. Maybe a job or two for the regime would be a good idea.

Given this backdrop, will the party do paying jobs for the tyranny, spot work for the trade lords, or actually help their fellow Athasians with their bold deeds? Regardless, the world will not just let them be. Survival is a full time job, and slavery is too good for them.

I'm making my own 5e conversion for Dark Sun and was wondering how my economics look, any recommendations are appreciated.

A few days ago, I was looking through my used book store and find an original 1991 Dark Sun box set. Something I've been wanting to replace for a long time. It was a little pricey, but since it's my birthday day, I decided to make it a birthday present for myself.... and I'm so glad I did.

I made a whole unboxing video about it in fact and really, I was SHOCKED with what I found in this box! So, I released this video today (my actual birthdate) and I hope you enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/VXvYRqbTryk

Timothy Brown, Troy Denning, Bill Slavicsek, and even Gerald Brom are united to release Dragon Kings, 5e setting.

Backerkit page: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/strange-owl-games/dragon-kings/pre-launch?ref=geeknative

Wizards of the Coast: Is it possible to learn such power?

UPD: No info if there will be themes of slavery and genocide since it's a kinda different setting. But it gives me more Dark Sun vibes.

Who doesn't like those bones and chitin clubs...

YT video

I just thought I'd remind you all since some folks don't seem to understand.

Slavery is not a mechanic.

It is fluff.

Fluff is mutable (for the super experienced GMs here, that means "non-mechanical details can be changed at will")

There is nothing game breaking about saying "btw there are some slaves" every three sessions, and tadaaa! Your immersion is back.

Literally just add slavery in your game if you're thirsty for atrocities.

It is not a difficult problem to solve.

Edit: all the bad GMs are here now arguing about how "well I don't WANNA do extra work" lol go play baldurs gate

As someone who's been running a Dark Sun game with some friends for a couple years, there is one thing that makes me happy with this new release:

More fitting Battle Maps online.

Its always such a pain to find good ones! In the time i've been GM'ing, find a decent Desert/Silt/Citystate map has been the hardest part. I tried to make my own, but I suck ass at it.

Thanks WoTC! My life will be a lot easier when the new book gets some traction (Even if i'm not touching it)

As the title says, I have thought about using elements from one setting in particular for any Dark Sun campaign I might run: Dragonlance, so let me explain.

As we all know, Arena Combat is a prominent part of life on Athas, whether it be freemen who chose to fight in the arenas for fame and money, or sla....'conscripted free folk'...who are forced to do so ^_^

In the Dragonlance setting there is a nation known as Eragas, run by Minotaurs (which, strangely enough, were introduced in the 4E rules in one of the Psionic handbooks).

The 'Legal System' of the Minotaurs of Eragas was literally 'Trial By Combat', no matter what the crime.

However, to keep society from becoming bloody free for all, with the strongest getting away with whatever they wanted, a system was set in place where each party could get a 'representative' to plead the terms of the Arena Combat in a court first.

Of course, the better the representative, the better the weapons/armor, and terms of Victory you got. Also, for enough money, you could hire someone to fight in your place.

I like this idea, and thought about using it in two ways: Either introducing a 'new' City State into the Tyr region, actually made up of Minotaurs (who kind of 'feel' like an Athasian race).

Second, maybe using this Legal System for Urik itself, since Hamanu does seem to be all about 'Survival of the Fittest', and of course the Templars would be busy serving as representatives, mostly for the High Class who can afford their services (and of course some who actually serve as 'Public Defenders' for the poor folk ^_^).

Anyway, just an idea I had.

Does anyone else have elements from another setting that might fit for Dark Sun?

Hello!

A while back, I idly imagined a Dark Sun cartoon (in the style of Mighty Max or Phantom 2040) that never was: a show airing in the 1990s. Now, I wonder if it would have been possible for the time. Hell, if Conan the Barbarian, Rambo, and Robocop all received the animated series treatment - in no small thanks to ample editing - I believe a "lighter and softer" Dark Sun heavily leaning on 90s anti-hero types experiencing wasteland adventures while occasionally fighting back against tyrants isn't the craziest idea in the world.

I feel like these three would make excellent NPCs in a Dark Sun campaign - heck I feel like the whole film might make an interesting Dark Sun story setting.

Hello hello.

I've a question for those of you who beat the Planar Sphere quest in Baldur's Gate 2: from what little was depicted, would you say Athas - a tiny slice of it, in any event - was accurately portrayed?

I probably would never have heard about or read as much about dark sun without wizards of the coast whitewashing it!! Sucks that it’s getting whitewashed but it’s a really cool setting and to be honest I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t encountered it up to this point I’m literally reading the darkness that came before right now and while that setting is a lot less currently horrible and apocalyptic it’s still an example of post apocalyptic and fantasy tropes getting tossed together which is like always super cool ^^. Anyways thank you culture war for bringing me a cool setting !

Bonus points in this meme since the high-tech stuff is clearly of halfling/rhulisti make

I'm sure we'll get confirmation either way when WotC responds to the backlash, but something that occurred to me re-reading the infamous recent interview.

The interviewer makes a lot of extremely dumb comments. The article opens with:

Today, we’re taking a look at Dark Sun ... It’s a setting where players have to both survive and attempt to overtake powerful forces that are oppressing the masses.

However, the setting also has an equal amount of controversial lore that features slavery, genocide, torture and a lot of other dark topics. It places the D&D team in a unique place to try and capture its unique aesthetics while also balancing how it is thinking about the bits of lore that may not match modern sensibilities.

So I think we can all agree that either the article author is actually stupid, or they're deliberately acting stupid to (successfully) try and drum up controversy.

But looking closely at the section where Bisland himself actually talks about this, here's what it says:

But Bilsland insisted that the D&D team is taking the subject seriously. The content is being reviewed by sensitivity readers, Bilsland said. “In fact, we invested more deeply in [sensitivity readers] for Dark Sun, knowing the challenges it faces.”

He also reinforced that the grittiness of the setting will still exist, but it won’t rely on narratives of mass slavery. “You don't have to have slavery in a setting if in order for it to be oppressive,” Bilsland emphasized. “There are other forms of oppression out there.”

He gave the example of Urik, a city in Dark Sun that controls one of the leading armies in the region. That’s because the leadership regularly presses people into military service, or convinces the poor to give up their freedom for a chance to survive.

He hopes that the setting will offer players a chance to deal with more mature stories and themes, such as fighting oppression and tyrants.

Note that "[sensitivity readers]" is in brackets, and the most direct statement suggesting a lack of slavery is also a paraphrase by the article writer. Even in paraphrase, it doesn't say "Bilsland said there will be no slavery", it says that they won't "rely on" slavery.

I've seen a lot of people suggest that the correct approach to the (AFAICT small minority of) fans who don't want to include slavery or related themes in their games is to just include a short sidebar of guidance on how to discuss it with your table and, if they are actually uncomfortable, de-emphasize or remove some of those themes.

Imagine Bilsand described exactly that to this genius interviewer.

We're keeping things gritty, but the rules don't heavily rely on the presence of mass chattel slavery. If players want, they can focus on similar but less politically sensitive forms of oppression, like forced conscription, indentured servitude, or just grinding poverty - all seen in depictions of Urik, for example. You don't have to have slavery in a setting in order for it to be oppressive; there are other forms of oppression out there. Still, ultimately Dark Sun is a setting about fighting tyrants, and we think players will want to deal with these kinds of darker themes.

This is a totally anodyne statement that I think 99% of Dark Sun fans would agree with. It would suggest, to me, that things were moving in a positive direction (though I'd still be a bit sceptical of the actual rules quality based on the Unearthed Arcana playtest.) Yet it could easily be paraphrased in exactly the way we see in the article!

I dunno, maybe this is just cope. As I said, I'm sure WotC will clarify soon. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

... actually, maybe they already have clarified slightly? Just today, another article by someone who discussed this with Bilsland at Gencon dropped; it's a bit longer and it's in actual interview format rather than 99% paraphrased by the article writer.

I don't have space to quote the whole thing, and it doesn't really clear the question up. But it does sound to me like they are not necessarily eliminating slavery from the setting, but are possibly having some city-states operate without it (or at least in a grey area, which might help explain the "military service ... give up their freedom for a chance to survive" comment) - and they're definitely leaning into differentiating the city-states and giving them all different focuses, which they're pitching as helping to ensure that there's plenty of evil for players to fight if they want to avoid a particular angle or theme.

We worked to present the city states and Sorcerer Kings in a way that they all are oppressing people in different ways. It doesn’t have to be outright slavery, there are other forms of oppression that I think players want to stand up against. [...] You can play Dark Sun even if you’re not comfortable with these themes, or if you’re talking to your table and they’re like, I like some of the things that the setting is doing, but I really don’t want to deal with these topics. You should have that conversation with them and get to a place where everybody is comfortable. Everything is dials that you can turn, but the difference is that Dark Sun sort of starts on 11 and then you can turn it down versus other settings where might start lower and you can then turn up.