Dark Sun, etc.
Most Dark Sun art that is well done can be found among the many publications for the setting. So when there are artists creating Dark Sun pieces on there own, it’s always great to see since they may have new takes on the setting. I mentioned one already, but there is another that must be included on the list of the great: Michal Vondracek.
I’d bet when reading the title of this post one’s mind would immediately think of “Overloard” (the cover of 2e’s “Dragon Kings”). However I am actually referring to his dragon king illustration, not the painting.
Continue reading “Dragon King Color Illustration”
This is no place for social commentary, but a Brom image started me looking for what seems like a mysterious and elusive being in Dark Sun: the Mul woman.
Continue reading “In Search of the Mul Woman”
In early 1995, Tom Baxa’s images for the Dark Sun setting were waning, and I can imagine at that time TSR needed to find illustrators that could fill the gap. There were quite a few that came and went all the way through 3.5e, though one illustrator seemed to have done quite a bit of work for the setting and then vanished: John Dollar.
Brom certainly is the most well known Dark Sun artist, and Tom Baxa is downright prolific as an illustrator for the setting, but there are several other artists who took up the torch to show us Athas. One of note is Tony DiTerlizzi.
Continue reading “A Day in the Life: Tony DiTerlizzi’s Athas”
I always liked Dragon Magazine 197’s cover. It’s a Brom painting that doesn’t seem to fit with the D&D of that time, nor is it exactly a Dark Sun image. It also uses quite a unique color palette where Brom is concerned. Beyond the unique look, the title is worth a mention.
Continue reading “Titular”
The 1995 FPG Brom cards continue to delight! As there are connections to be made, there are also Brom works meant for Dark Sun to be found, such as on the “The Affront” card. Continue reading “The Afback”
Brom’s “Transfixed” has an interesting place in Dark Sun in that it is an image for Dark Sun but only used in “secondary theaters” despite it being a full-fledged painting from a master.
Continue reading “Transfixus sed non Dark Sun?”
I’ve always liked the idea of Dark Sun’s “The Dead Land” and I’ve always seen it as an oversite that the 2E and 4E settings never expanded on it. Since 4E is still going strong, Wizards of the Coast can certainly surprise me and do an article or two on this part of Athas, but who knows. Luckily, a Dark Sun fan during the 2E days put together an overview of The Dead Land and posted it online (pdf). Given the lack of Dead Land material even today, I thought I would clean up the document and add some 4E notes. Once I started though, I realized it needed a bit more than a once-over. There was content and story in the original document that didn’t make sense and some sections I saw as unnecessary. So I edited the document. Continue reading “The Dead Land”
There was a type of “magic” that was introduced in the 2E Dark Sun world which hasn’t made a return in 4E, that being “life-shaping”. In its simplest form, life-shaping was a sort of biotechnology, neither magic nor psionics, but something wholly from the Blue Age of the world. It always seemed to me reminiscent of G.I. Joe’s Cobra-La.
Continue reading “Life-Shaping Resources”
geneome 