The Dungeons & Dragons multiverse keeps on growing, with more classic campaign settings being added every year, and planes from Magic: The Gathering being integrated into the game, but settings like Dark Sun may find it difficult to fit into the multiverse as it exists now. The barriers between the worlds are also closing, with the Spelljammer campaign setting returning in 2022, allowing players the chance to fly between the D&D campaign worlds. D&D 5e has the chance to bring the classic Dark Sun campaign back to the game, yet it wouldn't fit into the multiverse in the same way that other settings do, as part of its appeal is tied to its isolation from the other planes.
Dark Sun is set in the desert world of Athas, which has no patron deities of its own. The familiar D&D races are here, yet not in the ways fans might recognize, being more violent due to their harsh environment. One of the most unique aspects of Athas is how arcane magic works, as spellcasters must draw the energy from what plants remain, in order to use magic. This led to two forms of spellcaster: preservers and defilers, with preservers trying to spare the life energy of others, and defilers willfully turning the last plant life into ash for their selfish desires. The few cities of Athas are ruled by incredibly powerful sorcerer-kings and sorcerer-queens, who control the people with an iron fist, while secretly performing horrific rituals to transform themselves into dragons.
Wizards of the Coast has revealed that the classic Dragonlance and Spelljammer campaign settings are returning in 2022 and that D&D will bring another setting back in 2023. There's a strong chance that Dark Sun will return and become part of the D&D multiverse as a whole. There are parts of the D&D multiverse that are hard to reach, such as the Domains of Dread from Ravenloft, but Athas is a world that exists on the prime material plane, and there's a chance it could become part of D&D's growing multiverse. The return of Dark Sun would be welcome, but it wouldn't fit as part of the multiverse as a whole, at least not in the way that the other campaign worlds do.
Dark Sun Is The Most Secluded Part Of The D&D Multiverse
One of the most notable aspects of Athas is how cut off it is from the rest of the D&D multiverse. In AD&D, Athas' planetary system was contained within a crystal sphere. The crystal sphere that surrounds Athas' portion of the multiverse prevents physical items and spells from passing through, which means spelljammer ships cannot approach the world. There was at least one stable portal on Athas, in the form of the Planar Gate artifact item, but that's in the possession of Dregoth, one of D&D's most powerful villains of all time. It's possible but extremely unlikely to enter or leave Athas using magic, as most attempts will fail. A few residents of Athas have made their way out into the multiverse and some have even appeared in 5e books, but they are few and far between. This seclusion is crucial to what makes Athas so effective as a setting, and introducing it to the D&D multiverse proper would cause issues.
A Multiverse Connection Would Solve Athas' Problems
In D&D, there's an item called the Decanter of Endless Water. It has the ability to create between 5 and 30 gallons of water in a single round and it can do so indefinitely. In a place like the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, such an item would be valuable, but not earth-shaking: in Athas, wars would be fought over possession of just one decanter. The reason why Athas was mostly cut off from the rest of the D&D multiverse is that characters from other settings can solve many of the problems with the setting's dwindling resources. High-level spellcasters could use D&D's all-powerful wish spell to reshape the land to make it fertile again, while spelljammers full of food and metal would arrive for trade. If deities from other settings caught wind of this ravaged world without patrons, then they would come flocking to look for new converts, and bring divine magic to the people, as well as create a Weave that can remove the need for preservers/defilers.
Part of what makes Athas so effective as a setting is that there are no easy answers to its problems. A wizard cannot just wave a wand and end the starvation of the people, nor smite the sorcerer-kings in a single blow. The people of Athas must struggle to solve their own problems, be it a lack of natural resources, or finding a way to overcome the all-powerful sorcerer-kings. If someone like Mordenkainen can show up and fix major problems using magic (as he tried to do in at least one 5e campaign set outside of Greyhawk), then it takes something away from the appeal of Dark Sun as a whole.
How Dark Sun's Athas Could Be Brought Into D&D 5e
D&D's expanding multiverse could introduce Athas with a day-one approach: the protective nature of the crystal sphere from the AD&D era has vanished, allowing outsiders to easily travel to Athas for the first time. The world can quickly gain a reputation for being a brutal place, where traditional magic spells don't work, and the prayers to the gods go unanswered. This deters people from wanting to learn more about Athas, at least initially, so the rest of the multiverse can keep on ticking, while Dark Sun is allowed to be its own separate thing, albeit with a mechanism in place to allow outside characters to visit, and for Athasian characters to arrive in other parts of the multiverse.
Dark Sun is a popular D&D setting and it has a ton of great lore for DMs to use for their games. The 5e era of D&D doesn't seem to be ending any time soon, and it's likely that Dark Sun will eventually return as a classic campaign setting that has been reworked for new players. It remains to be seen how it will be changed, as Dark Sun was already reworked a great during the 4e era, in order to include elements from that edition, and similar changes would need to be made again for 5e. There is a lot of potential for amazing stories to be told in the world of Athas, yet they might need to be told at a distance from the rest of the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse.