Image: in different worlds, a traveler might reconsider exploring ancient ruins, fearing about his safety. But on Athas... There's no safety.

Image: "Lightly equipped" might have a bit different meaning when Athas traveling is discussed (Tim Mcburnie)

Maps: never underestimate the importance of old ruins. They may serve countless generations as anything, from navigational points, to ritual spots, to proving grounds.

Maps: bigger settlements on Athas are as scarce as water and metal. But small camps might appear here and there, only to quickly disappear when the news that "there's water" will spread too far.

Inspiration: Civilization has to produce art. It doesn't have to develop an alphabet, but art is one of its cornerstones. Have you ever wondered what might hang upon a wall of Athasian noble?

Inspiration: cities of Athas don't need streetnames. Their function may as well go to peculiar looking doors. "Find indigo, arched gate, knock 5 times and ask for Hasgot, the Dwarven gladiator..."

Maps: Sphinx' Rest. Of course it's a trap.

Maps: A broken circle. As a cruel DM, I always liked to "bury" a relic or other magical item in such locations, only to see players leaving the place without thinking to dig around a bit.

Maps: Dried well battlemap. For the majority of Athasians, a concept of a well filled with water is as puzzling as fantastical.

Image: Athas is probably the only place, where the metal chain would draw the attention instead of the size of the beast it was put on such a leash.

RULES: Black Sun - yet another attempt to bring DS to OSR

RULES: Dying Star playtest - a DS-inspired OSR hack, that resembles The Black Hack very much. Seems quite reasonable and playable.

Maps: this is one of the main reasons why people never leave the safety of City-state walls. Within, there's a place for water and green. Outside? Only death.

Image: much like in "Ozymandias" poem, the desert is filled with broken ruins reminding of ancient power and hubris.

Maps: Meroë, ancient capital of Kush Kingdom seems like something that belongs to Athas

Inspiration: Iram of the Pillars is half-mythical ancient lost city. There should be dozens, hundreds places like that on Athas, destroyed in the Purge and buried under the sand.

Image: your typical Athasian village. Fortified, no-nonsense, distrustful of strangers.

Maps: Desert Entrance, amazing battlemap by Ninko. Just think about how many opportunities these ruined walls present. It's nothing short of Athasian "O.K. Corral" fight... Only much longer.

Maps: Saving Thrower DeviantArt gallery - plenty of Darksun-relevant battlemaps.

Maps: 2 Minute Tabletobs - collection of desert themed battlemaps of high quality. Mostly PYWYW/1$, but there are more pricey available too.

Image: there are many things on Athas, that put the fear into the most hardened of hearts. A massive Fire Whirl approaching with great speed is definitely one of such things.

Image: asked AI to provide an image of Tarrasque sneaking on some desert travelers. Not bad, I guess...

Ruins generator - a few random tables, but quite useful for DS

donjon Random Weather Generator - set to Warm, Summer and Uncommon to get DS-relevant entries.

Desert/Wasteland names generator - Athas is massive, wild and unconquered. Player characters arriving at absolutely unknown location, going by the name nobody but some local folk know is quite common

Image: Ouarzazate, Morocco. One thing that should be emphasized more in the official lore is that City-States harbor people who never leave the safety of city walls...

Al-Fusaic - while intended to serve the tourism, this entry offers plenty of good, DarkSun-relevant premises, plot hooks, photos and ideas.

Random Merchant Wagon generator by Geeknative - it provides a list of merchandise the caravan might carry.

100 Encounters on the Road by Mimir-ion. As usual, some need to be tweaked to match the setting, but in general, these are both quite fitting and interesting ideas.

2minutetabletop: 10 encounters in the desert. Only 10 entries, but each is more than just a prompt - they are well covered and described.

DnDSpeak: 100 Desert Encounters. Some of the entries need to be modified to match the setting, but the list is otherwise quite fitting.

Image: Water, some green, considerable safety. In Darksun, that'd be the hideout of powerful and wealthy character along the lines of Gates, Musk or Bezos.

Map: another desert Ziggurat. Map by mrvalor

Map: What is DS without a ziggurat or a billion of them? Map by Cze Lee

Image: Al-'Ula, Saudi Arabia. Abandoned villages and cities aren't uncommon on Athas. Whoever finds one, should pray that it was natural causes that drove the inhabitants away...

Image: Tassili n'Ajjer, Sahara. Athasian dungeons are often "reversed", where the natural rock formations form a labyrinth under the titular Dark Sun. And they are far deadlier than those underneath.

Image: Tassili n'Ajjer. Athas is so devastated, that it's often hard to tell, whether the thing on the horizon is a natural rock formation, or a tower of an ancient mage, now abandoned and eroded.

Image: Hegra, Saudi Arabia. Ruins like that are scattered all around Athas, just waiting to be re-discovered, providing the players decide to explore "that weird looking rock".

Inspiration: mudbrick skyscrapers of Yemen

Book: The Ravaged Wasteland of Crifoth - DS-like setting for D&D 5ed.

Book: Dragon Kings - made by one of original DS' creators, this setting features plenty of similarities to Athas. Personally I dislike it, but it's often suggested by those who prefer less grim world.

Fantasy desert wallpapers - a huge collection of highly inspirational images. Plenty of these look like made with Athas in mind.

Images: MikVance's desert characters - plenty of these contain too much metal, or races that have no place on Athas, but still this library is worth visiting for the inspiration

TOOL: DARK SUN HEXCRAWL - Encounter Tables by Frederic Leclair

MAP: Altaruk, Merchant town of House Wavir

MAP: Athas if it was drawn by Tolkien (by PeculiarPDesigns)

Map: City of TYR