The People of Athas

People of Athas

Athas’s savage environment and its populace make it
unique among the Dungeons & Dragons worlds. Each
city-state’s social order starts with the sorcerer-king at its
pinnacle. Templars and nobles make up the upper caste.
Merchants and other free citizens form the middle
ranks, and the ubiquitous slave laborers act as the citystate’s
foundation.

Humans dominate the racial composition of most
city-states. Indeed, all the sorcerer-kings are (or once
were) human. Elves ply the dunes and marketplaces;
many are known as shifty traders or opportunistic raiders.
Dwarves labor, often as builders or farmers, with
resolute determination. Many half-giants work as bodyguards or mercenaries for the
wealthy and powerful.

Halflings feel most at home in the
Forest Ridge, their ancestral land, and other Athasians
fear their “savage ways.” The secretive eladrin live in
the few wild places the Lands within the Wind (the Feywild)
still touches.
In addition to the more familiar D&D races, Athas
is also home to muls and thri-kreen. Taller than most
humans, muls are a race of half-dwarves. Strong, tough,
and quick, muls often serve as slaves, gladiators, and
laborers. The nimble, mantislike thri-kreen can survive
on little. Their packs hunt in the wastes and view everything
through the predator-prey relationship.