Two ideas I came up with when I heard the player wanted to play a wilden.
There's a secret tribe of Wilden in the Forest Ridge, from which the player comes from (how and why he left is up to him to explain)
An escaped (or possibly freed?) experiment of a sorcerer king.
Anyway, do other people have ideas? I'm afraid I don't know too much about what direction the player wants to take the character in, as I'm not working with him for character creation (one of the other players is helping him, as I live 100 miles away from them)
In the City State of Gulg, in the Crescent Forest, the Templars of the Oba protect the citizens from the vengeful and angry primal spirits of the forest. Perhaps the Wilden are one of these threats that have manifest to destroy the cancer in one of the few forested places on Athas. The vengeful primal spirits of the Crescent Forest have awakened the very plants themselves to take revenge on the City State of Gulg and her Templars.
the diminishing Feywild
This. This is utterly perfect for the Wilden. It fits with their default fluff, but has tons of new meaning with the status of Athas' Feywild. As it is, they are heavily weighted towards Primal classes, which just adds to the whole thing.
The Wilden even have that sort of "ambulatory cactus" vibe to them, visually.
The cactacae race of China melville's books could be a good rendition of a desert dwelling wilden.
For years, the primal spirits of Athas fought in vain against the Sorcerer-Kings and their blighted defiling. Before long it became apparent that the primal spirits were fighting a losing battle and could not win out against the ruthless, unscrupulous, destructive Sorcerer-Kings and their agents. Quickly, the land fell to disrepair, and lay destroyed as it does now.
What if i want to play a evil wilden, maybe a defiler....
Then you're playing a sadomasocist.
So I'm gonna be starting a Dark Sun campaign soon, and one of the players wants to play a wilden. There's no specific race entry for the race, but I figure it won't be too hard to come up with an explanation that works, but I thought I'd fish for ideas.
...
Anyway, do other people have ideas?
I believe Dark Sun is a great setting for Primal-themed characters. Whether or not this Wilden goes with a Primal class, it still features a primal origin of some sort, so I think it's definitely possible to fit such a PC believably into the setting.
I think the first question in my mind would be "is this character unique"? Is this the only Wilden in Athas (as far as s/he knows), or are there others? Either way can work, but I think the backstory changes a bit depending on the answer. Good ideas for each have been presented in this thread.
I think I like the idea of the Wilden being "primal spirits" in corporeal form. (Hell, it could even be multiple spirits in one body, thus the different manifestations.) Maybe this was a conscious choice of these spirits themselves, maybe greater spirits initiated it, or maybe Primal-magic users initiated the birth of the race. Whatever the case, it's one possibility.
I also like the idea that the Wilden are simply denizens of the Feywild, just as the Eladrin are. Of course, they'd be really pissed, vengeful denizens of the Feywild looking to smack some sense into those who have destroyed the vast majority of their home.
What if i want to play a evil wilden, maybe a defiler....
Then you're playing a sadomasocist.
Possibly.
I think the core lore of the wilden race is quite fitting for DS. They're basically a self-defence mechanism nature pulls out when it's too heavily... defiled.
You could simply have the player being "born" few days before the game begins, as something nature (or the primal spirits, or whatever the cosmology you're using fits in) created to fight back what is destroying the planet. It can end up being cheesy, but played well you could have one hell of a motivated character.