Through the lens of 5e (Next), where should it take place, in terms of timeline?
The question is slightly different that "what time period is your favorite." I think we should consider, which timeline is most condusive for organized play, ala Living Forgotten Realms and Pathfinder Society.
For Ashes of Athas we chose an unspecified time shortly after Kalak's demise. I think most Dark Sun fans find that to be the sweet spot for players. Whether you delve into the actions of the Sorcerer Kings or not, it's a time of great opportunity.
i prefer to strat prior to Kalak's death. my reason is that it bothers me that there is this whole story line out there about his death , something i would much rather have the characters be apart of.
They could do a campaign of the time when the Sorcerer Kings came into power. This would add much back story for those who still play in the later age. I gather that there was much chaos in that time so it would be ripe for exploration.
Like has been suggested above I think just after Kalak's death is the best time. It opens up a lot of avenues to tell rebuilding stories or stories you cant just tell with some of the cities. You also have the other cities circling as threats to the nascent freedom of Tyr and just waiting to strike.
It also opens up a lot of options in terms of the characters a person can play. Some would be terribly difficult taking into account how some of the cities were controlled.
By the way , has there been any news on an organised play campaign at all for next/5e? Ive yet to hear much at all on the subject. I dont realyl consider encounters part of this.
Tyranthraxus wrote:
Although not what I really asked. Organised play (and the corresponding living series) is quite separate from Setting information. Ive always assumed that their living game post Encounters would be a rehash of LFR. Id love to see a Living Dark Sun though.
Yeah, I did not word it well. I doub't they have put that much thought into what they are going to do with the campaign settings yet. I bet they have a few ideas, but what happens will vaugely resemble what they have thought of so far.
Although, saying what you would like to see in future products is not a bad idea. 
Really? Most companies plan things 2-3 years down the line. They will have planning/strategy meetings for products coming out in 2016. In Business you need to plan this way so you can allocate resources: whether that be staff or financial resources. I would think discussions for any organised play would of progressed a long time ago.
There is a difference between executive level planning and in the trench planning. The executive level planning that goes out years is vague for budget purposes. If it was very detailed, they would not need middle management.
We only know what they have told us. As they are a publicly traded company in the USA, there are draconian laws that limit what they can tell us. I am sure they will tell us more when they can as it is a form of advertising.
I see your point Torg, but I honestly think that they have planned a lot more than they are letting on. Like I said you have to in this day and age. Im sure they already have the basis of the first setting book (The Forgotten Realms one) going. In regards to a Living Campaign, generally you want them to start close to where you start up a new system or as close as you can get it. You want the product to be successful so you need to get it percolating in peoples minds from day one.
The sundering is the main theme for Forgotten Realms. As that is the flagship campaign setting for WotC's DnD, it will get the main focus. I bet there will be a living campaign for this.
I suspect (hope 
) they plan on doing a Dark Sun setting for the next edition. They did not do an official campaign setting for third edition (Dragon 319, Dungeon 110), but they did a campaign setting for fourth edition. It looks like it may have come out about two years after the release of 4th edition.
They did not do a Living Dark Sun for fourth that I am aware of.
If they do a campaign setting, I hope they keep the crunch to a minimum and not rehash what had been done before. I don’t want them to so some world changing event like they keep doing with Forgotten Realms. I just hope they fill in more of the world. I would not mind if they started a new campaign area off from the Tyr area and developed out that. This way all of our other products will still be good, and the campaign setting could expand.
For 4E, we had a number of Dark Sun organized play offerings. There were special convention events, an Encounters season, and gamedays. There was also the Ashes of Athas organized play campaign, for which I was an admin. With AoA, it was in many ways a 'living campaign'. The efforts and choices of the PCs shaped how the storyline progressed (including but not limited to selecting from three possible final-year storyline options). It was a far smaller program than LFR or LG, but that was something we knew going in. We were actually blown away by how many people participated. It was meant to be a niche campaign but saw far greater play numbers than we expected. Even now, the number of adventure requests has been unbelievable (closing in on 6,500 adenture requests in a year).
With regards to the future, I truly doubt there will be Dark Sun organized play soon. This is because the focus will (and should be) on FR initially, a setting that speaks to a far greater audience. As with 4E, I think there is a great chance we will see DS organized play later in the edition, once gamers are looking for a jolt of something different. In every respect Dark Sun was an incredible success under 4E - arguably the most successful 4E setting. It is clear that Dark Sun can be a successful product line and deserves OP support (though not to the exclusion or supercession of other initial options).
The prequel-type campaign sounds cool (per Star Wars KotoR). Five hundred years before Kalak's demise -- with all the SK's and Borys in power -- allows a lot of room and possibility.