D&D 5E WotC Shares Theros Table of Contents

WotC has shared the table of contents of Mythic Odysseys of Theros. Well, part of it, at least.

Update -- thanks to "obscureReviewer" on Twitter, here's a fuller image!

 

[Parmandur]

I don't believe this at all. They would never put 12+ subclasses in a setting book. Let's list them:

1. Barbarian and Monk. The barbarian is wild-magic/fey in theme. The monk is the Astral Self. Both of these are Planescape, not Magic: the Gathering or Theros.
2. Sorcerer and Warlock. The sorcerer is the Aberrant Mind, which is connected to the Far Realm, but is now the Psionic Sorcerer. The Warlock is the Lurker in the Deep, which is more connected to the Elemental Plane of Water or krakens than M:tG or Theros.
3. The two theros subclasses.
4. Cleric, Druid, Wizard. The cleric seems to be shadowfell, if they're doing Planescape, but I'm not sure. Druid is Wildfire, which is 100% elemental plane of fire. The Wizard is Onomancy, which is true naming, so that's the Lower Planes/Fiends. That's Planescape, not M:tG.
5. Fighter, Ranger, Rogue. Fighter is the Rune Knight, not M:tG. Ranger is Swarmkeeper, which is connected to fey, so that's Planescape. The rogue is now the Phantom rogue, which is undeniably connected to planescape, not M:tG.

Those are the 12 subclasses that lead up to the class feature variants. I don't see any of those being connected to Theros or M:tG.

These can be backed up with cards pretty easily, and I pointed this out with examples at the time, but I'll forbear for now:

1. Red Mana Subclasses
2. Blue Mana Subclasses
3. White Mana Subclasses
4. Cleric is pretty clearly related to one or two of the gods of Theros and is Black Mana, Druid is Red Mana and probably linkable to one of the gods of Theros, True Naming in Magic is related to Blue Mana and Merfolk (prominent in Theros!)
5. Rune use is in M:tG, swarm magic use is Green Mana, and the Revived Rogue was clearly meant to be one of The Returned in Theros (notice that the Phantom moves the Subclass away from the Theran themes of returning from Nyx hidden in the original UA)

The timing is also key here, the five articles from September and October were in the perfect spot to test for publication in Theros. Dollars to donuts, these were all Theros tests. Most didn't make it, and they probably expected that, so no I don't think they were expecting to publish 12 options in Theros (though they could have). They just wanted to see what people wanted, and get that in.

I agree the 2020 tests look like Planescape, but by the same token the September-October tests looked like Magic the Gathering at the time, and so it turned out.

 

[Eltab]

If Bullfinch's Mythology can easily be translated into Theros (and vice versa), I have found an item for this year's Christmas Present list.

For my homebrew setting in an archipelago, the ship and underwater combat sections are very interesting.
Putting a couple 'Hellenic' islands near the edge of the map ("Here Be Monsters" is written on the islands not on the ocean, when you look at the map more carefully) could be a neat sub-setting.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I also am excited for the Athlete background. Leonins seem cool, but I will probably never use them in any setting besides Theros. I would have preferred a 100% greek myths in D&D 5e, but this is the next best thing, I guess.

Odyssey of the Dragonlords and Arcadia are out now and Hellenistika is coming.

Between them, almost every flavor of Greek adventure, other than non-magical historical, is represented.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I agree the 2020 tests look like Planescape, but by the same token the September-October tests looked like Magic the Gathering at the time, and so it turned out.

Fine, I personally don't see a lot of the connections you do. I guess we'll have to wait for me to be proved right. The fact that the Revived Rogue got turned into the Phantom and is still being playtested and developed further kind of proves that it was never intended for Theros, IMO.
They'd never create 5 UA for a book, and then drop all of them. They'd never playtest 12 subclasses for a setting. My guess is that they planned all along to have 2-4 subclasses in the Theros book, all the others are meant for Xanathar's 2.0.
(They never attached Magic colors to subclasses before. The M:tG setting books don't mention the colors, either.)
The timing could also be due to wanting enough time to playtest all the subclasses for a Xanathar's 2.0.
Edit: (I don't think aberrations are blue in M:tG, so the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer wouldn't be a blue subclass even if they were planning on designing them around magic colors. They're no-color, right? Eldrazi aren't blue, and they're the primary aberrations of M:tG.)

 

[Demetrios1453]

The (one of the) problem(s) with Kara-Tur is that it unnecessarily had two Chinas and two Japans to go with its Mongolia/northern steppes, Korea, Southest Asia, etc. and all of them with barely any serial numbers filed off. It was boring as [expletive deleted]. Added to that, it was wedded to the extremely Japan-centric rules of Oriental Adventures which just made things a mess.

The only things that I really miss from OA/Kara-Tur are hengeyoukai, korobokuru (which I'd retcon as a halfling sub-race), the some of the monsters.

Two Japans are a bit weird (they're supposed to represnt two different periods in Japanese history, so they... just make two almost identical groups of islands), but the two Chinas aren't. Outside of the Tang and later Yuan/Ming periods, medieval China was split into competing northern and southern kingdoms (the aptly named Northern and Southern Kingdoms period and the "Song and whoever is ruling in the North" period).So the split between Shou Lung and T'u Lung represents this state of affairs.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Since 100+ years has passed since the last look at Kara-Tur, I think the way I'd update it would be to dissolve most of the existing nations (posit the region went through a massive Spellplague induced civil war) to come up with a much less "ripped from history" picture. Death for the Shou Empire, to start.

This is actually not too bad an idea (although I have a soft spot for Shou Lung), although they'd have to tread a bit carefully in relating how the changes occurred. Then again, I imagine those who would be upset over Kara-Tur states being altered are far fewer than those attached to other regions.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Tarkir is more western China and Mongolia-themed than all the places along the Pacific Ocean. It has Clans and Khans and Dragonlords and a Gobi-like desert and other fun stuff.

A Polynesian/Oceaniansian/Micronesian setting may be too much to ask for, but I think it could be amazing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I said Theros would be the next MtG setting back when Ravnica was announced. Just...here to remind everyone. ^^

So which is next?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Cultural appropriation was not a thing back then and no one was offended by it.

Or, alternately, the people who were weren't allowed to be part of the conversation, even when it was the people whose culture it was supposed to be inspired by.

 

[Parmandur]

Fine, I personally don't see a lot of the connections you do. I guess we'll have to wait for me to be proved right. The fact that the Revived Rogue got turned into the Phantom and is still being playtested and developed further kind of proves that it was never intended for Theros, IMO.
They'd never create 5 UA for a book, and then drop all of them. They'd never playtest 12 subclasses for a setting. My guess is that they planned all along to have 2-4 subclasses in the Theros book, all the others are meant for Xanathar's 2.0.
(They never attached Magic colors to subclasses before. The M:tG setting books don't mention the colors, either.)
The timing could also be due to wanting enough time to playtest all the subclasses for a Xanathar's 2.0.
Edit: (I don't think aberrations are blue in M:tG, so the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer wouldn't be a blue subclass even if they were planning on designing them around magic colors. They're no-color, right? Eldrazi aren't blue, and they're the primary aberrations of M:tG.)

Fair enough, time will tell. I don't think we're seeing a XGtE2, but if they did a Planescape style Manual of the Planes, they've put out enough options to get a few in if most of the tests don't make the final cut (most won't, per history).

They couldn't know in advance which concepts would pass muster, better to try out a bunch and see what people actually liked.

Aberrations aren't really a consistent thing in Theros. Weird ocean things are consistently Blue, though, and so are Psionic powers.

Some card examples I pointed out while this batch was ongoing, the concepts in play just felt more like Magic than D&D, I found way more back in the old UA threads, too: