D&D 5E Iggwilv/Tasha To Join Volo, Xanathar, and Mordenkainen? [UPDATED!]

Is WotC teasing a new announcement? There have been a few D&D books named after famous personalities from the game's extensive lore - Vole's Guide to Monsters, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. It looks possible that the next such personality might be Tasha of Tasha's Hideous Laughter fame -- which was an adventuring alias of the Greyhawk villain Iggwilv.

UPDATE -- A page has appeared on Amazon entitled Dungeons & Dragons November Title (Announced August 24). It's a hardcover, $49.95, November 17th release date.

On their Discord channel, WotC posted a short audio clip; it features some female-sounding voices laughing, and it is titled "Feather and Tart". It also has a metadata info which says August 24th, 2020, which is Monday. But in addition to that, a WoTC staff member on Reddit's avatar was changed to an image of Iggwilv.

Iggwilv was an evil magic-user, a villain created by Gary Gygax. When adventuring with the Company of Seven, she used the alias Tasha. The lore has it that the witch Baba Yaga adopted her as a child and named her Natasha, and she soon became Natasha the Dark (Baba Yaga also adopted Elena the Fair).

Iggwilv has two forms, one old and one young. You can read more about the character on Wikipedia.


What does seem clear is that WotC is teasing an impending announcement! I assume that the announcement they are teasing will be the announcement of an upcoming announcement, or I'll be disappointed.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Pure, mustache-twisting evil. Though don't say that to her face; she's sensitive about those upper lip hairs.

There's really only one answer here IMO that holds with the arc of D&D history: the new book is The Demonomicon of Iggwilv.

Yes the female character is sensitive about body hair. Great joke.

 

[Parmandur]

There's scattered bits of D&D lore that have their roots in Greyhawk but have remained more high profile. Some of the big name NPCs like Mordenkainen and Iggwilv, though there's an emphasis on the plane hoppers. The pantheon of gods presented in the 3e PHB, or at least the ones people found memorable like Kord and Vecna. (I'd name Wee Jas too, but the Raven Queen stole her stuff and wears it better.) Some of the old standbys in the Artifacts section of the DMG.

The thing is, I'd argue those are the bits that have transcended Greyhawk to become more universal D&D elements. You rarely see people bring up the nations or history of Greyhawk. Things like the humanocentric setting and emphasis on Law vs Chaos are cited as historical elements and influences in the evolution of D&D, not something most people want to emulate. Sure, a few do, especially in OSR circles. But everything has a few fans for it out there. There's a big jump from that to the "hordes of fans" that would justify a major new Greyhawk setting book.

Well, last WotC let us know, it was about 5-6% of players: not the Forgotten Realms.in popularity, but more than any other historical Setting, including Eberron (Eberron may be more popular now that it's been published for 5E, but WotC would know and they are more tight-lipped these days).

 

[MNblockhead]

This thread was interesting before it turned into a pissing match of who knows more about D&D canon.

Am I weird to like being a spectator in raging canon debates when I really don't care much either way?

It is like talking to someone who has a lifetime's worth of experience with, and is really passionate about, lawn care arguing with someone who thinks lawns are terrible and brings forth equally informed opinions about the environmental costs, the sad history of the new middle-class trying to emulate the aristocracy, and the superior aesthetics of prairie and rock gardens using locally sourced flora.

Personally, for my yard, I just do what I need to do to keep the city from fining me and give the kids a place to play.

I don't take either side, but I am greatly entertained by the debate.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

It's more than a little funny that there is a debate about whether Tasha = Iggwilv in the lore, when WotC is likely going to use Tasha in the title for the primary reason that Tasha is a way easier word to pronounce than "Iggwilv."

Anyway, if Tasha/Iggwilv really is on the title of this book, that's awesome! Very much an iconic character of Greyhawk and old D&D in general, and I'd be excited to see if this is more of a monster book, character options book, setting material or something in-between.

I'd guess it's some blur of them all, because of the gem dragons likely being here (meaning some new psionic options) plus the many many new character options being tested in UA. Be great to have some more Planescape/Spelljammer stuff but this doesn't really feel like it's going to be a new Manual of the Planes.

But I don't need to speculate much, we'll get the actually announcement tomorrow! No announcement of the announcement nonsense...

 

[DnD Warlord]

Okay so let’s say that Ig is Tasha... since Tasha was part of the big 7 group in Greyhawk (orth) then what does it mean for the setting that she was evil!?!?

 

[Guy Icognito]

Iggwilv would be a great person to have narrating and associated with a book on demons and devils.
Shame then they released that book with Mordenkainen's name...

This would be more exciting if the book would have anything in it associated with Iggwilv rather than six or seven small sidebars containing winky in-jokes.

 

[Parmandur]

Okay so let’s say that Ig is Tasha... since Tasha was part of the big 7 group in Greyhawk (orth) then what does it mean for the setting that she was evil!?!?

Greyhawk is not a super happy place.

 

[Parmandur]

Iggwilv would be a great person to have narrating and associated with a book on demons and devils.
Shame then they released that book with Mordenkainen's name...

This would be more exciting if the book would have anything in it associated with Iggwilv rather than six or seven small sidebars containing winky in-jokes.

It's been over two years since they've published a book with the joke notes (and the guy who really pushed them isn't in the TTRPG side anymore), but those books do sell well and are highly rated, so we'll see where they are on that front...

 

[Remathilis]

You know, they COULD just support the original Greyhawk. It's not like there are hordes of fans who like everything which came after that (including books which literally intentionally made fun of it) but there are hordes of fans which liked the original. Maybe just give people what they want instead of insisting on supporting the stuff people tend to not like?

Oh, bless your heart: nothing short than a verbatim reprint of the original Folio would appease most of those fans. There were fits raised that Saltmarsh dared to mention dragonborn and have a tiefling NPC. Greyhawk is second only to Dark Sun in its fandom actively resisting any addition, change, or retcon to the setting as a result of edition changes.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Iggwilv would be a great person to have narrating and associated with a book on demons and devils.
Shame then they released that book with Mordenkainen's name...

This would be more exciting if the book would have anything in it associated with Iggwilv rather than six or seven small sidebars containing winky in-jokes.

That's why I'm assuming there will be some sort of focus on magic, which Iggwilv is of course an expert in...