D&D 5E Is Paladine Bahamut? Is Takhisis Tiamat? Fizban's Treasury Might Reveal The Answer!

According to WotC's James Wyatt, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons introduces a new cosmology for dragon gods, where the same beings, including Fizban, echo across various D&D campaign settings with alternate versions of themselves (presumably like Paladine/Bahamut, or Takhisis/Tiamat). Also... the various version can merge into one single form.

Takhisis is the five-headed dragon god of evil from the Dragonlance setting. Paladine is the platinum dragon god of good (and also Fizban's alter-ego).

Additionally, the book will contain psychic gem dragons, with stats for all four age categories of the five varieties (traditionally there are Amethyst, Crystal, Emerald, Sapphire, and Topaz), plus Dragonborn characters based on metallic, chromatic, and gem dragons.

D&D 5E - Check out Fizban's Alternate Cover!

WotC's James Wyatt talked to Polygon about Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, which also revealed the alternate cover, which you can only get from hobby stores. https://www.enworld.org/threads/fizbans-treasury-the-dragon-book-now-has-a-description-and-a-feat.681399/

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Fizban's Treasury: The Dragon Book Now Has A Description... And A Feat

Courtesy of Amazon, we now have a description for Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, the October D&D hardcover. The book introduces gem dragons, dragon-themed player options, and plenty of draconic lore! This joins September's The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and November's Strixhaven: Curriculum of...

www.enworld.org

 

[DEFCON 1]

All the gods and planes of Eberron are equally true in the cosmology of Faerun then. As are all the gods and planes of Greyhawk true in the Realms and Eberron. And Dark Sun. And Mystara. And Theros. And Nerath. And Exandria. Everything is true, everything is real.

But the only people who know this for a so-called "fact" is US... all the players of D&D outside of this D&D multiverse. We see it as true purely from a meta level. But no character within any of these worlds knows any of this stuff as "fact". So truth does not matter. Everything is true and nothing is true for these fictional characters within these fictional worlds. And if we non-fiction players are getting our egos bruised because our fictional characters thus don't know the "real truth" of the worlds they live in... we really need to get over ourselves.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Where exactly inside the "Great Wheel" is Eberron in your opinion? Is the suggestion here that the entirety of the Eberron cosmology is within the Prime Material plane? You have the planet Eberron, its sky Siberys, and the thirteen orbiting "planes" of Eberron... all within the "Eberron bubble" within the Prime? So that Eberron's "planes" are not actual planes at all (at least not on the same level as the the elemental planes, the Astral plane, Mount Celestia, the Abyss, Ysgard, Carceri, etc. etc.?) that the Greyhawkian sages imagine the cosmology to be?

If we are working on the assumption that Eberron's cosmology is a subset of the Great Wheel, then the easiest explanation would be that 13 planes of Eberron are demiplanes of the Prime Material Plane.

And this leads into another point about the whole "D&D Multiverse" thing that I don't think Jeremy et. al. really delve into (or just ignore), and thus most players don't tend to think about. The whole point of calling this a "Multiverse" is to get across the idea that there IS NO ONE set thing. Despite claims to the contrary... there is not ONE Tiamat. There just isn't. There is one Tiamat for every player of D&D past, present and future. And in fact, actually MANY Tiamats for those players past, present, and future.

How do I know? If my players played the Tyranny of Dragons adventure and KILLED Tiamat... Tiamat doesn't suddenly disappear from the entirety of the D&D game. My game in my pocket of the "D&D Multiverse" has absolutely no effect on anything else. If in my game the Astral plane just ceased to exist for some reason... that also would have no effect on the D&D Multiverse. Likewise... even if Jeremy et. al. wrote in an upcoming book "Demogorgon has canonically been eradicated from existence and is no longer a demon lord in D&D"... that has NO EFFECT on anyone's else's pocket of the D&D Multiverse. Because I could the very next day run an adventure and have Demogorgon show up. Heck... I could have SIX copies of Demogorgon show up. Because that all happens in MY PART of the D&D Multiverse. And what I do in my game does not impact anyone else's game in any way, shape, or form. Just like what is written down in any of the books does not impact anyone else's game in any way, shape, or form. That's entirely why we call it a Multiverse in the first place.

No, it's because your games aren't canon and have no bearing on official lore.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If we are working on the assumption that Eberron's cosmology is a subset of the Great Wheel, then the easiest explanation would be that 13 planes of Eberron are demiplanes of the Prime Material Plane.

No, it's because your games aren't canon and have no bearing on official lore.

There is no "official lore". There is only lore that has been written by some people and published in a book at a moment in time. But in another year, that "official lore" can and will be changed... probably arbitrarily.... just like past "official lore" was changed by the people writing the books right now. The lore from the Red Box about the characters, monsters, and worlds were all changed when AD&D was made. That stuff changed when 2E was made. 3E then changed the "official lore" again. And again. And again. And when 6E gets written... all this "official lore" that Jeremy et. al. has written these past couple years will change as well.

So there is absolutely zero reason to care about THIS lore in THESE books as anything more than the same nebulous stories that have been written over the last 40 years and will continue to be written over the next forty. Use it for your games if it is useful... but don't get your panties in a bunch if what you want is different than what appears in print. Because in six months, it's going to change anyway.

 

[dave2008]

No, it's because your games aren't canon and have no bearing on official lore.

I think it is important to realize official lore is not official.

1. The lore is intentionally vague in many places and users terms like "envision" and "visualize" to describe cosmologies; as well as often hinting that the lore presented is one opinion and not a definitive declaration.
2. Lore changes at a whim. RPG lore (and particularly D&D) changes quite a bit. In some cases this goes back to point #1.
3. D&D is a game, not a novel. There is no real "canon." To put D&D lore in that category is inappropriate IMO.

 

[Bolares]

The lore is intentionally vague

not only vague, but contradictory. Official lore is guidance, not gospel

 

[Bolares]

D&D is a game, not a novel.

If I had to compare D&D with a media, in terms of lore concistency, I'd compare it to comics. Lore changes all the time, with no particular structure.

 

[DEFCON 1]

not only vague, but contradictory. Official lore is guidance, not gospel

I think we need to stop adding the word "official" every time we use the word "lore" as well. Because it's just not correct.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

All the gods and planes of Eberron are equally true in the cosmology of Faerun then. As are all the gods and planes of Greyhawk true in the Realms and Eberron. And Dark Sun. And Mystara. And Theros. And Nerath. And Exandria. Everything is true, everything is real.

As of 5E Eberron's planes have essentially been demoted to demiplanes protected by a bubble from the greater planes of the Multiverse.

Nerath hasn't been touched on officially, but if it is then it will by necessity have to be heavily reworked to fit into the default 5E cosmology. Not only are many of the planes incompatible, but the Abyss isn't even connected to the Astral Plane (the fact that it was originally intended to be "planted" in the Astral but was instead formed in the Elemental Chaos is a major piece of that setting's lore).

 

[Bolares]

I think we need to stop adding the word "official" every time we use the word "lore" as well. Because it's just not correct.

It's just easier than saying "Lore written in an official Wizards of the Coast D&D Book."

 

[Bolares]

As of 5E Eberron's planes have essentially been demoted to demiplanes protected by a bubble from the greater planes of the Multiverse.

I still don't get this "demoted" stuff. Eberron is still Eberron, in the same exact way. Other parts of D&D cosmology can only appear if the DM wishes them to. Nothing has changed in Eberron, it's just meta stuff.