D&D 5E D&D Lore Changes: Multiversal Focus & Fey Goblins of Prehistory

WotC's Jeremy Crawford revealed a couple of the lore changes in Monsters of the Multiverse.

• The big shift is toward the multiverse as the game's main perspective rather than a specific setting. The game is shifting towards a multiversal focus, with a variety of worlds and settings.
• Universe-spanning mythical story beats, such as deep lore on goblinoids going back to 1st Edition, and the gods they had before Maglubiyet. Prior to Magulbiyet unifying them, goblinoids were folk of the feywild in keeping with 'real-world' folklore.
• Changelings aren't just Eberron, but they've been everywhere -- you just don't necessarily know it. Their origin is also in the realm of the fey.

D&D 5E - A Compilation of all the Race Changes in Monsters of the Multiverse

Over on Reddit, user KingJackel went through the video leak which came out a few days ago and manually compiled a list of all the changes to races in the book. The changes are quite extensive, with only the fairy and harengon remaining unchanged. The book contains 33 races in total, compiled and...

www.enworld.org

 

[Jer]

2) As I pointed out, you'd necessarily disconnect Sigil from the Great Wheel cosmology. So long as it's still The City of Doors, there's no particular reason to keep it connected to the Great Wheel.

I almost agree with this EXCEPT that one of the big aspects of Sigil/Planescape was about how belief creates reality - that was a major motivator for the factions and it's tied to the Outer Planes and the Great Wheel cosmology assumptions in particular. Making Sigil a city of portals changes the nature of the setting in a fundamental way.

On the third hand, though, Sigil's appearances in 3e and 4e books already de-emphasized that aspect of Sigil's setting, and by the end of Planescape's run they'd metaplotted factions out of Sigil to a large degree so that aspect might not matter at this point.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I almost agree with this EXCEPT that one of the big aspects of Sigil/Planescape was about how belief creates reality - that was a major motivator for the factions and it's tied to the Outer Planes and the Great Wheel cosmology assumptions in particular. Making Sigil a city of portals changes the nature of the setting in a fundamental way.

On the third hand, though, Sigil's appearances in 3e and 4e books already de-emphasized that aspect of Sigil's setting, and by the end of Planescape's run they'd metaplotted factions out of Sigil to a large degree so that aspect might not matter at this point.

Even in the original setting, before the metaplot stuff (which was actually right at the end of 2E), the "Belief creates reality" thing had become a more and more minor part of the setting, for better or worse, particularly as regards Sigil. And yes, as you say, they got rid of them entirely and kept Sigil in 3/4E (following the 2E metaplot), so it doesn't really make sense as an argument.

It's already a "City of Portals", there's no change there. That's why it's called The City of Doors.

Just refocus on that. Bring back something Faction-equivalent, maybe even called Factions, because without them, it's insufficiently colourful, but make them work on a different basis. If you really wanted to go with "Belief creates reality" and places being dragged into different realities and so on, you could potentially just do that with different settings, rather than different planes, but that seems a bit excessive to me.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The Multiverse only matters to your game if you allow it to matter to your game.

If you didn't listen to that video and you didn't come here reading everyone talk about it, and all you did was just play your Eberron game based strictly upon the 3.5E setting book... you'd think Eberron was it's own thing and not connected to anything else (other than the fact it uses the exact same terminology and mechanics as every single other D&D world and game in existence, but we'll put that aside for now.) With no knowledge of any sort of "D&D Multiverse" idea roaming around, you could live in your happy little bubble. Anything else happening outside of it doesn't matter, because you don't know about it. A so-called "truth" that as far as you are concerned, doesn't actually exist.

But unfortunately for you, you couldn't do that. You kept reading other books. You kept talking with other players. You kept reading other Twitter accounts and watching other YouTube videos. You allowed yourself to be pulled outside of your bubble, and now can't go back in. You are refusing or are incapable of just closing your eyes and sticking your fingers in your ears going "blah blah blah blah blah! Not happening!" You read about the Multiverse and now your mind is not letting you just ignore it. Or believe it doesn't exist. Your mind is forcing you to accept the Multiverse is the "real canon of D&D!!!" and it pisses you off.

Well... that sucks, but that's not WotC problem. They can't do anything about what you do or do not believe or choose to accept. They can't do anything about your own mind now buying into this Multiverse thing you don't like because you refuse to "deny" its truth. The same way they can't force you to ACCEPT the truth of the D&D Multiverse if you just have thumbed your nose at the whole premise and ignore it all and just do your own thing. And quite frankly... they don't care. Because they are merely writing the books they want to write... and whether or not you accept them as true is entirely ON YOU. So if you don't like the idea that they have now printed in one of their books that goblins are considered fey creatures... well... you have plenty of books printed BEFORE now that don't say that at all, so just read and believe those instead.

Cause here's a little secret: Jeremy Crawford and Christopher Perkins and all the rest of the them over there at WotC HQ are no more reliable narrators than anybody else. Their truth isn't real. How do I know this? Because whatever "lore" or "canon" they write in any upcoming book is going to be changed at some point in the future, especially when someone else takes over writing them, like in an eventual 6E. The same way Crawford and Perkins are changing the "lore" and "canon" and "truth" that was written by the people who wrote 4E-- who changed the "lore" and "canon" and "truth" of the people who wrote 3.5-- who changed the "lore" and "canon" and "truth" of the people who wrote 3E-- who changed the "lore" and "canon" and "truth" of the people who wrote 2E-- who changed the "lore" and "canon" and "truth" of the people who wrote AD&D-- who changed the "lore" and "canon" and "truth" of the people who wrote BECMI. NONE of it is "true", because all of it can be changed at any point based solely on whomever is being paid by the owner of the D&D brand to do so.

So to actually care about the so-called "truth"? What a waste of my time.

 

[Demetrios1453]

So goblins, regardless of campaign setting, will be presented as having the same mythical origin story and worshiping the same gods?

That actually was the assumption (for not only goblins, but for most non-human races) in 1e and 2e, so much so that the default non-human deities were added to the Forgotten Realms when most were Greyhawk in origin. Basically, unless stated otherwise, worlds at that time were expected to use the general non-human deities...

 

[Reynard]

That actually was the assumption (for not only goblins, but for most non-human races) in 1e and 2e, so much so that the default non-himan deities were added to the Forgotten Realms when most were Greyhawk in origin. Basically, unless stated otherwise, worlds at that time were expected to use the general non-human deities...

Weird, my copy of the 1E Monster Manual does not include any origin information about Goblins other than that they might be related to kobolds.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Now I'm genuinely curious... What is the difference between a separate universe, and a world in a crystal sphere, or alternate plane? Is it no travel? Different travel? Between universes? My brain might no fully awake, or recovered from yoga this morning....

I'm a big fan of 2e's Planescape, so my understanding is fundamentally colored by that, but in general, the way I view it is this:

All the classic settings (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, etc.) exist within the prime material plane, which is essentially the fantasy parallel of the universe as we understand it in the real world - planets, stars, solar systems, galaxies, etc. The world of each setting (Oerth, Toril, Krynn, Athas, etc.) exists within its own crystal sphere, which you can probably just consider its own solar system (probably not technically correct, but close enough). Spelljammer, as a setting, is all about using special flying ships to explore different areas of a setting's crystal sphere that the core setting doesn't cover (the other planets and moons in Toril's neighborhood, for example), as well as travelling between different crystal spheres (Toril to Oerth, for example) and to other Spelljammer specific locations amongst the stars - basically, fantasy Star Trek.

All of that, however, takes place on the prime material plane, which is just one part of the broader multiverse or cosmology. Beyond the prime material, the planes are realms of fundamental forces and concepts: the homes of gods, of demons, angels, devils, fey, genies, etc. Travelling the planes is about stepping out of reality as we mortals know it and stepping into the grander, more explicitly supernatural cosmos - it's leading a charge into Hell itself to rescue a kidnapped priest, or climbing the mountains of the Heavens to spiritually purify yourself, or diving into the bottomless depths of the plane of Water to find the palace of a Marid Princess and trade with her for a magic pearl. Each of these planes is effectively infinite in scope, and Planescape, as a setting, is about exploring these planes and their inhabitants, as well as detailing a major "hub city" for the planes known as Sigil.

That's pretty much where 2e left things. Eberron, which I adore, has its own cosmology that functions different than that of Planescape, and while WotC has seemingly decided that it can just be sectioned off into a secret corner of Planescape's Astral Plane that no one knows about, I prefer to keep them separate. Similarly, the various settings of Magic the Gathering that have been and presumably will continue to be adapted as D&D settings have their own cosmology that doesn't necessarily fit with the Planescape "Great Wheel" model, so the questions sort of become things like: Do the MtG settings change to accommodate Planescape? Does Planescape change to accommodate the MtG settings? Are they two separate things within this new official take on the D&D multiverse, like I choose to do with Planescape and Eberron, or is there some room for crossover? And so on.

Obviously can't answer everything, but I hope that helps sort some of the concepts and terminology out a bit.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

We'll likely disagree on this, because I can't think of a reason gods couldn't create a separate Eberron within a universe where other planes and worlds exist.

Also, I struggle to understand the difference, if you can travel from one universe to another....it is all part of one multiverse / universe, in my head anyway.

I appreciate we can disagree. Have a great day!

Okay, imagine our universe. Very near us, on a cosmic scale, are all the bodies of our own solar system. This is our "crystal sphere" or our bit of the material plane.

Now imagine the mirror universe, from Star Trek, and the two separate but both "real" timelines of the original shows vs the new movies. Three separate universes with convergent events, similarities of various kinds.

Surely you can see how "Mars and Earth" relate in a very different way from "Earth and Mirror Earth"?

Originally, Eberron was like mirror earth, except much more different from earth. Now, it's just a very well hidden solar system, where some cosmic beings said, "hey those worlds springing up from the first world are neat, lets copy a bunch of their designs and make out own little pocket world that they can't interfere with."

It both makes Eberron less separate, smaller in scale, and derivative within the fiction of the world.

Cosmology is by definition universal. Eberron cannot have its own cosmology within the larger cosmology of the D&D Great Wheel. One of the very cool things about Eberron was that it was a wholly new and unique and separate universe for D&D, with its own (much better and more interesting) planar structure, as well as creation story that had deep effects on actual play in the setting (dragonshards, among other things). Of course you can say "that's a demiplane!" or whatever other excuse youw ant to use to but the fact is making everyting a part of the Great Wheel robs Eberron of some of its unique qualities. it was a dumba nd terrible idea when it was Spelljammer crystal spheres, and it isn't any better now.

THis.

 

[Zaukrie]

Of course mars and earth are different than earth and mirror earth....but if I can travel there, and interact, there is no practical difference at all.

 

[Charlaquin]

I don't think WotC has addressed this directly, but I get the feeling the MtG settings are handled a bit differently. WotC isn't consolidating the Magic meta-setting and the D&D meta-setting, they remain different games, different properties, different "multiverses". The various D&D adaptations of Magic settings are just that, adaptations. They don't directly impact "canon" for Magic, and they don't necessarily align with D&D multiverse canon either.

The D&D Ravnica book presents the setting of Ravnica through the lens of D&D. Much like if WotC published a Witcher adaptation for D&D. It doesn't have to follow D&D's meta-setting or canon, it is its own beast.

That’s what they’ve been doing so far, but I can only imagine the prospect of merging the IPs would look appealing to WotC. I think they’re being cautious because they don’t want to upset the fanbase, but I don’t think it’s too out there to imagine them trying to boil that frog slowly.

 

[Parmandur]

I disagree, for a couple of reasons:

1) The Rock of Bral is a nothing location. It's utterly forgettable and generic. You'd literally be better off not using it and making something up than using it. It's fine as a location in Spelljammer, but the nexus of multiversal travel? You might as well make it be Milton Keynes. Except that would actually have some wit to it, so still be better than The Rock of Bral!

2) As I pointed out, you'd necessarily disconnect Sigil from the Great Wheel cosmology. So long as it's still The City of Doors, there's no particular reason to keep it connected to the Great Wheel.

I'm also skeptical that Spelljammer is going to be made the lynchpin of the multiverse, because people didn't like Crystal Spheres enough the last time, they're certainly not going to like the idea that they're around every single setting any better this time! Whereas portals have a long, long literary and media tradition of linking to worlds with "different rules".

Spelljammer versus Planescape isn't necessarily dichotomy: I think we will see both prior to 2024, and working together as aspects of a broader D&D "Multiverse".