D&D General Teased Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Supplement Crosses Magic: the Gathering and D&D

WotC has teased an upcoming Magic: The Gathering / Dungeons & Dragons crossover supplement. No info has been given other than a mention of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor and an art piece by Jesper Ejsing.

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Lorwyn-Shadowmoor is a Magic: the Gathering plane. The official MtG page for it describes it as:

Lorwyn is an idyllic world where races of fable thrive in perpetual midsummer. Its dark reflection, Shadowmoor, exists in perpetual gloom, its citizens bitterly transformed and locked in a desperate battle for survival.

Lorwyn is the land where the sun never set. Covered with dense forests, meandering rivers, and gently rolling meadows, it knows no nights or winters. One of the few planes without humans, it's populated by the short-statured kithkin, hot-tempered flamekin, petty-thief boggarts, territorial treefolk, diplomatic merfolk, iconoclastic giants, and mischievous faeries, all living together in harmony.

Also among them: the elves, Lorwyn's most favored and feared race. In a world of unspoiled nature, they consider themselves the paragons of this beauty. Signs of elvish supremacy are widespread, from their gilded forest palaces to their mercilessness toward "lesser" races. Despite the elves' dominion, Lorwyn's people thrive, respecting community and tradition.

The land itself, ancient and verdant, is locked in a perpetual cycle—and every three centuries, that cycle transforms the plane into Shadowmoor.

The mirror-image of Lorwyn, Shadowmoor is a realm of perpetual dusk and gloom. Here, the plane's races, without knowledge of their previous selves, are locked in a life-and-death struggle for survival. Like the plane itself, its denizens are transformed into darker versions of themselves.

The kithkin, once communal and cooperative, are isolated and xenophobic. The helpful, silver-tongued merfolk are now assassins and saboteurs. The boggarts, once mischievous and hedonistic, are vicious and warlike. The blighted treefolk are murderous. Wrathful giants drag around huge pieces of the land.

The transformations of the flamekin and elves are perhaps the most dramatic. Once bright and seeking transcendence, the flamekin are now smoking skeletons seeking revenge. Meanwhile, the vain elves are humbled and heroic in Shadowmoor, protecting every glimmer of beauty and light.

Only one race and one place remain unchanged: the faeries and their home of Glen Elendra. The fae are the fulcrum of this transforming plane—for it was their queen, Oona, who caused it.


This isn't the first such crossover--Ravnica, Strixhaven, and Theros were all Magic: the Gathering settings. Additionally, over the past few years, WotC has put out PDF D&D supplements for the MtG worlds of Amonkhet, Dominaria, Innistrad, Ixalan, Kaladesh, and Zendikar.
 

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Thing about Tarkir is...not sure that much more is needed to play D&D in Tarkir Tham the recent Planeswalker page they put up for free and the core D&D books.

Lorwyn, on the other hand, is going to get weird.

What doing an official Tarkir book would do is open it up to dmsguild. Also more Asian influences for D&D. A few interesting races. Would encourage them to dig deeper Tarkir lore, instead of largely surface basic look.

But yeah Lorwyn can get pretty weird.
 

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3.5 Ed had got the Volodni or pine folk (Unaproachable East) and 4ed the hamadryad (Heroes of the Feywild).

* I guess this sourcebook will be linked to the future events of the comingsoon set. Maybe something about a fallen enemy who comes back.

My own idea for a homemade campaign is a part of Lorwin becomes a domain of delight within the Feywild, allowing the arrival of different visitors. Other part of Shadowmoor becomes an astral domain within the Feywild but not a dread domain like in Ravenloft setting.

Pixies are tiny but they were a PC specie in 4ed. Would be a 5e update possible? How would be they working like monster allies? They could be riders of flying creatures.

Other idea is a new "domain of delight" working like a merger of Lorwyn and Eldraine, and allowing the arrival of "visitors" (or refugees) from Bloomburrow.
 

I don't know about the species in that setting, but I guess it could be used to bring back certain PC options and creatures from older versions of D&D. I never cared for 4e's Wildren, as what I think is the only D&D plant PC option but it sounds like something from that setting might fit together with it.

Monsters of the Multiverse had the Fairy PC option, so I guess it'll be the same one for this setting.

"Changeling" might be like the Changelings in Eberron, MoM already gave them the Fey type.
 


Unfortunately Merfolk have fish tails
I don’t think this will be a problem. Lorwyn actually brought merfolk back to Magic after a long hiatus due to the problem of fish tails making them difficult to use in non-aquatic environments, and the setting had specific worldbuilding choices meant to accommodate for this problem. Specifically, the plane is honeycombed with an extensive river system called the wanderwine, which merfolk “aquitects” have magically shaped in order to engineer a plane wide trade network. So, merfolk can show up anywhere the story needs them to, due to the ubiquity of the wanderwine and the merfolks’ own magical ability to make new canals if they have need to.

Shadowmoor merfolks become river pirates instead of traders.
 

"Changeling" might be like the Changelings in Eberron, MoM already gave them the Fey type.
Yeah Eberron’s changelings are pretty perfect for this. In fact, I would not be at all surprised if Eberron’s changelings specifically inspired Lorwyn’s. The changelings were designed to be able to work as filler in decks built around creature type synergies, and count as every creature type due to their shapeshifting abilities, with their true forms are wide-eyed, pale, and nondescript. Which is really not particularly reminiscent of real life changeling folklore, but does bear a striking resemblance to D&D’s doppelgängers and by extension Eberron’s Changelings.
 


I'm just not convinced farming MtG for lore is the way to go. The best they have done in the past is mediocre. Maybe that's good enough for building the brand?
Well the folks at WotC seem convinced that using Lorwynn as the next D&D MtG crossover is a good idea! I'm going to trust their instincts over random armchair quarterbacks on the internet.

I'm looking forward to this release to see how it adapts the setting!
 

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