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

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Heck, you only have to look at Deities and Demigods to see the whole notion of the "multiverse" in its infancy.

The 1st edition Deities and Demigods included Moorcock pantheon, and the multiverse is pretty inextricable from that!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I read Words of Radiance and Oathbringer before reading Warbreaker, and while those sections of the books definitely do make more sense after reading Warbreaker, I wouldn't say that it's necessary to the plotline.

I agree that it's not necessary. They still explain the basic plotline, but because we don't know what's going on, or why we're supposed to care about these new characters (who then, IIRC, "peace out" of the story), it detracts significantly from that section of the book. Which is the point I'm trying to make.

Unless a setting-specific book explicitly states "buy this other book in order to use this part of the book" (which hasn't happened in any 5e book), there's really no problem.

Sure. My main concern is that whilst it's never going to be explicit, that might become a de facto situation.

My point still stands. Your (general your) campaign's stories and worlds are not invalidated by a D&D Multiverse.

Agree. It's very hard for anything to do that though (invalidate your stories and worlds). I don't even know how you would.

 

[Maxperson]

It actually goes back to the 1st edition DMG, but I don't have photographic proof in my possession. It's okay not to like it but to try and argue that the Multiverse hasn't always been part of D&D is arguing that the sky is green.

The multiverse? Yes. Races having a common origin across the multiverse? No.

 

[Maxperson]

It’s still proof that the idea long predated 5e.

It's proof that the idea of the DM being able to decide to have a common racial origin predated 5e, yes. It's not proof that it actually occurred as the default before 5e, though.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The multiverse? Yes. Races having a common origin across the multiverse? No.

That may not have been made explicit until Deities & Demigods, which must have been all of two years later.

But if you have alternative prime material planes, as described in the DMG, and travel between them, as described in the DMG, it makes no sense to believe there is no connection between identical species on different planes.

I ran a plane-hopping campaign round about 1983.

Not liking something is fine, but trying to deny it's existence just makes you look ridiculous.

 

[Maxperson]

That may not have been made explicit until Deities & Demigods, which must have been all of two years later.

But if you have alternative prime material planes, as described in the DMG, and travel between them, as described in the DMG, it makes no sense to believe there is no connection between identical species on different planes.

Other than different creation myths, some which were made clear by the Deities& Demigods. Some by the settings. Different pantheons had different creation and sometimes destruction myths for humans for example.

So yes, you could plane hop from a greek universe to a norse one, but humans were created differently in many of those. They didn't come from a common human ancestor who spread across the planes.

Not liking something is fine, but trying to deny it's existence just makes you look ridiculous.

You have me denying things I'm not denying, though.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

They didn't come from a common human ancestor who spread across the planes.

Where does it say that? Photographic proof please.

 

[Maxperson]

It’s still proof that the idea long predated 5e.

I've been reading through the 2e Complete Book of Elves and it isn't even a fact that the tree shown in this thread is true. It's just a theory.

"If it were true that the elves did originate from one world, it should come as no surprise that they deny it. Having seen what other races have done to their worlds and how many of these worlds are now obliterated, the elves would naturally want to make sure that none of these races would discover and then destroy the elf homeworld.

Conversely, another theory states that elves only learned to live in harmony with their new worlds through the destruction of their original home. This, the critics claim, is the elven shame, and they hide the planet because they don't wish it known that they weren't always as insufferably perfect as they are now."

And then later in the world creation section...

"Maybe they were created as the Story of Creation in Chapter One suggests, from the blood of Corellon Larethian as he battled the evil orc god Gruumsh. Maybe the elves simply sprang from the world and are the true children of the earth. Whatever the truth, the DM must explain the existence of the elves and how they have come to be as they are and where they are today."

So even in the Complete Book of Elves it isn't any sort of established fact that the elves all sprang from one root and spread out. That tree is just another theory as to the origins of elves for the DM to adopt or not.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

it makes no sense to believe there is no connection between identical species on different planes.

You say that, but that exactly the default stance of pretty much every single campaign setting that isn't called Planescape. IIRC, not even Spelljammer actually implies that there's a connection between identical species on different planes. And quite a few settings have fairly strong creation myths, which little/nothing in the setting contradicts, which strongly imply these beings were created here.

I think trying to argue about whether that "makes sense" is thus rather missing the point.

 

[Larnievc]

I mean, the Feywild Races UA ended up being split between 3 different books (Beyond the Witchlight for the Fairy and Harengon, Strixhaven for the Owlin, and Monsters of the Multiverse for the Hobgoblin.

So I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to think they could be play testing ideas for both Spelljammer and Planescape. Maybe even Dark Sun (taking Thri-keen into consideration). Ultimately we won’t know until the other announced campaign books are revealed.

Spelljammer always had Xichil who were pretty much Space Thri-Kreen.