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

 

[Demetrios1453]

No, the Unearthed Arcana full of Spelljammer material, and the next unannounced book having a special cover with a hamster. This book of reprints isn't relevant on that front.

I wonder if this potential Spelljammer book is going to be a May release, since MotM will basically be a reprint in multiple ways. It would seem to fit the UA timing, and would parallel Ravenloft being the May release last year...

 

[Scribe]

Exactly. "Goblins are small sized, green skinned humanoids of foul disposition who are often found inhabiting dark forests, abandoned ruins and dungeons." No need to say a single word about origins or get too specific on culture. That's for setting books.

Honestly, this is where I'm getting to. This is all I need. Just run with it, roll the dice, and move on. I dont care about any motivations, or deep cultural motive, just lets get on with it.

 

[Charlaquin]

I do have an idea no for a world where the stars are great lanterns, or ships carrying many lanterns, floating high above the cloud level, in a world with no “outer space”, just infinite airy space where you can just keep flying and fly forever out into the black.

I mean, that’s pretty close to describing outer space, except for the “airy” part.

 

[Charlaquin]

Monsters of the Multiverse, which is full of planar races, proves that?

You don't need that with "straight spelljammer". You don't need planes. Yet this book is about the planes.

Crawford said nothing about traveling between mortal worlds.

Seriously, will there be a Feywild or Ravenloft crystal sphere, is that your call? Crystal Spheres for MtG settings (which has a multiverse made of planes, and planeswalkers).

It does not add up at all.

No, the Faewild and the Shadowfell (the latter of which the Land of the Mists AKA Ravenloft is a part) don’t have crystal spheres, they’re planes. Worlds, like Abier, Athas, and Eberron have crystal spheres. Many worlds also connect to other planes, though there are exceptions, like Athas.

 

[Charlaquin]

No. For years, there has been a "default" setting. (In the past, that has been Greyhawk-but-not for 3rd; Nentire* Vale for 4th; and Forgotten Realms for 5th.)

Then, even when a "different" setting is approached, it usually gets twisted to fit whatever the default approach is.

I think the "default" should change to fit the individual setting rather than the individual settings having a requirement to fit the default.

(*I'm okay with Nentire Vale because I feel it gave enough info to get a game moving, but vague enough that it allowed a group to modify it to their tastes/needs.)



That's not how they've been doing it for a while. In several books, they talk about that, but it's not typically done.

5e does have a default setting though, that default setting is just “The Multiverse.” Here, look:


That’s from 2015!

 

[Parmandur]

I wonder if this potential Spelljammer book is going to be a May release, since MotM will basically be a reprint in multiple ways. It would seem to fit the UA timing, and would parallel Ravenloft being the May release last year...

Something like thst would be my guess: maybe later, depending on how their production has been backed up by the global situstion.

 

[Parmandur]

Seriously, will there be a Feywild or Ravenloft crystal sphere, is that your call? Crystal Spheres for MtG settings (which has a multiverse made of planes, and planeswalkers).

It is worth noting thst Crawford talked about Ravnica and Eberron having Crystal Spheres in the past, for the purposes of the D&D Multiverse. Ravenloft is on another dimensional Plane, not a different part of the Prime Material. Spelljammer and Planescape are not exclusive of each other, and both have been baked into 5E for years.

 

[Charlaquin]

It is worth noting thst Crawford talked about Ravnica and Eberron having Crystal Spheres in the past, for the purposes of the D&D Multiverse. Ravenloft is on another dimensional Plane, not a different part of the Prime Material. Spelljammer and Planescape are not exclusive of each other, and both have been baked into 5E for years.

You gotta admit it’s pretty weird for the M:tG settings to have crystal spheres though. The M:tG settings (“planes”) were written as part of a different meta-setting (also called the multiverse), which has its own rules and metaphysics and cosmology. I’m not opposed to crossovers, but there’s a reason crossover events are often considered non-canon to their respective continuities, because of these sorts of setting assumption clashes.

Now, since WotC owns both M:tG and D&D, they do have the power to consolidate their respective meta-settings, and maybe that’s what they’re working towards. What with Universes Beyond and the 50th anniversary revisions… But, if that is the trajectory we’re on, I think everybody had better get ready for some shake-ups to the foundational setting assumptions of both IPs that are going to make “goblins are fae now” look pretty insignificant in comparison.

 

[Parmandur]

You gotta admit it’s pretty weird for the M:tG settings to have crystal spheres though. The M:tG settings (“planes”) were written as part of a different meta-setting (also called the multiverse), which has its own rules and metaphysics and cosmology. I’m not opposed to crossovers, but there’s a reason crossover events are often considered non-canon to their respective continuities, because of these sorts of setting assumption clashes.

Now, since WotC owns both M:tG and D&D, they do have the power to consolidate their respective meta-settings, and maybe that’s what they’re working towards. What with Universes Beyond and the 50th anniversary revisions… But, if that is the trajectory we’re on, I think everybody had better get ready for some shake-ups to the foundational setting assumptions of both IPs that are going to make “goblins are fae now” look pretty insignificant in comparison.

Yeah, I think thst big shake-ups are likely.

 

[Scribe]

But, if that is the trajectory we’re on, I think everybody had better get ready for some shake-ups to the foundational setting assumptions of both IPs that are going to make “goblins are fae now” look pretty insignificant in comparison.

Absolutely, and THAT is a bridge too far.

 

[overgeeked]

The multiverse is a sort of meta-setting, in which all other settings exist as “worlds.” This has technically been the underlying assumption WotC’s writers have been operating under for all of 5e, they just haven’t been explicit about it until now. You can kind of see it in the PHB, in the way it casually drops references to elements from various D&D settings, or the way it talks about “the worlds of D&D.” That stuff isn’t them being setting-neutral, it’s them writing about D&D’s default setting, the multiverse.

They’ve gradually been getting more explicit about this since at least Tasha’s. For example, the spell Dream of the Blue Veil allows the caster to travel to a different “world,” which is to say a different setting. And you could say the First World stuff first teased in Tasha’s and later expanded upon in Fizban’s is one of the first pieces of setting lore we’ve gotten about the multiverse. Goblins being fae in origin is another, new piece of lore for the setting.

Exactly. The "multiverse" is quite literally D&D as a whole. They're slightly changing the fundamental assumptions on some races. Removing references to specific cultural norms or setting specific info. Giving things a more explicit myth-forward style.

 

[Argyle King]

5e does have a default setting though, that default setting is just “The Multiverse.” Here, look:


That’s from 2015!

Thank you.

If it's on Twitter, I don't see it. My personal preference is to avoid Twitter because I view the platform as a whole to be a being ground for a largely toxic community.

The approach you mention is what I was hitting on earlier. With the multiverse as a default setting, comes what appears to be some attempt to make "different" settings adhere to one underlying set of ideas.

I think it's a slightly (but importantly) different thing to have a default start to ideas which are later influenced (and changed) by the individual needs of a setting.

Even though it's a small difference of thought and wording, I believe it has a large impact on design and end result when it comes to creating worlds, the direction for a brand, or a longterm narrative.

 

[Zarithar]

I pulled out my old 1st edition Monster Manual and looked at the goblin entry. Nothing about goblinoids having fey ancestry. Nothing about Maglubiyet either. Was this lore in Deities & Demigods then? Also - just because it's printed doesn't mean you have to play it that way. We are all free to either use or discard the lore as we see fit in our own games. Not sure why folks are getting upset really.

 

[JEB]

I pulled out my old 1st edition Monster Manual and looked at the goblin entry. Nothing about goblinoids having fey ancestry. Nothing about Maglubiyet either. Was this lore in Deities & Demigods then?

From a quick look: Maglubiyet appeared in 1E's Deities & Demigods, yes, where it notes him ruling over the other goblinoid deities. Looks like the lore about Maglubiyet going further, and subduing or destroying any rival goblinoid deities, appeared as early as 2E's Monster Mythology.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I mean, that’s pretty close to describing outer space, except for the “airy” part.

The idea of there not being any difference between the space below the clouds and that between the planet and the sun is…huge.

That’s a very different cosmology than our own, in a way that I think would be pretty interesting to explore.

Like…imagine the view of earth from the moon. Now imagine that there isn’t a visible shell of atmosphere around the earth.

Idk maybe I’m not articulating what is so massively different about a space you can just fly a regular old airplane through, leaving the planet without any more effort than it takes to fly laterally. A hot air balloon could go to the moon and back. There is no barrier.

It’s a fun idea. Combine it with

“what are the stars? Well, some are the spirit lanterns that we send up into the air every year. Others are balls of burning gas that planets orbit. That one there is the chariot of Amun Aran, and of course our sun is a star, from the perspective of some very far away on some strange world we’ve never heard of. To us, she is The Mother, and the stories aren’t metaphors. She really is a celestial dragon, sleeping but aware, protecting our world and giving us light.”

weird stars, and you’ve got the start of a really cool setting.

 

[Charlaquin]

Thank you.

If it's on Twitter, I don't see it. My personal preference is to avoid Twitter because I view the platform as a whole to be a being ground for a largely toxic community.

I don’t blame you. Twitter is a literal bullying machine.

The approach you mention is what I was hitting on earlier. With the multiverse as a default setting, comes what appears to be some attempt to make "different" settings adhere to one underlying set of ideas.

I think it's a slightly (but importantly) different thing to have a default start to ideas which are later influenced (and changed) by the individual needs of a setting.

Even though it's a small difference of thought and wording, I believe it has a large impact on design and end result when it comes to creating worlds, the direction for a brand, or a longterm narrative.

I agree! For an example of this in action, look at the changes made to Eberron and Dark Sun in 4e. 4e also had a multiverse meta-setting, and most of the changes made to those two settings were to make them conform better to the World Axis cosmology, which was part of the 4e multiverse.

I think, due to some of the backlash to these sorts of changes during 4e, they’re taking a more cautious approach with 5e’s meta-setting. It took them this long to give us a peek at the underlying lore of the 5e multiverse, and they seem more willing to allow worlds like Eberron to retain their own cosmologies rather than forcing them to conform to the Great Wheel. But I think some amount of tweaking of the settings to conform to the assumptions of 5e’s multiverse will be inevitable, especially for the M:tG planes.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Exactly. The "multiverse" is quite literally D&D as a whole. They're slightly changing the fundamental assumptions on some races. Removing references to specific cultural norms or setting specific info. Giving things a more explicit myth-forward style.

And explicitly not replacing the old way, importantly. They aren’t saying, okay this is what a goblin is now. They’re saying, here’s a goblin that doesn’t assume a specific world. If you want to play the classic goblin presented in Volos, that book is still there for you.

 

[Charlaquin]

The idea of there not being any difference between the space below the clouds and that between the planet and the sun is…huge.

That’s a very different cosmology than our own, in a way that I think would be pretty interesting to explore.

Like…imagine the view of earth from the moon. Now imagine that there isn’t a visible shell of atmosphere around the earth.

Idk maybe I’m not articulating what is so massively different about a space you can just fly a regular old airplane through, leaving the planet without any more effort than it takes to fly laterally. A hot air balloon could go to the moon and back. There is no barrier.

It’s a fun idea. Combine it with

“what are the stars? Well, some are the spirit lanterns that we send up into the air every year. Others are balls of burning gas that planets orbit. That one there is the chariot of Amun Aran, and of course our sun is a star, from the perspective of some very far away on some strange world we’ve never heard of. To us, she is The Mother, and the stories aren’t metaphors. She really is a celestial dragon, sleeping but aware, protecting our world and giving us light.”

weird stars, and you’ve got the start of a really cool setting.

Sorry, I was not as clear as I could have been. I do actually appreciate the differences that would make, I was just trying to be funny.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Sorry, I was not as clear as I could have been. I do actually appreciate the differences that would make, I was just trying to be funny.

Hey it’s all good. It pushed me to think more about the idea, which was fun.

 

[JEB]

And explicitly not replacing the old way, importantly. They aren’t saying, okay this is what a goblin is now. They’re saying, here’s a goblin that doesn’t assume a specific world. If you want to play the classic goblin presented in Volos, that book is still there for you.

This is the potential of what was said in the video, yes. Whether the reality lives up to that promise remains to be seen.