D&D 5E First World: Possibly One of the New D&D setting?

[Chaosmancer]

I don't think that the First World is going to be a setting, or at least not the original First World.

Fizban's has a new order of Dragons called "The Inheritor's of the First World" whose stated goal is to destroy all Primes to recreate the First World. The Dragonsight is also a new feature whose entire purpose seems to be the coordination of dragons between planes of existence, and the Inheritor's even get a trait focused on it.

Someone mentioned that the Obelisk's don't reverse time, they unravel it.


My money is going towards a First World adventure. An Epic adventure, where the players are pitted against the Inheritor's, maybe discover the secret of what happened to Saridor. I also note that this is coming AFTER the "things before 5e are no longer necessarily canon" which I think was because they wanted to take the "canonical" dragon gods and instead make them simply this Greatwyrms, whose Dragonsight has allowed them to coordinate between planes.



And I note that we have the 50th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons coming up, where a massive multiversal spanning adventure focusing on Apocalyptic Dragon "Gods" seeking to destroy and remake reality using a series of mysterious Obelisks that have exactly that sort of ability and have been building up all edition would make a VERY big impact.

Which may result in a new setting, or may not.

 

[Mistwell]

I missed this thread the first time around. But the First World topic came up in a more recent thread so I am necro'ing this one to discuss it further.

WOTC likes their inside jokes. The First World, meaning the first full setting as opposed to the first location (which was Blackmoor), was Greyhawk.

We know Mearls was exploring ways to use Greyhawk for 5e before he left for another area of the company and we also know Greyhawk ranked fairly high in the list of settings people wanted to see. Not as high as some others, but I believe all the others which ranked higher have already seen some level of development.

I think Greyhawk is First World. It's the source of so many spell names, magic item and artifact names, key villain names, deity names, it's the origin story of so many things currently used in other settings supported by 5e. I think that's the hook they will use to tie into Greyhawk. That it's the origin setting.

 

[overgeeked]

WOTC likes their inside jokes. The First World, meaning the first full setting as opposed to the first location (which was Blackmoor), was Greyhawk.

Blackmoor came first and it was a big setting unto itself. Parts of it were later added into Greyhawk. And Mystara.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I missed this thread the first time around. But the First World topic came up in a more recent thread so I am necro'ing this one to discuss it further.

WOTC likes their inside jokes. The First World, meaning the first full setting as opposed to the first location (which was Blackmoor), was Greyhawk.

We know Mearls was exploring ways to use Greyhawk for 5e before he left for another area of the company and we also know Greyhawk ranked fairly high in the list of settings people wanted to see. Not as high as some others, but I believe all the others which ranked higher have already seen some level of development.

I think Greyhawk is First World. It's the source of so many spell names, magic item and artifact names, key villain names, deity names, it's the origin story of so many things currently used in other settings supported by 5e. I think that's the hook they will use to tie into Greyhawk. That it's the origin setting.

Is there anything in the Elegy of the First World or the rest of Fizban's that even hints as this? Because, to me, the lore about gods coming in and invading the world created by Tiamat and Bahamut sounds more like Nerath/Nentir Vale than Greyhawk/Oerth.

 

[Mistwell]

Blackmoor came first and it was a big setting unto itself. Parts of it were later added into Greyhawk. And Mystara.

I said Blackmoor came first in the very quote you cited! But no, it was not a big setting unto itself. It was really a mini setting at the time focused on a location. At least the stuff which was published. Greyhawk was the first full setting they published.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Interesting idea. There are definitely some cool things in Greyhawk that can be developed; we could have a real Castle Greyhawk megadungeon, for example. On the other hand, posters like @Hussar and others have suggested that what they liked about Greyhawk most were all the blank spaces that could be filled in by individual tables. I really hope that's where they're going, despite the lack of evidence.

I also hope, as others have suggested, that the "dragons founded the world" idea is one interpretation and not just how it is. Since it's all we've got so far, I've been worried they are going to stick to it.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Is there anything in the Elegy of the First World or the rest of Fizban's that even hints as this? Because, to me, the lore about gods coming in and invading the world created by Tiamat and Bahamut sounds more like Nerath/Nentir Vale than Greyhawk/Oerth.

Yeah I'm with you, definitely don't think First World = Oerth. Unless it was a prehistoric Oerth.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Is there anything in the Elegy of the First World or the rest of Fizban's that even hints as this? Because, to me, the lore about gods coming in and invading the world created by Tiamat and Bahamut sounds more like Nerath/Nentir Vale than Greyhawk/Oerth.

This. The information we have on the First World sounds nothing like either Greyhawk or Blackmoor. It's probably not connected to Nentir Vale either but is is drawing on similar themes.

I very much doubt it will be a setting itself though. The point of it is to justify the similarities between the various D&D settings. The First World is gone.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

This. The information we have on the First World sounds nothing like either Greyhawk or Blackmoor. It's probably not connected to Nentir Vale either but is is drawing on similar themes.

Fully agreed.

I very much doubt it will be a setting itself though. The point of it is to justify the similarities between the various D&D settings. The First World is gone.

Eh, I feel like it could still be a setting. It can both explain why Wildemount, Eberron, Greyhawk, and Toril all have Orcs and also be a playable world. IMO, playing in the First World would be like playing a Dinosaur-focused RPG set in the Cretaceous Period on Earth. Sure, the meteor will come and kill all of the dinosaurs, but that might not happen anytime soon and probably won't factor into the plot of the game.

 

[Rogerd1]

There is also this from DC comics

Old Gods

The Old Gods of the First World were an ancient race, whose destruction led the way for the Gods of Earth and other planets as well as the Fourth World of Apokolips and New Genesis. Around 18 billion years ago, the Old Gods originated from GodWorld (also known as Asgard or Urgrund) during the...

dc.fandom.com

And their Sphere of the Gods is pretty close to the Outer Planes.