D&D 5E Grand Master of Flowers: Speculation on James Wyatt's October Book

[Parmandur]

One of the more curious elements of the recent Adventures in the Forgotten Realms card Set for Magic: the Gathering (Important to note that the creative director for this set is none other than...James Wyatt, of which more anon) is the appearance of the god Bahamut under the guise of a Human Monk titled the "Grand Master of Flowers." At first, this struck me as super random, as I did not recall hearing of Bahamut being a Monk previously, but more usually a Galndalf/Odin-like wandering old man figure. But then I looked into the Grand Master of Flowers in Forgotten Realms lore, and things got interesting.

Pictured above is St. Sollars hosting the adventuring party in the old AD&D Module H4: Throne of Bloodstone. St. Sollars "the Twice-Martyred" is the found and divine patron of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose in Damara, which earlier in the H series had been a base of operations for the player characters, and whose leader is the Grand Master of Flowers, just like Bahamut's title in the Magic card. in H4, the party deals directly with St. Sollars, who "informed them that Bahamut wanted to prevent Orcus—Zhengyi's patron—from getting to the Material Plane." After having retrieved the Wand of Orcus, "To destroy the wand, St. Sollars directed them to Bahamut, who in turn predicted that the Wand of Orcus needed to be bathed in the blood of a slain avatar of Tiamat, the Dragon Queen. After the slaying the avatar and destroying the Wand, and a last meeting with Bahamut, St. Sollars healed the heroes, rewarded them with wishes, and let them rest in the Seven Heavens for a day before sending them on their way." Although he was a servant of the god Illmater, "St. Sollars also revered the god Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon, whom he called 'the big boss.'"

It seems that possible James Wyatt is playing off this obscure connection between Bahamut and the Monastery of the Yellow Rose in this card, and I have to wonder if this is not a preview of how Bahamut is going to be expanded in the apparent new Dragon book coming this October.

Saint Sollars

Saint Sollars, called the Twice Martyred, was a saint of the faith of Ilmater the Crying God. He was the patron saint of Bloodstone Pass. Within the church of Ilmater, St. Sollars was venerated by the Disciples of St. Sollars the Twice-Martyred and at the Monastery of the Yellow Rose in the...

forgottenrealms.fandom.com

 

[Nikosandros]

Very interesting. It seems very obscure, but Bahamut presence as a Granf Master of Flowers card gives, IMO, solidity to the hypothesis.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Huh. Yeah, that's some pretty obscure connections, but seems like it's probably correct... I bet Wyatt must have run that module to be that familiar with it.

If the October book truly is a Dragon book (and I think the consensus is that it probably is) then it would make sense for this to be explained a bit more there.

I am curious what the format of the book will be, as it seems like it will combine monsters, subclasses, races and lore into one book but also not be a new setting. Unless it really is Dragonlance, but I doubt that.

 

[TheSword]

I thought you were going to say a remake of the Gareth Dragonsbane Series was going to be the project.

Now that would be welcome. Candlekeep Mysteries just isn’t doing it for me.

 

[J.Quondam]

Whoah... Why is St. Sollars holding a cellphone in 1983?

 

[bedir than]

Huh. Yeah, that's some pretty obscure connections, but seems like it's probably correct... I bet Wyatt must have run that module to be that familiar with it.

If the October book truly is a Dragon book (and I think the consensus is that it probably is) then it would make sense for this to be explained a bit more there.

I am curious what the format of the book will be, as it seems like it will combine monsters, subclasses, races and lore into one book but also not be a new setting. Unless it really is Dragonlance, but I doubt that.

A small expansion to what Volo's and Mordekanian's did

 

[Parmandur]

Huh. Yeah, that's some pretty obscure connections, but seems like it's probably correct... I bet Wyatt must have run that module to be that familiar with it.

If the October book truly is a Dragon book (and I think the consensus is that it probably is) then it would make sense for this to be explained a bit more there.

I am curious what the format of the book will be, as it seems like it will combine monsters, subclasses, races and lore into one book but also not be a new setting. Unless it really is Dragonlance, but I doubt that.

I would guess the nearest equivalent is Volo's Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes: Volo's came out in 2016, MToF in 2018, it's about time for a Monster book.

I'd call this almost a "Meta-Setting" since Volo's and Mordenkainen's spent so much space on generic D&D Lore, with bits and bobs about how to tie into specific Settings (Volo's Yuan-Ti are interestingly completely different from Forgotten Realms lore, humorously enough). The big difference from what we know so far are the Subclasses, but that's a pretty minor change-up. I think we are looking at:

- In-depth Lore about Dragons just like Volo's, maybe split up into 3 Chapters to cover the 3 major True Dragons. Maybe the Subclasses are in the Metallic Dragon Chapter, to reflect their role as NPC Patrons and Allies?

- In-depth Lore about Dragonborn (about time), and possibly a new take on Kobolds.

- Bestiary covering All. The. Dragons. Weird things like Dragonnes, everything.

 

[Nikosandros]

Whoah... Why is St. Sollars holding a cellphone in 1983?

It's miraculous.

 

[Maxperson]

Whoah... Why is St. Sollars holding a cellphone in 1983?

It's hard to tell from this angle, but that's a Red Bull, which is how he got his wings.

 

[Parmandur]

A small expansion to what Volo's and Mordekanian's did

Yeah, both of those books already had beefy lore development sections, and spe done a few pages on a couple Subclasses is a pretty small.addition. Having a few Subclasses might have been good for Mordenkainen's: Infernal, Abyssal & Fey Sorcerers spring to mind immediately, but Fiends offered a lot of possibilities.