D&D General Greyhawk to Faerun and Beyond: A Multiversal D&D Lore Book Is Coming This Fall

This coming October, a 360+ page hardcover which delves into Dungeons & Dragons' various worlds and settings will be released. The book isn't from WotC--it's from Ten Speed Press--but it's by Adam Lee, who wrote for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. The book comes full of 50-years of artwork, and is narrated by the famous wizard Mordenkainen. Additionally, the book contains some original fiction.

Dungeons & Dragons Worlds & Realms: Adventures from Greyhawk to Faerûn and Beyond is available for pre-order already.

The book covers Greyhawk, Mystara, Dragonlance, Faerun, Eberron, the Feywild and Shadowfell, Spelljammer, the Nine Hells, the Abyss, Sigil, and the Far Realm. It's a book of lore and story, not a rulebook, giving an overall of D&D's entire multiverse and its many worlds.

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Celebrate fifty years of the spellbinding settings and planes of Dungeons & Dragons with this beautifully illustrated exploration of the multiverse.

Worlds & Realms is an illustrated, story-driven retrospective celebrating the immersive worldbuilding of D&D since the iconic game’s inception in 1974. Legendary mage Mordenkainen takes adventurers on a fantastical journey through the multiverse, delving into memorable and fascinating lore and locations across all five editions of the game.

With Mordenkainen’s guidance, readers will revisit worlds that have come to define D&D over the decades, from the familiar realms of the Material Plane to lands beyond the Astral Sea. Mordenkainen’s philosophical musings provide a mage’s-eye view of the worlds’ unique features, creatures, and characters, captivating readers’ imaginations as they learn more about the history and mysteries of the multiverse. Additionally, readers will join adventuring parties with inhabitants of each realm through exclusive short stories by award-winning contributors Jaleigh Johnson, Jody Houser and Eric Campbell, Jasmine Bhullar, and Geoffrey Golden.

Full of exciting and enchanting artwork showing fifty years of gameplay evolution from vintage D&D through the present, with original cover and chapter-opener illustrations, Worlds & Realms is a spellbinding tour of the strange and wonderful worlds of the multiverse, appealing to both new and long-standing fans alike.

Polygon has some previews of the book.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Leaving the lack of Dark Sun aside for the moment, I am genuinely curious about how they’ll approach Mystara with this product.

I know the current discourse is "ooh, Mystara, so problematic," but as long as the book doesn't do a deep dive on Fire Mountain or the GAZ version of Thar, they can easily just say "the many lands of the Known World often resemble cultures found on Earth" and "in the Hollow World, the immortals have sought to preserve ancient cultures on the verge of extinction."

The problematic issues of the Atruaghin Clans and similar GAZ are only evident when one does a deep dive and sees that, yep, they didn't have the Internet when these were written and the idea of getting people from the cultures being emulated involved didn't occur to them and might have been challenging to do, even if it had.

Then focus more closely on Karameikos and Glantri -- the two best-supported and not particularly problematic settings -- with shorter entries on each of the Known World nations, Alphatia, the Hollow World cultures, the Savage Coast nations (which probably needs a 21st century rename and/or a timeline update to a post-colonial framing) and we're good.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This seems like the kind of book I would have loved to browse endlessly as a kid and makes me wonder if it might be worth it as a “get my own kid excited about D&D worlds” kinda book.

That seems to be Ten Speed Press' whole niche with their licensed D&D books.

If you haven't checked them out, the Young Adventurers books -- especially the longer compiled ones -- are very good as well, and feature new art featuring kid characters in D&D worlds.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The way we'll measure that, of course, is how much outraged howling there is -- "only 12 pages on Mystara?!"

Looking forward to seeing the full list of what worlds are included. Since we don't have the prospect of a Manual of the Planes on the horizon, this might be the most detail we get on some of these planes for a while.

The article shows the ToC.

Its broken up into 3 sub books.

1. Material Plane Settings: Mystara, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Eberron. Darksun and Birthright get snubbed.

2. Book 2 is Elemental and Parrell (echo Planes) with parts dedicated to the Shadowfell (including Ravenloft), Feywild (probably including Domains of Delight), Radiant Citadel is unknown.

3. Planesjammer, mix of Spelljammer and Planescape with focused sections on Hell, the Abyss, and Sigil, and a section shared between the rest of the Outerplanes and the Far Realms.

This is spread waaaaayyyyy to think. Outside of maps and the short stories I think this will be a little use. Disappointing.

 

[Stormonu]

Hmm, this seems to be focusing on the "kitchen sink" worlds (though Dragonlance isn't quite that).

Would be nice if they did an "astounding worlds" follow up, covering the more divergent worlds like Dark Sun, Birthright, Jakandor(!), Ravenloft, Council of Wyrms and such. Not holding my breath for such, though.

 

[Shardstone]

Even Dark Sun isn't that problematic. You can reduce or minimize the slavery and lose literally nothing. The brutal nature of the rest of it is right in line with many 5E WotC books that have some crazy brutality in them.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The table of contents is in the Polygon article, looks like we have Greyhawk (32 pages), Mystara (24 pages), Dragonlance (30 pages), Faerun (34 pages), and Eberron (30 pages). In addition to Spelljammer, the Feywild, the Shadowfell, Sigil, The Nine Hells, the Abyss, and the Far Realm.

View attachment 364291

Its Outer Planes (obviously besides the Abyss and Hell) not just Far Realms.

 

[Bitbrain]

I know the current discourse is "ooh, Mystara, so problematic," but as long as the book doesn't do a deep dive on Fire Mountain or the GAZ version of Thar, they can easily just say "the many lands of the Known World often resemble cultures found on Earth" and "in the Hollow World, the immortals have sought to preserve ancient cultures on the verge of extinction.”

This would be almost perfect as a first sentence introducing Mystara in this upcoming product.

TANGEANT - Yes, Mystara’s take on orcs is bad, but at least as a DM, the best part of the setting in my opinion is just how gloriously modular the Known World actually is. I threw out the Broken lands, switched Alfheim and Ylaruam, then decided to replace Ylaruam with Hule, and everything still maintained internal logic and consistency.

At least, as much as a quasi-historic pulp fantasy world can.

Then focus more closely on Karameikos and Glantri -- the two best-supported and not particularly problematic settings -- with shorter entries on each of the Known World nations, Alphatia, the Hollow World cultures, the Savage Coast nations (which probably needs a 21st century rename and/or a timeline update to a post-colonial framing) and we're good.

Honestly, they could just ignore the Savage Coast entirely and I’d still be happy if they followed your idea.

 

[Bitbrain]

Hmm, this seems to be focusing on the "kitchen sink" worlds (though Dragonlance isn't quite that).

Would be nice if they did an "astounding worlds" follow up, covering the more divergent worlds like Dark Sun, Birthright, Jakandor(!), Ravenloft, Council of Wyrms and such. Not holding my breath for such, though.

Well, other than Ravenloft (which I suspect will be included in the Shadowfell chapter), this would be a fantastic idea for a sequel and at least make me very happy.

 

[fuindordm]

Pretty stingy in their selection, I say. I'd be more interested in a book that provides a few pages each on ALL the TSR/WotC settings that have come out since the seventies. I'm more interested in the minor and off-beat worlds than the major ones, most of which already have some 5e support.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hmm, this seems to be focusing on the "kitchen sink" worlds (though Dragonlance isn't quite that).

Would be nice if they did an "astounding worlds" follow up, covering the more divergent worlds like Dark Sun, Birthright, Jakandor(!), Ravenloft, Council of Wyrms and such. Not holding my breath for such, though.

Ravenloft is mentioned in the article. I think the kitchen sink settings are just better known and thus the ones to talk about in this first announcement article.