D&D 5E Iggwilv/Tasha To Join Volo, Xanathar, and Mordenkainen? [UPDATED!]

Is WotC teasing a new announcement? There have been a few D&D books named after famous personalities from the game's extensive lore - Vole's Guide to Monsters, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. It looks possible that the next such personality might be Tasha of Tasha's Hideous Laughter fame -- which was an adventuring alias of the Greyhawk villain Iggwilv.

UPDATE -- A page has appeared on Amazon entitled Dungeons & Dragons November Title (Announced August 24). It's a hardcover, $49.95, November 17th release date.

On their Discord channel, WotC posted a short audio clip; it features some female-sounding voices laughing, and it is titled "Feather and Tart". It also has a metadata info which says August 24th, 2020, which is Monday. But in addition to that, a WoTC staff member on Reddit's avatar was changed to an image of Iggwilv.

Iggwilv was an evil magic-user, a villain created by Gary Gygax. When adventuring with the Company of Seven, she used the alias Tasha. The lore has it that the witch Baba Yaga adopted her as a child and named her Natasha, and she soon became Natasha the Dark (Baba Yaga also adopted Elena the Fair).

Iggwilv has two forms, one old and one young. You can read more about the character on Wikipedia.


What does seem clear is that WotC is teasing an impending announcement! I assume that the announcement they are teasing will be the announcement of an upcoming announcement, or I'll be disappointed.

 

[dave2008]

It really was not. Dragon Mag isn't official.

Let me know when it ends up in a setting book. Or even an official adventure. Until it does, it's just dragon magazine extra content which just plain isn't official stuff. Often, it's just like UA stuff is now - testing ideas out.

It was explicitly official in 4e. Everything was core in 4e. I can try to look up the actual quotes if you want, but I'm not really interested in doing that. I'm not saying that makes it "official" for 5e, but it was in 4e.

 

[Mistwell]

It was explicitly official in 4e. Everything was core in 4e. I can try to look up the actual quotes if you want, but I'm not really interested in doing that. I'm not saying that makes it "official" for 5e, but it was in 4e.

Nope. Every BOOK was official core. Dragon magazine was not. There was all sorts of test stuff in Dragon magazine.

 

[SkidAce]

Iggwilv's Book of Shadows?

Iggwilv's Tome of Mysteries

Iggwilv's Octavo of the Obscure?

The Enchiridion of Iggwilv?

Iggwilv's Indescribable Incantations

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This feels like a weird hill to die on.

 

[Wishbone]

It really was not. Dragon Mag isn't official. And that article was just acknowledging a prior article called her that. Which isn't lore man, it's just acknowledging someone called her that in a prior Dragon magazine.

Let me know when it ends up in a setting book. Or even an official adventure. Until it does, it's just dragon magazine extra content which just plain isn't official stuff. Often, it's just like UA stuff is now - testing ideas out.

Turns out it's not just from Dragon Magazine. Though Greyhawk fans are free to ignore.

"A successful DC 30 Knowledge (history) check or bardic knowledge check reveals that Raknian’s description of Tasha is similar to the commonly known description of the witch-queen Iggwilv." (Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, p. 157)​

"When Iggwilv’s simulacrum came upon this room, she recognized her own face in the image of Tasha—a name that the real Iggwilv had used long ago, which might in fact be the one given her by her mysterious mother." (Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, p. 172)​

 

[Mistwell]

This might be splitting hairs, but Iggwilv was called Tasha in a 4E Dragon Magazine article made by WotC after they took the title back from Paizo.

“Let us begin with our fair maiden. She has been known by many names over the years: Natasha, Hura, then Tasha, and finally Iggwilv." (Dragon Magazine 414, p. 2)​

I don't know that many players who started since 3.5E would have any idea who Tasha is if she wasn't associated with Iggwilv.

I am looking at Dragon Magazine issue 414, page 2, right now and it's an Eberron article. Nothing like that is there. Are you sure on that source?

 

[Wishbone]

I am looking at Dragon Magazine issue 414, page 2, right now and it's an Eberron article. Nothing like that is there. Are you sure on that source?

Yep from Dragon 414 on August 2012, "The Iggwilv–Graz’zt Affair" by John “Ross” Rossomangno which is the first article in the magazine. The "Vale of the Inner Sun Article" might be what you're looking at. It is needlessly confusing since the page numbering starts over from 1 for each article on these digital editions from WotC.

 

[SkidAce]

I disagree. As far as I know, it was just Erik Mona doing it in Dragon Magazine prior to shifting it to Paizo. Not really well established lore at all. Not something reflected in any official setting books I know about. Am I wrong in that?

I hadn't heard of it until this thread.

 

[Mistwell]

This feels like a weird hill to die on.

Why? They were two different characters for decades, Gygax appears to have considered them separate, Erik Mona decided to change it in test magazine content just before Paizo separated from publishing WOTC stuff, it's never once made it into a setting book. Most Greyhawk fans I know don't even like anything beyond the original Greyhawk content. The weird hill to die on to me is people insisting Mona's playing around with the lore "must be core". Why do you guys care so much that they are the same character?

 

[Mistwell]

Yep from Dragon 414 on August 2012, "The Iggwilv–Graz’zt Affair" by John “Ross” Rossomangno which is the first article in the magazine. The "Vale of the Inner Sun Article" might be what you're looking at. It is needlessly confusing since the page numbering starts over from 1 for each article on these digital editions from WotC.

Weird. I am seeing this.