D&D 5E Making sense of D&D's Lore, History and Cosmology

[Viking Bastard]

It’s a cosmological buffet. You pick and choose different items to make different platters at each go at the table. Sometimes you assemble a platter that doesn’t quite gel (and you move on more experienced at platter compilation), but most times you enjoy a unique and satisfying meal made from familiar ingredients.

Each campaign I run has its own spin on the concepts that come into play, yet in my mind they all take place within the same multi/omniverse. Plane stuff, especially outer plane stuff (that is already based off belief), is both impossibly vast to map and entirely relative to the perceiver.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

So many replies!


I agree. That's also my approach. But I was looking for some of the universals to build a solid frame of understanding on the core elements of the lore so I could pick left and right or build my own. It just feel like it's hard to find the start or end of it...


This wiki never came out in my research. Bookmarked. I'll definitely look into it. Thank you.


My bad, I didn't know it was a sensitive word. Sorry.


So far, I think I'm sticking to what 5e says as a base, and I've been picking elements from 3rd edition when I can to make it fit. I've also mostly stuck to the Dawn War Pantheon for simplicity sake. But 1e and 2e are very hard to get into lore-wise.


Yeah, I definitely don't have the intention of internalizing all that lore. I'm just looking for the core elements around which to build. But it's not easy to find.

So here is my advice on how to sort out the cosmology lore, based solely on how I believe you want to use it. In that, you want a solid framework built for you, and would prefer not to invent your own answers to the questions you have. That's not a criticism, some folks here feel you should build your cosmology to fit your purposes, but sometimes it is just easier to have an answer available.

For starters, treat 5E official materials as king canon. There honestly isn't much material that 5E actually nails down as official lore, and often contradicts itself to leave multiple options open for DMs. But the best material on the cosmology on 5E is from the Dungeon Master's Guide, and from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

After you've looked through that material, then avoid material that directly contradicts those sources, regardless of edition. But you should feel free to use whatever material you like that doesn't contradict 5E. Even if you don't want to use them as answers to questions, you can use them as theories that some wizards/sages believe, but are not necessarily true.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

The past few threads that I've created reflect the fact that in the last few months, I started diving in D&D lores. In all my years of DMing I mostly just borrowed the monsters from the manuals without reading too much of their stuff, and I would interpret them in my own settings. However, I've got interested in some of D&D's lore and as mentioned, I'm now trying to get a good understanding of it. I'm making good progress, but I have a few issues:

1. The information is split between editions. This include the 4th edition and its different cosmology, so I tend to be selective about that edition. There's some cool stuff in the 2nd edition, but a lot of it is never referred to again in further editions or often contradicts stuff from the 3rd or 5th edition.
2. It's hard to separate what's the general cosmology and lore of D&D and what's tied to the Forgotten Realms. I have no interest whatsoever in the Forgotten Realms and I'll often read some information about some character or event only to realize later on that that's only relevant in the story or timeline of the Forgotten Realms.
3. Some topics are especially hard to look into. The origin story of races and stuff like that is pretty easy to find and separate between editions. But everything that relates to the outer planes, the demons, the devils, the deities is such a clusterfuck. I've been doing some notetaking and I keep having to go back and erase stuff.
   Greater Deities, Intermediate Deities, Lesser Deities. How godhood works? I've read stuff about having to have a divine spark, or that it's just related to the devoutness and number of your followers. I'm unsure what characterizes each level of divinity and how one ascends. What are primordials? This is an example.

So, I'd say that my question is something close to: how do you make sense of that humongous clusterfuck that is D&D's lore? What do you prioritize; the most recent edition, the most complete one? Do you mix and match the material of different editions, which one works well together? Do you have any reliable websites, sources or wikis that are not too influenced by the Forgotten Realms and pertain more to very general D&D lore?

Thank you.

I'll add, one of the best sources is actually 1d4chan. It does a very good job of collating various D&D information across editions, so you can compare.

Demons: Tanar'ri - 1d4chan
Devils: Baatezu - 1d4chan
Gods: Gods of Dungeons & Dragons - 1d4chan
Primordials (or Archomentals): Archomental - 1d4chan

To answer your specific questions, divine ranks really just measure how powerful the god is. There is not really a set way for how gods move up and down in rank; they just do. Ao for example is an Overdeity, but has few worshippers, so rank is not technically tied to worship, although the more worshippers a god has is usually a net good for their power.

Primordials are essentially extremely powerful elemental beings. They are probably most comparable to lesser deities in power level.

 

[dave2008]

To answer your specific questions, divine ranks really just measure how powerful the god is. There is not really a set way for how gods move up and down in rank; they just do. Ao for example is an Overdeity, but has few worshippers, so rank is not technically tied to worship, although the more worshippers a god has is usually a net good for their power.

Primordials are essentially extremely powerful elemental beings. They are probably most comparable to lesser deities in power level.

This is highly edition dependent. In 1e, Gary seemed to assume a gods relative power was based on its worship on a plane and its overal power was based on its total worship (at least I think it was Gary who wrote the article in Dragon). Of course, that is somewhat contradicted by 1e Deities and Demigods.

Regarding primordials, there is a difference between the lore and the stats provided (in 4e). On several occasions the lore describes how it took multiple gods (usually 3) to bind or imprison or slay some primordials; while other times a god could slay a primordial 1v1. I think primordials seemed to cover a range from at least lesser to greater or higher rank deity

 

[Umbran]

It strikes me that making sense of D&D's lore and cosmology is like.. trying to make sense of X-Men comics continuity.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

It strikes me that making sense of D&D's lore and cosmology is like.. trying to make sense of X-Men comics continuity.

Yeah, why bother? Enjoy the moment.

 

[Umbran]

Yeah, why bother? Enjoy the moment.

I can think of one reason to bother - so that you know enough of it to choose what you want.

 

[Dire Bare]

It strikes me that making sense of D&D's lore and cosmology is like.. trying to make sense of X-Men comics continuity.

Oh come on, it's not THAT bad!

 

[Coroc]

Mod Note:

Please watch your language. Thanks.

whats a clusterbleep? Non native speaker just asking trolling

 

[Coroc]

i use many 2nd ed and some 3e principles, but i play 5e of course.
Some of the things i keep:

Deity ranking
Spell level needs 10+ level for casting attribute.
i use pantheon of published settings, but i reduce the number of gods at least those available to the players
i normally loathe non archetypical race class combos e.g. Dwarves mage. I stay pretty 2e on that, thankfully my players play along with that.

concerning crossplay: A big nono is e.g. Someone bringing a fr char to my ds campaign and dragging along all attached fr lore brrr no way at my table.