D&D 5E Official D&D Greek-Themed 'Mythic Odysseys of Theros' Setting Coming In May

My inbox just exploded! It looks like Penguin Random House accidentally leaked an upcoming book listing for D&D, before removing the entry. It's dated for May 19th, and it's called Mythic Odysseys of Theros.

What's Theros? It's a Greek(ish) themed Magic: the Gathering world! This will make it the second, after Ravnica, to make it to an official D&D campaign setting. Here's what the MTG wiki says about it:

"Theros is a plane governed by the gods of Nyx, where heroes face monsters, the sea rages, people offer burnt offerings and adventures take place. It is defined by mankind's struggle against the primal forces of the world, and mankind's conflict with the many other sapient races that populate the world."

In ancient times, the archons of Theros held a massive empire, tyrannizing the world in the belief that they were imposing a strict justice. The most notable of these Archon tyrants was Agnomakhos, who used the leonin as an army. Eventually, the Archon empire fell, being instead replaced by the poleis, and the remaining Archons now lash at these, slighting the "honor" they feel was stripped from them.

There's an enormous list of races, too -- though how many of those will translate from MtG to D&D, I don't know. Some of these are clearly 'monsters' in the D&D sense rather than 'races'. It includes cats, centaurs, gorgons, merfolk, minotaurs, satyrs, spirits, zombies, archons, basilisks, chimeras, cyclopses, demons, dragons, giants, hags, harpies, hounds, hydras, krakens, lamias, manticores, pegasi, phoenixes, spines, and sirens.

There's a whole bunch of Greek-themed or inspired D&D settings, including:

• Arkadia by Arcana Games. "Arkadia is a combined setting and players handbook for 5e - inspired by the history and myths of Ancient Greece. The book contains 100 pages of densely packed all new Greek themed content for both Players and GMs."
• Hellenistika from Handiwork Games. "From the Pillars of Herakles in the West to the Silken Cities of the East, from the isle of Hyperborea in the North to the Mountains of the Moon in the South, the world spreads before you, alive with gods and marvels."
• Odyssey of the Dragonlords from Arcanum Worlds. "Odyssey of the Dragonlords is an epic fantasy campaign for the fifth edition of the world’s greatest roleplaying game. The Player’s Guide is a 28-page companion booklet that will provide you with everything you need to begin your career as a prospective hero in the forgotten land of Thylea."
• Land of Myth by Seven Thebes. "A Fantasy Setting in Mythical Ancient Greece.A world of Heroes, right after the end of
  the Trojan War, steeped in myth and conflict."

Of course, this all assumes this isn't come kind of epic troll on WotC's part -- they have recently started putting placeholder names on products on Amazon and then changing them at the most minute, although with limited success. This could be a more elaborate attempt at that!

 

[gyor]

Myths change, and there should be nothing wrong with opening this up so female PCs can also be heroic children of Herakles.

Theros doesn't have Heracles, it has Daxos and I don't think he has kids.

 

[Aldarc]

Theros doesn't have Heracles, it has Daxos and I don't think he has kids.

Sure, but the campaign proposal wasn't about Theros.

 

[gyor]

Chessenta in the Forgotten Realms is the Ancient Greek stand in, with Tchazzar being a shape shifting Red Dragon version of Alexander the Great (and the reason why Chessenta has so many Dragon Blood Sorcerers).

Side note the Greek Gods do have Temples in FR in the ruins of Bakkar.

And some Saints in FR are named after Greek Gods.

 

[atanakar]

Very interesting. I was looking at Mythras (Runequest) very recently. Not an auto-buy but I will give the book a good look at the local store and buy it there if I like it.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Myths change, and there should be nothing wrong with opening this up so female PCs can also be heroic children of Herakles.

Oh sure, I was just advising of the original myth. When adapting/updating, you can make any changes you want...

 

[Demetrios1453]

Zeus banged HOW MANY chicks now?

Zeus banged HOW MANY guys now?

(Zeus and most of the other Greek gods were equal opportunity bangers after all)

 

[Von Ether]

Personally I think that will be a little sad to turn the minotaurs into just another race. They'd created the monstrous lore about them and if they make them just another race it dilutes it a bit. I know many people like to have as many options as possible, but I'm thinking if I ever do run something in Theros, and minotaur is a playable race, that I will ban them as a player race and keep them remaining as the brutal, hungry marauders from the earlier sets. I prefer to keep the monsters as monsters.

Considering Dragonlance crossed that bridge decades ago ...

 

[Parmandur]

I still think you are still wrong. I mean, Iron Man in an ancient Greek setting? Really?! I can see a some that would fit well here: The awful revived rogue* and truename wizard*, the hero paladin and the plague doctor monk etc. But many of the others make no sense here, even if they might fit in other MTG settings. Astral Monks? Flumph barbarians? Psionics generally?

And then there is the issue of numbers - 20 is far to many for one setting book. Unless they are planning on a whole set of MTG setting books - 4 would probably cover it.

*These have the same issue as the Invention wizard - they might make sense in the setting, but are not generally portable.

I was never advocating that I was absolutely certain it was Magic, but I was definitely right in regards to the intuition that it felt like they might be preparing material for a Magic book: because they were. Obviously anything from the recent UA can't be for this, as the book has to be finalized by now. That's next book stuff.

Well, we are getting at least two Setting books this year, and three in a row: very easily could be another one on the way.

The Flumph thing always felt like a red herring to not reveal the actual theme of the Subclass (being a Red Mana Barbarian, apparently). I wager that what we saw last year was all for this book, up to a certain point, and then they switched gears to the next book: I'm thinking Planescape for Psionics, Iron Man, the Planar Padin, etc. That would mean we get a licensed IP Setting book, a Magic Setting book, and. Planescape Setting book. Fairly bonkers, but apparently they hit a winning formula.

 

[dave2008]

Considering Dragonlance crossed that bridge decades ago ...

I think he/she was specifically referring to the lore of Theros - not the idea in general.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

*These have the same issue as the Invention wizard - they might make sense in the setting, but are not generally portable.

That's a feature, not a bug.