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!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Zeus banged HOW MANY guys now?

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

Given that he turned women into animals before he had sex with him, I think "equal opportunity banger" may be a gross understatement here.

 

[slobster]

Given that he turned women into animals before he had sex with him, I think "equal opportunity banger" may be a gross understatement here.

Heliod, the god sort of modeled after Zeus in this setting except he's the sun god, isn't really kinky in that way, that I have any knowledge of. He doesn't get his rocks off with goose sex, he just murders his own champion after she saved the pantheon because of petty jealousy and arrogance. So...not so much an improvement, as a lateral move in douchebaggery.

Also he may be imprisoned in the Underworld? Depending on the timeframe used in the setting books? I imagine that development of the most recent set will lead to lots of jockeying among the gods and their followers.

 

[robus]

I don't care for MtG but a greek-themed setting or region is intriguing. D&D already have a tradition of Greek mythology monsters after all.

I don’t care for the game of Magic either, but I love the planes it’s inspired. I’m glad they’re realizing that the world building for that can be expanded and shared with D&D. No good reason to maintain two world building teams. And the cross-product marketing potential seems tremendous.

 

[cbwjm]

Considering Dragonlance crossed that bridge decades ago ...

Totally different setting, minotaurs in Theros are nothing like those of Dragonlance or, for a more recent example, Ravnica.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

It is not a spoiler when I dare to say it as theory. Daxos someday will marry her....

Maybe most of Theran minotaurs are feral, but there is a more civilised subrace in other place, thanks to a "digievolution" (by a spellcaster playing to be Dr. Moreau), or there were smart creatures in the past, but almost all become feral by fault of a some infection or divine curse. Or they are ruled by a mind-controll parasite, or possessed by undead souls. Sentient minotaurs can, or could, be planewalkers.

* I am thinking about adding magictek in Theros. Using olive oil as (bio)fuel some machines . Some spellcasters/artificers could create materials working like artificial muscles. (for example for a carroballista what reloads itself). I have thought about the idea of the harupex as the biohacker/biopunk version of the necromancer, using living tissues to craft machines by organic technology. Maybe the origin of this technology was reverse engineering after a failed invasion by Phyrexians.

* Theros is perfect for stories about a new warlord creating an army and trying to conquer a neighbour region, (video)games about mass battles.

 

[Weiley31]

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 on 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, bit apparently they hit a winning formula.

As long as a I get a Planescape and a Throne of Eldarin magic book for 5e, then I got no probs with it.

 

[gyor]

Heliod, the god sort of modeled after Zeus in this setting except he's the sun god, isn't really kinky in that way, that I have any knowledge of. He doesn't get his rocks off with goose sex, he just murders his own champion after she saved the pantheon because of petty jealousy and arrogance. So...not so much an improvement, as a lateral move in douchebaggery.

Also he may be imprisoned in the Underworld? Depending on the timeframe used in the setting books? I imagine that development of the most recent set will lead to lots of jockeying among the gods and their followers.

Heliod I'd argue is more like Helios and Invictus Sol with a touch of Zeus/Juipiter, the Romans conflated all three Gods.

They kind of blend elements of different Gods, another God mixes Zeus's Storm aspect and look with Ephanies from Athena, another god mixes the victory of Nike with the War aspect of Mars, another mixes Hepheastus with the passion of his wife Aphrodite, ect..., plus there is a Egyptian twist in that the Theros Gods are more primal and animalistic then Greek Gods.

 

[gyor]

Not this year, but in the future I think we will get a Spelljammer setting book thanks to BG3. Apparently Swen kept hearing about people wondering if Spelljammer was coming back at Pax East. And I think the Spelljammer Elements in BG3 will cause a huge burst of interest in Spelljammer.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm not saying your wrong, but it definitely fits a greek myth inspired setting. I don't know Theros, but Hephaestus was the god of artifice and was said to have created all manor of automatons for the Olympians. I was actually making stats for him while back and decided I had to hold off until the official artificer rules came out (haven't gone back to him yet though) because they were so important to his character.

I mean, if Greek Mythology has a bronze giant that throws stones at ships that threatened Crete (Talos), why not greek-themed power suits or war forged?

Outside of mythology, in real life Greeks had vending machines, wind organs, water pumps, drinking fountains, hot-air powered temple door openers, water clocks, and analog computers.

 

[Weiley31]

I mean, if Greek Mythology has a bronze giant that throws stones at ships that threatened Crete (Talos), why not greek-themed power suits or war forged?

Outside of mythology, in real life Greeks had vending machines, wind organs, water pumps, drinking fountains, hot-air powered temple door openers, water clocks, and analog computers.

Flamethrowers kinda with Greek Fire.