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!

 

[dave2008]

To follow up, though gods could pass through the BE in my view, it is unwise as that immediately attracts the attention of Eldritch titans (aka Cthulhu, Azathoth, Emrakul, Ulamog, etc.) and creates a breach for them to pass through as well.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

No, I much prefer the spells don't work, I just would allow "my" versions of gods to pass through the BE. I like the idea of the BE separating the MtG planes from the rest of the "wheel."

Heck, I might even add that to my cosmological map. It makes for a great place for the far realm (more so with the Eldrazi connection). I could see it, conceptually, as one side Great Wheel : BE/Far Realm : MtG Planes on the other side. Rosewater's explanation of the BE jives with my view of the Far Realm pretty well too.

I might treat the Blind Eternities more like a particularly dangerous portion of the Phlogiston. Otherwise, if the Magic Planes are drifting in the Far Realm or Astral Sea, they're not actually within the Material Plane. Which Crawford I don't think explicitly says they are, but I always default assume that non-Planescape settings are.

But the Phlogiston functions as a pretty good way of seperating worlds within the Material Plane, and can be diverse enough to hide worlds like Theros or Eberron from the eyes of D&D gods.

 

[slobster]

Oooo I didn't know this! That has interesting lore implications. I'd like to read that statement if you still know where it is.

I think the way I'd interpret this, is that the Planes of MtG must have a similar "disconnect" to the Great Wheel that Eberron has, but instead of the Crystal Sphere it is the Blind Eternities. So like Eberron, although the Great Wheel exists, its rules have no impact on MtG planes as they are cut off by the Blind Eternities.

Of course, the DM can break the rules however they want for their game. Crawford specifically mentions how a god like Asmodeus would be excited by the prospect of more souls from a cut off world like Eberron. I'm sure he or some other god would love to pierce the Blind Eternities to get a foothold in worlds like Ravnica or Theros.

I will try to track down some illustrative quotes. There was a bunch of to-do about the planewalker I mentioned upthread, and Rosewater talked a bit about the Blind Eternities. Also the lynchpin of the most recent Big Bad of MtG, the Dragon God Nicol Bolas, was about how he had to create a massive gate and then coat his army of undead soldiers in special plot metal so that they could survive crossing between their home plane and Ravnica, which he wanted to invade. That both demonstrates that it's really hard to cross the Blind Eternities (Nicol Bolas is thousands of years old and was basically omnipotent at one point, and it still took him centuries of plotting to manage it, and even then only with undead creatures) but also that the writers themselves are willing to fudge the rules when they feel its necessary.

But Rosewater's tumblr has a terrible search function, and I'm not finding any good quotes now. I'll circle back later on and see if I can find some good quotes to share.

 

[Undrave]

Awesome, thanks for the link!

I would note that this is basically the "how D&D sees things" explanation. Within the canon of MtG (so coming at it from the other side), the planeshift spell is flatly impossible (right now, retcons notwithstanding) as confirmed by official word of Rosewater several times. So no method of travelling the planes other than planeswalking can exist in Magic lore (well Eldrazi...and the planar bridge...look it's like comic book physics, things get complicated). Any person who tried to planeshift, other than a planeswalker, would according to established MtG lore be unmade by the Blind Eternities.

That's all solid MtG canon, basically as solid as it gets in a fiction primarily depicted through cards and sharing dozens of authors down several decades. But a lot of the things taken for granted in D&D plane lore, like the simple ability of literally anything to cross the planes without the direct involvement of a planeswalker spark, would break the whole MtG setting on a pretty basic level (see nerd rage about a planeswalker taking his dog for a walk).

Now all that said, it would be fine by me if they relaxed all those restrictions in Magic and went with what Crawford is saying here! At the very least, it would mean we could the Weatherlight back and travelling the planes.

And of course GMs are free to do whatever they want in their own games.

I will try to track down some illustrative quotes. There was a bunch of to-do about the planewalker I mentioned upthread, and Rosewater talked a bit about the Blind Eternities. Also the lynchpin of the most recent Big Bad of MtG, the Dragon God Nicol Bolas, was about how he had to create a massive gate and then coat his army of undead soldiers in special plot metal so that they could survive crossing between their home plane and Ravnica, which he wanted to invade. That both demonstrates that it's really hard to cross the Blind Eternities (Nicol Bolas is thousands of years old and was basically omnipotent at one point, and it still took him centuries of plotting to manage it, and even then only with undead creatures) but also that the writers themselves are willing to fudge the rules when they feel its necessary.

But Rosewater's tumblr has a terrible search function, and I'm not finding any good quotes now. I'll circle back later on and see if I can find some good quotes to share.

This is all interesting.

So how does the Puzzle & Dragons Magic the Gathering collaboration fit into the M:TG multiverse? I'm pretty certain that when I reached Nicol Bolas at the end of the Collab Dungeon he went "I smell... Planeswalker!"... so the PuzzDra player is canonically a Planeswalker? (EDIT: no wait, I think it was Lord of the Pit who was the boss)

 

[slobster]

To follow up, though gods could pass through the BE in my view, it is unwise as that immediately attracts the attention of Eldritch titans (aka Cthulhu, Azathoth, Emrakul, Ulamog, etc.) and creates a breach for them to pass through as well.

As home lore? Perfect. Sounds cool and is really flavorful.

As MtG lore, there is actually a short story online about one of the Theros gods first realizing the existence of planes beyond Theros, and being utterly terrified about it because he knows that he nor any other god will ever be able to see any of these realms for himself. Link: Kruphix's Insight

To quote Kruphix from this story, himself the god of knowledge and secrets and knower of all there is to know on Theros: "There are entire worlds out there, beyond Theros, beyond Nyx. Worlds you cannot see when you look up at the sky, places where the gods of Theros hold no sway. Worlds that you—and I—can never visit, with their own civilizations, their own histories, even their own physical laws. "

 

[dave2008]

As home lore? Perfect. Sounds cool and is really flavorful.

As MtG lore, there is actually a short story online about one of the Theros gods first realizing the existence of planes beyond Theros, and being utterly terrified about it because he knows that he nor any other god will ever be able to see any of these realms for himself. Link: Kruphix's Insight

To quote Kruphix from this story, himself the god of knowledge and secrets and knower of all there is to know on Theros: "There are entire worlds out there, beyond Theros, beyond Nyx. Worlds you cannot see when you look up at the sky, places where the gods of Theros hold no sway. Worlds that you—and I—can never visit, with their own civilizations, their own histories, even their own physical laws. "

Oh, my gods are not the weak Theros gods, they would be demigods (or avatars) at best in my setting. Some of my gods could wipe out Theros with a thought (and an Action of course - everything costs an Action).

 

[darjr]

I love this richness to the cosmology this brings.

 

[darjr]

I love this richness to the cosmology this brings.

 

[dave2008]

I might treat the Blind Eternities more like a particularly dangerous portion of the Phlogiston. Otherwise, if the Magic Planes are drifting in the Far Realm or Astral Sea, they're not actually within the Material Plane. Which Crawford I don't think explicitly says they are, but I always default assume that non-Planescape settings are.

But the Phlogiston functions as a pretty good way of seperating worlds within the Material Plane, and can be diverse enough to hide worlds like Theros or Eberron from the eyes of D&D gods.

View attachment 119096

Unfortunately I never got into 2e lore (skiped 2e and 3e). I don't quite understand what the Phlogiston is other than it is very flammable and the word always reminds me of Phlegm.

 

[eyeheartawk]

My hope is that this move of MTG settings into D&D will mirror the move Magic made into game stores in the 90s.

I for one, am looking forward to the Hyborian Gates setting document.