D&D 5E The D&D Multiverse How it Was and How They Might Be Screwing it Up.

[Hexmage-EN]

But there's not. All pantheons are there side by side. The only ones wrong are those lying to their worshippers by claiming they're the only ones. They are still there of course, just hidding the fact that they hang out time to time to have tea with deities from pantheons they don't want their followers to know about.

Well, according to Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes all elves in every setting of the D&D Multiverse are descendants of the first elves created by Corellon. I assume this holds true even in worlds such as Dark Sun and Birthright, which previously had alternate origins. Similarly, I seem to recall reading that in one setting (Mystara, maybe) that dwarves were created when a god altered the gnomes of the world.

Plus, how do settings with alternate claims about gods, demon lords, etc work now? In Ghostwalk Orcus is a god, for example.

 

[guachi]

I don't like that all worlds are connected. It's unnecessary. Making it a possibility via something like Spelljammer is fine. You play Spelljammer, you buy into the idea of worlds being connected.

But as a default? No thanks.

It'd be like if Superman and Ironman were in the same world. A 'what if' team up of Batman and Wolverine is fun but it's not canon and no one thinks it would be.

The idea that all worlds are connected - even your homebrew world - cheapens things. The idea that all elves - even those in your homebrew world - are descended from Corellon cheapens things.

 

[guachi]

Similarly, I seem to recall reading that in one setting (Mystara, maybe) that dwarves were created when a god altered the gnomes of the world

In Mystara, there are two races of dwarves. The second (and the default dwarves) were created by the Immortal Kagyar, a bruteman who wasn't even a dwarf, after the Great Rain of Fire caused the decline of the then existent dwarves.

They were created to resist the radiation caused by the Great Rain of Fire. This explains the dwarves resistance to poison and inability to use arcane magic.

I don't know off the top of my head how the first dwarves were created.

 

[delericho]

Similarly, I seem to recall reading that in one setting (Mystara, maybe) that dwarves were created when a god altered the gnomes of the world.

In Krynn, the Kender and the Dwarves were created from the Gnomes when the Greystone of Gargath ran amok. It's fair to say that that's not my absolute favourite bit of lore in D&D history, but there it is.

My view is that unless and until something is published in a book, it's just some guy Tweeting. Yes, that "some guy" might be a D&D designer or even the head of the division, but until it's in a book it's not fixed - if nothing else, they may have a better idea between now and then. And once it is in a book, it's still nothing more than a serving suggestion. I decide whether to use or ignore a given bit of lore - and that applies whether I'm using a homebrew setting, a published setting, or anything in between. Because of which, of course, it's not worth getting annoyed about.

 

[Jester David]

 

[AmerginLiath]

Checking the 1st edition Deities & Demigods, wherein the Central American Pantheon comes from “an alternate Prime Material Plane,” it explains that Commune and Gate can transcend the two. Of course, that speaks to a rulesets where the two PMPs are treated as separate planes. As noted, the amalgamation of Great Wheel/Planescape and Spelljammer concept in the 5e multiverse means that the Prime Material Plane is now considered a singular plane with the Phlogiston and its floating Crystal Spheres within (if following the original concepts for the “Central American Pantheon” in 5e, they’d be in a separate sphere within the PMP).

While using teleport to move between worlds sounds odd, I’m not sure where middle ground lies between spells intended for use on the PMP and spells intended to move between planes if other worlds are now technically on the same plane. If a wizard used Teleport to travel to a world’s moon (provided they followed the other rules of the spell), we wouldn’t find it out of sorts, so the change makes that sort of mechanical sense even if it changes a narrative element as a consequence of the PlaneJammer merger.

(BTW, folks discussing the Greet Wheel often forget its fully-formed origins back in the 1st edition PHB appendix, albeit with some of the names being different than we later got used to)

 

[Mirtek]

Plus, how do settings with alternate claims about gods, demon lords, etc work now? In Ghostwalk Orcus is a god, for example.

Well, Orcus exists and is a powerful planar being on par with a demigod. So the inhabitants of Ghostwalk are just misstaken on the details, but their general belief if not completely wrong

 

[gyor]

That's new. Never used to be able to teleport between worlds.

Never had teleportation circles before 4e, that was a 4e addition, you have the teleportation spell and planeshift in previous edition, but Teleportation circles are a 4e invention to my knowledge. So in FR that makes them only a recently developed magic technology.

 

[Ratskinner]

I've never considered the D&D multiverse something to worry about...unless I'm running a multiverse campaign like Planescape. Which I only did once and had some fun. Played in a Spelljammer game and had fun there, too.

Otherwise, I can't see why adding some other world to the PMP mix in Spelljammer or Planescape would matter. I'm perfectly willing to let mythology, origin stories, etc. be considered to be unreliable. I mean, Earth religions all pretty much disagree on any number of features of history or reality...most of them must be wrong. Why should D&D religions be different?

 

[gyor]

Well, according to Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes all elves in every setting of the D&D Multiverse are descendants of the first elves created by Corellon. I assume this holds true even in worlds such as Dark Sun and Birthright, which previously had alternate origins. Similarly, I seem to recall reading that in one setting (Mystara, maybe) that dwarves were created when a god altered the gnomes of the world.

Plus, how do settings with alternate claims about gods, demon lords, etc work now? In Ghostwalk Orcus is a god, for example.

Your taking that too literally, I think it's meant to be spiritual desendants, even in places he's never been when elves are created by other beings, they draw on Corellon to do so, perhaps indirectly.