D&D 5E The Multiverse

[Hatmatter]

Well, now that Theros is out on D&D Beyond, it has this to say about Theros' place in the multiverse:

"The world of Theros, as its inhabitants understand, includes three realms: the mortal world, the divine realm of Nyx, and the Underworld. They are three distinct planes of existence, tucked into their own pocket of the multiverse and shielded from the rest of the cosmos by the power of the gods."

So, like Eberron, it's technically part of the D&D multiverse, but cut off and inaccessible unless the DM wills it otherwise.

Cool! Thanks!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Here is a link to some official Crawford knowledge on Planes and the Multiverse.

 

[the Jester]

The D&D multiverse is big enough to interact with Captain America, the Wizard of Oz, and Star Wars, so it's big enough to interact with Magic the Gathering for me... even if it never happens in my game.

 

[Hatmatter]

Here is a link to some official Crawford knowledge on Planes and the Multiverse.

Yes, this is the podcast that I transcribed in my previous post. I strove to transcribe the relevant passages for this conversation.

 

[cbwjm]

If I use the MtG universes as part of the larger DnD cosmology then I will pretty much just treat them like a different world in much the same way that Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms and Eberron are different. The MtG worlds aren't even that affected by MtG in that the colours don't matter so a wizard or druid is just using DnD mechanics to cast spells without having to worry about which colour of magic they are accessing.

I do like dave2008's cosmological map that he put together though where the MtG worlds are orbiting far distant from the core DnD worlds.

 

[Parmandur]

If I use the MtG universes as part of the larger DnD cosmology then I will pretty much just treat them like a different world in much the same way that Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms and Eberron are different. The MtG worlds aren't even that affected by MtG in that the colours don't matter so a wizard or druid is just using DnD mechanics to cast spells without having to worry about which colour of magic they are accessing.

I do like dave2008's cosmological map that he put together though where the MtG worlds are orbiting far distant from the core DnD worlds.

One of the most brilliant moves they made with Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica was moving the Mana wheel into the realm of the esoteric: some powerful wizards might know of the concept and understand the deeper truth, but very few PCs in the Magic universe would know about their Mana relations: the average Goblin or Elf wouldn't think in those terms on the ground.

 

[cbwjm]

One of the most brilliant moves they made with Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica was moving the Mana wheel into the realm of the esoteric: some powerful wizards might know of the concept and understand the deeper truth, but very few PCs in the Magic universe would know about their Mana relations: the average Goblin or Elf wouldn't think in those terms on the ground.

Yeah, I think the closest I've seen to the colour wheel in the DnD worlds was from one of the planeshift articles which was just some fluff for PCs to imagine that if they cast a fireball they were drawing upon threads of red mana, plant growth drawing upon green mana, but there was no mechanic related to this, it's still just a DnD caster casting a DnD spell, no need to worry about the colour of magic in use.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, I think the closest I've seen to the colour wheel in the DnD worlds was from one of the planeshift articles which was just some fluff for PCs to imagine that if they cast a fireball they were drawing upon threads of red mana, plant growth drawing upon green mana, but there was no mechanic related to this, it's still just a DnD caster casting a DnD spell, no need to worry about the colour of magic in use.

One of the Planeshift articles really went to town with Mana as an alternative Alignment system, which works well given the light touch of Alignment in the rules. I remember from an interview a couple years ago that Wyatt wanted to include that in Ravnica, but Crawford wanted to keep it more "street level" and maintain D&Dness.

 

[Marandahir]

Meanwhile, in Theros, it's very clear that the deities are designed around the 5 Colors and combinations thereof (5 big deities are pure elemental, the other 10 are dual-elemental deities, one for each of the 10 combos). And I guess there's 5 color cultures too:

Blue - Tritons
Red - Minotaurs
White - Leonin
Black - The Revived
Green - Satyrs

With the human city states and the Centaurs somewhere in-between.

 

[cbwjm]

The gods were definitely designed around the colour wheel but you don't need to know it or interact with the wheel to use them. Same with the city states which had one or two colours. Satyrs are actually an interesting case, they revolved around red with two colour combos, red/green and red/black. I don't think I really agree with the Theros book when it says they gravitate towards good, their culture seems to have quite a dark undercurrent to it. Inviting people to a revel and then effectively enslaving them for a time.