D&D 5E The Next D&D Book is JOURNEYS THROUGH THE RADIANT CITADEL

We peered, poked, squinted, flipped, and enhanced the teaser image that WotC put out last week, and it turns out we got it right -- the next book is, indeed, Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel.

Wraparound cover art by Evyn Fong​

Through the mists of the Ethereal Plane shines the Radiant Citadel. Travelers from across the multiverse flock to this mysterious bastion to share their traditions, stories, and calls for heroes. A crossroads of wonders and adventures, the Radiant Citadel is the first step on the path to legend. Where will your journeys take you?

Journeys through the Radiant Citadel is a collection of thirteen short, stand-alone D&D adventures featuring challenges for character levels 1–14. Each adventure has ties to the Radiant Citadel, a magical city with connections to lands rich with excitement and danger, and each can be run by itself or as part of an ongoing campaign. Explore this rich and varied collection of adventures in magical lands.

• Thirteen new stand-alone adventures spanning levels 1 to 14, each with its own set of maps
• Introduces the Radiant Citadel, a new location on the Ethereal Plane that connects adventurers to richly detailed and distinct corners of the D&D multiverse
• Each adventure can be set in any existing D&D campaign setting or on worlds of your own design
• Introduces eleven new D&D monsters
• There’s a story for every adventuring party, from whimsical and light to dark and foreboding and everything in between

Slated for June 21st (update - I just got a press release which says it's June 21st "in North American stores"; I'm not sure what that means for the rest of us!), it's a 224-page adventure anthology featuring a floating city called the Radiant Citadel. The book is written entirely by people of colour, including Ajit George, who was the first person of Indian heritage to write Indian-inspired material for D&D (in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft). Around 50 POC writers were involved in total in various ways.

The Radiant Citadel is on the ethereal plane and is carved from the giant fossil of an unknown monster. A massive gemstone called the Royal Diamond sits at the core, surrounded by a bunch of smaller Concord Jewels, which are gateways to the Citadel's founding civilizations. DMs can link any world to the citadel by placing a Concord Jewel there.

The Citadel, unlike many D&D locations, is more of a sanctuary than a place of danger. The book's alternate cover features a Dawn Incarnate, a creature which is the embodiment of stories and cultures.

D&D 5E - Here's Radiant Citadel's press release

Dropped in my inbox a short while ago, if you want the official announcement. It's the same info as in the news article on the front page. Dungeons & Dragons Invites You to Explore the Radiant Citadel Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is a new collection of short adventures set in wondrous...

www.enworld.org

The adventures are as follows:

• Salted Legacy
• Written In Blood
• The Fiend of Hollow Mine
• Wages of Vice
• Sins of Our Elders
• Gold for Fools and Princes
• Trail of Destruction
• In the Mists of Manivarsha
• Between Tangled Roots
• Shadow of the Sun
• The Nightsea’s Succor
• Buried Dynasty
• Orchids of the Invisible Mountain

UPDATE -- the press release contains a list of some of the contributors: "Justice Ramin Arman, Dominique Dickey, Ajit A. George, Basheer Ghouse, Alastor Guzman, D. Fox Harrell, T.K. Johnson, Felice Tzehuei Kuan, Surena Marie, Mimi Mondal, Mario Ortegón, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Pam Punzalan, Erin Roberts, Terry H. Romero, Stephanie Yoon, and many more."

Regular cover by Even Fong

Alternate Cover by Sija Hong​

 

[darjr]

Oh but they also get the last laugh. Because in their death they are the only ones that can escape the vampire.

He doubly hates that. Especially because he can’t feed on them when they die.

 

[Jer]

Hence they have some sort of Form (in the sense of Platonic Ideal) to their bodily existence, that ia, a soul.

yes in that sense. And there are lots of definitions of souls that are used in real-world religions and metaphysics that would say that Ravenloft denizens absolutely have souls.

But in D&D/Planar terms the "soul" is a specific thing that goes to an afterlife when the body dies. It's a very American mass media Christian-influenced idea of what a soul is, but it's been there since at least Planescape (and I assume before though I don't know if it was ever as explicit as it was in Planescape - maybe in some of the Realms stuff). Ravenloft inhabitants don't get the solace of an afterlife - they just die and eventually are reabsorbed into the mists.

 

[Jer]

They have no soul. There is no believing or disbelieving. They are automatons of the darklord.

We're going to need to agree to disagree because you're never going to convince me that souls and consciousness are the same thing. Or that Ravenloft inhabitants aren't alive and as worthy of life and protection as any other human being in a fictional D&D world.

 

[Parmandur]

No, explicitly they do not.
At least not most of them.

Yeah, it's logically incoherent, but that's about what I expect from D&D metaphysics: about as realistic as medicine or physics in D&D.

 

[Parmandur]

It's a very American mass media...influenced idea

Yes...

It's a very...Christian-influenced idea

....and no.

 

[Yaarel]

In traditional Christian belief, animals have no souls.

Not sure which Christianity you are referring to. The Christian Bible, including the opening of Genesis, plainly says that animals have a soul. The Hebrew term is nefesh. The Greek translation is psukhe, a "self".

In (one) Jewish view, the difference between humans and other animals is the ability to speak.

Anyway, in D&D animals have lifeforce, soul, and exist in the immaterial planes as well, which is where they can be summoned from.

Animals are conscious and can suffer.

 

[TwoSix]

Yes...

....and no.

Well, let's say it's inspired by American-style civic deism ("thoughts and prayers"), which is Christian-flavored much like a Dorito is cheese-flavored.

 

[Jer]

Yes...

....and no.

I mean don't cut it up like that - it's all one concept. "American mass-media Christian" is a specific kind of genre of marketing/storytelling. Things like Touched by an Angel and Highway to Heaven which use the forms of Christian beliefs but only a really superficial way to appeal to a mass audience. That kind of superficiality leads to a thing like "the soul is a thing that goes to the afterlife".

 

[Parmandur]

Not sure which Christianity you are referring to. The Christian Bible, including the opening of Genesis, plainly says that animals have a soul. The Hebrew term is nefesh. The Greek translation is psukhe, a "self".

In (one) Jewish view, the difference between humans and other animals is the ability to speak.

Anyway, in D&D animals have lifeforce, soul, and exist in the immaterial planes as well, which is where they can be summoned from.

Animals are conscious and can suffer.

The Latin translation is..."anima," which. Means both breath and soul.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not sure which Christianity you are referring to.

It's what I was taught at Sunday School (Baptist).

And it was among the arguments used by those opposing abolitionists like Wilberforce.