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​

 

[Parmandur]

So, perhaps the discussion of souls and Ravenloft deserves its own thread? It's not terribly related to the book that's the subject of this thread...

Things evolve.

So, thst hope punk, pretty near, huh?

I'm really curious to see how well I can take existing Adventures and fit them into these new Settings.

 

[darjr]

One of my favorite quotes.

yes, we have a soul. It’s made of lots of tiny little robots.

 

[Jer]

I'm really curious to see how well I can take existing Adventures and fit them into these new Settings.

I'm just excited to see new settings. Small vingettes in one book with example adventures for them is like my ideal for a setting book since I love worldhopping games.

I'm not going to get to use them for a while given that my current game isn't a worldhopping one (and probably won't be even at higher level) but ideas for the next campaign are always welcome in my library...

 

[Azzy]

Wait. Re Ravenloft. That is the point. If they lack "souls", namely consciousnesses, then they cant suffer. They are like a computer game mimicking the facial expressions of pain. They dont suffer, just like a photograph of a sad person doesnt itself suffer.

If they can suffer, they have "souls".

No. That's just bizarre.

There is no proof in the real world that souls actually exist, but suffering is universal.

 

[Yaarel]

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

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

To the degree that this might be interesting for the D&D concept of "soul" for gaming purposes, Genesis 1.24:

Literally,

"And divinity said. The land must bring out the soul of an animal, (each) to its (own) kind."

וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, תּוֹצֵא הָאָרֶץ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה לְמִינָהּ



For D&D too, animals have souls.

I view the D&D terms "soul" and "ki" to mean the same thing. Both imply the capacity of consciousness (including psionics) and physical motion.

The point of animism is, rocks and rivers are conscious minds (thus can potentially exert psionic influence).

There is a mysterious quality of the material plane that can entangle consciousness within the perspective of a material body. The body makes possible an individual consciousness (Hindu atman) that is distinct fom the infinite consciousness (Hindu brahman).

 

[Yaarel]

There are animals who are not "conscious" per se, but they are animate...that is, souly things. "Conciousness" being related to souls as such is an Early Modern idea.

You seem to be discussing the philosophy of existentialism and similar.

But the concept of consciousness is ancient, relating to breath, blood, light, and so on.

 

[Parmandur]

No. That's just bizarre.

There is no proof in the real world that souls actually exist, but suffering is universal.

That really depends on what one defines as a soul: according to a more traditional and coherent definition of a "soul" (the form of the body) any moving, breathing organism with continuous existence has one by definition. If the inhabitants of Ravenloft have no "soul" that would mean then that they are not actually living organisms with a continuous existence, hence incapable of feeling or suffering.

 

[Dire Bare]

Disagree entirely. They believe they are suffering so they are suffering. They believe they are conscious, they have consciousness. Like a self aware AI whose creator has gifted it with awareness and has dropped it into a virtual torture chamber.

They merely lack the gnostic soul - the inner light- created by the gods (or intrinsic to the multiverse) to persist into the afterlife because their creators are incapable of giving it to them. The Ravenloft Dark Powers are like the Demiurge and have crafted a half-creation that cannot create that spark of inner light, leaving their creations to suffer for their own purposes. (Perhaps they can grow a soul if presented the opportunity - certainly if I ran a game where it became an issue it would be an interesting path to explore).

I just watched the movie "Free Guy" last night, about a video game NPC that becomes self-aware and "levels up". At some point in the story, Guy (our NPC hero) is made aware he's "not real" and it really throws him for a loop. His best friend, Buddy (another NPC), tells him that "not being real" doesn't bother him at all, because, "This moment, where I'm helping my best friend get through a tough time, that's as real as it gets".

 

[Michael Linke]

Here's the original quote:


Michael Linke didn't say he didn't like it. He said it was literally not good and never would be good again. This is what I was talking about in my other thread. He's stating this as an objective fact, when it's an opinion, and certainly not one that was universally shared--I liked the Silence but not the Astronaut part of the story, which annoyed me.

"I feel like" usually isn't a phrase people use when trying to state objective facts.

 

[Yaarel]

There are animals who are not "conscious" per se, but they are animate...that is, souly things. "Conciousness" being related to souls as such is an Early Modern idea.

The modern (also medieval) concept is a "brain". That has nothing to do with the ancient concept of consciousness.