D&D General The Purple Dragon Knights are tied to an Amethyst Dragon (confirmed)

[Parmandur]

View attachment 413661
I wonder if they'll be as gone as you think they are, as this art from the new books shows Sammaster and a dracolich!

It is an interesting question how these Factions will be handled.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I get the likely reasons by the PDK would expand beyond Cormyr to the rest of Faerun as a consequence of Cormyr expanding in 4e only to contract in 5e, but the Multiverse angle I don't get.

It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing, but I imagine the multiverse angle goes something like this:

• D&D has a multiverse and that multiverse is part of its brand identity these days. It hasn't always been important, but folks now have decided to highlight the multiverse angle for all of D&D, including the Realms. So now they're going to want to see it highlighted.
• Amethyst dragons in 5e are flavored with the multiverse - they're scholars of the planes. This is fairly new lore, AFAIK (though it's not alien or competing with the old lore, either). This might be coming from the above point, in part. There wasn't a whole lot of "amethyst dragon lore" before 5e's dive (some, but pretty skeletal).

I don't know how this would tether to Purple Dragon Knights and Cormyr, necessarily, but it makes some sense that if they decided that amethyst dragons + PDKs were a "thing" that they would take it in a multiversal direction. Or, alternately, that if they were looking to take some faction in FR in a multiversal direction, that they'd leverage their amethyst dragon lore to help with that.

Still kind of TBD on how dumb this is, but it's at least listing in the direction of considered, rather than random. Which is a good sign!

 

[Demetrios1453]

View attachment 413661
I wonder if they'll be as gone as you think they are, as this art from the new books shows Sammaster and a dracolich!

I'm guessing they'll still be there as a major antagonist, just not as a faction you can gain rep towards. I mean... they are pretty unsubtly Evil with a capital "E". Even the Zhents and the Red Wizards (especially if the faction for the latter is a splinter group) have some wiggle room in being at least a bit morally (very dark) gray.

 

[I'm A Banana]

FWIW, Makenzie De Armas does a pretty good job fielding the question overall, and talks well about the subclass-specific feedback, but doesn't really dispel the "dragon is purple lol" accusations. "We wanted to explore what that purple dragon could be!" is evidence for this concept disrespecting the OG lore by way of not understanding it.

She mentions that the book goes into a lot of detail, too, which adds a bit to the "they thought about this more than they're talking about" column.

Curious to see what this brings in November!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't get why it is Amethyst Dragons either. Silver or Gold Dragons would make more sense.

DUH. 'Cuz they're PURPLE.

(I truly mean that as a joke, and not in any way insulting to your intelligence).