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

[Paul Farquhar]

Why interpret it as non-literal, when historically D&D has used BTW ching multiverse stuff, ala Nine Princes of Amber and DC Comics, and co tiniest to do so to this day...? The official FR is part of the branching First World multiverse now, allowing for infinite versions to coexist in the metaplot.

The First World idea draws very heavily on the Amber stories, in which there is one (or is there?) Pattern, and all the other worlds are just shadows of that.

 

[DEFCON 1]

None of that requires a "multiverse". Our own universe has multiple planets. Oerth and Toril and Earth can exist just as, you know, different worlds. It doesn't suppose the existence 600 different parallel Elminsters.

Of course there are 600 different parallel Elminsters. In fact there are millions of different parallel Elminsters, because every single DM who has ever run a Forgotten Realms campaign has run a different parallel Faerun, with their own individual different parallel Elminsters. The Elminster that appears in the novels is different than the Elminster that appears in the original Baldur's Gate video game is different than any Elminster that appears in a specific DM's game. Because all of them do different things at different times, different things happen to them, and none of them are affected by what another one does.

I could kill off Elminster in my home campaign right now. Does that mean Elminster is dead in every single other game or property? Not at all. So how could I kill him? Because my world is but one of millions of different worlds that all might be similar but are not exact, as part of the 'D&D Multiverse'. Every single D&D game is a parallel but different world from every other. That's literally what the multiverse concept allows for, and why WotC has pushed forth the idea of the D&D Multiverse. To get across the point that (general) you can do anything you want in your own personal game and it does not matter if it conflicts or contradicts or changes things that have been established in other games or properties previously. Just like people can write whatever they want in so-called "Official" Forgotten Realms adventures and setting books... because a lot of that stuff is ultimately going to be ignored by every individual DM and player if it doesn't work for their game. And in fact, may very well be ignored by other "official" WotC writers in other "official" Forgotten Realms products in the future as well.

And this is why worrying or caring about 'canon' is such a pointless exercise. Because any and all of it is changed and does not match any sort of 'canonical' storyline every single time a new person uses any of it.

 

[Necropolitan]

Parallel prime material planes where in the 1st edition AD&D DMG. That’s how come Ed Greenwood was able to converse with Elminster and Mordenkainen in his kitchen in Canada (Dragon).

Not parallel versions of the Forgotten Realms, which as I've repeatedly stated is my point.

You're in fact strengthening my argument since Ed's only being visited by a single version of Elminster every single time.

There was a Doctor Who story in which the Moon hatched into a giant space creature. It might seem silly, but the point of fantasy is you can tell any story you like, irrespective of how silly it seems.

That episode's plot points were near-universally derided and considered one of the worst of that season if not that Doctor's entire run even by a lot of the fans who liked it overall.

You can tell any story you want, that doesn't mean people won't hate it and think it's stupid if it doesn't make sense in-universe.

Discworld's disc world being carried on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle flying through space works because it sets up a universe where that makes sense.

Of course there are 600 different parallel Elminsters.

As the quoted text clearly says there is 1 official Forgotten Realms and each DM has their own version.

That doesn't mean there's an infinite number of Forgotten Realms, the official version only recognizes one of them.

So for example a DM having Drizzt be a serial killer wouldn't be what the official version has him as.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not parallel versions of the Forgotten Realms, which as I've repeatedly stated is my point.

The idea that everyone’s home game is part of the same multiverse, and characters can travel between them was established in the DMG (which predates the FR) so if an NPC appears in anyone’s personal game, that is a different version of that character. I.e. there is potentially an infinite number of versions of everyone. Which is what the Many Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics says - where all this stuff originated.

Elminster is in the Baldur’s Gate games, and in each playthrough of each of those Elminster encounters a different protagonist. Ergo there must be at least as many different Elminsters as there are protagonists.

You can tell any story you want, that doesn't mean people won't hate it and think it's stupid if it doesn't make sense in-universe

Sure, but if D&D was about popularity the jocks would be playing it. Every story is legitimate, irrespective of if you personally like it or not.

The egg can be metaphorical in your game and literal in some else’s, and everyone is right.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Of course there are 600 different parallel Elminsters. In fact there are millions of different parallel Elminsters, because every single DM who has ever run a Forgotten Realms campaign has run a different parallel Faerun, with their own individual different parallel Elminsters. The Elminster that appears in the novels is different than the Elminster that appears in the original Baldur's Gate video game is different than any Elminster that appears in a specific DM's game. Because all of them do different things at different times, different things happen to them, and none of them are affected by what another one does.

I could kill off Elminster in my home campaign right now. Does that mean Elminster is dead in every single other game or property? Not at all. So how could I kill him? Because my world is but one of millions of different worlds that all might be similar but are not exact, as part of the 'D&D Multiverse'. Every single D&D game is a parallel but different world from every other. That's literally what the multiverse concept allows for, and why WotC has pushed forth the idea of the D&D Multiverse. To get across the point that (general) you can do anything you want in your own personal game and it does not matter if it conflicts or contradicts or changes things that have been established in other games or properties previously. Just like people can write whatever they want in so-called "Official" Forgotten Realms adventures and setting books... because a lot of that stuff is ultimately going to be ignored by every individual DM and player if it doesn't work for their game. And in fact, may very well be ignored by other "official" WotC writers in other "official" Forgotten Realms products in the future as well.

And this is why worrying or caring about 'canon' is such a pointless exercise. Because any and all of it is changed and does not match any sort of 'canonical' storyline every single time a new person uses any of it.

Are we back to this nonsense that the existence of a home game is a priori cause of a multiverse? Is there a multiverse in Call of Cthulhu because people have different home games? No, that's nonsense. This is an explanation is search of an actual conundrum.