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

[Necropolitan]

I’ll have to see if I can find my original posts to confirm, but IIRC the idea that Sammaster had misinterpreted the prophecy dates from the 2e Cult of the Dragon book, and the 3.5e Dragons of Faerûn book established that Tiamat’s cultists were infiltrating Cult of the Dragon sects. The way the Cult of the Dragon was presented in ToD was a natural evolution of that original lore.

Even if that wasn't the case Tiamat stepping in to take control of the Cult of the Dragon made complete sense.

With their greatest achievement (The Dracorage/Rage of the Dragons) undone and thus their mistranslated version of the prophecy seemingly thwarted and their founder/leader dead the Cult could easily be taken over by a dragon goddess, especially since Tiamat has her Undying Queen aspect (a Dracolich version of her normal form) which would definitely appeal to them.

 

[pukunui]

Even if that wasn't the case Tiamat stepping in to take control of the Cult of the Dragon made complete sense.

With their greatest achievement (The Dracorage/Rage of the Dragons) undone and thus their mistranslated version of the prophecy seemingly thwarted and their founder/leader dead the Cult could easily be taken over by a dragon goddess, especially since Tiamat has her Undying Queen aspect (a Dracolich version of her normal form) which would definitely appeal to them.

I've edited my post because I found some of my original posts from 2014. It turns out that the bit about Tiamat's faithful infiltrating Cult of the Dragon cells is from the 2e Cult of the Dragon book. It may have taken longer than Tiamat expected due to the Spellplague, but it seems her church on Faerûn did eventually succeed in infiltrating and taking over the entire Cult of the Dragon rather than just a few individual cells here and there.

Meanwhile, the 3.5e Dragons of Faerûn establishes that Tiamat divinely influenced Sammaster re: the dragon rage mythal - no doubt a bit of 4D chess on her part. She must have known that triggering the mythal would provoke a response from Faerûn's mightiest heroes, who would ultimately destroy the mythal, which was a major barrier to her desired takeover of Faerûn.

But yes, the Tyranny of Dragons storyline works because it builds on previously established lore tidbits. Some of them are real deep cuts, but you can tell that Chris Perkins and the Kobold team who wrote the adventures did their homework! I'm not so sure the same can be said about this PDK + amethyst dragon team-up. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Sammaster is dead AND destroyed though!

He became a Lich and then his Phylactery was destroyed during his scheme to use the Dracorage to force Dragons to become Dracoliches or die, it was specifically stated that he was gone for good because otherwise the Rage of Dragons would have kept going!

Bringing him back goes against all established lore and is just plain stupid since it was his destruction that led to the final splintering of the Cult of the Dragon that let Tiamat seize control of it.

Sammaster had more than served his purpose as a villain by founding the cult and setting off the Rage of Dragons, there's no reason to bring him back other than a refusal to just let characters stay dead.

There are still plenty of ways in lore to bring people back. Even liches who have had their phylacteries destroyed. Especially ones who were famous and powerful and whom powerful forces/creatures/deities might want back for some reason of their own.

And we don't even know if he's back anyway - that could just be an illustration of him in his historical capacity as the creator of the Cult.

There's been far too much jumping to conclusions by extrapolating from very limited info.

 

[GarrettKP]

There are still plenty of ways in lore to bring people back. Even liches who have had their phylacteries destroyed. Especially ones who were famous and powerful and whom powerful forces/creatures/deities might want back for some reason of their own.

And we don't even know if he's back anyway - that could just be an illustration of him in his historical capacity as the creator of the Cult.

There's been far too much jumping to conclusions by extrapolating from very limited info.

I can confirm he is in the Bestiary. He does get a stat block, according to the info we got at GenCon.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I can confirm he is in the Bestiary. He does get a stat block, according to the info we got at GenCon.

Ok, that takes out the second option, but the first is still very much valid.

Also, good to hear that we'll be seeing stat blocks for powerful individual villains for the setting!

 

[ECMO3]

DUH. 'Cuz they're PURPLE.

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

Except they are only purple at birth!

I think the authors don't bother to read anything they have written in the past.

An actual new Chromatic Dragon - Purple Dragon - would be better in this respect.

 

[pukunui]

I can confirm he is in the Bestiary. He does get a stat block, according to the info we got at GenCon.

Interesting. I wonder if / how they have explained his return.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Interesting. I wonder if / how they have explained his return.

This is another thing that could be dumb or not depending on how much work they put in. Some? A lot? None?

I'm rooting for them to pull it off. There's a high degree of tolerance of foolishness in D&D, it's definitely in-genre, but the thin veneer of a half-decent rationale is pretty load-bearing.

 

[Necropolitan]

There are still plenty of ways in lore to bring people back. Even liches who have had their phylacteries destroyed. Especially ones who were famous and powerful and whom powerful forces/creatures/deities might want back for some reason of their own.

And we don't even know if he's back anyway - that could just be an illustration of him in his historical capacity as the creator of the Cult.

There's been far too much jumping to conclusions by extrapolating from very limited info.

It's a general problem with bringing characters back to life (or unlife in this case since Sammaster is a Lich) after their stories had satisfying conclusions.

Sammaster being brought back is like if the MCU brought Thanos back after Avengers: Endgame.

And Liches who have had their Phylacteries destroyed coming back has never happened in the entire history of the Forgotten Realms. The closest you get is a single Epic Level Lich who created a spell that let him create more than one of them.

And we know that didn't happen with Sammaster because the Rage of Dragons trilogy explicitly said he only had one Phylactery.

 

[pukunui]

It's a general problem with bringing characters back to life (or unlife in this case since Sammaster is a Lich) after their stories had satisfying conclusions.

Sammaster being brought back is like if the MCU brought Thanos back after Avengers: Endgame.

And Liches who have had their Phylacteries destroyed coming back has never happened in the entire history of the Forgotten Realms. The closest you get is a single Epic Level Lich who created a spell that let him create more than one of them.

And we know that didn't happen with Sammaster because the Rage of Dragons trilogy explicitly said he only had one Phylactery.

Perhaps there will be some time travel shenanigans.

Kinda like how Thanos "came back from the dead" during Endgame.