D&D 5E What D&D Product Can Be Seen In The Crystals?

WotC has posted an image of a pile of crystals through which distorted glimpses of what looks like a product can be seen. In the comments below, folks have been flipping, enhancing, and generally squinting at the image behind the crystals, and while it's hard to make out, guesses include 'Journey Through the Radiant Ocean' (although I personally think that first letter looks more like an X or K than a J). 'Citadel' is also a popular guess for that last word--'Journey(s) to/from the Radiant Citadel'? Take a look and see what you think (or check the comments for flipped and enhanced versions).

In Spelljammer lore, the phlogiston--the space between the crystal spheres in which the prime material worlds can be found--is also known as the 'Rainbow Ocean'. And crystal seem on-brand for crystals spheres.

Below the text, the image appears to be of some kind of marketplace. Above it, WotC wrote "Through the depths of the Ethereal Plane is a beacon of possibility and adventure... "

There was apparently a press event today, pending some kind of product announcement on Tuesday.

D&D 5E - Announcement Next Week--What Hints For Upcoming D&D Books?

WotC uses Unearthed Arcana to playtest D&D material which often ends up in a later hardcover book. Mages of Strixhaven was in Unearthed Arcana in June 2021, and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos was published in December 2021. Draconic Options was in Unearthed Arcana in April 2021, and Fizban's...

www.enworld.org

 

[Jer]

Welp that'll be a sale for me. Another adventure anthology like Candlekeep but set on alternate worlds? New worlds that we haven't seen before? Sign me up!

And the arguments about Planescape/Spelljammer go back onto the back burner for another few months...

 

[darjr]

To be fair it is a planar setting

 

[Jer]

To be fair it is a planar setting

A new one rather than a rehash trying to play on nostalgia too! As much fun as it is trying to fit their hints to existing D&D lore from previous editions, I'm much more excited to see something new come out.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

May not be Planescape in the strict "Here's Sigil, the Factions, and the entire Great Wheel" sense, but this definitely looks like it's tapping into it in an additive fashion - creating a new hub city in the Deep Ethereal that links to a bunch of other locations. Possibly enough for Planescape to count as this year's "classic setting cameo"...

Still hoping to one day get a "Manual of the Planes" type book to cover Sigil and the Great Wheel properly, but this book has certainly got my interest.

 

[eyeheartawk]

May not be Planescape in the strict "Here's Sigil, the Factions, and the entire Great Wheel" sense, but this definitely looks like it's tapping into it in an additive fashion - creating a new hub city in the Deep Ethereal that links to a bunch of other locations. Possibly enough for Planescape to count as this year's "classic setting cameo"...

I think it's the opposite. Why make a new location that does pretty much the same thing, with the same sort of arrangement as Sigil, and then turned around and publish a new Planescape months later? That doesn't really make sense.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I think it's the opposite. Why make a new location that does pretty much the same thing, with the same sort of arrangement as Sigil, and then turned around and publish a new Planescape months later? That doesn't really make sense.

Because any Planescape setting book would have to cover both Sigil and the entire Great Wheel, and this book isn't a setting book, it's an adventure anthology. The best it would be able to do was give us a short chapter on Sigil, and then a bunch of planar adventures, which would give us a handful of small planar locations, but not an overview of the full cosmology. It would also serve to make detailing Sigil again in a proper Planescape book down the line redundant.

Furthermore, one of the things they specifically tried to do with this book was give their authors (all black and brown, per the video they posted this morning) free reign to draw upon their own cultural heritages to build the setting and locations in this book, which is a lot easier to do when you're starting from a blank slate and not tied down to what Sigil has traditionally been for 25+ years.

I love Sigil a great deal, and want to see it make a proper return, but it is not the only planar metropolis out there. All WotC is doing with the creation of the Radiant Citadel is adding another one for people to play around with.

 

[Maxperson]

It can be a dangerous place but it's our last bеst hope for peace.

Babylon 5 confirmed?

 

[Maxperson]

So what is the new printing type they mentioned?

 

[Remathilis]

I think it's the opposite. Why make a new location that does pretty much the same thing, with the same sort of arrangement as Sigil, and then turned around and publish a new Planescape months later? That doesn't really make sense.

Sigil is a dangerous city that sits in the "center" of the outer planes. It is the place where angels and demons drink and beliefs are important. The Radiant Citadel seems far more peaceful and seems more interested in alternative material plane worlds rather than outer planes. While the idea of a planar hub city is similar, I think the difference in focus and theme makes sense.

 

[overgeeked]

So it sounds like the “hints” they’re dropping point to Sardior. And the gem/fossil is his remains.

Did someone guess that?

Any reveal on those emoji Ajit mentioned?