Vaalingrade
Legend
Or maybe they use the same old excuses and defenses that has kept these issues from actually getting better and that's frustrating.
D&D (2024) What new jargon do you want to replace "Race"?
- Thread starter Yaarel
- Start date
Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
The Giant Type is ... complex.
The "True Giants" are simple enough: the famous D&D Giants, like Fire Giant and Frost Giant.
But the Giant Type extends further to comprise Troll, Ogre, Oni, Ettin, Fomorian, etcetera. Certain D&D Humanoids explicitly relate to the Giant Type, including Goliath and Firbolg. I tend to view the Hag as relating to the Troll thus something like a Giant of the Feywild.
This wider sense of a variegated giantkind reminds one of the Norse Jǫtnar traditions. Significantly, most Jǫtnar are normal humansize. Compare Loki and Skaði. Even so, some members of a same household can reach large and even vast sizes. One sibling might be humansize and an other the size of a mountain. It depends on which natural feature the nature being is. A mountain being can manifest in a form the size of a mountain.
For D&D, the Giant Type might also include Species or individuals that are Medium Size. Hypothetically, the Goliath and Firbolg are Medium Humanoid Giants, while the Hag is a Medium Fey Giant.
(Note, the Titan Subtype seems surprisingly unrelated to the Giant. DMG 11. A Titan is something like an Astral Construct, such as one that divinities create to serve as an agent of destruction, like Tarrasque, Kraken, Astral Dreadnaught, and others. Here the giantlike 5e Empyrean as a Titan Subtype is odd. Interestingly, the description of the Roc has it be formerly a Titan. The original Rocs escaped the control of its creator, thus now are simply a Monstrosity rather than with a Titan Subtype. The Titan subtype inherently relates to the Celestial Plane but involves some method of construction or monstrous engineering.)
The Feywild Plane and the Shadowfell Plane are cosmological opposites, whence the Giant Type and the Undead Type seem relatedly opposites. Both can relate to an animistic worldview, whether wilderness nature being (Giant) or ancestral nature being (Undead). Both are a kind of manifestation of nature. In folkbelief the giants are often ghostly apparitions, emerging from mist and so on.
In sum, and especially with the Jǫtnar in mind, the Giant Type is something like an Elemental that is native to the Material plane. When one thinks of an Elemental, consider an animate Earth Elemental. In the case of a Giant, it isnt earth generally, but a landscape, such as a mountain or certain notable rock formation. Giants are more like: a landscape feature (≈ earth), a waterbody, like waterfall, river or lake (≈ water), a windy seasonal weather pattern (≈ air), and the sun, a star, or a particular volcano (≈ fire). These features of the Material Plane are living nature beings.
The "True Giants" are simple enough: the famous D&D Giants, like Fire Giant and Frost Giant.
But the Giant Type extends further to comprise Troll, Ogre, Oni, Ettin, Fomorian, etcetera. Certain D&D Humanoids explicitly relate to the Giant Type, including Goliath and Firbolg. I tend to view the Hag as relating to the Troll thus something like a Giant of the Feywild.
This wider sense of a variegated giantkind reminds one of the Norse Jǫtnar traditions. Significantly, most Jǫtnar are normal humansize. Compare Loki and Skaði. Even so, some members of a same household can reach large and even vast sizes. One sibling might be humansize and an other the size of a mountain. It depends on which natural feature the nature being is. A mountain being can manifest in a form the size of a mountain.
For D&D, the Giant Type might also include Species or individuals that are Medium Size. Hypothetically, the Goliath and Firbolg are Medium Humanoid Giants, while the Hag is a Medium Fey Giant.
(Note, the Titan Subtype seems surprisingly unrelated to the Giant. DMG 11. A Titan is something like an Astral Construct, such as one that divinities create to serve as an agent of destruction, like Tarrasque, Kraken, Astral Dreadnaught, and others. Here the giantlike 5e Empyrean as a Titan Subtype is odd. Interestingly, the description of the Roc has it be formerly a Titan. The original Rocs escaped the control of its creator, thus now are simply a Monstrosity rather than with a Titan Subtype. The Titan subtype inherently relates to the Celestial Plane but involves some method of construction or monstrous engineering.)
The Feywild Plane and the Shadowfell Plane are cosmological opposites, whence the Giant Type and the Undead Type seem relatedly opposites. Both can relate to an animistic worldview, whether wilderness nature being (Giant) or ancestral nature being (Undead). Both are a kind of manifestation of nature. In folkbelief the giants are often ghostly apparitions, emerging from mist and so on.
In sum, and especially with the Jǫtnar in mind, the Giant Type is something like an Elemental that is native to the Material plane. When one thinks of an Elemental, consider an animate Earth Elemental. In the case of a Giant, it isnt earth generally, but a landscape, such as a mountain or certain notable rock formation. Giants are more like: a landscape feature (≈ earth), a waterbody, like waterfall, river or lake (≈ water), a windy seasonal weather pattern (≈ air), and the sun, a star, or a particular volcano (≈ fire). These features of the Material Plane are living nature beings.
Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
Each Creature Type includes many Species.
To understand the D&D Creature Types helps clarify what a "Species" is and how various Species group together.
Many Creature Types are planar, such as Fiend, Fey, and so on.
The main traditions that inform the D&D 5e planes are the 1e Players Handbook with its cosmology that includes a Plane for each Alignment Tendency and the 4e Players Handbook that features the Fey and Shadow planes.
1e Planes
The 1e cosmology maps the Positivity and Negativity as aspects within the Ethereal Plane, and maps the Alignments as Outer Planes that frame the Astral Plane. Meanwhile the Ethereal Plane encompasses, directly borders, and interacts with the Astral Plane. The worldview is an ethical creation, where Astral thoughts create Material matter.
The Astral Plane and the Ethereal Plane are levels of being. The Astral Plane is the level where things exist as thoughts. The aster is the stuff that thoughts are made out of. The Astral Plane is a realm of thoughts, relating to the Platonic Ideals, and behaving in dreamlike ways. The Ethereal Plane is the level where thoughts begin to physicalize and influence. The ether of the Ethereal Plane is the fifth element, from which the four elements derive. The four elements are matter, having mass. Altho the ether is physical it lacks matter. From a mythic perspective, the ether is spirit especially as the substance that spirits are made out of. For example, the ki is a personal aura of spirit that extends out from the body to surround the person with an area of ethereal influence. From a scientific perspective, the ether is force, especially the fundamental forces that all things are made out of: gravitational force, electromagnetic force, and the nuclear forces. Even matter itself is ultimately made out of immaterial force. These elemental Ethereal forces permeate the Material Plane and emanate like an aura of influence. Within the ether, the four elements potentially exist.
The Astral Plane directly interfaces the Ethereal Plane. They flow into each other. Thoughts physicalize into reality. Reciprocally, reality inspires new thoughts. Telekinesis works this way: thoughts manifest force. The spiritual bodies of souls are conscious.
The Astral, Ethereal, and Material Planes overlap. The Ethereal overlaps the Material, and the Astral overlaps both. In the 1e map, the Astral Plane has the Ethereal Plane at its center. The Astral Plane also overlaps this Ethereal area too. Something can exist at all levels of being simultaneously. A Material body of matter, can have an Ethereal aura of lifeforce, and an Astral consciousness that visualizes a mental construct of ones self-image.
(In 5e, a "Wildspace" is a region of the Astral Plane that overlaps and simulates a solar system in the Material Plane. There is a virtual reality version of that solar system made out of Astral though. This Wildspace then overlays the Material Plane as an augmented reality, where objects made out of aster can coexist sidebyside with objects made out of matter.)
The Positive Plane and the Negative Plane are present within the ether. Positive influences move the four elements of Material matter to interact with each other constructively to bring forth and sustain life. Oppositely, Negative influences move these elements to interact destructively ending life.
In 1e, Astral thought, Ethereal spirit, and Material matter are an overlapping and interlinking great chain of being.
3e Planes
3e evolves from the 1e cosmology albeit convoluting with more details, sometimes conflictive, where related concepts disconnect from each other, and resulting in a sometimes bewildering sprawling big picture. Here is a popular map by Zen79 attempting to track of all of the 3e planar settings while striving to adhere to the official maps as much as possible except where official texts contradict the official maps. Here, what would officially be the "Prime" Material Plane appears instead as the planet Toril of the Forgotten Realms setting. Thus the assumed primacy decenters to accommodate whichever Material Plane setting a group chooses to use. A main difference between 1e and 3e is, in 1e the Elemental Planes are aspects of the ether that surrounds the Material Plane, but in 3e the Elemental Planes split away from the Material Planes, to form their own independent region. Meanwhile, the Positivity and Negativity function as if new elements. The relationship between the four elements of matter and the Material Planes of matter obfuscate. Meanwhile, the assignment of a True Neutral Alignment Plane locating at the center of the other Alignments displaces and divorces the Material Plane that was here in 1e. Where once was matter, is now the Astral City of Sigil.
4e Planes
4e consolidates the 1e and 3e cosmologies into a multiversal Axis. This Axis strings out the 3e continuum from the Elemental Planes to the Material Planes to the Astral Planes, with the Astral upright as the upper pole and the Elemental as the Lower pole. Now the Material Plane is not simply matter, but is in the middle as mix of Astral thought shaping Elemental matter. The Astral Plane is a celestial sea with the Alignment Planes forming its islandlike stars. Into this continuum, 4e reinterprets the earlier Positive Ethereal and Negative Ethereal as the Plane of Fey (aka Feywild) and the Plane of Shadow (aka Shadowfell). These are the ethereal "echoes" of the Material Plane.
The 4e design goals strive to consolidate similar gaming themes into one salient go-to place.
The Fey Plane of Feywild (originally an obscure plane called Faerie) and the Shadow Plane of Shadowfell (originally relating to Illusion) already existed in 1e but off-the-map. 4e reinvents them as central conceptual themes within the 4e Cosmology. Fey is the go-to for the themes of fairytales and folklore, and Shadow the legends about the underworld realm of the dead. Together the Fey and Shadow replace the earlier Ethereal Plane. To teleport or move incorporeally, one traverses immaterially via Fey or Shadow, rather than via the Ether.
The 4e Primal Power Source proved popular. It explores animistic shamanic themes, focusing resolutely on the life and landscape of the Material Plane, often called the Natural Plane or Nature. While Fey and Shadow also participated in these Primal themes, the status of these two Planes remaines ambiguous: whether they are Primal thus Natural, or Arcane thus Unnatural.
The some 4e consolidations fare less popular. By awkward conflation with Shadowfell, 4e Illusion magic is deathly, gloomy, and ghostly.
Highly unpopular, the 4e Alignment system consolidated the Alignments down to five: namely LG, G, U (Unaligned), E, and CE. It omits the concepts of Chaotic Good, and makes "obedient" Lawful Good the "best" kind of Good. The possibility of "rebellious" Good or a "protest" for the sake of Good become erased. Meanwhile the absence of Lawful Evil make the dysfunctional and abusive uses of the Law uncritiquable. The 4e "Chaotic" fight for individualism and freedom was declared as if always Evil, and moreover the "worst" kind of "Evil". Meanwhile, this conflated continuum stretched across the cosmic Axis, with Lawful Good at the top, Unaligned Sigil in the middle neigboring the Material Plane, and exiling the Chaotic Evil Alignment Plane to the bottom, far away from the Astral realm of thought into the Elemental matter. By implication, matter itself becomes as if inherently Evil. 4e did much objectionable with regard to the D&D Alignment traditions. But it also made Alignment strictly narrative without any mechanical implications. Thus in practice, D&D gamers easily ignored the 4e Alignment problematics.
The 4e Axis cosmology omits the Positive Plane and the Negative Plane from 4e. These instead consolidate as damage types, Radiant and Necrotic, that roil as part of the Elemental Chaos. Yet, the existence of an Axis in itself implies a transcendent Positivity orienting the Astral pole upward, and a transcendent Negativity orienting the Elemental pole downward. The entire cosmology polarizes between Positive as Goodness and Negative as Evilness.
5e Cosmology
The 5e cosmology appreciates and preserves much of the 4e cosmology, while abandoning some difficulties, and reorganizes the Axis under the influence of the original 1e cosmology for a more concentric framework. The Material Plane is the center of a mandala-like circular multiverse.
An understated yet profound innovation of the 5e cosmology is the location of the Energy Planes, Positive and Negative. These are transcendent principles that orient the entire multiverse.
• The Positive Astral is the Celestial Planes (aka Upper).
• The Positive Ethereal is the Fey Plane (aka Feywild).
• The Negative Ethereal is the Shadow Plane (aka Shadowfell).
• The Negative Astral is the Fiend Planes (aka Lower).
Partly the reogranization of the Energy Planes derives from thinking more carefully about cosmological theory. Partly it is practical. Under the influence of the Cleric class, which coheres with an Astral Plane and with Positive Healing, there seems some kind of connection. Meanwhile, Celestial creatures such as Angels seem inherently Positive. Hence the Positivity permeates all that exists, including the Astral Plane.
Strictly speaking, there is only Positive Energy. The Negativity is an absence of energy. It restricts (hides, dampens, unravels, or voids) the Positive Energy. The term "Negative Energy" is an improper turn of phrase for empty Void.
At the Astral level of existence, the energetic influences are "Positive thoughts" and "Negative thoughts". This can and does relate to the D&D ethical Alignment system. With important exceptions, Positive thinking creatures are likely to exhibit compassion and do Good, and Negative thinking creatures likely to exhibit judgmentalism and do Evil.
At the Ethereal level of existence, the energetic influences are active forces and influences within the spirit realms to promote life and abundance. Here the energetic influences have less to do with Alignments. Evil Fey and Good Undead are common enough. The Positive ether supports and encourages life. The Negative ether undermines and extinguishes life.
At the Material level of existence, the energetic influences are more Neutral. Positive packets of energy whirling within the Negative vacuum of empty space, making creation possible. The resulting matter can be tools for either Positive or Negative purposes.
The Elemental Planes
The 5e Elemental Planes locate awkwardly in the 5e cosmology in the context of the D&D traditions. 3e and 4e cosmologies had split the elements away from the Material Plane. 5e now wraps them around the Material Plane like 1e, but now the Elemental Chaos separates the Material Plane from the Astral Plane. The resulting situation appears as follows:
• There is no longer a direct interactive border between the Astral Plane and the Ethereal Plane.
• The Elemental Planes are the border between Astral and Ethereal.
• The Ether separates the elements away from the Material Plane.
• The Elemental Planes feel immaterial, far from matter, and more diaphanous and dreamlike between Ethereal and Astral.
Are Elemental creatures a "form" without "substance"? Namely spirits but not matter?
5e Creature Types
What is an Elemental species? It depends on the planar cosmology. Understanding what the Elemental Planes are, exactly, directly impacts what other Creature Types are as well: Celestial, Fiend, Fey, and others, because of how they do or dont relate to the Material Plane.
To understand the D&D Creature Types helps clarify what a "Species" is and how various Species group together.
Many Creature Types are planar, such as Fiend, Fey, and so on.
The main traditions that inform the D&D 5e planes are the 1e Players Handbook with its cosmology that includes a Plane for each Alignment Tendency and the 4e Players Handbook that features the Fey and Shadow planes.
1e Planes
The 1e cosmology maps the Positivity and Negativity as aspects within the Ethereal Plane, and maps the Alignments as Outer Planes that frame the Astral Plane. Meanwhile the Ethereal Plane encompasses, directly borders, and interacts with the Astral Plane. The worldview is an ethical creation, where Astral thoughts create Material matter.
The Astral Plane and the Ethereal Plane are levels of being. The Astral Plane is the level where things exist as thoughts. The aster is the stuff that thoughts are made out of. The Astral Plane is a realm of thoughts, relating to the Platonic Ideals, and behaving in dreamlike ways. The Ethereal Plane is the level where thoughts begin to physicalize and influence. The ether of the Ethereal Plane is the fifth element, from which the four elements derive. The four elements are matter, having mass. Altho the ether is physical it lacks matter. From a mythic perspective, the ether is spirit especially as the substance that spirits are made out of. For example, the ki is a personal aura of spirit that extends out from the body to surround the person with an area of ethereal influence. From a scientific perspective, the ether is force, especially the fundamental forces that all things are made out of: gravitational force, electromagnetic force, and the nuclear forces. Even matter itself is ultimately made out of immaterial force. These elemental Ethereal forces permeate the Material Plane and emanate like an aura of influence. Within the ether, the four elements potentially exist.
The Astral Plane directly interfaces the Ethereal Plane. They flow into each other. Thoughts physicalize into reality. Reciprocally, reality inspires new thoughts. Telekinesis works this way: thoughts manifest force. The spiritual bodies of souls are conscious.
The Astral, Ethereal, and Material Planes overlap. The Ethereal overlaps the Material, and the Astral overlaps both. In the 1e map, the Astral Plane has the Ethereal Plane at its center. The Astral Plane also overlaps this Ethereal area too. Something can exist at all levels of being simultaneously. A Material body of matter, can have an Ethereal aura of lifeforce, and an Astral consciousness that visualizes a mental construct of ones self-image.
(In 5e, a "Wildspace" is a region of the Astral Plane that overlaps and simulates a solar system in the Material Plane. There is a virtual reality version of that solar system made out of Astral though. This Wildspace then overlays the Material Plane as an augmented reality, where objects made out of aster can coexist sidebyside with objects made out of matter.)
The Positive Plane and the Negative Plane are present within the ether. Positive influences move the four elements of Material matter to interact with each other constructively to bring forth and sustain life. Oppositely, Negative influences move these elements to interact destructively ending life.
In 1e, Astral thought, Ethereal spirit, and Material matter are an overlapping and interlinking great chain of being.
3e Planes
3e evolves from the 1e cosmology albeit convoluting with more details, sometimes conflictive, where related concepts disconnect from each other, and resulting in a sometimes bewildering sprawling big picture. Here is a popular map by Zen79 attempting to track of all of the 3e planar settings while striving to adhere to the official maps as much as possible except where official texts contradict the official maps. Here, what would officially be the "Prime" Material Plane appears instead as the planet Toril of the Forgotten Realms setting. Thus the assumed primacy decenters to accommodate whichever Material Plane setting a group chooses to use. A main difference between 1e and 3e is, in 1e the Elemental Planes are aspects of the ether that surrounds the Material Plane, but in 3e the Elemental Planes split away from the Material Planes, to form their own independent region. Meanwhile, the Positivity and Negativity function as if new elements. The relationship between the four elements of matter and the Material Planes of matter obfuscate. Meanwhile, the assignment of a True Neutral Alignment Plane locating at the center of the other Alignments displaces and divorces the Material Plane that was here in 1e. Where once was matter, is now the Astral City of Sigil.
4e Planes
4e consolidates the 1e and 3e cosmologies into a multiversal Axis. This Axis strings out the 3e continuum from the Elemental Planes to the Material Planes to the Astral Planes, with the Astral upright as the upper pole and the Elemental as the Lower pole. Now the Material Plane is not simply matter, but is in the middle as mix of Astral thought shaping Elemental matter. The Astral Plane is a celestial sea with the Alignment Planes forming its islandlike stars. Into this continuum, 4e reinterprets the earlier Positive Ethereal and Negative Ethereal as the Plane of Fey (aka Feywild) and the Plane of Shadow (aka Shadowfell). These are the ethereal "echoes" of the Material Plane.
The 4e design goals strive to consolidate similar gaming themes into one salient go-to place.
The Fey Plane of Feywild (originally an obscure plane called Faerie) and the Shadow Plane of Shadowfell (originally relating to Illusion) already existed in 1e but off-the-map. 4e reinvents them as central conceptual themes within the 4e Cosmology. Fey is the go-to for the themes of fairytales and folklore, and Shadow the legends about the underworld realm of the dead. Together the Fey and Shadow replace the earlier Ethereal Plane. To teleport or move incorporeally, one traverses immaterially via Fey or Shadow, rather than via the Ether.
The 4e Primal Power Source proved popular. It explores animistic shamanic themes, focusing resolutely on the life and landscape of the Material Plane, often called the Natural Plane or Nature. While Fey and Shadow also participated in these Primal themes, the status of these two Planes remaines ambiguous: whether they are Primal thus Natural, or Arcane thus Unnatural.
The some 4e consolidations fare less popular. By awkward conflation with Shadowfell, 4e Illusion magic is deathly, gloomy, and ghostly.
Highly unpopular, the 4e Alignment system consolidated the Alignments down to five: namely LG, G, U (Unaligned), E, and CE. It omits the concepts of Chaotic Good, and makes "obedient" Lawful Good the "best" kind of Good. The possibility of "rebellious" Good or a "protest" for the sake of Good become erased. Meanwhile the absence of Lawful Evil make the dysfunctional and abusive uses of the Law uncritiquable. The 4e "Chaotic" fight for individualism and freedom was declared as if always Evil, and moreover the "worst" kind of "Evil". Meanwhile, this conflated continuum stretched across the cosmic Axis, with Lawful Good at the top, Unaligned Sigil in the middle neigboring the Material Plane, and exiling the Chaotic Evil Alignment Plane to the bottom, far away from the Astral realm of thought into the Elemental matter. By implication, matter itself becomes as if inherently Evil. 4e did much objectionable with regard to the D&D Alignment traditions. But it also made Alignment strictly narrative without any mechanical implications. Thus in practice, D&D gamers easily ignored the 4e Alignment problematics.
The 4e Axis cosmology omits the Positive Plane and the Negative Plane from 4e. These instead consolidate as damage types, Radiant and Necrotic, that roil as part of the Elemental Chaos. Yet, the existence of an Axis in itself implies a transcendent Positivity orienting the Astral pole upward, and a transcendent Negativity orienting the Elemental pole downward. The entire cosmology polarizes between Positive as Goodness and Negative as Evilness.
5e Cosmology
The 5e cosmology appreciates and preserves much of the 4e cosmology, while abandoning some difficulties, and reorganizes the Axis under the influence of the original 1e cosmology for a more concentric framework. The Material Plane is the center of a mandala-like circular multiverse.
An understated yet profound innovation of the 5e cosmology is the location of the Energy Planes, Positive and Negative. These are transcendent principles that orient the entire multiverse.
• The Positive Astral is the Celestial Planes (aka Upper).
• The Positive Ethereal is the Fey Plane (aka Feywild).
• The Negative Ethereal is the Shadow Plane (aka Shadowfell).
• The Negative Astral is the Fiend Planes (aka Lower).
Partly the reogranization of the Energy Planes derives from thinking more carefully about cosmological theory. Partly it is practical. Under the influence of the Cleric class, which coheres with an Astral Plane and with Positive Healing, there seems some kind of connection. Meanwhile, Celestial creatures such as Angels seem inherently Positive. Hence the Positivity permeates all that exists, including the Astral Plane.
Strictly speaking, there is only Positive Energy. The Negativity is an absence of energy. It restricts (hides, dampens, unravels, or voids) the Positive Energy. The term "Negative Energy" is an improper turn of phrase for empty Void.
At the Astral level of existence, the energetic influences are "Positive thoughts" and "Negative thoughts". This can and does relate to the D&D ethical Alignment system. With important exceptions, Positive thinking creatures are likely to exhibit compassion and do Good, and Negative thinking creatures likely to exhibit judgmentalism and do Evil.
At the Ethereal level of existence, the energetic influences are active forces and influences within the spirit realms to promote life and abundance. Here the energetic influences have less to do with Alignments. Evil Fey and Good Undead are common enough. The Positive ether supports and encourages life. The Negative ether undermines and extinguishes life.
At the Material level of existence, the energetic influences are more Neutral. Positive packets of energy whirling within the Negative vacuum of empty space, making creation possible. The resulting matter can be tools for either Positive or Negative purposes.
The Elemental Planes
The 5e Elemental Planes locate awkwardly in the 5e cosmology in the context of the D&D traditions. 3e and 4e cosmologies had split the elements away from the Material Plane. 5e now wraps them around the Material Plane like 1e, but now the Elemental Chaos separates the Material Plane from the Astral Plane. The resulting situation appears as follows:
• There is no longer a direct interactive border between the Astral Plane and the Ethereal Plane.
• The Elemental Planes are the border between Astral and Ethereal.
• The Ether separates the elements away from the Material Plane.
• The Elemental Planes feel immaterial, far from matter, and more diaphanous and dreamlike between Ethereal and Astral.
Are Elemental creatures a "form" without "substance"? Namely spirits but not matter?
5e Creature Types
What is an Elemental species? It depends on the planar cosmology. Understanding what the Elemental Planes are, exactly, directly impacts what other Creature Types are as well: Celestial, Fiend, Fey, and others, because of how they do or dont relate to the Material Plane.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
Finally dug up the race I was thinking of which is incompatible with heritage/ancestry type options: Simic Hybrid. It's an official WOTC race, and it's specifically not the race of your heritage/ancestry/lineage/whatever. You started life as an elf or halfling or dwarf or human or whatever, and are transformed into being a Simic Hybird, which is very distinct from your prior race.
That concept does not work with a lot of the options being thrown around. It makes no sense.
Kalashtar kind of doesn't make sense either (a race joined by the spirit of someone else to form something new).
That concept does not work with a lot of the options being thrown around. It makes no sense.
Kalashtar kind of doesn't make sense either (a race joined by the spirit of someone else to form something new).
Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
The problem with the terms "heritage" and "ancestry" is they can apply to a group of humans. For example, Indigenous Americans have cultural heritage, and a Black American might have an ancestry going back to Angola.
The term "heritage" means an inheritance. It can mean a genetic trait, but it normally means a cultural tradition. Sometimes a family traditions. In this sense, "heritage" can work for any D&D species. For example, a heritage can refer to the cultural tradition of building new generations of Warforged.
Regarding "ancestry", even a Warforged can say one has an ancestor, in the sense of a predecessor.
The problem is, their use in reallife usage to refer to certain humans and not others.
The term human "species" unambiguously means every human alive today.
D&D has many examples of transformational origin: Simic Hybrid magically infuses a Human, Elf, or Vedalken with sea animal traits, Tiefling descend from Humans that were infused with Fiend traits, Dragonborn are a magically altered normal Dragon to develop bipedal Humanoid traits, Vampire reproduces by means of infusing Undead planar Shadow traits via blood exchange, Elan reproduces by means of psionically alterating an adult Humanoid with Aberration traits, etcetera. I view this as equivalent to gene splicing. The "ancestors" happen to include more than one species − so not so different from any other hybrid species.
The Kalashtar seems like two species in a symbiotic relationship. Compare Star Trek, the Trill and Symbiont relationship. Each species has its own genetic lineage. The Background of the Symbiont is significant because of preserving the memories of multiple Trill persons.
Even when speaking about unusual and complex origins, I notice the term "species" helps to get the point across and keep things clear. Perhaps "Species" is especially helpful for the many different fantasy concepts.
Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
Cosmology Map
This map visualizes various D&D cosmological traditions.
In concentric circles, the silvery Ethereal Plane overlaps the smaller Material Plane. The bigger Astral Plane overlaps both.
Astral-Ethereal Border
In 1e, 2e, and 3e maps, the Astral Plane directlyborders the Ethereal Plane. Astral thought and Ethereal physicality interact.
5e continues traditions where an Astral thought changes into an Ethereal spirit. For example, the Succubus or Incubus is an Astral Fiend made of thought stuff. Typically, it physicalizes into an Ethereal spirit to visit incorporeally a victim sleeping in the Material Plane. The Fiend sexually manipulates the dreams. Later it shifts from a body of ether into a Material creature of flesh and blood. Using sex as a hook, it instigates the victim to do Evil against others. The Fiend can materialize and dematerialize, back and forth between the Ethereal and Material. Likewise the spirit can return home reverting to the thought stuff of the Astral Plane.
The consciousness of a creature shifts into different forms at each planar level of existence.
The continuum between thought, spiritual force, and a body of matter is a frequent trope in D&D. The Cosmology Map depicts the borders.
Ether and Deep Ether
The Ethereal Plane overlaps the Material Plane. The ether that overlaps the Material Plane is inside the Material Plane. For example, the force of gravity is made of ether and is a feature of the Ethereal Plane that ordinarily pervades the matter of the Material Plane. Likewise, spirits have a virtual body made out of Ethereal force, and roam the Material Plane immaterially. Those that exhibit Incorporeal Movement can pass thru objects of matter.
However Deep Ether disassociates from the Material Plane. These are otherworldly spirit realms. To move deeper into the ether is a gradual planeshift. One can stand still while watching the features of the Material Plane distorting, more an more, until unrecognizable and vanishing. Many spirits inhabit the Deep Ether but near enough for some perception of the Material features.
Deeper ether coheres less with the objects of the Material Plane and more with the thoughts of the Astral Plane. A strong mind can manifest an entire physical reality within the Deep Ether, that other creatures can inhabit.
Positive Fey and Negative Shadow
The Feywild is the part of the Ethereal Plane under the influence of Positive Energy. It radiates abundant life and vibrancy. The Shadowfell is elsewhere in the Ethereal Plane but fraying into the Negative Void in deathliness and gloom.
Fey Plane = Positive Ethereal Plane
Feywild = Positive Ether overlapping the Material Plane
Deep Fey = Positive Deep Ether
Shadow Plane = Negative Ethereal Plane
Shadowfell = Negative Ether overlapping the Material Plane
Deep Shadow = Negative Deep Ether
The Domains of Delight and the Domains of Dread are the personal manifestations of powerful minds within the Deep Fey and the Deep Shadow, respectively.
Elemental Planes and Elemental Creature Type
Elemental Planes are extradimensional demiplanes inside the Material Plane.
Elemental creatures are made out of matter and have mass. They are part of the Material Plane.
Elemental Planes vary. It can be the size of a house with one passageway in and out, or vast for myriad Elementals, linking many passageways across many realms.
The Elemental states of matter are solid, liquid, gas, and plasma: namely Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, respectively. The sun and other stars are plasmic Fire, sometimes called the heavenly fire. Their heat ignites other flames as well. But plasmic Fire can also be cool and invisible, sometimes called dark fire.
Elemental creatures are persons with conscious minds. A strong mind can learn the magic to animate its own mass and wield other magical effects. The animation is by means of Ethereal force, telekinetically, mind-over-matter.
Animate Elementals mostly start as nondescript stuff, like remote dirt or a random rain puddle, with small awareness, but mature sapience as members of a protective animate Elemental community. Some are prominent formations in nature who choose to get up and walk for personal reasons.
Fire wants to blaze and burn, Water wants to flow and pool. Normally, the desire of an Elemental is to persist elementally. Humanoids encounter Elementals every day, simply doing what an element does in nature. Rarely, an Elemental grows curious about Humanoids.
Element of Khaos
"Khaos" is the Elemental Chaos. D&D employs the terms Chaotic and Chaos for the ethical Alignment that relates to individualism and freedom of choice. Here the spelling Khaos distinguishes the Ancient Greek concept of a primordial khaos. This kind of Khaos feels ethically Unaligned, perhaps Good. It describes an infinite dark meaningless emptiness that can potentially become any kind matter. In reallife science, it can describe empty space at the moment before the Big Bang.
In the D&D Cosmology Map, Khaos is vacuum in the Material Plane rupturing with violent Ethereal forces that flash moments of matter. Khaos is like an element, with its own properties and behavior, and forming its own Elemental Planes. But rather it is the roiling potential of any and all elements, blasting variegated elemental energies randomly in a mercurial primordial storm. Spells like Chaos Bolt and Prismatic Spray exploit Khaos. Khaos is what transforms the body of a Wild Sorcerer.
Positivity, Negativity, and Creativity
The Positive Energy Plane and the Negative Void Plane are transcendental planes. It is impossible to enter them. To enter Negativity would mean to become nothingness − to cease to exist. Similarly, to enter Positivity would mean to become infinite without limit or boundary: in other words, to cease to exist. The multiverse experiences their influences.
Negativity is the absence of Positive Energy. The nothing is a something new. It makes Creativity possible. In the border between Positivity and Negativity, packets of Energy trickle in to whirl in the Void. The building blocks of all that exists form. Consciousness, thought, force, matter are all made of Positivity within Negativity. This zone of interaction is a Creative influence. Where the Positivity is not, limits and boundaries make it possible for things to exist. Many things.
In the Cosmology Map, the upper influence is Positivity and the lower influence is Negativity. Between them is the wide swath of Creativity. Its mood is existence and self-preservation. The building blocks that originate in the Creativity are neutral, and either Positivity or Negativity can utilize them toward its own ends.
This map visualizes various D&D cosmological traditions.
In concentric circles, the silvery Ethereal Plane overlaps the smaller Material Plane. The bigger Astral Plane overlaps both.
Astral-Ethereal Border
In 1e, 2e, and 3e maps, the Astral Plane directlyborders the Ethereal Plane. Astral thought and Ethereal physicality interact.
5e continues traditions where an Astral thought changes into an Ethereal spirit. For example, the Succubus or Incubus is an Astral Fiend made of thought stuff. Typically, it physicalizes into an Ethereal spirit to visit incorporeally a victim sleeping in the Material Plane. The Fiend sexually manipulates the dreams. Later it shifts from a body of ether into a Material creature of flesh and blood. Using sex as a hook, it instigates the victim to do Evil against others. The Fiend can materialize and dematerialize, back and forth between the Ethereal and Material. Likewise the spirit can return home reverting to the thought stuff of the Astral Plane.
The consciousness of a creature shifts into different forms at each planar level of existence.
The continuum between thought, spiritual force, and a body of matter is a frequent trope in D&D. The Cosmology Map depicts the borders.
Ether and Deep Ether
The Ethereal Plane overlaps the Material Plane. The ether that overlaps the Material Plane is inside the Material Plane. For example, the force of gravity is made of ether and is a feature of the Ethereal Plane that ordinarily pervades the matter of the Material Plane. Likewise, spirits have a virtual body made out of Ethereal force, and roam the Material Plane immaterially. Those that exhibit Incorporeal Movement can pass thru objects of matter.
However Deep Ether disassociates from the Material Plane. These are otherworldly spirit realms. To move deeper into the ether is a gradual planeshift. One can stand still while watching the features of the Material Plane distorting, more an more, until unrecognizable and vanishing. Many spirits inhabit the Deep Ether but near enough for some perception of the Material features.
Deeper ether coheres less with the objects of the Material Plane and more with the thoughts of the Astral Plane. A strong mind can manifest an entire physical reality within the Deep Ether, that other creatures can inhabit.
Positive Fey and Negative Shadow
The Feywild is the part of the Ethereal Plane under the influence of Positive Energy. It radiates abundant life and vibrancy. The Shadowfell is elsewhere in the Ethereal Plane but fraying into the Negative Void in deathliness and gloom.
Fey Plane = Positive Ethereal Plane
Feywild = Positive Ether overlapping the Material Plane
Deep Fey = Positive Deep Ether
Shadow Plane = Negative Ethereal Plane
Shadowfell = Negative Ether overlapping the Material Plane
Deep Shadow = Negative Deep Ether
The Domains of Delight and the Domains of Dread are the personal manifestations of powerful minds within the Deep Fey and the Deep Shadow, respectively.
Elemental Planes and Elemental Creature Type
Elemental Planes are extradimensional demiplanes inside the Material Plane.
Elemental creatures are made out of matter and have mass. They are part of the Material Plane.
Elemental Planes vary. It can be the size of a house with one passageway in and out, or vast for myriad Elementals, linking many passageways across many realms.
The Elemental states of matter are solid, liquid, gas, and plasma: namely Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, respectively. The sun and other stars are plasmic Fire, sometimes called the heavenly fire. Their heat ignites other flames as well. But plasmic Fire can also be cool and invisible, sometimes called dark fire.
Elemental creatures are persons with conscious minds. A strong mind can learn the magic to animate its own mass and wield other magical effects. The animation is by means of Ethereal force, telekinetically, mind-over-matter.
Animate Elementals mostly start as nondescript stuff, like remote dirt or a random rain puddle, with small awareness, but mature sapience as members of a protective animate Elemental community. Some are prominent formations in nature who choose to get up and walk for personal reasons.
Fire wants to blaze and burn, Water wants to flow and pool. Normally, the desire of an Elemental is to persist elementally. Humanoids encounter Elementals every day, simply doing what an element does in nature. Rarely, an Elemental grows curious about Humanoids.
Element of Khaos
"Khaos" is the Elemental Chaos. D&D employs the terms Chaotic and Chaos for the ethical Alignment that relates to individualism and freedom of choice. Here the spelling Khaos distinguishes the Ancient Greek concept of a primordial khaos. This kind of Khaos feels ethically Unaligned, perhaps Good. It describes an infinite dark meaningless emptiness that can potentially become any kind matter. In reallife science, it can describe empty space at the moment before the Big Bang.
In the D&D Cosmology Map, Khaos is vacuum in the Material Plane rupturing with violent Ethereal forces that flash moments of matter. Khaos is like an element, with its own properties and behavior, and forming its own Elemental Planes. But rather it is the roiling potential of any and all elements, blasting variegated elemental energies randomly in a mercurial primordial storm. Spells like Chaos Bolt and Prismatic Spray exploit Khaos. Khaos is what transforms the body of a Wild Sorcerer.
Positivity, Negativity, and Creativity
The Positive Energy Plane and the Negative Void Plane are transcendental planes. It is impossible to enter them. To enter Negativity would mean to become nothingness − to cease to exist. Similarly, to enter Positivity would mean to become infinite without limit or boundary: in other words, to cease to exist. The multiverse experiences their influences.
Negativity is the absence of Positive Energy. The nothing is a something new. It makes Creativity possible. In the border between Positivity and Negativity, packets of Energy trickle in to whirl in the Void. The building blocks of all that exists form. Consciousness, thought, force, matter are all made of Positivity within Negativity. This zone of interaction is a Creative influence. Where the Positivity is not, limits and boundaries make it possible for things to exist. Many things.
In the Cosmology Map, the upper influence is Positivity and the lower influence is Negativity. Between them is the wide swath of Creativity. Its mood is existence and self-preservation. The building blocks that originate in the Creativity are neutral, and either Positivity or Negativity can utilize them toward its own ends.
Greg Benage
Legend
So…Lineage then?
Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
Lineage has the same ambiguity as some other terms.
Lineage can refer to a species in the sense of the descent of a species or a DNA transmission.
But it normally refers to a specific group of humans, such as a royal succession or pedigree.
Also, lineage can be used in a racist way if referring to an eponymous ancestor, such as Shem, whence Semite and Antisemitism.
D&D already uses the term Lineage, both in the context of Custom Lineage for a species, and relatedly in a Sorcerer Bloodline for a pedigree.
Personally, I like the term Species. But the more I think about it − and the reallife ambiguity and baggage that comes with the other terms − the more I strongly prefer the term Species. I am glad to see the surveys double down on the term it. I hope the rest of the D&D community can come around to see its merits and embrace it. Love Species or at least can live with it. Ultimately, it will be the community that decides.
Clint_L
Legend
Clearly not, or "schmorp" would be a shoe-in!