Dragonlance WotC Officially Confirms Takhisis and Tiamat Are The Same

It's been an issue in dispute for decades, over various editions of D&D, but WotC has officially confirmed that - at least in 5E - Dragonlance's Takhisis is, indeed, currently Tiamat. In previous editions, Tiamat has varied from being a big dragon to a minor goddess, while Takhisis has been a greater god on Krynn. At times they've been the same entity, and at others different entities. Today, WotC is putting its foot down and saying that Takhisis and Tiamat are, indeed, the same being.



Of course, this is not an opinion universally held. Dragonlance co-creator Margaret Weis emphatically stated that "TAKHISIS IS NOT TIAMAT, DAMN IT!"

Fizban's Treasuryof Dragons confirms that the beings echo across various settings.

D&D 5E - Is Paladine Bahamut? Is Takhisis Tiamat? Fizban's Treasury Might Reveal The Answer!

According to WotC's James Wyatt, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons introduces a new cosmology for dragon gods, where the same beings, including Fizban, echo across various D&D campaign settings with alternate versions of themselves (presumably like Paladine/Bahamut, or Takhisis/Tiamat). Also... the...

www.enworld.org

 

[Benjamin Olson]

So this thread just led me down a rabbit hole of seeing how good an essay I could get ChatGPT to compose.

Pretty good, as it turns out. This is troubling.

It is extremely troubling in the short to medium term. In the long term breaking education from its essay addiction (whether because school gives up on them as unpoliceable or because AI assisted essay writing becomes the norm and the focus we train the humans for in that partnership becomes less on style and basic research and more on argument and higher level analysis) opens a lot of exciting opportunities to spend time learning more valuable things. Which is not to be too utopian about it; education involves lots of not very dynamic or flexible institutions and many not very dynamic or flexible people and interest groups, and the inevitable drive to try to hold on to the essay-centric status quo in a world where students can have a computer write a better essay than them in a matter of minutes will almost certainly lead to a generation or two of people with horribly compromised educations.

But eventually I think it's for the best. I do appreciate the value of academic writing as an intellectual exercise, and that the skills it develops partially spill into developing other forms of expression, but it is an intellectual exercise that gobbles up an obscene amount of students' educational time. And the reason for the degree of focus often boils down problematically to "oh you need to practice this school skill for the next phase of your education", and this whether or not the student intends to actually pursue that next phase.

 

[Marandahir]

In the Forgotten Realms (pre-5e at least) they were one and the same. Tiamat was one of the Babylonian gods that came over with the Egyptian gods.

Pre-4e, more like. In 4e, the Babylonian and Egyptian influenced countries were replaced with parts of Returned Abeir.

But the Chromatic Dragon was in various other settings at the same time, and the Tiamats of Nerath and Greyhawk (for example) were not imports from our world.

 

[Marandahir]

So this thread just led me down a rabbit hole of seeing how good an essay I could get ChatGPT to compose.

Pretty good, as it turns out. This is troubling.

NYTimes The Daily does a disturbingly amazing podcast episode on the benefits and dangers of ChatGPT. I'm excited and terrified for what's in store as this becomes as integrated into our tech as Siri and Alexa are.

 

[Clint_L]

It is extremely troubling in the short to medium term. In the long term breaking education from its essay addiction (whether because school gives up on them as unpoliceable or because AI assisted essay writing becomes the norm and the focus we train the humans for in that partnership becomes less on style and basic research and more on argument and higher level analysis) opens a lot of exciting opportunities to spend time learning more valuable things. Which is not to be too utopian about it; education involves lots of not very dynamic or flexible institutions and many not very dynamic or flexible people and interest groups, and the inevitable drive to try to hold on to the essay-centric status quo in a world where students can have a computer write a better essay than them in a matter of minutes will almost certainly lead to a generation or two of people with horribly compromised educations.

But eventually I think it's for the best. I do appreciate the value of academic writing as an intellectual exercise, and that the skills it develops partially spill into developing other forms of expression, but it is an intellectual exercise that gobbles up an obscene amount of students' educational time. And the reason for the degree of focus often boils down problematically to "oh you need to practice this school skill for the next phase of your education", and this whether or not the student intends to actually pursue that next phase.

I would argue that every generation for the past 200 years had had horribly compromised educations because education has been based on a model of the mind that prioritized certain values and ways of looking at the world and called them "smart" (e.g. being good at math and reading poems). And it is delivered in a factory style that emphasizes standardization over originality.

I think the American-led trend of the past two decades towards "accountability" (read: standardized lesson plans and assessment practices) has done tremendous damage to education.

That said, I think that this development is much akin to the widespread adaptation of the calculator a generation ago, insofar as certain methods of assessment (like the essay) will become de-prioritized. The deeper problem is: what happens when AIs get better at creative problem solving than us? That day is coming. Quickly.

 

[SkidAce]

... The deeper problem is: what happens when AIs get better at creative problem solving than us? That day is coming. Quickly.

Depends on the question they are asked to solve i.e.

"Hw do we cure cancer or eliminate world hunger?" YAY!

"How do we squeeze more profit out of X?" BOO!

 

[DarkCrisis]

So WoTC states how they don’t want lore in their non adventure products but makes a massive lore decision that these gods are the same gods?

Seems a tad hypocritical.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So WoTC states how they don’t want lore in their non adventure products

They have literally never said that. Ever.

Edit: And this Dragonlance book is primarily an adventure. So that's another thing you got wrong.

 

[Azzy]

So WoTC states how they don’t want lore in their non adventure products but makes a massive lore decision that these gods are the same gods?

Seems a tad hypocritical.

Breaking News: Man gets upset over fictional scenario that he created.

 

[Mecheon]

So WoTC states how they don’t want lore in their non adventure products but makes a massive lore decision that these gods are the same gods?

Seems a tad hypocritical.

"Two characters who look the same, act the same, and are basically the same, are in fact the same" isn't a very hot take honestly

 

[GreyLord]

"Two characters who look the same, act the same, and are basically the same, are in fact the same" isn't a very hot take honestly

Of course, if they are the same, then Tiamat is already dead. She died 20 years ago. Tiamat is dead...long live...someone else...maybe Mina??

That's one thing I'm not sure how they get around or explain (they don't in the new DL novel, I wonder if Weiss and Hickman will find a way around it later).