#dnd-lore

1 messages · Page 71 of 1

true patio
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That should tell you how a functional setup does

clever path
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double checked. Dispell Magic does in fact perma-turn off Smokepowder it targets

safe acorn
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if there was a male born in drow society to no house how would that go?

clever path
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how are they born...?

safe acorn
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do all drow have houses?

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i thought it was only nobles

clever path
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non nobles work under the houses

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the nobles are the heads of that family

safe acorn
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so they still have the house name?

clever path
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the other members under the house are not nobles

cinder cloud
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Still can't find any specific lore on this, unfortunately. I'd be interested in reading more.

clever path
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i think they would use the house name but im technically not 100% on that. try checking the fearun wiki

safe acorn
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ok

cinder cloud
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It should be noted that firearms, like most advanced technology, are particularly rare in the Realms compared to settings such as Eberron or others where that sort of technology is more prevalent.

tacit spear
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So even if they WERE present, firearms would be in the category of "only the ultra rich or lucky would have them"

cinder cloud
true patio
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unfortunately most of this content was scrubbed from their site when 4e came out and you'd have to use the Wayback Machine to find it

cinder cloud
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I'm aware, usually those are cited and available on the wiki through the wayback machine

unkempt merlin
true patio
feral lintel
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Theyre similar to the Artillerist's wands

true patio
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this fellow is probably your best bet for a secondary source

cinder cloud
true patio
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mmh

tacit spear
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So, for firearms, to recount

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They wouldn't be widespread

true patio
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Dragon magazine 347 might be a good source?

tacit spear
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And if anything, would be entirely localized within higher end cities, such as Waterdeep, and used by the wealthiest. Not to mention, they'd probably be closer to Percy's Pepperbox in design. Ie, there's only ONE.

cinder cloud
true patio
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correct

feral lintel
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Yeah, still have yet to spread them farther

tacit spear
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So the only way a firearm is ending up in Faerun is if someone builds it or gets lucky

true patio
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basically only available to artillerist artificers

feral lintel
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Firearms are already a thing

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the priests of Gond regulate them iirc in some areas

true patio
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the answer is "rare but not unheard of"

tacit spear
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And I've learned, from this, very rare

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Like, people may know of them, but view them with the regard of the average person won't find one

true patio
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basically you'd only find them on the sword coast where the trade of smokepowder is a source of income for the gondian priesthood of Lantin

cinder cloud
true patio
cinder cloud
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Cool, thanks!

true patio
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The title is "It's Elemental"

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the specific reference was thus

It's not available anymore, but there used to be an article on the Wizards of the Coast website (April 2012) that went into the history of the Elemental as far as RPGs are concerned, and the direct inspiration was Michael Moorcock's fiction, especially Elric of Melniboné, where characters such as Grome and Straasha introduced the idea of "Elemental Lords".

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found it on Reddit from 4 years ago

cinder cloud
tacit spear
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Final question, on the understanding of Firearms. They're a rather uncommon topic, then? Like, the average farmer or dock worker would know what one looks like or know of one, then?

true patio
true patio
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okay I'll get back to googlefu

cinder cloud
true patio
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basically the further you get from Lantin the less people would know

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Lantin being a small island off the coast south of Neverwinter if I recall correctly

cinder cloud
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Lantan, and yes.

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The vast majority of high technology exists there, and they are very secretive.

tacit spear
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So further inland, they'd think it's a "bangstick"

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But along the Sword's Coast, people'd know what to expect

true patio
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more like "loud wand"

tacit spear
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Valid. And another question. Warlocks. Do they just call themselves warlocks, or is there another lore name for them. Like if someone were to introduce themselves, would they say "ayo I'm a warlock"

cinder cloud
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There's no actual statistics on how prevalent they are. All we know is what we can discern from the sparse text we have spread across numerous sourcebooks and editions.

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Warlock just means male witch.

true patio
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members of a specific class rarely identify by that class and instead identify more with their affiliations

cinder cloud
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It's likely anacrhonistic, if I recall correctly, although not in the same sense as "this person is of a D&D class warlock" but the more generic sense of the word

true patio
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A wizard could just as easily call themselves a Warlock as Warlock was a term used to denote rank in the Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan back in 2nd edition

cinder cloud
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There's even an infamous location in the realms called Warlock's Crypt

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So yes, it's diegetic, although whether or not everyone adopting the label is, in fact, a creature with warlock levels is unknown

tacit spear
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Well I ask because someone could introduce themselves as a Wizard, druid, or even Cleric

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But I'm not sure for some classes

cinder cloud
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Most would probably just say their name

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I don't go up to people and say "Hi, I'm Web Developer"

feral lintel
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The classes and spells as we know them are not the same as they are in world

cinder cloud
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It would likely come up in conversation

true patio
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Not to mention the class construct doesn't even exist in-universe amongst NPCs

cinder cloud
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Yeah, not every game term is diegetic.

true patio
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Like for example a sorcerer power in 5e, Metamagic, isn't even a sorcerer exclusive thing

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any caster can use it

tacit spear
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Then...what would a druid call themselves, then?

true patio
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What circle/order do they belong to?

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"I am a member of the Harpers"

feral lintel
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A druid, or guardian of the natural world

tacit spear
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Curious

feral lintel
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Yeah, spells probably arent even known the same way as we do

true patio
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yes but they'd also more likely say "I am XX, a member of the Emerald Enclave"

feral lintel
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Theres a difference between a Class and a profession

true patio
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indeed

tacit spear
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Well on the topic of spells

true patio
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As mentioned we don't go around saying "Hi I'm an Engineer"

tacit spear
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Would people KNOW certain spells if they're arcanely inclined?

true patio
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they would know of them yes

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such a thing is why we make arcana checks

feral lintel
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Yeap. They might just udnerstand it the same way or have it look different

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ugh i cannot spell

tacit spear
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So, generally, the average farmer wouldn't know what a Charm Person is. But a mercenary, one who deals with magic folks, would be able to discern the Somatic/Verbal components or the aftermath

feral lintel
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probably

true patio
tacit spear
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True. I suppose that covers the extent of my questions.

feral lintel
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(I once had a guard hesitate to take my harengon's food because he was superstitious about fey once)

tacit spear
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Entirely valid

true patio
tacit spear
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Also true. BG3 firmly told me spells are not quiet.

teal rock
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Are the Astral Plane and the Astral Sea just different areas of the same plane?

true patio
# true patio okay I'll get back to googlefu

Module T1-4 (Tomb of Elemental Evil) is of interest, being a 2e module by Gygax using elementals and one of the older modules on the subject

Currently sourcing information from the wider web Via Reddit and other discord groups I'm in

true patio
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basically it's just 5e Astral Plane that got smushed with the material plane to make Spelljammer and Planescape the same thing

teal rock
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So the Astral Sea is a different version of the Astral Plane for a different setting?

true patio
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more like different editions of the game

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but yes

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that said I'm pretty sure the astral plane itself still exists in 5e

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the astral sea is just where it overlaps with the material plane

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previously spelljammers traveled by way of the Phlogistin between giant crystal spheres that encompassed whole solar systems and the stars you'd see on your world would be portals out of your crystal sphere

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phlogiston was a nebulus gas that was highly flammable and filled the space between crystal spheres

true patio
teal rock
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So is the Astral Sea just a place where its connection to the Material Plane is stronger?

cinder cloud
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They are essentially one and the same. The specific definitions and cosmology has just morphed over time.

jagged apex
jagged apex
jagged apex
# true patio the astral sea is just where it overlaps with the material plane

the astral plane and astral sea are literally the same thing, to partially quote from the description in the 2024 dmg, which is setting agnostic, "The Astral Plane is a realm of thought and dream, where visitors travel as disembodied souls to reach the Outer Planes. It is a great silvery sea, the same above and below, with swirling wisps of white and gray streaking among motes of light—the distant stars of far-flung Wildspace systems. Most of the Astral Sea is a vast, empty expanse. Visitors occasionally stumble upon the petrified corpse of a dead god or other chunks of rock drifting forever in the silvery void. Much more commonplace are color pools—magical pools of colored light that flicker like radiant, spinning coins." end quote

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just like some characters, is not uncommon for places and planes to simply have more than one name for the same thing

jagged apex
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they are really only ever different things when comparing different cosmology models and by extention sometimes editions, in the 5e continuity they are litterally just 2 names for the same thing

tacit spear
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I've a question about druid ideologies. They tend to drastistically shift between Circles, right?

cinder cloud
tacit spear
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Hmm, drat.

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I needed to research, due to a topic I had with a friend, if druids could look "favorably" on trophy hunting. Your wording there implies they'd heavily frown on it.

cinder cloud
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Druids accept the savagery of the hunt, but I don't think they'd approve of doing so for sport

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That's the kind of stuff Malar would be into

tacit spear
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...which one's Malar?

cinder cloud
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Despite being revered among druid circles as the hunger and hunting instinct of beasts, he despised The Balance of nature that druids and other nature deities sought to uphold.

tacit spear
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Ah.

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So a lot of druids don't like him.

cinder cloud
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Granted, this is for the Realms. Druids elsewhere may have different philosophies or lore.

tacit spear
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True. I'm mostly researching to justify a druid hunting things for sport.

cinder cloud
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A druid of Malar would definitely.

tacit spear
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They'd favor hunting beasts and...essentially anything for sport, then?

cinder cloud
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Hunting anything for any reason

tacit spear
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Hmm. Curious.

cinder cloud
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Malar is not a nice dude.

tacit spear
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From what I'm reading, he doesnt' seem nice.

teal rock
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A druid that serves Malar will have different philosophies from a druid that serves Chauntea.

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Circle of the Moon seems like the most fitting subclass for a servant of Malar imo.

tacit spear
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True. For now, I'm mostly researching, for Lore, how many times a Druid can actually Wild Shape. According to the wiki, most can do so twice a day

cinder cloud
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That's a mechanical question

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It depends on the edition and rules you use.

tacit spear
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So it's not something I can get figured via lore.

teal rock
tacit spear
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See, that's also an interesting question

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One can attain Drudic/Primal magic via their own means? Not by joining a Druid circle?

teal rock
tacit spear
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Cycling there, then

heady hare
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that makes more sense. as if Bahamut had influence, i would imagine he would do something about his metallic dragons keeping slaves. but then again DnD gods like most other pantheons dont have the normal sense of morality despite their ideals

grim siren
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Ao supersedes all gods in Realmspace so if Ao decreed that the gods had no power on Abeir, then not even the Draconic gods could interfere.

Now, some dragonborn of Bahamut did travel to Abeir prior to the Spellplague and introduced Bahamut to some of them. But he could not grant powers or the like.

dawn tree
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what fienda are in the Army of the nine hells, especially Avernus?

feral lintel
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A lot.

dawn tree
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ok, i mean what type of fiends. I know pit fiends but they are the generals, what fiends are the soldiers

feral lintel
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Bearded, Chain, uhh which ones had the giant wings?

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The layer was inhabited primarily by abishai, lemures, nupperibos, and spinagons. Imps were also common, as well as dragons, goblins, and kobolds.[5]

Legions of devils dressed in mail stood an eternal watch on Avernus, in readiness for a sortie in the Blood War.

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judging from one of the modules, basically every devil type is there

dawn tree
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Than i will just have to build it out of this

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My campaign somehow stumbled into Avernus xd

feral lintel
dawn tree
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Thanks

tacit spear
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I've a theoretical question. If one wanted to imprison a mind flayer, so it couldn't escape or rend someone's brain, how would they?

cinder cloud
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Not really a lore question.

tacit spear
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Drat. What sort of question would that be, then? Rules?

feral lintel
cinder cloud
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There's likely 100 different ways we could list off, and all of them would likely require mechanical or narrative solutions

tacit spear
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I'll probably shift it to World Building, then. Mostly so I don't overwhelm chat

tacit spear
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Alright I did have a lore question. Are Mind Flayers physically able to speak, or are they ONLY able to communicate using their telepathy?

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This is based from the ones we see in BG3 only use Telepathy to communicate, which leads me to believe they're just...unable to talk without it. Or at least speak Common without it.

hushed pivot
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Howdy fellas

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I’m writing a BG3 fanfic, but I’m fairly new to DnD in general and have some questions regarding its lore. If I could get some answers here or via PM, that would be most helpful.

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Thanks in advance

cinder cloud
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Technically both a lore question and mechanical one. (A creature will denote which languages it speaks in its stat blocks, no lore research necessary)

tacit spear
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See that's what I was confused about. Because it does say Deep Speech. So...maybe they just don't speak Common vocally

feral lintel
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their throats and mouths arent made for speaking much else aye

tacit spear
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That's what gets me. I suspect learning Common would be extremely difficult, if not close to impossible, for a Mind Flayer, due to what BG3 also clarifies about their biology.

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Being that the original victim's mouth shatters and splits apart for the tentacles and lamprey maw. And I suspect a maw like that couldn't speak Common well

jagged apex
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bg3 is it's own continuity, ie stuff true to it's take on the forgotten relams and dnd lore is not automatically true for the other versions including that in published materials

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also illithid rarely speak verbally anyways, their default method of communicating is telepathically talking to you

calm crest
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Some aspects of the BG3 continuity directly contradict the Forgotten Realms’ lore or even the previous BG games, such as ||Balduran’s species. I suppose a Bigby-style Reïncarnation could justify it?||

jagged apex
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dnd is like dragonball, there are multiple continuities, canon and not canon is oversimplifying things unless you add the corresponding context

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we honestly don't know what changes or new information from bg3 will be carried over, if any, until it is refferenced or repeated in published materials

tacit spear
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Plus, like with all things, lore is changed and shifted. One could even call every campaign played different timelines for a situation. Multiverse theory.

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Speaking of, about Reborn, is there a set look for them? Or are they just...varied depending on how they died

calm crest
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Given that they are very much a multiple-choice origin, they don’t have a set look. Some are quasi-Undead, some are Construct-like, some are nearly mortal.

tacit spear
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So one could be a walking skeleton?

feral lintel
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Thats something to ask yer DM

tacit spear
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Hmm, true. I'll bring it up.

tacit spear
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For a lore discussion, would a rogue mind flayer willingly ally with humanoids if they're a means to both ensure it's safety and help it get something it wants?

clever path
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As the guy thats been playing one for the past year and about to play them again: Absolutely

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Even Omellum technically has humanoid allies with the Society of Brilliance

tacit spear
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I'll mark this down

clever path
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They're intelligent creatures. And once free from the Elder Brain control, they can usually deduce that other creatures dislike them or will try and hunt them down if they arent in any affiliations or have allies

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Beholder, not Illithid

tacit spear
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Nah wait, I think they mean the illithid that works for it

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Nillihoor, think

clever path
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Ah didnt know he had an illithid working for him.

tacit spear
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I know of it because it has a MtG card. I'd mention where else but I don't want to spoil Advnture Modules

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And for illithids, their emotions tend to boil down to "impassiveness", no? They don't really get angry, sad, or happy, no?

clever path
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wrong! In fact they experience emotions very strongly, they just dont show it but they experience almost exlusively negative emotions. frustration and anger being the most severe ones

cinder cloud
tacit spear
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So primarily, they experience primarily negative emotions.

clever path
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They dont even supposedly feel real 'happiness' either. they get a sense of satisfaction at best in getting what they want or need

cinder cloud
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There is much to read about their personality.

clever path
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they also experience 'euphoric' sensations when eating a brain

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I strongly recommend reading the entire Mind Flayer page in the wiki it's very helpful for a deep dive on their culture and mentality

tacit spear
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So illithids don't really feel emotions, aside from hostile ones, and really have the closest facilimy of happiness if they eat a brain

cinder cloud
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Read the wiki. There is a section on emotions.

clever path
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No they feel emotions entirely. they just hide it behind their low facial expression faces but they absolutely lash out

tacit spear
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I'll mark these down for this story thing, then

cinder cloud
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123 citations on that page, phew

tacit spear
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I'll redirect my further inquiries to Discussion

valid tiger
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Yall i may have just made the coolest scp inspired pantheon for my dnd character

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I've already written Mekhane, she is the goddess of the warforged

idle yarrow
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Could a Lich consume a Revenant's soul?

jagged apex
# idle yarrow Could a Lich consume a Revenant's soul?

i am not aware of any reason they couldn't should they manage to capture it and feed it to their phylactery, a soul is a soul, part of why destroying it, regardless of if it was good or evil is a universally evil act

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though given the nature of some revenants it would not be easy if it was possible, though could under some situations especially if a god is involved be something they would not be able to do

jagged apex
tacit spear
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Another lore question, I think. How likely are yuan-ti to work with humanoids?

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And I mean work with them to achieve something. Not subjugate them.

cinder cloud
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Depends largely on their goals, the setting and the humanoids they want to work with

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In the Realms, they worshi Sseth, who has a general philosphy:

All yuan-ti must act in accordance with the Sacred Way of Sseth - that is, subtly. Whenever possible, yuan-ti choose manipulation over open confrontation, the whisper over the fang. Followers of the Sacred Way of Sseth know their foes, think ahead, and plan forward.

tacit spear
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So any cooperation efforts with humanoids, primarily non-yuan-ti, would be done in accordance with the fact that they wholly intend to screw over said humanoids when they get what they want?

cinder cloud
obsidian gate
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if they follow sseth, yeah

tacit spear
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So generally, cooperation would end the moment they see their humanoid allies as no longer useful

cinder cloud
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Generally, perhaps.

obsidian gate
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they wouldnt attack human allies if the risk was too high, even if the humans are no longer of use to them

tacit spear
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But they would have no qualms against leaving them to die or even gloating over it?

cinder cloud
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And it should be noted, there is no specific lore covering the way they typically act with humanoids, let alone humanoid allies. They are neutral evil, so they are generally bad snake people who do bad things

tacit spear
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True. And there are always outliers who are of decent morality. Just few and thin.

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I'll bear this in mind and move my discourse to Dnd Discussion

cinder cloud
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It should also be noted that the article on FR wiki is a stub, which means it is likely missing lore. The primary sources in the footnotes might contain more.

tacit spear
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I'll check those too. I'm mostly researching into various monster races for this fanfiction thing I keep yammering about. I'll clarify better in the proper channel.

tacit spear
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So, final question. Malisons can appear in a diverse set of forms, even as, potentially, a snake lizard in design, yes?

cinder cloud
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Yuan-ti halfbloods were greatly varied. They came in several body types and possessed many variations in scale patterns and colors, much like natural snakes. They tended to have body masses and sizes in the same range as humans.[3]

Four in ten malisons appeared as agile, sharp-featured human with a serpent's head and scales. Some varieties had hoods like cobras,[3] such as those halfbloods who were members of House Hss'tafi.[11]

The remaining 60% of halfbloods fell into three remaining variations. Some had the lower body of a snake instead of legs, others had a snake-like tail, and still others had snake-like arms in place of normal arms.[3]

tacit spear
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So, possibly, then

cinder cloud
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There is no mention of lizards in their description

tacit spear
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True. Bad description on my part. I don't know how to word it right.

feral lintel
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The core thing is that if much be snake + human

tacit spear
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Hmm. As cringe as this means of answering is, could one theoretically end up looking like Veritgo, from Primal Rage? And I use her as a description because it's the best one I can think of in a short time.

I ask because that thing is a visible mix of human and serpentine traits. Sort of.

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...if you squint, there's human in there somewhere.

feral lintel
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That would probably fall out of this channel's juridscition, but your table, your rules

cinder cloud
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If that character looks roughly half human and half snake, then sure

feral lintel
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-# note, its basically a dino

tacit spear
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Honestly, that's the only thing I could think of to describe what I meant

feral lintel
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In anycase, i dont think theres recorded evidence of them looking like Vertigo. As i said before though, your table, your rules. This is for recorded and published lore

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not too much about the what ifs

tacit spear
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True. I just strive for lore accuracy before someone goes "actually" and then we gotta fistfight.

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Not actually, but you get what I mean

feral lintel
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¯_(ツ)_/¯

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As DM, its your final say

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Worrying about whats canon or not isnt gonna help

tacit spear
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Valid point

feral lintel
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there are multiple continuities, as Scarlet might have mentioned before

jagged apex
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sad thing about yuan-ti lore is that there is barely any at this point that is setting agnostic, a lot of their cultures, behaviors, ect... are so far specific to some settings

jagged apex
tacit spear
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True. So, it's a possibility. And I can use that and not get "actually"'d until I fistfight the wizard

cinder cloud
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Yep, as I pointed out earlier the yuan-ti from FR are quite different than those of Eberron, and likely everywhere else

cinder cloud
jagged apex
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the published one from wizards of the coast is basically what they treat as their prime/main one and all others deviate from it or otherwise coexist along side it

tacit spear
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I know, but I still want to fist fight the wizard.

jagged apex
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it ain't hilander, there can and is more than one continuity

tacit spear
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Lil' bit of humor for this.

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Anyhow, that concludes the extent of my questioning.

feral lintel
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On the topic of reptiles... Regisaurs and the other Giant dinos introduced in Bigby's are a new thing, right?

tacit spear
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I thought those came from the Ixlan expansion

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..."expansion"

feral lintel
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We dont have Ixalan stuff

tacit spear
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Huh

feral lintel
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That stuff isnt official if youre talking about... Planeshift?

jagged apex
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heck, technically wizards of the coast's version is not even the original forgotten realms, that would be ed greenwood's version, the one we see in published materials is basically their take on his setting, but even then despite aquiring the setting, they still regularly enlist his aid from time to time when making new lore for their version of the setting

tacit spear
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Oh you're right. They're from Bigby's

jagged apex
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yeah bigby's introduced them and mega fauna in general, just kind of makes sense in a multiverse with magic and giants, there would also be giant animals even in comparison to actual giant animals

feral lintel
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Nothing about them in older lore? dndThink
Is there a list of megafauna like them perhaps?

jagged apex
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not to my knowledge

feral lintel
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dang

tacit spear
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I only know of Regisaurs due to Ixlan, because of MtG

jagged apex
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mega fauna in general, maybe, as that in it of itself is rather generic and broad, but in regards to the hand ful of kaiju sized dinos, they are new

feral lintel
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yeah, these guys are entirely different

jagged apex
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they just share a name

feral lintel
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As mentioned before, we dont even have Ixalan stuff

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at least in official printing

jagged apex
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yeah and dnd and mtg are seperate multiverses, just owned by the same company

cinder cloud
feral lintel
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touche dndLol

jagged apex
feral lintel
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-# or the more scientifically acurrate ver lol

jagged apex
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to quote the description in bigby's "Aptly called “the ruler of dinosaurs,” a regisaur is an enormous predator large enough to swallow a giant whole. Fiery veins of elemental energy course through its skin and glow in its eyes and nostrils"

feral lintel
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Ah, wish i didnt have the AI art ver

jagged apex
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well the dnd beyond versions auto updated when they replaced it

calm crest
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There’ve been plenty of megafauna versions of monsters in previous editions. Devastation vermin in 3.5, gargantua in BECMI, and kaiju and krakentua in 2e, for example.

feral lintel
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Just learnt about the gargantua recently actually, kaiju and Krakentua though sound interesting

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Oh its the tentacle guys

calm crest
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The kaiju are more or less the same sort of deal as Mystaran gargantua (really big versions of normal monsters). The krakentua is essentially the Kara-Tur take on Cthulhu.

thorny hound
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can a human under some conditions be "transformed" into a genasi?
or can that human only be born as genasi?

modest badger
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As AFAIK, Genasi are born Genasi, although Genasi themselves in previous lore could awaken othe elements in themselves.

5e's Elemental Evil's Player Companion has this paragraph:

Occasionally, genasi result from exposure to a surge of elemental power, through phenomena such as an eruption from the Inner Planes or a planar convergence. Elemental energy saturates any creatures in the area and might alter their nature enough that their offspring with other mortals are born as genasi.

I'm unsure whether to read this as 'These surges can affect a humanoid enough that their children are born genasi' or 'These surges can turn a humanoid into a genasi and any child they have will be genasi'. I'm thinking it's the former though.

feral lintel
#

I have just found out about this guy:
Yoeval
Who is apparently a vampire flumph?

modest badger
#

A what?

feral lintel
modest badger
#

Aaah, apparently it's from a 'So Sayeth Ed' type source.

feral lintel
#

OH wait lmao

#

Thats hilarious tho

modest badger
#

While I'm personally not convinced of the canonicity of them, I do enjoy them as 'LAI' (Lore as intended) where one of the creators will look you in the eye and go 'Yeah. Vampire Flumph. I'm making that canon.'

feral lintel
#

I do love those moments dndLol

frosty sonnet
#

Hey what could get a monk excommunicated in the DnD universe

feral lintel
#

Ask your DM

modest badger
#

That would entirely depend upon their order really.

feral lintel
#

Cuz it also depends on setting

frosty sonnet
#

kk

mental cloak
#

I've been looking around and I can't seem to find any reliable info on this. Tortles, do they have any relationship or main choices of deity?

cinder cloud
#

Well, the deities one might worship depends on the setting

#

The ones in Chult in the Forgotten Realms don't have much lore surrounding them.

mental cloak
#

Faerûn as a whole in this situation, so lots of choices, but I was wondering if in Tortle culture there was some deities that appeared more so than others, if not then I'll just take my pick.

cinder cloud
#

That's what most people in Faerun do anyways so you're all good

reef cape
#

It's worth noting that, in most of Faerun, there is no such thing as a "choice of deity".

#

People tend to pray whichever god is best suited for the situation.

#

If you're a farmer, you'll pray to the gods of weather, agriculture, fertility and sunlight. When you're looking to get married, you'll pray to the Sune for luck.

thorny hound
#

Only truly radical ones pray to only one God no? Dunno how Clerics fall into that spectrum tho

reef cape
#

Yes. It would seem very weird to most people to only pray to one god.

#

Now, there are examples of societies where single-minded devotion to one deity is the norm.

#

Those are generally evil cults

jagged apex
feral lintel
#

Ah true... Gosh that flumph must not be feeling great having to eat their victim's emotions

jagged apex
#

not to mention depending on how you understand vampirism to work, given the nature of it is far as i known is varied and or vague, it might not even be the original being, the vampire being a sort of undead predator that posses the body and uses the memories of the host to fake being them to get close to their prey since they often target those close to the person in life

feral lintel
#

Oh gosh, i thought it was just them taking on a thirst for blood and all that, not possibly being switched out

jagged apex
#

and psychic vampires are not anything new, illithid vampires exist and some dhampires don't even feed on blood, so such a vampire potentially would be deadly more so cuz how hard it would be to tell if it was feeding off you

jagged apex
#

like is it truely them returned to a twisted parody of life, or just some poser using the corpse and what ever memories remain to get close to it's prey, far as i know there is no hard answer in published material

feral lintel
#

On another topic though, slightly related to undead, is there recorded lore about who the hero referred by the Wand of Orcus is, or has that been something left blank for DMs

jagged apex
#

i recall hearing it mentioned in either AJ Pickett's or the dungeoncast's lore videos on either orcus or the wand, i forget which and the name, but i know it is known in some materials out there

jagged apex
#

oh wait, it is named

#

in the adventure "dead gods"

#

and according to 4th edition it is the skull of a "god of virtue and chivalry" who does not seem to be named, while other legends say it is a human one that was magically enlarged to it's current size

heady hare
#

Where do Abishai sit in the power ranking of devils?

crude blaze
#

iirc they're not part of the infernal hierarchy since they mostly serve Tiamat

cinder cloud
eager bay
#

Is there anything in DnD about Wishing Wells granting twisted wishes?

fallow leaf
#

Not specifically I know, but nothing says you can’t

pallid flower
stable yacht
reef cape
#

Great because I don't

stable gulch
#

So as far as Pacts is the great old one an underwater being, or an alien? i saw somewhere that it might be one even though it sounds a lil odd to me

reef cape
stable gulch
#

Makes sense

reef cape
#

For example, the demon lord Dagon lives deep in the depths of the ocean. Normally a pact with a demon would be a fiend pact, but Dagon is an obyrith and one of the oldest beings of the abyss, he could easily work as a great old one patron.

stable gulch
#

OOhhhh ive misunderstood pacts in entirety
they can all be different demons i completely forgot

#

Thank you greatly

reef cape
#

Not necessarily demons too.

stable gulch
#

oh wait then what are the limits to a patron

reef cape
#

The limits of the different types of pact? It can be a fiend (a category that includes basically everything from the lower planes, not just demons), a great old one (meaning a creature extremely old and relatively foreign to how the multiverse works), an archfey (the leaders, gods/demigods of the feywilds), a celestial (a category that includes basically everything from the upper planes, not just angels)...

cinder cloud
#

If you have questions about a specific existing patron, you can ask those questions here

stable gulch
#

oh my, how lovely

reef cape
#

So, the archdevil Mephistopheles, lord of the eighth hell, master of hellfire, would be a patron for a fiend pact. The archfey Kannoth, who is in a weird position of being an archfey, an eladrin and a vampire, would be a patron for either an archfey or undying/undead pact

stable gulch
#

Im making a sea monster merboy type PC, and was going to use the great old one as a patron
because in my mind it was some deep underwater ancient being

reef cape
#

There is fathomless pact though

cinder cloud
stable gulch
#

What describes the fathomless?

reef cape
#

"You have plunged into a pact with the deeps. An entity of the ocean, the Elemental Plane of Water, or another otherworldly sea now allows you to draw on its thalassic power. Is it merely using you to learn about terrestrial realms, or does it want you to open cosmic floodgates and drown the world?"

stable gulch
#

Theres a plane of just water!?

reef cape
#

Yes. All four elements have a plane that is basically only that element

#

And then there are places where two elements meet. So, fire and earth make a magma plane. Water and air make an ice plane.

stable gulch
#

Dually noted, ill look at the fathomless soon

cinder cloud
jagged apex
jagged apex
#

the most recent description of it makes it more of a massive ocean rather than purely water, to partially quote the new dmg "The Plane of Water is an endless sea, called the Sea of Worlds, dotted with atolls and islands that rise up from enormous coral reefs that seem to stretch forever into the depths. The storms that move across the sea sometimes create temporary portals to the Material Plane and draw ships into the Plane of Water. Surviving vessels from countless worlds and navies ply these waters with little hope of ever returning home." end quote

spring agate
#

So I like some clarification: forgotten realm part of d&d history (canon) or off branch like alt or different universe? I’m so confused with the timeline

modest badger
#

Settings are their own canonicity, and canonicity can be specific to games, novels, editions so on.

They're all official but canon is more specific. Think of it like how there are many batman films, shows, comics, books so on- each series will have their own canon.

#

Forgotten Realms is it's own world within D&D.

cinder cloud
spring agate
#

Thanks

pulsar shadow
#

hi! i have a question that i could not find on internet so maybe someone here knows an answer. so basically i've been looking up stuff about Kyuss and the age of worms and the question is: are spawn of Kyuss the same as Kyuss's followers? they're both worm filled undead, but it seems that the spawn of Kyuss have no free will as their soul is trapped inside their bodies and the worms control them. Kyuss's followers are supposed to be the same but they seem to have behaviors of a humanoid with free will? how does that work? do the worms just decide not to trap the soul?

jagged apex
pulsar shadow
#

but the followers do become wormy undead tho?

jagged apex
jagged apex
pulsar shadow
#

i thought that after getting trapped the second time he still had people that wanted to get him out

jagged apex
#

"The Age of Worms adventure path" that gives one possible backstory of his makes no description of his cultists let alone them being undead or worm filled

#

i am not aware of him ever getting trapped even once, let alone a second time

pulsar shadow
#

yes, in the monolyth i mean,

#

he gets trapped the first time when he got his "divinity" and then a second one when the druids defeated him or something

jagged apex
#

we do know the silver dragon vampire Lashonna, who is utterly devoted to him to the point of love, is his high priest according to that and the creator of "the Ebon Triad "

#

again, i see nothing about him being trapped

pulsar shadow
#

where do you get your info? maybe i've been fed a lot of homebrew as if it was real

jagged apex
#

closest thing is to quote what is cited on the forgotten realms wiki "Through these inscriptions, Kyuss discovered how to transcend mortality at a terrible price—the lives of his congregation. On one bloody night he instructed his priests to slaughter them all, and after that Kyuss murdered the priests as well. When he was finished, he fused his essence with the foul ruins, gaining and losing his divinity in one moment. He was neither mortal nor god, and he was bound forever to the ruins. However, he was transformed into something far worse." cited from the Elder Evils sourcebook from wizards of the coast

jagged apex
pulsar shadow
#

oh

jagged apex
#

odds are you were fed homebrew that you either assumed or were convinced was from published materials, or you are confusing them with some other entity

pulsar shadow
#

i just watched a youtube video and assumed it was cannon LOl

jagged apex
#

well you know the old saying about assuming

pulsar shadow
#

yeah

jagged apex
#

so yeah, never hurts to check the sources

pulsar shadow
#

so just to be clear in the canon he does not have followers anymore

jagged apex
#

and if no source is cited it is better to take it as a possibility, homebrew, or theory and with a grain or two of salt

jagged apex
drowsy fossil
#

Are the dnd video games canon

jagged apex
#

yes and no

#

there are multiple continuities

pulsar shadow
drowsy fossil
#

Is there a primary continuity?

jagged apex
#

each form of media is generally treated as it's own continuity and is not automatically true to others until refferenced directly or evens and info from it used in publiashed materials such as adventures and source books

jagged apex
#

it is more so the published continuity as it is what the publishers put out and work with, dnd encourages homebrewing and tweaking things for one's own games, so there is no realy primary continuity other than what wizards of the coast uses when developing new adventures and sourcebooks

#

which are basically default sources of information or sources of suggested information based on what they have detailed to be used if you don't want to or just don't have time to prepare your own lore for your games or are wanting to stick as closely as possible to an established setting

#

shame is they use to have an article dedicated to explaining this but from what i heard it is no longer something you can view for some reason

#

but what i stated is basically the key points or broad strokes that i remember

cinder cloud
#

That canon is in heirarchical order:
Official Forgotten Realms sources (sourcebooks, novels, adventures, articles)
Ed Greenwood
Core D&D sources
Other D&D settings
Licensed material (comics, video games)
Online posts

ashen forge
#

Would a night hag worship baba yaga? If not, what god, if any, would they worship?

feral lintel
#

No one really

ashen forge
#

Okie

feral lintel
#

Although from the FR wiki, i am getting a being named Cegilune

ashen forge
#

Yeah, but there doesn't seem to be much updated info on her

#

So I might just go with baba yaga bc I don't want my character to end up as apart of the human corpse wall (iirc)

feral lintel
#

the wall got retconned out

ashen forge
#

Oh okie

#

On a similar note, if a hag were to set up a store, where would she do it? Mainly, what plane?

#

Just remembered sigil exists, nevermind

feral lintel
#

Depends on the specific hag

ashen forge
#

Meant night hag, sorry

feral lintel
#

Night hags can be found on many of the lower planes; the Nine Hells, Hades, Gehenna, etc

ashen forge
#

Ooo genhenna sounds cool, I'll look into it

#

I'll still go with sigil, bc it's basically the only plane where a night hag wouldn't be shunned for setting up a store

teal rock
#

Does Moradin actually hate Abbathor? Lore states that they both consider each other enemies yet it also dictates that they're reluctant allies.

unkempt merlin
#

The mention of it in 5e got explicitly removed

#

the wall is not a "she"

#

you replied to the line about the wall?

jagged apex
#

misclicked and misread it

drowsy fossil
#

Who’s bhaal

finite pendant
jagged apex
#

in short mortal man from toril, turned god of murder in the forgotten realms

storm dagger
ashen forge
#

But I highly doubt there'd be any actual costumers there

true patio
#

She and her hut appear in older editions and she's actually Tasha's adoptive mother.

thorny hound
#

Are there any records of lifespan of elementals ?

calm crest
#

Depends on the Elemental, but many of them are immortal.

jagged apex
jagged apex
#

to my knowledge what we might call death is not really seen the same way by such beings, as they are basically energy beings in some cases and basically are absorbed by others resulting in the absorber growing in size, power, and potentially becoming something new

true patio
#

also being consumed doesn't directly relate to an "end" for the smaller one

#

Think if it like cell division for us. We don't really think about how, technically, we're a bunch of ships of Theseus. Your body doesn't have a single atom in it from the day you were born. Elementals are different in that when they merge with smaller ones its like they gained a new permanent fixture of themselves.

tacit spear
#

I come back with two questions:
-Do thri-keen naturally occur in Faerun?
-Is it even remotely possible for one to speak Common?

feral lintel
#

Yes to the first, and not physically to the second

tacit spear
#

They use telepathy?

feral lintel
#

Yeah

#

Their vocal cords arent made for speaking common, hence telepathy

tacit spear
#

Ah fair. Answers those questions, then.

#

Thank you

feral lintel
#

The thri-kreen (pronounced: /θraɪˈkrin/ thry-KREEN[15]) were an insectoid monstrous humanoid race that primarily lived in the Shaar. The thri-kreen were a race of nomads and hunters. They were also known as mantis warriors and sometimes called "tri-kreen".[5][3][8][4][9]

tacit spear
#

I did browse over it. While one can learn Common, they physically cannot speak it themselves.

solar kayak
#

So are crystals dragons supposed to be beefy boys? Cause i just grabbed the whole set of baby, young, and adult crystal dragons. And the young crystal is pretty big compared to the young black dragon. Or are black dragons usually on the smaller side?

jagged apex
#

more so black dragons are known for being skinnier than their other chromatic skin

#

part of the reason historically their known as skull dragons is cuz how tight and thin the skin around their skull is in comparison to other dragons

jagged apex
#

in dnd with magic being a thing, physicality is far from the only way a creature can be powerful

feral lintel
#

black dragons make up for it with their viciousness anyway

jagged apex
#

and cruelty, they will never fight fair if they can help it in the lore at least if they are of the typical personality type for a black dragon

solar kayak
#

OK cool, ya I'm making a campaign with black dragons as the focus point for enemies that lead to the finally BBEG. Since the new Black Dragon Corruptor figure is coming out soon

jagged apex
#

lol, kind of funny, cuz most black dragons to my knowledge would rather die than serve another, especially if that is a being they see as lesser, basically anything that is not simply an older and powerful dragon

#

looking it up though, seems the figure you mentioned is simply a model based on their upcoming redesign for the current edition of 5e that is gunna be previewed in the coming days on dnd beyond's youtube channel

solar kayak
#

@jagged apex there are two in Canon that work together because they are brothers. I'm making this a family with the inciting incident being them slaying a young black dragon for someone's bounty

#

And ya, I've already got it pre-ordered, it looks so good

jagged apex
#

to be fair working together is different than working for someone

solar kayak
#

Having the OG black dragon being the mother so it'd be kinda neat

jagged apex
#

besides i am not saying it is imposable, just very rare typically

solar kayak
#

And ya, but without going into lots of story stuff they all 'work' together in one way or another

versed stone
#

Quick question why is the lady of pain not have a stat block but vecna does if they are relatively equal rivals

feral lintel
#

not really a lore thing, but its to prevent people from fighting her. Also, the LoP has beaten Vecna before

versed stone
#

*relatively equal

humble canyon
#

I feel like I’m going insane cause I can’t find this anywhere, but I SWEAR there was a city or location in D&D where the layout of city was actually a glyph or spell of some sorts meant to keep an entity trapped AND that drawing maps of the city was banned because it could weaken the spell I SWEAR I READ THAT ON THE DND WIKI but I can’t find it AT ALL

#

This would be wild if I just made that up and thought I read it somewhere but I swear I did

cinder cloud
#

Not really a lore thing tho

iron saffron
unkempt merlin
crude blaze
#

Yeah, by sheer virtue of Vecna having a statblock (at least in his archlich form) and the Lady of Pain not having a statblock, it’s safe to assume they’re not even really all that comparable in level.

#

Heck, she’s strong enough to lock all gods out of the city at the center of the Multiverse

humble canyon
#

Is there a place that is only official lore that I can read from?

iron saffron
#

The FR wiki is a good resource of official D&D lore but it's not comprehensive (it touches briefly on other campaign settings, such as Planescape or Ravenloft, but not in detail like wikis dedicated to those settings).

crude blaze
#

Worth noting that it also excludes/ignores a lot of 5E lore, so while it’s good for a glimpse into the past of Forgotten Realms lore, it has a habit of not always being as up-to-date as we might like.

iron saffron
#

To be fair, 5E has added little to FR lore.

crude blaze
#

There’s plenty of FR lore scattered throughout 5E, the real issue is that they’re scattered throughout dozens on books instead of a single one.

iron saffron
#

It's still nothing compared to what was released in 2E and 3E era splat books...

#

Most of the 5E campaign books were set in FR but WotC has moved away from that in the past few years.

strange rose
iron saffron
#

The last FR centred 5E book is Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. The one before that goes back to Candlekeep Mysteries.

shy nexus
#

At the Forgotten Realms Wiki, we don't ignore or exclude any 5e or other lore, but we don't try to be up to date either, nor to compete with new books. I encourage editors to work on what they're interested in as fans: a book or game they enjoyed, a subject they'd like to explore, background for a character or campaign, or just something nerdy like all instances of a vegetable. I find this is the best way to keep editors engaged and active; working heavily on something we're not interested in can become a grind and lead to burnout. People will cover new stuff if they can or they like it, and if not, eventually someone who wants to will cover it.

So, when a particular project extends into 5e lore, it's covered if the editor has the source available. We treat all editions equally. But sometimes 5e changes to lore, particularly for certain monsters, render them unrelated to earlier versions. Since we focus on the Forgotten Realms (of course) we favor the earlier version if it's more FR-relevant. And if you want 5e-specific lore, well, you have the 5e books it appears in, so simply reiterating it for people is not of use to anyone.

That said, our Year of M_ article drives are often set in support of upcoming books, so that we have the old lore in place as a foundation for adding the new and to inspire people wanting to know more. We don't ignore 5e lore, we're very much working toward it.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Forum:The_2025_Year_of_M_Project

humble canyon
#

Oooo very cool 👏👏

grim siren
#

Though I could find no evidence that drawing maps of the city was banned.

humble canyon
#

So this was a Red wizards thing ok I see

sage prawn
#

I need some clarification on the hierarchy of the Archfey in the Feywild.

From what I've read the Feywild is mostly divided up into two big overarching groups of power. The Summer or Seelie Court ruled by Queen Titania, and the Winter or Unseelie Court ruled by the Queen of Air and Darkness.

And then if I'm getting this right, each court is made up of other archfey that align with that court, while still having their own domains they rule over.

Does that mean that Titania has the final say in matters of all the domain's in her Summer Court? Like she could even enforce things.

I guess its kind of built like a monarchy system where there is one single grand or high king, but still kings of each ones kingdom.

Am I thinking of this right, or have they even clarified this in D&D?

iron saffron
#

Titania and the Queen of Air and Darkness are in the 2E Monster Mythlogy. They're greater and intermediate deities, respectively.

cinder cloud
sage prawn
#

So does each court kind of act like a council, or does the high ruler of each like Titania boss around her other archfey?

iron saffron
#

Check the links above. There hasn't been much official lore on them since 2E.

feral lintel
#

-# OldMan is back?!

storm dagger
#

There was more on them in the DMG

dusky pond
#

Is the name "Metaraxes" an official name in any DND settings? I ask because I'm crafting my own homebrew Demon Lord.

#

Set in the Forgotten Realms

iron saffron
#

Never heard of Metaraxes.

jagged apex
#

"Metaraxes" does not appear to be one shuch being

calm crest
#

Also worth noting that multiple archfiends have been known to share the same name. For example, Azazel (Archdevil and formerly Hazzael the Serpent) and Azazel (Demon Lord of the 137th).

ember sail
#

Hey, there was a Celtic pantheon in FR right?

jagged apex
#

yes

jagged apex
ember sail
#

Thank u

ashen forge
#

What sorta pets/servants would a night hag have?

iron saffron
#

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Night_hag#Relations

Lesser creatures were normally hired to keep records, herd larvae, send messages and complete any other mundane chores, with loyalty being greatly important to them. Those night hags that did pay their workers often did so poorly and terminated any servitor wishing to terminate their employment in order to protect their precious trade secrets. Imps and tieflings made their way into their service as did mephits and the occasional modrons. Often times they mounted nightmares, another type of dream haunting creature of the Gray Wastes, and they prized cauchemar breeds.

ashen forge
#

Ty!

fathom hamlet
#

Hey, where do I learn about dnd lore? Is there a fun story book that’ll give me all the info or a easy read for locations and such

unkempt merlin
#

"Dnd lore" is a broad thing

There are many settings to the game, each with different lore (albeit, there are often similarities between the settings). There is no 1 book (or even 1 source) for everything (such a thing would be a frankly unrealistic task)

There are wikis for a number of settings, such as Eberron, Exandria, and the Forgotten Realms (to name some of the more popular ones)

fathom hamlet
iron saffron
#

There is no one cool story. The Forgotten Realms setting is actually older than D&D itself. The lore for it has changed with each new edition plus there have been scores of novels and comics.

chilly roost
#

Good ol Greenwood!

#

Ed Greenwood's Elminster series is a good one.

#

The Fall of Netheril is in there.

cinder cloud
# fathom hamlet Ok, let’s say forgotten realms cause that’s the one I’m at least alittle about, ...

The wiki is the best source of knowledge for the Realms. Two other recommendations: Grand History of the Realms (a vast and spanning chronological index of the entire history of the Realms up until the 14th century DR) and Ed Greenwood: Elminster's Forgotten Realms, which takes a more cultural approach to more esoteric topics like "what do bards do" and "what kind of food is there" and "local lingo". You can purchase and print both on DMs Guild.

#

For stories there's like 40 published novels written for the Realms

fathom hamlet
#

Cool Ty

grim siren
#

For videos I recommend Jorphdan on youtube. He has some of the best intro FR lore videos

iron saffron
#

AJ Pickett does D&D lore videos as well.

cinder cloud
#

Jorphdan for high level stuff, AJ for a deep dive

iron saffron
#

Avoid MrRhexx because he tends to add homebrew / make up stuff.

jagged apex
jagged apex
thorny hound
#

Are there other elementals than air, water, fire, earth and their "combinations"? Are there light, dark elementals ?

iron saffron
#

There are positive and negative energy elementals -- xag-ya (positive) and xeg-yi (negative).

cinder cloud
#

Earth/water is also mud

iron saffron
#

That's just another name for it.

reef cape
#

Mud and ooze are generally considered synonymous for that purpose

cinder cloud
#

Well an ooze is a specific type of creature, so it's a bit confusing

reef cape
#

It is, but when it comes to planar stuff, it's considered kind of the same thing.

#

Weird, I distinctly remember mentions of planes where fire meets water and where earth meets air.

cinder cloud
#

They were asking about creatures, not planes

reef cape
#

IIn that case, one just has to look at the different types of mephits

cinder cloud
#

Indeed, hence my mention of mud

reef cape
#

Yep. But it's worth noting that mud mephits often live in the plane of ooze.

calm crest
#

Just like magma and heat being synonyms for the same paraëlement.

dusky pond
#

Are Celtic, Greek, and Norse Gods canon in FR?

unkempt merlin
#

some of them

#

although more accurate than "canon" would be "active"

dusky pond
#

Tyr is an obvious one, but is someone like Thor in FR?

iron saffron
#

No.

#

Tyr and the Egyptian pantheon are referred to interloper gods — deities not native to Realmspace but from another crystal sphere (in their case, Earth).

#

Ao has final say if interloper gods can have a presence in Realmspace.

merry atlas
#

Does cambions also return to the hells if they die on material plane or they just die?

iron saffron
#

They're not specifically devils.

#

Fiends that die outside of their native plane (be it Hell, Caceri, the Abyss, etc.) their spirit return to the native plane.

jagged apex
#

and technically they are but only some members have any involvent, the majority of others don't really have any such involvement

feral lintel
#

The Greek especially are not present

jagged apex
#

who in dnd at least was also part of both the Olympian and norse pantheons

eager bay
#

What does charisma embody in D&D?

feral lintel
#

Force of Will

feral lintel
jagged apex
#

force of will and personality, or to quote the newest phb "Confidence, poise, and charm"

#

assuming it is just being good looking or beautiful is a gross oversimplification and misconception many fall for

#

which is likely why they try to make it so much more clear in the new core books

feral lintel
jagged apex
#

also charisma is noted as relating to in regards to things like checks and saves as "Influence, entertain, or deceive" and "Assert your identity" so would also embody those things

#

so "force of will" basically sums up all those is one quick manner

calm crest
#

Aptitude for leadership is also a key factor of it.

jagged apex
#

i imagine that would fall under influence

#

at least i would consider it to be covered under that

calm crest
#

Sure. That’s just how it’s characterized in older editions.

jagged apex
#

cambions it likely depends as they are effectively half fiends, half mortal and half fiend, some might live on the prime material plane with their mortal parent others might not, far as i know that sort of thing varies from individual to individual even in older editions

wind hemlock
#

what do we know about punpun

pallid flower
wind hemlock
#

well i have the original player sheet and know who made pinot i wanted to know the back story people made

feral lintel
wind hemlock
#

ok thanks

snow laurel
#

What methods of magical personal cooling exist in d&d? I just designed a dwarf wizard whose like 50% hair and I realized the poor dude is gonna bake in the sun if he can't cool off

snow laurel
cinder cloud
#

Prestidigitation is a common cantrip that allows one to warm or cool a non living object so that seems the most likely source of cooling for a wizard. However, we are firmly in the realm of speculation here, so ask your DM.

unkempt merlin
#

They did ask for magical cooling, not technological

Eberron has no things like personal air conditioning technology. It likely has some magic items that let you cast something like prestidigitation to cool down.

There are also likely items similar in concept to the Ring of Warmth, just reversed, in many settings (would have to check)

cinder cloud
#

Magic is the technology in most settings

#

I use Eberron as an example due to the ubiquity of practical magic in that setting compared to others.

unkempt merlin
#

Most settings still have plenty of normal technology

cinder cloud
#

This isn't really the place for semantic discussion

unkempt merlin
#

It's not really semantics to say there is a difference between magic and technology in the lore?

cinder cloud
#

In most fantasy settings the highest form of technology is magic. I'm not getting into a discussion over what you think I meant.

unkempt merlin
#

I wasn't talking about what you meant? Magic and technology are different things in most settings, including Eberron.

cinder cloud
#

Not getting into a sematic discussion, as I said before.

tidal steppe
mellow goblet
#

Control water can freeze

#

Err shape water

near oxide
mellow goblet
#

Not hard to imagine someone freezing their waterskin to use as an ice pack

#

To cool off

cinder cloud
#

We can speculate all we like, but that's beyond the scope of this channel. OP was asking for an example from lore and I can't find or recall anything so specific.

#

As many have noted, it's not difficult to imagine such technology, so my advice would be to talk to your DM about what that might look like in your setting.

unkempt merlin
#

Oh, just remembered Exandria has Bags of Colding

#

It's like a bag of holding. But cold

lethal shard
#

in the forgotten realms setting, what outer planes does Yggdrasil directly connect? i'm seeing, Hades, Ysgard, Limbo, the Beastlands for some reason, and Arborea (Olympus). Are there any I'm missing?

snow laurel
lethal shard
#

or does it just connect to all of them

feral lintel
#

iirc, the World Tree was an alternative to the great wheel cosmology

#

but it does possible have roots and branches connecting everywhere

snow laurel
unkempt merlin
#

Not within how the general lexicon usage of technology differentiates between the two (which is the easiest way to respond to a general question in which the asker does not specify)

Especially not in Eberron, where one of the bases of its lore is quite literally "magic instead of technology"

snow laurel
#

Of course our understanding of technology doesn't include magic; our understanding of society doesn't include elves, either, because neither exist

unkempt merlin
#

Understanding of the term in the usage of fantasy is what I was referring to

snow laurel
#

If that is the case, do you have any examples of "technology" being used within D&D that excludes magic?

feral lintel
#

Wagons, Guns

snow laurel
#

Not examples of technological innovations that do not use magic, but the usage of the term "technology" as a collective noun excluding magic

#

(also guns in Forgotten Realms require magic to work)

feral lintel
#

yeah, dammit Gond

snow laurel
#

I have an artificer character I'm playing whose greatest ambition is to murder gond for "infringing on his natural right to use blackpowder"

#

He keeps joking about loading up a spelljamming ship with barrels of smokepowder and flying it into Wonderhome

#

(he's also an edgy fedora tipping atheist so he wants to blow up kelemvor and the wall of the faithless too)

cinder cloud
jagged apex
jagged apex
iron saffron
#

Gunpowder doesn't exist on Toril. Smokepowder is magical (thanks to Gond's monopoly).

unkempt merlin
#

Gunpowder exists it just doesn't work

jagged apex
#

besides, gond's rendering black powder innert on toril is only applical to toril, he mainly did it cuz his followers kept blowing themselves up too much by accident, there are plenty of other worlds without that limitation

#

at least on toril

#

honestly knowing he did it cuz his faithful kept blowing up too often by accident, seems less of a monopoly and more of a safety measure

hazy flower
#

is there a 5e race that could be cat-like? In more human-way, cat ears, tail, no fur nor muzzle?
( and seriously I ask for a friend...)(

jagged apex
#

plus guns are expensive typically on toril as the trade off of their ease to use

atomic granite
#

In Book of Ebon Tides, are Isinglass and Soriglass the same place?

jagged apex
hazy flower
iron saffron
lethal shard
#

are there any additional methods of interplanar travel other than spellcasting (gate, planeshift), physical travel through the astral sea, and natural gates/connections between adjacent planes?

iron saffron
#

It's either via spells, portals, or the Ethereal (Material to the Inner Planes) or Astral (Material to the Outer Planes) Planes .

jagged apex
#

there is also the whole thing with the tuning forks which made a reappearance in the 5e planescape books

iron saffron
#

A tuning fork is also a Material component for Plane Shift.

heady hare
iron saffron
#

That's just the Sword Coast.

ashen forge
#

Were hexbloods in older editions? If so, is there any obscure lore that wasn't included in VRGtR? (Not retconned lore, unmentioned lore. Also sorry if this isn't the right place)

iron saffron
#

No, not as a playable race.

unkempt merlin
#

Not as a playable thing, but I don't think hexbloods generally existed either

However hexbloods do encompass something that is from older lore, being Hagspawn

ashen forge
#

I'll take a look at Hag Spawn, thx!

zealous star
#

im relatively new to the actual D&D lore, and i don't have the time, nor the money to like, actually get deep into the lore, (because im assuming there are whole books about the lore) so im just curious, could someone give me like just a general timeline? if there is any?

iron saffron
#

Which setting are you asking about?

#

There are many official campaign settings so there is no "one timeline."

zealous star
#

oh i see

iron saffron
#

D&D is 50 years old so there's no tl;dr even if there was just one setting.

zealous star
#

nvm then, i'll figure that out myself (me and some buddies are playing one of said timelines as a campaign)

cinder cloud
#

If you have a specific question about lore, you can ask it here.

zealous star
#

alright, thanks!

iron saffron
zealous star
#

das a lot-

#

we're playing dungeons of drakkenheim

#

from the sound of it its pretty fun

iron saffron
#

That's not an official D&D campaign setting but a third party one.

zealous star
zealous star
iron saffron
#

There's nothing wrong with third party or homebrew settings but this channel doesn't deal with them.

zealous star
#

alr, mb mb

iron saffron
#

Don't apologize.

zealous star
#

ok

feral lintel
#

Are there any challenges/duels that giants would partake with each other? Like, i know of giants basically chucking boulders at each other until someone got knocked out

storm dagger
#

Giants have contests depending on their Ordening values.

feral lintel
#

Ic ic. Which one do Frost giants have?

storm dagger
#

Frost Giant's Ordening is about physical might and martial skill, and proof of such things.

#

Like how well built they are, notable scars from epic battles, trophies from enemies.

#

Wrestling is a common way for them to show dominance over one another.

feral lintel
#

Did they have like a name for that practice

storm dagger
#

One game they like to play to show off is a boulder throw

#

The challenger giant tosses a boulder and the defender giant then throws it back at them.

#

If the challenger gets hit it shows they were weaker.

#

If the Defender can't reach them it shows the challenger was stronger, and he is not punished for his hubris.

#

Another one that Frost Giants like for Boulders is building targets out of snow and seeing who can smash the most with a single toss.

#

Frost Gaints also enjoy hunting contests, to see who can bring back the most impressive trophy

#

I do not know of any fancy names.

#

You could translate them into norse as the languages are based on that.

#

Like glíma means wrestling.

#

Lausatök, Hryggspenna, Brókartök are also old norse words for types of wrestling.

#

Ah yes Glima a later word that refers to Brókartök

mystic vortex
feral lintel
#

IK Blue dragons are already a thing, but are there any more storm themed dragons

iron saffron
#

Blue dragons are desert themed.

cinder cloud
#

If you just want dragons that deal lightning or thunder damage, there's blues, bronze or sapphire dragons. See also turtle dragons for a bit of "storm" flavor.

unkempt merlin
#

White dragons with blizzards as well

feral lintel
#

Oh, the catastrophic ones seem to be what im looking for thanks

jagged apex
feral lintel
#

tornado might fit better. A mix of fire and lightning fits tornado

jagged apex
#

well the article that details the tornado dragon does also detail the wildfire dragon if i am not mistaken, but those creatures are specific to 4e, so far as i know there is no version of them in other editions, so if you are wishing to use them you may have to do some conversion

feral lintel
#

most likely aye. is there a preexisting statblock for these guys floating around somehwere?

calm crest
#

There are also mist dragons, and (if true dragons aren’t a requirement) storm drakes.

jagged apex
#

just again, remember those are tailed around 4e both in lore and statistics and the like

iron saffron
#

They were in the online Dragon Magazine. Regrettably WotC scrubbed their wizards.com archives.

feral lintel
#

dammit

iron saffron
#

Sorry. I stand corrected. They're in the 4E MM 3.

#

I just checked my book and they're in there.

feral lintel
#

ah ic ic

#

hmm, im only seeing blizzard, volcanic, earthquake

#

oh cool, they seem to have a growing aura thing

misty kestrel
#

what smell do warlock spells have

iron saffron
#

This isn't the channel to ask.

misty kestrel
#

this is confusing, where then

iron saffron
#

That question isn't lore related. Read the spell descriptions.

ionic rivet
#

Also check the channel descriptions (and see #channel-guide) to find the best location for a specific topic.

feral lintel
#

spells do what they say they do.

fallow leaf
#

you're just gonna have to make something up depending on the spell

iron saffron
#

Remember that flavour is free. Tasha's quantified this — you can make your magic missiles look like rubber chickens if you want as long as you don't change the game mechanics part of the spells.

distant brook
#

Hey can someone please explain to me how exactly the spellplague got retconned. Like was it just like that period of 100 years just didn't happen or did they still happen just the effects of it was simply undone

unkempt merlin
#

It didn't get retconned

iron saffron
cinder cloud
# distant brook Hey can someone please explain to me how exactly the spellplague got retconned. ...

Lore wise, the Spellplague happened and some of the changes became permanent in the decades to follow, but as you correctly identified most things returned to how they were before with the Second Sundering. Game-wise it was intended to be and widely received as a formal retcon to the Spellplague and much of 4E Realms lore, which was panned by many contributors to the Realms and fans alike. If you want to read more there's an interesting thread on the topic here: http://candlekeep.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17850

distant brook
#

Oh so it's the latter then right?

cinder cloud
#

It's kinda both.

#

The Spellplague happened, as did the Second Sundering, which restored the world to much the same state as it was.

#

There are still places where the changes of the Spellplague persist

jagged apex
#

the spellplague is a in universe event that resulted in the changes in the game between 3e and 4e, most of it is resolved, but as schm0 said, there are some places where the effects still linger, if anything was changed it was likely the specifics or how those events relate or transpired in relation to the 5e continuity that came after with the second sundering, basically would be saying what went on in this continuity regarding that period of time

#

retcon is a term that often is misunderstood or misused it does not mean that it simply did not happen, it means new information was added that was not there prior that changes things in some way

iron saffron
#

There were cataclysms (on Toril) between the editions to explain the changes, mostly with the magic system.

jagged apex
#

which kind of led to the joke many like to make about mystra constantly being killed

jagged apex
iron saffron
#

I've ignored the 4E FR lore stuff (luckily 5E retconned most of it).

jagged apex
#

but yeah to my knowledge the spellplague basically caused damage to both worlds, hence why some land mass was relocated and is how the dragonborn migrated to toril

prime slate
#

Is there any thing DND that I could use as a Davy Jones replacement? Think Pirates of the Carrabian, where one chould excape death buy serving on the ship?

iron saffron
#

Is there a specific setting you're asking about?

night girder
#

Where do humans come from in dnd?

feral lintel
#

which setting

night girder
#

Forgotten realms

feral lintel
#

unknown

#

actually, i think in a lot of settings it unknown

night girder
#

Is it unknown in Eberron?

pallid flower
iron saffron
#

That said, humans from other worlds, such as Earth, had transported to Toril.

#

Remember that D&D is creationist is that gods created creatures in their image, so scientific evolution isn't really a thing on most worlds, especially when worlds like Toril is only about 35,000 years old.

ashen forge
#

Can Psedodragons look like any kind of dragon or are they just their own thing?

iron saffron
#

They are their own thing.

ashen forge
#

Thx

hard portal
#

What is the lore of Githyanki and Githzerai?

iron saffron
hard portal
#

Ahhh aight

jagged apex
#

they became two seperate subspecies of sorts mainly do to a difference in idealogy of what to do after breaking their people free

reef cape
# hard portal What is the lore of Githyanki and Githzerai?

Once there was a nameless people who were enslave by illithids. Those enslaved people had two leaders who worked for their liberation, one named gith who was a warrior and a wizard, and one named Zerthimon, who was a philosopher and a master of psionic. They freed the people from the illithid and broke their empire. Then Gith and Zerthimon had a falling out. Zerthimon believed it was best for the people to go to Limbo and heal the wounds that their long enslavement had caused, Gith wanted to conquer and create their own empire. They split during the event known as the pronouncement of two skies. Those who followed Zerthimon were called Githzerai, those who followed Gith were called Githyankis. The githzerais are now monks, psionics and philosophers, the githyankis are now invaders and raiders. The one thing they still have in common is their hatred for the illithids.

#

Gith then descended into the Nine Hells, seeking power, alongside her right hand, Vlaakith. Only Vlaakith came out, with a scepter, a proclamation crowning her queen of the githyanki, and an alliance with the red dragons of the brood of Ephemolon.

#

Nobody is certain what became of Gith herself. The silver sword that had been forged for her by Zerthimon has passed through a dozen different masters since then, but generally always ends up being reclaimed by the nine hells.

#

Now the Githyankis are ruled by the lich-queen Vlaakith, one of the most power non-divine being in the multiverse, though she claims to be divine.

#

She devours the souls and abilities of her fellow githyankis while promising them paradise.

#

Githyankis also live in the astral plane, where aging is impossible.

prime slate
iron saffron
#

Never heard of it. Do you mean Daggerford?

prime slate
iron saffron
#

That's the Forgotten Realms then.

#

There's no "Davy Jones" in D&D as far as I know. You're welcome to homebrew it.

prime slate
#

Is there anything that is cannon that would be close to Davy Jones

iron saffron
#

Read my post above.

reef cape
#

If it's the Bill Nighy version... Krakens and similar creatures can turn people into Deep Scions. It fits the bill

calm crest
#

There's also a variety of aquatic undead.

heady hare
#

what are some known ritual by which one can summon devils such as Abishai? can you make something up, like something involving sacrifice, for you backstory?

snow laurel
#

Is there any evidence in any published d&d setting for a paladin swearing their oath to a court of law or secular government institution rather than a church or God?

robust swallow
#

See the Oath of the Crown Paladin subclass.

ionic rivet
#

Oath of the Crown can be found in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

snow laurel
#

I'm asking specifically because of that subclass

#

I'm specifically asking about where and to whom the oath is sworn, rather than does the oath exist

ionic rivet
#

It's sworn to a ruler or kingdom/nation/government (or a deity of law) as described in SCAG.

#

Often, paladins who swear this oath are members of an order of knighthood in service to a nation or a sovereign

unkempt merlin
#

(Also note that paladins don't even need to be sworn to either of those as well. Paladin oaths can (more or less) be sworn to anything generically in the lore)

pallid flower
#

In Eberron there’s a swear-in oath for the Dark Lanterns iirc, but not specifically paladin

thorny hound
#

do lightning elementals exist in DnD or are they just air elementals?

unkempt merlin
#

They do exist, but they are a type of air elemental

#

Lightning is just considered a category of air most of the type

thorny hound
#

hm so basically a variant of "Air"

unkempt merlin
#

Yep

thorny hound
#

do other elementals have "variants"? or would they just fall into quasi or para elementals?

snow laurel
#

Iirc I thought lightning elementals were para elementals

#

Air plus positive energy

iron saffron
#

From 2E Planescape's The Inner Planes book:
The Elemental Plane of Air: The Boundless Blue
The Elemental Plane of Earth: The Anvil
The Elemental Plane of Fire: The Crematorium
The Elemental Plane of Water: The Bottomless Deep
The Positive Energy Plane
The Negative Energy Plane
The Paraelemental Place of Ice
The Paraelemental Place of Magma
The Paraelemental Place of Oooze
The Paraelemental Place of Smoke
The Quasielemental Plane of Lightning
The Quasielemental Plane of Mineral
The Quasielemental Plane of Radiance
The Quasielemental Plane of Steam
The Quasielemental Plane of Ash
The Quasielemental Plane of Dust
The Quasielemental Plane of Salt
The Quasielemental Plane of Vacuum

misty scaffold
iron saffron
#

But remember that Pieter/Pietra Van Riese is a Dark Lord, who get their powers from the Dark Powers so lore-wise you can't easily drop him/her to the Sword Coast.

#

Anyway, this is moving beyond the scope of this channel.

jagged apex
halcyon wigeon
#

Hey folks,

So I've been playing more of 5E recently over some of my other systems, and I'm quite enjoying the Forgotten Realms/Sword Coast setting. I've only got the three Starter Set/Essentials Kit adventures so far, plus Phandalin and Below.

What sourcebooks are worth getting? I got the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide, I found it a bit shallow for what I was hoping. I've heard the Dragon adventures are worth it (Dragon Queen/Tiamat duo), but then I'm also looking at the two Waterdeep books, Descent Into Avernus, and Candlekeep Mysteries.

Are any of the older (3E etc) books worth getting, compatible with 5E? I'm also aware that the 2024 DMG is going to focus on Greyhawk rather than FR, so there might not be anything else new for the foreseeable.

jagged apex
#

not really the place to ask that

halcyon wigeon
jagged apex
#

this channel is for lore, not book recommendations, but in short the one that is within the realm is the last one

#

older editions are only compatible regarding lore and only if not contradicted by newer lore, and the new dmg does not focus on greyhawk

#

it is setting agnostic, using greyhawk for examples

crude blaze
#

Greyhawk was listed in the new DMG as an example on how to make a setting, and also as an homage to the oldest official D&D setting for the game’s 50-year anniversary

halcyon wigeon
jagged apex
halcyon wigeon
jagged apex
#

it is basically the generic channel for dnd talk

crude blaze
#

That’s still the best channel for requesting recommendations on which books to buy

feral lintel
#

Discuss WotC-published game settings, and the events and characters that shaped them. Wherever possible, please indicate which setting you're discussing: [Forgotten Realms]/[FR], [Eberron], [Dragonlance], etc.

ionic rivet
#

As a reminder we ask folks to stay on topic for the channel they are posting in - this channel is for discussing official D&D lore from official D&D sources.

iron saffron
#

A lot of the 4E era of Forgotten Realms lore was retconned with 5E. For example, in 4E a lot of the deities were killed off/merged/missing only for them to come back to the "status quo" with 5E.

IMO, 5E hasn't done much on covering/updating the lore in the Forgotten Realms because WotC has avoided publishing supplements dedicated to the setting's lore. Any new/updated lore will be sprinkled in adventure campaign books, such as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist or Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.

The 3E Forgotten Realms Campaign book is thicc and I highly recommend it. Later this year, WotC is coming out with two Forgotten Realms books, only player-facing and the other DM-centric. I don't know how much lore they'll cover.

halcyon wigeon
halcyon wigeon
feral lintel
#

Theres the FR wiki

iron saffron
#

Ed Greenwood has his own Youtube channel. There are D&D lore Youtubers such as AJ Picket and Jorphdan.

#

IMO, SCAG is a waste of money.

halcyon wigeon
#

Okay. Both, wikis are fine and good, but they usually lack a good introduction. I'm not looking for spoonfeeding, I get that this channel is very much locked down in how you guys use it, but allow me an analogy - you'd never read Tolkien Gateway as a replacement for LoTR, right?

iron saffron
#

Don't bother with 4E FR lore because most of it was retconned out by 5E.

feral lintel
iron saffron
#

How far back are you willing to go? The Forgotten Realms is older than D&D itself.

halcyon wigeon
iron saffron
#

Toril has several continents so Faerun (the Forgotten Realms) isn't the only campaign setting on that world.

#

FR lore was also covered by countless number of novels, some of which explained what happened during the cataclysms inbetween editions (Time of Troubles, the Spellplague, the Second Sundering).

#

tl;dr There is no tl;dr on the lore of Faerun.

halcyon wigeon
# iron saffron How far back are you willing to go? The Forgotten Realms is older than D&D itsel...

I guess that depends. For clarity, I know next to nothing. I know about as much as WoTC are willing to tell you in the 5E material, which is basically nothing, and I've some vague familiarity with the CRPGs, but the Baldur's Gate series didn't seem to have much lore in them at all other than references to names and characters, Elminster for example.

I get there's a timeline, I know nothing about it. I don't know what demarcates the eras, or what events occurred in them. It's not like LoTR where I'm familiar with The Silmarilion, or Elder Scrolls where I know about the 3E and 4E and the Oblivion Crisis that led from the latter to the former.

feral lintel
#

Theres 50 years worth of lore split between thousands of writers

halcyon wigeon
dawn tree
#

Are there any good YouTube playlists on lore?

iron saffron
#

Riches and Liches, AJ Picket, and Jorphdan.

feral lintel
#

AJ Picket

dawn tree
halcyon wigeon
# feral lintel Theres 50 years worth of lore split between thousands of writers

I certainly got that impression from how WoTC handle the setting. It feels both shallow and complicated at the same time. Complicated in that a lot of different people have added to it and made it convoluted with various add-ons, but shallow in that WoTC won't lead you into any of that and basically treat it as a generic fantasy sandbox where anything goes. That's merely my first impressions, based only on how they treat the IP.

feral lintel
#

Theres been several companies that owned DnD, not just WoTC

#

its been the same throughout

iron saffron
#

The height of lore supplements was the 2E and 3E era.

halcyon wigeon
iron saffron
#

WotC has been more and more hands off on campaign specific books of late because they feel not everyone plays FR.

halcyon wigeon
#

I'm just not familiar enough with the TSR era material to comment on how they handled it

feral lintel
#

Right, because theyre leaning more on DMs making their own stories

dawn tree
#

Goodness, how are beginners supposed to get into dnd when it’s so complex and there is hundreds of hours worth of research and lore? That is a lot of videos

halcyon wigeon
feral lintel
#

Start with whats relevant to your characters/campaigns

dawn tree
iron saffron
dawn tree
#

One playlist has 200 lore videos

#

That I found

#

It seems very detailed though

feral lintel
#

Yeap. Again, 50 years

iron saffron
#

Knowing about the Forgotten Realms lore stuff is pointless if your DM uses a homebrew setting.

dawn tree
#

The videos are by MrRhexx

iron saffron
#

Take what MrRhexx publishes with a grain of salt.

dawn tree
halcyon wigeon
feral lintel
#

iirc, he adds in his own twists or something?

#

at least, from what i heard

iron saffron
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At times he has added in his own stuff that's not "official."

halcyon wigeon
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I'll tell you in DMs or in another channel on here

dawn tree
iron saffron
halcyon wigeon
# iron saffron You control the lore at your own table. I use the Forgotten Realms setting but I...

Well to simplify things, I guess I'm looking at whatever the present/most contemporary state of the FR world is; to understand what's happening in it, what factions exist and all that, in order to present a credible lore-friendly campaign that's compatible with existing material. I'd like to know more about cities like Neverwinter, for argument's sake. Would you recommend the wiki page on such topics in this instance, or are there useful TLDRs on these kinds of topics?

iron saffron
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You're not going to get much detail for 5E lore as you would have with 2E and 3E era FR books (which includes novels).

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If you want deep dive then read the FR wiki, which cites sources.

halcyon wigeon
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I come from a background of playing The One Ring, and as you might expect, Middle Earth is quite a contained and coherent setting. It's relatively easy, on those terms, to build campaigns around the existing lore. In essence, I am looking to do the equivalent by understanding at least a partial amount of FR lore, for clarity.

iron saffron
halcyon wigeon
iron saffron
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I recommend hanging out at Ed Greenwood's Discord server. People there can answer or at least point you to the proper sources.

halcyon wigeon
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Thank you, btw

jagged apex
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you are more likely to get more recent lore that you might not from published books from wizards of the coast, from the setting's creator, ed greenwood, he puts out videos on his youtube regularly and to my knowledge and history is willing to often answer people's questions as long as he does not have an NDA on the topic

halcyon wigeon
jagged apex
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though there will always be some things that are not gunna be detailed, there will always be a degree of vagueness, those who are fans of older editions often being not a fan of how comparatively less detailed newer books are, but dnd more so these days sort of encourages the more fluid nature of it and that leads to you often getting more setting agnostic books with ideas and examples rather than something like 3e where it is very focused and detailed, though they may return to that for all we know with the setting specific books that they have planned for after the new monster manual comes out to complete the revised 5e books, only time will tell

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though most 5e books of the forgotten realms setting for 5e had focused mainly on the sword coast, the new books they have announced are to my knowledge gunna be the first such ones we will be getting for 5e officially that are outside of the sword coast area, mainly Calimshan, The Dalelands, Moonshae Isles

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to my knowledge those three sections of the setting we have not gotten much beyond passing mentions and such since like 3e

feral lintel
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I hope to god we get a reworked Kara-Tur

jagged apex
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same, even if it takes time

halcyon wigeon
# jagged apex though there will always be some things that are not gunna be detailed, there wi...

Indeed, that was the impression I was getting. I don't exactly blame WoTC in that sense, treating it as something vague enough to encourage DMs to make their own thing.

But at the same time, I think it's better to give DMs a solid foundation to work with. I never found them making FR into some generic fantasy setting particular helpful, but maybe that's just me. I'll start with the wiki and Greenwood's videos, and I might even look to getting a copy of the 3E campaign setting if the content looks good. I don't expect War and Peace, but SCAG was such a low bar that anything more than that is certainly an improvement.

stable yacht
# jagged apex though most 5e books of the forgotten realms setting for 5e had focused mainly o...

This will be great for me. I’m actually planning a campaign where my adventuring party will be going to different parts of Faerun (and hopefully other parts of Toril) and it’ll be fun because there’s not a lot on those areas so you do have a lot of freedom to play with where you don’t have to worry about if by the deviating from the main lore too much (even though it’s perfectly acceptable to do that)

cinder cloud
# jagged apex though most 5e books of the forgotten realms setting for 5e had focused mainly o...

Well, SCAG was somewhat comprehensive in the sense that it updated many locations outside of the Sword Coast, but the lore we received was quite scant compared to offerings from previous editions. Just for example, there are entire lore books from previous editions dedicated to just the Dalelands and just the Moonshae Isles. Calimshan was covered in multiple setting guides covering the Lands of Intrigue. But those areas are just a small portion of the larger Forgotten Realms guide that we'll be receiving in the next year or so, and an even smaller portion of the Forgotten Realms as a whole.

quasi laurel
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Ive been reading through tomb of annihilation bc i might run it and ive played BG3 in ToA there is someone named Withers mentioned ik the standing theory is Withers from BG3 is Jergal but found this interesting and was wondering if someone with more info could explain that to me?

iron saffron
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5E has concentrated mainly in and around the Sword Coast. There are still 80% of Faerun 5E has never or barely touched.

iron saffron
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BG3 is essentially Larian Studios' homebrew rules and game.

quasi laurel
tidal shore
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So, if someone could help me with this. When did it get revealed that goblins were Fey? I remember it vaguely being mentioned in Mordenkainen’s Monsters of the Multiverse but like, was that something made for THAT BOOK or was it something mentioned before that?

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It is my understanding that before MOTM, they were humanoid. What brought on the change?

iron saffron
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They've been Humanoid since 1E. 2025 MM codified them as Fey.

stable yacht
iron saffron
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WotC publishes it.

stable yacht
iron saffron
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If it's published by WotC then yes. There were novels and comics published by TSR and WotC that were considered canon until up to 2014. WotC decanonized everything pre-2014 as not to bog down 50 years of lore to new players.

stable yacht
iron saffron
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Alluding means nothing. BG3 isn't canon.

stable yacht
cinder cloud
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Well, canon is relative. WotC canon and FR wiki canon are different, for example

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As far as WotC is concerned, the only thing canon is what has been published for that specific edition

iron saffron
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For example, LucasFilm decanonized the Expanded Universe when Disney bought them, however, they've been slowly brought elements from the EU into Star Wars canon.

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Minsc and Boo were from the original two BG games. WotC bring them into canon with the recent Spelljammer book. Similarly they did the same with Morte from the Planescape: Torment game.

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They did the same with the kids and villians from the D&D cartoon. Same with the 1980s D&D action figures (they appear in ||Wild Beyond the Witchlight||)

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WotC owns the IPs so they can bring in characters from licensed products if they want and "canonize" them.

stable yacht
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So if the events from BG3 is mentioned in a WotC published book then it’s canonized?

iron saffron
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¯_(ツ)_/¯

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As a product it's on its own. Same with the live action D&D movies.

feral lintel
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There are basically not one canon, but multiple continuities as Scarlet would put it

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Think similarly to how superhero comics often work

stable yacht
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Yeah I was just making a point that BG3 could be considered canon on some level.

But we also know that they treat this as a multiverse as well. So FR wiki is one canonical lore. Then you can make your own.

It doesn’t seem like it’s run the same way as the Disney Star Wars example that was used. That’s all

pallid flower
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If they bring in one element from BG3, it doesn’t mean the entirety of BG3 is canonized

versed hare
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I myself have 4 different forgotten realms cannons in my games

stable yacht
clever path
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irrelevant until an official book says it happened in lore

pallid flower
clever path
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in fact bigger lore shifts are less likely to be officialized

stable yacht
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But what I’m picking up here is, there’s nothing that’s been officially established to say what constitutes as official lore since it seems like there’s a lot of interpretations and no reference of a source that states the requirements, correct?

cinder cloud
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There is no size requirement. There are many different definitions and scopes to what is considered canon, not to mention across each setting.

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If you care about what WotC considers canon, then it's only the material they have published for this edition. They reserve the right to ignore, dismiss or retcon anything else, more or less.

stable yacht
cinder cloud
stable yacht
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There is no generally accepted, official, hard-and-fast set of rules given by TSR, Inc. (TSR) or Wizards of the Coast (WotC) for determining outright what is canon,
This is how I see it really. Again, looking at it as a multiverse so lore is what you make of it.

feral lintel
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is also nice to see what Keith baker has on his blog as well for Eberron

iron saffron
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Stuff got/gets retconned by TSR/WotC all the time (I'm looking at you 4E FR lore!)

reef cape
clever path
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did it even have anything before?

reef cape
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Not this edition. Previously, though, it was a nightmare of neocolonial nonsense. You can find it in 1988's Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms.

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It was first created by Gygax, Cook and Marcela-Froideval in 1985's Oriental Adventures. Then, in 1987, it was "fused" so to speak with the Forgotten Realms setting.

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It did not last long, they kind of discarded the setting in 1990.

clever path
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oh it was the oriental continent. right

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Could still make it eastern, but if it was by gygax I'll assume it wasnt a very...culturally well written

reef cape
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For another flavour of oriental, this time persian and arabic, you would have to turn to the no less disgusting Zakhara from 1992's Arabian Adventures

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You will notice that those settings have two big problems. The first, and biggest one, is obviously the neocolonial point of view on the cultures they try to ape. The second is that those simply do not fit in the same planet as Faerûn.

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You'll see a list of gods nobody has ever heard of just a continent away, no mention of the events that have defined the history of the entire planet...

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So, yeah. Once again, Zakhara feels like it was made to be its own setting and then clumsily put together with the rest of Abeir-Toril

clever path
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The true Forgotten Realms

reef cape
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For another flavour of disgusting, you may be interested in Maztica! This time, it's central american cultures that are portrayed. Get ready for human sacrifices, pyramids, and actual colonialism as one of the plot points is that the people of Amn and the church of Helm are getting ready to conquistador the whole thing

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And obviously the word "savage" is found every two paragraphs

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From 1991's Maztica Campaign Set by Douglas Niles

clever path
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ok to be fair pyramids and human sacrifice IS accurate historically speaking

reef cape
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Fair but those were still nuanced cultures and there's a lot more to them than just pyramids and human sacrifice.

clever path
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yea i figured it was...overly emphasized

reef cape
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There's also Katashaka, basically "darkest africa". It gets little lore

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But, you know, it's tribes, and one of them worships the Tarrasque.

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That's also the place the people from Chult emigrated from when they became Ubtao worshippers, so I guess that's neat

iron saffron
reef cape
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Oh, thank you, I'll be sure to take a look

iron saffron
reef cape
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Isn't Katashaka Tabaxiland?

iron saffron
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My campaign is based around the Chult Peninsula but I've had the PCs touch upon other lands. One of the PCs is an aarakocra from Kara-Tur. So they have "met" gods from the Maztica and Kara-Tur pantheon (either an aspect or through their dreams).

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Toril is much bigger than the Sword Coast and even Faerun so I want to push beyond those boundaries.

iron saffron
reef cape
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Ah, of course

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My bad

iron saffron
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It's been almost 30 years since those campaign settings came out. I think they should be updated because personally I'm a tad tired of the European-centic Faerun (albeit the southern parts like Amn, Calimshan, the Shaar, Halruaa are more North Africa / Turkey inspired). There is diversity in Toril but it's just limited and concentrated in big metropolis cities in the 5E books.

reef cape
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Strange. Amn always felt more like Spain to me.

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Maybe Portugal

iron saffron
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Mediterranean influence I guess.

prime slate
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Are there any sea patrons that a warlock could make a pact with?

feral lintel
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Fathomless lists a few iirc; but theres Krakens, Aboleths, Sea Hags

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Entities of the deep that might empower a warlock include krakens, ancient water elementals, godlike hallucinations dreamed into being by kuo-toa, merfolk demigods, and sea hag covens.

prime slate
feral lintel
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Note this is only for the forgotten realms. You can work with your DM to flesh out a sea hag patron

cinder cloud
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Any powerful ocean or water themed entity would do.

white parcel
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what happends when a devil dies in nine hells? does it leave a corpse?

cinder cloud
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Permanently destroyed

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Devils that die in the Nine Hells are destroyed forever - a fate that even Asmodeus fears. (2014 MM p. 67)

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It does say they turn into a "slimy substance" so there's that

crude blaze
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That might not be entirely true anymore. I’m pretty sure DiA has examples of Devil corpses in the battlefields of Avernus, but I don’t have my book on me to confirm.

calm crest
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One of the former Archdevils killed in the Hells also currently exists as a giant, layer-spanning corpse.

crude blaze
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Maybe it could have something to do with the power level of the devil in question, but yeah. I do recall there being evidence that a devil killed in the Nine Hells dies, but doesn’t always turn into sludge.

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Demons are the ones who definitely turn into a puddle of ichor when they die though, and that’s pretty universally true across all planes.

iron saffron
cinder cloud
crude blaze
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Oversight or not, it’s official

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Plus it might not have been an oversight and instead something they explicitly included to highlight the horrors of war between the fiends of the Lower Planes

cinder cloud
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Eh, it's like ten words tucked in a description of a couple rooms in the adventure, I would not qualify this as formal lore

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At best it's just a contradiction

crude blaze
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I mean, idk that we get to pick and choose what is and isn’t lore, but if you don’t think that’s official and formal, that’s up to you I suppose

grim siren
# cinder cloud I did check Descent into Avernus and there does appear to be a || half-eaten cor...

Oversight in Lore and 5e, name a more iconic duo.

TBF sometimes there are oversights. Looking at the Vecna adventure it is clear, the Main module allegedly takes place 10 years before the DDB prequel.

Even DiA has many oversights. With everything in that module pointing to the year being 1492 DR. But then certain things that an arch devil should know about how things work, doesn't work. ||This is about Zariel making a fifty year pact in 1444 DR, but if the module happens in 1492 DR then Zariel got a bit hasty||

cinder cloud
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A direct retcon would be a new book that contains lore specifically about devils that says Y happens when a devil dies, retconning the previous lore that stated X. The source for the "slime" is "Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells". This is just a few sentences mentioning || devil corpses|| in the description of two locations in an adventure. It is far more likely that this is an oversight or unintended contradiction than an attempt at retconning the existing lore, IMHO

iron saffron
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I would blame the 5E editors for not doing their jobs of checking pre-established lore.

cinder cloud
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Agreed