D&D 5E Speculation thread! Vecna? Giants UA?

Urriak Uruk said:

That's just your interpretation of the text. Pretty much sounds like a place, not a concept, to me (my own interpretation). Now it may be a place that doesn't exist anymore (shattered into the multitude of D&D worlds) but I don't know why that would stop a book from being published on the place.

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Parmandur said:

I don't think they would instantiate the myth like that, and take it out of their toolbox as an explanation for Platonic IP on multiple worlds.

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Urriak Uruk said:

I don't think the idea of "The Material Plane was once a singular world, the First World," removes it as an explanation for how there are Echoes on several worlds. I think the concept is quite simply that the First World is the common ancestor of all D&D worlds, that was at some point destroyed and shattered into several worlds.

I'm actually going to deconstruct the First World Elegy a bit;

Breathe, dragons; sing of the First World, forged out of chaos and painted with beauty. Sing of Bahamut, the Platinum, molding the shape of the mountains and rivers; Sing too of Chromatic Tiamat, painting all over the infinite canvas. Partnered, they woke in the darkness; partnered, they labored in acts of creation.

The two dragon deities, Tiamat/Bahamut, create the world. Simple stuff.

Breathe, dragons; sing of the outsiders, war-bringer gods with their mortal adherents; Teeming, they came to the First World, seeking a home for their legions of followers. Mighty in magic and numbers, conquering deities seized their victory. Fallen was noble Bahamut, Sardior hid in the heart of creation.

The gods arrive, leading armies of their followers. I think this is up for a bit of interpretation, as some could argue they brought their followers from the outer planes, or made them once arriving. Either way, there is a period where the First World exists but it is in conflict with the new mortals and present dragons.

Breathe, dragons; sing of the conquest, seeding the world with their legions of followers, Each to their own habitation, elves in their forests and dwarves in their mountains, Orcs in their caverns and canyons, goblins in badlands and halflings in green fields, Lizardfolk lurking in marshes, humans throughout every part of creation.

The mortals and the gods win the war, populating the world entirely, driving the dragon gods into exile or imprisonment.

Breathe, dragons; sing of her freedom—Tiamat loosed from her prison of torment! Tell how she rallied her children, dragons chromatic, a spectrum of mayhem. Sing of her fury, her vengeance, lightning and venom, ice, fire, and corrosion, Five-headed, monstrous, and mighty, rampaging on a campaign of destruction.

Breathe, dragons; sing of the First World, scattered in infinite seedling realities. Sing of Bahamut and Tiamat, watching its sundering, mourning their labor. Sing too of Sardior, sundered, consciousness scattered in minuscule fragments. Breathe, dragons: you are inheritors, ruling the wreck of the First World's destruction.

Tiamat breaks free, and it breaks the First World into infinite seedling realities; the first singular world is smashed into the Multiverse.

Sure it's a myth, and one told from the perspective of dragons, but why can't it be true? It makes complete sense that all of creation was first one world that was shattered. And I don't see any reason why this First World can't be a setting on its own, especially as the events named could be ones that enfolded over a period of millennia. Plenty of room for giant empires, dragon-fire baked deserts, kraken controlled oceans...

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Urriak Uruk said:

Sure it's a myth, and one told from the perspective of dragons, but why can't it be true?

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JEB said:

It certainly could be true. But it would be more interesting IMHO if it was just one perspective, and if their rivals - the giants - had a very different story. (Likewise, I'd be curious how aboleths tell the story, or mind flayers, or fiends, or celestials...)

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Bitbrain said:

Vecna = adventure book. Giants UA = setting book.

That’s my opinion anyway.

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Demetrios1453 said:

A Vecna adventure is actually an intriguing idea. It has some overlap with ToA with a lich big bad, but there's enough conceptual space available to keep them seperate in my opinion...

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JEB said:

It certainly could be true. But it would be more interesting IMHO if it was just one perspective, and if their rivals - the giants - had a very different story. (Likewise, I'd be curious how aboleths tell the story, or mind flayers, or fiends, or celestials...)

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Urriak Uruk said:

Well, I'm thinking it's true in part... and the giants have their own perspective. But that doesn't mean the First World didn't exist, or that it wasn't a tangible place.

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Parmandur said:

Something doesn't need to be tangible to have existence, or be "real."

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