Wizards of the coast just released a book called Worlds and Monsters. It hasn't arrived yet. But to quickly recap, D&D is changing their cosmology in 4th Edition. There are two new planes, Feywild and Shadowfell. Feywild is the classic realm of the Faerie, but Shadowfell seems like their darkside and is the new "Plane of Shadow".

What I found interesting as a parallel to Lusternia is this description of the new race of the Shadowfell...



Does this sound like a certain commune we know and love--I loved the fact that it was ruled by the Raven Queen.

I know it's coincidental, but it's an awful nice coincidence.

They keep themselves in continuous pain to anchor them to reality. Bracers perforate their skin, piercing, brandings...

Hrm. HRM.

That one line is less of a good fit

Nooo, don't give him ideasss.

Except the idea was hardly unique to Lusternia.

I know, I certainly wasn't implying a D&D designer looked at Lusternia.

But I have a feeling one year from now Glomdoring will be getting novices who will either state OOC or on these forums, "boy, this is a rip-off of D&D".

Everybody rips off fantasy tropes from everyone, really!

I'd have to agree with that.

Hell, I doubt fantasy games and stuff wouldn't even be half of what it is today if Tolkien never The Lord of the Rings series. So many things in Fantasy games and such these days (IE: Races) probably were jump started into the main stream by Tolkien, if not invented by him.

Tolkien's work, as nice as it is, is just a rip off of Norse mythology. Elves, dwarves, names like "Middle Earth" and Gandalf, etc., all taken from the Norse. Very little in the world is truly original.

True, but he launched them into the spotlight. Before Tolkien,very few people knew about any of that stuff. Nowadays, it's much more common.

That's also true.


(But people should still read the Eddas, they're awesome )

Synl cut himself too much as a Shadowdancer. :\\ That's why he had to go Ebonguard.

They get BIG knives.

My father is writing a fantasy series, and he gets his inspiration from original pagan myths. Much more fodder for the creative mind there than from Tolkien or any modern fantasy setting.

Yeah! And who *wouldn't* want to read two thousand year old poetry? Modern DnD though does "steal" largely from the general stereotypes that sit in the collective consciousness of the modern geek. The modern geek is, at times, quite emo. Thus, it is not Lusternia that Wizards of the Coast is stealing from, it's all of us.

Thieving jerks, let go of my angst!

Hmph.

Heh. We read 2,000 year old poetry on a daily basis. The celtic myths aren't that bad (besides, they have good translations these days)

I do find the similarites interesting though, There seems to be a new resurgence of shadow myths. (and removing the Disney associations with elves and fairies)

That race isn't new, btw, I have it in my 3E fiend folio.

, I'm not the only one that got suckered into buying it?

Yeah, funnily enough I think that's when I stopped buying the books.

Renaissance was the time of Invention.
Our age is the time of Innovation.

Yes, nothing made nowadays is truly original.

Curse those cars, trains, computers and planes. I can't believe how those Renaissance folk just didn't see how to use them correctly.