- Was there a particular
challenge in all of this?
Or something that you
love the most in Theros?
What does it bring that's unique
compared to the rest of the
D&D multiverse in terms of setting?
Obviously, we've talked
about the gods at length,
but what's the overall feel
that you think is really unique?
- So it's there in the title.
We landed, after much debate,
on the title of "Mythic Odysseys
of Theros" for this book,
and we really wanted it to
have a mythic feel to it,
not just in a sense of super awesome
but in the sense of the
adventures that you're going on
have a weight to them in a cosmic sense.
Tying it to the gods is
one way of doing that,
but there's a lot of supernatural gifts
in the book that your
character can begin with.
When you're playing a character,
even at first level, who,
part of your story is yeah,
the god Purphoros made you in his forge.
(laughs)
That is a backstory for your character
that has a weight to it.
I think is really special
and is pretty unique in D&D worlds.
- Yeah, that's one of my favorite parts
about this entire product is it is that
Greek/Roman mythology
kind of inspiration of
okay, you're a hero,
but it's not like in D&D where maybe
you started out in a village,
and then you slowly became
more and more powerful.
Quite often, you were destined.
Like you said, someone forged you maybe,
or maybe you erupted
out of someone's head,
and you were a dream they had, right?
That's the level of epicness,
at level one the things start,
and you have a variety
of benefits for doing so.
They're not, none of them
overpowered by any means,
but it does set you on the path of,
listen, I am this
Hercules-like character, right?
I have this predetermined destiny,
and maybe I won't succeed.
(laughs)
- [James] Exactly.
- Because this is D&D.
(laughs)
But it's definitely a different tone.
- Yeah, and maybe you did
come from a tiny village
and it seemed like you were no one,
but at the moment of your birth,
there was a tremendous
omen across the night sky,
or the wind blew in a particular way
and an oracle said,
"Oh, this kid's important."
- Another way to look at this
is this is almost like superhero D&D.
Since superhero in comic book myths
are largely based on the
same kind of level of,
"Yeah, I was in the village
but it turns out my dad's a god so
got things to do."
- Yeah, I think the supernatural gifts
don't have that huge of an impact
on your character's abilities,
but they do on your
character's story, or they can.
So, yeah,
if you're playing a character
who's a divine soul sorcerer,
who was made in Purphoros' forge,
then that supernatural gift
can become a lens through which you view
all of your character's capabilities.
I'm a divine soul sorcerer
because I was made on
the forge of Purphoros,
and I cast awesome ninth level spells
when I reached level 17
because I was made on
the forge of Purphoros.
So, your supernatural gift
informs the way your character develops.
It's not just here's the superpowers
that you have at level one.
- There's a concept in
Theros of fate and destiny.
Most people go through their
lives kind of bound by fate.
They are, from the time they're born
to the time they die,
their life is just kind of
going through what fate
has woven for them.
Heroes are a unique group.
These are individuals that
can shape their own destiny.
That they can, kind of,
there's literally a sense
that they are not bound by,
there's an unpredictability about them.
That there is something
they're not necessarily beholden to
the mechanics of the world itself.
And, so, and it could be, again,
this idea that if gods have somehow,
you were born on the eve
of some important battle,
or you were selected by
some god for whatever reason
'cause of something
your parents have done,
or whatever it is, you can
choose to embrace that concept,
or turn away from those things.
So there is this sense that
even though the gods are involved
in the character's lives
and the hero's lives,
they're not enslaved to that concept.
There is this sense of
you do what you will
with that information,
and so it can be really empowering,
especially with say,
there is this weird,
interesting, humanistic
strain in Theros where, again,
this can get into the nature
of the gods themselves,
but, they...
Okay, I am gonna get into
the nature of Theros for a moment,
because this kind of plays into this
what heroes mean and...
So Theros is a unique world
in that the gods themselves...
Okay, so in Theros,
there's this thing call
Nyx, and Nyx is this...
It almost looks like a night sky,
it's this star field.
And this Nyx has this interesting quality
that it picks up on human consciousness,
and human beings, mortals,
not just humans, sorry.
All the kind of mortal races on Theros
kind of feed into this consciousness
and can manifest entities like the gods.
And so, the gods themselves
actually owe their existence to mortals.
And whether or not they know that,
some gods are very aware of it,
like there's a god, Kruphix,
who is aware of this concept,
but not necessarily all.
All the gods might not necessarily
know it to the same degree
and not all mortals
understand this concept.
And so there's this humanistic concept
that even the power of the gods,
who then can gift
mortals with great boons,
and amazing magical items,
and can meddle in their lives,
but they still owe their existence,
in some degree, to mortals.
And so when you look at
mortal heroes themselves,
there's something very,
very empowering about them,
even though they are kind of embroiled
in all the kind of in-fighting
and pettiness of the gods.
So it's a really fascinating concept.
And this book digs into the relationship
of mortals and their gods.
It really plays with the piety system
that was introduced in the D.M.G.
and kind of blows that out in a way
that we haven't really seen before.
The gods here, in kind of
Greek mythological tradition,
are very active in the lives of mortals.
So all of this is kind
of infused in the book.
And so, all heroes whether you embrace,
kind of, your patronage of a god,
or you are turning away from it,
you're still going to have to deal
with the gods or the
servants of gods in some way.
And so, it feels very Greek in that way,
and which is what the world
that Magic: The Gathering
created with Theros was trying to do.
This is their top-down
Greek-inspired world.
And so, we're translating Greek mythology
inspiration through Theros,
and it's fascinating to see
what developed were these kind of
nods to traditional Greek mythology,
but then also how Theros introduces
very unique concepts as well.
- And that piety system
that is in the D.M.G.,
you do blow it out quite a bit.
You have varying levels of piety
to whatever god you've
chosen within the pantheon,
and that can effect your character
quite a bit in terms
of either skill checks
or magical effects and all
kinds of things, right?
- Correct, correct.
And you could gain and lose piety,
this isn't a fixed thing.
So it's this dynamic thing.
And you might be the
most devoted to your god,
but something in the story may happen
that might make you actively
turn against that god,
or try to resist that god's influence
where if things are spiraling away
from what you see as
the right thing to do...
So it is supposed to be this kind of
ongoing relationship
that changes over time
throughout the course of a campaign.
- I very much want to
take this piety system
and start using it for
warlock patrons actually.
(laughs)
- Oh yeah, that's an interesting concept.
The idea of, yeah
unlocking more patron gifts
is a fun thing, I like that.
- You know, me and our
little intrepid group
of Magic creatives,
Doug Beyer, Jenna Helen,
Richard Waters, Brady Dommermuth,
and assortment of others that were there
but we were the core group.
Yeah, we came up with
Theros and it was kind of...
We wanted to do something different
and cool and neat,
and we knew that at that time period,
a lot of the Magic fans were clamoring
for something Greek inspired
and we just knew that the iron was hot.
Purphoros' forge was hot at that time.
So we jammed out this world
and filled it full of cool stuff.
And it did really well and now,
to have that thing come way full circle
to make a D&D book on it,
and to be a part of that with the D&D team
is super cool because since then,
since I left Magic,
there's been another iteration of Theros,
and the Magic team has created
a whole new bunch of cool things for it,
and it's fleshed out of worlds.
Like the underworld has been way more
fleshed out than when I was on the team.
They created cool new Minotaur cities,
and a lot of other neat
things that have since then,
a new god has come into
being since I left the team.
So it's really fun to see it.
It's really fun to see other creatives
take something that we made back then
and to build on it and to iterate on it,
to make it even more cool and more fun.
I'm sure that there's going to be
a third iteration of Theros,
and they'll build it out even more.
And so it's kinda surreal and really cool,
and I'm super proud of
the work we did on it.
- Everybody, thank you so much.
Is there anything I didn't ask
that maybe I should've asked?
- One thing that you wouldn't know to ask
is that during the making of this book,
we had the great privilege of having
Dimitrios Pheradinos in the building
who's our coworker and an awesome dude
and he's Greek.
And we had many great
conversations with him
at his family restaurant,
eating Greek food,
talking about Greek life,
and him growing up in the Greek culture.
And he helped out with all
kinds of cultural notes
on getting us into the vibe
of speaking the Greek language.
And he came up with a lot of the names
for the playable races.
And with his help,
he kind of got our brains
into thinking like a Greek
and really highlighting
sort of the fun-loving,
hardworking, family-oriented way
the Greek culture thinks as best he could.
And it was awesome to have him on
and he was a great help
to making this book.
