Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Wotc declaring cannon

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/202...anon-for-5th-edition-and-vice-versa.html

So the time line from previous editions don't exist in 5e edition. If this is true what year would it be in 5e and would it matter anymore?

This isn't a big move or a great shock... it's just the way it's literally always been.

They aren't saying "none of that other stuff happened!"

They are saying, as they've ALWAYS said, that the evemts of your realm and game may differ from the events of the same realm as it appears in other people's stories, games, adventures, video games and novels.

The rough timeline for all of the events of past editions and how they form a coherent evolving world through different changes to the game are all still there and all still 'more or less' happened. The exact details are not specifically fixed because the realm is flexible enough for individual DMs to make individual worlds at their individual tables. That's all.

So, the historical events of the realm prior to ~1480 DR all still happened. Their precise and exact details are NOT defined, and even their exact outcomes are not precisely defined either (was this tyrant defeated by a band of adventurers; what were their names? Not defined. Was this nation saved from a dastardly blight by the valiant actions of heroes, or did the sinister lich actually get his way? Not defined. That those events occurred is a more-or-less element of the history, but the details and outcomes, less so). In that sense there is no precise and specific hard canon, and there literally never has been.

None of this is news. That doesn't mean that media that uses it should just throw it all out the window as "Lol, non-canon" and do whatever they like with the IP - that's not what is being said here.

It's in the early 1500s. Some of the early 5e adventure books set out a concrete date. Princes of the Apocalypse, for example, happens during the 1490s. Also, the novels, the video games, and the sourcebooks have never actually been on an entwined timeline, so the fact that the novel's aren't canon isn't news. I imagine that when the new tv series comes out it also will be on it's own timeline and won't really be canon for any of the others.

Yes, Niara is compl right. The novels were always unpopular, so they were soon declared non-canon. The events of BG 1 & 2 still happened, but not exactly the way they were depicted in the novels.

It just sounds to me like Disney and Star Wars. "Everything you know is wrong. Except for the movies, no other stories exist so we can make new ones."

Sorry, I wish your interpretation were true, but until WotC explicitly says so my interpretation is exactly what you say it is not, which is: A user/game developer can and should just throw all the lore from previous editions out the window as non-canon and do whatever they like with the IP -- so long as some snot-nosed kid at WotC who neither knows nor cares about D&D/FR checks off on it.

Their other comments, about internal consistency, are a bit more telling - they're particularly pointed in relation to the discussion going on about phase spiders elsewhere currently, and are an illustration that Larian's moves to completely upend and alter everything and present them in ways that run contra to their established design and style, are exactly what they should not be doing except as individual set pieces of importance for their personal story.

I have my own personal canon for the star wars movies. Some happened, some didn't, and midichlorians don't exist.

Thanks for commenting and making the topic more clear. Probably was just taking the article wrong and getting annoyed, it was late.