Dungeons & Dragons has put the highlight again on Tasha, a personality tied to its earliest adventures. Earlier immediately, Dungeons & Dragons introduced Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, a brand new guidelines enlargement that brings 22 new subclasses, extra participant choices, spells, and feats, and a bit for DMs to make use of when planning their subsequent marketing campaign. The new ebook continues the naming conference began by Volo’s Guide to Monsters, which replaces the extra mundane titles like Monster Manual 2 or Player’s Handbook 3 with titles that characteristic recognizable characters from D&D’s lengthy lore.
Tasha’s historical past inside Dungeons & Dragons is definitely extra difficult than gamers may assume. Most gamers probably know of Tasha from the spell Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, a quintessential D&D spell that co-creator Gary Gygax first launched manner again in 1982. Gygax named Tasha after a younger fan who wrote letters to him within the early days of D&D, following a typical development of naming spells after both followers or characters from his own residence games. Gygax offered no additional context for who Tasha was, however an journey revealed in Dragon #83 (about two years after Tasha’s Hideous Laughter first appeared within the pages of that journal) talked about a “Natasha the Dark” in an journey exploring Baba Yaga’s hut.
At the identical time that Dungeons & Dragons first launched Tasha within the pages of Dragon journal, in addition they revealed The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, an journey the place gamers explored caverns as soon as occupied by the highly effective arch-mage Iggwilv. Iggwilv turned a recurring character in D&D adventures, an unquestionably highly effective wizard and rival to the likes of Mordenkainen. Iggwilv was greatest identified for creating the Demonimicon, a robust and harmful artifact, in addition to her ties to varied demon lords. She and the demon lord Graz’zt even had a baby, the demi-god Iuz, who was additionally featured in a number of D&D adventures. Iggwilv turned an iconic D&D villain, a personality with a number of artifacts and spells related together with her who was highly effective sufficient to govern even demon lords.
It wasn’t till 2007 that Wizards of the Coast revealed that the unassuming and mysterious Tasha was truly Iggwilv. The journey Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk revealed that Iggwilv as soon as joined the Company of Seven, a gaggle of well-known adventurers, below the guise of Tasha. Tasha’s true motivations have been unclear, however the journey spells out the connection between the 2 characters. The closing difficulty of Dragon, difficulty #359, repeated the declare that Tasha and Iggwilv have been one and the identical, and have been additionally associated to Baba Yaga’s adopted daughter Natasha. A remake of the Dancing Hut journey revealed in Dungeon #196 additional established that Natasha the Dark would finally develop into Iggwilv.
Wizards of the Coast is constant to make use of the unified “Tasha/Iggwilv,” however appears to be making much more modifications to make the character a bit extra ambiguous. In a name with media a number of weeks in the past, lead guidelines designer Jeremy Crawford pushed again on the concept that Tasha might be described by a single kind of alignment, stating that her alignment was no matter suited her present plans greatest. That’s a particular change from her earlier depiction as a “chaotic evil” form of character, and displays an extra growth of her character past that of the oftentimes stereotypical scheming seductress that Iggwilv was portrayed as in previous adventures.
We’ll discover out extra about Tasha in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, which can be launched on November 17th.
