So I made a shitpost about a D&D cartoon series where the villains were two wacky daelkyr played by Justin & Griffin McElroy, but if we’re being serious, my ideal D&D cartoon series would look like this: a bunch of teens from disparate Dungeons & Dragons settings, brought together by the mysterious forces at work aboard the Spelljammer, who escape aboard an elven man-o-war to traverse wildspace and explore the many worlds of D&D.
Tonally, it would be similar to Avatar, being a show about magical teenagers with generally bloodless combat that intersperses humor and wonder with serious themes. Structurally, there would be a narrative arc for every crystal sphere they visit (Daelkyroys definitely a possibility as the villains of the Eberron arc), and larger arcs intertwining them, about how they deal with wildspace travel, the differences of their home spheres, and the mysteries surrounding their abduction and their convenient rescue by the quirky and strangely recalcitrant man-o-war.
Left to right, our cast is:
Tonia diTanar’ri (god I wish Tony diTerlizzi had done more work for Wizards), a tiefling rogue/fighter from Planescape (age 16). As a third-generation tiefling, her rocky relationship with her parents doesn’t stem from her abyssal ancestry; rather, it stems from the fact that her parents are stuffy Dustmen, and Tonia is a fully-fledged Sensate. She still believes that the multiverse is an afterlife - some philosophy dies hard - but she believes that it is in fact a paradise full of glorious struggle, a reward for suffering the humdrum of the lands of the living. She’s the most combat-eager, as well as the most eager to explore the many sensations of the many worlds. While she attempts to be as wanky and high-concept as her Sigilian upbringing would have her be, her attempts at philosophy, and her philosophy of life being a reward don’t exactly hold up well.
Ka’thok of pack Chtik-tek, a thri-kreen druid from Dark Sun (age 4, the equivalent of 15 for a human). Ker is torn over whether or not to stay in wildspace - on one hand, ker misses kers pack and territory, but on the other hand, ker loves kers new clutchmates, and doesn’t miss how hard food and water were to get back home. (Resource management frequently creates conflict between ker and the rest of the team.) Ker was also a training kiltektet, or scholar-missionary, and is currently staying in wildspace to acquire more knowledge to contribute to the rest of the kiltektet. (Originally I was going to make ker a dude but then Thri-Kreen of Athas said that thri-kreen has a gender-neutral pronoun so shabam nonbinary.)
Chandrashana of Ruukosi Keep, a kalashtar mystic from Eberron (age 15). She’s the most homeward-looking, and while she continues to meditate on il-Yannah, she feels that she’ll be doing more good back home on Eberron. She is happy to use her fire blasts and telepathic abilities to help whomever she can out in wildspace, but constantly worries about Adar, and about whether the Dreaming Dark can find their way into wildspace. She’s also trans, and uses her tsucora spirit to provide a digestible allegory for the viewers - much as the female quori Taratai possessed a male human to become the first kalashtar, some quori spirits still get their human bodies confused, and the spirit Shana ended up tied to a male-assigned body. Chandrashana is only ever referred to as she - Shana is an inseparable part of her mind - and Adarans have no stigma against being trans, but she does have an originally male-assigned body only slightly modified with psionics.
Iolanthe Perendrilinas, a bionoid paladin from Spelljammer (age equivalent to 17 for a human; I can’t decide if making her 77 would allow good “I’ve seen so much” plotlines or just invite sickos). Wildspace is her home, so she doesn’t really need to “go back” anywhere, but she is concerned about the need to protect the other kids - yeah, yeah, she’s technically a kid herself, but that doesn’t change the fact that wildspace is dangerous - and going into an insectoid armored form whenever you’re in combat always presents its unique problems. She’s also noticed that Tonia has a fairly obvious crush on her and is grappling with whether or not she should start something with someone that short-lived.
Angus McDonald (name probably subject to change), a human wizard from Forgotten Realms (age 14). Angus is the Aang of the group, a cheerful boy who’s very definitely still a kid and still focused on the wonder side of things even when he pulls out some serious magic. He’s Toril’s greatest boy detective, and the most determined to unpack the mysteries of wildspace, but he also is the one who most sincerely misses his home and his family. He’s a very strong little boy and genuinely sees the best in people, though, and loves exploration. He also picked up a magic hat in the first episode while they were escaping the Spelljammer that allows him to summon items, as a brief nod to the first D&D cartoon.
(I have to apologize to @titleknown that I didn’t make a character who comes from Ghostwalk, but they’ll definitely visit it at some point.) I know this is probably going to remain a pipe dream but there’s always that slightest sliver of a chance that Wizards will notice me someday.
