Mordenkainen has appeared in the title of several Dungeons & Dragons books, but who is he, and why does he keep getting top billing? The Mordenkainen name should also be familiar to the players of arcane spellcaster characters in D&D, as there are several spells attributed to him, including Mordenkainen's faithful hound and Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion.
The 5e D&D rulebooks are generally linked to iconic characters from the D&D multiverse. These include the monster hunter Van Richten from Ravenloft, the traveling scholar Volo from the Forgotten Realms, and Fizban the mage from Krynn, who also happens to be an avatar of Bahamut. These characters add their own comments to different pieces of lore, offering more context to how certain characters and monsters are perceived by others.
There is a book in 5e called Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, which includes over 140 new monsters for D&D. The upcoming D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set will include a new book, called Mordenkainen Presents: Multiverse of Monsters, which will receive a standalone release in the future. Multiverse of Monsters will feature revamped playable races and updated stats for over 250 monsters. Given these substantial offerings, fans might be wondering who Mordenkainen is in terms of D&D lore and why he keeps appearing in the titles of books.
Dungeons & Dragons' Mordenkainen Is The Greatest Mage Of Oerth
Mordenkainen was originally one of the player characters of Gary Gygax, the co-creator of D&D. This makes him one of the oldest D&D characters in the history of the game. He would go on to form a group with Gygax's other characters, which became known as the Circle of Eight. The goal of the Circle of Eight was to maintain the balance of good and evil, though they tended to have a lot of fatalities among the members, such as when Vecna killed them all in the Vecna Lives campaign, as his minion Halamadar used the Eye and Hand of Vecna against them. Mordenkainen was absent during this encounter and spent most of his time bringing his allies back to life, through the use of the clone spell, which he had to do again when the traitor Rary killed several members of the Circle.
In terms of stats, Mordenkainen is the most powerful wizard in the world of Oerth from the Greyhawk setting, with the Epic Level Handbook making him a 27th level wizard. This means Mordenkainen is also one of the most powerful D&D characters in the entire multiverse, not counting the gods. Mordenkainen was known to travel to other settings in the D&D multiverse. In recent years, Mordenkainen became a planeswalker in Magic: The Gathering, further cementing his status as one of the strongest mages in D&D. He often met with Elminster from the Forgotten Realms and Dalamar from Dragonlance in the Wizards Three articles that used to appear in Dragon magazine, with the three treating each other as equals. Dalamar was replaced with Mordenkainen's apprentice, Rautheene, due to the nature of magic changing in the world of Krynn. Mordenkainen also visited Barovia in the Ravenloft setting and once fought Count Strahd von Zarovich.
Mordenkainen's status as one of the oldest and most powerful D&D characters is why he appears in so many books. He's one of the most iconic D&D characters, thanks to his appearances across many different settings, so it makes sense for his perspective to be used when outlining the growing Dungeons & Dragons multiverse.