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I'm looking for any and all creatures–specifically those that have stat blocks in 5e (so I'm excluding things from previous editions that don't have stat blocks in 5e, largely just to narrow the scope of this question)–that are related in some way to the Far Realm. I'm after only creatures that have official stat blocks in 5e so that this doesn't just become asking Google for random unbalanced homebrewed Far Realm creatures, of which I'm sure there's plenty; I prefer using official content where possible.

(What I'm actually after are all of the Lovecraftian creatures, but "what do you think has Lovecraftian influences?" is opinion-based, whereas concrete links in the lore to the Far Realm is objective, hence I'm asking that instead. Furthermore, in the adventure I'm planning, the creatures will have a link to the Far Realm anyway, so the Far Realm link is still relevant to what I'm after.)

Those I know of already (with what evidence I could find from 5e sources of lore) are:

  • Mind Flayers (and other associated creatures, such as Elder Brains, Mindwitnesses, etc):

    Aberrations such as mind flayers and beholders are either from this plane or shaped by its strange influence.

    – p. 68, The Far Realm, Dungeon Master's Guide

  • Beholders (and other variations, such as Spectators, Gazers, Death's Kiss, etc):

    Aberrations such as mind flayers and beholders are either from this plane or shaped by its strange influence.

    – p. 68, The Far Realm, Dungeon Master's Guide

  • Aboleth (I know of no other variations, so this is just "the Aboleth"):

    "Could it be that aboleths are older than the gods ... that before the divine ones came to be, such horrors shaped the multiverse? Now there's a chilling thought."
    -- Vaqir Zekh'r, githzerai philosopher and author of THE FAR REALM: REAL YET UNREAL

    – p. 14, Aboleth, Monster Manual

  • Star Spawn (all 5 variations given in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes):

    Heralds of Doom. The creatures known as the star spawn are the heralds, servants, foot soldiers, and lieutenants of the Elder Evils [...]

    – p. 234, Star Spawn, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

    Some Elder Evils are alleged to be creatures of the Far Realm [...]

    – p. 237, Elder Evils sidebar, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

Are there any other creatures that I've missed? Note, that last quote shows that not all "Elder Evils" are related to the Far Realm, so a link to an Elder Evil isn't by itself enough (although it might still deserve an honourary mention); I'm looking for links to the Far Realm specifically, even if the link is really weak or indirect, such as my Aboleth quote above.

If the setting matters, let's assume Forgotten Realms, although if the Greyhawk setting or whatever has anything relevant, I'll accept that too (but it might be the case that the Far Realm is specifically only a thing in the Forgotten Realms setting anyway, in which case this paragraph is redundant).

The link to the Far Realm doesn't have to be from 5e (for example, if it was established that, for some reason, Gnolls were somehow related to the Far Realm in, say, 3e, then they are valid for this question because there are stat blocks for Gnolls in 5e, even though there is no link between Gnolls and the Far Realm in 5e; however, if 3e said that Bladelings were related to the Far Realm, that would not be a valid answer, since AFAIK there are no official stats for Bladelings in 5e).

Incidentally, the links to the Far Realm I found are quite weak, but this is all 5e has to offer, it seems (at least, from the DMG, MM, VGtM, and MToF), so if anyone wants to include any stronger links to the Far Realm from previous editions' lore for the creatures I've already included, that would be appreciated, but not if that's all the answer contains, since then it wouldn't actually answer the question asked, which is "what other creatures are related to the Far Realm?" (unless your answer was also saying "Nope, you've found them all", in which case it would still be a valid answer).

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    \$\begingroup\$ Would Eberron specific material be acceptable in an answer? (For example in the Eberron campaign setting the Xoriat plane is heavily based on the Far Realm from other settings, so much so that the descriptions we have of the two are almost identical). \$\endgroup\$
    – illustro
    Jan 23, 2020 at 9:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ @illustro I really had to think about this, since they are very similar. Even whilst writing this comment I've flip-flopped back and forth. I think I'll say that I won't accept Eberron specific answers, since in my adventure that I'm coming up with, it will be related to the actual Far Realm. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, though. \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Jan 23, 2020 at 10:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ What about the Eldrazi from Magic: the Gathering’s DND content? \$\endgroup\$
    – nick012000
    Jan 24, 2020 at 3:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ @nick012000 I know nothing of M:tG (i.e. I don't have the Ravnica D&D book, never played the card game, etc), so I'd say no for that one too (especially since I eventually landed on no for Eberron). \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Jan 24, 2020 at 8:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Theik At least with Eberron, the Xoriat Plane is the Far Realm for the Eberron Campaign Setting. There are however lore differences and Eberron specific aberrations that are distinct from the standard Far Realm in Faerun's cosmology. \$\endgroup\$
    – illustro
    Jan 28, 2020 at 10:12

2 Answers 2

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The only other creature I could find with a fifth edition stat block and a clear link to the Far Realm in 5E material is the Chaos Quadropod from Acquisitions Inc. It is explicitly described as “a creature from the Far Realm”.

In fourth edition lore, any creature with the “aberrant” origin (which is distinct from creature type) is said to be “native to or strongly corrupted by the distant alien plane known as the Far Realm” (4E Monster Manual, pg 280; Monster Manual 2 and 3 instead say “native to or shaped by the Far Realm”). This includes the monsters below from the three 4E Monster Manuals, which are not in your list above and have official 5E stat blocks:

Most of these are “monstrosities” in 5E, rather than aberrations.

The Foulspawn (4E MM, MM3) and the Fell Taint (4E MM2) lack official 5E stat blocks, but have clear Lovecraftian origins - especially the latter. They may be worth tracking down as third-party or homebrew conversions.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I believe the Foulspawn are effectively now the Star Spawn in 5e, but I'll check out the Fell Taint. It's interesting to know about the "aberrant" thing from 4e, that's enough of a link to imply your bullet list of creatures are Far Realm related, even though their change in creature type (to monstrosity) does potentially imply that in 5e they're trying to distance those creatures from the Far Realm. Anyway, thanks for this answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Jan 28, 2020 at 19:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NathanS multiple types of both appear in the 4E Monster Manuals - the Foulspawn are mortal creatures corrupted by the Far Realm, whereas the Star Spawn are creatures sent from the Far Realm to the material plane when the stars are right. \$\endgroup\$
    – Guybrush McKenzie
    Jan 28, 2020 at 20:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ah, fair enough; I was just going by internet rumours. In that case, I might look up both Foulspawn and Fell Taint. \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Jan 28, 2020 at 22:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NathanS glad to help! The 4E Star Spawn appear in Monster Manuals 2 and 3, and many are associated with specific stars/Great Old Ones of the Far Realm, including Hadar, Ulban, Acamar and Caiphon. “Allabar, Opener of the Way” (MM3, pg 186-187) is a potentially planet-sized epic level Star Spawn and would be a challenging but very cool 5E conversion. \$\endgroup\$
    – Guybrush McKenzie
    Jan 28, 2020 at 22:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ That said, this implies that the Foulspawn have been at least merged with the Star Spawn in 5e, since a lot of these subtypes are what the Star Spawn subtypes are called (Grue, Seer, Hulk, etc); the lore does describe them as you say, though, being corrupted by the Far Realm, as opposed to coming from the Far Realm like the Star Spawn. \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Jan 29, 2020 at 12:27
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Warlocks with the Great Old One patron

Your patron is a mysterious entity whose nature is utterly foreign to the fabric of reality. It might come from the Far Realm, the space beyond reality, or it could be one of the elder gods known only in legends.

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    \$\begingroup\$ As it stands, this doesn't really answer my question. You could get away with adding a reference to the GOO Warlock NPC from VGtM, though... \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Jan 28, 2020 at 0:10

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