Whilst exploring the internet, I’ve found a variety of different official scripts for Elvish. From my understanding of it, Rellanic is a generic one (not tied to a setting), and Espruar is Forgotten Realms. However, the 5e version of Espruar (PHB) is different from past versions. Is there an explanation for this?
[RPG] The Espruar script seems to have changed from past editions. Is there an in-universe explanation given for the change
dnd-5edungeons-and-dragonslanguageslore
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5E Realms lore does not specifically address this. 4E Realms lore, on the other hand, does. Their exact origin is subject to some debate, even among the elves.
Collectively, the elves are known as the Tel’Quessir6 ("The People"), a title that encompasses Eladrin, Wood Elves, High Elves, Sea Elves, and so on. It is 'widely accepted' that the Tel’Quessir are native to the Feywild1. It is believed that they first immigrated to Abeir-Toril over a hundred millenia ago, while the exact date is uncertain it is believed to have been prior to −24,000 DR, with some manuscripts indicating it was as early as −30,000 DR, the same time in which dragons were setting up their empires (Note: Source on this is from AD&D)4. The Wild Elves were the first to arrive.1
The exact origin of the Elvish race is subject to some debate. Some ancient manuscripts suggest that they were the result of a battle between Gruumsh and Correlon that occurred in the Feywild. During said battle, Correlon was injured and his shed blood became the Eladrin.2. Other types of elf, not liking the superiority this implies in that the Eladrin are the first and 'purest' of elves, disagree with this theory3. Another theory postulated is that since the Feywild tends to be a 'reflection' of the Prime Material Plane, and thus produces creatures that are echoes of creatures from the Prime, it is also possible that the Elves are one such echo... though what, exactly, they would be an echo of is uncertain1.
Perhaps also worthy of mentioning is the current in-lore explanation for how the Feywild (also known as Faerie) is treated according to current lore. The Feywild was created as it exists today, a 'lighter' echo of the Prime Material Plane. It was made by Primordials in the far distant past, before recorded history begins.5
For a while, the Feywild existed alongside the Prime and interaction between the two was common. But, at some point in ancient history, the two drifted apart and travel between them became increasingly difficult2. This is the explanation for why, in prior editions of D&D, the Feywild didn't "exist" in the Forgotten Realms. It was out there, you just couldn't get to it.
The Spellplague (the event that 'kicks off' 4E in the Realms) changed that, reshuffling the cosmology to drag the Feywild back into close proximity, and placing it in the accessible location it resides in today5.
Checking through published 5E Realms material, it does not contradict any of this... the 5E Realms cosmology is essentially the same as the 4E Realms cosmology, and the lore established within 4E is considered to hold true in 5E, except where directly overridden. And even then, the changes are usually justified in-lore (such as the array of gods and goddesses getting rejiggered due to Ao meddling with them).
The primary lore sources we have in 5E Realms are the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, the DMG, and published adventures. None of these go into detail on the origins of the Elves, or even on the specific nature of the Feywild... thus we may assume the lore of older sources hold true.
Sources
1 Brian R. James and Ed Greenwood (September, 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. (Wizards of the Coast)
2Bruce R. Cordell, Ed Greenwood, Chris Sims (August 2008). Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. (Wizards of the Coast)
3James Wyatt (December 2007). Dragon 361: A Fractured Family. Wizards of the Coast.
4Steven E. Schend and Kevin Melka (1998). Cormanthyr: Empire of the Elves. (TSR, Inc) NOTE: AD&D source
5Dungeon Master's Guide 4th edition. (Wizards of the Coast)
6Kim Mohan ed. (2015). Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. (Wizards of the Coast)
It did originate from the cat people themselves, in fact different types of them (leopard men vs jaguar men) pronounced it differently according to an article in Dragon Magazine issue 93 in 1985 and later backed up by the 'Monstrous Manual" published ironically in '93. Its also made clear that the tabaxi language is a precursor to the payit language, but the language of the human tabaxi tribe was unrelated, they only took the name.
Best Answer
The 5e Espruar alphabet is from past editions - it's 3e that's different!
As KRyan's answer notes, the elven alphabet in the 5e PHB is not and is not meant to be Espruar. However, the Thorass and Espruar alphabets given in the 5e Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide do differ significantly from the versions presented in the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting - they are actually using the same characters from the original versions of those alphabets as presented on page 8 of the 1e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set handbook, Cyclopedia of the Realms:
Thorass and Espruar were dramatically redesigned in the 3e FRCS with no in-universe or, so far as I can tell, out-of-universe explanation given. From googling around to investigate, reception seemed a bit mixed; some people think the redesigned script was much better, others preferred the original version.
It is not clear why 5e has returned to the original version of Thorass and Espruar in SCAG, and whether that choice was deliberate or not (both versions of Espruar come up pretty readily if you google for it, so whoever was responsible for those images might have just picked one at random!) If it was deliberate, I would hazard a guess that it is because 5e made a big deal about returning to D&D's roots and trying to restore appeal to old 1e and 2e players, and the decision to use the classic FR alphabets plays into that.
Whatever the out of universe explanation is, I cannot find any evidence that a change in script has been noted in-universe, so one assumes that these changes must be considered retcons. If you're dead-set on a canonical explanation, I'd just chalk it down as another bizarre consequence of all the magical shenanigans that accompany every edition change.