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r/Eberron

▲ 10 r/Eberron

Elder Signs and Eberron:

I like adding more cthulhu mythos-y stuff to Eberron, and wanted to share my thoughts on Elder Signs:

Elder signs are present in some places in the Shadow Marches, known to a few remote druidic sects and some members of the Silver Flame. However, the Church of the Silver Flame keeps this knowledge secret, because Elder Signs do not differentiate. They'll block anything from outside Eberron, including angels and beings from Siberys. Theoretically, if you managed to properly construct and activate an Elder Sign inside Flamekeep, the light of the flame would vanish from the temple.

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u/Blue_box_42 — 5 days ago
▲ 8 r/Eberron

[battlemap] KryshtRhyll, the Forest of Flesh

The canopy pulses like a living organ. Branches twist into grasping fingers. Mushrooms bloom from the bones of forgotten travelers. And beneath your feet, something shifts in the earth because the forest itself is awake... and HUNGRY!

The monsters of Droaam themselves stay away from KreshtRhyll. It is a forest of flesh populated by grotesque and horrifically bizarre monsters crafted into humanoid and bestial aberrations. Some say it is the playground of Eberron's greatest mage, Mordain the Fleshweaver!

This is a 40x40 map with 5ft grids.

u/UXplaymaker — 5 days ago
▲ 26 r/Eberron

Passage - Building out its history and culture

I'm thinking of starting a campaign in Passage, leaning towards a noir style. I know Sharn is the obvious choice, with lots of source material, but I want a slightly smaller city: not as overwhelming, and somewhere the players can more easily make a big impact. I also imagine a more "West-Coast" sort of vibe. With imposing presence of House Orien in Passage, I plan to make industry a defining issue for Passage, even more than it would be in Sharn.

Some broad strokes of my ideas...

Passage is in a hybrid manifest zone. Naturally, it is a Lamannian manifest zone, but a great clock tower, Queenstower, in downtown Passage amplifies Daanvian energy. This is ideal for the smooth operation of lightning rail coaches in the city. Shipping, on the docks, is in view of Queenstower; engine repairs are done on the outskirts of the city where Lamannian energy invigorates the bound elementals. Many Orien conductors swear their engine's elemental clearly purrs in Passage.

The interaction between Lamannia and Daanvi yields some interesting weather effects. Fog always rolls in off the lake at the same time every morning. Nights are dark and stormy. The clear afternoon hour between the fog and the storms is when the city feels most alive.

Illusion magic is weaker in the city, another Daanvian effect of the Queenstower, which is mostly good for honest business, though it makes entertainment more difficult in the city. The square around Queenstower is full of world famous restaurants precisely because prestidigitation is impracticable; the wealthy of Aundair visit Chef Emil to taste fine, authentic Aundairian cuisine. The Passage Lyceum uses bound elementals to light the stage, the only Phiarlan associated theater to do so.

Similar to Sharn, Passage is built on Dhakaani ruins. Originally (as a Lamannian zone), it was a fishing village, then a hunting outpost, and eventually a moderately important trading hub. There are still goblinoids in the city today, some who even claim lineage from those first settlers.

Shifters are another notable part of the population, taking many of the manual labor jobs in the city. Shifters have always been a part of the city, but a significant number emigrated around the time of the Silver Crusade (830's YK), when lycanthropy was decimating Eldeen tribes.

Most shifter laborers have a hostile disposition towards warforged, who threaten to outwork them out of a job. Most warforged who come to the city face harassment, or worse, unless they are clearly employed as bodyguards.

Street hrazhak, a shifter game, is a nuisance to the well-to-do in the city, who say it's just an early sign of urban blight, a prelude for gang war. But it's one of the few ways an outsider can gain respect from the shifter community.

Like many cities, Passage is secretly a haven for changelings, doubly so since so many new faces come and leave from the city.

There's a small but steady population of gnomes in Passage, most of whom work as elemental binders for House Orien. (There is also a Sivis enclave.)

Passage used to be part of Thrane (as shown in the map on page 11 of Forge of War, dated 894YK). The Silver Flame theocracy was (and is) very unpopular in Passage, bad for industry barons and their shifter workers alike, so Aundairian troops were practically welcomed with open arms. Thranish loyalists were chased out of the city. The crown of Aundair claimed their vacant properties and sold them for a pittance to the city's industrialists.

The ir'Edar family (of which Duke Jalnar ir'Edar is the current head) were installed as the nominal rulers of the city, but they were only ever tolerated because they yielded to the Dragonmarked Houses (Orien especially) in matters of industry. Secretly, the ir'Edar brood lead a cult of the dragon below (from Dragon #332).

Am I on to something here? Has anyone already run a campaign in Passage?

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u/headofox — 11 days ago
▲ 45 r/Eberron

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u/UXplaymaker — 11 days ago
▲ 17 r/Eberron

Review: The Fading Dream (Thorn of Breland #3, Eberron) by Keith Baker

https://beforewegoblog.com/review-the-fading-dream-thorn-of-breland-3-eberron-by-keith-baker/

THE FADING DREAM by Keith Baker is the third and final novel of the Thorn of Breland series. I’m quite fond of this series due to it being spy fiction in a high fantasy setting. Thorn is an agent for the Brelish government but ever since a disastrous mission where she was infused with several magical rocks, she’s been doubting her commitment to the cause. She’s also developed a link with a powerful long dead (?) dragon named Sarmondelaryz.

I was very excited about The Fading Dream due to it covering two of my favorite topics in Eberron: The Mourning and Cyre. The Mourning for those unfamiliar is a magical cataclysm that destroyed an entire nation of Eberron and brought an end to the Last War. Cyre was the nation that was destroyed and turned the entirety of its survivors into homeless refugees. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a book that isn’t quite about that. It’s still but both aspects are more background than forefront.

The premise is that Thorn has returned from her mission to kill the Son of Khyber in the previous book but been demoted to bodyguard duty because of the manner it ended. After an assassination attempt is foiled, Thorn gets a chance to redeem herself by going out into the Mournlands to make contact with the mysterious eldarin. A group of powerful elves from Thelanis, the eldarin claim they know the cause of the Mourning and how to repair it. Thorn thus sets out with the aid of an immortal child to discover whether this is true or just another theory about the Mourning’s cause.

Fans looking for concrete answers to the Mourning and Cyre’s destruction will sadly be disappointed. Keith Baker has been clear in other sources the true origin of the Mourning will always be left up to the Dungeon Master. However, it presents a theory even as the protagonists remain skeptical. Personally, I wish they had leaned heavier into this aspect and I was disappointed Prince Oargev (hereditary ruler of Cyre’s survivors) had remained a part of the adventuring party for the entire book.

Essentially, this book feels a great deal like an advertisement for 4th Edition’s attempt to insert the eldarin as a PC race into most Dungeons and Dragons settings. Keith Baker takes the bull by the horns and gives the eldarin a massive history connected to the giants, quori, possibly the Mourning, as well as the plane of Thelanis (Eberron’s equivalent of the feywild). They are alien, mysterious, and driven by stories in a way that is quite incomprehensible to the normally cynical and pragmatic Thorn. I admit I preferred the realpolitic of The Queen of Stone and the cynical analysis of revolution in The Son of Khyber but Keith Baker is always entertaining.

Fans who have been wanting a resolution of Thorn’s connection to Sarmondelaryz.will get all the answers they need. I’m a bit iffy about this because while I like the plotline, I also feel like Thorn was always a strong enough character to carry the plot without her being linked to a red dragon who sometimes felt like a deus ex machina. James Bond is cool. Dragons are cool. James Bond as a dragon isn’t necessarily cooler than either individually. I also wished we’d received more follow up on Lei, Pierce, and Daine after their mentioning in Son of Khyber.

In conclusion, The Fading Dream is a good book but I find the eldarin less interesting than the gritty dark side of Eberron. The Queen of Stone had a lot of diplomacy and intrigue while the Son of Khyber thrived on its moral ambiguity. The Fading Sun is a more classical adventure tale with heaps of mythology as well as world-destroying supervillains that could have fit into something like the Forgotten Realms. Keith Baker is, as always, a great writer and I hope he’ll return to writing novels in a fantasy setting some day. Would I read more Thorn, though? Absolutely.

u/CT_Phipps-Author — 11 days ago