Converting standard 3.5 to Eberron

[Sir_Chivalry]

I have an ongoing campaign, in which an evil warlord has destroyed a large amount of the dwarven, elven, gnomish and halfling lands, and I want to start working in ideas and concepts from Eberron into the world, such as a church state like Thrane, and such.

I will post more later, just getting the idea started.

[AslanCross]

It's easy to do the dwarven, gnomish and halfling lands in Eberron, since those exist (Mror Holds, Zilargo, and the Talenta plains) respectively. There are several elf "nations"---on Khorvaire, the primary continent, you have Valenar (with its Mongol-like elves who specialize in mounted combat). The "original" elf nation is Aerenal, which is on its own island. The drow stayed on Xen'Drik, where the elves started out as slaves to the now-fallen empire of Giants.

Zilargo is easy enough to "destroy"---it's mostly civilized and has major population centers. The Talenta Plains, not so much---the halflings are nomadic, and between them and the dinosaur population, destroying it won't be so much as destroying a civilization as rendering it uninhabitable. (Maybe use something similar to what happened to the Mournland)

The Mror Holds are (as far as I can tell) a series of deeply entrenched fortified dwarf cities in the mountains.

This is Korunda's Gate, the capital:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/roe_gallery/88225.jpg

Your evil warlord is going to have to be a total badass (or at least very adaptable) to have finished that off.

My suggestion is taking Kaius and altering him a bit. Vampires have a lot of time to plan things, and since he has an army of untiring undead soldiers, they could more feasibly achieve these feats than an army of men. It could've been an "alternate outcome" of the Last War.

[Kosjsjach]

This is really tangential, but I've been meaning to ask for awhile: why would the giants want elves as slaves? :smallconfused:

[Eloel]

This is really tangential, but I've been meaning to ask for awhile: why would the giants want elves as slaves? :smallconfused:

Because elves are suckers who can't fight worth crap, so they're mostly easy to keep under control.

[hotel_papa]

Actually the Mror Holds were under the thumb of King Kaius and Karrnath before the last war. This could be an alternate Eberron easily. Expand the crap out of the Mournlands, break up the Dragonmarked houses and employ Valenar mercs against the other elves. Trust me, they're down for it. Has a lot of potential, this campaign.

[bosssmiley]

This is really tangential, but I've been meaning to ask for awhile: why would the giants want elves as slaves? :smallconfused:

For the same reason wizards want familiars.
~or~
Because Tinkerbell needs no justification.
~or~
Consult your DM.

[AslanCross]

This is really tangential, but I've been meaning to ask for awhile: why would the giants want elves as slaves? :smallconfused:

They can get to places the giants can't go, and they're just the right size for sacrifice. Mostly it's probably because they were convenient victims. No other races had surfaced yet that far back in history. Gnomes, dwarves, and goblinoids surfaced in Khorvaire, while humans appeared half the world away in Sarlona.


Actually the Mror Holds were under the thumb of King Kaius and Karrnath before the last war. This could be an alternate Eberron easily. Expand the crap out of the Mournlands, break up the Dragonmarked houses and employ Valenar mercs against the other elves. Trust me, they're down for it. Has a lot of potential, this campaign.

I thought they'd signed onto the Karrnathi war machine as mercenaries and arms suppliers but then bailed on Kaius late into the war.

[Fishy]

This is really tangential, but I've been meaning to ask for awhile: why would the giants want elves as slaves? :smallconfused:

The 'real' answer is that Elves don't sleep. The Giants' civilization was destroyed in a thousand-year war with ethereal abominations from the Realm of Dreams- the Drow also come with that handy spell-resistance, which also works on psionics. You could do worse for a warrior-caste.

[Eldariel]

This is really tangential, but I've been meaning to ask for awhile: why would the giants want elves as slaves? :smallconfused:

'cause Elves are good with their hands. See:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=146179&type=card

[sdream]

Eberron is supposed to be more advanced than normal DnD, not exactly something that would spring up overnight after a catastrophe.

Perhaps your party could be (depending on which makes sense for their level and your plot):

- fleeing the apocalypse
- deputized to request help from
- magically transported via trap or planar mishap

more advanced civilizations across the sea/in another plane etc.

[Sir_Chivalry]

Okay, here's the world, as it stands right now. Ideas in italics.

Important people: Francis the Redeemer (evil warlord, death knight), Queen Elaina (first actual queen of the Merata). Former adventurers who worked together, they now are the two main leaders of the war, with Francis' goal being the elimination of all non-pure races. Only humans, and only those he deems pure. Note: this campaign I'm working on takes place twenty years after a previous one, and Francis has been warring all this time.

You have several countries on a continent to the east across the sea, these countries remain untouched by anything that has gone on in the history of my campaign. Voyagers from the eastern continent eventually settled the western one, establishing the southern empire of the Stone Lion. The rest of the western continent (anything north of the empire of Stone Lion) is the northern country, where my campaign takes place.I'm thinking of putting Sarlona, the cradle of civilization, in this acrss the sea continent, especially since contact with the Inspired is the last thing the western countries need right now.

Over in the western continents, for the most part, the humans developed culture separate from the eastern continent. A mystical race called the Odi took "the beasts that dreamed" (shifters) and developed the race of elves out of some of them. Other, "beasts" remained in the wild, and the magic the Odi used would mutate to create lycanthropes. Even though the elves no longer have the Odi as masters, they are ruled instead by a coucil of positive energy liches. Thinking of making the elves the creators of warforged, using them as protection for their central hidden city. When Francis the Redeemer shows up, they use an army composed of shifters, elves, deathless and warforged to repel his goblins. The defense fails.

The orcs originally ruled the other races as a sort of pseudo-roman empire thing. They had culture, and a vast empire that spanned the western continent from the jungles of the south to the frigid ice flows of the north. The Odi had created them from the stock of goblinoids, breeding selectively to produce the powerful orc. Much like the roman empire, their downfall was sped along by barbarians, the Merata, who still control most of the western side (the mountains, tundra, plains, jungles) of the western continent. Thinking the Talenta and Valenar could be halfling and elven groups within the Merata.

Halflings stick to their Greyhawk depiction of being nomadic, and it is more the threat of war that causes them to abandon their usual migration and to flock to the cities. Gnomes live undergorund, in vast rabbit warren like dwellings, and the Redeemer used his alliance with the kobolds and a vast series of alchemical poisons to drive them out (think the destruction of the warren from Watership Down:smalleek:). The dwarves live in the southern parts of the mountiain ranges, where the mountians swing east from the western border of the Merata lands. Up until recently, the central mountian range was held by the governing body of the northern country of the western continent, but due to an alliance with demons, and the killing off of all the royal family, the Merata seized control of the northern country and restored the mountains to the dwarves. Those dwarves who have not taken shelter there have had their homes destroyed by the Redeemer, and he plots to destroy the central mountain range soon.

The only cities left undestroyed in the north are Dorunsmere and Porthos. Porthos is run by the guildlords, and is almost a dictatorship. Dorunsmere is one, ruled by an elven lich who used to adventure with Francis and Elaina. He keeps the city safe though, and due to being close to the other racial lands, most refugees flee here. The rest of the country is small villages that have not been overrun by the Redeemer's goblin armies.

Among the main things I still want to incorporate are: Karrnath (maybe Porthos, reflavoured?), Church of the Silver Flame (combine it with the Order of Illumination, an organization already present in my campaign world?), The Mournlands (the elven homeland was destroyed by ripping open a portal to the Far Realm, I'd say that might work), Dragonmarked houses (they didn't exist before, how do I go about this?). Anything else you guys can think of is also helpful.

[Sir_Chivalry]

bump.

I know someone has some ideas.