Help Creating a Legend

[TheBrassDuke]

Okay, so I'm drumming up an idea for a "legendary" backstory, a location "creation story", and a general epic for PCs to "ooh and aww" at. Characters in particular who follow this path may wish to unite against a great evil some day, as well...

What I need help with: General fluff, names, assistance with general poetry, critiques and suggestions or ideas. And maybe a discussion about it.

(Note: this is assuming you know Eberron well, or at least well enough to understand some of the wording and history, etc.)

What's being used for this backstory: The Wu Jen, Sandshaper, Transcend Mortality, Giant Size and Desert Shroud.

Note the inclusion of a Djinn~~~

According to info on the Wu Jen in Eberron, some claims state a Djinn was responsible for teaching the First Wu Jen the techniques you see today, in the modern Wu Jen (mentioning the omission of Air as a mastery). K? So~~

It's Xen'drik, some time before the Fall of the Giants. Unsure if the first WJ was an Elf or Giant, or even a dragon. Probably Elf, to make Giant Size more influential.

Imagine the big Menechtarun Desert isn't there (it covers most of Western Xen'drik on the Map). Instead are vast plains, like in Xen'drik's East.

The the Fiends of Khyber (the Rakshasa and their Raja Overlords) have been defeated mostly by the Dragons and Couatls; the Giants are busy fighting the Quori, etc.

So what if The Scar that Abides (the Raja imprisoned below Stormreach) or another of its minions or peers, such as another Archfiend, still has some influence in Xen'drik. And if this being is set loose on the material plane, Eberron could face another Dark Age. The Fiends were dangerous and formidable to even the Dragons. Imagine how bad it would be for the Giants and Elves! ._.

So somewhere in Menechtarun, a group of Elves and their Giant Masters are trying to fend off the children of Khyber, but the battle's raged on for so long they're getting overwhelmed. Now imagine a genie comes--okay, haven't yet really put this part together...mostly just a summarized, half-done plot-hook atm--and teaches the Elves how to combat this darkness. A particular Elf is groomed to inherit the full potential of the genie's power, and the latter begins instructing him/her of the elements (except air, to protect itself); the genie's intervention offers some level of fairness between the Fiends' power and the Xen'drik natives. Wu Jen are pretty powerful. They're already wasting resources on fighting the Quori. So they don't have much left.

In a desperate attempt to finally rid their land of the Fiends, the Genie teaches his Wu Jen how to match the Overlord in size--giant size--and power. In that affect they battle one another across the plains (not Planes) like two Megazords, neither of them really at an advantage. But then the Raja turns his/her assault on the community. This irritates the Wu Jen, and now empowered by the Genie with gifts of the Waste (his home plane, haven't worked it in yet)--power of the Sandshaper--the Wu Jen grows in size one more time to combat their shared enemy, but s/he knows they are not coming back from this. The Wu Jen charges headlong into the battle with the Raja, calling on their greatest gift (Transcend Mortality).

The two fight, and the Fiend of Khyber is wholly and utterly defeated. Of course, the Wu Jen must pay a deadly price: his/her life once the spell ends. At the very end of battle the Giants and Elves cheer, and they mourn their current immortal, giant savior. S/he thanks them for believing in him/her before dissolving into millions upon millions of grains of sand (as per Disintegration spell), and covers the land that then becomes the Menechtarun Desert.

In his/her wake temples to the Wu Jen rise, but none so grand as the Monastary of the Sand Sharks, the very temple erected by Giants for the Genie who made the first Wu Jen. The Genie loved him some sand sharks...I don't know. That will be our "City of the Dead" touchstone for an aspiring Sandshaper

Remember the Samdshaper capstone: Desert Shroud; the Wu Jen could have very well been brought back and roams the Menechtarun to this day. No one knows~~~

How to make it more than just a scrambled idea and instead some epic legend. Poetry included.

I'm here for suggestions and open to criticism!

[daremetoidareyo]

Okay, so I'm drumming up an idea for a "legendary" backstory, a location "creation story", and a general epic for PCs to "ooh and aww" at. Characters in particular who follow this path may wish to unite against a great evil some day, as well...

What I need help with: General fluff, names, assistance with general poetry, critiques and suggestions or ideas. And maybe a discussion about it.

(Note: this is assuming you know Eberron well, or at least well enough to understand some of the wording and history, etc.)

What's being used for this backstory: The Wu Jen, Sandshaper, Transcend Mortality, Giant Size and Desert Shroud.

Note the inclusion of a Djinn~~~

According to info on the Wu Jen in Eberron, some claims state a Djinn was responsible for teaching the First Wu Jen the techniques you see today, in the modern Wu Jen (mentioning the omission of Air as a mastery). K? So~~

It's Xen'drik, some time before the Fall of the Giants. Unsure if the first WJ was an Elf or Giant, or even a dragon. Probably Elf, to make Giant Size more influential.

Imagine the big Menechtarun Desert isn't there (it covers most of Western Xen'drik on the Map). Instead are vast plains, like in Xen'drik's East.

The the Fiends of Khyber (the Rakshasa and their Raja Overlords) have been defeated mostly by the Dragons and Couatls; the Giants are busy fighting the Quori, etc.

So what if The Scar that Abides (the Raja imprisoned below Stormreach) or another of its minions or peers, such as another Archfiend, still has some influence in Xen'drik. And if this being is set loose on the material plane, Eberron could face another Dark Age. The Fiends were dangerous and formidable to even the Dragons. Imagine how bad it would be for the Giants and Elves! ._.

So somewhere in Menechtarun, a group of Elves and their Giant Masters are trying to fend off the children of Khyber, but the battle's raged on for so long they're getting overwhelmed. Now imagine a genie comes--okay, haven't yet really put this part together...mostly just a summarized, half-done plot-hook atm--and teaches the Elves how to combat this darkness. A particular Elf is groomed to inherit the full potential of the genie's power, and the latter begins instructing him/her of the elements (except air, to protect itself); the genie's intervention offers some level of fairness between the Fiends' power and the Xen'drik natives. Wu Jen are pretty powerful. They're already wasting resources on fighting the Quori. So they don't have much left.

In a desperate attempt to finally rid their land of the Fiends, the Genie teaches his Wu Jen how to match the Overlord in size--giant size--and power. In that affect they battle one another across the plains (not Planes) like two Megazords, neither of them really at an advantage. But then the Raja turns his/her assault on the community. This irritates the Wu Jen, and now empowered by the Genie with gifts of the Waste (his home plane, haven't worked it in yet)--power of the Sandshaper--the Wu Jen grows in size one more time to combat their shared enemy, but s/he knows they are not coming back from this. The Wu Jen charges headlong into the battle with the Raja, calling on their greatest gift (Transcend Mortality).

The two fight, and the Fiend of Khyber is wholly and utterly defeated. Of course, the Wu Jen must pay a deadly price: his/her life once the spell ends. At the very end of battle the Giants and Elves cheer, and they mourn their current immortal, giant savior. S/he thanks them for believing in him/her before dissolving into millions upon millions of grains of sand (as per Disintegration spell), and covers the land that then becomes the Menechtarun Desert.

In his/her wake temples to the Wu Jen rise, but none so grand as the Monastary of the Sand Sharks, the very temple erected by Giants for the Genie who made the first Wu Jen. The Genie loved him some sand sharks...I don't know. That will be our "City of the Dead" touchstone for an aspiring Sandshaper

Remember the Samdshaper capstone: Desert Shroud; the Wu Jen could have very well been brought back and roams the Menechtarun to this day. No one knows~~~

How to make it more than just a scrambled idea and instead some epic legend. Poetry included.

I'm here for suggestions and open to criticism!



What you could do is have all evidence of this be written in a difficult, now dead language. Rather than confront the PCs with poetry, you could wrap up all of the lack of clarity as information lost to time, assuming all the elves of that period have died of old age. What this does is it allows you to fill in supplemental needs. Having the best sages of the world not be able to get to the truth will make it that much more sticky. Especially if the desert yuan-ti have a conflicting set of beliefs about the situation, and the elves seem to obviously guarding some information for some inscrutable reason. Considering the power level of the forces involved, you could even posit that the magical energies besetting the region even blinded the sovereign host to what actually happened during this period. The real mystery need not ever be fully defined.




It would be fun to introduce a character that is a wujen exile who has begun to use the training to begin studying how to ply into the element of air.


Further, Perhaps that Djinn wasn't some benign force, but had some material dog in the fight. You need to develop this outsiders' perspective. Why help? That should fill in the blanks you want filled in. Prometheus brought fire to man because of an ideal. Did this djinn transgress by teaching wujen skillz to mankind? Did this Djinn have a vendetta with the opposing force and why?

[TheBrassDuke]

Very thoughtful response!

I'm thinking since the Menechtarun is a great sandbox to pay in, no pun intended, a remnant of the Elven civilization could still exist somewhere near these temples; they may know the legends or simply have only limited understanding of the ancient texts but still manage to use their monasteries and whatnot.

The Giants got hit hard so I doubt they'll play much of a role in this too much--a little tired of them.

The yuan-ti may feel different. They might revere the Fiend of that age and I could reflavor it thusly, at least from their perspective.

We've got a Wu Jen and a half-Djinn Sorcerer who will be taking Sandshaper eventually, so it might be interesting to run into at least whispers of the legend, if not a subtle visit from the Legendary Wu Jen itself.

Learning air would be cool, but could bring an angry genie fast on our heels.

As for the Genie, I don't know its motives just yet. I found the explanation of Djinni teaching the First Wu Jen too cool not to implement.

I was thinking it had to do with the Draconic Prophecy, but it's a cliché. And his intervention led to an epic giant battle between a Rakshasa Raja and gigantic, briefly invincible elven magician. A legend. This also led to the widespread teaching of the Wu Jen, though in my opinion they are still super rare.