Tetrasodium
2017-08-25, 03:20 PM
over in the massive why do people hate fr thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?526375-Why-do-people-hate-the-forgotten-realms) a decent number of comments amounted to "I dislike how x is illogical/silly/whatever" followed by an eventual comparison to a different setting where different baselines cause x to be handled in a more logical/less silly/whatever way. Often this was later followed by criticism of how that setting follows something & the eventual resulting explanation of whatever miunderstanding was going on there. While plenty of those were about darksun, points of light, mystara, greyjawk, planescape, etc... a loooot were about eberron & by page 20ish or so it was more q&a teaching on eberron than the original discussion. I'm going to post the bits in a Q&A format free of the original animosity below. if more questions are added to this thread, I'll try to append them to the list
Q: Are drow (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-drow/) evil (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-44-good-and-evil/)? A: Sometimes, but not like the traditional lloth worshiping psycopaths. Because that earlier linked article about the drow (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-drow/) gets into how most people would view drow, why they worship a scorpion instead of a spider, how other elves view the drow, and a bunch of other good things I highly recommend it.
Q: So what are drow like really? A: They don't all worship Vulkoor, but the biggest chunk of the drow tribes do Their ancestors took refuge in the deep jungles of Xen’drik and developed their own traditions. They are a primitive tribal culture; many focus their devotion on the scorpion spirit Vulkoor, while others revere a pantheon of primal spirits. Some tribes pursue an endless vendetta against the giants, taking vengeance against their ancient oppressors. Others are simply concerned with survival.
A smaller faction held to the traditions of their creators. These Sulatar held onto some of the techniques and artifacts of the Sulat giants, notably techniques involving the binding of fire elementals.
A third group fled underground, taking refuge in Khyber. There they found a source of dark power and bound their clan to it, drawing strength from this mysterious Umbra. These Umbragen are the most advanced of the Drow cultures, but they are locked in a conflict with the horrors of Khyber and they are slowly losing that war. to find out more about those purposes & more, I suggest continuing the already heavily quoted post of Keith Baker's on drow here (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-drow/)
All of these cultures tend towards xenophobia and isolation. Explorers and the settlers of Stormreach have encountered the Vulkoori, but they know little about them. Few know the Sulatar or Umbragen exist… though an early encounter with the Sulatar may have provided the Zil with the inspiration that produced their elemental binding techniques.
Each of the Drow cultures serves a different purpose, both for players and gamemasters.
Q: How do monstrous live in eberron & why? A: it depends largely on where the monster in question lives. An Ogre in Karrnath (https://twitter.com/HellcowKeith/status/857239715455447040) is probably going to live a lot like other Karrnathi while an ogre in Droaam or the Demon Wastes is going to have a wildly different lifestyle but those two are a whole 'nother topic that turn some fundamentals on their ear. The reasons for why a Karrnathi ogre or goblin (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-goblins/) might be living different in a manner wildly different from your average Karrnathi are complicated, but poverty is often a big part (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmark-926-what-makes-a-monster/) of it with history often flending a hand to it as well. There are also house tharashk mercenaries who are either on the payroll or chose to settledown in a region where they were not born to such as a hypothetical troll who went from killing for Breland to working on a farm in breland after the war because he or she liked the food & turned out to be apable of plowing a field better than an ox.
Q: The Orcs are all stereotypical druids right?A: Orc history & society is not not even close (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-orcs-and-the-ghaashkala/) I suggest you ready the very good overview of them here (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-orcs-and-the-ghaashkala/)
Q: So what are druids like in Eberron? A: There are a few different different druidic sects (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-71116-druids/) that all have some fairly massive differences in oppinion; but really none of them are all that worried about preserving some rediculous balance of elements. At one end you have the gatekeepers who ended the Dhakaani<>Daelkyr war by binding the daelky within khyber where the Couatl once bound the demon overlords. Also at that end are groups like the wardens of the wood who put their foot down & took over the region as the defacto governing power when aundair was too busy fighting a war to keep bandits & such in the eldeen reaches from being too significant a problem. At the other end you have groups like the ashbound who believe nondruidic magiic is an abomination that must be destroyed or the greensingers who are imo kinda crazy.
Q:So lloth doesn't exist A: not in any form eleminster is familiar with. She may have been one of the demon overlords who fought against the dragons (yes all of them) & was banished to Khyber by the Couatl self sacrifice. If that were the case, rather than some cheesy dragon cult, The Lords of Dust (http://keith-baker.com/eberron-flashback-the-lords-of-dust/) would like to free her & that can only happen in accordance with "the prophecy" (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041227a)
Q:Do all of the PC races in FR exist in Eberron? A: Lol no & many that do are wildly different from their FR counterparts. Some of the more ill fitting might exist berift of culture & history as the result of illegal one off House Vadalis human mage breeding experiments (https://twitter.com/JM13136849/status/867206588922245121) done during the war. those illegal mage breeding experiments were hinted at here & there since 3.5 as well.
Q: Eberron is "high magic" right?why would anyone bother to develop airships & the lightning rail when teleport circles already exist? A: No, it's "wide magic" meaning people use low level magic to solve every day problems like we use technology. this entry by Keith Baker about rural eberron does a great job of putit it into perspective .
Q:So wy not just teleport circles for everything? A: This boils down to dragonmarks. A house Orien heir with a powerful enough dragonmark can cast teleport circle once per day sure or guide a caravan faster than normal. In my game I also allow them to use their mark as part of a six hour cast time ritual spell. a hoouse cannith member with the mark of making can make all sorts of stuff like a lightning rail or an elemental craft like an stormship/airship, but only a house Lyrander heir with a mark of storm can control it all day every day with whatever stops are needed along the way. To quote AnonymousWizard here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22070070&postcount=207) " not that familiar with Eberron, I was just trying to reason out why magic trains might be considered a reasonable alternative to teleport networks. It sounds like Eberron actually goes with 'few people can operate the teleport network -> monopoly on teleportation -> magic railroad introduced as a cheaper alternative to try and steal some of the transportation market'. Works well and I should brush up on my dragonmarks before talking about Eberron in future."
Q: Do I need to know all of the big names like Aurala (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Queen_Aurala_ir%27Wynarn), Kaius (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Kaius_ir'Wynarn_III), The daughters of Sora Kell (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-66-droaam-and-the-daughters-of-sora-kell/), & so on? If si how well?A: No, you don'r eally need to know them at all & because eberron is loaded with chessmasters (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChessmaster) you could be working for/against one for a very long time without ever meeting anyone above someone in the employ of someone they employ. You might, but the politically powerful don't always involve themselves with the help when they pay others like spymasters/generals/arcanists/etc to manage & direct particular aspects of that help who in turn have their own staff & umbrellas of responsability. As a GM, this also means that you can introduce some would be employer who will not reveal his or her ultimate patron & either decide on one later or discard them in future plot development consideration based on player interest & such
Q: Wait... Chessmasters? (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChessmaster) A: The Neutral Good Queen Aurala (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Queen_Aurala_ir%27Wynarn) of Aundair (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Aundair) is one of the simplest examples of one that requires very little understanding of anything eberron specific to explain. During the war she lacked the army to fight some of her more/differently powerful enemies on level ground for various reasons so she paid the goblins in darguun, the dinosaur riding Talenta Plains halflings, the elves in valenar, & anyone else who she could hire while saying "nope, not my army" to skirmish & battle against her opponents in ways that would give her the time she needed. Now she feels robbed of her victory by the day of mourning & Treaty of Thronehold that officially ended the war (most everyone else feels they were robbed of certain victory as well) Ads a result, she schemes & plots through whatever catspaws she cab manipulate into restarting the war by poking at whatever tensions she can poke in a way that prevents the finger from being pointed at her when war does eventually break out. Meanwhile the Lawful Evil Vampire King Kaius (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Kaius_ir'Wynarn_III) of Karrnath (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Karrnath) recognizes that his people & nation were badly hurt by the war uses forced constription & manditory military service, forced labor, assassinations, endorses productive torture, & all manner of other stuff doing his best to keep the peace so war does not break out again. Do his people know that he's a vampire?... "pfft that's silly Thrane propaganda, 'course the king ain't no vampire you fool"
Q: Which novels are cannon? A: None of them. all of the novels are simply one author's take on something that may or may not happened before or after 998YK
Q: That number seems to come up a lot what's the significance of 998YK? A: Eberron has a fairly extensive timeline (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Eberron_Timeline) chock full of possible adventure seeds, plot hooks, & flavorful twists. While some settings like FR will jump ahead & insert some reason to explain game mechanics changes between versions, Eberron just says it was always that way & continues at 998YK It results in some infuriating things like when 4e said the lizardmen/lizardfolk were just dragonborn & nobody noticed; but gm's can do the same thing I do & call them lizardfolk.
Q: Why don't powerful PC's just take over the world? Why do all these powerful chessmasters tolerate PC's running around? A: I'm going to quote kobard here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22068517&postcount=195). "I would argue against the idea that players in Eberron are more important by the simple virtue of being PCs. Actually, I would argue that it's quite the opposite. NPCs in Eberron often have more power than PCs by virtue of their connections. Sure, a PC may be more powerful than a level 1 aristocrat/level 1 sorcerer on paper, but there was very much a different in-game reality in which that same 1 Ari/1 Sor was also an important Brelish noble who carried far more political and military clout than a PC, regardless of their level. " Also important to keep in mind is as JackPhonix says below "personal power isn't the same as influence, but they sometimes go hand-in-hand. Jaela Daran is level 3 cleric (though she's empowered to level 18 within the Flamekeep cathedral), but she's the "pope" (or lolipope, to some people) of the Church of the Silver Flame. Mordain the Fleshweaver is level 18 transmuter, 3rd highest canon NPC on Khorvaire (not counting some Lords of Dust), but his influence is practically zero, he's a mad (literally) scientist type doing horrible experiments in a secluded tower deep in monster-infested wilderness. King Kaius the I(II) is ruler of one of the strongest nations, and also level 12 character (and a vampire to boot), but almost no people know about the later part, while king Boranel of Breland is level 10 and widely known for his heroism and the adventures of his youth. Both are some of the more powerful persons on Khorvaire, but they don't have to hit you with their swords (or axe in Boranel's case), they have armies for that.
That said, PC's definitely can reach that level of influence through hard work and roleplay... or just a bit of luck." I have a level 4-6ish group who cleared out tressendar manner(lmop) where I stuck it in western droaam who is growing a city of kobolds beneath, that sought out & started working with kelethrax the cunning (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Kethelrax_the_Cunning) as a political backer. If I'm not mistaken, they are thinking about trying to convince house Cannith to setup shop as a safer alternative to graywall but caught in the still developing elements of both lmop & pota.
Q: so with the "wide magic" if Eberron, how does that affect societies & everyday lives A: MQuiting him again, "agical items as "part of the general consumer culture" speaks to the magnificent world building of Eberron that too often gets ignored in nearly all fantasy settings: people will use what resources they have to their socio-economic advantage. Eberron presents a fantasy world where people actually labor and work. Guilds do things. They produce goods and they can do so with magic because it exists as a resource for them to do so. This does speak a bit to your second point below, but this results in Eberron being both "medieval" and "modern." This is largely because Eberron recognizes that this sort of industrial development would not necessarily be chronologically even. They do just have magic, but Eberron is also built from the recognition that people, who are not necessarily the PCs themselves, would apply magic for improving their standards of living, war and defense, and trade. This is a common criticism that I have heard lobbed against D&D settings, especially from newcomers to the game: i.e., why isn't anyone actually using this magic to do useful things with it? Eberron presumes that people do. The lightning rail is really the only real modern analogue - not 20th century- since what we think of trains actually came in the earliest parts of the 1800s. The elemental airship, for example, is hardly a 20th century analogue for a airplane, but maybe a dirigible, but it's more of a flying seaship, which is a concept hardly exclusive to Eberron. " In short... if it can be monetized for profit, it will be. This results in a setting where people are more advanced than us in some areas, less advanced in other areas, & similarly advanced but different in still other areas thanks to the influences of how magic is applied.
Q: A lot of the cities & things on the Khorvaire map have a / in them indicating they are ruins, but there is nothing about the city or who destroyed it. How am I supposed to know these important things? A: If it's so important, ask your gm. If you are the GM, look around & make something up that makes sense and/or fits your goals as a GM to quote JackPhoenix here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22069894&postcount=203) "Which is what I like about Eberron (and conversely, what made me dislike Warcraft): all lore I need is in the splatbooks. I don't have to deal with "But this village was destroyed when Mary Sue#358 fought Overpowered Villain#982 in the book XXX! And we're in year YYYY, book ZZZ clearly states that the area we've just got through was just empty wilderness, the inn we've visited was founded 20 years later!" I don't have to buy 20 books of dubious storytelling to be up to date on the current state of the setting.
However, I still steal bits from the novels I've read to put in my game as a part of the background. It's inspiration, not requirement... it's no different from me coming up with reasons why the Mourning happened... There's no canon answer, so the players can't argue that things didn't happened like that, and I can make the reason different in each campaign I run without confusing them. What's in the setting books is true, everything else can change." the possibilities are often centered around two main causes though 1: it's a dhakaani ruin. 2: it was a town/city/military outpost/whatever until sometime in the last 2-10ish years the war came knocking & everyone left or got killed for whatever war related reasons.
Q:How can I know what the war related reasons are? A: Ask your gm or look st the map &guess. if you are the GM, look at the map, is it near a border? if so, guess who was the attacker.
Q: How much recent history do I need to know to start? A: Not a whole lot really The beauty from a GM standpoint is that you don't really need to know everything to an exhaustive level. There are 5 nations that used to be part of one unified nation for the last ~1000 years, but the last hundred or so have been a civil war originally started over a murky & contested line of succession. The nations are all pretty distinct (ie karnath turned to necromancy & has a lot of undead soldiers, zilargo is gnomeland. Aundair had the arcane college. Breland had the most cropland & pulled through pretty well compared to most of the others but still got beat up. Breland is most like generic urban to rural fantasyish. Breland had the old spy network & is part of what helped it in the war. Thrane is heavily influenced by the church of the silver flame[think church of pelor mixed with catholic church sorta but more grounded]), Cyre is basically a magically irradiated wasteland known as the mournlands for the most part. Eldeen Reaches split from aundair due to banditry & is run by druids of various stripes Much of what remained of cyre was seized by Darguun (warlike goblinoids. ) & the warlike elves of Valenar. There are a few other regions like the Talenta Plains (dinosaur riding halfling tribes) & such. The main religions are Soverign host (a pantheon of all the goodish gods), the dark six (the little e evil gods of the pantheon after a schism at some point in the past.), & the silver flame (a monotheistic hardline church dedicated to keeping evil in check/eradicating evil). Also are a couple cults blood of vol (for personal empowerment & pretty decent all things considered), emerald claw (former mercenary hard line wing of blood of vol), cults of dragon below (eek bad guys,just kill em before they kill more people types). nobody is really good or bad & you can always shade in things by saying "how would x & y get along" that's the heavily simplified version, you should brush up on whatever region & an interesting neighbor or two where your game will be though for the ease of handling things.
Q: eberron uses the same planar cosmology as FR/planescape/etc right A: so much no that PotA 249 actually says " Eberron lacks the traditional elemental planes, so you'll have to replace them with the following (with the understanding that they aren't perfect matches)"
Q: So which are the "5 nations" A: Thrane, Aundaire, Breland, Karrnath, & Cyre. Unfortunately for Cyre something happened to cause the day of mourning & it was pretty well destroyed by the process that turned it into the hellish arcane wasteland
Q: What are all of these other "nations" you keep mentioning. Most of them are pretty much nations like the middle east or africa after colonial powers started drawing lines on a map of far away places. Granted they did a slightly better job, but none of them are particularly what you might think of as a nation. Those others nations were acknowledged as independent in the Treaty of Thronehold which put an end to the Last War are Mror Holds (dwarven lands, originally part of Karrnath), Lhazaar Principalities (island realm of independent pirate princes), Q'barra (jungle full of lizardfolk (or dragonborn, if you accept 4e canon) and ancient secrets where some of the Cyran survivors found new home and Shadow Marches (swampland homeland of orcs, with lot of influence from both druids and cults of the Dragon Below). Zilargo used to be a part of Breland.
Q: So what are the Fey like? A: different (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-thelanis-and-the-fey/) enough from FR like many other creatures in eberron that it should have its own MM IMO
Q: It's in the PHB that X. that's true in eberron right? A: not even a little no. Rather than give some level of consideration to eberron & mention anything about it in the races/classes sections like virtually every other setting it got this (https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/883891093829332992) obscene treatment because "Eberron very consciously went against the shared lore of the settings, making it hard to fit in. #wotcstaff"
Q:Does eberron make as much money as $setting? A: Considering how $insert setting has 100% of the 5e books & virtually the same monopoly on both licensing and advertising, I'd say that it's highly unlikely that it is making much in the cellar [used bookstores],& dark corners of the internet [bring you "flashlight" & pdf reader]. You might find some semiofficial wikis & such, but be careful because the stairs have gone out too. Just be sure to look behind the notice warning of legal tigers. You might find some obfuscated 5e eberron content on DMs guild on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard. though, best of luck.
[b]Q:[/b ]But someone told me that one or more eberron books say "If it has a place in D&D, it has a place in Eberron". Does that mean I can copy in anybit of faerunas is & expect it to fit eberron no problem? A: No & it' why I whole heartedly endorse things like one off house vadalis illegal magebreeding experiments berift of history & culture for many of the more ill fitting races in Volos & suchIn fact, because of of how obnoxiously it's been applied and how obnoxious 4e was towards eberron I suggest GMs take a firm stance against it & fearlessly do things like tell a dragonborn player she has scales, a tail, & is called a lizardman/lizardfolk. I say that because atop being used to horifically abuse eberron, it is also a statement that has only ever gone one way with zero consideration ever given to eberron in core books.
It wasn't just "despite having a fairly unified continent for nearly a thousand years with multiple major organizations devoted to scolarship for thousands nobody ever noticed lizardmen/lizardfolk are just dragonborn y0. Breaking news, library of Korranberg admits to gross incompetence"
Thelanis is totally just the feywild straight up & most of the other planes are now not only direct analogues to their nearest FR distant relatives, but actually the same exact plane in some cases.
if it exists in d&d it has a place is great in theory, but it was followed up with a long history since the 3.5 days of what effectively amounts to "Eberron very consciously went against the shared lore of the settings, making it hard to fit in. #wotcstaff" (https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/883891093829332992) where there was zero consideration ever granted towards eberron. Take the races & classes section of the PHB where they mention details about forgotten realms, greyhawk, planescape, dragonlance, & possibly others... but not one word about anything from eberron. Top the cake by looking up Couatl in the MM pg43, effing Siberyis couldn't even get a name drop over "a benevolent god not worshiped since the dawn of time, and which is forgotten now by all but the couatls themselves.". When it stops being used exclusively to force forgotten realms/greyhawk/dragonlance elements as is into eberron & starts being used with some consideration to how those things can instead be adapted to eberron in a non-disruptive way. So far the only official use of that statement has been obnoxious & beyond the pale (to be polite).
Could it have a place?... sure... does it have a place as is? Not even slightly! If eberron is so consciously going against the shared lore that an eberron GM needs to homebrew stuff out of the phb/mm/dmg/etc because none of them give it any consideration, then existing in d&d is not simply enough to fit into eberron given that incompatabilities run so deep we can have a page on humans in different regions of faerun, a quarter page about drizzit, etc but not even mention things like "in some settings, drow follow different traditions" alongside drizzit & lloth, "Siberyis" over forgotten god, "dragonshards" in the dmg magic items section, etc in appropriate entries. those things can shed their noncompliant bits & adjust themselves to fit if they want to fit.
Q:aSo the Church of the sulver flame (CotSF) is obsessed with eliminating evil right? A: It is their ultimate unachievable goal & they know that yes while the average member of "the purified" as they call themselves will certainly strive to avoid things like greed & such, the church as a whole is most concerned with supernatural evils & thre is a pretty good discussion starting around post 9 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22326545&postcount=9) in this thread about the lawful evil high cardinal Krozen of the CotSF who has & will do terrible things to eliminate evil for the greater good. There is some wonderful discussion bout him & quori manipulations of him in this thread (http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18128&p=199128&hilit=krozen) that also gets into some of his darker side & how he can justify it as he does.
Q: o CotSF crusaders are mostly going to b e Oath of Vengeance/Conquest types? A: While both of those can fit the CotSF dogma extremely well (far better than the most recent if it has a place in d&d styled travesty masquerading as an"artificer" (https://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/1_UA_Artificer_20170109.pdf) in an attempt to make up for FR's own self inflicted wound applied to lantan fits Eberron itself)
I'm close to 20 pages in & getting tired of rereading through the thread so will stop here but continue with updates from this thread.
Q: Are drow (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-drow/) evil (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-44-good-and-evil/)? A: Sometimes, but not like the traditional lloth worshiping psycopaths. Because that earlier linked article about the drow (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-drow/) gets into how most people would view drow, why they worship a scorpion instead of a spider, how other elves view the drow, and a bunch of other good things I highly recommend it.
Q: So what are drow like really? A: They don't all worship Vulkoor, but the biggest chunk of the drow tribes do Their ancestors took refuge in the deep jungles of Xen’drik and developed their own traditions. They are a primitive tribal culture; many focus their devotion on the scorpion spirit Vulkoor, while others revere a pantheon of primal spirits. Some tribes pursue an endless vendetta against the giants, taking vengeance against their ancient oppressors. Others are simply concerned with survival.
A smaller faction held to the traditions of their creators. These Sulatar held onto some of the techniques and artifacts of the Sulat giants, notably techniques involving the binding of fire elementals.
A third group fled underground, taking refuge in Khyber. There they found a source of dark power and bound their clan to it, drawing strength from this mysterious Umbra. These Umbragen are the most advanced of the Drow cultures, but they are locked in a conflict with the horrors of Khyber and they are slowly losing that war. to find out more about those purposes & more, I suggest continuing the already heavily quoted post of Keith Baker's on drow here (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-drow/)
All of these cultures tend towards xenophobia and isolation. Explorers and the settlers of Stormreach have encountered the Vulkoori, but they know little about them. Few know the Sulatar or Umbragen exist… though an early encounter with the Sulatar may have provided the Zil with the inspiration that produced their elemental binding techniques.
Each of the Drow cultures serves a different purpose, both for players and gamemasters.
Q: How do monstrous live in eberron & why? A: it depends largely on where the monster in question lives. An Ogre in Karrnath (https://twitter.com/HellcowKeith/status/857239715455447040) is probably going to live a lot like other Karrnathi while an ogre in Droaam or the Demon Wastes is going to have a wildly different lifestyle but those two are a whole 'nother topic that turn some fundamentals on their ear. The reasons for why a Karrnathi ogre or goblin (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-goblins/) might be living different in a manner wildly different from your average Karrnathi are complicated, but poverty is often a big part (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmark-926-what-makes-a-monster/) of it with history often flending a hand to it as well. There are also house tharashk mercenaries who are either on the payroll or chose to settledown in a region where they were not born to such as a hypothetical troll who went from killing for Breland to working on a farm in breland after the war because he or she liked the food & turned out to be apable of plowing a field better than an ox.
Q: The Orcs are all stereotypical druids right?A: Orc history & society is not not even close (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-orcs-and-the-ghaashkala/) I suggest you ready the very good overview of them here (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-orcs-and-the-ghaashkala/)
Q: So what are druids like in Eberron? A: There are a few different different druidic sects (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-71116-druids/) that all have some fairly massive differences in oppinion; but really none of them are all that worried about preserving some rediculous balance of elements. At one end you have the gatekeepers who ended the Dhakaani<>Daelkyr war by binding the daelky within khyber where the Couatl once bound the demon overlords. Also at that end are groups like the wardens of the wood who put their foot down & took over the region as the defacto governing power when aundair was too busy fighting a war to keep bandits & such in the eldeen reaches from being too significant a problem. At the other end you have groups like the ashbound who believe nondruidic magiic is an abomination that must be destroyed or the greensingers who are imo kinda crazy.
Q:So lloth doesn't exist A: not in any form eleminster is familiar with. She may have been one of the demon overlords who fought against the dragons (yes all of them) & was banished to Khyber by the Couatl self sacrifice. If that were the case, rather than some cheesy dragon cult, The Lords of Dust (http://keith-baker.com/eberron-flashback-the-lords-of-dust/) would like to free her & that can only happen in accordance with "the prophecy" (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041227a)
Q:Do all of the PC races in FR exist in Eberron? A: Lol no & many that do are wildly different from their FR counterparts. Some of the more ill fitting might exist berift of culture & history as the result of illegal one off House Vadalis human mage breeding experiments (https://twitter.com/JM13136849/status/867206588922245121) done during the war. those illegal mage breeding experiments were hinted at here & there since 3.5 as well.
Q: Eberron is "high magic" right?why would anyone bother to develop airships & the lightning rail when teleport circles already exist? A: No, it's "wide magic" meaning people use low level magic to solve every day problems like we use technology. this entry by Keith Baker about rural eberron does a great job of putit it into perspective .
Q:So wy not just teleport circles for everything? A: This boils down to dragonmarks. A house Orien heir with a powerful enough dragonmark can cast teleport circle once per day sure or guide a caravan faster than normal. In my game I also allow them to use their mark as part of a six hour cast time ritual spell. a hoouse cannith member with the mark of making can make all sorts of stuff like a lightning rail or an elemental craft like an stormship/airship, but only a house Lyrander heir with a mark of storm can control it all day every day with whatever stops are needed along the way. To quote AnonymousWizard here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22070070&postcount=207) " not that familiar with Eberron, I was just trying to reason out why magic trains might be considered a reasonable alternative to teleport networks. It sounds like Eberron actually goes with 'few people can operate the teleport network -> monopoly on teleportation -> magic railroad introduced as a cheaper alternative to try and steal some of the transportation market'. Works well and I should brush up on my dragonmarks before talking about Eberron in future."
Q: Do I need to know all of the big names like Aurala (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Queen_Aurala_ir%27Wynarn), Kaius (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Kaius_ir'Wynarn_III), The daughters of Sora Kell (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-66-droaam-and-the-daughters-of-sora-kell/), & so on? If si how well?A: No, you don'r eally need to know them at all & because eberron is loaded with chessmasters (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChessmaster) you could be working for/against one for a very long time without ever meeting anyone above someone in the employ of someone they employ. You might, but the politically powerful don't always involve themselves with the help when they pay others like spymasters/generals/arcanists/etc to manage & direct particular aspects of that help who in turn have their own staff & umbrellas of responsability. As a GM, this also means that you can introduce some would be employer who will not reveal his or her ultimate patron & either decide on one later or discard them in future plot development consideration based on player interest & such
Q: Wait... Chessmasters? (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChessmaster) A: The Neutral Good Queen Aurala (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Queen_Aurala_ir%27Wynarn) of Aundair (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Aundair) is one of the simplest examples of one that requires very little understanding of anything eberron specific to explain. During the war she lacked the army to fight some of her more/differently powerful enemies on level ground for various reasons so she paid the goblins in darguun, the dinosaur riding Talenta Plains halflings, the elves in valenar, & anyone else who she could hire while saying "nope, not my army" to skirmish & battle against her opponents in ways that would give her the time she needed. Now she feels robbed of her victory by the day of mourning & Treaty of Thronehold that officially ended the war (most everyone else feels they were robbed of certain victory as well) Ads a result, she schemes & plots through whatever catspaws she cab manipulate into restarting the war by poking at whatever tensions she can poke in a way that prevents the finger from being pointed at her when war does eventually break out. Meanwhile the Lawful Evil Vampire King Kaius (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Kaius_ir'Wynarn_III) of Karrnath (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Karrnath) recognizes that his people & nation were badly hurt by the war uses forced constription & manditory military service, forced labor, assassinations, endorses productive torture, & all manner of other stuff doing his best to keep the peace so war does not break out again. Do his people know that he's a vampire?... "pfft that's silly Thrane propaganda, 'course the king ain't no vampire you fool"
Q: Which novels are cannon? A: None of them. all of the novels are simply one author's take on something that may or may not happened before or after 998YK
Q: That number seems to come up a lot what's the significance of 998YK? A: Eberron has a fairly extensive timeline (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Eberron_Timeline) chock full of possible adventure seeds, plot hooks, & flavorful twists. While some settings like FR will jump ahead & insert some reason to explain game mechanics changes between versions, Eberron just says it was always that way & continues at 998YK It results in some infuriating things like when 4e said the lizardmen/lizardfolk were just dragonborn & nobody noticed; but gm's can do the same thing I do & call them lizardfolk.
Q: Why don't powerful PC's just take over the world? Why do all these powerful chessmasters tolerate PC's running around? A: I'm going to quote kobard here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22068517&postcount=195). "I would argue against the idea that players in Eberron are more important by the simple virtue of being PCs. Actually, I would argue that it's quite the opposite. NPCs in Eberron often have more power than PCs by virtue of their connections. Sure, a PC may be more powerful than a level 1 aristocrat/level 1 sorcerer on paper, but there was very much a different in-game reality in which that same 1 Ari/1 Sor was also an important Brelish noble who carried far more political and military clout than a PC, regardless of their level. " Also important to keep in mind is as JackPhonix says below "personal power isn't the same as influence, but they sometimes go hand-in-hand. Jaela Daran is level 3 cleric (though she's empowered to level 18 within the Flamekeep cathedral), but she's the "pope" (or lolipope, to some people) of the Church of the Silver Flame. Mordain the Fleshweaver is level 18 transmuter, 3rd highest canon NPC on Khorvaire (not counting some Lords of Dust), but his influence is practically zero, he's a mad (literally) scientist type doing horrible experiments in a secluded tower deep in monster-infested wilderness. King Kaius the I(II) is ruler of one of the strongest nations, and also level 12 character (and a vampire to boot), but almost no people know about the later part, while king Boranel of Breland is level 10 and widely known for his heroism and the adventures of his youth. Both are some of the more powerful persons on Khorvaire, but they don't have to hit you with their swords (or axe in Boranel's case), they have armies for that.
That said, PC's definitely can reach that level of influence through hard work and roleplay... or just a bit of luck." I have a level 4-6ish group who cleared out tressendar manner(lmop) where I stuck it in western droaam who is growing a city of kobolds beneath, that sought out & started working with kelethrax the cunning (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Kethelrax_the_Cunning) as a political backer. If I'm not mistaken, they are thinking about trying to convince house Cannith to setup shop as a safer alternative to graywall but caught in the still developing elements of both lmop & pota.
Q: so with the "wide magic" if Eberron, how does that affect societies & everyday lives A: MQuiting him again, "agical items as "part of the general consumer culture" speaks to the magnificent world building of Eberron that too often gets ignored in nearly all fantasy settings: people will use what resources they have to their socio-economic advantage. Eberron presents a fantasy world where people actually labor and work. Guilds do things. They produce goods and they can do so with magic because it exists as a resource for them to do so. This does speak a bit to your second point below, but this results in Eberron being both "medieval" and "modern." This is largely because Eberron recognizes that this sort of industrial development would not necessarily be chronologically even. They do just have magic, but Eberron is also built from the recognition that people, who are not necessarily the PCs themselves, would apply magic for improving their standards of living, war and defense, and trade. This is a common criticism that I have heard lobbed against D&D settings, especially from newcomers to the game: i.e., why isn't anyone actually using this magic to do useful things with it? Eberron presumes that people do. The lightning rail is really the only real modern analogue - not 20th century- since what we think of trains actually came in the earliest parts of the 1800s. The elemental airship, for example, is hardly a 20th century analogue for a airplane, but maybe a dirigible, but it's more of a flying seaship, which is a concept hardly exclusive to Eberron. " In short... if it can be monetized for profit, it will be. This results in a setting where people are more advanced than us in some areas, less advanced in other areas, & similarly advanced but different in still other areas thanks to the influences of how magic is applied.
Q: A lot of the cities & things on the Khorvaire map have a / in them indicating they are ruins, but there is nothing about the city or who destroyed it. How am I supposed to know these important things? A: If it's so important, ask your gm. If you are the GM, look around & make something up that makes sense and/or fits your goals as a GM to quote JackPhoenix here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22069894&postcount=203) "Which is what I like about Eberron (and conversely, what made me dislike Warcraft): all lore I need is in the splatbooks. I don't have to deal with "But this village was destroyed when Mary Sue#358 fought Overpowered Villain#982 in the book XXX! And we're in year YYYY, book ZZZ clearly states that the area we've just got through was just empty wilderness, the inn we've visited was founded 20 years later!" I don't have to buy 20 books of dubious storytelling to be up to date on the current state of the setting.
However, I still steal bits from the novels I've read to put in my game as a part of the background. It's inspiration, not requirement... it's no different from me coming up with reasons why the Mourning happened... There's no canon answer, so the players can't argue that things didn't happened like that, and I can make the reason different in each campaign I run without confusing them. What's in the setting books is true, everything else can change." the possibilities are often centered around two main causes though 1: it's a dhakaani ruin. 2: it was a town/city/military outpost/whatever until sometime in the last 2-10ish years the war came knocking & everyone left or got killed for whatever war related reasons.
Q:How can I know what the war related reasons are? A: Ask your gm or look st the map &guess. if you are the GM, look at the map, is it near a border? if so, guess who was the attacker.
Q: How much recent history do I need to know to start? A: Not a whole lot really The beauty from a GM standpoint is that you don't really need to know everything to an exhaustive level. There are 5 nations that used to be part of one unified nation for the last ~1000 years, but the last hundred or so have been a civil war originally started over a murky & contested line of succession. The nations are all pretty distinct (ie karnath turned to necromancy & has a lot of undead soldiers, zilargo is gnomeland. Aundair had the arcane college. Breland had the most cropland & pulled through pretty well compared to most of the others but still got beat up. Breland is most like generic urban to rural fantasyish. Breland had the old spy network & is part of what helped it in the war. Thrane is heavily influenced by the church of the silver flame[think church of pelor mixed with catholic church sorta but more grounded]), Cyre is basically a magically irradiated wasteland known as the mournlands for the most part. Eldeen Reaches split from aundair due to banditry & is run by druids of various stripes Much of what remained of cyre was seized by Darguun (warlike goblinoids. ) & the warlike elves of Valenar. There are a few other regions like the Talenta Plains (dinosaur riding halfling tribes) & such. The main religions are Soverign host (a pantheon of all the goodish gods), the dark six (the little e evil gods of the pantheon after a schism at some point in the past.), & the silver flame (a monotheistic hardline church dedicated to keeping evil in check/eradicating evil). Also are a couple cults blood of vol (for personal empowerment & pretty decent all things considered), emerald claw (former mercenary hard line wing of blood of vol), cults of dragon below (eek bad guys,just kill em before they kill more people types). nobody is really good or bad & you can always shade in things by saying "how would x & y get along" that's the heavily simplified version, you should brush up on whatever region & an interesting neighbor or two where your game will be though for the ease of handling things.
Q: eberron uses the same planar cosmology as FR/planescape/etc right A: so much no that PotA 249 actually says " Eberron lacks the traditional elemental planes, so you'll have to replace them with the following (with the understanding that they aren't perfect matches)"
Q: So which are the "5 nations" A: Thrane, Aundaire, Breland, Karrnath, & Cyre. Unfortunately for Cyre something happened to cause the day of mourning & it was pretty well destroyed by the process that turned it into the hellish arcane wasteland
Q: What are all of these other "nations" you keep mentioning. Most of them are pretty much nations like the middle east or africa after colonial powers started drawing lines on a map of far away places. Granted they did a slightly better job, but none of them are particularly what you might think of as a nation. Those others nations were acknowledged as independent in the Treaty of Thronehold which put an end to the Last War are Mror Holds (dwarven lands, originally part of Karrnath), Lhazaar Principalities (island realm of independent pirate princes), Q'barra (jungle full of lizardfolk (or dragonborn, if you accept 4e canon) and ancient secrets where some of the Cyran survivors found new home and Shadow Marches (swampland homeland of orcs, with lot of influence from both druids and cults of the Dragon Below). Zilargo used to be a part of Breland.
Q: So what are the Fey like? A: different (http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-thelanis-and-the-fey/) enough from FR like many other creatures in eberron that it should have its own MM IMO
Q: It's in the PHB that X. that's true in eberron right? A: not even a little no. Rather than give some level of consideration to eberron & mention anything about it in the races/classes sections like virtually every other setting it got this (https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/883891093829332992) obscene treatment because "Eberron very consciously went against the shared lore of the settings, making it hard to fit in. #wotcstaff"
Q:Does eberron make as much money as $setting? A: Considering how $insert setting has 100% of the 5e books & virtually the same monopoly on both licensing and advertising, I'd say that it's highly unlikely that it is making much in the cellar [used bookstores],& dark corners of the internet [bring you "flashlight" & pdf reader]. You might find some semiofficial wikis & such, but be careful because the stairs have gone out too. Just be sure to look behind the notice warning of legal tigers. You might find some obfuscated 5e eberron content on DMs guild on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard. though, best of luck.
[b]Q:[/b ]But someone told me that one or more eberron books say "If it has a place in D&D, it has a place in Eberron". Does that mean I can copy in anybit of faerunas is & expect it to fit eberron no problem? A: No & it' why I whole heartedly endorse things like one off house vadalis illegal magebreeding experiments berift of history & culture for many of the more ill fitting races in Volos & suchIn fact, because of of how obnoxiously it's been applied and how obnoxious 4e was towards eberron I suggest GMs take a firm stance against it & fearlessly do things like tell a dragonborn player she has scales, a tail, & is called a lizardman/lizardfolk. I say that because atop being used to horifically abuse eberron, it is also a statement that has only ever gone one way with zero consideration ever given to eberron in core books.
It wasn't just "despite having a fairly unified continent for nearly a thousand years with multiple major organizations devoted to scolarship for thousands nobody ever noticed lizardmen/lizardfolk are just dragonborn y0. Breaking news, library of Korranberg admits to gross incompetence"
Thelanis is totally just the feywild straight up & most of the other planes are now not only direct analogues to their nearest FR distant relatives, but actually the same exact plane in some cases.
if it exists in d&d it has a place is great in theory, but it was followed up with a long history since the 3.5 days of what effectively amounts to "Eberron very consciously went against the shared lore of the settings, making it hard to fit in. #wotcstaff" (https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/883891093829332992) where there was zero consideration ever granted towards eberron. Take the races & classes section of the PHB where they mention details about forgotten realms, greyhawk, planescape, dragonlance, & possibly others... but not one word about anything from eberron. Top the cake by looking up Couatl in the MM pg43, effing Siberyis couldn't even get a name drop over "a benevolent god not worshiped since the dawn of time, and which is forgotten now by all but the couatls themselves.". When it stops being used exclusively to force forgotten realms/greyhawk/dragonlance elements as is into eberron & starts being used with some consideration to how those things can instead be adapted to eberron in a non-disruptive way. So far the only official use of that statement has been obnoxious & beyond the pale (to be polite).
Could it have a place?... sure... does it have a place as is? Not even slightly! If eberron is so consciously going against the shared lore that an eberron GM needs to homebrew stuff out of the phb/mm/dmg/etc because none of them give it any consideration, then existing in d&d is not simply enough to fit into eberron given that incompatabilities run so deep we can have a page on humans in different regions of faerun, a quarter page about drizzit, etc but not even mention things like "in some settings, drow follow different traditions" alongside drizzit & lloth, "Siberyis" over forgotten god, "dragonshards" in the dmg magic items section, etc in appropriate entries. those things can shed their noncompliant bits & adjust themselves to fit if they want to fit.
Q:aSo the Church of the sulver flame (CotSF) is obsessed with eliminating evil right? A: It is their ultimate unachievable goal & they know that yes while the average member of "the purified" as they call themselves will certainly strive to avoid things like greed & such, the church as a whole is most concerned with supernatural evils & thre is a pretty good discussion starting around post 9 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22326545&postcount=9) in this thread about the lawful evil high cardinal Krozen of the CotSF who has & will do terrible things to eliminate evil for the greater good. There is some wonderful discussion bout him & quori manipulations of him in this thread (http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18128&p=199128&hilit=krozen) that also gets into some of his darker side & how he can justify it as he does.
Q: o CotSF crusaders are mostly going to b e Oath of Vengeance/Conquest types? A: While both of those can fit the CotSF dogma extremely well (far better than the most recent if it has a place in d&d styled travesty masquerading as an"artificer" (https://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/1_UA_Artificer_20170109.pdf) in an attempt to make up for FR's own self inflicted wound applied to lantan fits Eberron itself)
I'm close to 20 pages in & getting tired of rereading through the thread so will stop here but continue with updates from this thread.