[Eberron] 13-1 Aberrant Dragonmarks

[Malimar]

So I'm working on a new Eberron campaign, and so far I've got the beginnings of a cast of NPCs. I need your help! My needs are twofold: I want to expand this cast to the full Keith Baker's dozen of 13-1; and I want to figure out how to turn this cast into a campaign.

So here's the idea: a true dragon (probably somewhere between Old and Ancient) has for centuries been studying dragonmarks and the Draconic Prophecy and the way the two interfold, and has recently (we're talking the past few decades; a small period of time for a dragon) advanced to attempting to actively experiment with these things and/or manipulate them to her own ends.

Specifically, she's trying to probe the edges of dragonmarkery, where aberrant dragonmarks form. Through guiding humanoids in various ways, she's trying to do... something? ...by creating aberrant dragonmarks in various ways. I don't know if she's deliberately doing it 13-1 times, or if it just works out that way because Important Things always do in Eberron, and her work is even more important than she realizes.

I know the traditional aberrant dragonmark is found only in dragonmarked races, but I'm expanding on tradition a bit.

Here's what I have so far:

1) Alexandra d'Cannith, human renegade mastermaker with the Mark of Making. What happens when she has replaced enough of herself with warforged grafts that she no longer is human, and no longer qualifies for the Mark of Making? Aberrant dragonmark.

2) Tanner's Knife, warforged fleshwarper who seeks to become a more perfect organic meatbag by grafting organic meatbag bits to himself. What happens when he carves off the dragonmarked skin and siphons the blood of a dragonmarked person and grafts it onto himself? Aberrant dragonmark.

3) The head of a dragonmarked House wishes for one of their biological children to succeed them as head of House, but none of their children have manifested a dragonmark naturally. So they turn to an unscrupulous mad bioengineer who does mad science to the children. All perish or go mad or both except one, who manifests an aberrant dragonmark. (Thanks, Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

4) An illithid larva is ceremorphosed into a dragonmarked humanoid. The resulting illithid ends up with, you guessed it, an aberrant dragonmark.

5) Breed (through suggestion and subtle manipulation, not anything crassly rapey, because I'm done with that appearing in my campaigns) people with two different dragonmarks together. This is apparently the standard way to end up with an aberrant dragonmark.

6) There exist rituals to transform a mortal into a half-fiend (thanks, Rise of the Runelords) or half-dragon (thanks, Rise of Tiamat) or other, y'know, what-have-you. What happens when you do this ritual on a dragonmarked person, making them no longer a qualifying race? Aberrant dragonmark.

7) Maybe the dragon came in the form of a travelling witch doctor to a remote village and sold them a bunch of dragonshard-based amulets for "fertility" and "healthy gestation", for hanging on the belly during pregnancy, for controlled high levels of Siberys radiation to manifest new (i.e., aberrant) dragonmarks in the resulting children.

8) ?

9) ?

10) ?

11) ?

12) ?

*13) What might the "minus one" be? A 13th success that has since died, gone mad, gone rogue, needs to be put down, hence the campaign? The dragon herself, somehow?

[Cruiser1]

8) The Eberron adventure "Eyes of the Lich Queen" (for characters levels 5-9) features the "Altar of the Dragon's Eye" magical location in Part 1. When characters visit it, they manifest a (usually aberrant) dragonmark. This could be considered a RAW way for PC's to get a free dragonmark without having to spend a feat on it. Anyway, the dragon convinces or manipulates someone to go to this location, so they get an aberrant dragonmark.

[Falontani]

[Eberron] 13-1 Aberrant Dragonmarks

---

So I'm working on a new Eberron campaign, and so far I've got the beginnings of a cast of NPCs. I need your help! My needs are twofold: I want to expand this cast to the full Keith Baker's dozen of 13-1; and I want to figure out how to turn this cast into a campaign.

So here's the idea: a true dragon (probably somewhere between Old and Ancient) has for centuries been studying dragonmarks and the Draconic Prophecy and the way the two interfold, and has recently (we're talking the past few decades; a small period of time for a dragon) advanced to attempting to actively experiment with these things and/or manipulate them to her own ends.

Specifically, she's trying to probe the edges of dragonmarkery, where aberrant dragonmarks form. Through guiding humanoids in various ways, she's trying to do... something? ...by creating aberrant dragonmarks in various ways. I don't know if she's deliberately doing it 13-1 times, or if it just works out that way because Important Things always do in Eberron, and her work is even more important than she realizes.

I know the traditional aberrant dragonmark is found only in dragonmarked races, but I'm expanding on tradition a bit.

Here's what I have so far:

1) Alexandra d'Cannith, human renegade mastermaker with the Mark of Making. What happens when she has replaced enough of herself with warforged grafts that she no longer is human, and no longer qualifies for the Mark of Making? Aberrant dragonmark.

2) Tanner's Knife, warforged fleshwarper who seeks to become a more perfect organic meatbag by grafting organic meatbag bits to himself. What happens when he carves off the dragonmarked skin and siphons the blood of a dragonmarked person and grafts it onto himself? Aberrant dragonmark.

3) The head of a dragonmarked House wishes for one of their biological children to succeed them as head of House, but none of their children have manifested a dragonmark naturally. So they turn to an unscrupulous mad bioengineer who does mad science to the children. All perish or go mad or both except one, who manifests an aberrant dragonmark. (Thanks, Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

4) An illithid larva is ceremorphosed into a dragonmarked humanoid. The resulting illithid ends up with, you guessed it, an aberrant dragonmark.

5) Breed (through suggestion and subtle manipulation, not anything crassly rapey, because I'm done with that appearing in my campaigns) people with two different dragonmarks together. This is apparently the standard way to end up with an aberrant dragonmark.

6) There exist rituals to transform a mortal into a half-fiend (thanks, Rise of the Runelords) or half-dragon (thanks, Rise of Tiamat) or other, y'know, what-have-you. What happens when you do this ritual on a dragonmarked person, making them no longer a qualifying race? Aberrant dragonmark.

7) Maybe the dragon came in the form of a travelling witch doctor to a remote village and sold them a bunch of dragonshard-based amulets for "fertility" and "healthy gestation", for hanging on the belly during pregnancy, for controlled high levels of Siberys radiation to manifest new (i.e., aberrant) dragonmarks in the resulting children.

8) (3.5) Changeling with racial emulation turns into an elf, mates with a human, has a half elf child with an aberrant Dragonmark

9) breed leech + Dragonmarked mother = aberrant Dragonmarked daelkyr halfblood

10) true Dragonmarked individuals are distilled into a "potion" which when drunk by a member of the correct species with the right bloodline manifests into the correct Dragonmark. Individual drinks two different potions

11) human Dragonmarked individual is reincarnated, new form is also human, but not the same bloodline. Aberrant mark forms

12) daelkyr corrupts Dragonmarked individual, slowly turns true mark into an aberrant one

*13) character is in a very stressful situation. Something occurs that would drag out their dormant mark extravagantly (such as the urge to heal a dying loved one for a jorasco), some method is used to channel the stress into the creation of an extremely powerful aberrant mark. Character manifests a syberys mark simultaneously, and the marks literally rip off of character's skin and battle for dominance, killing the character in the process.

[Malimar]

Here's another possibility: master leather-magewright skins a siberys marked person, turns their skin into a magic cloak that grants aberrant dragonmark powers.

[NigelWalmsley]

A mad artificer slaughters enough dragonmarked scions to make a Flesh Golem out of only dragonmarked skin. The conflicting energies manifest as an Aberrant dragonmark.

A blood ritual intended to raise a dragonmarked person from the grave is performed with blood from holders of other dragonmarks, warping the original mark.

A scholar seeking knowledge about the ancient wars between elves and dragons tries to return a long-dead elf to life. In life, this elf bore the Mark of Death, but the mark's extermination means that when they return, it is instead an Aberrant mark.

A hobgoblin general tries to induce a dragonmark among goblinoids. He fails to create a true mark, but some of his subjects manifest Aberrant ones.

A daelkyr tries to create a human-based answer to the dolgaunts and dolgrims. He warps together two people with different marks, creating a horror with an Aberrant mark.

An adventurer feels that the Mark of Passage would be more useful to them than the Mark of Making they have. Their attempt to replace their mark fails, leaving an Aberrant one in its place.

[Xgya]

Aventurers sent to seek out an ancient artifact called the Dragon's Eye by a wealthy archeologist end up activating the device after slaying its guardian.
In the resulting glow, each of them now bears a dragonmark, even the people not of a dragonmarked family or race.
Most of them end up with an Aberrant Dragonmark.

(that's actually the first part of Eyes of the Lich Queen, an Eberron adventure module :P)

Of course, anyone managing to magically activate a Dragonmark despite any limitations gets some level of attention from Erandis Vol and her Emerald Claw, because the Blood of Vol's lich leader is always on the hunt for ways or clues to reactivate her own Mark of Death.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

If you really want to hammer home the theme of the 13-1 aberrant 'marks mirroring the 13-1 true dragonmarks, having each NPC be associated with a specific dragonmark but inverting it thematically would be good--and, assuming you're not limiting yourself to the standard list of aberrant 'mark SLAs, going with thematically opposed SLAs like negative-energy SLAs for the anti-Healing 'mark, light SLAs for the anti-Shadow mark, and so on would be good too.

NPC 1 is already associated with the Mark of Making. NPC 2 sounds like the Mark of Healing, very Nosomatic Chirurgeon-y. NPC 3 would be a good fit for the Mark of Shadow, since it's shared by two metaphorical-sibling Dragonmarked Houses so some literal siblings dying off to leave a single aberrant mark fits nicely. NPC 4 fits either the Mark of Detection or Mark of Finding, as both are kind of telepath-y in theme and belong to part-human bloodlines. NPC 5 is the Mark of Handling, of course, with the whole breeding-for-magical-powers thing. NPC 6 is tricky, but can work with the Mark of Storm if you pick a half-demon (as demons are immune to lightning). NPC 7 would work for the Mark of Hospitality if, instead of handing out amulets or the like, the dragon tainted the village's water supply with an alchemical solution of dragonshard dust or similar.

That leaves us with Detection/Finding, Passage, Scribing, Sentinel, and Warding. Falontani's changeling idea works well for Detection, seeing (heh) as it's often used for finding shapechangers. Adapting Malimar's idea to some sort of skin transplant that "tattoos" the dragonmark onto someone else fits the Mark of Scribing. NigelWalmsley's human dolgaunt idea works for the Mark of Passage, if it's done by manipulating planar phenomena to try to effectively teleport two people into the same place. For Sentinel and Warding, none of the existing ones are exact matches and nothing else immediately comes to mind, but it shouldn't be too hard to think of one.

And of course, the lost Mark of Death was wiped out when an attempt at dragon crossbreeding threatened to make it too powerful and its only remaining bearer is now an undead necromancer, so obviously the thirteenth should be the dragon's own half-dragon child who bears a Khyber mark (the aberrant equivalent of a Siberys mark) themed around creating and warping life, and who has been using said 'mark powers to aid its mother in her plans.

[Malimar]

Yaaaaaas, the forums are back in time for me to synthesize this into my campaign.



I was thinking about mirroring the base Dragonmarks in some way, yeah, and PairO'Dice's post does that nicely, so excellent.

[The Viscount]

Bit late to the party on this one but if you were still looking for concepts, here's another.

A dragonmarked elf achieves enough standing to be inducted into the Undying Court, and the process of becoming a deathless creature alters their soul or essence enough to alter their dragonmark, making it aberrant.

This wouldn't be common since IIRC the Aerenal elves don't typically interact with the elves of House Phiarlan or Thuranni, so there'd either need to be a marriage in by one of their parents or perhaps a Little Big Man situation. I don't remember if dragonmarks typically disappear on death, or the specifics on someone becoming a member of the Undying Court (if they die then come back as a deathless or if they just go through a ritual that jumps from living to deathless) so might require a bit of loosening of the established rules.

[Estradus]

Here's an aberrant dragonmark character I've had on a backburner for a while, the setup requires delving into the lore a bit. I'm not 100% certain if this fits your needs, but here goes.

So, by most settings mythohistory (Eberron included) kobolds were formed from the spilled blood of dragon gods.
Logic Leap 1: Assuming a suitable amount of other magic magic and dm hand waving, perhaps a kobold could form from the blood of a non-progenitor wyrm dragon
Logic Leap 2: How "Draconic" are dragonmarks? Dragons in Eberron are predominantly magic because of their association with the draconic prophecy - theoretically, all of their spellcasting comes from this connection. Some sources have asserted similar effects with dragonmarks, 5e has sorcerer paths for True and Aberrant dragonmarks that are just using their marks for power, drawing power right from the prophecy like a true dragon. *Are* they related, physiologically?

Before it was The City of Towers, Sharn was home to a *lot* of old ruins. Most relevantly, it was the stronghold of House Tarkanan during the War of the Mark. The amount of dragonmarked blood shed in that very spot is legendary - including two of the most powerful aberrant mark wielders known. Rumors of ghosts and worse abound in the cogs.
Now, Sharn is obviously a massive megatropolis. Its full of artificers and magewrights and wizards making all kinds of neat stuff - and, by some books, making all sorts of interesting arcane pollution.

Between the spilled dragon(mark) blood, the arcane pollution, whatever insane things cultists of the dragon below are doing in that region, and yes, perhaps, a nudge from a real dragon, could a kobold form from the blood of 1000 spilled aberrant dragonmark wielders? I thought it was a fun concept, just all in aberrant dragonmark kobold sorcerer. Poke his stats so aberrant dragonmark feats count as draconic feats for stacking purposes.

Question is, Would this count as a draconic dragonmark wielder like what happened with Erandis Vol where this kobold grows up into some sort of living eldritch machine?

The problem with dragonmarks is its kinda 13-1 twice. We've got 13-1 mark of death, and 13-1 aberrant. If you're trying to go 1:1 with the dragonmarks, do you try to recreate the mark of death or do you try to intentionally spark the worst aberrant mark you can?


Addendum: saw some guys talk about daelkyr corrupting a mark and thats cool, but I've seen really great headcanons that the daelkyr are the ones responsible for dragonmarks appearing in the first place. The appearance of dragonmarks, to groups like dragons and the lords of dust, was entirely unexpected and completely rewrote everything they needed to consider. Its been thousands of years and they still haven't wrapped their heads around it, and can't even decide if action should or should not be taken. Given that the daelkyr are from the realm of madness and just do not comport to our "rules" on the most basic level, I think its a pretty interesting direction to try exploring.

[liquidformat]

You could also look at necromancy, necromancer playing around with dragonmarked skin kites taking the skins of other dragonmarked peoples to create abberant dragonmarked skinkites...

[Estradus]

You could also look at necromancy, necromancer playing around with dragonmarked skin kites taking the skins of other dragonmarked peoples to create abberant dragonmarked skinkites...

Skin-stealing seems like a really fun idea, but usually dragonmarks don't work for the undead. What about a necromancer killing dragonmarked individuals and trying to magically fuse their flesh to his, trying to "collect them all" as it were?

[RedMage125]

So I thought I'd put here the concept for the only aberrant-marked PC idea I've ever had.

Jareth Ashta (spelling?) is from one of the families of House Tharashk. His parents are both members of a Cult of the Dragon Below. A ritual was performed when he was conceived, meant to make him some kind of "dark messiah" for the cult. Not only did this make him a warlock when he got older, but it twisted the energies of what should have been his birthright (Mark of Finding) into an Aberrant mark. When he was old enough, his parents revealed to him his "destiny", but it terrified him. He left the Marches, and wanders now. But he believes his powers are evil and can only be evil, and that his soul is damned, even though he doesn't want to be a bad person. He is starting to surrender to the idea that he may be aligned with evil powers, even if he doesn't want to.