Eberron Races in the Forgotten Realms...

[kkortekaas]

Howdy folks,
I was recently remarking to my wife how I would love to see Ebberon Races (namely the Shifter, Changeling and Warforged) in the Realms, to which I received a polite smile and a "yes dear", but anyways has anyone integrated the races above into the Realms?

I've thought that Thay, Halruua or Lantan would be a good birthplace for the warforged. But I'm at a loss as to how / where Shifters and Changelings could be integrated.

Actually, I've love to hear if anyone has had success integrating not only the races above but also races from the "Races of ...." series and the Environmental Series (Cityscape, Sandstorm, etc....)

I look forward to reading about your integrations.

[Fax Celestis]

I'd make shifters, catfolk, killoren, and raptorans from Aglarond. Changelings, warforged, and whisper gnomes from Lurien and Shaar. I'd also put illumians and sharakim centered around Waterdeep and Thay.

[blackout]

Yeah, I agree. Certain Eberron races would be awesome in the Realms. Especially the Warforged. I would definitely play a Warforged Fighter in the Realms, it'd be awesome.

[Vyker]

Well, here's the easy answer -- anything could be somewhere. If the populations are appropriately sized, it adds to the world without hurting it. They could be "large enough" for a player to be one, to occasionally encounter one or more, and to provide local flavor. They could also be "small enough" so that they don't skew everything to sheer madness. Some could even be so small that they're only known in a very minor, out of the way area. A county plagued by Changlings or something. And some of those races can interact very well with pre-existing stuff. Sky elves and Raptorians... hmmm... the possibilities for sky-based hijinks are endless!

There's also a Realms-based answer. Check the main book... the number of references to "portals to elsewhere" is staggering for a world which is largely self-contained. Faerun/Toril seems to be an awesome place for folks to go -- so why not have them go there? Heck, planar invaders/refugees/colonists/explorers would make a great campaign idea, whichever side the PCs were on.

It's easily doable. And the Realms is a fun place to mod around in... lot of ways to make it all work. The only limiting factor is your imagination and your players tolerance for tweaking the setting.

[kkortekaas]

Don't get me wrong, it's not that the previously noted races don't have a place in my Realms, but as is stands now, they have no (struggles for the right term) reason? history? je-ne-sais-quoi?

I know that wasn't very concise...but I'm having a spot of trouble getting my point across this evening...

[Callix]

Changelings work anywhere. That's the beauty of them. That and they can turn ointo the most beautiful person of the gender of your preference in existence at will. They can be seamlessly integrated into any society, since the thing they do best is blend in.

Shifters, on the other hand... Uthgardt barbarians have some aspects in common, particularly the wilderness stuff, and a lot of the shifter abilities are useful in low-tech wilderness settings. Just a maybe.

Kalashtar? Don't go there.

[TheWarBlade]

Warforged would be the creation of Thayans if you ignore what is written in Secrets of Xen'drik. A race of constructs with enough brains to follow commands and tireless? Yes please! Or you could do like Cannith did and find the plans somewhere and leave the origin to be unknown.

History
Suddenly Thay goes on the offensive with tireless armies of steel marching to take over all of the world. Wait let me get back to you on that....MARCH MY STEEL MINIONS! It boils down to what fits with the campaign really.

Shifters...well lycans are hate universially so a race of semi-lycans would be feared and hated just as easily and forced to live as nomads in the rugged areas of the world fighting other creatures for basic survival. With the various shifting traits, they could be tied to various areas in the world.

Changelings are mostly found in large cities I think so it is easier to blend in.

Kalashtar? I dont like psionics that much so I leave em out

[DraPrime]

Don't get me wrong, it's not that the previously noted races don't have a place in my Realms, but as is stands now, they have no (struggles for the right term) reason? history? je-ne-sais-quoi?

I know that wasn't very concise...but I'm having a spot of trouble getting my point across this evening...

I get your point. Really, sticking in a random race int the Realms isn't the best idea. These races need some part in the world, and it can't be "the DM put them there."

[ALOR]

well i'll give it a shot, my forgotten realms history is a bit rusty however.

warforged: if you don't mind changing FR history you could say that it was an evil plan of the thayians to take over the world, but the warforged started questioning thier orders to destroy thay's enemies and rebeled. Alternatly you could say they were from the old netherese empire (I think this is where the shades came from). basicly , one of the floating cities crashed into the ocean, or a lost island. the only survivors were the warforged. You could have creation forges like thier are in ebberon, or you could say that each of the "sexes" has components nessasary for creating a new warforged life and that every "female" warforged has a small creation forge inside of them. this would produce a component that holds the new "life" and then the body of the warfoged is created and the "soul" is placed into it.

shifter and changling: i really think you could just insert these races with little problem to realms history. changlings are very easy as they can basicly blend in with anything. Shifters i would place in the more barbaraic or deep forest areas. maybe change thier fluff to be more of a race based off of nature aspects rather than lycanthropes.

kalshater: while i absolutly hate psionics, i really like this race and it's fluff. you could have the kalshater come from isolated monestaries at various points in the realms. the ispired could have just appered in the realms, or maybe they to were actully rulers of one of the old dead empires in the realms.

hope this helps