Keith Baker's Blog

While I still have dice, I’m not traveling so much at the moment, and that means Have Dice Will Travel isn’t the most sensible place to be doing what I’m doing. so from this point on, please check Keith-Baker.com for my latest posts and updates on what I’m doing!

I’m just heading out the door to go to PAX, but I thought I’d post some useful links. First, here’s the schedule of my events at PAX…

Eberron and Beyond – Tabletop, Friday 4:00 – 5:00 PM

Loving The Alien – Tabletop, Friday 6:00 – 7:00 PM

Setting The Mood – Tabletop, Saturday 4:00 – 5:00 PM

It Only Hurts When I Laugh – Unicorn Theater, Sunday 4:30 – 5:30 PM

I’ll also be hanging around the Looney Labs area now and then demoing Cthulhu Fluxx, so look for me there!

There’s a new Eye on Eberron article up at D&D Insider: The Inner Sun! One of the ideas of Eberron is that the Underworld of Khyber is a real threat, and yet it’s generally ignored. This article presents an unpleasant corner of Khyber that could pop up anywhere in Khorvaire to cause trouble for your PCs.

I also wanted to link to this blog post from Rob Heinsoo about his RPG 13th Age. I worked with Rob and Jonathan Tweet during the early concept phase of 13th Age, and this post talks about one of the ideas that came out of that time. I’ll write more about 13th Age in the future, but I look forward to playing it in days to come!

First, just a reminder that I’ll be at PAX in a little over a week. I’m doing the following panels (follow the links for more information):

Eberron and Beyond – Tabletop, Friday 4:00 – 5:00 PM

Loving The Alien – Tabletop, Friday 6:00 – 7:00 PM

Setting The Mood – Tabletop, Saturday 4:00 – 5:00 PM

It Only Hurts When I Laugh – Unicorn Theater, Sunday 4:30 – 5:30 PM

Now, on with the questions! First, two related ones:

I wanted to know if there is news on supporting Eberron in dndnext (Mearls said that they have already thought on supporting other settings)

I haven’t heard anything specific, but this doesn’t mean anything. If you look to 4E, Forgotten Realms was supported out of the box and Eberron came along a year later. They have a lot to deal with right now with the playtest; the fact that there’s no official word on Eberron doesn’t necessarily mean anything. But if you want to see it, I imagine the best thing to do is to continue to show interest online; activity on the Eberron forums, requests for Eberron articles and the like will help them judge the size of the audience. 

If DnDnext hits Eberron do you think you would be tapped to spearhead the direction it heads, as Ed is doing with Faerûn?

Given that WotC brought me in to work on 4E Eberron and has me writing Eye on Eberron, I think there’s a good chance I’d be involved in some way on a D&D Next edition. But it’s really too soon to say.

Meanwhile, last time I talked about the fact that angels can fall and devils can be redeemed, but that these changes to the idea tend to produce physical changes – a fallen angel becomes a devil or radiant idol. In response to this, Aeith says:

Hmm, with this talk of Fallen Angels and Redeemed Demons, I have to wonder if a Daelkyr can’t change fundamentally to this degree. Then again it would be weird having immortal embodiments of sanity.

Surely a daelkyr can change; but I’m not sure I’d change it into an embodiment of sanity. Where I’ve dealt with transformed immortals in the past, the core idea is the same; it’s the focus that changes. Looking to the Kalashtar, this article discusses the fact that the core nature of the kalashtar spirits still deal with fear, fury, and similar things, just redirected:

Kalashtar with tsucora roots are comfortable with terror, but this could translate into a shaman who physically manifests fears; an ardent who disorients foes with implanted fear; or a paladin who seeks to use his or her own knowledge of terror to banish it from those around him or her.

The Kalashtar Tsucora is still, fundamentally, a spirit of fear; it hasn’t become a spirit of courage. But it uses its power in noble ways. Likewise, a daelkyr who becomes good might still be a force of madness, not sanity; but perhaps it is an inspiring madness that helps artificers and artists see the world in new ways, or otherwise helps people break from their shells and see the world in new ways.

Continuing with immortals…

I like how eladrin are depicted and how it gives fey-lords a place of power in Eberron – then again I love fairy tales. It effectively places the lords on more or less the same level as the other major powerplayers. Would these eladrin lords be effective immortal as well?

In The Gates of Night and The Fading Dream I present a number of powerful fey, notably the lords of the Feyspires. My opinion on their mortality is in line with Aeith’s earlier response: they are immortal as long as their story demands it. Certainly age alone has little meaning to such beings, and most would reform or rise again after a random physical defeat. However, if that defeat is, essentially, a satisfying ending to the story of that fey, then its existence will end. In this case, its title and power will pass to the fey most qualified to inherit it. In The Fading Dream, the Lady of the Silver Tree mentions her father being lord before her. So there you have one example of one archfey falling and another taking his place. But that’s not a common thing, to be sure; for the most part, these fey are as immortal as a story.

I don’t know if this has been discussed before, but I was wondering if Eberron is connected to other dnd worlds despite the difference concerning the planes in Eberron and the general Planescape one.

The general theory I’ve always heard is that you could reach it through the Plane of Shadow, which is to say Mabar. But the short form is, if you want it to be, create a way for it to be. Make an Eldritch Machine that bridges planar boundaries into new realms. Have a new Siberys shard strike that tears a hole in reality. And on that note…

How devastating is a Syberis shard strike? Could one hit Sharn?

Sure, one could hit Sharn. How devastating is it? That depends on the size of the shard, which is to say “as devastating as you want it to be.”

What is to be found on the moons of Eberron?

No one knows. They could be exotic worlds like Barsooom. Or it could be that they aren’t in fact solid celestial bodies; rather they are spherical gates into other planes, and when someone is finally able to reach them, they will be able to start regular commerce with those planes.

Are there other planets in the Eberron “system”?

Not that we’ve ever described.Tied to the zany moons-are-planar-gates idea, this is where one needs to decide if Eberron exists in a normal physical space as we understand it, or if it’s a very different sort of universe. Certainly, this is something I’ve thought about with other worlds and will cover in more detail in the next setting I develop, but it’s not something that is defined in canon Eberron.

Where does the life-spark & consciousness of a warforged originate?

This is one of the key mysteries of the setting, and one that should never be given a canon answer. The artificers of House Cannith generally assert that it’s something artificial that they have created; others, such as the kalashtar, maintain that this is impossible, and that no mortal agency can create a soul. With this in mind, a number of theories are out there. One is that they are reincarnated spirits of soldiers who died during the war, thus explaining their natural talents for war. Another is that they are quori vessels waiting to be filled; it’s a back-up plan that would allow the quori to escape Dal Quor if the age turns, and the soul is a sliver of the quori. For a third, turn to the Sovereign Host theory that the spirits found in Dolurrh are just the husks of the true souls, which must strip away these worldly trappings to ascend to the realms of the Sovereigns… so the Warforged soul is essentially the recycled compost of a previous soul. Anyhow, there’s a few possibilities – I’m sure you can come up with more!

Warforged can (by rules) be of any class. But what sort of challenges would the 1st warforged clerics have faced?

I think you need to start by deciding who the first warforged clerics were – and if their creators intended them to be clerics. For example, it’s possible that a Cannith artificer-cleric of Onatar could have decided to make a group of warforged for the express purpose of honoring the Sovereigns – or that the Church of the Silver Flame could have expressed an interest in creating warforged capable of directly harnessing and channeling the power of the Silver Flame (which is, after all, a concrete source of divine energy) as a supplement to the Templars. Taking the ideal of these “Silver Templars” – they might not be seen as equals of other priests, because at least initially no one believed that warforged had souls – but if they were designed to channel divine energy, their ability to do so wouldn’t be questioned.

On the other hand, if you had a warforged designed to be a simple soldier, who found faith on the battlefield and learned to channel divine power through faith alone… Reactions would vary. Looking to the Church of the Silver Flame, there are orcs, yuan-ti, and couatl who channel the Silver Flame; it’s not like it’s somehow blasphemous for a warforged to do it. Some would likely see it as miraculous, a wonder of the Flame and a sign of the noble spirit of the warforged. Others would dismiss it as some sort of trickery; it LOOKS like a priest, but surely it’s just got built in wands producing these effects.

Turning to a different topic…

How do you see Zilargo dealing with adventurers, particularly in bigger groups? I know there’s been mentions of Zilargo, somehow, managing to force other Nations to play by their rules, despite them being tiny and far less important to be friends with than other bigger groups (I’d prefer to be friendly with Breland any day, over Zilargo, for one), but I’ve been curious; how does Zilargo deal with a group that it’s not exactly easy to get control over, that they can’t reasonably blackmail?

How does Zilargo deal with anyone? By not making enemies. You say that it’s far less important to be friends with them than bigger groups, using Breland as an example. The first thing they do is to make sure that you’re never forced to choose between them and Breland. Instead, they have solidified their alliance WITH Breland. Zilargo does its best not to have obvious enemies; the only major potential conflict they’ve got is with Cannith/Lyrandar over elemental binding, which we discussed to death in a previous page. That one thing aside – which again, is really only Cannith’s issue, and not a particularly big issue given all the other things Cannith is doing – they aren’t exactly trying to force other nations to “play by their rules.”

Meanwhile, how does Zilargo handle adventurers? Allow me to refer you to a Dragonshard on this topic, which observes “a gnome may be no match for a half-orc barbarian in a fair fight — but the gnomes of Zilargo seldom fight fair.” I’ll also point to the Eye on Eberron article which details the Trust and the tools and weapons at their disposal.

The first tool in handling adventurers is information. The eyes of the Trust are everywhere. Anyone could be reporting to the Trust: the barmaid, the blacksmith, the beggar, the bard. Even where there are no gnomes, the wind itself reports to the Trust (see the EoE article for details. )  Adventurers generally stand out, whether due to unusual party composition, special equipment, or reputation gained in prior land. The eyes of the Trust are always watching for potentially disruptive influences. So step one is simply to be aware of the adventurers are what they are doing. As long as they don’t do anything wrong, no one will interfere with them in any way; but a Trust agent may well use a whisp to monitor them and listen to conversations.

The second tool is direction. Once the Trust is aware of the adventurer’s presence, it can stage any number of scenarios to place information it wants in the hands of the PCs. Remember that roughly one in three Zil is connected to the Trust in some way. Combine this with the fact that the Zil have a natural talent for illusion, and there’s all sorts of ways for them to stage scenarios that provide the PCs with information they’d like them to have… or simply point other people at the PCs. So there’s an Emerald Claw unit in Trolanport? Great – the Trust can easily find a way to point them and the PCs at one another, and then at least one of these problems goes away.

A second aspect of this is that Zilargo’s armor is hospitality. If adventurers aren’t there to cause trouble, there’s no reason TO interfere with them. On the contrary, the Trust will do its subtle best to ensure that the PCs have a pleasant stay and to push obstacles out of their way, precisely to avoid the temptation to cause trouble. The Zil recognize that adventurers are potentially useful tools themselves; setting aside the Trust, independent Zil will be happy to befriend adventurers in the hopes of taking advantage of that friendship later. So adventurers will find Zilargo to be a very pleasant place, as long as they don’t cause trouble.

But let’s say they DO aim to misbehave. The wizard wants to start blasting people in the town square. If he’s planning this out in the back room of an inn, well, see the Dragonmark for an example of how it might play out; the Zil are big believers in eliminating problems before they become problems, Minority Report-style. But say he doesn’t talk about it in advance. He’s in the market square, he gets in an argument with a merchant, and decides a fireball is the answer. What do the Zil do when faced with six extremely powerful and violent people? Step one: A ghost sound message whispers in the wizard’s ear, before he’s even cast that spell – “Stand down and we’ll ignore this. Otherwise, any injury you visit on one of our people will come back to you threefold.” If the wizard ignores it and starts blasting? Unless the Trust has an assassin on scene (which they might, depending on the reputation of the adventurers), they’ll let it play out. People will flee. The wizard will do what the wizard will do. And then what, exactly, will he do? Because from that moment on, anything he decides to eat or drink could be poisoned. There could be invisible assassins around him waiting for him to sleep. His location could be passed along to his enemies – again, the Zil are very happy to have other people fight on their behalf.

Now, I mentioned invisible assassins. I’ll point to Madra Sil Sarin in Sharn: City of Towers as an example of a Trust elite assassin. She wears rings of invisibility and sustenance, and has a telepathic bond to her Trust handler. Even the gnomes of the Sharn embassy don’t know where she is. She doesn’t sleep. She is a ghost, watching and waiting for her handler to give her the next assignment. At that point, it’s time for a death attack. Now, the Trust has few agents on par with Madra, but the whole point of the Trust is that you never know when one is there. Yes, they probably don’t have anyone on the scene who can stop you from blasting the marketplace. But is it worth it? Do you really, really want to take that chance? Do you want to worry about poison in your ale for the rest of your life? Isn’t it just a little simpler to keep the peace in Zilargo and let the little people do things their way?

In any case, I didn’t get to all the questions, but that’s all I have time for now. Check back next week!

It’s time for another Eberron Q&A! Let’s get right to it…

Let’s say that I’ve got a player who really likes games with Nerull. How would you put him in? The Keeper? Lord of Dust?

The thing about the Keeper is that you only interact with him through his cults, and they aren’t even all bad. The Restful Watch believe that Aureon and the Keeper work together to preserve vital souls from Dolurrh so that they can be returned to Eberron in a time of need; in many communities, the RW maintains cemeteries and performs funerary rites. As a result, I’d go with the Lords of Dust, specifically the Overlord Katashka, also known as the Gatekeeper. Lord of death and undeath, Katashka is said to have created the first undead. His mightiest servant is the dracolich Mazyralyx, who some scholars believe is the original inspiration for the myths of the Keeper. Katashka himself is bound, but you can bring Mazyralyx and any number of fiendish and undead servants to bear. Katashka is mentioned on page 30 of the 4E ECG and in this Eberron Expanded article.

Continuing with the theme…

How exactly does a Rajah like Yad-Raghesh ( from Dragons of Eberron, page 50) die?

They don’t. That’s the point of Yad-Raghesh’s tale; his apparent death appears to be a shocking, one-of-a-kind victory, but it is later discovered that rather than dying, he has simply spread his spirit across the Vale, transforming it into a pit of corruption that spawns fiends and slowly expands. If Yad-Raghesh was truly “dead”, the blight on the land would pass; it’s the presence of his spirit that keeps it alive and growing.

Now, to be clear: An Overlord can be temporarily killed the standard way – by reducing their hit points below zero. It’s simply that this doesn’t last for long; they return within a day. In the case of Yad-Raghesh, he didn’t return and thus appeared to have been truly defeated. This turned out to be a false hope. By transforming himself in this way, he at least partially escaped the binding of the Silver Flame; he can’t return to his original form, but his power is continuing to spread while the other Overlords are held in check.

As for what he represents, I would say corruption. He gave up his physical existence to BECOME the corruption he embodied.

Out of all Eberron NPCs, which one would be the most likely to become a Ravenloft Darklord?

I don’t know about “most likely,” but my choice would be Merrix d’Cannith. His great crime? The attempt to create true life, moving beyond the warforged (who can’t procreate) to create something that can truly replace the current people of Eberron. In the Gothic architypes, he’d be a sort of Frankenstein, his realm filled with his imperfect creations – after all, the Dark Powers might let him get close to his goal, but they’d never allow him to succeed.

Suppose you have a player who, for whatever reason, wants part of his PC’s story arc to be romancing a noble. Who would be your best/favourite NPC noble for this role?

I’m still planning to write more about the nobility in the future, but this is more targeted. It depends where your story is set, but I’d personally choose Princess Haydith of Karrnath, who currently resides in Boranel’s court in Breland. According to Five Nations she’s only fifteen, but it’s easy enough to adjust that as you see fit. I think Haybith is an interesting character for a number of reasons. She’s the sister of a king, so certainly an important noble; she’s in a foreign land and thus likely happy to find a new friend or romance; she’s already a political pawn in Kaius’s efforts to promote peace, but she could easily be targeted by those who wish to strike at Kaius himself. And, of course, getting close to Haydith provides an interesting connection to Kaius itself, which could go any number of different ways.

Besides a certain royal prince, who are some potential identites behind the mask of Prisoner Deep Fourteen?

Let’s look at the facts. He was sent to Dreadhold by Kaius III. He is being kept alive. His features are hidden. He can’t speak and isn’t allowed to communicate in other ways. So why keep him alive but incommunicado? Here’s a few random ideas, which I am making up at this very moment.

- War Wizard. This individual is one of Karrnath’s greatest war wizards, responsible for creating immensely powerful and horrific rituals used in war. He’s wanted for a host of war crimes, and Kaius promptly had him tried and executed at the end of the war before any other nation could get their hands on him (thus claiming innocence in some of his worst atrocities). However, the fact of the matter is that he wants the man alive so if the war begins again he can bring him back into service. Heck, if you want to go there, you could say that he is the architect of the Mourning itself! Kaius is horrified by the damage the weapon did and doesn’t want his future kingdom devasted like this… but he doesn’t want to kill the one man who knows how to make a second Mourning.

- Demon Vessel. During the war, Kaius made deals with a powerful fiend. When it came time for the fiend to collect what was promised to it, Kaius was able to trick it into possessing this mortal body, which was then bound and sent to Dreadhold. If the vessel is killed, the demon will be freed and will take a terrible vengeance on Kaius and Karrnath.

- Who’s Your Daddy? According to some myths, a vampire has influence over vampires that it creates. Some superstitious people maintain that slaying a vampire will result in the deaths of those it has sired; even if this isn’t true as a default, a brilliant necromancer could certainly devise sympathetic rituals to strike at a vampire through it’s sire. As for why Kaius III would want a vampire locked away – I’ll leave it to you to figure that out.

Have you ever ran an adventure in Everice or Frostfell? What sort of things might be found there? I can only think of Daelkyr/Quori ruins greatly inspired by At the Mountains of Madness, though I wonder what ideas flow through your head.

I wrote a backdrop set in the Frostfell for the print edition of Dungeon that never ended up seeing the light of day. Rumor has it that some form of it may appear as an Eye on Eberron article. For now, I’ll simply say that my vision of the Frostfell includes old dwarven ruins and the impact of a powerful Overlord of the Age of Demons.

I noticed the other day that, geographically, much of the demon wastes should be rainy, frozen misery. Was this intended?

The Demon Wastes is an unnatural place, due to the presence of buried overlords and close ties to Khyber. So rainy, frozen misery is certainly appropriate; but it also has its share of volcanic activity, burning basalt wastes, and the like.

With House Sivis’ tight standards for authentication, how effective is forgery for your typical hard-working scoundrel?

Difficult. However, based on the principle that science advances with needs, I’m sure that there are tools in existence allowing people who can create arcane marks to (attempt to) forge a Sivis mark. And bear in mind that not all documents in circulation are authenticated by Sivis. Letters of credit and identification papers generally are; but when the innkeeper sends a letter to his brother, he’s not likely to run over to the bank to get it authenticated.

Lightning rail roads are always shown as a single line of stones. How do the trains pass each other?

I don’t believe that the coach needs to ride directly above the rail; it’s about the interaction between the two. as such, I think two trains could slide to the side (using some form of front deflector) and move alongside each other, with the rail in between the two of them, for a short period of time.

I want a villain with an airship. He’d need a Lyrandar pilot. Why wouldn’t the House put a stop to that? At what point would the House personally step in to stop a rogue member assisting a villain?

It would only concern the house if it was somehow causing bad publicity for them. Their initial response would simply be to declare the individual to be a rogue and excoriate, and likely put a bounty on him based on just how much trouble he was causing them; meaning that yay, the player characters can collect an extra reward. I’d only see the house leadership as taking some sort of direct action if the individual became a huge black eye for them – if her actions were causing people to boycott Lyrandar services or the like.

Did the ancient goblins/giants/dragons have artificers? If not, why not? If so, what are some examples of ancient artifice, as opposed to just ancient magic in general?

First off: the artificer is a PC class. I don’t like saying that “Culture X doesn’t have a single individual of class Y”, because PC-class individuals are remarkable people. Just because the ancient dragon culture as a whole didn’t have artificers doesn’t mean that there wasn’t *A* dragon artificer; what I’m going to say is my view of the culture’s approach to magic as a whole. And with that in mind, bear in mind that there’s nothing an artificer can create that can’t be created by some other spellcasting class. The artificer is simply more versatile and efficient. In my opinion, it represents a more industrial approach to the creation of magic items: a focus on magic items as a tool of society, as opposed to a secondary aspect of whatever field of magic the individual pursues. So, looking at each culture:

Dragons of Argonnessen. I don’t see artificers as being a significant part of draconic cultures. Dragons are magic, and their style of magic largely involve learning to channel their own innate power, or using it to create greater effects in the world around them – which is to say, primarily sorcery. Dragons of Eberron talks about loredrakes and divine casters, and loredrakes such as Ourelonastrix obviously unlocked epic level magic lesser creatures haven’t yet mastered – things like the magic used to devastate Xen’drik. But I don’t see artifice as such being a particular interest of dragons.

Giants of Xen’drik. Yes, I believe that there were artificers in Xen’drik. In particular, the Sulat League has been shown as having a very industrial approach to magic, between elemental binding, magebreeding, and the tools and weapons they created. In The Dreaming Dark trilogy you see a number of examples of their artifice, such as the moon-breaker and the chamber of false dreams.

Dhakaani Goblins. No artificers. They have exceptional smiths whose techniques and knowledge of metallurgy allow them to produce magical arms and armor, but a Dhakaani war-smith simply doesn’t have the versatility of an artificer (who can also disable constructs, craft everburning torches, create spell-storing objects, etc). The Dhakaani goblins do know how to create artifacts – Ghaal’Duur, to name one – but as described in the recent Kech Ghaalrac article, “these objects cannot be mass produced; each one is unique and requires rare components to create—the blood of a daelkyr, slivers of Khyber dragonshards imbued with a demon’s essence, and the like.” So again, they have exceptional treasures, but that doesn’t mean that they have a culture that produces artificers; their treasures are made by their smiths and the duur’kala.

Was there ever the idea to break up Cannith’s HUGE powerbase and split up the magic stuffs a bit more? Yeah, Cannith is split up three ways that make sense but would it make sense for Denieth to make the Warforged … or have Lyrandar make the airships? Cannith just seems very omnipresent in a world surrounded by magic.

Don’t overestimate Cannith’s power. Cannith produces airships, but it can’t make airships that actually work without the help of both Lyrandar and Zil elemental binders. Cannith created the Kundarak vault network, but it required the assistance of Orien and Kundarak heirs. Cannith is the house of making, and they are the foundation of the magical economy. But many of the critical tools of society require multiple houses to work together. This is the primary purpose of the Twelve: to facilitate this sort of cooperation and create things no house could create alone.

So allowing Lyrandar to create airships on its own would significantly alter the balance of power. As it is, Lyrandar needs Cannith… but Cannith also needs Lyrandar. There are many things – the warforged, wands, etc – that Cannith creates alone, but even there it relies on House Tharashk for the massive amounts of dragonshards required for its work. They are one of the most powerful and influential houses, but there are other houses that can challenge them – especially with the current schism in their ranks.

Maybe you answered this before, but how would you retcon the Silver Flame being the ones to handle resurrection in DDO?

The short answer is that I wouldn’t. City of Stormreach leaves resurrection in the hands of Jorasco, and even there notes that it’s not something they do lightly as many strange mishaps have happened in the past. However, if I had to, I’d start by saying that because of those mishaps Jorasco has finally dropped the service. Then I’d highlight the fact that the Silver Flame in Stormreach is a heretical sect that’s been cut off from Flamekeep for refusing to accept the authority of the theocracy (maintaining that the political ties distract the church from its true mission and breed corruption). Lacking the support of Flamekeep, they may have turned to this as a way to raise the money they need to maintain their mission in Stormreach. One option is to say that they’ll only resurrect people who they consider to be unworthy of joining the Flame, reasoning that thus they aren’t actually robbing the Flame of a soul; another approach is to say that as they are a minority “heretical” sect, they feel the need to keep anyone who might champion their cause alive.

Are there enough kalashtar to form an evil splinter-group, perhaps countered by a group of altruistic Inspired? How about one that has defected & wants to warn the world?

Evil kalashtar? Sure. I think Races of Eberron actually presented a group of Kalashtar who essentially wanted to become full-fledged quori. Kalashtar are mortal creatures; their personalities are influenced by their quori spirits, but at the end of the day, they are unique individuals. An evil kalashtar may be a manic, psychotic individual because of the psychic dissonance between their actions and the beliefs of their connected Quori, but that can serve to create a villain.

“Altruistic Inspired” are a very different story. The kalashtar can come in any flavor because they are mortal. Inspired aren’t. They are immortal embodiments of nightmares. They are literally evil incarnate. They can change – as the kalashtar quori did – but this is like an angel falling and becoming a demon. An immortal is an idea given form, and if that idea changes, the form will change as well; it’s not something that would go unnoticed, and that transformed spirit would either be eliminated or force on the run, as the kalashtar quori were. Just bear in mind that there is a fundamental difference between mortals and immortals; immortals don’t have as much free will and opportunity for mental evolution as mortals do. This is why the Lord of Dust remains fundamentally the same being he was a hundred thousand years ago; it’s not in his nature to change.

With that said, all quori may be “evil”, but that doesn’t mean they are opposing the players. The primary concern of the quori is preserving Dal Quor. Many highly placed quori believe that they have accomplished that by gaining control of Riedra, and that as long as the kalashtar don’t mess things up, there is no need to take hostile action against Khorvaire… and that in fact, this simply risks disrupting the success they have achieved. Such quori aren’t “altruistic”, but they may see the actions of the Dreaming Dark as running against the best interests of their people, and thus be willing to help the PCs. However, I wouldn’t expect them to take any action that would threaten the quori and Dal Quor as a whole; again, for that to occur, you’d really have to have such a fundamental shift that the spirit is, essentially, a fallen angel (or redeemed fiend).

That’s all I have time for this week. Feel free to leave more questions below!

I’ve been quite busy catching up with work and settling into Portland, but I wanted to give a quick update on things that have been going on!

THE CARD GAMES OF CTHULHU

My latest card game, Cthulhu Fluxx, comes out on August 17th.

- In developing the game, I tried to make the Mythos connection actually relevant and more than just a new hat. Andy Looney and I discuss the design in this video.

- I’ll be demoing it at Guardian Games in Portland on Saturday, August 18th from 1-3 PM.

- Here’s a few reviews: Father Geek and Blogcritics. Personally, I was happy to hear “Have an open mind, haters. For the first time, I enjoyed myself with the game and was more than happy to play again, and then again, and then again. Usually, I would just walk away from the table when a Fluxx game was going to be played, but now I was the one asking for players.”

Speaking of Lovecraftian card games, the first expansion for Cthulhu Gloom has been announced: Unpleasant Dreams. As the name suggests, it delves into the Dreamlands, with a few dreams in the Witch-House thrown in for good measure.

PAX PRIME

While I’m not going to be at Gen Con this year, I will be at PAX Prime. I’m going to be on four panels this year; click the links for full descriptions.

Eberron and Beyond – Tabletop, Friday 4:00 – 5:00 PM

Loving The Alien – Tabletop, Friday 6:00 – 7:00 PM

Setting The Mood – Tabletop, Saturday 4:00 – 5:00 PM

It Only Hurts When I Laugh – Unicorn Theater, Sunday 4:30 – 5:30 PM

I’ll also be doing some demos of Cthulhu Fluxx in the gaming area. Beyond that, I generally like to pick some time to hang out for a few hours in a public space to talk with people about games, fiction, pasta, or whatever else seems interesting at the time. If you’re interested in that, the best bet is probably to follow me on Twitter (@HellcowKeith), since location and time may be fairly spontaneous.

BOOT-FEARING MASTER PLANS

I’ve been featured on a few podcasts over the last few weeks.

* Fear The Boot just posted our interview from SDCC 2012, featuring discussion of Eberron, Gloom, and Cthulhu Fluxx.

* Master Plan dug up an interview we did in 2009, discussing world creation. While it’s a few years old, it’s still accurate!

I also have a new article up on Dungeonmastering.com, dealing with politically-themed campaigns.

That’s all for now – check in tomorrow for the next Eberron lightning round! And if you have questions, ask here – though this will be a lightning round, so the narrower the focus, the better!

It’s a chaotic time for me at the moment, and it’s going to be at least a week before I can get a new Eberron Q&A together. I’m still dealing with all the complications involved in moving from Austin, Texas to Portland, Oregon (let me simply say that my life is a world of boxes right now), and in the middle of that I took a trip to San Diego Comic Con, which was fantastic. Meanwhile, I’ve got lots of work projects in the air – Eye on Eberron; an expansion to Cthulhu Gloom; my still secret RPG/Fiction project; and more. So: Crazy town banana pants. Not having time to do an Eberron Q&A is where I run the risk of sliding and not posting anything at all, and I wanted to make sure I broke that pattern.

So first of all, here’s some things I think you should check out.

This is a video explaining Cthulhu Fluxx, starring myself and Fluxx creator Andy Looney. Cthulhu Fluxx comes out in August, and if you want to see why I think it’s awesome, check out the video!

This is the website of The Doubleclicks, an awesome Portland-based nerd-folk band. I met them at SDCC and saw them perform at a recent Amanda Palmer concert, and they are awesome. Go and stream some music now. Better yet, buy it. Buy it all!

This is the website of Alameda, an awesome Portland-based folk-folk band. They were also playing at the Amanda Palmer concert, but I’ve known them for a while now and love their music (which has, incidentally, been featured on the famously folk-driven TV show Chuck). Likewise: Check them out! Stream some music! Buy it if you like it!

I’m backing a number of Kickstarters right now. Here’s a few you might be interested in. Sticking with the musical theme, Marian Call is doing an Adventure Quest Kickstarter to fund her live European tour album. As with the others, check out her website! Stream some music! Fund her Kickstarter (only one day left!)! I’m also looking forward to A Guide To The Village By The Sea. Check it out!

I want to end this with another open question for discussion. In working on Eberron, it’s always been important to me to learn what you – the people actually using it – enjoy, and as I work on new fantasy projects I’m interested in raising that discussion to a broader level. I appreciate all of the ideas and feedback that people provided on the previous question on religion. So now, let’s talk about races.

When approaching a new fantasy world – whether in fiction or for games – there are roughly three broad approaches you can take to races. Someone once laid it out as Martin, Mieville, and Tolkien, and I’m going to run with those terms (though one could pull up any number of other authors equally deserving of such attribution).

Martin‘s world is based on humans (with a few odd things in the shadows). Culture and family are the defining factors. A Dothraki is very different from a noble of Highgarden, but both are human. The bearded warrior who loves to drink is Robert Baratheon, not a dwarf. This creates a more realistic fantasy – the basic elements are here in our world, just shaped by different history and geography.

Mieville uses nonhuman races, but they are NEW races. Part of the process of discovering the world is learning the role these beings play. This allows for a break from traditional fantasy tropes, but it also means that the reader/player doesn’t have those traditional touchstones to work with.

Tolkien drew on races from earthly folklore and gave them a spin that has since been inherited by D&D and many other games. Haughty, magically inclined elves don’t get along with the generally Scottish ale-drinking dwarves. Orcs are warlike brutes. Dark elves are elegant but evil. And so on. This isn’t simply about Tolkien, mind you, but Warhammer, Warcraft, D&D and all the games that have continued to use the basic ideas as foundations moving forward.

So first there’s the simple question: You’re picking up a new fantasy product, be it a RPG, MMORPG, or book. Which of these approaches appeals to you, and why? Do you want to be able to play a dwarf fighter? Would you prefer different cultures of humanity? Or would you like to play a creature of living stone or incarnate rage?

As a follow-up question – secret option D – when looking to the Tolkien approach, do you prefer the races to hold to their traditional roles or do you enjoy seeing them twisted? Dragon Age and Eberron both use the classic races but do unusual things with them… like the vicious Machiavellian culture of the Zil gnomes, the warrior culuture of the Valenar elves, or the Gatekeeper Orcs saving Eberron. Would you rather see entirely new approaches to familiar races… or simply take that next step and make entirely new races from scratch?

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

The first is what I’ll call the Tolkein model: using those races that have become staples of fantasy over the decades, cemented further by their roles in D&D. Elves, Dwarves,

I have my own ideas on what makes for interesting fantasy. But I always want to know what intrigues other people – what YOU enjoy about imaginary worlds, whether in fiction, film, or games. I’ve got a number of projects in the works for 2012 and beyond, and hey, here’s your chance to let me know what you like.

I’ve already posted extensively about the approach we’ve taken in Eberron and why, and I’m about the head off to San Diego Comic Con, so I don’t have much time to tell you what *I* think. But to give a basic foundation to the discussion, what role do you prefer the divine to play in fantasy? Are you a fan of active, incarnate gods who can physically interfere in the affairs of mortals, as we see in Forgotten Realms or Greek mythology? Something like Eberron, where we can’t be certain the gods exist but where divine magic and institutions remain an important part of society? Or perhaps you prefer something like A Game of Thrones (and here I’m specifically referring to the first book) – where religion exists, but there’s no visible magic associated with it; it’s simply a matter of belief?

Let me know what you like, what you’ve used, and what you’d be interested in seeing in the future!

As I’ve been moving, I’m turning to an old topic for this week’s post: Valenar. As always, this is based on my campaign and may contradict canon sources; use at your own risk!

During the Last War, the Tairnadal war leader Shaeras Vadallia turned on the people of Cyre and laid claim to a section of Cyran territory, founding the kingdom of Valenar. Since the end of the Last War, Vadallia has been acting in a provocative manner. His people raid neighboring nations and Karrnathi outposts. Why? What do they hope to gain?

To understand the Valenar, it is important to understand the culture they come from – the Tairnadal elves of Aerenal. Since the elves first came to Xen’drik, the driving force behind their culture has been to preserve their greatest souls – to ensure that these heroes aren’t lost to Dolurrh and dissolution. Among the Aereni, this produced the negative energy necromantic techniques of the line of Vol and the positive energy techniques of the Undying Court – both ways to physically preserve the elves of the present day after death. The Tairnadal took a different approach. They didn’t just want to preserve their current champions; they wanted to save the heroes of their legends. They’d kept these legends alive in song and story, and in time their priests found a way to forge a bond between the spirit of the ancestor and a living elf. However, this is an act of sympathetic magic that requires the living elf to emulate the actions of the ancestor. This is a two way street; the more closely the elf emulates the hero, the more guidance the ancestor can offer the elf; the goal of the Tairnadal warrior is to become a perfect avatar for a hero of the past… though the greatest Tairnadal can go beyond this to forge new legends and become the patron ancestors of a new generation.

In the present day this is accepted as simple fact by the Tairnadal. When an elf reaches adolescence, he is brought to the Keepers of the Past and a ritual is performed that reveals which of the patron spirits has chosen the elf. It’s important to understand that the spirit chooses the elf, not the priests or the elf himself. In theory this is because the ancestor can see the elf’s nature and potential, and the match is a good one – but it may not be the ancestor the elf WANTS to emulate. Nonetheless, once the choice is made it is the sacred duty of the elf to try to act in all ways as the hero would in his place. In some ways this can be compared to the Kalashtar, who also preserve spirits by bonding them to mortal hosts. Like the Kalashtar Quori, a Tairnadal ancestor survives as long as there’s at least one suitable host. However, in the case of the Kalashtar, it’s simple genetics; for the Tairnadal, the host has to work to maintain that eligibility. Note that despite the phrase “ancestor,” the living elf need not be an actual genetic descendant of the hero who chooses her.

Emulating an ancestor doesn’t mean literally reenacting the deeds of the hero, although it can. Most of the heroes of Xen’drik fought drow and giants. A Valenar elf can emulate his ancestor while fighting goblins or humans; it’s simply a question of interpreting how the patron spirit would act if he’d had humans to deal with instead of giants. Was the hero known for skill at magic or swordplay? Did he act honorably, or was he a sly trickster? Did he fight from horseback or skulk in the shadows? The Valenar come from a sect known as the Valaes Tairn, and these elves believe that while they needn’t fight giants, the best way to emulate and strengthen the ancestors is through war. It is this that brought the elves to Khorvaire. However, at the end of the day, their ancestors weren’t mercenaries. And for that matter, their ancestors didn’t rule a kingdom. The Tairnadal champions fought against amazing odds, surviving due to their skill, cunning, and knowledge of the land. They relied on speed and guerilla tactics, outmaneuvering and out-thinking the enemy. And at the end of the day, this is what the Valenar are setting up on Khorvaire: a battleground to re-enact that ancient war. They have claimed the territory and spent decades learning every nook of it, finding the best places for ambushes and setting traps. Now they want a powerful, worthy foe to come and attack them – so like their ancestors, they can be the resistance against the mighty foe. Long-term, Shaeras Vadallia doesn’t care about being a king; he wants to lead his people in battle, as the warrior-queen Vadallia did long ago.

Recently, a few questions and thoughts came up on this matter.

How do the Valenar justify massacring Talentans, Q’barran settlers, and Cyran refugees who pose no threat to them? How can this be seen as honoring their ancestors?

To begin with, let me make perfectly clear: My goal here isn’t to somehow absolve the Valenar of guilt; it’s to explain why they do what they do. The actions of the Valenar make sense to the Valenar. They are following a religious imperitive that reserves their culture and their ancestors, and these things are more important to them than the fate of a human civilization that is just a few thousand years old. This ties to one of the basic themes of Eberron: People aren’t perfect. In our world people fight wars, commit genocide, and inflict suffering on one another for what can seem to outsiders like the most trivial reasons. Narcissism and greed are at least as prevalent as empathy and compassion. Eberron reflects that. There are truly good and noble people, but they stand out because most people are looking after their own needs. As I’ve said, this is what makes the Church of the Silver Flame stand out: it’s basic tenets are purely altruistic, and MOST of the faithful follow those tenets. The fact that there is corruption in the church reflects that even there, people aren’t perfect – even in this bastion of light, there are people who fail to live up to the ideals, intentionally or simply because they fail to see their own flaws.

So, with all that said, let’s start in the past with the slaughter of Cyran refugees fleeing from the Mourning. On the surface, a heartless massacre of helpless innocents fleeing destruction. But let’s look at how and why such a thing could occur.

There’s many reasons for a nation to consider a massive influx of refugees a threat. How many advanced nations in our world would allow a tens of thousands people from a nation they have been at war with to simply swarm over the border? Aside from straining resources, these people have been the enemy for decades. They may appear to be civilians, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t soldiers and spies among them – and enough farmers with pitchforks can be a threat all on their own.
No one understood the Mourning. It happened incredibly swiftly, and the people caught in the heart of it didn’t have time to send a message to the outside world. Those who escaped were fleeing in mad terror, not knowing when it was safe to stop and certainly not ready to pause and rationally explain what was going on – because they didn’t KNOW what was going on. The Valenar had no idea what was happening in Cyre. So what they see is vast mobs of Cyrans moving towards their borders. The vanguard of the border patrols meets them and seeks to turn them back. The Cyrans stampede on; they don’t have time to stop and explain. If necessary they will fight in order to keep moving. They vastly outnumber the Valenar and they are panicked; they are not going to stop and rationally think “These are Valenar, we’re simply not capable of matching them.” In return, a Valenar warband faced with a hostile force that outnumbers them ten to one, with no knowledge of why this apparent invasion is going on or if a greater threat is over the horizon, will deal with them ruthlessly and efficiently, preparing for whatever the next threat will be. The Valenar on the borders during the war will be warriors, not caregivers or diplomats – and on that day, they were still at war with Cyre.
Khunans versus Thrones. Not all of the violence was carried out by Valenar. The Valenar weren’t expecting the massive influx of refugees and couldn’t possibly cover the entire border against such an invasion. However, most of the inhabitants of Valenar aren’t Tairnadal elves; they are humans. However, they are humans with a different cultural and ethnic background from the Cyrans. The people of the Five Nations largely trace their roots back to the nations of Rhiavaar, Nulakesh, and Pyrine in Sarlona. The people of southeastern Khorvaire come from the nation of Khunan in Sarlona. All of these nations are long gone, but traditions remain… including deep-rooted animosity between the Khunans and the “Thrones” who had oppressed them for centuries. When Cyrans suddenly came to them, helpless and looking for handouts, many Khunans were both determined to keep the Cyrans from regaining their power and hungry for vengeance for the many indignities suffered by their ancestors. Noble? Of course not. But again… people aren’t perfect. The Cyran refugees reaped the bitter harvest sowed by their ancestors’ abuse of the Khunans.

That’s the past. Now let’s move to the present day, with the Valenar raids on the Talenta Plains and Q’barra. Consider the following things.

These raids occur on the warband level. A warband is comprised of eight to twelve elves. The raiders aren’t acting under orders from Vadallia, or following a grand tactical plan; they are free agents following their instincts.
The Talenta Halflings are far from helpless. One to one, the halflings are no match for Valenar. But the Valenar aren’t looking for a one-to-one matchup. A Valenar warband may challenge a halfling community with dozens of warriors. On top of this, the halflings know their land. Here, they are the ones setting ambushes and trying to outwit the foe. Which is what the Valenar want. They don’t WANT the odds to be in their favor; they want a challenge.
Raids take different forms. The term “raid” raises the image of Valenar sweeping in on horseback and setting fire to buildings and the like. And some raids are just like that. But at the end of the day, Valenar seek to reenact the deeds of their ancestors, and not all of the heroes were cavalry troops. Some were stealthy warriors who fought on foot. In this case, a “raid” would be more like a siege, with the Valenar lurking in the jungles around a village and cutting it off, forcing the people inside to try to find some way to deal with the ghosts in the woods. This sort of struggle is mentioned in The Dreaming Dark novels, when Daine remembers fighting Valenar.
Fine, they seek a challenge. They’re still starting fights and killing people. And the Q’barran settlers aren’t so tough. All true. Again, I’d never claim that all Valenar are altruists or paragons of virtue – and those who ARE (because their patron ancestors were) would never support such actions. But with that said, the Valenar kill far fewer people in these raids than you’d expect. When you look to many similar cultures in our world – Vikings, Mongols, pirates – the goal of such a raid is to kill you and take your stuff. The Valenar don’t actually WANT your stuff… and for that matter, they don’t particularly want to kill you. The goal of a raid is to antagonize your rulers or to see if you can pose a martial challenge. In the case of Q’barran settlers, they want to cause enough damage to inspire terror in the people and have word spread of how something must be done – but not so much as to cripple the colony, which does nothing for them. They want you to be able to rebuild so they can come back again. Meanwhile, with the halflings, they don’t want to kill the best halfling warriors; if they can’t pose a threat NOW, maybe they will next month. Maybe they’ll come up with a clever ambush. Maybe they’ll bring some sort of unexpected druidic magic to bear. Essentially, far from slaughtering the halflings, they are actually transforming the halflings into veteran soldiers. And personally, I think a number of Valenar warbands have lost the gamble in dealing with the Talentans; I don’t think it’s entirely a one-sided exchange.

With all that said, the elves are hurting these communities. They are causing significant collateral damage. People are wounded and some will die. But they aren’t TRYING to massacre the people they strike; on the contrary, if anything they are trying to kill as few as possible while still accomplishing their goals, because that’s a far greater challenge.

Some of the ancestors are bastards. The Valenar seek to preserve the legends of their past – heroes who accomplished great deeds and overcame terrible odds. But frankly, not all of these “heroes” were heroic. Some were assassins. Some specialized in spreading terror. In war, these things can be expedient tools – and the Valenar keep all of these legends alive. A very interesting character point is to have a Valenar PC whose patron ancestor was a cruel killer of civilians. Will the PC turn his back on his duty, or embrace this path and become the assassin he’s supposed to be?

In Summary: The Valenar raids are insupportable. That’s the point – the Valenar want people to be angry about them and do something to stop them. If the people of Khorvaire saw the raids as justified, they’d never do anything to stop them. However, compared to many mundane bandits – who exist across Khorvaire – the Valenar don’t kill as many people in their raids as one would expect, nor do they take much loot. They don’t want to cripple their victims. The thing is an exercise driven by long-term goals and religious imperitives… not the same sort of raiding you see from bandits, pirates, and others driven by greed or hatred.

In another thread, the idea is suggested that since the civilian population of the Tairnadal – their children, horse breeding grounds, and so on – are in Aerenal, the smart move is not to face them in Valenar, but rather to set up a sea blockade and to attack the Tairnadal in Aerenal. This raises a variety of questions.

What sort of naval defenses does Aerenal have?

Aerenal is an island. Dragons aside, they’ve had to deal with the organized threat of the Dhakaani and with all manner of raiders, from Serens to Sarlonans to Lhaazars. There are sahuagin in the sea, and civilizations that have risen on Xen’drik only to fall prey to the Durashka’tal – but which lasted long enough to pose a potential threat. And when you’re an island, it’s good to have a strong navy, both for defense and commerce. Tie to this the fact that Aerenal is Eberron’s primary source of exotic lumbers (darkwood, bronzewood, livewood) and that the elves have long had a talent for arcane and divine magic. As such, I see the Aereni as having a fairly small fleet in comparison to the Five Nations, but each ship is individually quite powerful – fast, constructed of the finest materials, and supplemented by magic. This is reflected by the Bloodsails, who after all started out as Aereni elves. One weapon I’ve seen the Aereni using is an arbalest that fires livewood bolts, each holding a dryad – so a way to hit an enemy ship with a mystical boarding party at a distance.

Now, that’s the Aereni. Take the Aereni navy out of the picture for the moment. Personally, I think the Tairnadal are very weak at sea. None of their patron ancestors are famous seafarers. Mobility and stealth are important to them, and both are difficult when you are trapped on a boat. I don’t think they actually maintain a fleet; I think they chartered ships from the Aereni and Lyrandar to get to Khorvaire. So they won’t meet you at sea. However, they do have a small griffon air force that can harry ships, and beyond this, as they don’t use the sea, I would expect their druids to have created a host of “natural” defenses to make approach by sea extremely difficult; the water will be filled with hidden rocks and reefs waiting to tear out the bottom of a ship. So the Tairnadal won’t fight you at sea, but they will make it difficult for you to land – and a small air force that includes wizards and druids can certainly add to that difficulty. It’s like a mystical minefield; it’s a question of how much it will cost you to make the landing.

How powerful are the Tairnadal on Aerenal?

I see this as a DM’s decision. Ten thousand years ago, the Valaes Tairn were forced to flee Khorvaire in disgrace because they’d overextended themselves and had to return to protect their homeland from an attack by dragons. So, option one is to say that they haven’t learned from history and have done exactly the same thing, and that this is a brilliant tactical move that will cripple them. Option two is to say that they have learned, that the force that followed Vadallia is significant but not the majority of the Valaes Tairn, and that the force that remained is armed for dragon – which means they can put up a significant fight. In any case, just as the Valenar have been preparing Valenar as a battleground, they’ve had twenty thousand years to prepare for battle on Aerenal – so even a small group of Tairnadal should prove a challenge. They WON’T stand and fight. They’ll melt away into the shadows and fight a guerilla war, just as their ancestors did. Now, Aerenal is where the majority of the Tairnadal civilians – children, the infirm, etc – are, and not all of these people can fight so effectively. Which then comes to the question of how the invading army will behave. You capture a thousand Tairnadal children. OK, now what? Hold them for ransom? How far will you go with your threats? These children haven’t attacked Khorvaire. Given that the Tairnadal are clan-based, their clan may not even support Vadallia’s actions. Will you be the one massacring innocents?

I’ll note that you always have the Draleus Tairn – the dragon slayers – on staff as the defenders of Aerenal, and you’ll also have those elves whose patron ancestors wouldn’t have supported Vadallia’s actions.

Of course, the REAL question about Elven power is…

How will the Undying Court respond to an attack on the Tairnadal?

The Tairnadal have set this in motion due to their actions on Khorvaire. Will the Aereni and the Undying Court support them? Well, let’s look at this from the perspective of the 20,000 year old Ascendant Councilor. As you’ve scried across the world, you’ve seen the goblin empire rise and fall. You’ve seen human civilizations rise on Sarlona and tear one another apart. You’ve seen humans come to Khorvaire, and seen Malleon the Reaver slaughtering the native goblins. You saw the beginning of Galifar, and you saw the Five Nations turn on one another and tear the kingdom apart.  The short form? Wars happen. Civilizations rise and fall. The nations currently fighting the Tairnadal have terrible skeletons in their past, and besides, in another thousand years they will be gone. On the other hand, the Tairnadal have been your allies for twenty thousand years. They have taken your side against the dragons. And furthermore, allowing humans to take aggressive action on the soil of Aerenal sets a TERRIBLE precedent. Like I said, you’ve personally seen the humans spread onto Khorvaire and drive the goblins into the darkness. Are you going to allow those same humans to get a foothold on your sacred island?

Personally, I cannot imagine the Undying Court simply sitting back and watching as an invading army lands on Aerenal. Whether they are targeting the Tairnadal or not, Aerenal is the haven of the elven people: allowing foreign invaders to shed elven blood and to gain a foothold on the island just seems impossible to me. And at that point, you are dealing with the Aereni navy and the mystical power of the Undying Court itself.

With that said: What I can imagine is a player character – one of the pivotal figures of this age – being able to sway the opinion of the Undying Court. As it stands, the view of the Court is that war and violence happens; the Tairnadal are following the dictates of their religion; and if it’s a choice between human suffering on Khorvaire and elven suffering on Aerenal, they’ll always choose the defense of Aerenal. However, if a PC frames this as “Why must their be ANY suffering” and offers some sort of alternative, I could see him winning the support of the Court on the matter… at least when it comes to negotiating with the Tairnadal. I simply can’t imagine the Court sitting idly by while humans invade Aerenal… but I can see the Court throwing its support to a diplomatic solution to the Valenar problem.

Have the Dragons of Argonnessen ever used Seren barbarians in battle against the elves?

First off, I’m sure that over the course of history some Seren raiders have reached Aerenal on their own. Otherwise, it’s possible, but I think they’d be just as likely to use the stone giant, goblin, and dragonborn troops that are commonly associated with the Light of Siberys. Personally, I think each war is slightly different; this one is the war notable for the massive ground invasion, this one involved a flight of aquatic dragons, this one was entirely fought in the air.

I want to play a Valenar PC, but I don’t want to support Vadallia’s actions. Why would a Valenar turn on his people?

Tons of reasons. The obvious option is that you’re not Valenar, you’re Tairnadal, and you never supported Vadallia in the first place; you’ve come directly from Aerenal on your own personal quest. But here’s a few options dealing specifically with “rebel” Valenar.

Your patron ancestor is a paragon of honor and chivalry. You were fine fighting in the war, but you cannot support Vadallia’s betrayal. Since then you have acted alone, seeking to find honorable combat far away from Valenar.
Your patron ancestor is Vadallia herself. You initially supported Shaeras Vadallia’s actions, as he is accepted to be the finest avatar of Vadallia. However, her spirit is a part of you and you don’t believe she approves of this course of action. For now you are building up your skills and allies. When the time is right, you intend to return and challenge Shaeras, to defeat him and restore your people to the proper path.
Your patron ancestor was known for defending the weak and innocent. Not only have you abandoned Vadallia’s cause, you have actively opposed your cousins in their raids, both directly and by training the Q’barrans and Talentans in effective tactics for fighting Valenar.
You haven’t just turned against your people, you’ve turned against your ancestor. Your patron ancestor was known for massacring innocents. Vadallia set your warband (as warbands are usually composed of people with compatible ancestors) to go reaving, and you simply couldn’t stomach it any more. You refuse to follow your ancestor. Perhaps you have chosen a new ancestor to emulate, even though that’s not supposed to actually work – or perhaps you are sickened by the traditions of your people and want to change the entire system of the Tairnadal faith. If you keep it personal, you could actually have decided to go so far as to eliminate the vile ancestor, by tracking down and eliminating every elf that is emulating him.

One of the ideas for an elf PC who rejects the nation of Valenar is that the patron ancestor is a paragon of honor. So if that character remained with Cyre, what would his relationship be with the Valenar elves? Would they consider him to be an exemplar of their religion, following the path of his ancestor even if it meant going against his nation?

“Going against his nation” is going to be less of an issue than “going against his leader.” Very few Valenar have any serious investment in Valenar as a “nation” – remember that their families and such are back on Aerenal. Valenar is a military beachhead, not a homeland. Having said that, most would at least respect the PC’s decision, as long as it did fit the established stories of the ancestor.

As he wouldn’t consider himself a Valenar, since he’s not a member of the nation, would he be all right fighting his own kin?

Just as few Valenar think of the nation as a homeland, most consider their identity as Valaes Tairn of warclan X as more important than being “Valenar.” I would expect the same to be true of a PC; these people didn’t stop being Valaes Tairn or his cousins because they chose to follow Vadallia (as their ancestors did long ago). I would expect the PC to understand why a Valenar whose ancestor was known for loyalty to his leader would remain true to Vadallia, even if he personally considered it dishonorable. So: I don’t think the PC would relish combat with Valenar, any more than they would want to fight him. However, I think both would be prepared to do so if it was clearly the action their ancestors would have taken in the same circumstances.

What’s a Valenar warhound? Just a dog? Or a super speedy dog to keep up with the horses?

The latter. It’s tied to the idea of the hounds and horses of the Otherworld in the Mabinogian – elf huntsman having steeds and hounds that are unnaturally swift. These have the same mythical origin as the steeds themselves (going back to the Xen’drik wars). However, I don’t think of them as being as common or integral to society as the horses.

Why are Eberronian elves unable to dream?

Because they are derived from 3.5 elves, which tranced instead of sleeping. There are a variety of explanations one could give for this; here’s two ideas.

It’s connected to their origin as being tied to Thelanis. But why is it that the equally fey 4E gnomes still dream? Well, it could be that the heart of Dal Quor in a previous age banished the Eladrin/Elves for encroaching on its borders, but wasn’t offended by the gnomes; or that fey never dreamed, but a clever gnome won the heart of the Dreaming Heart and it formed a bridge so they could be together. Thenlanis is about stories – make one up!
The giants did it so their servants couldn’t be manipulated by the Quori of the time – though this doesn’t explain why Eladrin don’t dream.

I’ve got a lot of interesting projects going on right now. Cthulhu Fluxx comes out later this year, and an expansion for Cthulhu Gloom is in the works. The Doom That Came To Atlantic City was funded on Kickstarter. And I have a big RPG/fiction project brewing that I’ll be announcing later in the year. After some consideration, I’ve decided that I’d like to go to San Diego Comic Con and get a chance to play some of these games with people and talk about the projects I have in the works. Thanks to friends, I have a way to get into the convention. What I don’t have is a place to sleep. So I’m looking for someone who has a sofa, floor, or other sleeping surface that they’re willing to let me use. By way of exchange, I can run a D&D or Over The Edge game for you; give you an advance copy of Cthulhu Fluxx; answer any questions you might have about Eberron or other things I’ve worked on; and sign anything other than pets or body parts.

If this sounds interesting to you, drop me an email at onesmallkeith (at) gmail.com. Tell me who you are, what the sleeping conditions would be, and what you’d like to get out of the arrangement! And if you’re going but don’t have a place to stay, feel free to email me and tell me that. Gloat about it. I’d definitely like to have some sort of informal get-together some time during the convention to play games and talk, and if you’d like to know where or when that’ll be happening, let me know! I hope to see you there.

It’s a busy week. I’m traveling this week and moving from Austin to Portland next week. As a result, I don’t have time to write up a normal post this week. Instead, I wanted to throw out a topic of conversation and see what you all have to say.

First, a new Eye on Eberron article went live today: The Sovereign Swords. This looks at a group of devout vigilantes who are traveling around the Five Nations and trying to make Khorvaire a better play. One of the things that  is called out is that the Swords are unusual in that they all have PC-class capabilities. One thing that isn’t really discussed is their appearance. They are soldiers and dress in functional clothing and armor; however, they are also divine champions and I would expect them to wear the symbols and colors of the Sovereign or Sovereigns they are most aligned with. As such, this could tie to a question that was asked a few weeks back: What would be Khorvaire’s answer to the Avengers? It’s not really how the Swords are written; as is they are more akin to an especially gifted Templar unit of the Silver Flame. However, you could play up their vigilante-hero aspect and cast their greatest members in a superheroic light.The bald cripple in the levitating chair speaks with the voice of Aureon, and his commands must be obeyed (it helps that he’s a psion, but hey). The ardent carries an impenetrable shield blessed by Dol Arrah herself. The warforged battlemind/juggernaut was built by Onatar and Dol Dorn (or so he says) and nothing can stop him! While this sort of thing is a little more colorful than the article implies, the key point is that the Sovereign Swords are being built up as heroes, and that means that there should be individuals among them who DO stand out – people the bards will want to sing about. If they are interchangeable cogs, they aren’t serving their purpose: they are supposed to be the rock stars of the future.

Anyhow, if you have any thoughts on the article or questions about it, post them here!

My second topic deals with something I want to do more of in the future – finding out your favorite and least favorite aspects of Eberron. The more I understand about what resonates with you and what doesn’t, the better work I can do in the future. So with that in mind:

What’s your favorite nation in Khorvaire? Why?

What’s your least favorite nation?

Thanks!