My Crazy Eberron Ideas

I love Keith Baker's Eberron Campaign Setting, originally created for D&D3.5. I love the pulp, the noir, the weird new character options and the attendant roleplaying opportunities, the integration of psionics, the weird countries, the moral gray areas. Ugh. I just love it. With that, this blog entry will chronicle my demented brainstorm ideas for future Eberron games, whether in D20, D&D 5e, or some other system.


Instead of alignments, I've used Allegiances from D20 Modern with some modifications:

• Characters should list 2-4 allegiances (what they are fighting for) and 2-4 abhorrences (what they are fighting against). 
• Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos will still be used as spell descriptors and energy types when referring to Undead, certain types of Outsiders, and some Divine Spellcasters. 
• "Good" is assumed to mean constructive/creative, and "Evil" is assumed to mean destructive/entropic. 
• I assign no moral value to any of the alignments, although NPC's might, and PC's are welcome to do so.

2nd War of the Mark

A minor theme in Eberron is the growing power of Dragonmarked Houses, relative to the more conventional, land-holding nobility. Some Houses have shown clear partisanship during the Last War, (e.g. Medani favoring Breland). Others have become fractured by external factors (Cannith's three patriarchs, the Phiarlan/Thuranni schism, Orien's split Rail Lines). Some have amassed land holdings and military forces beyond the Korth Edicts (e.g. Lyrandar's Stormhome, Tharashk's monstrous mercenaries). 

Rivalries also exist between houses - Phiarlan vs. Thuranni's Shadow War, Tharashk vs. Deneith in the professional soldier business, Orien vs. Lyrandar for control of international shipping, etc. 

Things could be coming to a head, with a 2nd War of the Mark being a compelling potential overarching theme for a campaign. Perhaps the D-marked Houses recruit nations to their side in an increasingly-overt conflict. Perhaps two sides emerge? Perhaps more than two? Perhaps they reignite another continental war, this time with all the houses as active belligerents? 

Remember, pretty much all the Houses serve at least some sort of military purpose, and all maintain internal security forces of various sizes and competencies. 

What new weapons of war do these belligerent Houses develop?

Deneith: animated shield suits, wearable shield guardians
Sivis = stylus of creation/"3d printing"
Thuranni = Shadowbonding, hordes of summoned Shadows
Phiarlan = Dark portals, striking from the Plane of Shadow
Vadalis = hybrids/"stitching" creatures together with magic, artificial Lycanthropes?
Orien = juggernauts, armored vehicles
Medani = astral combat/precognition, experimentation with psionics
Ghallanda = killer demiplanes (think like the Hotel Cabal from Gargoyles, but extradimensional)
Jorasco = biowarfare, new techniques in necromancy, grafted Troll tissue.
Cannith = better warforged titans, new forms of nonsapient killer constructs (DRONE WARFARE)

Lyrandar = sky kraken/submersibles (Nemo d'Lyrandar?)
Tharashk = bigger monsters, druidic magic, summons from the Dragon Below

Dead Gray Rim
Pacific Rim + Eberron
I also love the movie Pacific Rim. Watching it on the big screen made me think
"What if the wandering monsters coming out of the Mournland suddenly became really, really BIG?

Note all the cities in the red DANGER ZONE

Well, there'd probably be several cities in Khorvaire getting destroyed or evacuated. Including national capitals, D-marked House HQs, trade hubs, etc.
It would be like The Mourning all over again.
So what to do?

Obviously, Colossal War Golems operated by the PCs.
This will be an international effort backed by The Twelve (the D-marked Houses' coordinated magical research institute). The Twelve has everything to lose, as they are headquartered on Scion's Sound, where many of these Mourning Kaiju are coming from.

The following countries border the Mournlands, and will have to band together:

• Valenar
• Talenta Plains
• Karnnath
• Thrane
• Breland
• Darguun
• Thronehold

Aundair and Stormhome are also on Scion's Sound, but are not in a beeline to the borders of the Mournland.
Note that a lot of the countries listed above hate each other. Some countries may have alternative strategies for dealing with city-eating monsters. Breland could probably just evacuate or garrison Vathirond and relocate non-essential personnel westward. The nomadic Talenta and Valenar could move out of the way of monster attack on their horses/dinosaurs. Etc.

What form will magical Jaegers take? Obviously, these will be Eldritch Machines, for starters. Simply a bigger Warforged Titan, with spaces for multiple operators? Riding on a howdah from the back of a Dire Seismosaurus, capable of carrying an entire tribe of vicious Halfling warriors? A tame Leviathan of the deep, controlled by House Vadalis? Or something stranger and much more disturbing?
"Jeagers" fielded by different nations/Houses?

• Karrnath = The "Butcher's Bill", an animated monstrosity of bones and carefully-articulated sinew, with layers of bolted-on armor, mined from extraplanar sources
• Thrane = The "Argent Emissary", a levitating chapel with silver mirrors to purify and focus natural light into deadly rays?
• Breland = Already has Argonth, and maybe other mobile fortresses. These are the best thing in-canon to deal with Kaiju, but are probably a stopgap more than anything. 
• Darguun = Perhaps the Hobgoblins could raise Velderren (the Brelish mobile fortress they brought down)? 
• Deneith = Needs their own "Jaeger", as their HQ of Karrlakton is within sight of the Dead Gray Mists. Perhaps a larger Shield Guardian, with a cockpit? 
• Cannith = Will probably be doing much of the assembly. Cannith East is in Korth, and is directly threatened by Kaiju. The other House branches may see this as an opportunity to move in on the Eastern branch's sphere of influence. 
• Orien = Many Lightning Rail lines (and mundane roads) follow the borders of the Mournland. Appropriate protection must be devised - war trains?
• Lyrandar = Anything Orien can do, Lyrandar wants to do better. Masters of sea and sky, this House will want both a submersible and an airborne battleship to defend its shipping interests in Scion's Sound and Kraken Bay.