For years my home game has taken place in the world of Eberron. It’s one of the official settings from Wizards of the Coast but it hasn’t received much love lately. All the focus seems to be on the Forgotten Realms. That’s all well and good, I too like the Forgotten Realms, but I think people need to be reminded of just how cool Eberron is.
Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today’s the “E” is for Eberron, my all-time favourite D&D campaign setting.
Inspired by the Blogging From A to Z Challenge I’ve put together my own list of Eberron A to Z. Hopefully this shines the spotlight back on Eberron and encourage some of our readers to check it out if they’ve never played there before or return to it if you’ve been away for a while.
| A – Aundair | One of the Five Nations, currently ruled by Queen Aurala ir’Wynarn. The land is farmed by common folk and the country is predominately agricultural. The flying fortress and magic school Arcanix, home of the Arcane Congress, floats above Aundair. |
| B – Breland | One of the Five Nations, currently ruled by King Boranel ir’Wynarn. The most democratic of the Five Nations, an elected parliament shares power with the king. The inhabitants of Breland are known for developing new ideas and new attitudes. |
| C – Cyre | One of the Five Nations, but a nation no more. Destroyed on the day of Mourning, its surviving citizens are displaced and without a country. Once a county of decadence and arrogance it was considered paradise by many before its destruction. |
| D – Dragonmarks | The magical, tattoo-like manifestation of the draconic prophecy on the flesh of people. The Dragonmarked houses, so named because of their marks, are the leaders of industry in a very advanced world. |
| E – Eldeen Reaches | Predominately forests and mountains, the Eldeen Reaches remain mostly uncultivated and pure. The forests teem with magic and cross over into the Feywild in many places. |
| F – Five Nations | Aundair, Breland, Cyre, Karrnath and Thrane. So named after the five eldest scions of Galifar the First. The nations that originally made up the Kingdom of Galifar. |
| G – Gatekeepers | The oldest and most ancient sect of Druids on Khorvaire. They have protected the lands from the threats of the Dragon Below (including aberrations and fiends) for centuries. Most Gatekeepers are Orcs. |
| H – Heir of Siberys | It’s one thing to have a Dragonmark, it’s another to have a Siberys mark. These Dragonmarks cover the heir’s body head to toe and bestow upon them the extremely powerful magic. The manifestation of such a mark is extremely rare and those who do are practically worshipped by members of their House. |
| I – Inquisitive | This title is given to the detectives of Eberron. Some Inquisitives work with law enforcement while others are no more than opportunistic treasure hunters. They specialize on solving mysteries and in Eberron there are many. |
| J – Jaela Daran | This 11 year old girl is the Keeper of the Flame. She is the only one who can hear the Voice of the Silver Flame (a religious faith based on purging evil) and acts as an intermediary between it and the Diet of Cardinals. |
| K – Karrnath | One of the Five Nations, currently ruled by King Kiaus ir’Wynarn III. A militaristic nation that used undead soldiers during the Last War. Unknown to most, King Kiaus III is really King Kiaus I, a vampire who imprisoned and now impersonates his own grandson in a grand scheme to end the fighting and bring about peace to the Five Nations. |
| L – Lord of Blades | A self-proclaimed god, this Warforged amasses thousands of loyal followers within the Mournland, a nation he’s claimed for all refugee Warforged. |
| M – Mournland | Once known as Cyre, The Mournland is all that remains after the events of the Day of Mourning. The borders are surrounded by an impenetrable dead-grey mist. The land is dead. Nothing grows. The living don’t heal and the dead don’t rot or decay. A barren wasteland inhabitable only by Warforged and the magically changed. |
| N – Notary Guild | This guild is run by the Gnomes of House Sivis. They are responsible for producing legal documents including letters of credit (paper money in Eberron) and travel papers (a necessity for anyone wishing to travel across international boarders). They sell code and code breaking services and are also master forgers. |
| O – Orien | The Dragonmarked house bearing the mark of passage. They are responsible for all over-land travel, be it by caravan or lightning rail. |
| P – Port Verge | A small but important town in the Lhazaar Principalities (a series of islands ruled by a confederacy of pirate lords and merchant princes). Port Verge is ruled by Prince Kolberkon who is attempting to boost the importance and power of his principality with the help of House Lyrandar. |
| Q – Q’barra | A land of lush jungle and deadly swamps inhabited by Kobolds, Lizardfolk and Dragons. The largest deposits of Eberron Dragonshards are found in Q’barra. |
| R – Rhukann Drall | Capital city of Darguun, the nation of goblins. Don Bassingthwaite’s Legacy of Dukhann trilogy, set largely in Rhukann Drall and Darguun, provides a fascinating look at how this unique culture handles the death of the Lhesh (king) and the subsequent transition of power to his would-be heirs. |
| S – Sharn | Located in Southern Breland, Sharn is the largest and most cosmopolitan city in all of the Khorvaire and is the cultural and economic centre of Eberron. A city of adventure, anything that can be bought can be bought in Sharn. |
| T – Thrane | One of the Five Nations, Thrane is a religious theocracy where the Church of the Silver Flame rules political and military affairs. The Church of the Silver Flame has a reputation for intolerance having hunted Lycanthropes to near extinction across Khorvaire. Non-humans and Warforged are treated with prejudice and are clearly not welcome by the majority of the people in Thrane. |
| U – Undying Court | The Elves of Aerenal blur the lines between life and death, worshipping and revering their own ancestors. Many of the ancients become undead in order to live on as guardians and councilors to their descendants. |
| V – Vol | The lich queen Vol is the only survivor of the dragonmarked House of Vol. Her dragonmark, the Mark of Death, is still visible yet no more than a scar on her decaying flesh. During the War of the Mark, the other dragonmarked houses united to extinguish the Mark of Death when they discovered House of Vol attempt to mix dragon blood into their Elvin bloodlines. The Blood of Vol is now a wide-spread religion that worships the divinity within each of us for blood is life. |
| W – Warforged | Sentient constructs created by House Cannith as disposable soldiers during the last war. The Thronehold Accord emancipated all Warforged, giving them their independence. |
| X – Xen’drik | South of Khorvaire, this continent was once ruled by giants over eighty thousand years ago. Ruins of this ancient civilization are still found deep within the jungles. The port city of Stormreach at the northern tip of Xen’drik serves as the launching point for many adventures into the vast and predominantly unexplored continent. |
| Y – YK | In the Year since the founding of the Kingdom. Denoting the time when Galifar I and his five sons – Aundair, Brey, Cyre, Karrn and Thrane – took control of the Five Nations and established the Kingdom of Galifar. All dates are now followed with the denotation YK. Most campaigns begin in 998 YK, two years after the Thronehold Accord was signed and four years after the Day of Mourning. |
| Z – Zilargo | Home of the Gnomes of Khorvaire for thousands of years. Trolanport is the country’s capital. House Lyrandar’s sea and air ships are built and have elementals bound to them in Trolanport. Korranberg is the nation’s oldest city. The famed Library claims a quarter of all buildings in Korranberg and attracts many scholars and aristocratic from across the continent. |
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3 replies on “Eberron A to Z”
Just some nitpicking but:
What a boring description of Sharn, City of Towers (and I do mean Towers, they are miles high and bridges and flying boats connect them together) 😉 To call the Undying undead is also rather insulting, although I suspect for the casual reader the difference between a positive energy infused walking corpse and a negative one is meaningless 😉
Also note that the Mark of Death was NOT eradicated in the War of Mark. That can be put squarely on the shoulders of the united elves of the Undying Court and the Dragons of Argonessen.
Thanks for being one of the very few Eberron supports out there. It’s getting thin these days. I am worried we will not get supported in D&D Next at all.
[…] A to Z this month, and has compounded this by doing an A to Z post inside one of his A to Z posts. The ABC’s of Eberron gives a great overview of an awesome setting, from Aundair to […]