Post/Author/DateTime	Post
sheik 08-06-04, 11:47 PM	I plan to set the backdrop for my campaign around the formation of a warforged nation within the Mournlands. But my question is this: What would the warforged need to build their own nation? And what would they need to accomplish? I have some ideas that I'd love to get feedback on, but I'm sure there are many other aspects I haven't thought of. If you have seen the video "Animatrix", the themes I'm attempted to build off of are very similar to the episodes called "The Second Renaissance, Part 1&2". You can actually view these short animations online at http://www.intothematrix.com/. The Lord of Blades is an extremist, but many other warforged would still like a nation to call their own, though one perhaps not as bloodied. What if the Lord of Blades is just a chess piece (though a powerful one) in a larger game to build a warforged nation. Perhaps he is what the warforged race needs to lay the foundation, though others behind him with less extreme tactics are working through more peaceful means to support such a nation as it forms. The warforged have two great assets working for them. They have found a fairly isolated and defensible place to build within the Mournlands, even though they are surrounded by 6 other nations. Secondly, the warforged have a great potential to excel at anything they put their energies towards since they do not require rest or food, though their numbers are still limited. The fact the the Mournlands are so hostile to organic life makes it an ideal spot for the warforged to settle away from the other demi-human races. Since the warforged can repair themselves, the inability to heal within the Mournlands has little effect on them. Likewise, since they do not require food, the lack of organic life is far less of a hindrance. Additional, since their bodies are not organic, many predators would likely ignore them as they do not make much of a meal. Granted that there are still dangers within the Mournlands, but the land is far more hostile to any demi-humans who may wish to invade, providing a great defense for the warforged. Perhaps the warforged also train or ally with carnivorous predators to harass would be invaders. I believe the warforged also have the potential to create a powerful manufacturing economy. Imagine an army of workers that can work around the clock and never tire. Combined with their affinity for manufactures and metal things, they could rival Breland with a much smaller work force, though perhaps producing less sophisticated items such as arms and armor. The work force could further focus resources because they do not need to supply food, leaving most warforged to fight, product or learn. There are however some major obstacles to building a nation. First, the number of warforged in the Mournlands is still relatively small, though there might be more than some suspect. What could the warforged do to call more to their cause? The Lord of Blades is already well know. But perhaps a public call to all warforged may bring too many enemies with it, and make other nations all the more wary. Maintaining secrecy could also be a large obstacle. Should other nations realize the warforged are forming their own nation, surely they would consider them a threat to their own security. Likewise, if a new nation is considered outside of the treaty that ended the last war, it could threaten the uneasy peace. What could the warforged do to maintain secrecy until they are strong enough to survive among the politics and other nations of Khorvaire? How might the other nations react when they find out? Eventually the warforged will need to begin trade with other nations, and send diplomats. Prejudice and fear would likely be a major obstacle to such relations. What do the warforged have to offer the other nations and what other obstacles might be put in their way? If they wish to have a stronger economy, they will also likely to need open relations with the Dragonmark Houses. But how might the houses represent themselves in such a hostile environment? Other ideas include the organized warforged attempts to salvage the resources left in the ruins of Cyre. What might a city of warforged in the Mournland be like, and where might it be? What else would a new nation need? Places of learning perhaps. For my PCs, this setting has a great deal of potential. Will they fight against the forming of a nation, or for it? Their actions can have great consequences, and they could achieve great ranks if they lend their assistance at this early stage. What plots and missions could they do to help or hinder? It seems initially the warforged and the Lord of Blades are set up as villians in the world of Eberran, but I have a love for the warforged, and would like to see them thrive. All thoughts and input welcome. dana. (sheik)
MoogleEmpMog 08-07-04, 12:09 AM	I can see a cabal of warforged, mostly 'medic' (artificer) and 'infiltration' (bard and rogue) units forming behind the Lord of Blades and using him as a frontman, because he's well known - in secret, they plan to create a peaceful, prosperous home for the warforged. One to which LoB and his construct supremicist ideology, currently so useful to them, would eventually become a detriment. The same could be said of some disenfranchised nationalist and aristocratic groups in Germany prior to the rise of Hitler. They had a huge and legitimate gripe with the France, England and the US after what was done to their country, wanted to rekindle German pride and culture, and saw this fanatic demagogue who connected with the people as a good temporary fix. But then, being a demagogue and being in a democratic system, Hitler was the one who very quickly didn't need *them*. Something similar could happen in your campaign. The 'forged behind the scenes really have the best intentions (at least, most of them do; there should be at least a few nasty ones in their cabal, perhaps even a rakshasa disguised as a 'forged), but they have no idea just how well their 'puppet,' the Lord of Blades, will connect with the 'forged populace; they have no idea just how easily he can rile up his people against percieved 'enemies; they have no idea how easily he can, and will, crush their puny cabal with an iron fist (literally!) once they try to remove him. That's where the PCs come in. Stop the warforged nation? Save it from itself by defeating the Lord of Blades but putting the cabal in open power? Join the Lord of Blades in professing construct superiority? It eventually falls on their shoulders to decide... or to die trying. That, of course, is more a story idea than an answer to your questions, but it would make for a great forged-vs-forged-vs-world campaign.
Zen Storm 08-07-04, 03:02 PM	I saw the animatrix short a while back and instantly saw similarities to the warforged and the Mornlands. I felt that the political and social feelings toward warforged was one of extremes like the short so beautifully illustrated. As I have described the setting to my players, the attitude toward the warforged race are as varied as you can imagine. In some areas they are accepted as friends and neighbors, contributing to society and even helping make life better, while others veiw them with vile and ignorant racism brought on by misunderstanding and years of war and the horrors that come with it. Still in other areas, they are looked at as nothing more than as cattle or tools, property to be used as seen fit by their owner. With such a driven and charismatic leader as LOB, he has the potential to cause a great deal of nervousness in the surrounding countries. In my back story I am using him quite similarly to how you are. He is an extremist but with a clear and concise plan. One of the great thing about Eberron is the blurry lines of alignment. Even though LOB is LE, I tend to see him as simply zealous and driven to bring the warforged to have freedom from pursecution and equal rights and not just evil, as many human nations might perceve him. We know that he has made an open call to all warforged to join him and rebel against human oppression and to build a nation of their own. This does tend to be seen as an extremist movement by others, but his followers see him as a savior and some (many) are fanatical to his cause. So far the only agression he has shown however, has been toward Karnath and Thrane by way of attacking boarder outposts and freeing warforged slaves. From the warforge point of view I would see this as a noble thing to do and honestly how could you not do it. These are your people forced into servitude and slavery. I see LOB and the Mournlands causing alot of discomfort to the leaders and peoples of these lands. Who knows what is going on beyond the grey fog boarders of the Mournlands? I am using LOB and his cause as a potential wedge with any party that has a warforge in it. There is always the temptation of the calling and how does the party deal with it and how does the forge deal with it and the party? I don't know for sure yet in my campaigns, the question simply hasn't been asked yet. I think that the forge in the mournlands at this time are on more of a war footing than nation building mode. I have him sending spys and sabotuers out to gather members and understand the enemy. I think that there may be a few behind him with a more peaceful agenda but they are quiet for now. After all LOB embraces his heritage he is the quintesential warforge. That's what he believes they were made and designed for and he not only preaches this he ebraces and relishes war. I also have campaigns planed with "the race for a creation forge" theme. I really hope to have my players have PC's that play from both points of veiw. One night party A (a traditionl party) On behalf of a govt. or org. tries to twart party B and find the forge first. Party B (an all warforge party) on a different night. On the same mission on behalf of LOB. I think it will be interesting to see how two sides view the same goal from different points of view. I had forgotten about the Animatrix short though, So thanks for reminding me. It will give me alot more inspiration and stuff to think about.
Endless_Helix 08-08-04, 06:07 PM	The Warforged are a very complicated issue. For one thing, do you realize how dangerous a nation of warforged would be? As far as we know, Warforged don't die of old age. These beings could concievably out produce all of khorvaire. They never need to stop working, as stated above. This means that they could research for eternity develop a superweapon that would wipe out all other sentients. The other thing about the warforged is that, as their name suggests, they were made to fight. This means that, concievably, they could use their entire population as an army, and since none of them die of natural causes, and they can increase their population base quicky and do so forever. This essentially means that everyone would be facing an infinite amount of high quality troops. You've got an instant superpower as soon as they perfect the creationforge again. The other countries would see this and gang up on it before it could grow politically cancerous. After they massacre every warforged, they would prevent anyone from ever going farther down that route without careful government supervision. So essentially we've got a WWII situation brewing. What I think will happen is that the LoBster will call the warforged to his banner after perfecting his creation forges, most will show up, but some will go into hiding. Then the countries all around the mournland will catch on to whats been happening close their borders to the Mournland and declare war on the mournland. This is going to be larger than the extermination of House Vol, You can bet the dragons will be dragged into it, as will the Rakshasa, Aereni, and the Inspired. Both the Dragons and the Aereni seem to have the best ties with the humans so will most likely ally with them, as will Valenar. The Rakshasas and the Inspired will almost definatly ally together on either side, although the Rakshasa will probably switch sides often to increase the chaos. Vol wont go on the side of the dragons willingly at first, but will eventually realize it's time to bury the hachet with the dragons, because they are roughly the only beings in the world that can realy turn the tide by themselves. The Dragons might choose to stay out of it because of Vol, but they wont help the warforged. They have too much at stake with the "lesser sentients". Vol will side with the humans and other races because they have too much at stake with the living. The Druidic sects will ally with the "natural races", particularly the ashbound and gatekeepers. Children of winter won't really be needed as much, and the watchers of the wood are better on the defensive. The Gatekeepers will shred most of the abberrations in the mournland, and the Ashbound will be insanely powerful against the warforged themselves. The Dragonmarked houses will go with their respective races. House Cannith might have problems destroying it's masterpiece, but as soon as it comes to blows, survival is more important than the masterpiece. Everyone else either hated the warforged (Denieth, Tharashk) or didn't really care about them(everyone else except Cannith). There is no doubt that if a warforged nation did somehow spring up, it would quickly be exterminated by the rest of the world. It's just too dangerous because it has no motives except whim.
Steven Snyder 08-09-04, 03:13 PM	A true warforged nation would herald the End of Days for the organics. Let us not forget that in medieval society, fully 80-90% of the population was involved in agriculture, just to feed everyone. Now Eberron should have more efficient means due to magic's influence on productivity...but I don't see it dropping that much. Because of their ability to work indefinately, a warforged artisan can produce 3x the amount of work as a fleshling. Add to this equation the realization that as they age and get more experience, they don't die like their organic counterparts. So as time goes on the productivity of a Warforged artisan increases, eventually leading to a workforce of mostly master artisans instead of apprentices. Warforged soldiers run similar to the artisans, they can train indefinately. Though combat losses will keep a constant influx of new models being introduced, they will benefit from having their great leaders, generals, and soldiers in circulation far longer than organic races. Imagine Washington, Patton, Bradley, Eisenhower, Nimitz, and all the rest of the great military leaders still being around to this day...and still at the top of their game. They would also be an expansionist dream. Colonies could be setup just about anywhere, an example would be arctic or desert outposts where there is no nearby supply of food or drinkable water. One could also build underwater, and undersea communities with warforged, though I suspect you would want to build adapted models for this. A warforged society would render their organic counterparts obsolete.
Teslacoil1138 08-09-04, 03:54 PM	If you're trying for a more peaceful warforged nation, you'll first have to contend with the Lord of Blades and his contingent. Otherwise the LoB will inevitably take control over the fledgling nation. The LoB has a few things he needs to do first before he can consolidate his power: 1. Get House Cannith's creation forge running at 100% efficiency again. This is probably his biggest goal right now. He can do this a few ways: a. Kidnap ranking members of House Cannith and harness their knowledge and dragonmarks. b. Force Merrix D'Cannith to tell him how to run the creation forge properly, perhaps through blackmail or abduction. c. Self-experimentation. This is what he is doing right now, and it's going slowly. 2. Recruit the rest of the warforged population. Until he can get the forge running fully again, he will need troops and more supporters. He can: a. Issue an ultimatum for the rest of the warforged. Join or die with the rest of the organics. This may backfire on him though. b. Point out the prejudices of the organics. Joining the LoB means no more mistreatment by the other nations. 3. Establish temporary trade agreements with anyone that will deal with warforged. He will ultimately need natural resources beyond what the Mournlands can offer, and he stands to benefit greatly due to the vast amounts of weapons and armor left behind by the warring nations of Khorvaire. 4. Clean out the Mournlands of whatever monsters may threaten its security. 5. Build strongholds within the ruins of the major settlements of pre-mourning Cyre. He'll need bases to strike from.