Excoriates, Foundlings, and Willing-Excoriates, Oh my! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Excoriates, Foundlings, and Willing-Excoriates, Oh my! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Jar Head
03-03-05, 05:47 PM In my first Eberron game, I played a House Cannith artificer who "hated" his house, but kept the surname. Now I'm playing a former member of House Orien. He left because they would not allow him to wed a half-elf(who was secretly a foundling of House Lyrandar...GASP...). As well, is there a term for people who leave their house through their own doing? Or are they just "willfull excoriates?"

It seems to me that aside from House Denieth, and maybe House Cannith, it is really hard to have an adventuring character with a Dragonmark that hasn't either left his house, been excoriated, or is a foundling. Maybe if the DM sets it up just right, it will work. Though, if the party is all Dragonmarks, and all part of their respective houses, it seems that they would not get along. And usually the house has a call of duty that the respective character would have to partake in, and thus have to abandon the party temporarly. Also, it would be hard to keep them together and forge friendships.

It took a bit to get my Mark of Passage wizard to be in Sharn. We eventually settled with the fact that he was with the House Lyrandar foundling(who is a PC), and the foundling was searching for someone. He still loves the khoravar, and will go anywhere she goes. Before we settled upon that, I could not think of a good reason for the wizard to be in Sharn(since he grew up in passage and defended caravans during the last war with his abjuration and conjuration spells).

I know that excoriates, foundlings, and willing-excoriates will become the new Eberron cliché, but it seems like it is the best way to go if you want to be an adventurer with a Dragonmark.
Vharuck
03-03-05, 07:26 PM I don't see why members of the house couldn't be adventurers. Adventurers in Eberron aren't just "Kick down the door, slay the baddies, and take the phat loot!" Adventures are more goal-oriented, such as retrieving an artifact for somebody (either the House or an institution, like Morgrave University, that the House wants better relations with), solving a case (for the House or for something), or hunting down a person.

Also, with many dragonmarked houses, you may be part of the house's business. Deneith marks are obvious, since a simple mercenary hiring is all it takes. Orien may be sent for business related to mapping wilderness for possible future lightning rails, Lyrandar may be an escort on an airship (high level and the PC might be given his/her own airship to command), Cannith might be sent to recover artifacts/schematics/warforged or to "experience the life of an adventurer" (adventurers being a growing market) to brainstorm a few new inventions, and so forth. Not too hard once you put your mind to it. Also, you may be a member of the house who just adventures. The house does not dictate your every action. As long as you don't disgrace the house or hinder it, you're probably fine. They may ask a favor now and then, but that's all.
talion09
03-03-05, 08:54 PM My previous character was a House Orien Rogue styled loosely after Indiana Jones... I mean come'on, with Morgrave University and all those past civilizations, how can you not go tomb raiding :-)

I wasn't an excoriate, but I wasn't closely affiliated with the day to day operations of the House. I did most of my work for the House in my downtime between adventures, except for the adventures that were designed around my current work for the house. The way I looked at it, you are more tied to the house the lower you are in the hierarchy.

There are relatively lots of guys in the House that don't have dragonmarks. They get bossed around, and if they don't like it, too bad. They have no real bargaining power, its either accept it or become an excoriate.

But once you have a dragonmark, its a different story. There are really few dragonmarked members of any of the Houses, and their powers are integral to the operations of the House.

In the early levels, my character had to do a lot of grunt work for House Orien in Sharn. Run around as a courier in the city, deliver packages from Sharn to other cities, etc. I didn't have much say in the matter.

Once I manifested the least mark, I had a little more "pull" in the organization. And I went up a few levels as well. So at 3rd level my character had a dragonmark and was becoming an exceptional agent for the House. Now I started getting more "real" missions, more in line with my status and power. Stuff like taking packages from the Boromars in Sharn back to their relatives in Talenta while being pursued by Daask enforcers, stuff like that. And now I got to "demand" more free time to pursue my education at Morgrave University and go on more longterm adventure, such as expeditions to Xen'drik.

At 6th level I was clearly one of the rising stars of the Sharn/Breland branch of House Orien, and I had manifested the lesser mark.

At this point the Dm and I assumed that I could basically write my own rules about how and when I would work directly for the house, as long as I put in some reasonable time on the job. So I would work for a few months during the downtime between adventures.

Of course, I still had to be careful not to dishonor the house, as others have mentioned above, but I figure that once you get a lesser mark, you can make your own rules about when you come to work, since you are clearly a rare character. (IMHO, a Lesser Dragonmark and a 6th level character definitely make you one of the elite in most branches of a Dragonmark House.)
zambuka
03-03-05, 09:57 PM It seems to me that aside from House Denieth, and maybe House Cannith, it is really hard to have an adventuring character with a Dragonmark that hasn't either left his house, been excoriated, or is a foundling.

Just because you are a member of the House does not mean you have a direct lineage or even direct responsibilities to the house. There a a lot of different families within the house and it would only be house nobility who would have to really worry about these kinds of obligations. Sure as a member of a minor family within the house they would expect you to follow these obligations, but it would just not be worth the effort to chase up the lives of every minor house member, and manifesting a mark would give you even more power and flexibility.

Maybe if the DM sets it up just right, it will work. Though, if the party is all Dragonmarks, and all part of their respective houses, it seems that they would not get along. And usually the house has a call of duty that the respective character would have to partake in, and thus have to abandon the party temporarly. Also, it would be hard to keep them together and forge friendships.

Why would they not get along? I don't recall anything in the ECS about there being serious hostilities between houses. Certainly they would compete but because their services are different enough it is much better to forge friendships and alliances. A whole party of dragon marked characters would be a boon to all houses involved. Keeping those people together and getting them to forge close friendships would yield very useful information. Just avoid more intimate relationships.

The Houses aren't omnipotent dictators of life and love and shouldn't really be used as such. Sure they would pressure your character, as a dragon marked, to fulfill house duties, but the mark itself gives you all the flexibility you need to go your own way.
Doctor X
03-03-05, 10:40 PM Yeah... the houses really don't have that many rivalries. They aren't really in competing markets, except Thuranni and Phiarlan, of course. I'm assuming that they all need to do business with each other quite often. Even heirs of Cannith still need transportation, record-keeping, healing, and places to store their money.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jar Head 03-03-05, 05:47 PM	In my first Eberron game, I played a House Cannith artificer who "hated" his house, but kept the surname. Now I'm playing a former member of House Orien. He left because they would not allow him to wed a half-elf(who was secretly a foundling of House Lyrandar...GASP...). As well, is there a term for people who leave their house through their own doing? Or are they just "willfull excoriates?" It seems to me that aside from House Denieth, and maybe House Cannith, it is really hard to have an adventuring character with a Dragonmark that hasn't either left his house, been excoriated, or is a foundling. Maybe if the DM sets it up just right, it will work. Though, if the party is all Dragonmarks, and all part of their respective houses, it seems that they would not get along. And usually the house has a call of duty that the respective character would have to partake in, and thus have to abandon the party temporarly. Also, it would be hard to keep them together and forge friendships. It took a bit to get my Mark of Passage wizard to be in Sharn. We eventually settled with the fact that he was with the House Lyrandar foundling(who is a PC), and the foundling was searching for someone. He still loves the khoravar, and will go anywhere she goes. Before we settled upon that, I could not think of a good reason for the wizard to be in Sharn(since he grew up in passage and defended caravans during the last war with his abjuration and conjuration spells). I know that excoriates, foundlings, and willing-excoriates will become the new Eberron cliché, but it seems like it is the best way to go if you want to be an adventurer with a Dragonmark.
Vharuck 03-03-05, 07:26 PM	I don't see why members of the house couldn't be adventurers. Adventurers in Eberron aren't just "Kick down the door, slay the baddies, and take the phat loot!" Adventures are more goal-oriented, such as retrieving an artifact for somebody (either the House or an institution, like Morgrave University, that the House wants better relations with), solving a case (for the House or for something), or hunting down a person. Also, with many dragonmarked houses, you may be part of the house's business. Deneith marks are obvious, since a simple mercenary hiring is all it takes. Orien may be sent for business related to mapping wilderness for possible future lightning rails, Lyrandar may be an escort on an airship (high level and the PC might be given his/her own airship to command), Cannith might be sent to recover artifacts/schematics/warforged or to "experience the life of an adventurer" (adventurers being a growing market) to brainstorm a few new inventions, and so forth. Not too hard once you put your mind to it. Also, you may be a member of the house who just adventures. The house does not dictate your every action. As long as you don't disgrace the house or hinder it, you're probably fine. They may ask a favor now and then, but that's all.
talion09 03-03-05, 08:54 PM	My previous character was a House Orien Rogue styled loosely after Indiana Jones... I mean come'on, with Morgrave University and all those past civilizations, how can you not go tomb raiding :-) I wasn't an excoriate, but I wasn't closely affiliated with the day to day operations of the House. I did most of my work for the House in my downtime between adventures, except for the adventures that were designed around my current work for the house. The way I looked at it, you are more tied to the house the lower you are in the hierarchy. There are relatively lots of guys in the House that don't have dragonmarks. They get bossed around, and if they don't like it, too bad. They have no real bargaining power, its either accept it or become an excoriate. But once you have a dragonmark, its a different story. There are really few dragonmarked members of any of the Houses, and their powers are integral to the operations of the House. In the early levels, my character had to do a lot of grunt work for House Orien in Sharn. Run around as a courier in the city, deliver packages from Sharn to other cities, etc. I didn't have much say in the matter. Once I manifested the least mark, I had a little more "pull" in the organization. And I went up a few levels as well. So at 3rd level my character had a dragonmark and was becoming an exceptional agent for the House. Now I started getting more "real" missions, more in line with my status and power. Stuff like taking packages from the Boromars in Sharn back to their relatives in Talenta while being pursued by Daask enforcers, stuff like that. And now I got to "demand" more free time to pursue my education at Morgrave University and go on more longterm adventure, such as expeditions to Xen'drik. At 6th level I was clearly one of the rising stars of the Sharn/Breland branch of House Orien, and I had manifested the lesser mark. At this point the Dm and I assumed that I could basically write my own rules about how and when I would work directly for the house, as long as I put in some reasonable time on the job. So I would work for a few months during the downtime between adventures. Of course, I still had to be careful not to dishonor the house, as others have mentioned above, but I figure that once you get a lesser mark, you can make your own rules about when you come to work, since you are clearly a rare character. (IMHO, a Lesser Dragonmark and a 6th level character definitely make you one of the elite in most branches of a Dragonmark House.)
zambuka 03-03-05, 09:57 PM	It seems to me that aside from House Denieth, and maybe House Cannith, it is really hard to have an adventuring character with a Dragonmark that hasn't either left his house, been excoriated, or is a foundling. Just because you are a member of the House does not mean you have a direct lineage or even direct responsibilities to the house. There a a lot of different families within the house and it would only be house nobility who would have to really worry about these kinds of obligations. Sure as a member of a minor family within the house they would expect you to follow these obligations, but it would just not be worth the effort to chase up the lives of every minor house member, and manifesting a mark would give you even more power and flexibility. Maybe if the DM sets it up just right, it will work. Though, if the party is all Dragonmarks, and all part of their respective houses, it seems that they would not get along. And usually the house has a call of duty that the respective character would have to partake in, and thus have to abandon the party temporarly. Also, it would be hard to keep them together and forge friendships. Why would they not get along? I don't recall anything in the ECS about there being serious hostilities between houses. Certainly they would compete but because their services are different enough it is much better to forge friendships and alliances. A whole party of dragon marked characters would be a boon to all houses involved. Keeping those people together and getting them to forge close friendships would yield very useful information. Just avoid more intimate relationships. The Houses aren't omnipotent dictators of life and love and shouldn't really be used as such. Sure they would pressure your character, as a dragon marked, to fulfill house duties, but the mark itself gives you all the flexibility you need to go your own way.
Doctor X 03-03-05, 10:40 PM	Yeah... the houses really don't have that many rivalries. They aren't really in competing markets, except Thuranni and Phiarlan, of course. I'm assuming that they all need to do business with each other quite often. Even heirs of Cannith still need transportation, record-keeping, healing, and places to store their money.