Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Nerdicus 12-19-07, 06:36 PM	So I'm sure most of us have thought about doing a future Eberron concept, and maybe even someone has put down a thread on it here, but I couldn't find it. So here I am, stretching my neck out there and seeing if anyone else would like to throw some ideas out there. When I say future Eberron I mean future. Like sci fi but where all forms of technology are based on magic. So, personal speaking stones, flying ships of all sizes, including ones that can fly to different planes of existence. That sort of future Eberron. All I know is in my future eberron warforged are still around, and there are various stages of creation( purely cosmetic in changes, rules wise identical), but including some of whom are old enough to remember the first Last War. These would be epic in might, and many would be major rulers. I would want all the races represented in the ECS to be there, but for many of their roles to be switched around. And Sharn is bigger, badder and crazier. Perhaps even tall enough to actually end up being in Syrania! Would there be Dragon Marks? Would there be dragon rulers? All powerful dragons that rule over the people like gods(a bit darksun, but whatever) What do you say?
JohnBiles 12-19-07, 08:07 PM	All I know is in my future eberron warforged are still around, and there are various stages of creation( purely cosmetic in changes, rules wise identical), but including some of whom are old enough to remember the first Last War. These would be epic in might, and many would be major rulers. Warforged would be commonly manufactured, allowed to make their own way after a period of time of service to those who make them. Of course, most warforged don't survive that period, but that's what revolutionary movements are for...Also, some warforged have their own forges to make children who won't owe an indenture. But in addition, many sentients become part-Warforged, grafting magical items onto their bodies or even transforming portions of their flesh into Warforged-stuff to gain the benefits. The problem, though, is that those most likely to handle this while staying sane (high wisdom people) are also those most likely to avoid doing this to themselves... I would want all the races represented in the ECS to be there, but for many of their roles to be switched around. One day the gnomes vanished. Officially, no one knows what happened. Unofficially, they are the spirits of SiberysNet, the giant network of interlinked communications and information which connects Ebberon and the planes. Some, it is rumored, are virtual gods in the magical machines... (No great ideas for anyone else, unfortunately...) And Sharn is bigger, badder and crazier. Perhaps even tall enough to actually end up being in Syrania! What was once known as Breland is now known as Sharn, because Sharn has grown to encompass the whole thing. Some fear the ever growing zone it sits in may eventually swallow all of Khorvaire, or even the world, but nothing terrible seems to have happened...yet. Would there be Dragon Marks? "You want a dragon mark, kiddo? I can get you any one you want, but it's gonna cost ya. But I can promise you, it's much less likely to make you crazy than that whacked out Warforged implant *&#$(#*. Stay away from those Abberant Mark Implants, though. Damn things aren't tested worth #$(#*($#*." Would there be dragon rulers? All powerful dragons that rule over the people like gods(a bit darksun, but whatever) The Dragons were purged centuries ago, when the Free Peoples tired of their endless superiority, their manipulations and their idiotic attempts to force the world down the path of some prophecy they hallucinated from eating too many ooze monsters for dessert. And GOOD RIDDANCE. That's the official line. In reality, only those Dragons who can take on a humanoid form survived, lurking among the other races, trying feebly to study the prophecy, to manipulate human society, and most importantly, to survive.
Rekko 12-19-07, 08:42 PM	Planar Travel: I see some conductor stones floating in the astral plane guiding the flying lightning rail towards the orbiting planes. Time Travel: A DeLorean :P can be created with Time Stop, Teleport and a Wish spell. With it, you can travel through time but not through space 1000 years in the past or in the future for every wish spell used to create the Time Travel Machine. Shifters became huge tree huggers since most of the Eldeen Reaches has been cut off. What happened with the Mournland? To Vol? To the Undying and the others long living beings? Rekko
Nerdicus 12-19-07, 09:08 PM	JohnBiles: Wow. Well, that is quite different then how I see future Eberron....and leads me to believe that our vision of Eberron as it is given is also very different. Personally the thought of doing away with the dragons is like ....well impossible. I mean...they turned the giants into savages! To think that the mortal races of Khorvaire could ever gain the power to destroy the dragons at any time is crazy! But hey, we can all have our own Future eberron. But why do away with the gnomes? In fact, would want to extrapolate on some of your ideas? I can only hope that you have the history behind these ideas of yours. Me, I personally see the Dragons as the end all of power on Eberron. There would no way for the races to even attempt to destroy the dragons. For long before the mortals could bring any major force against the Dragons in their home land of Argenesson the dragons would have made a pre-emtive strike. My thinkng for future Eberron as that the dragons might step up and simply take control of things before the mortals can go and muck it all up too far beyond repair. Rekko: I like the idea of conductor stones being used for planr travel! And shifters already are the tree huggers :P
JohnBiles 12-20-07, 07:10 PM	JohnBiles: Wow. Well, that is quite different then how I see future Eberron....and leads me to believe that our vision of Eberron as it is given is also very different. Personally the thought of doing away with the dragons is like ....well impossible. I mean...they turned the giants into savages! To think that the mortal races of Khorvaire could ever gain the power to destroy the dragons at any time is crazy! But hey, we can all have our own Future eberron. The sentient races MUST destroy the Dragons if they are ever to be free. I find it highly implausible that they'd ever reach a level of development equivalent to a science fiction future unless the Dragons are removed. Would it be easy? No. But without it, the other races will never be allowed to achieve either my future or your future, IMO. A magi-tech advanced civilization would be such a threat to the Dragons that they would have already destroyed it, unless it destroyed them first. But why do away with the gnomes? It just seemed logical to me that the secret-seeking gnomes would eventually want to turn themselves into a form even better at finding out secrets. If you had PCs who wanted to be gnomes, you could just have some of them undergo the transformation. And the rest become your magitech hacker dudes. In fact, would want to extrapolate on some of your ideas? I can only hope that you have the history behind these ideas of yours. Centuries pass. Khorvaire eventually unites again and heroes defeat the Quori, freeing Sarlona. During this time, some warforged get hold of or duplicate the warforged creation process, leading to a population of free warforged. Other societies set up the indenturing process to make their own. It's at this time that the war with the Dragons breaks out; the long war with dragon-kind forces the military, transportation and production revolutions which enable the defeat of the Dragons--huge improvements in long-distance transportation, maglev trains, armored high-speed flying fortresses, factories which allow non-magicians to help giant technomagical machines bulk-produce magical items, armies of men armed with lightning, fire, frost, sonic, and acid weapons that can be used without needing any spell casting ability, huge waves of undead, use of warforged parts to create half-warforged soldiers, etc, etc. The war leaves the land exhausted but at a much higher tech level. SiberysNet is created to allow unscryable, encoded communications between cities, facilities, bases, military commanders, etc, and is expanded to civilian use after the war. Some gnomes enter the net at this time to help keep Draconic agents out in an invisible magical cyber-war. By the end of the war, body modification, from artificial dragon-marks to warforged implants to grafted monster-bits or magic items becomes fairly common, especially among those caught up in the constant struggle between the Dragon-Marked Houses and the Artificial Mark Houses for influence in the new global republic. And space and the planes beckon... Me, I personally see the Dragons as the end all of power on Eberron. There would no way for the races to even attempt to destroy the dragons. For long before the mortals could bring any major force against the Dragons in their home land of Argenesson the dragons would have made a pre-emtive strike. My thinkng for future Eberron as that the dragons might step up and simply take control of things before the mortals can go and muck it all up too far beyond repair. To me, this is the antithesis of Eberron. What's the use of playing in a world where you're all hopelessly under the thumb of a bunch of NPCs who have pre-defined as unstoppable? The Dragons are certainly powerful, but the humanoid races have the potential to eventually become more powerful than them. And in vastly greater numbers. If it's impossible to ever overthrow them, then the PCs might as well just stay home and let the all-powerful Dragons fix everything. So yeah, I think our vision is rather different. I see the Dragons as having lots of power, but no more wisdom than anyone else, and they're basically stagnant. Their numbers can't really grow and they mostly just sit back and watch, except for the Chamber. And when they do intervene, all they can do is to just obliterate entire civilizations. They have power, not wisdom. But there's always a bigger stick.
Nerdicus 12-21-07, 01:07 AM	Well, i think we will have to agree to disagree on most of your thoughts. I don't agree that the mortal races MUST destroy the dragons to move towards a future Eberron the likes of which we are discussing. First off, why wouldn't they just progress ahead of the Mortals? I mean, couldn't it stand to reason that the dragons, through the Chamber, might infiltrate the mortal races and watch carefully what they do and learn? I see the Dragons of Eberron( and I'm speaking per the setting currently) as the guardians of Eberron. they have been entrusted with magic that can destroy entire nations, but in such a way so that the world as a whole can move on. I have it in all my Eberron campaigns that the Dragons are actively shaping the progression of the mortal races. They have agents in every political group, royal family, guild, faction and House. Though their presence is one hidden from all, no one knowing that they are serving the dragons in any way. The only people who know a fraction of the truth behind the true power and influence of the dragons are dragon Shamans, which belong to various orders dedicated to fulfilling their draconic masters will. Also I should say that I have taken Edymnion's take on the whole TrueNaming thing. If you don't know about that he put it up mist recently in the ....."Changes to Eberron" thread. Maybe he will see this and post it again(or put it in his sig!). Anyways, it basically sums up the Mourning, the true power behind the dragons and all that. I have further taken his idea and used it to come up with a great idea for the Creation Forges, which I will touch on later. Anyways, in my Eberron, the dragons rule through manipulation of the other races, not through any form of Tyranny. And the only time they ever come down hard on folk is when folk try to mess with things best left clean. Now, that isn't to say I think you are wrong, this is just how I see them. So, I see the future of eberron being shaped under their careful guidance, and not exclusive to their existence. The gnomes: Now, I love your idea of the SiderysNet, I can't fathom any race of people totally heading off to live in it. More likely I would use it as a carefully held secret of theirs that they have certain Arcane mystics who can actually enter the SiberysNet and move through it like a fish in water. These Technomancers are like normal gnomes in that they breath and exist like the rest of things, but they can enter the net at will, or something. Warforged: First off I see the warforged as lasting for as long as they can survive. So in the future there would be ancient warforged that have survived for hundreds of years. For that reason, I wouldn't want them making too many new ones or in the future they would make up a huge percentage of the population, which would result in their having to fight with the humans, because we all know how little the humans like to share. ;) Not only that, but the way I see the creation forges working is like this: Using the magic of Truenaming, the creation forges have several templates upon which are scribed markings. These markings don't seem to have any baring to any language ever known, they are just markings, but they must be exact. The templates are then aligned in such a way so that when Eldrich power is focused through them they cast an arcane shadow so to speak. These shadows, when overlapped make evenmore complex symbols that seem to form some sort of writing. THen the creation forge is turned on, and through means of which no one living knows, the forge fills in a missing piece to the symbol that then complets the symbol or word, resulting in the creation of a warforged. The symbol is a TrueWord. The pieces missing are what end up inscribed on the warforged forehead, commonly known as a Ghurla. So, given this idea of the creationforge, it makes it very difficult to copy, given that no living creature can read the True Words, or hope to be able to understand them. The also explains why there are so few versions of warforged, and why Cannith was never able to really go to work with the design aspect of it. They simply didn't really know what they were doing. Because of this I would say that in the future, the only creation forges around are the ones that were left behind from Cannith, or the older ones in Xendrik.
Rekko 12-21-07, 12:17 PM	What would be the intention of the SiberysNet? Send emails? I don't get it. I also like the things Edy did with the whole Truenaming plot, and I also see the Dragons like Nerdicus does. In the Future, I would see a lot of aberrant mark and very few true dragonmarks. I could see the Houses becoming less 'pure' in the future and allowing aberrants to be part of their House. Especially since Cannith may be divided in three, and maybe others too. I also suggest a Dragon War on Argonnessen that divided the dragons in two or more groups: those in favor of making contact with the lesser race and those that think the Prophecy acts by itself and that the dragons shouldn't alter it by making interventions on Khorvaire. This Dragon War could have made some Fiends reveal themselves to attack the dragons while they are in a weak position. Rekko
Nerdicus 12-21-07, 01:33 PM	I see the SiberysNet being like a form of the internet but using magic to fuel itself, and it would be used to hold information, used to pass information, and maybe....I don't know, protect places. Like, you could have spells that exist in a virtual realm and can only be changed there, but can effect the outside world.....maybe. As to the Dragonmarked houses, I agree that there would be some major changes to them, but i couldn't see them as working with aberrant marks. What I could see is there being two or more Aberrant Houses that exist and are competing for power with the Dragonmarked houses. I also see there being some major changes to the houses themselves....you just thinking it through here leads me to think that there would be way more houses, many of the original houses might have split into smaller factions, and that now even those compete with each other. Or maybe all the Dragonmarks are considered to be aberrant to the major populous! Perhaps the Houses have had to go into hiding for some problems that arose in the past, and now they are hidden organizations that still try to shape the economy of Khorvaire? That has some cool potential.... I really like the idea of there being a bunch of warforged components and add ons that people could buy for themselves. Various enhancements that money can buy and skilled Magimancers can attach to a person... What about guns? Would magical guns of sorts? Personally I think that that would be the next step in wand and staff making. refined wands that can be used more easily, and have more charges.....
Nerdicus 12-21-07, 05:52 PM	I just had what I think might be the coolest idea for figuring something like this out for gameplay purposes. To start off you need a group who are fairly well versed in Eberron. Perhaps a gaming group that has gone through several campaigns using the setting as written. Then as a group you go about planning the future of eberron. Start off by deviding the nations, Dragonmarked houses and other various powers amongst everyone. then you start off going by initiative(straight rolls of a d20) and go around in a circle saying what their various groups would do in order to gain power. You could do it with Risk simple rolls over who wins or whatever even paper rock scissors if you wanted. However you wanted to determine who wins over two sides is fully up to the group, but the idea is to go through the future history of Eberron with a group, in which each get to shape the future. There is an free setting online that is exactly like this, a rule set for world creation, and that would be the best way to do it, but any old way would slay. i think it would work best with the first five turns being each turn equal to 5-10 years for the setting. After that it goes to 25-50 for a few, then up to hundreds per turn. then when you get to the end you have a setting to play in, in which everyone had a say in how it got to where it is. You could probably fit the future history aspect of the game into one session, then have everyone plan out their characters for the next session.