Post/Author/DateTime	Post
PiccaloJr 04-25-07, 11:53 PM	Just tossing this out at you guys. The idea came to me on the ride home tonight. What if the Lord of Blades (CR 12) isn't really the actual Lord of Blades? What if he's just the warforged the REAL LoB sends in when he needs a face? Follow the suggested idea in most of the source material and make the "face" LoB Bulwark, King Boranel's one time friend. The -real- LoB is actually the former leader of House Cannith. Make his class progression Artificer/Renegade Master Maker/Warforged Juggernaut. He makes for a much high CR encounter when finally faced and a SERIOUS twist in the story. The events of the Day of Mourning could have serious damaged his body and twisted his mind. He then started to "fix" himself and became obsessed with the idea that becoming a Warforged was Humanitys next step. He brainwashed/reprogrammed Bulwark to act as a symbol while he manipulates eveything from behind. Just an idea. Feel free to pick it apart. ^_^
DyloniusFunk 04-26-07, 01:28 AM	An interesting idea. I don't know if any info has been made available about the former Baron of Cannith, but i don't have Dragonmarked. You would need to come up with some explination as to why he survived the Mourning when everything else was killed. I think a more plausible idea might be to have the LoB be the guy who created the Warforged but was kicked out of cannith, Aaren D'Cannith. There's a part in the Warfoged Dragonshard that discusses his possible fate after getting kicked out of Cannith. Following his expulsion, Aaren disappeared. His fate remains a mystery, and diviners and inquisitives have found no traces of him. Most believe that Aaren is long dead, but a number of conflicting stories present other possibilities. Some say that Aaren still wanders the world, and that he is dong what he can to help warforged adjust to a life of peace. Others say that he went mad, and that he has entered the service of the sinister Lord of Blades. According to these tales, the Lord of Blades has salvaged a creation forge in the Mournland, and Aaren is using it to produce strange new warforged. And then some others claim that Aaren IS the Lord of Blades -- that he has crafted a suit of armor that makes him appear to be a warforged, or that he has found a way to transfer his consciousness into a warforged body. The truth is for the DM to decide, but should Aaren still live, an encounter with the legendary artificer could have important consequences for any warforged characters. You could take this one step turhter and say that arather than serveing the LoB, he is the LoB. He decided that his children have suffered enough unde rthe yoke of humanity and that there time for dominance is at hand. :fight!: Of course he's actually mindseeded by the Quori to try to keep the Warforged focused on other things besides them or to even try to make an army the Quori can use like they tried to do during the Dal Quor/Giant wars in ancient Xen'Drik. :schemes:
PiccaloJr 04-26-07, 02:19 AM	Wow, I like that concept as well. Anyone else have their own version on LoBs story?
yossarius 04-26-07, 07:33 PM	What if the LoB isn't even just one being, but rather a group of warforged that have found a way form their bodies together into one huge super-warforged (can you say, "Go, Voltron Force!" ?)
LoneStranger 04-26-07, 08:01 PM	There are some interesting ideas here, but I'm not subscribing to the "warforged megazord" idea (just don't sound right to me). I have seen the bit that DyloniusFunk quoted and that very well could be. Another thought is that the Lord of Blades isn't one warforged. That salvaged forge could be making warforged juggernauts (or at least warforged that are inclined to be juggernauts) so that if something happens to the LoB, the "next LoB" steps in fairly seamlessly. It's a thought.
Alex_ 04-26-07, 08:32 PM	I'm not using any of the belief systems in Faiths of Ebberon. I've kind of combined them all. In my setting, there was short lived, but major Warforged movement. It was a more peaceful (but not pacifist) path that encouraged Warforged to prove themselves worthy to the other races as equals. It was more like the Reforged, only with less emphasis on becoming "alive". The LoB was one of the higher ups in this movement, but more militant than many of his proteges and soon lost faith in the originals likelihood of success. He eventually started getting more followers on his side and began launching preemptive strikes in the name of the movement, and even turned on other Warforged that chose to associate with non-constructs. The former movement fell apart as the LoB's version became more prevelant in the popular mind. This is more like the classic LoB faith. There is no physical Lord of Blades anymore, but his closest associates (13 and all named after different bladed weapons) continued using his teachings and ideals as a means to unify Warforged and gather more for the cause. In secret, they're still using a creation forge to make new Warforged and are trying to build a new Lord of Blades: a massive and extremely powerful construct (like the Becoming God). If my PCs do choose to ever take down the LoB, they'll have to track down and defeat the followers, and will eventually find themselves in the Mournlands, fighting a newly created and recently activated Lord of Blades.
Soloran 04-27-07, 10:47 AM	My take on the Lord of Blades: I like the concept of Aaren d'Cannith being the LOB. I'm putting a new twist on this though: The legendary artificer has transcended the need for a physical body. He is the guiding spirit for his chosen people: the warforged. As such, if his physical shell (the current incarnation of the LoB) is ever destroyed, he will merely possess another warforged body (treat as an equivalent level magic jar spell that will only work on warforged). [Think Agent Smith for warforged]
Cifer 04-27-07, 07:39 PM	My favorite ideas are Aaren d'Cannith and a succession of LoBsters. The first one is obvious and would also explain how he can use a creation forge, although his constructification has somewhat twisted his mark. The second one is a theory put forward on the boards: When the LoBster meets its end, others take up its spiked mantle. This gives me as a DM the opportunity to speak the words "You cannot kill the messiah" when it reappears, which is always a good thing.
Soloran 04-27-07, 10:25 PM	"You cannot kill the messiah" If the PCs do manage to "slay" the LoB, but he "resurrects" himself, it will only add to the aura of awe and mystery surrounding the warforged messiah that just cannot die.
Cifer 04-28-07, 07:30 AM	If you choose to go for this, you might want to somehow conceal the LoBster's ghulra (that unique thingy on his head), perhaps explained by saying that he no longer is an individual, but an avatar of the Warforged race and thus doesn't need to identify himself anymore - this would nicely disguise the fact that different WF are the LoB.
polt 04-28-07, 07:34 AM	I'm going with the Bulwark story, because i think it sounds believable and is so very cool. But of course there's more LoBs out there :) Only one of them is the real one though, and then he has a bunch of copies for the adventures to kill :D
timothyx 04-28-07, 08:14 PM	Aaren D'Cannith is the father of all Warforged. he's also a 10th level Renegade Mastermaker. Bulwark is in fact, the physical LoB we all have some to loathe and be fearful of, but, he's not the power behind the throne so to speak. Father is.
beezl 04-30-07, 04:23 AM	The "technology" to make WF wasn't created by Cannith, it was discovered on Xendrick. Signs point to Quori design... as per Secrets of Xendrik & the Dreaming Dark Trilogy. My theory is that the Avatar notion isn't too far off the mark, but the soul (as it were) is far older, and has extraplanar origins...
The_Robot 05-01-07, 09:52 PM	Of course he's actually mindseeded by the Quori to try to keep the Warforged focused on other things besides them or to even try to make an army the Quori can use like they tried to do during the Dal Quor/Giant wars in ancient Xen'Drik. :schemes: *yoink* That is so perfect for a couple members of my party, its not even funny...Thanks!
Bellator_33 05-04-07, 07:44 AM	In my current campaign, there are, in a way, 3 LoBs. One is Aaren, who is trying to make up for all the damage his house and own species have inflicted on his "children". One is Bulwark, who is a kind of underground freedom fighter, with a small group of allied warforged veterans. the final one is called Bastion (I cant remember what book he is in, but somewhere a Warforged named Bastion is mentioned), who is more like the standard LoB, desiring to take over the world for Warforged. Bulwark is one of the few who knows the truth about Aaren, who has constructed a suit of armour that basiacally makes him a warforged. the two of them are sort of at war with both house Cannith and Bastion, though most people think that incidents involving a Cannith group disappearing, or several warforged dying on the street, are just random and unconnected. My party is actually suspecting something, as they saw a fight between Bastion's adamantite warforged and Bulwark's veterans over an extremely valuable docent
Nived 05-04-07, 11:04 AM	My take is that the Lord of Blades isn't the name of a Warforged. Its the name of a powerful fiend from the Age of Demon's whose prison was cracked in the day of Mourning (its in the depths of the glowing chasm). The fiend is still stuck he can't physically get out... but he's been able to call some minions, and was able to possess a warforged at some point. With the warforged being tireless and all that the Lord of Blades got an idea, an awful idea, the Lord of Blades got a wonderfully awful idea... no wait.... that's the grinch, anyway. This fiend created the persona and the retoric of the Lord of Blades to raise an army, which will gather the resources he needs to free himself, and will be the vangard of his legions when he finally wages war against the rest of the world. Nearly none of the Warforged who follow the LoBs knows anything about this, though I'd have a select few of his powerful luitenants either be possessed too, or somehow have been given the fiendish ro half fiend templates for giggles. The truely fun part of this is that the PCs at some point after one or two confrontations with the LoB would actually kill him, well the Warforged host anyway... then a few sessions later learn that the LoB is still active, he's possessed another 'forged, but the party wouldn't know that yet.
The Wilgar 05-04-07, 02:26 PM	I like the LoB as Captive Demon angle. My personal take, the real Lord of Blades is actually a charismatic (for a 'forged) bard-type, and the 'Lord of Blades' is just a body double. When the PC's take down the body double, a few adventures later you can introduce them to another Warforged Juggernaut claiming to be the LoB... running around with the same Bard-type. (I think the bard needs to be played by Liam Neison...)
Siberys 05-05-07, 11:03 PM	I'm liking the Aaren "Power-behind-the-throne", and I may use it in my campaigns. IMC, though, Bulwark is the real LoBster. And, in RoE, the statement begetting the Godforged idea (p. 17, "Other Concepts") was so close to the LoB section my mind didn't separate them, so In my campaigns the LoBster is trying to build the Godforged, which he'll take on a Godzilla-esque rampage through Sharn.
Shar_the_Black 05-06-07, 06:34 PM	I had an idea once that the Lord of Blades was actually a sentient forge. Who could mentally control/posess other Warforged and used the physical Lord of Blades as an Avatar.
Rekko 05-07-07, 04:00 PM	I'm not sure what I'd be using for my Lord of Blades but here's something I came up with: The Lord of Blades happens to be the captain of a warforged regiment during the Last war under the ruling of Cyre. At some point in the war, the regiment got forgotten by the generals of Cyre and the warforged captain chosed to retreat his fellow warforged soldiers from this human war. He got enlightened and acknowledge the status of warforged in society. Instead, he strated journeying with his troops battlefields to battlefields to retrieved damaged waforged or warforged parts and repair them. When encountering humans, he feared of enslavement once again and decided to kill on sight every human on his way. In time, with the repaired warforged and the warforged who joined his cause, the Lord of Blades got himself a small army of true believers. Then, the Mourning occured. In a chain reaction, the Forges of Creation from all Cyre exploded at once destroying all living thing on its passage, except the warforged. The magic deflagrations stopped at physical borders (mountains, rivers, lakes, stormy wind and rain). The destruction was activated by Aaren d'Cannith, tired of seeing his children suffering a war that is not theirs. Aaren died in the explosion, but his clone awaked at the same time in the middle of Xen'drik's ruins, in the middle of ancient warforged artifact, where he first discovered the warforged schemas. Aaren knew about the Lord of Blades and was sympathic to his cause. Aaren started journying on the path of the Renagade Mastermaker to eventually claim the sympathy of the Lord of Blades. However, he needs a Creation Forge to complete his construct transformation and with the treaty of Thronehold, there are "none" left. Surviving the Mourning, the Lord of Blades started raising a society within the borders of the Mournland. He sends missionaries within the human nations to call to him his fellow warforged. Also, he masters the mysteries of the Mournland, fighting elementals, abberations, fiends and quoris. Aaren d'Cannith finally meet with the Lord of Blades hoping to work with him. The warforged leader refused to ally with the flesh bag, but he accepted to let him go since he was the warforged's father. However, a lot of warforged joined Aaren and formed another warforged community within the Mournland. Aaren is now known as the Becoming God, since he is trying to rebuild the Creation Forge in Making to finally become a warforged himself. The two warforged nation share common goals: which is to live at peace with human nation and give a good social status to the warforged living outside the mist. However, the Lord of Blades is a bit malfunctionning and his community are more flesh-haters than Aaren's warforged which contributes to the bad reputation warforged have. The two warforged communities share another common goal. Defense against quori attacks. Outside the mist, the Dreaming Dark started raiding on warforged and they now face face the quori's possession power. Bulwark in that story is a spy. He left with orders of King Boranel of Breland to spy on the Lord of Blades and the two warforged communities. Bulwark has asociates that work in an out the mist and within both communities. Boranel fears of a blitz war againt Breland or Cannith South because he knows there is still an operative Creation Forge in the bowels of Sharn. That's it for now, what you do you think? Rekko
DyloniusFunk 05-08-07, 11:49 PM	*yoink* That is so perfect for a couple members of my party, its not even funny...Thanks! Yay, one of my ideas was yoinked, my ego is pleased :rofl: :clap: Seriously, glad i could help ya out:D
Arandmoor 05-09-07, 02:17 AM	How about if if Aaren D'Cannith became the LoB by pioneering a kind of "Artificer Lichdom" and can only inhabit Warforged bodies? His phylactery could be a version of a final messenger Warforged Component that flies off to find a new host when his present host dies.
Esgay 05-10-07, 05:40 PM	I think i'm going with the Idea that bulwark is the lord of blades, although not the current one, just under a year ago he was usurped as the leader of the displaced 'forged who wander the mournlands. No-one knows where his usurper came from but he is the baseline "kill the fleshies" LOBster from the ECS. (in my campaign he has gained control of argonth and dejarn's sister fortress and uses that as his base of operations) Bulwark now wanders the wastes alone, trying to get those lone warforged he meets to see reason but the ones who flock to the mournlands are those who are bent on the destruction and simply ignore bulwark as a poor imposter. This works well for metagaming pcs when a warforged comes to them in the mournlands and introduces himself as the lord of blades.
fil kearney 05-14-07, 09:19 PM	nice stuff, here. The game we're rnig i my sig is using an exotic, alternate "spirit world" mythology instead of the standard multiverse rbittig idea of eberron.. so it's very animistic. IN this version, the warforged are simply husks that have been implanted with the souls of the dead. The forges simply grab a soul ad weld it to the 'forged in a possession sort of manner. The players are all forum regulars, and some poke through here, so I won't go ito the specifics, but the LoB, like all other 'forged, are possessed. More than one response here coincids with my storyline rather well. We're also Fiend of Possesion junkies, so go figure. Good stuff going here. consider this my BUMP
Runepriest 05-14-07, 11:00 PM	I could not understand your post well, but the information I gathered from it via my Gather information check Warforged are animated by a soul of the dead. Interesting thought. I say that the LoB in ECS is his representation, he's really a Large Warforged Fighter 20/WF Juggernaut 5//Artificier 20/ RMM 5
jarazix 05-31-07, 02:15 PM	Well my thought has always been that the forges pull the quori spirits and rooted them in the physical world...like the docent project but taken to the next level. Most in Cannith don't seem to understand why the forged are sentient...they just know they are "if it works it works". However question is what spirits does it pull...the dark spirits of now? Or the spirits from the past? With how I thought of it the idea of a sentient forge is awesome.
Encard 06-03-07, 04:54 AM	Having Aaren d'Cannith as the real Lord of Blades is interesting... given the events of the Dreaming Dark series, which I just finished, it might be even more interesting than I'd previously have thought. Cool idea, to those who've brought it up - maybe I'll snag it myself if he comes into my own campaign. I say that the LoB in ECS is his representation, he's really a Large Warforged Fighter 20/WF Juggernaut 5//Artificier 20/ RMM 5 ...Why? Seriously, I don't understand why making the Lord of Blades (probably) be the most powerful creature in Eberron is a good idea. Can you explain the reasoning?
polt 06-03-07, 05:46 AM	I could not understand your post well, but the information I gathered from it via my Gather information check Warforged are animated by a soul of the dead. Interesting thought. I say that the LoB in ECS is his representation, he's really a Large Warforged Fighter 20/WF Juggernaut 5//Artificier 20/ RMM 5 Wow, really? Why doesn't he, you know, just go out and kill humanity?
Runepriest 06-03-07, 10:14 AM	He is cursed so that he can't leave the Mournland. if he leaves the Mournland the internal arcane energy will make him explode. Simple, but explains why the powerhouse isn't ruling Khorvaire. He's so powerful because of massive amounts of arcane energy stored inside him.
Phalo 06-03-07, 07:46 PM	I like the idea of the lord of blades being a docets that expand a forged powers. Created by Aaren cannith of course to give his children a chance to create there own world.
retillin 06-03-07, 09:06 PM	I have Bulwark being the LoB in my campains. Right when the warforged were granted "freedom" he left to help his people in what is now the Mournland to build a place where they could live in peace and harmony with the rest of Khorvaire. How ever while helping to free some of the last made warforges in the city of Eston he came across an artifact known as the "Circlet of Preservation". He could feel what he thought to be a warforged spirit in there. And that was his final mistake... Aaren D'Cannith had spent the best part of the last five years of his life trying to build a way to controll warforges so that they could be more reliable in and after battle. He created the Circlet of Preservation and was testing it while the mourning happend. His spirit was driven into the circlet. His mind twisted by the blast and the lose of his humanity he now believes that the flesh is weak and that only the warforge should have controll over the land. And only he could lead them. Now Aaren D'Cannith controls the body of Bulwark while building his army up. Sadly the power Aaren recieved from the blast of the mourning does not allow Bulwark a chance to free himself, but if someone could remove the circlet he would be free again....
polt 06-05-07, 04:14 AM	He is cursed so that he can't leave the Mournland. if he leaves the Mournland the internal arcane energy will make him explode. Simple, but explains why the powerhouse isn't ruling Khorvaire. He's so powerful because of massive amounts of arcane energy stored inside him. Who cursed him? And why?
Runepriest 06-05-07, 09:03 AM	Who cursed him? And why? The mourning cursed him by filling him with dangerous arcane energy.