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#1 Syltorian Jan 18, 2014 8:19:15	The Dragonmarked Houses are an essential part of the fabric of Khorvaire. Their services keep civilisation going, and every child knows their names and emblems. But behind these well-known families and businesses lie some of the best kept secrets of Khorvaire. Many of these are known from canon sources or novels: the Kraken-worshippers of Lyrandar’s Stormfront, and the Black Dog poisoners of Ghallanda (Dragonmarked), the hidden activities of the Sharn Deneith (Sharn: City of Towers, the magebreeding of humans by a line of Vadalis (Eberron Campaign Setting 4E, the spying services provided by the Shadow Houses (ECS 3.5 and elsewhere), or Cannith creation forges that were not shut down as required by the Thronehold Accords (Sharn: City of Towers. For more covert dealings, the novels by Keith Baker – both trilogies – also delve into some secrets, and other novels portray interesting traditions of the Houses (Bassingswaith's Heirs of Dhakaan for Deneith's traditional sword dance, for instance).    This thread is intended to list secrets you have used, or intend to use, or have just thought up, and wish to share. They may be secrets the houses will kill to keep, or simply traditions or quirks that may be more or less well known. Please comment on the ideas below, and add your own!   1.Vadalis: A little bird told me…. Medani and Tharrashk inquisitives are widely known. The services of the Shadow Houses are available only to a select few. The idea that Vadalis has spies seems so ridiculous at first that nobody gives it a second thought. But again: animals are everywhere, and nobody but the most paranoid pay them any attention. When nobles conspire against their liege lord, they invest in magic to shield them from scrying, they send the servants away, and vet each other carefully. But who minds the dog lolling in front of the fireplace, or the songbird in the cage? When an agent of the Citadel meets his contact in an isolated place, he tells nobody. But he gets there on his horse. Later, all the groom – who has a Mark of Handling, and is trained in getting a maximum of information from beings with animal intelligence – need only ask the right questions. And then there are Vadalis’ sleeper agents: the Siberys Mark can awaken animals to high intelligence. Baron Breven d’Deneith beloved hunting hound, the beautifully groomed cat of an Aurum concordian, the pet snake of a Thuranni assassin, and the destrier of a Karrnathi warlord: they may all be listening and remembering, and passing their secrets on to the House which awakened their minds. And besides, if the House bred Skaravojen to be utterly dedicated to the Keeper of the Flame… was that the only loyalty they gave him?   2. Admittedly a few birds did act strange… (Vadalis) (Hitchcock, The Birds. The House everyone forgets about when they talk about the worrying growth of power amongst the Dragonmarked. The House everyone smiles at with easy superiority. The House that could easily destroy entire capitols. The Mark of Handling controls animals, and if you open your eyes, you will notice that animals are everywhere . There are focus stones which allow those with the right Mark to touch lightly upon the minds of these creatures over large areas: the House uses such foci openly to draw fish and fowl into waiting nets, and to keep rats and other vermin away from large granaries. But, should the house ever be offended, these foci could easily be turned to more sinister purposes. Woe betide the unfortunate person who harms a Vadalis heir in good standing: once all the birds, rats, cats, dogs and other animals in town swarm in to attack, he might not live to repent his error (note: watch Hitchcock’s Birds to drive this point home). Some bandit lords who thought they could prey on a house as innocuous as Vadalis found swarms of rats, moles and other rodents dig the foundations under their castle walls away, collapsing their keeps. Communities who harmed the house have on occasion found their harvest destroyed by flocks of birds or rats, or their rivers and bays empty of fish. Fortunately, the House has not exploited this power on any large scale since the War of the Mark, but the potential is there.   2. Let my armies be (…) the birds in the sky (Vadalis) (Attributed to Charlemagne, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The Korth Edicts tried to prevent the Dragonmarked Houses from becoming too powerful by, amongst many other clauses, limiting the number of soldiers they could keep on their enclaves. An exception was made for House Deneith, whose business was to gather, train, and provide mercenaries. But while many Houses keep small details of their own guards, and hire mercenaries from Deneith, a Vadalis enclave looks at first unguarded, except by a few men armed with hunting weapons. In fact, that same enclave may have the most powerful forces amongst all the enclaves. Attacking a Deneith fortress might be folly, and Tharashk’s expansion into providing hired muscle from Droaam makes them equally dangerous to assault, anyone trying to enter a Vadalis enclave uninvited could run into even greater trouble – without the House breaking the Korth Edicts. After all, the packs of Winter Wolves in the grounds are only there to help with a lord’s hunting parties, the owlbears are a curiosity for zoo-goers to look at, the pride of griffons and hippogriffs on the roof serve as riding animals (and the people love them during the national holiday parades), and the hydra in the seller is part of an experiment. The thief didn’t have to go there; there were, after all, warning signs. Vadalis’ dragonmark focus item (Scepter of Wild Dominion, ECS 3.5) grants the house the power to extend their marks’ use to magical beasts, so they can charm them, command them, and prevent them from attacking Vadalis heirs (mark of the wild power of the Dragonmark Visionary feat (Dragonmarked.     4. The Wolves in Sheep’s Clothings (Vadalis). The House of Handling has long had a deep relationship with nature. Even before the Mark manifested on the human trappers, hunters, and trailblazers of the Eldeen, lycanthropy had manifested amongst one of the families of the extended clan. Vadalis considered the condition a blessing of Balinor, even though it concealed this heritage from those outside the family. The farming communities were always wary of the lycanthropes, manifestations of the wild, untamed nature that was threatening their lands. Then, in the early days of the 9th century YK, the House had to witness with sheer horror that those blessed by nature turned into savage murderers, bringing down the power of their mark and their ‘blessing’ on defenceless villages and unsuspecting relatives. Vadalis’ strong family bonds nearly broke under the pressure, as some members sought to put down the traitors like rabid animals, and others frantically tried to find a reason behind this sudden change, and a cure against the blessing turned into a curse. It was Vadalis – not the healers of Jorasco – who eventually found cures to help those afflicted by lycanthropy, but against the sweeping tide of the lycanthropic savagery, these cures were too weak, like trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket. Under pressure from the crusaders of the Purge and from the communities threatened by the Lycanthropes – and with the secret now in the open – Vadalis was forced to excoriate the entire line. They did so with extreme reluctance, and many ignored the decree. Secret orders accompanied the message of the excoriation, telling the enclaves to capture lycanthropes rather than kill them, and to keep looking for a cure that would save their afflicted relatives along with those they threatened. Thus, some of the line were saved, while others of the line escaped into Thelanis and Lamannia, or into the furthest reaches of Khorvaire. The lycanthropic condition returned to normal almost as swiftly as it had changed into savagery, and there are still lycanthropic Vadalis around – some secretly integrated into the family, despite the official excoriation; others living in exile: the Mark of Handling appears occasionally amongst the Dark Pack in Droaam. House Vadalis still remembers the horrors of the lycanthropic frenzy, and has gathered an impressive body of lore to figure out what turned the blessing into a curse. So far, it has not shared its conclusions with anybody outside the House, but its agents are ever-watchful to prevent a new occurrence of such an outbreak – and some of the most dedicated watchers are lycanthropes themselves. Protective of their family in the extreme, Vadalis has imprisoned those of its lycanthropes who cannot control themselves – and is behind deaths and disappearances of outsiders who found out that the excoriation of the lycanthropic line was nothing but a lie.   4. A perfect match (Medani, Tharashk, Lyrandar). Some Houses are racial purists. Deneith and Cannith rarely admit anyone but humans into their House. Lyrandar believes almost religiously in the purity of Khoravar blood. But other Houses have stranger connections. House Medani has recently becomes fascinated with the telepathic and clairsentient abilities of the Kalashtar, and some amongst that mysterious race find the resources of a House gifted with marks that can pierce deceptions such as those employed by the Dreaming Dark attractive. Though Kalashtar cannot bear the Mark of Detection, marriages between Medani and the Kalashtar have occurred, and their offspring is reinforcing the ranks of the House. This gives Medani access to such powerful inquisitives abilities as read object or sensitivity to psychic impressions, whilst the Kalashtar gain allies against Riedra who are part of the family (and can thus be trusted with secrets kept from the wider population). Especially those Kalashtar descended from Hashalaq Quori (the loremasters amongst their race, attracted to arcane magic as well as psionic powers) are fascinated with the dragonmarks. – Daelkyr Halfbloods have long been a part of House Tharashk, though this is rarely by choice – the House’s presence in the Shadow Marches and its manifest zones triggers these births, regarded by some as a curse, and by others a blessing. Like the Medani kalasthar, these halfbloods cannot manifest marks (though at the DM’s options, they may, or may instead manifest aberrant marks), but their symbionts can be useful in some of the more dangerous and difficult missions of the house; besides, some in the House follow the Dragon Below, whilst those who adhere to the Gateekeer Faiths train Impure Princes – The members of House Vadalis in Merylsward have longed lived at the furthest edge of civilisation, and they have dealings with the fey creatures of the Eldeen: as such many have fey blood, and unions with fey still occur. Unlike many other mixtures, such descendants are able to develop marks (if the fey blood is reflected by feats or templates, such as the half-nymph or half-satyr in 3.5). These members of Vadalis often care even less about the civilised nations of Khorvaire than do their cousins, but they have instead an even deeper understanding of magical beasts, and strong associations with the Greensingers.
#2 Beoric Feb 16, 2014 19:13:21	6.  Blood may be thicker than water, but religion is thickest (Thuranni).  Nobody wants another War of the Mark, and it is commonly believed that the mixing of dragonmarked bloodlines leads to aberrant marks.  While it is easy to prevent marriages between members of two dragonmarked houses, it is not always obvious if someone who is not a member of a dragonmarked house nevertheless carries a dragonmarked bloodline.  As a result, several dragonmarked houses turn to Sivis (to search birth records and for cataloguing expertise) and Vadalis (for genealogical expertise) to ensure that scions do not inadvertently marry people who carry the blood of another house.  The insterested houses include Vadalis, Cannith, Orien, Denieth, Medani, Lyrandar, Jorasco, Ghallanda, and less obviously, Thuranni and Phiarlan.  The Thuranni and Phiarlan interest stems from the concern that some of the bloodlines of Vol survived the destruction of the House of Vol and emigrated to Khorvaire, and that those may include bloodlines that carried the Mark of Death.   Within House Thuranni, the Uruvai family has undertaken the exceedingly dull task of identifying and monitoring elves who may belong to the Vol bloodlines, and the rest of the house is happy to leave them to it.  However, the Uruvai family is secretly affiliated with Erandis Vol (from an adventure idea in City of Stormreach p. 152).  They use their position to discretely encourage unions among the Vol bloodlines that might lead to children with the potential to manifest the Mark of Death.  Unsuitable suitors meet with misfortune, or death in extreme cases.  Suitable couples find themselves pushed together by circumstances.  If a child ever manifests the Mark of Death, the Uruvai will be the first to know about it.  The Queen of Death will be second...