[3.5] Raptorans in Eberron - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

[3.5] Raptorans in Eberron

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
rodiandancer
Jun 26, 2011 15:05:10 OK, I used to play D&D but haven't in a while. I have some new friends who are interested in playing a game while I DM, so I've dug out my 3.5 books for a Eberron game.

Now I'm busy creating race fluff incase anyone wants to play them or I include them in the campaign for:

Raptorans
Sea Kin
Catfolk
Goliaths
Darfellan
Aventi
Thri-Kreen
Asherati
Bhuka
Killoren
Dragonborn
Spellscales

Anyway, so far I've kept the information from the Player's Guide to Eberron that raptorans live in Xen'drik. But so far everything else is Races of the Wild. I don't know about the religion issue yet though. I'm thinking that different flocks will worship different things, some could be primarly druidism, some borrowed the giant gods. But what if I had a particular flock that could that had something to do with couatls? Couatls in 3.5 Eberron are rare, but a few are still around. Perhaps a couatl taught at least one flock, if not more, about tracking portents of the Draconic Prophecy by astronomy (the position of 'Star Chief' in a flock seems to indicate an interest in it), and they now worship either that particular couatl or all as a sort of pseudo-god, along with some version of the Silver Flame maybe? Any thoughts on this (especially the astonomy-Prophecy aspect) will be very appreciated.

#2
Magicstar1
Jun 27, 2011 11:25:05 Quick ideas that pop into my head, nothing elaborate at the moment.

Raptorans - Place them in Xen'drik or on Mror Holds / Lhazaar, caves over water or mountains
Sea Kin - Might be natural enemy of Sahuagin or be their slaves
Catfolk - Xen'drik, twisted Mourning survivor, lesser rakshasa's
Goliaths - Mror holds, Droaam
Darfellan - Maybe south of Xen'drik or in a secluded cove of the Scion's Sound
Aventi - never read about them
Thri-Kreen - There is a specific dessert on Xen'drik that has multiple colonies but these could also be from the Talenta Plaines
Asherati - See Thri-Keen, however they could also be elemental grafted humanoids
Bhuka - Set them as a specific tribe in the Demon Wastes or let them hail from the dessert in Xen'drik, Darguun is also a possibility
Killoren - Eldeen Reaches or from Thelanis, feyspires (4th edition fluff)
Dragonborn - Q'barra, Argonessen
Spellscales - Argonessen,
#3
Gilo
Jun 27, 2011 12:21:08 Some of those have been mentioned in Eberron books:

Aventi - Secrets of Sarlona,
Thri-Kreen - City of Stormreach,
Goliaths, Dragonborn - 4E EPG and ECG

Edit:

Also the Dragonborn story is described in detail in "Explore Q'barra, Part 2: Poison Dusk, Black Sun" Dungeon#185
#4
AvonRekaes
Jun 27, 2011 15:28:54 Killoren: Personally I fit Killoren as aligned more with Eberron than Thelanis. They're less story-book Fey like Feyspire gnomes and eladrin, and more embodies-wilderness-fey, so I don't try to shoehorn them into Thelanis just cause it's the fey-plane. (Sorta like how there are demons from Shavarath, and then demons native to Eberron itself, seperate from them.)

I have killoren be the antibodies of Eberron to fight Xoriat. Everytime the Primordial Dragon senses an upcoming invasion, it starts popping out a few killoren, who then instinctively turn to druidism to prepare for it. Thus, I fit them as natural-born Gatekeepers. They are adopted by Orcs into their druidic rites, and often sent to watch Seals and other dangerous breaches to Khyber. Thus in games were I include killoren, The Gatekeepers start off in a slightly better position than described in the ECS (where it sounds like the order is fading).

Of course, killoren are sentient beings with wills of their own, no mere plant-constructs mindlessly following orders, so whenever a batch of them sprouts up, all sorts of individuals arise from them, including villians. I have the Ashbound sect of druids be started by extremist killoren druids, who extrapolate that if the unreality of Xoriat is a threat, anything that warps the reality of nature is bad too, and started persecuting arcane magic.

Other killoren abandon the call of nature entirely to seek out more mudane or mercenary lives as they see fit. But the call of nature is present in all of them, and embracing or denying it is a key feature of roleplaying the race, I feel.

(Soap-box Sidenote: I want to know who made the judgement call were we only got 2 to 3 pages on Killoren life and cuture, who present a much more compelling archetype for PCs wishing to play a "Race of the Wild", and then an entire chapter on Raptorians which literally amounts to "We're bird people." Family structure? Birds. Society? Birds. Aging and Development? Birds. The entirety of their shtick is "we got wings". How useless. The Dragonborn of Bahamut can get wings too. Uhg. Biggest waste of potential I've ever seen, all the wasted page-space. The real kicker for me was that Raptorians only got their wings after a pact with air-elementals. What did they have going for them before that pact? Nothing. Incidentally....)

Raptorians: You've already done more with them to make them interesting than anything in RotW. I would go even further with that Couatl connection, maybe have the original pact that gave them wings come from them instead of "air elementals". As for their RotW gods, you can leave them as-is, and just mentally assign different Sovereigns or some of the Dark Six to each where approrpiate. The giant and drow gods are seen as just "reflections" of the Sovereigns anyway, might as well keep something unique about the Raptorians.

Goliath: I didn't change much about these guys. I had them be distantly related to giants who escaped the destruction of Xen'drik and gradually lost their "giant-ness" over the millenia. I had them settle down in the Byshek Mountains. They're the top producers of byshek materials in weapon-form, as its the most abundant and superior metal they can work in their mountain home. The ECS says most people think of Byshek as a jewelry-metal. When PCs decide they need a Byshek Sword, they either find a Goliath camp willing to sell them one, or the one they bought was forged by Goliaths. (They trade often with the Druids and Killoren of the Eldeen Reaches, who seem to be the only other people interested in weapons forged of the purple metal. Though they have no particular knowledge about why.)

Dragonborn of Bahamut: These guys are much different than their 4e counterparts, who are born as dragonoid-humanoids, not transformed into them by constructing their own egg and hatching from it. Bahamut exists in Eberron, so you may not need to change much, except to understand how unbelievably rare these guys must be.
The Dragons in Eberron are rather jealous of their gods. They see the Sovereigns as worthy of "lesser being" worship, and see only their glorious selves as being worthy of offering praise to the true Draconic Pantheon (the one you see in the 3e Draconomicon).
All this means that Bahamut does NOT usually take humanoid worshippers. Or if he does, his misguided draconic children take offense and... do something about them. Perhaps the honor of becoming a Dragonborn of Bahamut has only been bestowed to a few rare indiviudals as a sign of Bahamut marking them as "off-limits" to overzealous, jealous draconic worshippers. Or maybe the Dragonborn of Bahamut are a very very recent, new phenomina that the Dragons aren't even sure how to deal with yet. Maybe Bahamut is trying to raise an army to fight an upcoming great threat.

Spellscales: Spellscales also suffer from the same issue as Dragonborn of Bahamut. They're intrinsicly tied to the Draconic Pantheon and they have the unfortunate condition of not being true dragons, which apparently means the Dragon's hate them for flirting with their gods. I wouldn't know how to fit an entire culture and society of Spellcales into Eberron without mucking them up real good. Instead, I'd have a Spellscale PC be a singular entity, or one of a handful (at most a small village), created specifically by a council of Dragons as an experiment. Perhaps they were seeking a way to create a more direct connection with the divine, and were using humanoids as labrats to make sure there weren't any fire-and-brimstone side-effects. Maybe the PC escaped the experiment, or maybe his adventuring in humanoid society is part of the experiment. Maybe he only thinks he escaped, and that's part of the experiment too.

Thri-Keen: Pretty much usuable as-is. I believe they're placed in the Menechtarun desert in Xen'drik. The fact that they are psionic is also fine as-is. If you want to extrapolate, they could be one of the only races with a historical record of what the Quori were like during the Age of Giants. But perhaps their dreams were so weird it's hard to communicate this to non-thri-keen. (There's also evidence of a Thri-Keen civilization that was destrotyed, beneath Stormreach.)

Those are the ones I'm most familiar with, that I've actually put thought in how to place them into games I've run before. Below are my spur-of-the-moment snap-judgments for the remainder.

Darfellan: Killer-whale people? Interesting. I say have them be rivals of the Sahuagin of Shargon's Teeth. Since the Sahuagin have a love-hate relationship with trade vessels, these guys can be pirates that ply the waters of the already dangerous Thunder Sea. Perhaps they worship The Devourer like the Sahuagin, and have religious wars over who's aspect of The Devourer is the true version. (Shargon vs. Orca-thulu?)

Sea Kin/Aventi: These guys seem pretty redundant relative to each other, don't they? Regardless, the undersea nations of Eberron have been hinted at by Hellcow, but have never been explained. However, here are some of my thoughts: The Aventi were an ancient human nation, who's island sank beneath the sea. This would most likely places their former landmass near Sarlona, the birthplace of humanity in Eberron. Also, their patron god, Aventernus, can exist unchanged in Eberron, and would just be believed to be a male interpretation of Arawai. Or even possibly a good aspect of the Devourer. The only thing would be that Aventernus's intervention on the Aventi's behalf, turning them into water-breathing folk, would have to be a less literal involveent, due to the remote nature of deities in Eberron. Perhaps the highest-ranking priest of the state religion cast an epic-level ritual to transform his people, and attributes knowledge of the ritual to a divine vision from Aventernus. Or maybe it was just all legend and they have no record of what actually happened.
As for the Sea Kin/Aventi differences, I have an inkling of a class-divide within the Aventi nation. Aventi are truly amphibious, able to exist indefinately upon land and water, and magicaly gifted to excell at water-magic. Sea Kin are ulimately dependant on their aquatic environment, while being shacked with the necessity to breath air, have adapted to do well in the dimmer depths of the sea, are skilled, and not especially magically adept.
Looking at this comparison, it almost seems like the Sea Kin could be the underclass of Aventi society. A labor-force to keep the Aventi nobles comfortable.
As for the original catastrophe that sunk their kingdom, I have some ideas on the matter. Humans are actually an *extremely* old species in Eberron. If you realize that the Shulassakar, the winged yuan-ti of Eberron, were created by Couatls blessing humans to help them fight in the Dragon-Demon war, you'd realize that humans have existed for millions of years in the setting. The nation of Aventi could be the single, oldest, existing human nation in the setting. The catastrophe that sunk the could've been anything along the length and bredth of the setting timeline.
I'd go with a naval war against the Aboleths, durring the Dragon-Demon war, that ultimately sunk them, and the couatl and dragons thought them lost.

Asherati: I like these guys as another modifcation of elves by the giant civilzation at the height of their power. The drow are elves with the essence of Night bound to them, to make them assassins and spies of their giant masters. I could see Sand or Earth Giants doing something similar to make the Asherati. I'd place them in the Menechatrun desert with the thri-keen, and have them fufill similar roles to the jungle-drow, except in a desert setting.
Thinking about them more, I like the idea of giants experimenting with the eladrin they captured. Part of the 4e fluff is that a feyspire inhabited by Eladrin once planeshifted to the material plane in the middle of the Giant empire. The Giants sacked the tower and enslaved the eladrin. They experimented with them, and removed their... "grace", so to speak, to create the Elves. Further experiments replaced their "grace" with "Night", creating the Drow. Perhaps the essence they used to create the Asherati was "Day", seeing as how Asherati can bio-luminesse. This also creates a nifty trinity with Elves, Drow, and Asherati that cooincides with the Progenitor Dragon. The Dragon Above, Siberys, and the Asherati. The Dragon Between, Eberron, and the Elves. The Dragn Below, Khyber, and the Drow.

Bhuka: As goblinoids, I would have to say that these guys are tied to the Dhakanni Empire, somehow. The favored class of Druid poses some interesting ties. It could be that Bhuka were a goblinoid tribe native to the Blade Dessert, and were almost all wiped out during the Dealkyr Invasion, where they were "called in" by the Empire to fight along-side the Gatekeepers. I'd say that Bhuka are a relatively minor off-shoot of the species in modern day, isolated to a few tribes wandering the Blade Dessert (Though they've likely been driven up into the Plains, fleeing warmongering Valenar.)

Catfolk: Er... they're... cat-folk? I dunno. Stick `em in Droam. Maybe they have a racial hatred for the gnolls there. Actually, I do like the suggestion above about them being lesser rakshasa. Or rather, that's what the Silver Flame templars were lead to believe during the Lycanthrope Purge by wily lycanthropes, to try and take some of the heat off themselves (just like they did with shifters).
#5
rodiandancer
Jul 08, 2011 10:35:13 OK, this is what I got for raptoran religion so far. I haven't had alot of time to work on it.

Raptorans, a race that rivals the drow in their homeland of Xen'drik in advancement, have diverse religious beliefs that often vary from flock to flock. Some are primarily druidic. Others worship raptoran gods that seem to be aspects of the Sovereign Host and Dark Six. Evil raptorans have dark beliefs. But one thing encompasses the raptoran belief system. It's the reason they have a fascination with the stars and celestial movements and have the flock position of star chief. Long ago before Vvaraak taught the Gatekeepers, a couatl named Merandalix approached the raptorans and taught them to read portents of a great Prophecy in the stars and Ring of Siberys. He taught them of the sacrifice of the couatls, how to draw divine power from it, and became the founder of some of the Serpent Cults of Xen'drik. He and the remaining couatls became pseudo-gods of the raptorans.

Merandalix then vanished from the raptorans' lives. Whether he taught the raptorans their knowledge out of pure benevolence or some more mysterious reason is unknown. It is rumoured he still remains in an unknown location of Xen'drik, because an ancient star chief of the Kathelchu flock prophecised that one day, in a time of great need, Merandalix would resurface and could possibly help save all of Eberron.

Let me know if this sounds cheesy or anything...I'm planning to use the raptoran prophecy thing as an adventure hook...
#6
AvonRekaes
Jul 09, 2011 18:44:44 Sounds awesome. I like the prophecy/astrology theme you introduced, actually gives them some sort of flavor besides "BIRDS! WE'RE BIRDS!" . Are you dropping the whole thing where Raptorians got their wings in a pact with air elementals?
#7
rodiandancer
Jul 09, 2011 21:43:57 Oh, forgot to mention that. I'm either dropping the whole pact thing or having it be a result of Merandalix. You know how gnomes have a +1 added to the DC for illusion spells they cast, have the speak with animals spell-like ability and a couple spells they can use if their Cha is at least 10? Well, raptorans have a +1 on air spells they cast since they're bird-people. That's really the only thing you get from the pact. Or, Merandalix used unknown magic to turn a faction of elves into bird people. It would explain why Elven is used as their alphabet. But that just as easily can be explained by the fact elves used to be residents of Xen'drik, and raptorans absorbed it when they were around because they were to primitive to have their own alphabet but decided to write down things things, if not on paper then their cliff walls, eventually. While the warring was going on they just kind of faded to the background.

I'm leaning toward natural ability. Couatl turned humans from Sarlona into shulassakar, why would one turn elves into bird people? That's a mystery even I, the DM, can't solve...yet.

Now that religion is (mostly) taken care of, I should move on to relations with other races. What would the average raptoran's reaction be if forced (they keep to themselves) to interact with giants, drow, sahuagin, or lizardfolk or asherati bhuka and thri-kreen? (Or even catfolk or abeil and formians...)

I imagine relations with the fire worshipping, elemental binding (I am reluctant to put a gnome in Xen'drik because of that whole gnomes robbed the Sulatar of that secret thing...) Sulatar would be far different than the more common Vulkoor drow. And an encounter with an umbragen would be a complete mystery as they're just now crawling up from Khyber. I imagine there's enmity with the giants, except the Giants of Rusheme, the raptorans agreed to get as little in the way of the Vulkoor drow as they can, while outright disliking and having enmity with the Sulatar.

And those who want to integrate with the races across the Shargon's Teeth go to Stormreach for a time, most to learn new skills like cloth weaving and bring them home to make their flock dress in something besides animal skin and (literal) scale armor and get news, others because they're on their Walk of the Four Winds and need to get shipped to a continent they're curious about.
#8
AvonRekaes
Jul 10, 2011 14:21:31 If you wanted to go witht he whole "gave elves wings" thing, you can do what I suggested for the Asherati and what the canon background of the Drow is. Perhaps Eladrin, when removed of their Outsider nature (as eladrin are outsiders in 3.5), they become exceptionably... malleable. Perhaps when your Couatl "blessed" the elves, they became Raptorians spontaneously, without any real decision by Merandalix on how they would turn out. (As in, maybe he was just trying to make shulassakar out of the elves, but they became Raptorians instead).

Just being bird-people by evolution works too, though.

Relations with giants, drow societies, asherati, etc. need not be set as standard for raptorians. You can have "flights" (tribes) of Raptorians vary widely from each other in how they deal with outsiders. If you really want to develope the race, make up two or three (or maybe even four) seperate and distinct flights, which would be like nations to them. Perhaps one of them is isolationist, another interested in trade, and maybe a psycotic flight that's patterned off more unsettling bird behavior (like cuckoos. Cuckoo chicks instinctively murder their nest-mates by pushing them out of the nest to their deaths. I say if you have to make a race of bird people, have fun with it. They'd make good villians).

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 rodiandancer Jun 26, 2011 15:05:10	OK, I used to play D&D but haven't in a while. I have some new friends who are interested in playing a game while I DM, so I've dug out my 3.5 books for a Eberron game. Now I'm busy creating race fluff incase anyone wants to play them or I include them in the campaign for: Raptorans Sea Kin Catfolk Goliaths Darfellan Aventi Thri-Kreen Asherati Bhuka Killoren Dragonborn Spellscales Anyway, so far I've kept the information from the Player's Guide to Eberron that raptorans live in Xen'drik. But so far everything else is Races of the Wild. I don't know about the religion issue yet though. I'm thinking that different flocks will worship different things, some could be primarly druidism, some borrowed the giant gods. But what if I had a particular flock that could that had something to do with couatls? Couatls in 3.5 Eberron are rare, but a few are still around. Perhaps a couatl taught at least one flock, if not more, about tracking portents of the Draconic Prophecy by astronomy (the position of 'Star Chief' in a flock seems to indicate an interest in it), and they now worship either that particular couatl or all as a sort of pseudo-god, along with some version of the Silver Flame maybe? Any thoughts on this (especially the astonomy-Prophecy aspect) will be very appreciated.
#2 Magicstar1 Jun 27, 2011 11:25:05	Quick ideas that pop into my head, nothing elaborate at the moment. Raptorans - Place them in Xen'drik or on Mror Holds / Lhazaar, caves over water or mountains Sea Kin - Might be natural enemy of Sahuagin or be their slaves Catfolk - Xen'drik, twisted Mourning survivor, lesser rakshasa's Goliaths - Mror holds, Droaam Darfellan - Maybe south of Xen'drik or in a secluded cove of the Scion's Sound Aventi - never read about them Thri-Kreen - There is a specific dessert on Xen'drik that has multiple colonies but these could also be from the Talenta Plaines Asherati - See Thri-Keen, however they could also be elemental grafted humanoids Bhuka - Set them as a specific tribe in the Demon Wastes or let them hail from the dessert in Xen'drik, Darguun is also a possibility Killoren - Eldeen Reaches or from Thelanis, feyspires (4th edition fluff) Dragonborn - Q'barra, Argonessen Spellscales - Argonessen,
#3 Gilo Jun 27, 2011 12:21:08	Some of those have been mentioned in Eberron books: Aventi - Secrets of Sarlona, Thri-Kreen - City of Stormreach, Goliaths, Dragonborn - 4E EPG and ECG Edit: Also the Dragonborn story is described in detail in "Explore Q'barra, Part 2: Poison Dusk, Black Sun" Dungeon#185
#4 AvonRekaes Jun 27, 2011 15:28:54	Killoren: Personally I fit Killoren as aligned more with Eberron than Thelanis. They're less story-book Fey like Feyspire gnomes and eladrin, and more embodies-wilderness-fey, so I don't try to shoehorn them into Thelanis just cause it's the fey-plane. (Sorta like how there are demons from Shavarath, and then demons native to Eberron itself, seperate from them.) I have killoren be the antibodies of Eberron to fight Xoriat. Everytime the Primordial Dragon senses an upcoming invasion, it starts popping out a few killoren, who then instinctively turn to druidism to prepare for it. Thus, I fit them as natural-born Gatekeepers. They are adopted by Orcs into their druidic rites, and often sent to watch Seals and other dangerous breaches to Khyber. Thus in games were I include killoren, The Gatekeepers start off in a slightly better position than described in the ECS (where it sounds like the order is fading). Of course, killoren are sentient beings with wills of their own, no mere plant-constructs mindlessly following orders, so whenever a batch of them sprouts up, all sorts of individuals arise from them, including villians. I have the Ashbound sect of druids be started by extremist killoren druids, who extrapolate that if the unreality of Xoriat is a threat, anything that warps the reality of nature is bad too, and started persecuting arcane magic. Other killoren abandon the call of nature entirely to seek out more mudane or mercenary lives as they see fit. But the call of nature is present in all of them, and embracing or denying it is a key feature of roleplaying the race, I feel. (Soap-box Sidenote: I want to know who made the judgement call were we only got 2 to 3 pages on Killoren life and cuture, who present a much more compelling archetype for PCs wishing to play a "Race of the Wild", and then an entire chapter on Raptorians which literally amounts to "We're bird people." Family structure? Birds. Society? Birds. Aging and Development? Birds. The entirety of their shtick is "we got wings". How useless. The Dragonborn of Bahamut can get wings too. Uhg. Biggest waste of potential I've ever seen, all the wasted page-space. The real kicker for me was that Raptorians only got their wings after a pact with air-elementals. What did they have going for them before that pact? Nothing. Incidentally....) Raptorians: You've already done more with them to make them interesting than anything in RotW. I would go even further with that Couatl connection, maybe have the original pact that gave them wings come from them instead of "air elementals". As for their RotW gods, you can leave them as-is, and just mentally assign different Sovereigns or some of the Dark Six to each where approrpiate. The giant and drow gods are seen as just "reflections" of the Sovereigns anyway, might as well keep something unique about the Raptorians. Goliath: I didn't change much about these guys. I had them be distantly related to giants who escaped the destruction of Xen'drik and gradually lost their "giant-ness" over the millenia. I had them settle down in the Byshek Mountains. They're the top producers of byshek materials in weapon-form, as its the most abundant and superior metal they can work in their mountain home. The ECS says most people think of Byshek as a jewelry-metal. When PCs decide they need a Byshek Sword, they either find a Goliath camp willing to sell them one, or the one they bought was forged by Goliaths. (They trade often with the Druids and Killoren of the Eldeen Reaches, who seem to be the only other people interested in weapons forged of the purple metal. Though they have no particular knowledge about why.) Dragonborn of Bahamut: These guys are much different than their 4e counterparts, who are born as dragonoid-humanoids, not transformed into them by constructing their own egg and hatching from it. Bahamut exists in Eberron, so you may not need to change much, except to understand how unbelievably rare these guys must be. The Dragons in Eberron are rather jealous of their gods. They see the Sovereigns as worthy of "lesser being" worship, and see only their glorious selves as being worthy of offering praise to the true Draconic Pantheon (the one you see in the 3e Draconomicon). All this means that Bahamut does NOT usually take humanoid worshippers. Or if he does, his misguided draconic children take offense and... do something about them. Perhaps the honor of becoming a Dragonborn of Bahamut has only been bestowed to a few rare indiviudals as a sign of Bahamut marking them as "off-limits" to overzealous, jealous draconic worshippers. Or maybe the Dragonborn of Bahamut are a very very recent, new phenomina that the Dragons aren't even sure how to deal with yet. Maybe Bahamut is trying to raise an army to fight an upcoming great threat. Spellscales: Spellscales also suffer from the same issue as Dragonborn of Bahamut. They're intrinsicly tied to the Draconic Pantheon and they have the unfortunate condition of not being true dragons, which apparently means the Dragon's hate them for flirting with their gods. I wouldn't know how to fit an entire culture and society of Spellcales into Eberron without mucking them up real good. Instead, I'd have a Spellscale PC be a singular entity, or one of a handful (at most a small village), created specifically by a council of Dragons as an experiment. Perhaps they were seeking a way to create a more direct connection with the divine, and were using humanoids as labrats to make sure there weren't any fire-and-brimstone side-effects. Maybe the PC escaped the experiment, or maybe his adventuring in humanoid society is part of the experiment. Maybe he only thinks he escaped, and that's part of the experiment too. Thri-Keen: Pretty much usuable as-is. I believe they're placed in the Menechtarun desert in Xen'drik. The fact that they are psionic is also fine as-is. If you want to extrapolate, they could be one of the only races with a historical record of what the Quori were like during the Age of Giants. But perhaps their dreams were so weird it's hard to communicate this to non-thri-keen. (There's also evidence of a Thri-Keen civilization that was destrotyed, beneath Stormreach.) Those are the ones I'm most familiar with, that I've actually put thought in how to place them into games I've run before. Below are my spur-of-the-moment snap-judgments for the remainder. Darfellan: Killer-whale people? Interesting. I say have them be rivals of the Sahuagin of Shargon's Teeth. Since the Sahuagin have a love-hate relationship with trade vessels, these guys can be pirates that ply the waters of the already dangerous Thunder Sea. Perhaps they worship The Devourer like the Sahuagin, and have religious wars over who's aspect of The Devourer is the true version. (Shargon vs. Orca-thulu?) Sea Kin/Aventi: These guys seem pretty redundant relative to each other, don't they? Regardless, the undersea nations of Eberron have been hinted at by Hellcow, but have never been explained. However, here are some of my thoughts: The Aventi were an ancient human nation, who's island sank beneath the sea. This would most likely places their former landmass near Sarlona, the birthplace of humanity in Eberron. Also, their patron god, Aventernus, can exist unchanged in Eberron, and would just be believed to be a male interpretation of Arawai. Or even possibly a good aspect of the Devourer. The only thing would be that Aventernus's intervention on the Aventi's behalf, turning them into water-breathing folk, would have to be a less literal involveent, due to the remote nature of deities in Eberron. Perhaps the highest-ranking priest of the state religion cast an epic-level ritual to transform his people, and attributes knowledge of the ritual to a divine vision from Aventernus. Or maybe it was just all legend and they have no record of what actually happened. As for the Sea Kin/Aventi differences, I have an inkling of a class-divide within the Aventi nation. Aventi are truly amphibious, able to exist indefinately upon land and water, and magicaly gifted to excell at water-magic. Sea Kin are ulimately dependant on their aquatic environment, while being shacked with the necessity to breath air, have adapted to do well in the dimmer depths of the sea, are skilled, and not especially magically adept. Looking at this comparison, it almost seems like the Sea Kin could be the underclass of Aventi society. A labor-force to keep the Aventi nobles comfortable. As for the original catastrophe that sunk their kingdom, I have some ideas on the matter. Humans are actually an extremely old species in Eberron. If you realize that the Shulassakar, the winged yuan-ti of Eberron, were created by Couatls blessing humans to help them fight in the Dragon-Demon war, you'd realize that humans have existed for millions of years in the setting. The nation of Aventi could be the single, oldest, existing human nation in the setting. The catastrophe that sunk the could've been anything along the length and bredth of the setting timeline. I'd go with a naval war against the Aboleths, durring the Dragon-Demon war, that ultimately sunk them, and the couatl and dragons thought them lost. Asherati: I like these guys as another modifcation of elves by the giant civilzation at the height of their power. The drow are elves with the essence of Night bound to them, to make them assassins and spies of their giant masters. I could see Sand or Earth Giants doing something similar to make the Asherati. I'd place them in the Menechatrun desert with the thri-keen, and have them fufill similar roles to the jungle-drow, except in a desert setting. Thinking about them more, I like the idea of giants experimenting with the eladrin they captured. Part of the 4e fluff is that a feyspire inhabited by Eladrin once planeshifted to the material plane in the middle of the Giant empire. The Giants sacked the tower and enslaved the eladrin. They experimented with them, and removed their... "grace", so to speak, to create the Elves. Further experiments replaced their "grace" with "Night", creating the Drow. Perhaps the essence they used to create the Asherati was "Day", seeing as how Asherati can bio-luminesse. This also creates a nifty trinity with Elves, Drow, and Asherati that cooincides with the Progenitor Dragon. The Dragon Above, Siberys, and the Asherati. The Dragon Between, Eberron, and the Elves. The Dragn Below, Khyber, and the Drow. Bhuka: As goblinoids, I would have to say that these guys are tied to the Dhakanni Empire, somehow. The favored class of Druid poses some interesting ties. It could be that Bhuka were a goblinoid tribe native to the Blade Dessert, and were almost all wiped out during the Dealkyr Invasion, where they were "called in" by the Empire to fight along-side the Gatekeepers. I'd say that Bhuka are a relatively minor off-shoot of the species in modern day, isolated to a few tribes wandering the Blade Dessert (Though they've likely been driven up into the Plains, fleeing warmongering Valenar.) Catfolk: Er... they're... cat-folk? I dunno. Stick `em in Droam. Maybe they have a racial hatred for the gnolls there. Actually, I do like the suggestion above about them being lesser rakshasa. Or rather, that's what the Silver Flame templars were lead to believe during the Lycanthrope Purge by wily lycanthropes, to try and take some of the heat off themselves (just like they did with shifters).
#5 rodiandancer Jul 08, 2011 10:35:13	OK, this is what I got for raptoran religion so far. I haven't had alot of time to work on it. Raptorans, a race that rivals the drow in their homeland of Xen'drik in advancement, have diverse religious beliefs that often vary from flock to flock. Some are primarily druidic. Others worship raptoran gods that seem to be aspects of the Sovereign Host and Dark Six. Evil raptorans have dark beliefs. But one thing encompasses the raptoran belief system. It's the reason they have a fascination with the stars and celestial movements and have the flock position of star chief. Long ago before Vvaraak taught the Gatekeepers, a couatl named Merandalix approached the raptorans and taught them to read portents of a great Prophecy in the stars and Ring of Siberys. He taught them of the sacrifice of the couatls, how to draw divine power from it, and became the founder of some of the Serpent Cults of Xen'drik. He and the remaining couatls became pseudo-gods of the raptorans. Merandalix then vanished from the raptorans' lives. Whether he taught the raptorans their knowledge out of pure benevolence or some more mysterious reason is unknown. It is rumoured he still remains in an unknown location of Xen'drik, because an ancient star chief of the Kathelchu flock prophecised that one day, in a time of great need, Merandalix would resurface and could possibly help save all of Eberron. Let me know if this sounds cheesy or anything...I'm planning to use the raptoran prophecy thing as an adventure hook...
#6 AvonRekaes Jul 09, 2011 18:44:44	Sounds awesome. I like the prophecy/astrology theme you introduced, actually gives them some sort of flavor besides "BIRDS! WE'RE BIRDS!" . Are you dropping the whole thing where Raptorians got their wings in a pact with air elementals?
#7 rodiandancer Jul 09, 2011 21:43:57	Oh, forgot to mention that. I'm either dropping the whole pact thing or having it be a result of Merandalix. You know how gnomes have a +1 added to the DC for illusion spells they cast, have the speak with animals spell-like ability and a couple spells they can use if their Cha is at least 10? Well, raptorans have a +1 on air spells they cast since they're bird-people. That's really the only thing you get from the pact. Or, Merandalix used unknown magic to turn a faction of elves into bird people. It would explain why Elven is used as their alphabet. But that just as easily can be explained by the fact elves used to be residents of Xen'drik, and raptorans absorbed it when they were around because they were to primitive to have their own alphabet but decided to write down things things, if not on paper then their cliff walls, eventually. While the warring was going on they just kind of faded to the background. I'm leaning toward natural ability. Couatl turned humans from Sarlona into shulassakar, why would one turn elves into bird people? That's a mystery even I, the DM, can't solve...yet. Now that religion is (mostly) taken care of, I should move on to relations with other races. What would the average raptoran's reaction be if forced (they keep to themselves) to interact with giants, drow, sahuagin, or lizardfolk or asherati bhuka and thri-kreen? (Or even catfolk or abeil and formians...) I imagine relations with the fire worshipping, elemental binding (I am reluctant to put a gnome in Xen'drik because of that whole gnomes robbed the Sulatar of that secret thing...) Sulatar would be far different than the more common Vulkoor drow. And an encounter with an umbragen would be a complete mystery as they're just now crawling up from Khyber. I imagine there's enmity with the giants, except the Giants of Rusheme, the raptorans agreed to get as little in the way of the Vulkoor drow as they can, while outright disliking and having enmity with the Sulatar. And those who want to integrate with the races across the Shargon's Teeth go to Stormreach for a time, most to learn new skills like cloth weaving and bring them home to make their flock dress in something besides animal skin and (literal) scale armor and get news, others because they're on their Walk of the Four Winds and need to get shipped to a continent they're curious about.
#8 AvonRekaes Jul 10, 2011 14:21:31	If you wanted to go witht he whole "gave elves wings" thing, you can do what I suggested for the Asherati and what the canon background of the Drow is. Perhaps Eladrin, when removed of their Outsider nature (as eladrin are outsiders in 3.5), they become exceptionably... malleable. Perhaps when your Couatl "blessed" the elves, they became Raptorians spontaneously, without any real decision by Merandalix on how they would turn out. (As in, maybe he was just trying to make shulassakar out of the elves, but they became Raptorians instead). Just being bird-people by evolution works too, though. Relations with giants, drow societies, asherati, etc. need not be set as standard for raptorians. You can have "flights" (tribes) of Raptorians vary widely from each other in how they deal with outsiders. If you really want to develope the race, make up two or three (or maybe even four) seperate and distinct flights, which would be like nations to them. Perhaps one of them is isolationist, another interested in trade, and maybe a psycotic flight that's patterned off more unsettling bird behavior (like cuckoos. Cuckoo chicks instinctively murder their nest-mates by pushing them out of the nest to their deaths. I say if you have to make a race of bird people, have fun with it. They'd make good villians).