Here are some common thoughts;
1. A doomsday weapon used by one of the surviving nations,
2. An accident involving a doomsday weapon Cyre itself was building,
3. A foul plot enacted by the Lords of Dust,
4. Something a Cult of the Dragon Below set into motion,
5. Time traveling (and badly lost) Romulans did it,
6. An experiemnt by House Cannith that got out of hand,
7. The Lord of Blades is responsible, but however he did it he cannot do so again easily or soon,
8. It is a quirk of fate, something similar to bad cosmic weather and ultimatly no one is responsible,
9. Elminster did it in an effort to boost F.R. sales,
10. The demons of unimaginable imagination from Xoriat did it on their own (with out assistance from the Lords of Dust) in an effort to consume the world.
Well, what do you think happened?
I know this will probably never be officially answered, but what do you think caused the Day of Mourning and the destruction of Cyre.
Here are some common thoughts;
1. A doomsday weapon used by one of the surviving nations,
2. An accident involving a doomsday weapon Cyre itself was building,
3. A foul plot enacted by the Lords of Dust,
4. Something a Cult of the Dragon Below set into motion,
5. Time traveling (and badly lost) Romulans did it,
6. An experiemnt by House Cannith that got out of hand,
7. The Lord of Blades is responsible, but however he did it he cannot do so again easily or soon,
8. It is a quirk of fate, something similar to bad cosmic weather and ultimatly no one is responsible,
9. Elminster did it in an effort to boost F.R. sales,
10. The demons of unimaginable imagination from Xoriat did it on their own (with out assistance from the Lords of Dust) in an effort to consume the world.
Well, what do you think happened?
In my campaign the explanation is that the mourning was achieved as some sort of eldritch ritual.
Thing is, to unlock that kind of power, you need the "sacrifice" of thousands of sentient beings to release enough energy to power the ritual. It was no accident that the mourning happened on the day it did, it was the day of one (if not the one) of the most brutal battles of the last war, just what was needed to release the eldritch energy necessary for such a brutal effect.
However, I have not yet decided WHO actually did it. But I know how it was done. So in theory yes it can be done again, but you need to kill tens of thousands of people in the process.
And by eldritch ritual I mean exactly like an eldritch machine but it's a one time spell like effect of tremendous power.
Hrm... Perhaps it was the Lord of Blades. But when he did it, it was an accident and at the time he was a very different warforged. At the time he did not have a mad-on to kill all organic life everywhere. But the results of whatever it was he did drove him around the bend and his poor way of dealing with the consequences of his actions are to go all Magneto/Brother Cavil (i.e. "I totally meant to do that and am not sliding into madness out of a soul consuming guilt") and asemble an army and what not.
Unfortunately for Merrix it turned out that his crime was not as simple as he'd thought. The eldritch thinking engine was actually the Hexarian; a cunningly disguised aberration, millennia old thanks to the gift of undeath, within a seemingly mechanical casing. It told Merrix brilliant lies forged of false statistics, laced with principles of artifice which would lead him to create a device which could warp Khorvaire into an approximation of the lone aberration's home in Xoriat. Cyre destroyed, it turned its influence to the Lord of Blades, had the Mourning device unearthed, and convinced him to create the Becoming God from the raw materials of ruined Making. The Mourning device (which Merrix had deliberately created too large to be moved so that it could not be used against another living nation) was installed in the Becoming God, granting the gargantuan warforged a Mourning Blast that could warp vast swaths of Khorvaire as it rampaged, unstoppable, across it with the Hexarian at the helm.
At least, that's how it went down in my campaign. The party had no idea that 'Hex the Computer' was the mastermind behind everything, and were utterly shocked when they defeated the Lord of Blades only to see the Becoming God rip away from Making and lumber off, seemingly of its own accord. They teleported to Sharn, hopped on their airship, and flew to intercept, board, and destroy the Becoming God (and the wretched monstrosity at the helm) once and for all. It was, if I may say so myself, totally epic.
Theories abund. but it's a secret that took his creators with him. I'd go for an eldritch machine that acted like a huge bomb manufactured by humans. The Cannith may be or some other power group.
I know this will probably never be officially answered, but what do you think caused the Day of Mourning and the destruction of Cyre.
This.
The twist is that the ritual isn't over yet, with every soul taken within the mournland going to fuel her transformation.
On the other hand, maybe the mournland is simply the latest in a line of maladies (what if Xoriat wasn't always the plane of madness?) that show that the Prophecy has been damaged (perhaps when the giants destroyed the moon?), which will eventually culminate in the very fabric of reality unraveling?
I hope my players don't read this...
If you have read the “Faiths of Eberron” from 3.5, my idea is the energy that consumed Cyre is actually the Becoming God that the Warforged are attempting to build a body for. His presence on the material plane created Day of Mourning, and until his followers have created a vessel large enough for him he will continue to inhabit Cyre.
Side note, not on topic: I had an idea to run two campaigns simultaneously one will be set in Darksun the other in Eberron and as the players advance the two storylines they will find out they are in the same world and Darksun is the result of the Gray mists encompassing the entire world.
-the voice of the thirteenth dragon shall forego its inheritance. The body loses hope and cannot stand.
-the brains of the thirteenth shall be strewn about, and the mess shall be consumed by the siblings.
-the legs of the thirteenth shall be overcome by fire, and the thirteenth cannot go to water.
-the arm of the thirteenth shall be atrophied, and cannot extend its own reach.
-heart of the thirteenth shall be weak and still.
Although this element of the Prophecy can apply to different "thirteenth dragons" over the ages, my campaign addresses Cyre's identity as the thirteenth. According to the Prophecy, Cyre was destined to be decimated in the War. However, this would happen slowly and incidentally, as would the resulting destruction of Cyre. The Dreaming Dark expediated the fulfillment of the Prophecy by manipulating its various elements:
-the voice of the thirteenth was Queen Dannel. A chief advisor of hers told her of a ritual to summon a mighty oracle, an oracle that could predict the future. Queen Dannel asked this oracle what would happen if she won the Crown of Galifar. The oracle told her that a second war would break out, and all of Khorvaire would be razed. This oracle was, in truth, a lying malicious spirit at the behest of the Dreaming Dark. However, Dannel signed a peace treaty announcing that she would withdraw from the War. Upon the signing of her signature, the voice of the thirteenth forsook its inheritance.
-the brains of the thirteenth were the ultimate secret weapons that Cyre had developed. These secrets would have been powerful enough to win Cyre the Crown of Galifar. However, the Emerald Claw had by now infiltrated enough of Cyre's intelligence so that the Claw knew all about these "secret" weapons. The Claw brokered deals with most of the other nations of Khorvaire, offering to sell Cyre's top secrets. At the moment that each of these deals were agreed upon (hands were shaken), the brains of the thirteenth were strewn about.
-the legs of the thirteenth were the main roads and lightning rail lines that went throughout Cyre. The generals of Cyre (who were also advised by the Dreaming Dark) made an offensive maneuver throughout Cyre. The secret motivation was to free up Cyre's roads. However, other nations were brought in to battle, and pitched fighting covered all the roads, consuming the legs of the thirteenth with fire.
-the arm of the thirteenth was the armies of Cyre. The suicidal push to free up Cyre's roads overextended Cyre's armies horribly. As the armies were decimated and pushed back, the arm of the thirteenth was atrophied.
-the heart of the thirteenth was the civilians of Cyre. The Dreaming Dark sent agents throughout the cities of Cyre disguised as town criers. The people of Cyre were already destitute. When the moment came that all of the other Prophetic conditions were fulfilled, all of the town criers received a psionic message to proclaim out loud that Queen Dannel had surrendered as the armies of Khorvaire pushed into Cyre. The utter loss of hope among the civilians of Cyre caused the heart of the thirteenth to become weak and still.
According to my interpretation of how the Prophecy works, whenever a series of conditions are met, the Prophecy manipulates reality to bring about the conclusion. Lets say the Prophecy dictates that an old man is to die when all of his sons have passed away. By default, the man's sons will all become sick and start dying off. The old man himself will also become sick, and his condition will grow progressively worse alongside his son's. When the last of his sons passes away, so will the old man.
Now, lets say that all of these sons are murdered at the same exact moment. According to the Prophecy, the old man must die at that same exact moment. If the man is on a walk, a tree branch might fall on his head, he might slip in a puddle and break his neck, etc. However, if the old man is alone in his bedroom, the prophecy might have to go so far as to give him a sudden heart attack. The more suddenly the conditions of the Prophecy are met, the more quick the result of the prophecy must be.
As I said before, Cyre was meant to slowly disintegrate as its "voice, heart, legs, arm, and brains" are destroyed. However, agents of the Dreaming Dark (the Chamber would probably work even better) set plans into motion that fulfilled the Prophecy's conditions for the destruction of Cyre very quickly. Because all of these conditions were met at almost the same exact moment (the DD planned this very carefully,) the Prophecy had to bring about an incredibly swift and unnatural fulfillment of the Prophecy. The Mourning was caused by rifts to the space between planes that spontaneously opening up in the center of Cyre.
So fundamentally, the DD/Chamber/other party brought about the Mourning by fulfilling the Draconic Prophecy unnaturally quickly.
This was an idea that I came up with from the "Cannith Possible Plot Ideas" threat.
The spark was Kensan_Oni suggesting that the Lord of Blades has a Mark of Making.
I'll leave it out of the spoiler block in this thread, but i'll just copy-and-paste to speed things up for me.
The Patriarch of Cannith caused the Day of Mourning.
Specifically, he was afraid of his mortality. He was afraid of going to spend eternity wandering through Dolurrh. His idea? Craft a warforged body for himself and transpose himself in it. Warforged can't die of old age.
Of course, this sort of thing requires booku magical energy. Not the kind that spellcasters can manipulate; the kind that just exists in the world through the presence of ley-lines, magical nodes, and the sort. In order to harness that magic, the user has to control them somehow; so, he went to the Queen of Cyre, and told her that he could give her a (insert superweapon here; my favored idea is a barrier that could keep enemies out of Cyre; you can do whatever you want) if his House could harness the natural magical energy of Cyre (harness in the same way that you harness a stream or a river to power a dam). Of course he didn't tell her about his plan for immortality.
Who gave the Patriarch the idea of sticking himself in a 'forged body, or the Cyre Barrier, or whatever you want?
Pick your global-threatening power group.
Lords of Dust? Free a Rajah, or destroy Eberron so it can be born anew, with the existing Lords of Dust as Rajahs.
Dreaming Dark? Please. Open up a rift to Dal Quor. Fix the current plane configuration in place. Manipulate the political structure of Khorvaire to bring them to an uneasy peace....where the Dreaming Dark could begin extending their power by careful manipulations of Riedran political support or aid combined with covert instigations, crime networks, and so forth.
Daelkyr? What better way to strengthen Xoriat than making an entire country a perverted nightmare? It didn't work....this time.........or did it?
The Chamber? Hey, they do want to fulfill the Prophecy. I just finished reading Wyatt's Draconic Prophecies series, and one of the lines of his Prophecy stands out:
The cauldron of the thirteen dragons boils until one of the five beasts fighting over a single bone becomes a thing of desolation.
So, factions of the Chamber could conspire to have one of the "five beasts" destroyed in order to bring about the Prophecy. For bonus points, work in the Shadow Schism in order to bring about the "thirteen dragons."
The thought process that went into devising something that felt authentic and not cheesy for my PCs was to start by asking a simple question... who would benefit from the Day of Mourning? The great thing in this campaign world is that there are a number of parties that would benefit, which makes fine tuning the conspiracy more fun. I can lead my PCs down different roads of investigation; make them think they are on the right track, and then turn the tables on them- forcing them to dig deeper.
For anyone looking to run such a campaign, read the book Crossfire (or watch JFK) which was a investigative look into the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Good inspiration. Eberron is a world that is great to use conspiracies, plots within plots, and adventures that are story intensive where the PCs are caught up among the great powers vying for control.
This, of course, reminds me of today's Penny Arcade:
www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/4/19/
I agree entierly. Eberron is so wonderful for conspiracies.
This, of course, reminds me of today's Penny Arcade:
www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/4/19/
I've also let The X-File inspire me- certainly as a way to keep the conspiracy going. The trick is to give them enough information to keep them moving forward, even if they sometimes take a couple of steps back because of misinformation.
Like I said, plots within plots. Trust no one!
One of the reasons I love the Lords of Dust is that they are so comprehensively scheming that I can take the actions the PCs did a while ago, weave a complex series of events, and have them end up advancing the schemes. They wipe out a bandit group? Law enforcement doesn't need that big a presence anymore, so they withdraw inspectors and such. Trade increases, which allows a smuggler to conceal contraband magical components inside his legit shipments. He takes the contraband magical components to an artificer who does magical research and development for [plot plot plot].
Agreed about the plots within plots, and trusting no one.
One of the reasons I love the Lords of Dust is that they are so comprehensively scheming that I can take the actions the PCs did a while ago, weave a complex series of events, and have them end up advancing the schemes. They wipe out a bandit group? Law enforcement doesn't need that big a presence anymore, so they withdraw inspectors and such. Trade increases, which allows a smuggler to conceal contraband magical components inside his legit shipments. He takes the contraband magical components to an artificer who does magical research and development for [plot plot plot].
I wish I could play in Eberron instead of DM but finding DMs is hard. In the old days it was a group of us who took turns running great campaigns. I only get to play in the RPGA group but those adventures are short on story and there is no consistent group that your characters keep leveling up with = (
Long story short: New machine made, dragonshard caused malfunction, machine sucked life, then shot it back out, but the new life was warped.
I'm so torn about what could have caused it, that I'm intentionally avoiding a hard answer in my campaign.
But what does a machine care for man-made borders? Why would it stop at the borders of Cyre? Any strong Mourning theory must address this issue head-on. I'm more inclined to think it has something to do with a curse or some magic that specifically included the nation.
I'm so torn about what could have caused it, that I'm intentionally avoiding a hard answer in my campaign.
True. While I like Hanzo's background on the machine, the Mourning targeted Cyre. I think my explanation might satisfy you, but I won't post that info until my campaign has uncovered what happened. That being said, I believe that it would have to have been something put together as part of a conspiracy. The question to ask is, "Who benefits? Who benefits from Cyre coming to an end? Who benefits from the splintering of House Cannith's power? Also, House Phiarlan's home base was in Cyre. Who benefits from weakening that house? Who benefits from the end of the war? The warforged were freed as a result. The Dragonmarked houses have all made hand over fist during the war, but they may quite possibly be making more with the fear of war always on the horizon- the shadow war where powers quietly build their forces. There are lots of answers to these questions and I don't believe they lie at any one group but there is an ultimate conspiracy. To be unraveled soon!
For instance, if the machine was designed with the intention of creating a ward around Cyre, perhaps making Cyrans more difficult to kill, easier to heal, etc, then the backlash might still be contained with the border mapped out by the person(s) trying to control the machine.
Also, the Prophecy. Strange combinations of events, each too small to seem significant in any way, created the perfect circumstance for the exact effect of the Mourning. Far too much coincidence for a normal event, but for an important part of the Prophecy, coincidence is to be expected.
But what does a machine care for man-made borders? Why would it stop at the borders of Cyre? Any strong Mourning theory must address this issue head-on. I'm more inclined to think it has something to do with a curse or some magic that specifically included the nation.
I'm so torn about what could have caused it, that I'm intentionally avoiding a hard answer in my campaign.
True. While I like Hanzo's background on the machine, the Mourning targeted Cyre. I think my explanation might satisfy you, but I won't post that info until my campaign has uncovered what happened. That being said, I believe that it would have to have been something put together as part of a conspiracy. The question to ask is, "Who benefits? Who benefits from Cyre coming to an end? Who benefits from the splintering of House Cannith's power? Also, House Phiarlan's home base was in Cyre. Who benefits from weakening that house? Who benefits from the end of the war? The warforged were freed as a result. The Dragonmarked houses have all made hand over fist during the war, but they may quite possibly be making more with the fear of war always on the horizon- the shadow war where powers quietly build their forces. There are lots of answers to these questions and I don't believe they lie at any one group but there is an ultimate conspiracy. To be unraveled soon!
The way I see it, the machine was going to suck up as much life force as it could (in a 360 cloud, to begin with) before it blasted it out again. IMO, there were fewer people in northern Cyre, so the machine's life siphoning had to extend further in the north relative to Making (where I think the center of the Mourning is), but since there were more people in the east, west, and south, it did not go as far. Once said energy was gathered, the machine blasted that life back as far it originally went, so: The Mournland. The logic's a little warped, but so is the event itself.
I haven't included the Dreaming Dark in my campaign just because there are so many power groups, I've tried to focus. The world is so ripe for each DM to create a unique campaign.
In my campaign, the Mourning was the result of a vast, secret, centuries-old magical ritual designed to release immense amounts of magical energy for (insert purpose here). It was supposed to happen simultaneously in every capital city of Khorvaire, but the Cyre ritual was disturbed somehow and went off early, ruining the whole thing. Now those responsible are trying again, only it won't take them centuries to get to the end of the ritual this time, as most of the work is already done.
The reason it stopped at Cyre's borders is because the people performing the ritual feared what would happen if the energies from one explosion met those from another, so under cover of wartime border-patrols, their agents installed hidden wards along the borders of each country. to prevent overlap.
You can pretty much drop whatever factions you want in here. In fact, I'm having trouble deciding who NOT to include. Eberron is so very juicy.
I know this will probably never be officially answered, but what do you think caused the Day of Mourning and the destruction of Cyre.
Here are some common thoughts;
1. A doomsday weapon used by one of the surviving nations,
2. An accident involving a doomsday weapon Cyre itself was building,
3. A foul plot enacted by the Lords of Dust,
4. Something a Cult of the Dragon Below set into motion,
5. Time traveling (and badly lost) Romulans did it,
6. An experiemnt by House Cannith that got out of hand,
7. The Lord of Blades is responsible, but however he did it he cannot do so again easily or soon,
8. It is a quirk of fate, something similar to bad cosmic weather and ultimatly no one is responsible,
9. Elminster did it in an effort to boost F.R. sales,
10. The demons of unimaginable imagination from Xoriat did it on their own (with out assistance from the Lords of Dust) in an effort to consume the world.
Well, what do you think happened?
In my campaign, the Mourning was caused by a Cults of the Dragon Below member, known as the Son of Khyber (Aric Blacktree) who is under the influence of Belashyrra, Lord of Eyes from previous contact with a Prophecy Mark (which was powered by the daelkyr). The new Son of Khyber book interested me (havent read it but just the background). Belashyrra is using Aric, the Son of Khyber to create a 13th House and destroy the other 12 to make it easier for his return (Belashyrra) and to create a less of a resistance when Belashyrra comes up from the depths of Khyber. With the 12 Houses gone, The Five Nations economy, way of living, defenses, ect will all be disabled, making the invasion an easy and simple overtaking
The Mourning was an attempt of Belashyrra who was able to influence and take control of Aric at a tower (in the Mark of the Prophecy) to allow his lord back to the world of Eberron. Aric had not been powerful enough to summon forth his daelkyr master, but powerful enough to wipe out Cyre.
And so now, the daelkyr lord instructs Aric to get stronger and in doing so, will allow enough energy to be released to allow the Lord of Eyes to be free of his prison, but would create a Mourning seen by no other, a Mourning that will blanket the then-dead land of Eberron. None but the most powerful of denizens will survive and even then, they will be few. So weak the remaining surviors they could not hope to stand against the Lord of Eyes, Belashyrra.
I know this will probably never be officially answered, but what do you think caused the Day of Mourning and the destruction of Cyre.
Here are some common thoughts;
1. A doomsday weapon used by one of the surviving nations,
2. An accident involving a doomsday weapon Cyre itself was building,
3. A foul plot enacted by the Lords of Dust,
4. Something a Cult of the Dragon Below set into motion,
5. Time traveling (and badly lost) Romulans did it,
6. An experiemnt by House Cannith that got out of hand,
7. The Lord of Blades is responsible, but however he did it he cannot do so again easily or soon,
8. It is a quirk of fate, something similar to bad cosmic weather and ultimatly no one is responsible,
9. Elminster did it in an effort to boost F.R. sales,
10. The demons of unimaginable imagination from Xoriat did it on their own (with out assistance from the Lords of Dust) in an effort to consume the world.
Well, what do you think happened?
My theory was that it was the queen of cyre, in a bid to escape, sacraficing her armies to safeguard her own life. tough break for a player who chose the cyre avenger background. it's okay though, it wasn't the real queen, only an insane changeling trying to drop its identity without causing suspicion. epic tier surprise in the planning. ;)
Truenaming.
When the dragon Eberron created the world, she did so through the fluent use of Truenaming magic. This knowledge was passed down to her direct descendants, the first Dragons. I even have it that all arcane magic that is written down (scrolls, spellbooks, etc) use some varient form of the draconic alphabet, even though the vast majority of arcane spellcasters wouldn't know its actually draconic. The Dragons have kept the secret of Truenaming alive ever since, but guard it fiercly and jealously.
Fastforward a few hundred millenia and there is a race of beings that have become powerful enough that the Dragons see them perhaps not as equals, but as beings on the same general playing field as themselves. The Giants of Xen'Drik. Giant and Dragon cultures flourish together until the Giants poke a hole into the wrong dimension and attract the attention of the Quori. Seeing that the Giants wouldn't survive the Quori invasion, and the eons of good will built up between the two, the Dragons teach the Giants enough Truenaming to be able to push the Quori back under the assumption that the Giants would stop using it after they no longer needed it. They did not. The Giants decided to abuse the power to attempt and rebuild their society virtually overnight. The Dragons did not like this and started tampering with the Giant's efforts. The end results were that the Dragons unnamed themselves, leaving a wall of dead gray mist at the heart of Xen'Drik that Khorvair has yet to officially discover.
Fastforward a few more millenia, to the Last War. Cyre is already known for pulling ancient secrets out of Xen'Drik, including the creation forges and the Warforged. They may not know exactly what they're doing, but they know enough to make these devices work. The war heats up, Cyre pushes ever deeper into Xen'Drik in secret raids to bring back new magics to support the war effort. One of those missions brings back ancient artifacts, schemas, and stone tablets containing bits and pieces of Truenaming that the Dragons didn't find and destroy after the fall of the Giants. Its not much, but its enough for the Cyrians to start piecing together a working knowledge of Truenaming.
The Dragons, who keep watch on everything, immediately know that if they don't do something, the secret of Truenaming will be discovered. And it isn't just a new form of magic, it is the driving force behind all of creation. Anyone who knows it inside and out could literally rewrite the universe as they see fit. The mortal races cannot be allowed to have that kind of power (especially not after they watched the one race they thought could handle it responsibly corrupt it so quickly). They once again go about their meddeling, skewing the Cyrian researcher's understanding of the words and syntax that make Truenaming possible. When Cyre finally felt confident enough to use this secret new power, they tried to use it to create a protective barrier over and around Cyre that would shield it from all outside attack. However, thanks to the Dragons, they succeeded only in un-Naming the entire nation.
Things inside the Mournland don't change because as far as the universe is concerned, nothing inside the gray mists even exists anymore. Everything is frozen as it was because something has to exist before it can be changed. Wounds will not heal, because once inside that boundry you are outside the sight of the universe, it doesn't know where you are, and many of the natural laws no longer apply to you.
For now, the Dragons are content to sit back and watch once more, because they are confident that the secret of their forbidden magic is safe once again. At least until a band of adventurers manages to pull a certain stone slab out of the heart of the city of Making...
Personally I go with Dreaming Dark did it, but adventurers foiled it and blew it up. The Lord of Blades was a member of the group, and got brainwashed/changed by the energy. Location is three different places, Metrol, Glowing Chasm, and whatever the other place was that is listed as one possible "Source" of the dead gray mists. The Dreaming Dark triangulated the three machines to maximise the effect.
Actually, my thoughts, current idea anyways, have to do with the Dreaming Dark as well. The creation forge that House Cannith was using to create the living construct Warforged was creating life. So many lives, to match the demands of the various countries, that if they were not careful there would be an in balance. Enter the Dreaming Dark looking to make the situation in Khorvaire worse so the Inspired can step in and "help". Agents of the Dark infiltrated the Creation Forge and sabotaged it. The resulting explosion was a backlash of the unbalance created by the Warforged creation.
The explosion took the lives of everyone that was in Cyre at the time as "payment" for the lives created by the forge.
The Dreaming Dark did not realize that the sabotage would have such an effect nor did they realize their actions would cause the Last War to end.
Though I like the whole thing where it was Merrix trying to end the war beforimitation escalated to something truly cataclysmic, that was posted above. I might have to incorporate that into my vision of what happened that day.
I blamed it on Cyre, house Cannith and the Lord of Blades. Here is a portion of my notes explaining my take.
History:
- The Lord of Blades was born in Whitehearth, the main Cyrian creation forge and research laboratory, by Aarron d’Cannith. 965 YK
- He was the first self-aware construct to emerge 33 years ago.
- Aarron kept this warforge close as he tested him extensively unsure if he had truly succeeded in creating a fully sentient construct.
- Finally satisfied he continued to create more with the same method. The following warforged all came out sentient but something remained special about Aarron’s first. He was dubbed the One. The One was gifted in leadership qualities. On the battlefield he proved loyal to his creators. So much so that he was eventually sold to the highest bidder to fight in the war.
- Aarron had always made The One feel special and above all other warforged. In the act of selling him The One realized he was no more special then the others and was property. This hurt The One and he swore revenge on Aarron and house Cannith, planning to free all warforged from slavery.
- In 974 YK The One was sold to the Cyrian army and was used to form a Warforge only Cyre strike force called the Iron Tide, lead by the One.
- The One led the Iron Tide and followed all his Cyrian masters orders seemingly blindly but all the while using their special status to infiltrate Cyrian secrets and strategies growing more hateful of the ones he called “Fleshborn”
- From 976 YK to the Day of Mourning The One planted the seeds of his plan to any warforged willing to listen.
- The One learned of a joint project of house Cannith (Baron Starrin and Aarron) and Queen Dannel to build an eldritch machine that would command and control all living constructs. With this machine the Cyrian’s would be able to magically control all warforged to win the war and take control of the crown of Galifar. Also it would make House Cannith the most powerful of all houses. The machine was to be built in Making in a powerful manifest zone deep below Making.
- The One learns of the machine via ?
- Threatened by the fact that this machine would take away any possibilities of a free society of Warforged The One and the Iron Tide put into motion a plan to either take control or destroy the eldritch machine.
- The Iron Tide succeeded in destroying the machine. The power of the blast destroyed all of Cyre with it. The One was transformed by the magic blast into what we know today as the Lord of Blades.
- It is believed by King Boranel of Breland that Bulwark, an outstanding servant that influenced the king’s thinking in the matter of providing freedom to the warforged during the signing of the Treaty, is the Load of Blades. This is not correct.
- Bulwark is a servant of the Lord of Blades and his right hand man. After brokering warforged freedoms he disappeared to the Mournland to be beside his Lord.
- The Iron Tide is still active and is now lead by Ironhorn.
- Lord of Blades controls the remains of the Cannith forge that once operated in the forgehold of Eston in Cyre. He has not really mastered the process, and the forge was damaged in the disaster that destroyed the nation, so he can only produce new warforged slowly and in small numbers—and even then, some of the warforged who emerge from his creation forge show signs of defects and mutations.
- He is currently in search of Aarron’s notes on the creation forge to help him rebuild the forge. He believes they are in Whitehearth somewhere in the destruction. (They are actually in Sharn with Merrix)
- He is also looking for information on re-building the eldritch machine. (The eldritch machine can only be built using a schema created by Aarron, which is part of the machine itself. The schema was cracked into 5 pieces, which were flung far to 5 locations across Khorvaire in the explosion.)