EDIT: I just remembered that in Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, the ziggurat that is the location of the final fight was referenced as a place of worship dedicated to some long forgotten fiend and that is was a remnant of the Dhakaani Empire. Gives you an idea of the type of worship in some cases. ;)
I couldn't find the answer to this, so: What god(s) did the Dhakaan goblinoids worship?
Throughout most of the history of the empire, none.
The Dhakaani do not have clerics. They are agnostic society, and their spiritual leaders are the hobgoblin bards who inspire the communities with tales of past glory.
The Dhakaani clans hold to this tradition. However, following the war with the Daelkyr, the empire fractured and collapsed, with a range of beliefs spreading across different parts of the former empire. Some turned to the pantheon of sixteen gods humans encountered when they arrived in Khorvaire, a seeming parallel to the Sovereign Host. A small group actually adopted a druidic path due to the importance of the Gatekeepers in the war (this was covered in one of the print Dragon magazine Dragonmark articles, IIRC). Other traditions likely sprung up elsewhere across Khorvaire. But the pure Dhakaani path focuses on the achievements of the Dhakaani and the mortal heroes of the past, not on gods or immortal spirits.
Something like Dune's 'Zensunni', by example? ;)
A remark; that don't remove the possibility of nontheistic spiritualities...
I was thinking of ancesteral reverance as a replacement to the deity-centric worship. Nowhere does it say that they had no gods. It says agnostic, which means they might believe it's possible they existed. But who do you believe in more, your grandfather that built that aquaduct or some invisible man in the sky that you've never seen or can't show what he's done?
Just a thought, any others?
But yeah, good idea. Some kind of spirituality....
I don't really see why there should have been deities when they weren't worshipped?
You can have other forms of sprirituality, and Clerics, as the Kalashtar and their believes show.
Individual clerics are possible, I guess, but I'd say they were few and far between.
I don't think clerics are really needed. Bards have the ability to cast curative magics. The healing skill is common enough that you could make a Dhakaani version of a doctor. Turning undead becomes more labor intensive since you have to turn them by hand, so to speak. And if that wasn't enough, those orcs from the fringes of the empire have a kind of nature magic that seems to work (druids).
I wonder what the infernal female ox would say on this theory....
Dunno. When the Infernal Bovine weighs in on the topic I'm certain that some of us will be disappointed and that's probably why he hasn't. Until then we have only those few cryptic references to build our own empires on*.
*I always thought that what the Dhakaani Empire was like was much bigger and more enigmatic than what caused the Mourning, but that's just me.
I don't think clerics are really needed. Bards have the ability to cast curative magics. The healing skill is common enough that you could make a Dhakaani version of a doctor. Turning undead becomes more labor intensive since you have to turn them by hand, so to speak. And if that wasn't enough, those orcs from the fringes of the empire have a kind of nature magic that seems to work (druids).
Even better yet, there is a PrC called Dirgesinger in Libris Mortis, that has an influence over undead. Even the name fits.
And where are few clerics, there are few undead. The Dhakaani probably didn't need many of the actual Dirgesingers.
Even better yet, there is a PrC called Dirgesinger in Libris Mortis, that has an influence over undead. Even the name fits.
I don't think that PrC is a good fit anytime during the rise of the empire, golden age or Daelkyr war period. During any of these periods you'll have more than enough opposition for the party in the form of Orcs, non-imperial goblinoids, the Daelkyr and even other factions within the empire, so you won't need to break out undead to challenge the PCs*. A specialist PrC that's geared specifically towards undead would seem odd when you don't have undead.
*I also omitted the players-vs-enviroment options. I love to use the weather and geography against PCs simply because it's something they're completely unable to defeat. Floods, blizzards, avalanches, landslides, wildfires, forest fires, monsoon rains and overland journeys on a deadline are all very good campaign events.
Here are some of them described:
Norrakath the Hunter (Balinor) A Bugbear
Uthrek the Keeper (The Keeper) Undead looking Hobgoblin
Korthrek the Devourer (The Devourer) Hobgoblin with a shark mouth
Tauroc the Hammer (Onatar) Hobgoblin Smith
Rantash Mul (Kol Korran) Sickly Hobgoblin
Dukash the Lawbringer (Aureon) Vibrant Hobgoblin
The Traveler (The Traveler) Quirky Goblin
This is all they have described but is a good example of how religion is conencted throughout civilization.
The Dhakaan actually worshipped 16 gods
No, they didn't. Deity worship came into being after the empire disintegrated.
Humans who came to Khorvaire adopted them (they previousely only adopted the host and found that they were alike the Dhaakani gods) but wiped out all memory of this 16th god.
The Sovereign Host was brought to Khorvaire by the first human settlers. They only integrated the goblinoid deities into their faith to bring the goblins around.
This is all found the Storm Dragon novel when the characters explore some ancient Dhaakani ruins and apparantly these gods were original dragons who ascended into Syberys.
Eberron novels don't include canon information. This is only James Wyatt's interpretation.
Is there a way to attract the Hellcow's attention to this trhead? A dark ritual? ;)
He's seen it. The Infernal Bovine uses the Dhakaani in his own games, he's said so in past threads. If you can catch him while he's on, you can see which threads he's looking at.
Of course post #3 in the thread is a bit more compelling proof.