Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Duke5150 Feb 23, 2010 22:23:58	1.What other names is the Son of Khyber known by? Titles, cover names and his real name? 2. What are the known powers of the son of khyber? What benefits does his mark grant? 3. Is the son of khyber the leader of house tarkanan in sharn? If not, who is? 4. House Tarkanan has an enclave in the dragon towers along with the other dragon mark houses. How do this work? Is there constant conflict? How has this area not become a war zone? 5. I assume the son of khyber is human, but for gaming purposes, what class/paragon/epic would he be? I ask as he will be encountered very soon and I need to write him up. 6. Does house tarkanan have any ties to political or religious groups? Who is most likely to ally with the aberrant house? 7. How strong is house tarkanan, currently? Has it recruited a large following of aberrant marks? Does it contain powerful individuals and if so, who are they and what makes them important? 8. What is the son of khyber's ultimate goal. Is revenge his only motivation and if so, what does revenge mean, exactly? The complete extermination of every dragon mark or just the destruction of the dragonmarked houses? 9. Where is the son of khyber located? Is he chillin in the tarkanan enclave in the dragon towers? Is he in hiding somewhere within sharn or somewhere else? 10. Beyond making the lord of khyber what I need him to be, what level/tier would you say he is by default? mid to high paragon? low epic? High epic? Thanks for any and all replies. This info will be very helpful in the coming adventure.
#2 Madfox11 Feb 24, 2010 4:43:55	Short question, did you read the novel? I am asking, because most of your questions are answered in the novel - note that he does die in the novel and his soul gets imprisoned (again). Do you want the novel to be canon? It makes some significant changes to the game material presented in Sharn. The answers below definitely contain big spoilers. Show (1) I forgot his real name, but he was a House Deneith scion during the War of the Mark whose soul was imprisoned by what appears to be agents of the Chamber (but might very well be some other powerful faction such as the Lords of Dust). He was recently released in Xen'drik and he took over the body of another scion of House Deneith. (2) His mark allows him to imprisson the souls of creatures, which he uses to remove an angel and a false idol in the novel. Each time he imprissons something the mark becomes bigger and tries to take over control. The more creatures are imprissoned the more difficult it apparently becomes to regain control over the mark. What happens when control is lost is not told or explained. (3) By the time the novel starts he IS the leader of House Tarkanan. His first act is to order agents of the House to start new branches outside of Sharn (before the novel the house is only active in Sharn) and to prepare for an active war against the Dragonmarked Houses and all nations that support said houses. He stays in Sharn, and there is no reference of appointing a specific leader for Sharn. It should be noted that since his intent is  to litterally reduce Sharn to a heap of rubble by removing the manifestion zone he does not really need to appoint a local leader. (4) House Tarkanan is nothing more then a crime organization - an assassin guild so to speak. I doubt the Houses know for certain where the House has its HQ, but they do not care enough to try and find it. The House never expressed any concern about restarting the War of the Mark (and in its official incarnation it would not be able to do so anyway), and they have stopped persecuting aberrant mark beares some time ago. They are unconcerned about local crime organizations, and the House probably pays enough bribes to the Sharn authorities to be left alone. The novel hints that the house has its origins in a group of aberrant marked citadel agents who were left out to die. The Son blames the Houses and prejudice against aberrant marks. His ideas are hardly objective, and considering many more agents were betrayed by their own nations if doing so is best for said nation, he might very well be simplifying things. (5) He is a human scion of Deneith. I would say he is a fighter of some sort. Level is a bit hard to estimate since he does not directly fight opponents. He is strong enough to deal with false idols and powerful angels so he is *high* level, I would think in the upper paragon. (6) Not according to City of Towers, at least not anything specific. They are part of Sharn's criminal society, having an unwritten understanding with Boromar, Daask and the Tyrants. The Tarkanan's do assassantions, leaving the leaders of the other crime groups alone and in turn the other groups leave the Tarkanan's alone. The group is very diverse and I doubt they have any official religious ties. I would say worship of the Traveler and the other Dark Six is probably most prevelent (maybe the Fury because many aberrant mark bearers tend to become a bit insane). (7) Depends on how canon you feel the novel is. In City of Towers it is nothing more than a local criminal organization. In the novel the Son worked hard to increase the House's influence outside of Sharn, trying to get cells started in other cities. How successfull he was though is unknown and entirely up to you. Personally, I doubt he got very far before he was removed from the world. (8) Revenge. The destruction or at the very least disolution of the Dragonmarked Houses. He was willing to completely destroy Sharn to achieve this, so he certainly lost his marbles. (9) At the start of the novel he is hiding below Sharn in a region protected against scrying rituals, an ancient Dhaakani ruin. Of course, he dies by the end of the novel. (10) High paragon. Whomever is behind his imprisonment and later release would be the epic threat behind the scenes.
#3 Duke5150 Feb 24, 2010 23:11:13	Short question, did you read the novel? I am asking, because most of your questions are answered in the novel - note that he does die in the novel and his soul gets imprisoned (again). Do you want the novel to be canon? It makes some significant changes to the game material presented in Sharn. The answers below definitely contain big spoilers. Show (1) I forgot his real name, but he was a House Deneith scion during the War of the Mark whose soul was imprisoned by what appears to be agents of the Chamber. He was recently released in Xen'drik and he took over the body of another scion of House Deneith. (2) His mark allows him to imprisson the souls of creatures, which he uses to remove an anger and a false idol in the novel. Each time he imprissons something the mark becomes bigger and tries to take over control. The more creatures are imprissoned the more difficult it apparently becomes to take over. What happens when control is lost is not told or explained. (3) By the time the novel starts he IS the leader of House Tarkanan. His first act is to order agents of the House to start new branches outside of Sharn (before the novel the house is only active in Sharn) and to prepare for an active war against the Dragonmarked Houses and all nations that support said houses. He stays in Sharn, and there is no reference of appointing a specific leader for Sharn. It should be noted that since his intent is  to litterally reduce Sharn to a heap of rubble by removing the manifestion zone he does not really need to appoint a local leader. (4) House Tarkanan is nothing more then a crime organization - an assassin guild so to speak. I doubt the Houses know for certain where the House has its HQ, but they do not care enough to try and find it. The House never expressed any concern about restarting the War of the Mark (and in its official incarnation it would not be able to do so anyway), and they have stopped persecuting aberrant mark beares some time ago. They are unconcerned about local crime organizations, and the House probably pays enough bribes to the Sharn authorities to be left alone. (5) He is a human scion of Deneith. I would say he is a fighter of some sort. Level is a bit hard to estimate since he does not directly fight opponents. He is strong enough to deal with false idols and powerful angels so he is *high* level, I would think in the upper paragon. (6) Not according to City of Towers, at least not anything specific. They are part of Sharn's criminal society, having an unwritten understanding with Boromar, Daask and the Tyrants. The Tarkanan's do assissantions, leaving the leaders of the other crime groups alone and in turn the other groups leave the Tarkanan's alone. The group is very diverse and I doubt they have any official religious ties. I would say worship of the Traveler and the other Dark Six is probably most prevelent (maybe the Fury because many aberrant mark bearers tend to become a bit insane). (7) Depends on how canon you feel the novel is. In City of Towers it is nothing more than a local criminal organization. In the novel the Son worked hard to increase the House's influence outside of Sharn, trying to get cells started in other cities. How successfull he was though is unknown and entirely up to you. Personally, I doubt he got very far before he was removed from the world. (8) Revenge. The destruction or at the very least disolution of the Dragonmarked Houses. He was willing to completely destroy Sharn to achieve this, so he certainly lost his marbles. (9) At the start of the novel he is hiding below Sharn in a region protected against scrying rituals, an ancient Dhaakani ruin. Of course, he dies by the end of the novel. (10) High paragon. Whomever is behind his imprisonment and later release would be the epic threat behind the scenes.
#4 Madfox11 Feb 25, 2010 4:23:41	If you are interested in Sharn, House Tarkanan and the treatment of aberrant dragonmarked people then you should really read the novel. It is good, albeit a bit short for my taste ;)
#5 endless_spiral Feb 25, 2010 16:33:10	it should be noted that the ECG leaves the answers to these questions intentionally vague so DMs can supply their own answers and come up with their own stories. i read (and enjoyed) Keith Baker's novel, but i have a more interesting idea for the Son of Khyber that i plan on using in an upcoming campaign. basically, in my version, the Son of Khyber's mark is a powerful aberrant mark that gives the ability to manipulate time. at first this manifests as having flashes of prophetic insight (allowing him to anticipate and manipulate PC moves) and the ability to take short jaunts through time (hours or days at most), but as the campaign goes on he gets more powerful. the twist is that he is linked to the heroes through the prophecy, and will be the main antogonist through heroic (and perhaps portions of paragon) tier, but eventually the PCs will realize that they need him and his time travel abilities to properly thwart the real villains of the campaign, the Lords of Dust. i've been watching a lot of Lost lately, and i'm totally stoked on crazy time travel things happening later in the campaign. just to give another take, and emphasize that there are many possibilities for the Son of Khyber.
#6 Duke5150 Feb 25, 2010 23:00:34	it should be noted that the ECG leaves the answers to these questions intentionally vague so DMs can supply their own answers and come up with their own stories. just to give another take, and emphasize that there are many possibilities for the Son of Khyber. Correct and I agree. I was just trying to get information on him that was written in the novel. How I plan to use the son of khyber will have nearly nothing to do with the version of him in the novel. The power of his mark will be different, his ultimate end will be different, his methods, allies and relationship with the dragonmarked houses will be different. I was just exploring the novel version to see if any of it would be useful to me, as I do with everything. But, if anyone remembers his name in the novel, beyond the son of khyber, that would be helpful. Thanks!
#7 endless_spiral Feb 28, 2010 22:57:43	Oh. His name (in the novel) is Daine.
#8 Duke5150 Mar 01, 2010 8:11:42	Oh. His name (in the novel) is Daine. Awesome, thank you!
#9 mhacdebhandia Mar 04, 2010 20:09:15	Man, that's more of a spoiler than anything else in the spoiler-blocked post. Show In the novel, the Son of Khyber is Daine of House Deneith from millennia ago, but his spirit occupies the body of another man named Daine, also of House Deneith - who was one of the protagonists in Keith Baker's first trilogy, the Dreaming Dark novels: The City of Towers, The Shattered Land, and The Gates of Night.
#10 Hellcow Mar 06, 2010 2:26:38	Speaking generally to House Tarkanan, if you haven't read the Dragonshard, you might want to (www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/2...). I'd specifically point to "Daily Life" and "Organization." As others have said, the material in the ECG is intentionally vague enough that you can choose to ignore the novel if you want. Speaking to it, though: Show On the second question: There's more to it than just trapping souls. . * He can trap souls in his mark. With immortals, this is a challenge and may require the spirit to be weakened first (in 4E game terms, he might not be able to drain an immortal until it's bloodied) - but I'd say it would be easier to strip the soul out of a mortal. So it's not just that he can bind demons - he can grab you and suck YOUR soul out. The fact that he can do this to immortals is especially important in Eberron, where slain spirits (rakshasa, angels, quori) will otherwise be reborn after being destroyed. * He can draw on a certain amount of the power and knowledge of the beings he has trapped. This is why he's hunting immortals in the novel; he needs to build up power for the task he has in mind. This power can manifest physically, as shown when he reaches out with his mark and binds an opponent with it. However, in game terms, I would also have this represented by substantially increased hit points, and by SR/increased defenses scaling up as he builds up power; the energies in the mark will deflect lesser magicks. Beyond this, he's supposed to be a skilled swordsman and a charismatic leader. * He can FEEL the souls around him, and as a result, he can sense the true nature of disguised creatures (such as rakshasa or dragons); personally, I'd extend this to allowing him to detect invisible creatures. * The limitation is that he draws on the power and knowledge of the beings he has trapped... which is a blessing as well as a curse. The more souls he grabs, the more voices he's got in his head. As such, while he CAN just grab someone and suck the life right out of them, he generally won't use the mark in this way unless he has no other choice (or unless he's trying to get your soul for some specific reason). Among other things, this means that his tier is flexible, because his power is going to be directly tied to what souls he's trapped in the mark. If he's been running around sucking up angels and demons, he'll be much more powerful than if he's just been planning in the sewers; however, he'll also be more unstable.
#11 Madfox11 Mar 08, 2010 5:05:56	Of course, the Son of Khyber in the novel makes it rather easy for the Twelve as well ;) A certain quote by Nitzsche can certainly be applied to the man. Of course, in my campaign the Twelve actually prefer the aberrant marked people in a somewhat public organization. Makes it (much) easier to control. It is rather odd that the Citadel just happens to send an agent at the moment the Son is doing something that really would draw the full wrath of Breland's authorities as well...
#12 orlandu May 24, 2011 7:54:25	If you've read the third book of that trilogy, then you know it wasn't really the houses or Breland behind the events of that book. It was really the agents of the Chamber, using the heroine to stop the Son of Kyber before he destroyed Sharn. Also remember that there was a demon in those books impersonating abberrant dragonmark bearers in order to help Daine with his plan. To me, that hints a little to the Lords of Dust, using the animosity between the Tarkanans and the Twelve to plunge Khorvaire into war again. Be just like them, too. Now me, I know Eberron is supposed to be about 'gray areas' and 'not always happy' endings, but I always prefer things to end well for my worlds. In my game I'm trying to *wait for it* make some sort of peace with the Twelve. I sympathize a lot with the Tarkanans (for a while to the point that I thought the Houses really Were evil), but I also remember that the world relies on the houses (airships, healers, communication) and that most of the rank-and-file members of the houses (minus Deneith) aren't training to fight a war. Some of the Barons are (coughMerrixcough), but other barons seem like pretty nice people (kundarak and lyrandar's leaders, for example). It's gets a lot more complicated, I know, but I'll figure something out.