I am curious. Is there any information about Xen'drik in addition to the Eberron Campaign Setting and Secrets of Xen'drik, which actually doesn't have any information about Xen'drik?
If you really didn't thing Secrets of Xen'drik didn't have enough (or any) information, I guess you could try finding some of the stuff online about the Stormreach-based video game. Also, if you read the novels, you might find some more information. There was some stuff in there as far as geography and the like. As far as I know though, SoX is pretty much the standard, although it is written more as a set of guidelines for designing your own Xen'drik than as a comprehensive guide.
SoX (hehe, like that abbreviation) has a bit info on two colonies build by foreigners, 13 maps for mini-dungeons, and 9 new monsters. But no lore on native people, settlements, geography, or history.
I wish the book were a bit stronger, it's just that I can't think of anything better. I do recall it having some info of Drow culture and the history of the giants, but that might have been elsewhere. I am the sort who likes having a comprehensive sourcebook to work from, but I do think this book was designed with maybe too much flexibility in mind.
I think Wizards wanted to make Xen'drik as open to DM and player interpretation as possible. It is a sort of tabula rasa for campaigns. It sounds like you are like me, in liking a stronger framework in which to base your own fiction. I would love to know if there is some unofficial but generally accepted wiki or other source that provides a collaborative framework for Xen'drik.
There is a fair amount in SoX and the ECS for 3.5, I would have thought that the 4th ed books would be similar. The 3.5 player's guide has some as well, and there are resources such as the Dragonshards articles on this site.
As I<3sharn points out, while details are given about the main inhabitants (drow and giants) of xen'drick, and there are maps with some major landmarks most of the continent is meant to be terra incognita. No one (except possibly Argonnessan) would have a complete overview of it: its still a frontier land with a need for expeditions to map it.
In campaign terms, it is left mysterious so the DM can add whatever they want. Most of the rest of Eberron is controlled and known by at least one of the major factions: Xen'drick is the place where you can put things that have no place elsewhere. Its where you can place races and civilisations that wouldn't fit anywhere else, strange magical areas or devices. You can create your own maps including whatever you want for your campaign for it.
I never thought about the possibility of the 4e version having less info than 3.5. Regardless, I Xen'drik requires some DM/Player intervention. This is where a wiki could provide a great clearinghouse for everyone's ideas.
PS:
Thanks for the <3, it completes me!
SoX (hehe, like that abbreviation) has a bit info on two colonies build by foreigners, 13 maps for mini-dungeons, and 9 new monsters. But no lore on native people, settlements, geography, or history.
Drow and Giants are the dominant species in Xen'drik. Pages 50 through 80 have several entries and numerous sidebars that give you lots of information on the history, culture, and lore of their major civilizations, as well as stats for example characters and encounters.
Is there anything specifically you wanted to ask about?
It really just expands on Secrets of Xen'drik and other sources, of course it is mostly about Stormreach but being as it is in Xen'drik the creatures of the continent affect it. :P
That being said, let your imagination flow with Xen'drik, it's like Khyber, it can be home to literally anything you want it to. Want there to be a floating city populated by isolationist awakened animals who have mastered Arcane Magic? Let it flow.
Want there to be a floating city populated by isolationist awakened animals who have mastered Arcane Magic? Let it flow.
That I think I'm going to use during one of my group's forays into Xen'drick. That is just to good. Just need to through in a plot device or two and dig up an old map to put it on and I'll be in business. This is to good to pass up.
Want there to be a floating city populated by isolationist awakened animals who have mastered Arcane Magic? Let it flow.
That I think I'm going to use during one of my group's forays into Xen'drick. That is just to good. Just need to through in a plot device or two and dig up an old map to put it on and I'll be in business. This is to good to pass up.
:D I'm glad someone likes my ideas, just something off the top of my head, I hope your group enjoys it!
SoX (hehe, like that abbreviation) has a bit info on two colonies build by foreigners, 13 maps for mini-dungeons, and 9 new monsters. But no lore on native people, settlements, geography, or history... it seems the continent was never made into an actual setting.
If you're comparing it to, say, Secrets of Sarlona - where the continent is broken down into countries, each with a detailed examination of culture, interactions, history and so on - you are absolutely right. By canon, Xen'drik doesn't have these. There's two mechanical reasons for this:
The Traveler's Curse (SoX, page 25): Quoting SoX - "The Traveler's Curse twists time and distance, both in perception and reality. Two parties of explorers set out from Stormreach in search of a specific ruin, but though both follow the same path, it might take the first group one week and the second group three weeks to make the journey... The Traveler's Curse can easily lead explorers into unexpected danger or cause them to arrive at a different destination than the one they sought. This phenomenon is one reason why no reliable maps of Xen'drik exist..." It's difficult to found a nation when you can't actually reliably travel between your own cities. As a result, the largest communities in Xen'drik tend to be single cities - places like Stormreach or the obsidian city of the Sulatar. You may have multiple cities tied to a single race, but they often exist in isolation. In part it's because of this curse, and in part it's because of....
The Du'rashka Tul (SoX, page 53): Quoting SoX - "The forces that destroyed the ancient civilizations laid a curse on the land to prevent any nation in Xen'drik from rising to a position where it could once again threaten the world. The legend states that as soon as any Xen'drik civilization reaches a certain size and sophistication, its people are gripped by a homicidal rage. They spread out, killing every creature they encounter until they themselves are slain. Fear of the Du'rashka Tul has kept the followers of Vulkoor and the giant tribes small and nomadic... in support of the truth of the Du'rashka Tul, explorers have found lost civilizations that are clearly quite recent - ruins only a few thousand years old whose builders vanished without a trace.
These are the mechanical factors that prevent great civilizations from rising. From a meta-level, this was done because Xen'drik was never intended to be a normal continent. The relationship between Khorvaire and Xen'drik was never supposed to be that of Europe and the New World, with the settlers clashing with established cultures. Rather, Xen'drik is a land of a thousand mysteries. There are no vast cultures; rather there are hundreds of tiny, isolated cultures. It's a place where you may find a single city with walls of gold inhabited by bee-people, and where once you escape you can never find that city again. It's a place for things like Aeith suggests - a city of awakened animals with arcane powers, who nonetheless have confined their power to a single region. It's an opportunity for players to stumble into anything you want them to... but it's a land for adventurers, not a place that can be easily colonized.
Now, this being Eberron, you can CHANGE that. You can decide that the Du'rashka Tul is a myth and that drow aren't affected by the Traveler's Curse, and have a vast kingdom of Sulatar drow in the inland. You can do what you want. But SoX takes the approach it does because like the answer to the Mourning, Xen'drik is supposed to be a sandbox for the DM to add his or her own elements. We wanted to provide things to play with, but we didn't want to nail it down to a concrete map or culture. When you go to Sarlona, you can predict what you will find. When you dive into Xen'drik, it's never certain.
The Du'rashka Tul (SoX, page 53): Quoting SoX - "The forces that destroyed the ancient civilizations laid a curse on the land to prevent any nation in Xen'drik from rising to a position where it could once again threaten the world. The legend states that as soon as any Xen'drik civilization reaches a certain size and sophistication, its people are gripped by a homicidal rage. They spread out, killing every creature they encounter until they themselves are slain. Fear of the Du'rashka Tul has kept the followers of Vulkoor and the giant tribes small and nomadic... in support of the truth of the Du'rashka Tul, explorers have found lost civilizations that are clearly quite recent - ruins only a few thousand years old whose builders vanished without a trace.
Now, this being Eberron, you can CHANGE that. You can decide that the Du'rashka Tul is a myth and that drow aren't affected by the Traveler's Curse, and have a vast kingdom of Sulatar drow in the inland. You can do what you want. But SoX takes the approach it does because like the answer to the Mourning, Xen'drik is supposed to be a sandbox for the DM to add his or her own elements. We wanted to provide things to play with, but we didn't want to nail it down to a concrete map or culture. When you go to Sarlona, you can predict what you will find. When you dive into Xen'drik, it's never certain.
Since the Du'rashka Tul has been mentioned, think I might share my thoughts on it.
I view the Du'rashka Tul in my own version of Eberron as something of a Prophetic snag placed upon Xen'drik, perhaps with truenaming magic or something even more exotic.
Essentially it follows the basics of the Draconic Prophecy of 'If X then Y', though the Dragons seemed to force the Prophecy down a route that leads to 'When a culture grows to great power within the Ruins of the Xen, it shall be cast down by fate itself', I try not to limit it to simply homicidal rage, but any form of destruction.
Keeping with that idea, I like to think there are precautions which can be taken to avoid the curse, I also think it would make an interesting epic tier adventure arc, removing the Du'rashka Tul that is.