Here's pretty much why. One of the marks of an absolutist dictatorship is the fact that a citizen has to take indentification papers everywhere he goes. Yes, I understand that about house Sivis having a certain Dragonmark and what their role is in the Five Nations, but the Kingdom of Galifar is over one hundred years dead.
I figured that King Boranel would make a proclamation that papers won't be needed for a person's transit from place to place in my Campaign. I want Breland to be more of a Free Society than one that seems like it's Free.
Are there other little things you have changed?
One of the marks of an absolutist dictatorship is the fact that a citizen has to take indentification papers everywhere he goes.
I never knew I lived in an absolutitst dictatorship ;) You do realize that in many democracies you actually have to carry your identification papers, whether a simple driving licence or a full ID, with you at all times? Sure, the typical police officer cannot ask for them except under specific circumstances, but that does not change the fact you still have to carry them with you and can theoretically be fined if you do not.
Now, obviously, we do not need special papers to travel around, and I indeed doubt Breland demands something like that ;)
(I live in the Netherlands btw and yes, we are required by law to always have ID with us, although there have to be a good reason before the authorities can ask a person to show it.)
(I live in the Netherlands btw and yes, we are required by law to always have ID with us, although there have to be a good reason before the authorities can ask a person to show it.)
Great, now can you answer the question without the politics so this thread doesn't get deleted or moved?
What little things did you change or add to make it your own?
I've filled in a couple of blanks regarding the Twelve, reduced the element of conspiration a little bit, and increased the activity of "the good people from Riedra" as generous benefactors, helping out a struggeling country here and there.
For plot-reasons, coolness and my own oversights regarding our campaign, Airships were invented in the 950ties, so they are around for a while.
What little things did you change or add to make it your own?
I actually haven't run a long term Eberron campaign yet, and the short terms I did run were mostly relatively close to canon (especially considering how canon is rather open to interpretation ;)).
I made it so all portal/teleportation without a focus goes through the weakened reality surrounding the Mourning and a couple of other such major events. It's what make House Orien so important, or at least their Dragonmark. Without it, you stand a chance to get stranded in Cyre as it dies.
Reskins FTW!
I've given Zilargo socialservices, for no real reason outside of those Gnomes seem to enjoy their orderly streets too much to allow someone to go homeless or bankrupt. Just extending the idea of Zils putting time into the library to get a free education.
I made the Lhazaar Principalities less a hive of scum and villainy and more the domain of monks, temples and simple fishing communities with a very feudal Japan flavor.
Beyond that Eberron is locked away from the rest of the multiverse with Xoriat as a buffer keeping everything else out. Xoriat is also the physical reality of Khyber's dream-state.
And lastly, the Dragon Prophesy is actually the last living essence of Siberys attempting to warn existance of the world's final doom. It is basically a very verbose doomsday clock.
King B of Breland still remains a badass. =)
Anyway.
I don't change much about my Eberron. I do have semi-continuity between campaigns though. So, old villains are still running around, old heroes are retired, and every time they visit Xen'drik they always see a beaten-up airship sailing toward Sharn--a remnant of their first adventure, when they escaped a drow tribe by stealing back their broken airship, and flying it away, unaware of the huge cache of cursed warforged docents in its cargo crates which, when sold on the Sharn market, will create huge masses of Chaotic Evil-infected warforged.
Which they ended up selling on the market without realizing they were cursed.
Every single time, they always try to catch up to the airship to warn them, even though that would be completely out-of-character. One campaign, I might let them catch up... or maybe next time, they'll arrive in Xen'drik and look up, expecting an airship, and I'll just say there's nothing there, and they're disappointed but they're not sure why.
Hmm... but yeah, I pretty much stick with stock Eberron, only tweaked for flavor purposes for whatever style adventure I'm running.
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Elemental vehicles are more common, and Sarlona has some Sci-Fi elements and
[spoiler]The Mourning was caused by the Inspired [spoiler/]
Yesterday, one of my players decided to change the character he'll play (we haven't started the campaign yet) from a Halfling Cleric to a Genasi Warpriest. We decided that his Genasi was an experimental Warforged.
Reskins FTW!
OK this is quite possibly one of the coolest ideas ive seen in relation to Eberron. Consider the idea stolen !
House Tharashk is led by Half-Orcs, who now bear the mark of finding exclusively. While humans no longer bear the mark, they still have represenantives in the house, alongside orcs.
Additionally, the Mark of Sentinnel and House Deneith are now the domain of Half-Orcs as well. It first appeared after early Karnnathi clans allied with Jhorash'Tal Orcs of the Mror Holds. It was this alliance that allowed them to eventually pressure on the Mror Dwarves to push them to a peace agreement.
House Deneith Half-Orcs are based in Karnnath, and have moved rather far from their Jhorash'Tal roots. They follow the Host/Six rather than Druidism, and have very few pure blood orcs in their employ. They appreciate the strength they get from their orc heritage, but consider their mountain-dwelling relatives mired in a primitive mindset.
The two houses still have a great degree of competition as Tharashk continues to expand into the (monstrous) mercenary and bounty hunter business. Deneith still has an advantage when negotiating with Darguun, since the goblinoids feel more strongly about western orcs than eastern orcs and Deneith has more human represenatives.
Another source of conflict comes from their cultural differences. Deneith Half-Orcs view Tharashk orcs as backwoods mud rakers who are just as bad as the more barbaric orc tribes. Tharashk Half-Orcs shake their heads at Deneith Half-Orcs and wonder why they do not appreciate their orc side and do their part to bridge human orc relations as was done in the Shadow Marches.
The Inspired are awesome at eugenics and may well be as good at guided evolution as House Vadalis (or even better considering the application of psychometabolic psionics). While it's obviously seen its use in practical pursuits, perhaps following the Unification the Inspired turned their expertise toward more artistic efforts, something like a faunal version of ikebana or bonsai. The notion of sapient beings being bred for purely aesthetic characteristics as though they were dogs or cattle is unsettling enough, but what if they went so far as to use psychometabolism to create radically accelerated maturation (perhaps at the expense of overall lifespan)? There could have been special breeding lines of these races which would reach sexual maturity in a matter of years or even months. Though they'd suffer a similarly-accelerated mortality they'd survive long enough to be selected for valued traits, be induced to breed, and bear the next generation, thus accelerating the rate of breeding progress a thousandfold. Once the line produced an aesthetically acceptable breed the psychometabolic effect could be removed to leave a stable, naturally-aging and reproducing line of 'designer' creatures.
This means that there could, in Sarlona's service, be any number of exotic variations upon those races which the Path of Inspiration considers sub-human. Shifters with far more pronounced feral features or which resemble the sort of cultivated breeds which one sees in dogs and cats today. Dragonborn and Lizardfolk with intricately-patterned or multihued scales or vestigial draconic wings. Thri-Kreen which resemble the beautiful and rarified varieties seen in real-world mantises. Doubtless the rest of the world would find these to be exotic and beautiful treasures of the nation, unaware of the cruel measures taken in order to achieve it, the suffering and dehumanization performed for no other purpose than an inhuman race's casual pursuit of aesthetic beauty.
So that's a little change that I think I'll have in my Eberron.
One of the biggest change I made to Eberron was to feature Wilden/Killoren prominently in druidic lore. I had Varrack be declared apostate not only for teaching druidism to Orcs, but because the rest of the dragons firmly believed that Eberron itself would fend off the coming planar invason Varrack was so worried about.
It turns out, that the descendants of the Gatekeeper orcs Varrack originally trained first encountered the Wilden, they thought it was a planar invasion from Thelanis. The two sides fought each other, with the Wilden instinctively understanding the primal magic being used against them and turning it back upon the orcs.
A few generations of this, and eventually both sides realize they're fighting for the same cause, the preservation of Eberron. Only the survivors of this drudic civil war number much less than their original strength.
Queue the Dealkyr Invasion, and the druids were weakened by their civil war so much, they were unable to staunch the invasion themselves, and the Dealkyr's grasp spread deep into the heart of the Dhakanni Empire, eventually causing it's swift decline.
The kicker is that had Varrack not trained the orcs, the Wilden would have developed their own druidic customs instinctually as Eberron's natural response to a coming Xoriat invasion, and their forces would have been strong enough to stop the Dealkyr before they weakened the Dhakanni nation.
And Dhakanni would still have existed at he time of the human exodus from Sarlona, and the humans wouldn't have ended up dominating all of Khorvaire, the nation of Galifar wouldn't have existd, subsequently broken, and there would have been no resulting war to trigger the creation o the Mournland.
So yeah, Varrack caused the Mournland.
