Hehe, I'm just interested to know if any DM ever created a cause for the Mourning in one of it's game.
(PLUS) : what clues do we have from the books about the cause of the Mourning, it would be nice to have a pool of all the clues and the reference so we can build causes that are coherent with the lore of Eberron.
Can't wait to see your ideas !
what clues do we have from the books about the cause of the Mourning, it would be nice to have a pool of all the clues and the reference so we can build causes that are coherent with the lore of Eberron.
The final book of the Thorn of Breland trilogy presents one possible cause in full. The theory is quite coherent and comprehensive in itself and in its execution, but enough wiggle room is left that it isn't authoritative. In fact it could all be a big coincidence or even a deliberately-contrived deception. That's something I've always adored about Keith Baker; though his creations are utter brilliance, he is not so insecure as to insist that his is the one true version of Eberron, or to paint other storytellers into a corner by nailing down the particulars of the setting. I've no doubt that that open design and built-in mystique are part of the reason for Eberron's utterly deserved popularity.
I've accounted for the version of events in my 1-30 4e campaign a couple of times on these boards, but I enjoy going over it again and I've always presented it from the narrative pespective in which the players unearthed the plot. For simplicity's sake I'll simply give the chronological version, and please forgive any incongruities with the documented history; I'm certain that it was all correct at the time, so any errors are in my recollection, not my plotting. The whole thing is a bit lengthy, but I certainly hope that it's worth the read.
[spoiler In the latter days of the Daelkyr invasion...]In the latter days of the Daelkyr invasion one of the mad aberrations of Xoriat was slain and, for complicated reasons1, rose anew as an undead -- albeit crippled -- abomination after its masters had been banished to their now-distant realm. In its weakened state it was soon taken captive and sealed within an inescapable metal prison.
As the ages passed this prison became an antiquity of curiosity among the ancient peoples of Eberron. It isn't known precisely how it passed into possession of the giants of Xen'drik, but it was they who tinkered with the prison, fitting it with a means of artifice by which one could converse with the being within, which otherwise had no means of perceiving the world beyond. It was treated as an academic curiosity, an opportunity to glimpse the mind of madness. Even as they did, though, that mad thing began to steal glimpses in return. Its insane mind absorbed more of the giants and their magics than even they could know.
When the civilization of the giants fell, the abomination's prison was lost for millennia, buried with one of their greatest cities in the wilds of an unchartable jungle. In those trackless ages of darkness and silence, a terrible thing happened; the undying horror's mind found reason. The black hell of solitude, a torment which would have driven any sane mind mad, drove that mad thing sane. In its clarity the creature was able to comprehend the utter loathing and contempt it felt for this world of order, it loathed itself for succumbing to its sanity, and so it loathed the world all the more. As the silent centuries of darkness crept past it began to ponder how it might wreak vengeance upon Eberron for the curse of its own existence.
Millennia after it was lost to antiquity the prison was unearthed by an expedition of artificers from House Cannith who shipped it across the sea to Khorvaire, unaware that it was not the mysterious relic's first visit to those shores. Ultimately it came to the attention of Merrix d'Cannith the Younger, then a young man. With much study he learned to utilize the communication interface that had been built into the prison and began to converse with the thing within. The clever monster soon saw the ambition within its newest host, the obsession with artifice, and played to both masterfully.
It introduced itself as the Hexarian Engine, an 'eldritch thinking device' created by the giants of Xen'drik, trusting Merrix to mistake its impenetrable prison for the metal shell of a machine. The young artificer eagerly drank in every tale it spun about the ancient civilization of the giants and soon complied with the Hexarian's request that he make use of its faculties as a brilliant computational mind. He became convinced, by its deception, that it was nothing more than a simulacrum of true intelligence, capable of tremendous feats of calculation but possessed of no true free will of its own.
For years the Hexarian bided its time, serving Merrix in order to serve its own ends. The artificer crafted and integrated into the communication device mechanical eyes and ears with which to study, and a voice with which to give counsel. "Hex" set its brilliant mind to the assimilation and analysis of impossibly vast reams of data and, in return, granted Merrix superhuman insights into matters of economy, arcane theory, meteorology, and even sociology. All the while it waited, growing in knowledge, forming a plan, ready for an opportunity to present itself.
The Last War was that opportunity. Merrix came to rely upon the Hexarian more and more as the conflict escalated, calculating the probability of attacks, the economic impact of alliances and hostilities, the projection of long-term outcomes based upon current data. In the short-term the Hexarian presented its calculations accurately, but it endeavored always to paint an ever-bleaker picture of the years to come. Eventually it presented Merrix with the lie that was the seed of its plot; it told him that it was all but certain that the Last War would continue for centuries and that hundreds of millions would suffer and die in that time if it weren't, by some means, curtailed.
When Merrix solicited the Hexarian for suggestions as to how such an unstoppable thing might be brought to a halt, it gave several fundamentally flawed suggestions, then as an afterthought suggested that the nations might be united under a common banner if they felt that they were in genuine danger from a common foe. Over time, with subtle suggestions, the Hexarian guided Merrix into a most horrific plan. In order to save the nations of Khorvaire, he came to believe, he would have to sacrifice his own.
The Hexarian tutored Merrix in the creation of a 'trans-aetheric' device utilizing powerful magics thought forgotten since the fall of the giants. In its reach it would unravel the very fabric of Eberron's reality, the fundamental laws of nature that maintain the order of its existence. A creation of monumental scale, it was hidden in Merrix's private laboratory beneath Making. Its reach was tailored in such a way that it would consume all of Cyre and little else, leaving a twisted wasteland where the beautiful nation had stood.
If the trans-aetheric device had been Merrix's most horrific creation, then the Lord of Blades was his most devious. A unique warforged crafted to be the superior of all its kin, the Lord of Blades was specifically crafted not only in body, but in mind. Through techniques too complex to even consider using on standard units, Merrix implanted in the Lord of Blades a hatred of all that was flesh, an overwhelming desire to gather the warforged and rebel, and -- most importantly -- a false belief that it had engineered and put into motion the Day of Mourning.
Merrix had created in the Lord of Blades a red herring; he would be sealed deep beneath the city of Making, safe from the trans-aetheric device's effects. When he eventually emerged and took the blame for the atrocity that had befalled Cyre, the nations would turn en masse upon the Lord of Blades, his armies, and all warforged in a savage cleansing of humans against artifice. In the wake of this unity a new peace would be forged, and the Last War would forever become a thing of the past. Merrix had utter confidence in this because the Hexarian Engine's calculations had shown him quite clearly that it was so.
It was all a lie, of course. The Day of Mourning was simply the Hexarian's attempt to create a sliver of its own home of Xoriat in the heart of Khorvaire. The plot was carried off without a hitch; the Day of Mourning wiped Cyre from the face of Eberron and left in its place a wasteland of true madness. The Hexarian's designs didn't stop there, however. It called out to the Lord of Blades for rescue from the ruins of the Cannith enclave in Making. Continuing its ruse of being an object of artifice, it told the Lord of Blades that it shared his hatred of all that was flesh. In the name of warforged supremacy it tutored him in the construction of a vast steel titan which came to be known as the Becoming God, an unthinkable engine of war in its own right, but serving an even more terrible purpose; installed at its heart was the trans-aetheric device, now a mobile weapon of mass destruction guided by the Hexarian installed as its malevolent mind.
The Hexarian, once a deaf and blind hulk trapped in isolation, had become a deity of artifice striding across the map of Khorvaire, laying all that lay in its path to waste. If not for the actions of a courageous band of adventurers mustered by a guilt-ridden Merrix d'Cannith -- and the courageous self-sacrifice of that same master of artifice -- the Mournland's borders would have spread to the farthest reaches of Khorvaire.
So that's the story. Most of it took place in the backstory of my campaign (which I dubbed 'Agents of Artifice' before that book came along and stole the name), of course, and believe you me that there were far greater tales created by the players of those bold heroes. I consider myself privileged to have had the chance to have run this campaign (believe it or not, this only took the party to level 21) and privileged to have been witness to what my players made of it. Thanks for taking the time to read it; I hope it served to inspire someone.
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1 It was actually reanimated by Orcus in a millennia-long plot to shatter the Prophecy and the destinies it foretold in order to steal the Raven Queen's hold over death and fate. The players themselves were spawned by the very interference Orcus created and were, thus, wild cards that existed beyond both the Prophecy and Orcus' plot, making them the only beings in existence capable of defeating him and setting the world right. When they defeated Orcus he was erased from all time, meaning he never reanimated the Hexarian, meaning he never set into motion those events. The final triumph of the party was that not only had they saved reality from certain collapse, they'd managed to undo the Day of Mourning in the process. Talk about your win conditions.[/spoiler]
TLDR: An aberration from Xoriat pretended to be a computer and convinced Merrix that turning Cyre into an outpost of Xoriat and blaming the Lord of Blades would scare the nations of Khorvaire into uniting, thus cutting short centuries of warfare.
So he designed a ritual that let him snag a section of physical land (from the nine hells), the spiritual body of a forest (from the feywild) and the soul of a kingdom (cyre) to combine them to make a bastion of reality and sanity in the Xoriat, where he could further his research.
The reason he chose Cyre was because it happened to be on a major leyline that connected the Feywild, Nine Hells, and Material Plane with Xoriat, so that he could rip the planes apart to make his own kingdom.
I'm hoping that "Oh I stopped a 100 year war and destroyed one of the greatest kingdom in the world? Don't flatter yourself, it was just a side-effect of my plans" helps paint the warlock as both larger then life and completely #@%$#îng insane and evil.
The players are just starting to put the puzzle-pieces together so I wonder how they'll react to the actual plan... they've been puzzling with odd crap the warlock's been doing pretty much the entire campaign (levels 1 - 8 so far) and they're getting more and more confused.
I haven't yet decided what caused the Mourning, but it's shaping up to be a major plot point in my upcoming campaign, so I suppose I should come up with something. Maybe this thread'll help me to brainstorm.
1. The giants of Xen'drik from 40k years ago wanted to transfer the souls of their elven slaves into immortal bodies. They invented a process that attunes an elven soul to a Siberys dragonshard that stores their soul in Dal Quor when they die, and the shard remains as a "pointer" to the soul. They invented the creation forges, which are planar junctions to Dal Quor that retrieve the soul based on the Siberys shard placed in an artificial body and put the elf back in it. When they started doing this, the Quori freaked out and oblierated their empire. Cannith discovered the remnants of the forge and a pile of Siberys shards and started cranking out warforged in Khorvaire, but they didn't copy the technology perfectly and the elves had no memories, making each warforged a blank slate with a soul capable of learning. Aren d'Cannith figured out that the warforged are all actually ancient elves and was excoriated when he tried to interfere. Believing that he had to prevent another Quori invasion, Aren triggered a chain reaction in all of the creation forges that turned Cyre into a massive manifest zone of Dal Quor that made everyone's nightmares become real. Aren then became the Lord of Blades, why not.
2. Cyre comissioned Riedra to create a huge eldritch machine capable of making the user's desires come true (a huge cave full of psy-crystals that amplifies psionic energy or something). Cyre intended to find someone pure of heart to use as the focus for the device and cleanse Cyre of all intruders and turn it into a paradise. A strike team from (insert your PC's home nation here) got intel that Cyre was creating a doomsday machine, so they broke into the facility and accidentally triggered the device based on the wishes of one member of the strike team who really hated Cyre for whatever reason. The result: The Mournland.
MrCelsius - Not to rain on your parade, but wasn't the daelkyr invasion long after the giant empire fell? Not that it couldn't still work, just thought it might be worth pointing out..
You're absolutely correct, of course. For some reason I always jumble up the dates of the Daelkyr War and the Quori invasion. Fortunately there's nothing in the backstory which requires that the Hexarian have come from the Daelkyr War specifically; it could have been around before that on a more minor expedition. Thanks for the correction.
Anyways, I think I've come up my own cause for the Mourning, partially inspired by Naturax's #1.
During the Giant-Quori wars, the giants turned the forges they had made to create Warforged into unique prisons for individual quori; most of the warforged-related artifacts that house Cannith discovered were actually tied to the production of quorforged.
Modern warforged work by drawing the spirit of a lesser quori into the warforged; the process 'wipes' the spirit's memory. Cannith was not aware of this, but eventually the Dreaming Dark was. The DD saw this as a possible opportunity for a means into Eberron that could simultaneously be faster and more efficient than drawing Dal Quor closer with the hanbanali, or slowly breeding Inspired vessels. The DD began slowly nudging Cannith heirs working on the warforged to develop them to ever greater degrees, trying to push them to develop vessels that would not cause a quori bound to it to lose its quori identity; the psiforged were among the later steps in that process.
Eventually, a Cannith heir discovered what was really going on with the warforged - for the purposes of this explanation, Aaren d'Cannith works, though I haven't yet decided. He grew more and more paranoid, eventually developing the belief that the war was fueled by nightmares wrought by the quori, that they were pushing the war as a means to eventually take over Khorvaire. He decided to create an eldritch machine that would dissolve the connection between warforged and the spirits bound to them, causing all warforged to de-animate, and in the process removing that many unknowing quori from the world.
The DD caught wind of his plans, and sent some inspired after him. This interference, coupled with errors in Aaren's design and his burgeoning madness, caused Aaren's machine to trigger the Mourning. It was intended to work by temporarily turning huge areas into manifest zones of Dal Quor, severing the connection between the warforged and their spirit, and then immediately closing the manifest zone, shunting the spirits back into Dal Quor. Instead, it transposed a portion of the nightmare realm onto Eberron - permanently.
The quori liked this outcome much better. For one, had the warforged been de-animated, Cannith might have been forced to give up their development, and the quori would have lost one of their largest possible footholds in the world (they were looking into the possibility of 'awakening' the quori inside an existant warforged; if such a thing were possible, the quori would have a ready-made army hundreds of thousands strong at their disposal). For another, while the Mournland is not a direct connection to Dal Quor, its acts much like an enormous hanbanali, drawing the psychic energy from within and around it and focusing it toward Dal Quor, drawing that plane ever closer to the world; this serves the quori's long-term plans much better than the warforged plot.
During the heroic tier, the plot will revolve around suspicious activity in house Cannith, crazy Emerald Claw plots, and rumors of the Lord of Blades. The paragon tier will involve a race between a number of groups to get to Aaren's machine in the Mournland; The PCs, to prevent its further use; The EC, to use it as a megaweapon to rekindle the last war; House Cannith, to prevent its use and to keep the weapon's existance a secret; and the Lord of Blades, who intends to use it to wipe all fleshy life from the continent. The epic tier will involve dealing with the inspired and the dreaming dark, who want to use the machine to create more mournlands and to draw Dal Quor close enough to Eberron to once again launch a full-scale invasion.
Personally, I haven't put forth a huge amount of thought towards it, but always liked the idea of having it be very similar to the way things work out in Watchmen. I don't really know who I would pin it on though...maybe Breland. The king, even.
WATCHMEN SPOILERS BELOW
Actually, that was the inspiration for the way mine turned out. Merrix plays the role of Ozymandias, willing to sacrifice all of Cyre to create a threat terrible enough to unite the world at war. Instead of a squid alien or Doc Manhattan being the scapegoat, he built the Lord of Blades to take the fall. The only substantive change I made was in making Merrix the catspaw of a brilliant and inhuman mind in the form of the Hexarian Engine.
I came up with the plot back when Watchmen was just a graphic novel; only one of my players had read it. By the time we were nearly to the big reveal, Watchmen was in theaters and my D&D group actually took a session off to go and see it together. I was certain they'd go 'ohhhh, I see what you did there! Merrix did it!' but nobody made the connection until after the reveal. Whew!
What I've always wondered is whether Keith Baker deliberately wrote the history of Eberron in such a way as to allow room for this particular plot. 'Great tragedy brings a mournful peace to a world at war' isn't an unheard-of turn of plot, but nor is it a common one either. One of the many facets of Mr. Baker's genius is his ability to fill out a setting which is awesome in its own right while leaving room in that world for virtually any plot imaginable; considering what a seminal work Watchmen is, I could easily see leaving a place for its plot to unfold as being a phenomenal form of homage.
howeve, I am determined to have it be that the Mourning remain a mystery to the Players and their Characters, leastways until Epic Level. =w=
I have yet to fully decide how it goes, but I am planning on making big plans for it.
In my game the Mourning had nothing really to do with the war... it was done by a Warlock who wanted to launch an attack on Xoriat. In order to preserve his sanity (haha, the biggest joke in the game... I wonder if my players will get it) he had to create some kind of foothold first...
So he designed a ritual that let him snag a section of physical land (from the nine hells), the spiritual body of a forest (from the feywild) and the soul of a kingdom (cyre) to combine them to make a bastion of reality and sanity in the Xoriat, where he could further his research.
The reason he chose Cyre was because it happened to be on a major leyline that connected the Feywild, Nine Hells, and Material Plane with Xoriat, so that he could rip the planes apart to make his own kingdom.
I'm hoping that "Oh I stopped a 100 year war and destroyed one of the greatest kingdom in the world? Don't flatter yourself, it was just a side-effect of my plans" helps paint the warlock as both larger then life and completely #@%$#îng insane and evil.
The players are just starting to put the puzzle-pieces together so I wonder how they'll react to the actual plan... they've been puzzling with odd crap the warlock's been doing pretty much the entire campaign (levels 1 - 8 so far) and they're getting more and more confused.
XD I like that! good on ya, mate! keep'em guessing, see if they start to wonder if their is any coherence in this guy's head. maybe you'll get lucky and they'll think he's some kinda genius who understands things that they don't, and they'll try to learn from him! XD
I'm hoping that "Oh I stopped a 100 year war and destroyed one of the greatest kingdom in the world? Don't flatter yourself, it was just a side-effect of my plans" helps paint the warlock as both larger then life and completely #@%$#îng insane and evil.
Oh, I like that very much. It evokes the Lovecraftian horror that the most terrible events we know of, things which shape and define our lives with their magnitude and their monstrosity, are the machinations of forces that don't even notice our suffering and wouldn't care if they did, all toward an end which is utterly beyond our capacity to truly understand. Bonus points for the fact that Xoriat is arguably not even a threat to the world any more, thus removing any hint of altruism from his war upon it.
I'm hoping that "Oh I stopped a 100 year war and destroyed one of the greatest kingdom in the world? Don't flatter yourself, it was just a side-effect of my plans" helps paint the warlock as both larger then life and completely #@%$#îng insane and evil.
Oh, I like that very much. It evokes the Lovecraftian horror that the most terrible events we know of, things which shape and define our lives with their magnitude and their monstrosity, are the machinations of forces that don't even notice our suffering and wouldn't care if they did, all toward an end which is utterly beyond our capacity to truly understand. Bonus points for the fact that Xoriat is arguably not even a threat to the world any more, thus removing any hint of altruism from his war upon it.
XD part of why I have Sanity Mechanics in my game. XD also part of why I make heavy use of Khyber Cult and Lords of Dust plots in my games.
which is going to be especially fun, because I want to paint the Silver Flame as closely to the Catholic Church as I can, including their mixed role as being one of the biggest problems in th eworld and simultaneously a nessesary force for prevnting the worst.
I realy want to make my players have to force the uncooperative Church of the Silver Flame to work together with the Gatekeepers and the Path of Light to fight off a multi-party threat of Daelkyr, Erandis Vol, the Lords of Dust, and the Dreaming Dark. ^____^ extremely Prophecy-heavy campaign, that requires a ton of Knowledge skills, and complex delicate worldly-level Intrigue.
*shrug* One of my friends doesn't like the thought of the Lords of Dust being the main repository of evil in the world, but i like it.
yeh, the Dhaelkyr are just as much deserving of being the ultimate evil in teh world (especially if you're going Lovecraftian about them), but the Overlords are generally reached through the same prisons as the Dhaelkyr; namely, Khyber.
I dunno, it just seems awesome to me. >w< but yer friend is welcome to disagree with us. XD
As for the cause of the Mourning itself, I've also never been a fan of someone actually engineering the Mourning. It always took the sting out of the event for me: It's supposed to be an event so pointlessly destructive that prompts the still-standing nations to finally come to a general cease-fire and figure out how to negotiate a durable peace. In ascribing a point to its destructiveness, be it on the behalf of the Lord of Blades, Lords of Dust, quori, or Johnny McMachinator, it seems that the emotional impact of the event is dampened. I'm currently running the Mourning as a kind of industrial accident: The Cyrans at Making were undertaking fundamental research into planar convergences using the arcane analogue of the Large Haldron Collider, something in the Astral Sea wandered into their induced convergeance zone that destabilized it, and it kind of spiraled out of control from there. (Said "something" is Eberron's thirteenth moon: The giants didn't blow it up so much as blow it into another dimension. Should the party ever want to fix the Mournland, they'll have to venture forth and dislodge the moon from the still-active convergeance zone, which in the process will shut it down and seal the essence leak into Eberron from a half-dozen planes.)
Of course, the LoD wanted to steal the power of all the bound overlords and make himself a god, so.....
Fondly remembering the good 'ol days of Bablyon Five, I always played the Dragons of Argonnessen and the Lords of Dust as the Vorlons and the Shadows, respectively. I know the analogy doesn't really fit because it's not necessarily a purely philosophical struggle (and certainly not one of Order vs Chaos), but it was the Abusive Precursors vibe I always wanted.
I do run the Mourning as if it were engineered, but never for purely military or otherwise mundane reasons. It's always for some bizarre mystical purpose by the Lords of Dust (in a roundabout way), or (even worse) it was manipulated-into-being by the Chamber to prevent something even worse from occurring. Especially because, in the most general sense you can think of, I consider the Dragons to actually be the good guys (in as much a way as that's actually possible for a setting as ambiguous as Eberron, and the Vorlon vibe is especially what I like). So, having the Designated Heroes do something so aweful (and them actually having a valid justification for it) always struck me as the sort of thing that gives me a shiver down my spine.
Fondly remembering the good 'ol days of Bablyon Five, I always played the Dragons of Argonnessen and the Lords of Dust as the Vorlons and the Shadows, respectively. I know the analogy doesn't really fit because it's not necessarily a purely philosophical struggle (and certainly not one of Order vs Chaos), but it was the Abusive Precursors vibe I always wanted.
I do run the Mourning as if it were engineered, but never for purely military or otherwise mundane reasons. It's always for some bizarre mystical purpose by the Lords of Dust (in a roundabout way), or (even worse) it was manipulated-into-being by the Chamber to prevent something even worse from occurring. Especially because, in the most general sense you can think of, I consider the Dragons to actually be the good guys (in as much a way as that's actually possible for a setting as ambiguous as Eberron, and the Vorlon vibe is especially what I like). So, having the Designated Heroes do something so aweful (and them actually having a valid justification for it) always struck me as the sort of thing that gives me a shiver down my spine.
heh. such as the entire Truth behind King Kaius? totally evil, yeh. a Vampire Warlord who treats his people like the Soviet Russia's Red Army, has his government officials (who are all warlords and royal family members) dig up graves and raise bodies as undead conscripts, enslaves Warforged, still to this day tries to subdue Halflings and Dwarves, imprisoned his own great-grandson and took over his life to rule Karrnath forever, and sent his great-granddaughter away in a peace-exchange for two of Breland's nobles and to keep her from finding out that he's not her real brother, and keeps a harem of fodder to sate his vampiric desires with.
but, it's realy all for the good of Karrnath, it's peple, and in opposition to a "monster" who's trying to become a living avatar of Death itself.
Put me down as someone who dislikes the "the Lords of Dust are responsible for everything!" trope as well. Not because it's bad: The concept is certainly interesting and fitting for an organization that has basically spent a hundred millennia plotting to free ancient evils with powers beyond mortal ken. No, my problem is that the Lords of Dust are too generic: What fantasy world doesn't have a cult or three dedicated to freeing an unspeakable ancient evil? It just seems that the Lords of Dust don't play towards Eberron's thematic strengths, which is why I tend to keep their machinating to a minimum in my games. (Admittedly, in the game I'm currently running, they got the real Keeper sent to Dreadhold five centuries ago and got the Anti-Keeeper annointed Keeper of the Flame, but their plots have been foiled by, of all things, the Anti-Keepers going native.)
As for the cause of the Mourning itself, I've also never been a fan of someone actually engineering the Mourning. It always took the sting out of the event for me: It's supposed to be an event so pointlessly destructive that prompts the still-standing nations to finally come to a general cease-fire and figure out how to negotiate a durable peace. In ascribing a point to its destructiveness, be it on the behalf of the Lord of Blades, Lords of Dust, quori, or Johnny McMachinator, it seems that the emotional impact of the event is dampened. I'm currently running the Mourning as a kind of industrial accident: The Cyrans at Making were undertaking fundamental research into planar convergences using the arcane analogue of the Large Haldron Collider, something in the Astral Sea wandered into their induced convergeance zone that destabilized it, and it kind of spiraled out of control from there. (Said "something" is Eberron's thirteenth moon: The giants didn't blow it up so much as blow it into another dimension. Should the party ever want to fix the Mournland, they'll have to venture forth and dislodge the moon from the still-active convergeance zone, which in the process will shut it down and seal the essence leak into Eberron from a half-dozen planes.)
you make a good point... though I have to say I don't agree. there are ways to keep that essence, and I mean to do just that. after all, the Mourning realy doesn't still carry it's weight if it isn't at least viewed as a disaster brought about by an escalating arms race. I fully intend the action of the Mourning to be the doing of members of the Five Nations (prefferably Thrane). just that the Lords of Dust were the ones who manipulated them to cause it. remember, the Lords of Dust use the Light Touch method most of the time. their schemes and conspiracies take centuries to fully play out, or even just to begin.
Fondly remembering the good 'ol days of Bablyon Five, I always played the Dragons of Argonnessen and the Lords of Dust as the Vorlons and the Shadows, respectively. I know the analogy doesn't really fit because it's not necessarily a purely philosophical struggle (and certainly not one of Order vs Chaos), but it was the Abusive Precursors vibe I always wanted.
Fits my idea on these two groups a bit better as well. If the Lords of Dust were really all that interested in liberating their own, than they are either the most incompetent group in the world (never having succeeded in millenia) or the Chamber is extremely competent. I dislike incompetent villains, and if the Chamber is extremly competent you get to wonder what the role of the PCs is. So instead I see these two forces as not even really caring (yet) about liberating the big ones. Playing with those mortals is much more fun than returning to some ancient day of monsters with no real mental challenge to keep you occupied ;)
Mind you, as a player I am also having difficulties with liking complicated wheel-within-wheel plots that involve hunderds of contingencies and that cover millenia. I always remember the Foundation novels by Aasimov when thinking about these things (and Murphies Law). There is no such thing as a perfect plan. If a plan covers eternity it is bound to fail and not due to some random hero, but simply due to bad luck. From a D&D campaign perspective it is also pointless since they require a lot of work from the DM to make them work, and either your players never learn about them making the work pointless, or they do, in which case more than likely the plot had some serious flaws, or they end up feeling as a cotcha to the players (there is nothing that I dislike as a player more than doing something apparently good, and then be told it was really something bad due to some convulted trigger event).
Mind you, as a player I am also having difficulties with liking complicated wheel-within-wheel plots that involve hunderds of contingencies and that cover millenia. I always remember the Foundation novels by Aasimov when thinking about these things (and Murphies Law). There is no such thing as a perfect plan. If a plan covers eternity it is bound to fail and not due to some random hero, but simply due to bad luck. From a D&D campaign perspective it is also pointless since they require a lot of work from the DM to make them work, and either your players never learn about them making the work pointless, or they do, in which case more than likely the plot had some serious flaws, or they end up feeling as a cotcha to the players (there is nothing that I dislike as a player more than doing something apparently good, and then be told it was really something bad due to some convulted trigger event).
My attitude about the wheels-within-wheels aspect is simple; there aren't any. It's an elaborate perception that's been cultivated over millenia (possibly intentionally). Most successful plans are based on opportunism, not careful engineering of events. I play the Lords of Dust and the Chamber in exactly the same way. Their strength comes in being able to identify targets of opportunity and discern in a very general way the possible repercussions of the dominoe they are about to tip over.
Ever heard of the Magician's Choice? If your "plan" is capable of being changed to fit the circumstances, it could very well appear to the (completely mystified) onlooker as if you planned the whole thing from the beginning. I am fully into the idea that the Lords of Dust and the Chamber are actively engaging in manipulating the perception of themselves in the eyes of the more learned of the younger races.
imagine, if you will, the idea that the Lords of Dust and the Chamber have been gathering information about the prophesy and studying voraciously. they meet in councils and congresses regularly to share with eachother within their respective circles what they have learned.
now, they have an understanding of a larger picture of the universe than most mortals, but still not complete by far. they know that they have goals that require certain parts of the prophesy to come to pass, and there are various connections between the contingencies which can turn on and off the possibilities of any given event happening.
they have to be opportunists to trigger ANY event and knock over ANY dominoe... however, they are carefully trying to detect and recognize WHICH of those dominoes they want to see tipped and which they want to have prevented. so they are actively working to guide opportunity in their favour.
see? it's very much like a game of Chess, mixed with a game of Backgammon, and possibly also mixed with a game of Poker.
you make a good point... though I have to say I don't agree. there are ways to keep that essence, and I mean to do just that. after all, the Mourning realy doesn't still carry it's weight if it isn't at least viewed as a disaster brought about by an escalating arms race. I fully intend the action of the Mourning to be the doing of members of the Five Nations (prefferably Thrane). just that the Lords of Dust were the ones who manipulated them to cause it. remember, the Lords of Dust use the Light Touch method most of the time. their schemes and conspiracies take centuries to fully play out, or even just to begin.
The Mourning being a product of an ever-escalating arms race seeking ever more destruction weaponry is a somber and moving motif: I admit, the first time I read about the Mourning, my first response was to harken back to the fears of the Manhattan Project prior to the Trinity test about the atmopshere igniting. The problem is that I've never really seen much in the sourcebooks that give such a reading on events much credibility. Forge of War goes out of its way to discourage such a take, in fact, though I'm not sure whether that was a conscious aesthetic choice or simply because the authors were operating under the military version of Fantasy Writers Have No Sense of Scale. But, as this is your own personal canon, run with it: It can be a fun motif to kick around.
As said above, I like the Mourning more as an act of God than anything else: Something whose destruction penetrates the depths of the other combatants' psyches and reminds them of the common bonds of culture that bind them, even after a century of fighting. Why it's called the Mourning is important, I think. Had it been in Thrane, or Karrnath, or anywhere else, it would be called "the Graying", "Day of the Deadly Mists", or some such, something defined by the physical event or the immense loss of life. What the Mourning's name is defined by is not the physical act or the deaths themselves, but a feeling of loss: For the dead to be sure, but more importantly, for all that Cyre constituted to the shared history and civilization of the Five Nations. It is that loss of a foundation of the civilization of Galifar and the Five Nations that I use as the basis for the general cease-fire which, in turn, gave way to the Thronehold Accords. Just think the narrative is more forceful than that of an arms race gone wrong.
I prefer that the Thronehold treaty was a result of the Mourning not because it "penetrates the depths of the other combatants' psyches and reminds them of the common bonds of culture that bind them" ... I prefer that the remaining leaders all went 'oh, CRAP, that could happen to US next'. They didn't care at all about unity or whatever; it was about self-preservation ... and being able to divert resources into, perhaps, trying to find their own Mourning-Maker before anybody else does.
I feel obliged to point that, under such a scenario, you don't get to Thronehold from the Mourning. Assuming the response you postulate, there's an immediate cease-fire and then...what, exactly? From the perspective of a combatant nation, it's to be expected that whoever pulled off the Mourning is going to immediately take credit for such and begin making demands. When that someone doesn't come forward, a combatant will start drawing conclusions: It had to be something the Cyrans did to themselves, or otherwise something not repeatable by the other combatants, lest they be trumpeted their ability to do so. At that point you're left with no incentive to talk about ratifying an end to conflict and every incentive to seize the initiative before your other combatants do.
Self-preservation won't get you very far without either: 1) Impressive diplomatic maneuvering; or 2) some level of altruism catalyzed by the Mourning.
* The Shadow's plan was very simple: if there are two universes, one devoid of life and therefore competitors, and you become the supreme lord of that universe, you will have n quantity of power, where n is equal to all of the magical power in the universe, and a divine rank of 21+. If you then merge the two universes back together, you will retain n quantity of power, which means you have as much magical power as the rest of the entire universe combined, and a divine rank higher than any other god. Easily enough power to consume your competitors and take control of the true Eberron.
look, I'm just saying that the Mourning makes me think more of the Treaty that the U.S. has with Russia than it does Independence Day starring Will Smith, ya know? it was a century-long war for control over the Empire, it escalated, smeone though "haha! now I have the edge!" they used it, BOOM! ... silence.
"...****. we're NEVER doing that again." all hands agreed, Kius comes back from his Vampiric Hiatus, sees the same thing as everyone else. "yup, let's wrap this sucker up!"
I mean.. the whol epoint of the Eberron setting is that STILL nobody realy wants to let the other nations govern themselves. they all miss Galifar, but they also all want to see THEIR people in power. the only thing that keeps them from going back to war is the fear of the Mourning.
In one of my campaigns (and my players know that nothing in one campaign is canon in the next, though bits and pieces might crossover) I made there be a Mirror Mirror universe for Eberron, where the entire world was covered in one massive Mournland. The silver mists were simply one massive portal to the Mirror world, created by The Shadow in a gambit to try and become lord and master over the entire universe*; thus, Cyre was intact and whole and all that, and people only THOUGHT it was dead because whenever they went toward the Mournland, they entered this bleak demiplane, and every time they left the Mournland they entered the real world.
* The Shadow's plan was very simple: if there are two universes, one devoid of life and therefore competitors, and you become the supreme lord of that universe, you will have n quantity of power, where n is equal to all of the magical power in the universe, and a divine rank of 21+. If you then merge the two universes back together, you will retain n quantity of power, which means you have as much magical power as the rest of the entire universe combined, and a divine rank higher than any other god. Easily enough power to consume your competitors and take control of the true Eberron.
hey, I realy like that idea! :D nice one! the Shadow doesn't get enough limelight, and he's an interesting character to be sure. the whole idea of giving him his own narrative lik ethat is genius.
I'm avoiding bringing the Gods into ANY direct poition with the setting that can be noticed by mortals. I've played Forgotten Realms and DMed that for 11 years, been there done that, see? so it's good to see that someone else will pick up that slack for me. XD
In one of my campaigns (and my players know that nothing in one campaign is canon in the next, though bits and pieces might crossover) I made there be a Mirror Mirror universe for Eberron, where the entire world was covered in one massive Mournland. The silver mists were simply one massive portal to the Mirror world, created by The Shadow in a gambit to try and become lord and master over the entire universe*; thus, Cyre was intact and whole and all that, and people only THOUGHT it was dead because whenever they went toward the Mournland, they entered this bleak demiplane, and every time they left the Mournland they entered the real world.
* The Shadow's plan was very simple: if there are two universes, one devoid of life and therefore competitors, and you become the supreme lord of that universe, you will have n quantity of power, where n is equal to all of the magical power in the universe, and a divine rank of 21+. If you then merge the two universes back together, you will retain n quantity of power, which means you have as much magical power as the rest of the entire universe combined, and a divine rank higher than any other god. Easily enough power to consume your competitors and take control of the true Eberron.
hey, I realy like that idea! :D nice one! the Shadow doesn't get enough limelight, and he's an interesting character to be sure. the whole idea of giving him his own narrative lik ethat is genius.
I'm avoiding bringing the Gods into ANY direct poition with the setting that can be noticed by mortals. I've played Forgotten Realms and DMed that for 11 years, been there done that, see? so it's good to see that someone else will pick up that slack for me. XD
Divine intervention is definitely not a common thing in my campaign; I only chose The Shadow because (besides the fact it makes sense he'd have a mirror universe, being, well, The Shadow) it was an extremely dramatic reveal to the players to discover not only were they in an alternate world, but the gods actually exist and plot against each other! Double wammy! Third wammy was when I told the players that they were the 'evil twins' native to the alternate plane--that the true party of adventurers famous throughout the real world are villains and terrorists (flipping the concept of 'evil opposite' on its head when the PCs are the good opposites, and that their lives had no real meaning or history in the real world :P)
But yeah. It's definitely not a trick I pull out that often, but using a God as the main antagonist of a campaign is definitely a head-turner if you do it rarely enough.
Same with most villains, really. The frequency at which the villain tries to take over the world is inversely proportional to how scary and surprising his reveal is... evil necromancer who's been antagonizing the party since level 1? Meh, kind of scary. Oh **** the Lords of Dust were behind everything? Who are they what's happening I don't know what's going on...
Or, best of all (and probably best pulled on an adventuring party only once per real-life year, if that often) is the Chamber being behind the major villainous plot the party has been fighting against. The greater good versus the immediate good... adding that sudden moral dilemma to the surprise of a horde of Good dragons trying to kill them...
It's the surprises and rarely-picked villains which can make a game great. That's why I'm glad Eberron has so many damn villains in it
I'm avoiding bringing the Gods into ANY direct poition with the setting that can be noticed by mortals. I've played Forgotten Realms and DMed that for 11 years, been there done that, see? so it's good to see that someone else will pick up that slack for me. XD
Oh, you poor thing. The pantheons of the Realms send someone down every other week to harrass their worshippers for one reason or another. At least that was gist I always got. Though my exposure to the Realms comes almost exclusively from running City of the Spider Queen which, wouldn't you know it, features a ridiculously circuitous plan by Kiaransalee to take over the cosmos. (I can't quite remember all of it, but the vague outline of it was: Campaign BBEG and epic priestess of Kiaransalee summons Undying Temple to Faerun --> Creates super-duper revenant-creation spell -- Creates army of revenants --> Invades surface world and battles through enemy armies --> Uses spell to create more revenants from the bodies of the opposing army's dead --> Cycle repeats until other gods are dead due to a distinct lack of worshippers.)
I'm avoiding bringing the Gods into ANY direct poition with the setting that can be noticed by mortals. I've played Forgotten Realms and DMed that for 11 years, been there done that, see? so it's good to see that someone else will pick up that slack for me. XD
Oh, you poor thing. The pantheons of the Realms send someone down every other week to harrass their worshippers for one reason or another. At least that was gist I always got. Though my exposure to the Realms comes almost exclusively from running City of the Spider Queen which, wouldn't you know it, features a ridiculously circuitous plan by Kiaransalee to take over the cosmos. (I can't quite remember all of it, but the vague outline of it was: Campaign BBEG and epic priestess of Kiaransalee summons Undying Temple to Faerun --> Creates super-duper revenant-creation spell -- Creates army of revenants --> Invades surface world and battles through enemy armies --> Uses spell to create more revenants from the bodies of the opposing army's dead --> Cycle repeats until other gods are dead due to a distinct lack of worshippers.)
XD yeh, every adventure is lik ethat. there's Sons of Gruumsh, too, have you read thorugh that one? XD the plot is as follows:
Cleric of Gruumsh takes over a tower, begin srecruiting tribs of orcs and wandering Ogres (and an Orog or two), uses a powerful Artifact to justify his leadership, and tries to use some ritual to open a Gate to send in various Demons along with the Orc Pantheon to tak eover Faerun.
it gets realy stale realy fast. FR is a setting where litterally EVERYTHING is explained by Magic or Divine INtervention... even when that's just needlessly overcomplicated and a perfectly mundane reason could have been pulled at random and still fit better.
so yeh. XD we had many good times though.
In one of my campaigns (and my players know that nothing in one campaign is canon in the next, though bits and pieces might crossover) I made there be a Mirror Mirror universe for Eberron, where the entire world was covered in one massive Mournland. The silver mists were simply one massive portal to the Mirror world, created by The Shadow in a gambit to try and become lord and master over the entire universe*; thus, Cyre was intact and whole and all that, and people only THOUGHT it was dead because whenever they went toward the Mournland, they entered this bleak demiplane, and every time they left the Mournland they entered the real world.
* The Shadow's plan was very simple: if there are two universes, one devoid of life and therefore competitors, and you become the supreme lord of that universe, you will have n quantity of power, where n is equal to all of the magical power in the universe, and a divine rank of 21+. If you then merge the two universes back together, you will retain n quantity of power, which means you have as much magical power as the rest of the entire universe combined, and a divine rank higher than any other god. Easily enough power to consume your competitors and take control of the true Eberron.
hey, I realy like that idea! :D nice one! the Shadow doesn't get enough limelight, and he's an interesting character to be sure. the whole idea of giving him his own narrative lik ethat is genius.
I'm avoiding bringing the Gods into ANY direct poition with the setting that can be noticed by mortals. I've played Forgotten Realms and DMed that for 11 years, been there done that, see? so it's good to see that someone else will pick up that slack for me. XD
Divine intervention is definitely not a common thing in my campaign; I only chose The Shadow because (besides the fact it makes sense he'd have a mirror universe, being, well, The Shadow) it was an extremely dramatic reveal to the players to discover not only were they in an alternate world, but the gods actually exist and plot against each other! Double wammy! Third wammy was when I told the players that they were the 'evil twins' native to the alternate plane--that the true party of adventurers famous throughout the real world are villains and terrorists (flipping the concept of 'evil opposite' on its head when the PCs are the good opposites, and that their lives had no real meaning or history in the real world :P)
But yeah. It's definitely not a trick I pull out that often, but using a God as the main antagonist of a campaign is definitely a head-turner if you do it rarely enough.
Same with most villains, really. The frequency at which the villain tries to take over the world is inversely proportional to how scary and surprising his reveal is... evil necromancer who's been antagonizing the party since level 1? Meh, kind of scary. Oh **** the Lords of Dust were behind everything? Who are they what's happening I don't know what's going on...
Or, best of all (and probably best pulled on an adventuring party only once per real-life year, if that often) is the Chamber being behind the major villainous plot the party has been fighting against. The greater good versus the immediate good... adding that sudden moral dilemma to the surprise of a horde of Good dragons trying to kill them...
It's the surprises and rarely-picked villains which can make a game great. That's why I'm glad Eberron has so many damn villains in it
heheh... I love the psychological effect that has... but realy, on a philisphical level, I like to think of it as the whole "Evil Twin" thing is relative. that is to say, that they are the "Evil Twins" to the other side, but the other side is also a Mirror to them, and their alternate selves are still "Evil Twins" to them. the only reason they think otherwise is because of what they ar etold.
=w= no need to include that to them, but I just thought I'd share.
In one of my campaigns (and my players know that nothing in one campaign is canon in the next, though bits and pieces might crossover) I made there be a Mirror Mirror universe for Eberron, where the entire world was covered in one massive Mournland. The silver mists were simply one massive portal to the Mirror world, created by The Shadow in a gambit to try and become lord and master over the entire universe*; thus, Cyre was intact and whole and all that, and people only THOUGHT it was dead because whenever they went toward the Mournland, they entered this bleak demiplane, and every time they left the Mournland they entered the real world.
* The Shadow's plan was very simple: if there are two universes, one devoid of life and therefore competitors, and you become the supreme lord of that universe, you will have n quantity of power, where n is equal to all of the magical power in the universe, and a divine rank of 21+. If you then merge the two universes back together, you will retain n quantity of power, which means you have as much magical power as the rest of the entire universe combined, and a divine rank higher than any other god. Easily enough power to consume your competitors and take control of the true Eberron.
hey, I realy like that idea! :D nice one! the Shadow doesn't get enough limelight, and he's an interesting character to be sure. the whole idea of giving him his own narrative lik ethat is genius.
I'm avoiding bringing the Gods into ANY direct poition with the setting that can be noticed by mortals. I've played Forgotten Realms and DMed that for 11 years, been there done that, see? so it's good to see that someone else will pick up that slack for me. XD
Divine intervention is definitely not a common thing in my campaign; I only chose The Shadow because (besides the fact it makes sense he'd have a mirror universe, being, well, The Shadow) it was an extremely dramatic reveal to the players to discover not only were they in an alternate world, but the gods actually exist and plot against each other! Double wammy! Third wammy was when I told the players that they were the 'evil twins' native to the alternate plane--that the true party of adventurers famous throughout the real world are villains and terrorists (flipping the concept of 'evil opposite' on its head when the PCs are the good opposites, and that their lives had no real meaning or history in the real world :P)
But yeah. It's definitely not a trick I pull out that often, but using a God as the main antagonist of a campaign is definitely a head-turner if you do it rarely enough.
Same with most villains, really. The frequency at which the villain tries to take over the world is inversely proportional to how scary and surprising his reveal is... evil necromancer who's been antagonizing the party since level 1? Meh, kind of scary. Oh **** the Lords of Dust were behind everything? Who are they what's happening I don't know what's going on...
Or, best of all (and probably best pulled on an adventuring party only once per real-life year, if that often) is the Chamber being behind the major villainous plot the party has been fighting against. The greater good versus the immediate good... adding that sudden moral dilemma to the surprise of a horde of Good dragons trying to kill them...
It's the surprises and rarely-picked villains which can make a game great. That's why I'm glad Eberron has so many damn villains in it
heheh... I love the psychological effect that has... but realy, on a philisphical level, I like to think of it as the whole "Evil Twin" thing is relative. that is to say, that they are the "Evil Twins" to the other side, but the other side is also a Mirror to them, and their alternate selves are still "Evil Twins" to them. the only reason they think otherwise is because of what they ar etold.
=w= no need to include that to them, but I just thought I'd share.
Well, it's a bit too late to talk philosophy with that group, they ended that campaign years ago with a spectacular finish. But yeah, it was a pretty good mind-**** at the time :P
was deleting my comments realy nessesary? >.> just saying what you did right here would have sufficed, I wouldn't have repeated the offense. I take my writings very personally, each letter I type is my creation! I deserve copyrights in my opinion!
I REALY hate having my posts deleted. =.=
.....
was deleting my comments realy nessesary? >.> just saying what you did right here would have sufficed, I wouldn't have repeated the offense. I take my writings very personally, each letter I type is my creation! I deserve copyrights in my opinion!
I REALY hate having my posts deleted. =.=
Huh? Was that directed at me? I cannot edit/delite stuff on these boards, and I certainly did not alert the Orcs about these posts. In fact, if a post is modified it says so and yours don't contain that line. So I am not sure what you are referring to...
I trust what you say is true... so, yeh. no hard feelings then. but yeh... I am confused as to how this happened now.
THE LORDS OF DUST/THE CHAMBER/THE DAUGHTERS OF SORA KELL/THE DREAMING DARK.
It's obvious.
THE LORDS OF DUST/THE CHAMBER/THE DAUGHTERS OF SORA KELL/THE DREAMING DARK.
Or the Blood of Vol!
Or the Aurum.
Or the Trust.
Or a pandimensional being that inhabits the body of a mouse.
Or a pandimensional being that inhabits the body of a mouse.
We call it.....Mickey.
XD I sense a DM plot coming near.
seriously, if ANY of those groups/individuals get their hands on it, the game could realy take an interesting spin... the entire setting could be dramatically changed, and that would make way for a whole HOST of new Adventures, or even a new Campaign! :D
In my campaign Eberron occupies a unique position in the universe. It is located at the edge of the material plane, where the Astral Sea, Material plane and Elemental chaos intersect, and on the border of the Far Realm. During the Dawn War the Gods were forced to make some tough choices regarding Eberron because of its unique location. It was eventually decided that three gods (Kyber, Syberis and Eberron) would travel to Eberron and seal it away from the rest of the universe, as it was considered too dangerous a conduit from the Elemental Chaos.
For thousands of years Eberron has existed in this bubble. Occasionally creature's from the Far Realm or the Elemental Chaos find a temporary way to enter the realm, but for the most part it is safe from such events. The world was shut off from the influence of the gods, and eventually powerful creatures attained the power of demigods and the population formed religions to worship these entities. When a Demigod reaches sufficient power it is able to traverse the barrier to the Astral Sea, but such a trip is a one way voyage, and their role in the Eberron pantheon is taken up by a new Demigod.
This all changed on the Day of Mourning. Someone, or something seeking the power to strike a final blow in the last war has torn a hole in the barrier between Eberron and the Astral Sea. This cataclysmic event tore the soul from every living creature in the Mournlands and cast them adrift in the Astral Sea. Only the Warforged were spared, because they had no soul to cast adrift. The Astral Sea is now leaking into the Mournlands. The mists found there are actually the stuff of the Astral Sea.
The greater gods are begining to influence events on Eberron, though their influence is still limited, and so far the lesser gods haven't been able to exert influence at all. Cults to deity's such as The Raven Queen, Pelor and Asmodeus are begining to spring up.
Trying times are ahead for Eberron, and many questions remain to be asked. Is the hole going to expand? What will happen when the traditional religions and those of the newly discovered gods clash? Will the Warforged be able to gain a soul now that they are exposed to the influence of the gods? Who tore the hole in the realm, and can they do it again?
which could work. Construct Type, an Intelligence Score (being Artifical Intelligence, since they have no Soul), Charisma automatically 1, and then take away the Construct Immunity to Mind-Effecting Effects.
just felt the need to say all that. one ofthe things I personally lik ehe best about Warforged is that they DO have a Soul and Sentience.
:/ now, I know you said your Campaign differs from Canon... and it is totally up to you to keep your changes.. but personally, I'm kinda iffy about the Warforged "not having Souls" bit. they do in Canon material, in case you thought otherwise. that's why they are Living Constructs; they are effected by Death Effects, Necromancy, Energy Drain, Ability Drain, Ability Damage, etcetera. they can be BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE (that means, their SOUL can be retrieved)... to say that the Warforged have no Soul is essentially the same as just taking away their Living Contruct type and traits, and just making them Intelligent Constructs.
which could work. Construct Type, an Intelligence Score (being Artifical Intelligence, since they have no Soul), Charisma automatically 1, and then take away the Construct Immunity to Mind-Effecting Effects.
just felt the need to say all that. one ofthe things I personally lik ehe best about Warforged is that they DO have a Soul and Sentience.
Incorrect. There's a big difference between the definition of 'canon' and the definition of '**** I make up because it seems logical to me'
The canon of Eberron is that it's unknown whether they have souls. Seriously. House Cannith and Thrane petitioned against their emancipation on that very premise. Breland argued that they aren't immune to resurrection magic, and therefore have souls, though Cannith/Thrane countered that unlike living creatures, warforged who have died and been brought back have never reported seeing the afterlife, and no planar travelers have ever seen warforged souls in Dolurrh.
Also, they're immune to energy drain--they don't have a soul to suck or enervate is the argument as to why that's the case.
And I would point out that resurrection magic heals you to full hit points in addition to bringing your soul back. If used on a creature without a soul, it would simply fully repair their bodies and their conciousness would come back with it as a pure part of their body, and the spell would work in either case.
"In the end, the Question of Souls, as that portion of the negotiations came to be known, was left unanswered. ... Today many people continue to think of warforged as creatures without souls, and citizens of Thrane often refer to warforged as 'the soulless' (Page 16, Races of Eberron)"
actually, that makes it even MORE intriguing! :D that's quite the perplexing evidence to decypher, aye? ^.^
if it helps at all, though... the followers of the Becoming God believe that they have Souls, and that the strength of their Souls is directly tied to the Strength of their Bodies.
Generally, I'd say that is the right idea, if it is a mystery, keep it as mystery would be my attitude. But if in a campaign a key turning point is the mission of the PCs to stop the Day of Mourning - which they are sent to do by a Rakhasa - I think I have to give an explanation of what exactly caused it. In regards to that, the explanation that most made sense to me was the Gorgon making a deal with the Keeper (oh, gods are real in my campaign, but they don't necessarily have 'god-like powers' so to speak). The Warforged are inhabited by simply dead souls from Dolurrh. Initially he offered up his soul, but the Keeper decided that wasn't enough in exchange for what he was receiving, and so demanded "the soul of a nation". How the Keeper destroyed Cyre I'm not certain of yet, but I think it might be something to do with breaking an ancient dimensional seal to Kythri, but then restoring it right after, so basically Cyre only suffered the explosion of its release (and so Cyre remained inhabitable by the Warforged). The reason the Warforged survived and survive today (and perhaps why Merrix's creation forge still runs) is because the Warforged have an inherent inter-dimensional tie to Dolurrh, and the Keeper likes this.
Inspired by this trope, I'm thinking that just as the various people around the entirety of Eberron have thought, the Mourning was the setting off of a weapon of disastrous proportions. However, no nation could lay claim to this weapon's production or use; rather, the Mourning was merely part of the initial tests of the said weapon, which has been continuously tested on various planets and planes. The being(s) responsible for such a weapon would be developing this weapon to deal with a war much greater than even that of the Last War... although it is likely that whoever is responsible has gone well past the point of insanity, because of the possibility that this weapon could end not just all wars, but all life forms -- even deific life forms.
So for everyone else, the Mourning was a disaster of horrific proportions... but for them, it was a Tuesday just another day at the office.
tl;dr: Mourning = (Arcane) Nuclear Holocaust, and some mad scientist/organization/whatever that is not of Eberron is trying to make a suitcase version for use in any and every plane and dimension of existence.
EDIT: It'd be funny if the people behind this Mourning to be manipulating the Lords of Dust -- specifically the Shadow of the Flame -- who, in turn, are manipulating entire nations to do their bidding, and eventually the chain of events spiral down to the little folk (including the level 1 PCs).
So, thoughts?
Zorlan wanted to secure his place as head of his household and House Thuranni wanted to devestate House Phiarlin. They used an unfinished device stolen by Ashrem D' Cannith- an arcane creation for war that the artificer abandoned in favor of trying to bring peace to the lands. Many people blamed Ash and his mysterious creation The Legacy but the Legacy was not a device for war like the one stolen from him. Instead it was a magical way to tap into the power of the Dragon's Eye and shift Cyre into a state of stasis until heroes could discover the truth and bring the nation back.
That's the broad brush of my campaign.
1) The creation forges had to pull a soul from the shadowfell to finish each warforged. Each one is basically a reincarnated humanoid who doesn't remember the previous life.
2) To do this, the forges needed some kind of connection to the Shadowfell.
3) When the Genesis Forge overloaded, it tore a huge planar rift and created the manifest zone.
4) Because the Feywild is also co-existent with Eberron, the Feyspires were also affected.
5) This is the true reason why the Warforged were given their freedom and the creation forges were shut down. Someone in House Cannith knew all this, and pulled strings to get the relevant bits into the Treaty of Thronehold.
One night, as these things happen, it all went straight to the shadowfell. Anyone who knows what happened was incinerated in the initial blast, but the effects are evident. The Lord of Blades may (or may not) be the last survivor in a new form, and he has plans for all that forgotten technology.
I decided that it was the Genesis Forge exploding. My theory is that the Mournland is basically one giant Shadowfell manifest zone.
I really like this idea. Props