With the dragonborn rebelling in Abeir, the dragon-lords were fearful that they would eventually lose all of their loyal servants. Especially with the success of Tymanchebar. As such one dragon-lord created Warforged as a force to fight the rebellious dragonborn. When part of Tymanchebar moved into Toril, so did some of the Warforged who had been engaged in battle with the rebel dragonborn. It took a couple of months for the Warforged to realize what had happened, during which time they continued to engage in war with the Dragonborn. However once they realised they had lost contact with Abeir and their world, they were unsure what to do.
A truce was eventually called with the Tymanchebar dragonborn, as the Warforged were at a loss on how to proceed. Some liked the idea of having unexpectedly attained freedom, while others searched desperately for a way to return to Abeir. Over the decades most of the Warforged have made their peace with the Tymanther dragonborn and are welcome within their Djerad Thymar which has the largest concentration of Warforged. In recent years the Warforged have begun to grow concerned over the fact that they could very well be the last of their kind on Toril with some searching for ways to create more of their kind.
--
What do people think? And how are others thinking of adding the Warforged to the Forgotten Realms? For those who don't want to, I of course don't expect you to. But I personally think the more races the better
Others will tell you about the Bloodforged of the Utter East. That's also great stuff, they appear in Grand History of the Realms, it's a great book if you plan to make one or more long campaigns in the Realms.
- Yours of course with the advantage that it doesn´t contradict any canon.
- When several weeks after Lantan was destroyed a number of golemlike creatures with humanlike intelligence appeared on the sword coast. They have no memory how and why they were created - but it´s specualted that they were created when the spellplague with a dormant army of golems. It´s unknown who or why keep such a large dangeraus force hidden, but the constructs proved to be very effective in battle so far and a number of them have found their place in the military.
Some of the creatures startet to show traits usually associated with gnomes but the creatures are silent on the matter.
- An arcanist came from Eberron and started to create new warforged so he can one day return and destroy his enemies left behind. After creating several hundred warforged (and testing them on seveal tribes of orcs and ogers) he was just about ready to return - and the spellplague hit. Not unlike Waterdeeps statues the warforged went berserk and ripped their creators to pieces.
Bel
I plan to use Warforged for armor stands in arms & armor stores.
Bel
Shame on you thats the helmed horrors job. ;)
Use of the Bloodforged would be a great idea and would make use of lore already in the Realms. Perhaps a lost cache could have been animated and given sentience during the spell plague or perhaps a long hidden factory was activated somewhere and started pumping out new "Bloodforged".
I am not sure it it could be classified as a source of lore but years ago there was a Golem character in one of the old Forgotten Realms Comics so i say go hard. My only suggestion is make sure that you do not give too many choices for race and class combinations as it will make it more difficult to sculpt out a balanced campaign.
I plan to use Warforged for armor stands in arms & armor stores.
Bel
-Armor fashion shows.
Right now I planning on making them pretty rare, if not unique to the PC who wants to play one and using the World Serpent Inn to get them to the Realms.
HA! Now that's an interesting idea
Plugging into that idea: the PC's Warforged could have reached the World Serpent Inn from the future which has been destroyed completely by war with Abeir which has become extremely easy to travel to and from.Or that might sound a bit too much like Terminator ;)
- When several weeks after Lantan was destroyed a number of golemlike creatures with humanlike intelligence appeared on the sword coast. They have no memory how and why they were created - but it´s specualted that they were created when the spellplague with a dormant army of golems. It´s unknown who or why keep such a large dangeraus force hidden, but the constructs proved to be very effective in battle so far and a number of them have found their place in the military.
Some of the creatures startet to show traits usually associated with gnomes but the creatures are silent on the matter.
Yeah I'd tinkered with something like that (because I quite like the sound of Lantan and might be tempted to say it didn't get destroyed as either my own personal retcon or them having survived beneath the ocean in underwater cities), but it didn't fit in with what my player wanted.
Thus you would have the Leaders in Warforged bodies trying to recreate their ancient realm. The Witches of Rashemen would be ****** off at the PC's. The Durthans manipulated the PC's into opening the door. :D 18DELTA
Maybe they were made on purpose, maybe a factory was hit by the Spellplague and crazy stuff happened, nobody knows for sure.
I wouldn't add them. They are uniquely eberronian
So was the Mournland. At least thats what Halruaa thought.
The Warforged is a regular construct or golemn like many you would find in Faerûn. The construct was owned by a wizard around the time of the spellplague. The wizard was killed by the spellplague, and part or all of his/her consciousness was fuzed with the construct. You might decide that the wizard was actually in the process of animating the golemn at the time the spellplague occurred, and that the interruption of the spell by the undoing of the weave caused part of the consciousness to flow into the golemn. Or, it could have just been proximity of the wizard and the golemn. This might be similar to how the Sharn were created. The player could decide how much, if any, of the memories and personality of the wizard that the newly formed consciousness retains.
There's also the terracotta warriors buried in various Kara-Tur locales, such as Kuo Meilan and Tempat Larang. They might be a bit more clay golem, but it all works.
This also explains the diminished numbers of gnomes in Faerun! :D
I'm even toying with the idea of one of them forging an Asmodean pact and becoming powerful evil warlock and would-be conqueror. He hates all "fleshlings" and wants to subjugate them under his literal iron fist. His name is only Doom.
18DELTA
-Don't forget about Trobriand the Metal Mage from Undermountain!
18DELTA
That's what I was thinking. Quite a few of his creations had already become sentient on their own and there has been mention of his "children" operating "repair shops" inside Undermountain. With everything going wonky in UM, there's a real possibility that some fo these creations have wandered out (through portals and such).
The other option (posted above) about being creations of Lantan is another easily used plan (and allows for greater numbers of Warforged). Depending on the frequency of use, I could see there being quite a few artificers who were interested in extending their conciousness into an automaton (for a variety of reasons...underwater exploration for example) and ended up trapped there (with little or no memory of who they once were).
-One idea I had awhile back for a 3E game was to have the Warforged be constructs of The Ruamanthari Empire from the War with Narfell. What better way to fight demons than with golems. When the Ruamathari Empire collapsed contingency magic put the life forces of the Ruamanthari Leaders into the Constructs creating Warforged. Yet they were sealed and in stasis off for thousand years or however long, that is until the PC's open the door.
18DELTA
"The Warforged - Tomb of the Golememporer" :D
-Golemporor is a title so amazing that I think I am going to have to write a story to explain it's meaning in my own setting...
Since it's been mentioned numerous times in books like AGHotR that constructs from the doomed nation of Raumathar still haunt many of that land's underground ruins & vaults, I think the best way to introduce warforged into the 4e Realms is to make them Raumathari contructs that never had the chance to see use against the demonbinders of Narfell. Held in stasis for centuries since the catastrophic war that detroyed both nations, the events of the Spellplague not only freed them, but somehow imbued them with sentience & free will. Now, decades later, they've spread out from the East until the point where they can be found throughout Faerun.
If you think about it, this way they could have all the same "created for war" flavor as they do in Eberron, only without all the prejudice against them. They get a clean slate & a near-seamless way of introducing them to the world.
I mean, golems have been around forever. I don't see a need to make room for a whole entire race for what is effectively a Golem.
It is my intention on Warforged to be individual creations, maybe unique to each player, having been created by some Wizard, and then kicked out the door for whatever purpose.
I mean, golems have been around forever. I don't see a need to make room for a whole entire race for what is effectively a Golem.
Agreed, on all points. That's how I'd do it.
-I was wondering about the psionic race from Eberron (I don't remember their name right now). Could they be descendents of the Psionic Kingdom that the Elves destroyed to make the Vilhon Reach?
-Re-enters lurk mode.
18DELTA
I don't know much about them, apart from the basics. But they certainly could be. They might be the result of a special transformation performed by the Jhaamdathans, like the Elan. Maybe the possessing spirit has survived down through the millennia since Jhaamdath, passing from host to host and gifting them with knowledge and power. You could tie the Plane of Dreams stuff into Auppenser's comatose state; as the god sleeps, he dreams, and the figments of his mind come to life.
Alternatively, to preserve as much of the race's flavour and backstory as possible, you could place Adar itself into the Yehimals, where their mysticism links in well with Tabot, the Padhra and others.
The psionic race are from the plane of dreaming in Eberron. So I don't know about in FR.
-Nothing in any text that I know of mentions a Plane of Dreams in the Forgotten Realms (though, there is a Plane of Nightmares, so it's likely that a Plane of Dreams exists to balance that out). That said, though, what Psionic race are we talking about? Because, races like the Yuan-Ti, or the Illithid, we already know their origins.
-Nothing in any text that I know of mentions a Plane of Dreams in the Forgotten Realms (though, there is a Plane of Nightmares, so it's likely that a Plane of Dreams exists to balance that out). That said, though, what Psionic race are we talking about? Because, races like the Yuan-Ti, or the Illithid, we already know their origins.
Kalashtar presumably. A race created by the merging of human monks with a race of outsiders from the Plane of Dreams (who needed hosts to hide from the rest of their species, who were hunting them down). If I wanted to include them in FR I'd probably re-do their backstory from scratch, as the Kalashtar's Eberron backstory doesn't really make much sense without Quori and their Inspired hosts to oppose them. (Though Riedra would be a fun addition to a Forgotten Realms game just to see how the other nations react to an empire that's very much evil, but in such a manner that it's not at all apparent to the uninformed outsider that they aren't lawful good)
(Sorry I watch a lot of movies and it's easier for me to relate plot points to those).
I do like the idea of the dragonborn and abeir or the idea of each one being a new type of construct. Could lead to some interesting story arcs for the character if the player tries to find the wizard and the ritual that created him.
When he came to hed found that I had stolen all of his money.
I had a player once that wanted to play a warforged with a greatclub fused to his crotch.
Immature as it is, I still laughed pretty good picturing that.
I really enjoyed reading your ideas on warforged. Especially Lantan and gnomes are cool.
I want to share my take on warforged:
With the loss of Maztican colonies, city of murann and dahaunarch seat of the council (which organizes military), Amn is in a loss of military power.
Several merchant families emphasis on researches about new military designs, which would replace or back any existing weak amnish military. So, they delved deep and deep into old Shanatar. Most of the families got something worth, but few found what they were looking for; plans for some warrior beings. Originally, they had no conciousness, only intended to be pitted against each other for amusement on competitions of craftsmanship or used in dangerous mines.
Then came the idea to store fallen warriors inside these constructs. But almost never tried. Nowadays, Amnian nobles try to store some fallen relatives and servants in crudely crafted warforged. Rumors say that one or two of these houses have the plans for more elegant and practical warforged. Council of Five are also intrigued by this turn of events and may open a seat for a dahaunarch once more, even if they don't like to cut the shares.
How do you like it?
Looks pretty good to me. I like the idea of having simple constructs walking around rather then full-fledged Warforged. Although if a player wants to play a Warforged then you can easily say they're the first improved model.
Exactly. ;) I even made the head of my players' merchant house as the most distinguished fellow at making these elite warforged. If they had chosen the warforged as a race, they would be the long-dead relative who was transferred to the first working warforged. He would need to prove himself better (more profitable? Amn -_-) than the newer versions (robocop?) and make a good roleplaying aspects.
In his studies he realized that the souls within the warforged were of the recently deceased and he realized these creations were much different than standard constructs. He whisks the device away to a secluded spot and ends up releasing his creations upon the world hoping to give the dead a new start. Most of the warforged are clueless as to their true origin and the artificer is powerful enough to mask his whereabouts (except perhaps for an Epic Skill Challenge heh). Oddly enough many of these warforged come back to region that the new Imskari is located, so perhaps the souls are not just of the recently deceased...
so lets say you do bring warforged into the FR, is the big debate over whether or not they have souls going to come along with it?
-Most of the suggestions people have made here seem to include Warforged having souls of some kind, so...I didn't even know there was a "problem".
These constructs are remnants from an ancient time who have been living under the oceans of Toril so long their origin and history are lost to them. They traded in secret with some surface and other water-breathing/dwelling races who did not reveal their presence to others. Then the Spell-plague happened, and they were discovered by returned-Abeir water Genasi, who encouraged the 'Forged to break their ban on coming to the surface and become known in the Realms once again. It is still culturally taboo for 'Forged to leave their underwater home and venture onto the surface, but some with younger minds are compelled to explore and adventure.
That's my take (I'm an old 2E DM coming back in at 4E after 10 sad D&Dless years). Use any ideas from there that help!
in eberron theres alot of debate in the world on whether or not they do or do not have souls, unless all that was cleared up.
Sure in EB it does. That is how many things work there. Belief is very important in EB. Nobody knows if the gods really exist. People use spells that are divine in nature and are used when they call to the gods but that does not really tell the people that the gods are real. The same goes with the souls of the warforged. Many people want to think they are soulless because of the moral/ethical/social can of woems that would open. Many wish to ignore the issue because they would love to make the warforged property again. Saying they have souls would make this very difficult.
In a setting like FR it is very easy to say they are constructs with souls. Most of the time I have come up with a FR warforged idea it is about lost souls winding up in the forged, especially after the Plauge. This is because the afterlife of FR has changed a bit after 4E. Souls that don't have a home may be trying to live again and have now found a great way to "live again". That is my impression on them.
WARFORGED!!!
What do people think? And how are others thinking of adding the Warforged to the Forgotten Realms? For those who don't want to, I of course don't expect you to. But I personally think the more races the better
It's weird that in alot of ways I'm pretty flexible but I'd have just said no to this idea....
I have some clear and strict flavour concepts.
If I were being flexible perhaps forged is the FR 6 million pp man
Stave Ainstun former Halruan Airship pilot rebuilt by the wizard Sorca Mangold of the OSI guild.
On a grander scale, hmm how about on an unexplored temple on an Abeiran island when opened 1-10000000 statues of metal and wood are found, coming to life aware and eager to explore the world they are born to.
They mention several ways to include the Warforged. I made a minor twist before they even came out with that magazine. Instead of created by wizards they were created in similar ways to the Eberon world created by Artificers and such as war devices in the old human world.
The more arcane warforged were created much later by artificers. The forge aren't large in numbers. A few hidden communities they have created making up of rebelling forges that didn't want to be used as war machines and wanted other things with "life". And very few which were originally used as war tools are now doing simple tasks as bodyguards for prominent figures and the likes. But they aren't well spread and known in my FR setting. Most of the small forge settlements are nothing more then rumors to outsiders.
FR had everything Eberron has, and had it first. Thats why Eberron is a pale shadow by comparison.
Hmm. After looking up that issue, Nimbral does a good line in golems too, with iron, stone, and glass golems used for guards, as well as a crystal griffin.
And FR had a 'playable' (Read: Self-Aware) Golem character FIRST, in the comic series.
FR had everything Eberron has, and had it first. Thats why Eberron is a pale shadow by comparison.
Yeah the comic was good. That is the point though, warforged are just pc golemns that can be tossed into any campaign world.
Now as for making a campaign setting comparison like that, to each his own. I find the EB gods more interesting at this point in my gaming life than I do FRs. I like that the novels have no canon and cannot muck up the game at all but are fun reads and can give story ispiration to me. I think things are a bit more thought out and not as hodge podge as FR became in 2E. 3E tried to fix that as I feel 4E tried to do but the fellas in 2E kind of screwed the pooch at the end of the day IMO. I think I will feel the same after the 4E EB book comes out even though more things will be added to the setting. I believe an Ed Greenwood only FR might be as a cohesive world as EB comes off as to me. Again to each his own.
Warforged in the Realms
Origins: The first Creation Forge was invented and built by a paranoid Artificer from Upper Imaskar for the purpose of acquiring servants and guards whose loyalty could be more readily assured than that of slaves and mercenaries. The demand for his creations rose after the plague of -4370 DR decimated Imaskar's population, prompting the building of additional Forges in the Upper Kingdom. The acquiring of slaves from another world in -4366 DR did not impact warforged creation overmuch, as the majority of those slaves were acquired by the Lower Kingdom. Most Forges were destroyed or buried by the slave uprisings that marked Imaskar's end, as were the great majority of the warforged, who had remained steadfastly loyal to the Artificers.
Over the following millenia several great empires(Netheril, Raumathar, Narfell,and Jhaamdath, to name a few) have unearthed, acquired, and sometimes modified some of the lost creation forges, only for them to be burried again when these nation fell.
The name Warforged came in usage during the rise of Raumathar, who made great use of the living constructs in their armies.
Known location of working Creation Forges are as follow:
-Border Forest: The Shadovar transferred their Creation Forge from Shade to the nearby site of swallowed Bavaerris for easier access to the materials needed in warforged construction. The place survived the Shade Empire's fall at the hands of the gods, and is now a warforged and Krinth(Champions of Ruin) town. The warforged made here are most often black and dark grey in color(centuries spent in the Plane of Shadow(now the Shadowfell) attuned the Creation Forge to the plane), and tend to have an affinity for shadow magic. They are now "born" free, considered brethrens by the Krinth.
-Halruaa: The archwizard Raumark brought with him his enclave's Creation Forge in -339 DR when he and other Netherese survivors fled the impending fall of Netheril on skyships. Unused for more than two milennia, it was reactivated after the country turned into one vast plagueland. The monsters there crave blood and flesh and so for the most part do not bother the warforged, who lack both. This makes them ideally suited for missions on the lowlands, and after 10 years of service they are granted independance and full citizenship; most continue working for their country.
-Imaskar: Unearthed from dungeons under the Lake of Mists 17 years ago, Imaskar's Creation Forge has only been fully active for the last 3 years, and debate still rages on the status the warforged should be granted. An edict by the High Lady Planner Ususi on the subject is expected any day now.
-Lantan: After it annexed Mother-of-Mists island to make up for land lost during the spellplague, The lantanese discovered a fallen netherese enclave on the shore of the island, while exploring it, they found and reactivated its Creation Forge. The Lantanese have no intention to enslave them, but for now many of the warforged created there are being put to work defending the small Lantan-controlled portion of the enclave against monster attacks.
Narfell: Tiefling-led Nar barbarians recovered a Creation Forge from the ruins of Dun-Tharos 47 years ago, bringing it to the capital(Bildoobaris) before the druids of the Great Dale started reclaiming the Rawlinswood. Early experimentation by Narfell --and centuries spent in a Daemoncyst-- have tainted this forge, resulting in a higher percentage of warforged warlocks than found in other Forges. Warforged produced in Bildoobaris are considered property of the Lords of Narfell, save for those who display warlock abilities. These are considered equal to other warlocks in Narfell, and are thus part of its noble class. The rest are slaves, sometimes being granted freedom after years of service(especially if they have proven their worth as warriors), or are sometimes sold to neighboring trade partners.
Thay(incomplete entry):-Creation Forge(Broken, very few normal warforged are produced: the rest are deformed, or sick, or are normal looking but murderously insane; those faulty construct invariably die quickly, but unfortunately never stay dead for long...)
Turmish(Incomplete entry):-High number of psionic warforged produced at this Creation Forge.
Over the following millenia several great empires(Netheril, Raumathar, Narfell,and Jhaamdath, to name a few) have unearthed, acquired, and sometimes modified some of the lost creation forges, only for them to be burried again when these nation fell.
The name Warforged came in usage during the rise of Raumathar, who made great use of the living constructs in their armies.
Known location of working Creation Forges are as follow:
-Border Forest: The Shadovar transferred their Creation Forge from Shade to the nearby site of swallowed Bavaerris for easier access to the materials needed in warforged construction. The place survived the Shade Empire's fall at the hands of the gods, and is now a warforged and Krinth(Champions of Ruin) town. The warforged made here are most often black and dark grey in color(centuries spent in the Plane of Shadow(now the Shadowfell) attuned the Creation Forge to the plane), and tend to have an affinity for shadow magic. They are now "born" free, considered brethrens by the Krinth.
-Halruaa: The archwizard Raumark brought with him his enclave's Creation Forge in -339 DR when he and other Netherese survivors fled the impending fall of Netheril on skyships. Unused for more than two milennia, it was reactivated after the country turned into one vast plagueland. The monsters there crave blood and flesh and so for the most part do not bother the warforged, who lack both. This makes them ideally suited for missions on the lowlands, and after 10 years of service they are granted independance and full citizenship; most continue working for their country.
-Imaskar: Unearthed from dungeons under the Lake of Mists 17 years ago, Imaskar's Creation Forge has only been fully active for the last 3 years, and debate still rages on the status the warforged should be granted. An edict by the High Lady Planner Ususi on the subject is expected any day now.
-Lantan: After it annexed Mother-of-Mists island to make up for land lost during the spellplague, The lantanese discovered a fallen netherese enclave on the shore of the island, while exploring it, they found and reactivated its Creation Forge. The Lantanese have no intention to enslave them, but for now many of the warforged created there are being put to work defending the small Lantan-controlled portion of the enclave against monster attacks.
Narfell: Tiefling-led Nar barbarians recovered a Creation Forge from the ruins of Dun-Tharos 47 years ago, bringing it to the capital(Bildoobaris) before the druids of the Great Dale started reclaiming the Rawlinswood. Early experimentation by Narfell --and centuries spent in a Daemoncyst-- have tainted this forge, resulting in a higher percentage of warforged warlocks than found in other Forges. Warforged produced in Bildoobaris are considered property of the Lords of Narfell, save for those who display warlock abilities. These are considered equal to other warlocks in Narfell, and are thus part of its noble class. The rest are slaves, sometimes being granted freedom after years of service(especially if they have proven their worth as warriors), or are sometimes sold to neighboring trade partners.
Thay(incomplete entry):-Creation Forge(Broken, very few normal warforged are produced: the rest are deformed, or sick, or are normal looking but murderously insane; those faulty construct invariably die quickly, but unfortunately never stay dead for long...)
Turmish(Incomplete entry):-High number of psionic warforged produced at this Creation Forge.
Yeah the comic was good. That is the point though, warforged are just pc golemns that can be tossed into any campaign world.
Right... just don't call them Warforged.
Mechanically, a Chevy and a Ford are the same thing, but one's a Chevy and one's a Ford. You can call both 'cars', just as you can call both versions of golem 'self-aware automatons'. Just because 'A'='C' and 'B'='C', doesn't mean that 'A'='B'. Sure, its just semantics, but that is VERY important in game settings... we call it flavor. ;)
Now as for making a campaign setting comparison like that, to each his own. I find the EB gods more interesting at this point in my gaming life than I do FRs. I like that the novels have no canon and cannot muck up the game at all but are fun reads and can give story ispiration to me. I think things are a bit more thought out and not as hodge podge as FR became in 2E. 3E tried to fix that as I feel 4E tried to do but the fellas in 2E kind of screwed the pooch at the end of the day IMO. I think I will feel the same after the 4E EB book comes out even though more things will be added to the setting. I believe an Ed Greenwood only FR might be as a cohesive world as EB comes off as to me. Again to each his own.
I happen to agree with all of that.
The FR novels and sourcebooks have so turned me off to FR's gods that I'm creating my own Pantheon.
Also, I have considered several times in the past year - since the release of the new setting - to finally take the plunge and leave FR for Eberron - I do actually like it that much (It's got a Choo-Choo!).
You know what keeps me from doing just that? I happen to also think that's EXACTLY what they want. I can almost gaurantee the Eberron 4e books are going to put the FR ones to shame. Not only have they had a whole year to address any problems, but they've also learned from their mistakes (we hope). Not only that, but what you say about the non-canon novels is a good point, and they don't plan on changing anything or moving the timeline in Eb.
In fact, they made Eberron the most desirable setting to be playing right now.
And thats why I'll never use it. :P
Another idea is that one of the forges was discovered by the Jhaamdathans and they modified it over time to create psiforged and this forge may have been uncovered by the recent drop in the level of the Sea of Fallen Stars along with other relics from the Psionic empire.
Dang! It's actually what I intend to do with my Turmish backstory for the warforged, Turmish having annexed the northern shores of the Vilhon Reach(Vilhon Wilds in 4e canon) some years after the Spellplague ended.
Must be something about how great minds think alike or somesuch...:D