Eberron Rising From the Last War

(Nancy Kaufman) #1

232


THELANIS, THE FAERIE COURT
Thelanis is the home of the fey and a realm where narra­
tive and metaphor shape the nature of reality. Its many
dominions are governed by the archfey, and the deni­
zens of each realm reflect the nature and the story of
their lord. For instance, the realm of the Prince of Frost
is trapped in endless winter, and pale eladrin lead packs
of winter wolves in their hunts. If's not the same envi­
ronment as on Risia, because the prince's realm isn't
an embodiment of the idea of cold-rather, it's a domain
frozen by its prince's broken heart. If the prince's story
were changed, the realm would change with it.
Time and space are both malleable in the Faerie
Court, and a mortal who wanders into Thelanis might
never return-or might leave after a few days to discover
that weeks, months, or years have passed back home.

THELANIS MANIFEST ZONE FEATURES
d4 Feature
Fey trees whose wood is imbued with magical proper­
ties grow here, along with a copse of guardian treants
and awakened flora.
2 A circle of mushrooms serves as a portal to Thelanis
when the proper offering is placed in its center.
3 An eladrin commune that holds powerful esoteric
knowledge is nestled in the depths of a forest inhab­
ited by large numbers of pixies.
4 The magic of the fey runs deep here. Saving throws
against enchantment and illusion spells are made
with disadvantage.

XORIAT, THE REALM OF MADNESS
Xoriat's bizarre geometry and unspeakable inhabitants
seem like the product of an insane person's nightmare.
In this utterly alien environment, beings whose appear­
ance can shatter a person's sanity live in cities crafted
from gargantuan, fleshy tumors. Seas of protoplasm, in
a shade of purple that hurts the eyes, lap against shores
of chitin. Some can look upon Xoriat and see it as a
place of revelations, but most mortals who come too
close to Xoriat fall prey to madness. Xoriat is the source
of many aberrations, including the terrifying daelkyr.

XORIAT MANI FEST ZONE FEATURES
d4 Feature
Reality is frayed here. Casting any spell of 1st level or
higher triggers a roll on the Wild Magic Surge table in
chapter 3 of the Player's Handbook.
2 A character must make a DC 14 Charisma saving
throw at the end of each hour spent in this place. On
a failed save, the character is afflicted with a random
form of short-term madness (see chapter 8 of the
Dungeon Master's Guide).
3 Residents of a settlement here display bizarre muta­
tions and unsettling behavior. Visitors who stay too
long develop odd characteristics as well.
4 A cavern here is a cancerous tumor that issues forth
aberrations to prey upon the world, and it is growing.

CHAPTER 4 I BUILDING EBERRON ADVENTURES

EBERRON AND THE MULTIVERSE
It is theoretically possible to travel between Eberron
and other worlds in the multiverse by means of the Deep
Ethereal or various spells designed for planar travel, but
the cosmology of Eberron is specifically designed to pre­
vent such travel, to keep the world hidden away from the
meddling of gods, celestials, and fiends from beyond.
The three progenitor wyrms worked together to form
Eberron and its planes as a new cosmic system in the
depths of the Ethereal Plane. They recreated the elves,
ores, dragons, and other races found throughout the
multiverse and placed them in their new world, but al­
lowed them to develop beyond the reach of Gruumsh,
Corellon, Lolth, and other influences for good and ill.
In your campaign, you might decide that the barrier
formed by the Ring of Siberys is intact, and contact
between Eberron and the worlds and planes beyond its
cosmology is impossible. This is the default assumption
of this book. On the other hand, you might want to incor­
porate elements from other realms. Perhaps you want
to use a published adventure that involves Tiamat or the
forces of the Abyss meddling in the affairs of the world.
In such a case, it could be that the protection offered by
the Ring of Siberys has begun to fail. You might link the
weakening of Siberys to the Mourning-perhaps what­
ever magical catastrophe caused the Mourning also
disrupted the Ring of Siberys, or perhaps a disruption of
the Ring of Siberys actually caused the Mourning!
If contact between Eberron and the wider multiverse
is recent and limited, consider the implications for ev­
eryone involved. In the Great Wheel, Asmodeus is an
ancient threat, with well-established cults, lines of tief­
lings, and a long history of meddling that sages might
uncover in dusty old tomes hidden in remote libraries.
But if Asmodeus has only just discovered Eberron and
begun to influence it for the first time, there is no lore
about him to be discovered on Eberron. He has no
power base and needs to recruit new followers. Unusual
alliances might form against him, as celestials and
fiends join forces to expel this hostile outsider.

GODS, CELESTIALS, AND FIENDS
The people of Eberron believe their gods are omnipres­
ent-not bound to a single coherent form, but present in
all places. If you revere the Silver Flame, its power is al­
ways with you. The Sovereign Onatar guides the hand of
every smith who knows how to listen for his voice, and
Doi Arrah and Doi Dorn are active on every battlefield,
guiding every soldier. This outlook means that religion
is driven by faith, as opposed to the concrete actions of
deities. The faithful believe that their triumphs reflect
the assistance of a divine influence. They don't expect a
god to physically show up and solve their problems.
Fiends and celestials certainly do have physical form,
however. Fortunately for the folk of the Material Plane,
these extraplanar creatures are deeply invested in their
own affairs and have little interest in Eberron. Demons
and angels battle one another in Shavarath, but they've
been doing this since before humanity existed, and they
dare not leave their posts to fool around elsewhere. Ex­
ceptions do exist, such as the daelkyr and the Dreaming
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