CHAPTER 1 | IF IT EXISTS IN D&D, THERE’S A PLACE FOR IT IN EBERRON 19IF IT EXISTS IN D&D,
THERE’S A PLACE FOR IT IN
EBERRON
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Eberron draws on the core elements of ,,.
It’s a world of wizards and rogues, a setting
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otyugh? Orcs? Goblins? Paladins? They’re all
there. Eberron draws on the same basic elements
as other settings, but it often diverges from the
traditional archetypes assigned to those things. A
few factors here:
6WÅ`MLITQOVUMV[ Mortal creatures
are shaped by their culture and personal
circumstances. An orc is just as likely to be lawful
good as chaotic evil, depending on their personal
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you can’t make automatic assumptions about
any of them. In part this is because of Eberron’s
distant gods. Orcs aren’t driven by Gruumsh’s
fury, and the gnolls aren’t tied to Yeenoghu.
The exceptions to this rule are creatures whose
identities are shaped by magic. Fiends and
celestials embody pure ideals of good and evil;
lycanthropes are driven by a curse.
Monsters aren’t always villains, and
the villains aren’t always monsters. Many
of the gnolls of Droaam are more honorable
than the human mercenaries of House Deneith.
In Karrnath and Aerenal, undead are used as
tools. You certainly KW]TLÅVLaW]Z[MTNÅOP\QVOI
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you’re just as likely to cross swords with a cruel
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There’s a place for everything in
Eberron... but it may not be a prominent
place. Kenku aren’t mentioned in any of the
canon sourcebooks of Eberron. There’s many
ways to add kenku into Eberron, but that doesn’t
mean that there needs to be a kenku nation
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in history; it may be that a dozen kenku were
thrown out of the Faerie Court of Thelanis and
these are all the kenku in the world. So just
because it’s possible to put anything you want in
the world, don’t assume that the streets of Sharn
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ever been suggested.
Chapter 3 provides advice on adding new races
to Eberron. Here’s a few other ways that you
can add something into Eberron with minimal
impact on the setting.- It comes from the vast and largely
unexplored continent of Xen’drik. - It was created or caused by the
Mourning—the mystical cataclysm that
destroyed Cyre—and has only been around
for four years. - It’s a product of the underworld of Khyber,
the source of many aberrations and
monsters. - It’s the result of recent experiments by
one of the dragonmarked houses or a mad
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into the world during a recent convergence.
Not everything has to exist in Eberron.
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But it’s also possible to say that something LWM[V¼\
exist in Eberron. For example, if you wanted to
use Gruumsh in Eberron, you could re-imagine
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age. You could decide that he’s the classic
Gruumsh, who has recently found his way to
Eberron from the core cosmology. But the DM
can always say ¹6W\PMZMQ[VW^MZ[QWVWN/Z]]U[PQV
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This comes to a critical point. Nothing is set
in stone. Like every sourcebook that’s come
before it, this book is intended to be a source of
inspiration: use what inspires you, but always feel
empowered to change the world to better suit the
story you want to tell. There’s a place in Eberron
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to you whether to make use of it.