Manifest Zone: Exploring the World of Eberron

Billy Rigby asks: Dragonmark Houses are powerful, the 12 have a foothold on Khorvaire but who is against them? Who’s the enemy of the 12? It seems like they have no overall threat against them other than each other and other businesses. Do they have an enemy or is it a House by House basis? Is anyone trying to end the Houses and if so, why? Wayne offers his ideas and suggestions.

Gabriel Krotkov asks: Keith mentioned that the standard houses began the War of the Mark partially to suppress the “source of power” coming from aberrant marks. What economic threat did the aberrant marks pose to the houses? I get that there must have been a popular fear of the real danger posed by aberrant marks, but if that’s the inciting factor in the War of the Mark why was the main opposition towards Aberrants coming from the Twelve? Why not a religion (Silver Flame, in the vein of the lycanthropic purge, perhaps) or the secular monarchy? Keith answers with his insights and a couple of references to sourcebooks.

Keith, Scott, and Kristian discuss using dragonmarks and the dragonmarked houses in an Eberron game. Time Markers 00:00:00 – Introduction00:00:43 – Clarifying the Scope of the Show00:01:32 – Keith’s Articles on DragonmarksThe Dragonmarked HousesAberrant Marks00:03:07 – Dragonmarks and the Draconic Prophecy00:05:01 – History of Dragonmarks00:07:34 – Manifesting Marks00:13:55 – More Than Just Spell-like Abilities00:16:00 – Attempts to Duplicate Dragonmark Abilities/The Role of the Twelve00:18:50 – The Influence of the Guilds00:22:26 – Responsibility of Having a Dragonmark00:24:01 – Shift of Power from Nations to Houses00:26:56 – Aberrant Marks00:31:13 – Pillars of the Economy00:32:46 – House Tarkanan00:41:35 – How GMs Can Use Dragonmarked Houses00:41:54 – Conflicts with and among the Houses00:43:25 – Running them as Megacorporations00:49:20 – Events of Prophetic Significance00:51:39 – The Mark of Death as a Plot Hook00:53:02 – Manifesting a Mark is a Story Hook00:58:28 – More on Aberrant Marks01:00:52 – Potential Patrons and Enemies01:02:29 – Biographical Backgrounds for Players01:08:08 – Being marked is more than just the powers01:10:42 – Feeling overwhelmed by complex intrigue01:13:08 – Wrap up

Graham asks: How was it that Darguun and Valenar were not given to the Cyran refugees? Keith answers with a collection of reasons.

Scott chimes in with his answer to Gil’s question regarding the Neutrality of the Dragonmarked Houses during the Last War.

Gil asks: What is the expectation of a dragonmarked house and/or a nation from a dragonmarked member assigned to support a national army unit on the front line? There is usually a lot of questions/conflicts that come up when there is a mixed PC party of soldiers and dragonmarked heirs when running a Last War scene. Clearly a PC can break the rules/norm, but it will be good to understand the “company-line” as there are a lot of interest conflicting scenarios that can arise in the heat of battle. Kristian answers with an extra tidbit passed along from Keith.

Scott follows up on Ian’s question about “pre-war” Cyre, specifically in regards to inspirations for Cyran culture and personality.

Ian asks: Can you please talk about your personal inspirations for the Pre-War government and everyday life of Cyre? The Day of Mourning is such a great inspiration for PCs, but its hard to give them guidance on character histories or frame NPC motivations. Could you specifically touch on some of the royal government, military or spy organizations? Keith shares his response.

Gonzalo Campoverde Arce asks: Please include some minutes to talk about how the Dragonmarked Houses (beyond Cannith, Deneith and Jorasco) were involved in the Last War. Kristian offers some ideas on how those other Dragonmarked Houses would have profited from their abilities and related services during the Last War.

The hosts discuss The Last War and the significant impact it had on the continent of Khorvaire as well as how it might influence the characters within the world. Time Markers 00:00:00 – Opening00:01:07 – What is The Last War?00:09:25 – Innovations of the Last War00:11:14 – Shift of Power toward Dragonmarked Houses00:18:40 – Warforged as Living Reminders00:20:01 – Warforged Finding a Place in the World00:22:54 – New Nations of Khorvaire00:24:19 – Droaam Not Recognized As a Nation00:26:29 – Why Was Darguun Recognized?00:30:26 – Summarizing the Last War00:36:05 – Not a Constant War00:37:48 – The Impact on PCs00:38:15 – Everyone Was Affected00:39:52 – A Starting Point for Character Backgrounds00:42:48 – Kalashtar in the Last War00:48:52 – Aberrant Dragonmarked as Brelish Special Ops00:49:26 – Psychological and Physical Wounds00:54:48 – Understanding Trauma01:02:32 – Interludes and Flashbacks01:03:44 – ‘Sibling Rivalry’01:08:19 – How to Use the Last War As a GM01:10:51 – The Mournland as a New Nation01:11:50 – Cyran Refugees01:13:35 – Former Enemies01:16:14 – War-torn Landscape01:19:02 – ‘Steel Shadows’ in Dungeon #11501:20:57 – Keith Wishes for More Exploration of Magical Innovations01:23:12 – Heroes of Battle (D&D v3.5)01:24:01 – Wrap Up

Scott shares his thoughts and experiences regarding other systems for Eberron. Links Zadmar’s Savage Vancian MagicDungeon World Eberron Campaign SettingDungeon World Character Sheets for Eberron

Keith answers the following question: Could we get a walkthrough on how to pronounce each of the Five Nations? Karrnath seems pretty straightforward, but I’ve heard Cyre half a dozen ways (I’m partial to “sigh-err” myself) and Breland seems to have an emphasis problem (is it BREE-land or Brehl-und?)

From Keftiu: What systems other than D&D have you ran or suggest running Eberron in? I’ve personally done it in Fate Core and have thought about building some sort of GUMSHOE hack, but would love to hear your ideas. Kristian offers his obvious favorite and shares a few others. Links Savage Worlds Test Drive RulesKristian’s Savage Worlds Eberron Conversion Companion13th Age SRDKeith’s blog post on Eberron and 13th AgeAdvantage to Insight, Episode 25: Sharn Campaigns

As a means to address your questions without taking away from the time we have during episodes, but also giving you more Eberron stuff to listen to between episodes, we’re creating a separate segment called The Speaking Stone which will be included in the podcast feed. You can submit your questions related to our discussions via our Speaking Stone form, which will add it to our queue. We’ll try to answer as many as we feasibly can, and it’s entirely possible for more than one of us responding with a clip. Please note that we are specifically answering question related to topics we’ve covered in an episode. Questions related to specific rule mechanics or how to use a particular class in the setting would not qualify, nor would questions related to topics we haven’t covered yet.

The cast introduces themselves and discusses what defines Eberron as a setting, what it has to offer GMs, and what expectations players should have. Time Markers 00:00:00 – Introductions00:01:05 – Keith’s Background00:02:19 – Wayne’s Background00:03:22 – Scott’s Background00:04:32 – Kristian’s Background00:06:18 – Keith Wants to Do More with Eberron00:08:12 – Origins of Manifest Zone00:08:58 – Scope of the Show00:09:31 – Topic: What Makes Eberron Unique00:14:02 – The Design of Gnomes in Eberron00:16:27 – Exploring Real World Issues with Magic as Technology00:17:23 – Dragonmarked House, Magical Economy, and Corporate Power00:18:53 – Eberron as a Versatile, Cross-genre Setting00:20:22 – Keith’s ‘Lost’ Campaign Set in Lammania00:23:56 – Eberron as a Sandbox Setting00:28:17 – Inspiration vs. Canon and Metaplot00:33:27 – PCs As Most Powerful Characters in the Setting00:39:05 – What Eberron Is Not00:42:00 – Magic as Technology00:43:20 – Magic as Industry00:44:02 – Dragonmarks Are about Focus Items00:45:15 – What Is an Eberron Campaign?00:45:37 – Setting Player Expectations00:46:30 – Failure Can Be a Part of the Story00:49:21 – Moving among Cross-genre Stories00:53:57 – Fail Forward Mechanics [Beginning of Audio Glitches]00:55:37 – The GM Is a Story Facilitator, Not the Enemy00:58:29 – Closing To subscribe to Manifest Zone, visit manifest.zone. (Yes, that’s the real URL.)