M󰁥󰁣󰁨󰁡󰁮󰁩󰁣󰁳 I󰁮󰁤󰁥󰁸
This book presents new stat blocks󰀬 subclasses󰀬 spells󰀬
and other mechanical options throughout its pages󰀮
You can find these options on the following pages󰀮
B󰁡󰁣󰁫󰁧󰁲󰁯󰁵󰁮󰁤 V󰁡󰁲󰁩󰁡󰁮󰁴󰁳
Disgr aced Noble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀲󰀱
󰀲󰀱
Displaced No
N oble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀹
󰀱󰀹
Newly Risen Noble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀲󰀰 󰀲󰀰
R󰁡󰁣󰁩󰁡󰁬 V󰁡󰁲󰁩󰁡󰁮󰁴󰁳
Gnome󰀺 L Lo
orghalan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀵󰀹
󰀵󰀹
Goliath󰀺 Deser t Born. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀴󰀱󰀴󰀱
War ffo
orged󰀺 Li
Living C
Coonstruct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀴󰀲 󰀴󰀲
C󰁬󰁡󰁳󰁳 O󰁰󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳
Bard󰀺 College of the Fury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .󰀹󰀳
Cleric󰀺 Asp
Aspiration Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀹󰀳 󰀹󰀳
Druid Variant󰀺 Stonesinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀵󰀹 󰀵󰀹
Paladin󰀺 Oa
Oath of
of V
Veeneration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀴󰀹 󰀴󰀹
Rogue󰀺 Dark Petitioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀹󰀴
󰀹󰀴
O󰁴󰁨󰁥󰁲 C󰁨󰁡󰁲󰁡󰁣󰁴󰁥󰁲 O󰁰󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳
Blessing of the Fang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀷󰀶 󰀷󰀶
Boons of the Overlords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀲 󰀱󰀲󰀷
Feat󰀺 Shadow󰀧s Metamagic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀹󰀵 󰀹󰀵
Feats󰀺 Psionic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .󰀱󰀸󰀳

Keith Baker Presents is an imprint of the game M

Speetlalsmoafgtihc󰀺eFo
FSoixrb.id. .d.e. n. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 󰀹󰀵
󰀹󰀹󰀶
󰀹󰀵
󰀶
design studio Twogether Studios󰀬 LLC󰀮 Variant󰀺 Fo Forbidden Ma Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀸󰀶 󰀸󰀶
Keith Baker󰀬
Baker󰀬 Co󰀭Owner & Creative Director E󰁱󰁵󰁩󰁰󰁭󰁥󰁮󰁴 & M󰁡󰁧󰁩󰁣 I󰁴󰁥󰁭󰁳
Jenn Ellis󰀬 Co󰀭Owner & Director
www󰀮TwogetherStudios󰀮com Bayonets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀶
󰀱󰀶
Crossbow S Siilencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀶 󰀱󰀶
Sentir a Lenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀸 󰀱󰀸󰀶
Sentir a Shards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀸 󰀱󰀸󰀶
Spellbolt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀷
󰀱󰀷
C󰁲󰁥󰁡󰁴󰁵󰁲󰁥󰁳
Ash
Ashtakala 󰀨Lair Actions󰀩 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀳 󰀱󰀳󰀵
Av assh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱
󰀱󰀷
󰀷󰀶
Dawn SpSpeectcteer 󰀨 󰀨G Ghos ostt V Vaaririan
antt󰀩 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .󰀱󰀴.󰀱󰀴󰀹
Gath 󰀨L
󰀨Lich Va Variant󰀩 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀵 󰀱󰀵󰀴
Haeldar K Krrakensbane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀵 󰀱󰀵󰀸
Handmaiden of Sorrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀴 󰀱󰀴󰀹
Kuo󰀭toa Dreamseer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀱 󰀱󰀱󰀱
Kuo󰀭toa Godshaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀱 󰀱󰀱󰀱
Lord Va
Varonaen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀵 󰀱󰀵󰀷
Lorghalan Cannonball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .󰀵󰀶
Mordain the Fleshweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀶 󰀱󰀶󰀹
Oathbound S Seeeker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀵 󰀱󰀵󰀲
Orlasca GhGhoul 󰀨T 󰀨Template󰀩 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .󰀱󰀴󰀶
Vam
ampipirre 󰀨Var
󰀨Varia iantnt Wea eaknknes essesess󰀩 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .󰀱󰀵 .󰀱󰀵󰀱
Var󰀭Tolai P Prriest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 󰀱󰀱 󰀱󰀱󰀷

First Printing󰀺 November 󰀲󰀰󰀲󰀲󰀮 PDF Version󰀺 󰀱󰀮󰀰󰀱

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DUNGEONS & DRAGONS󰀬 D&D󰀬 Wizards of the Coast󰀬 Forgotten Realms󰀬 Ravenloft󰀬 Eberron󰀬 the dragon ampersand󰀬 Ravnica and all other Wizards of the Coast
product names󰀬 and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries󰀮 This work contains material that is copyright
Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors󰀮 Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild󰀮
All other original material in this work is copyright 󰀲󰀰󰀲󰀲 by KB Presents and Twogether Studios󰀬 and published under the Community Content Agreement for
Dungeon Masters Guild󰀮
Disclaimer󰀺 This book is the property of the Library of Ashtakala󰀮 The borrower must present one 󰀨󰀱󰀩 soul as collateral󰀬 which will be returned intact provided
this book is returned in good condition within one 󰀨󰀱󰀩 century of date of issue󰀮 If return proves impossible󰀬 the soul becomes the possession of Ashtakala󰀮 The
book may be placed upon a basalt altar and burned󰀻 a library associate will collect the ashes󰀮
 

PREFACE
󰁳 I 󰁷 󰁲󰁩󰁴󰁥 󰁴󰁨󰁥 󰁳󰁥 󰁷󰁯󰁲󰁤󰁳, 󰁩󰁴’󰁳 󰁢󰁥󰁥󰁮
󰁢󰁥󰁥󰁮

 
almost twenty years since I first began
exploring the world of Eberron in my
mind. Over these two decades, a part
of me has always been thinking
thinki ng about
Eberron, considering all the questions the official books
never had time and space to answer. What’s the history
of Dor Maleer? Just how smart are Karrnathi
K arrnathi undead?
 Why so barren, Barren Sea?
In the days before the Dungeon Masters Guild, there
 was no opportunit
oppor tunityy to create new Eb Eberron
erron content. I
couldn’t legally release new lore or mechanics—but I
could  answer
 answer questions. I started doing just that on
Keith-Baker.com,, and over the years, I’ve
my website, Keith-Baker.com
 written
 writ ten hundreds of articles.
art icles. But that
t hat quantity
quantit y is a
blessing and a curse; some topics are more generally
useful than others, but they’
t hey’re
re needles in a very large
haystack. Beyond those questions and answers, I
couldn’t give players and Dungeon Masters new tools
to work with until the Dungeon Masters Guild opened
up Eberron for new creations.
These pages you hold in your hands—or, potentially,
these pixels you see on your screen—contain the answers
to some of my favorite questions. This book blends
practical advice (“How do I start a new campaign? How
do I handle travel?”) and deep lore detailing topics like
the Twister of Roots and the gnomes of Lorghalan. In
compiling this book, I’ve revised some of my articles
and expanded others; even if you’ve read everything I’ve
 written, you’ll
you’ll find things hehere
re you’ve
you’ve never
never seen before.
 And thanks to the excellent
excellent work of Imogen
Imogen Gingell,
Gingell, we’ve
we’ve
added further depth and concrete mechanics to many
ideas I previously only explored as stories. Because of
her collaboration on this book, you can fight the daelkyr
 Avassh or wield the forbidde
forbidden n magic ofof the Shadow
Shadow..
 What lies ahead evolved
evolved from questions I’ I’ve
ve answered
and how I’ve run things in my own personal campaign.
Remember
Remem ber that what you’re
you’re hearing in these pages is
my personal voice. As fans have come to call cal l it over the
 years, this book is “kanon”;
“kanon”; in addition tto
o being far less
formal than canonical material, details in this book may
contradict canon sources. One of the core c ore principles of
Eberron is that canon should serve as an inspiration,
not a restriction on the stories you want to tell—and that
applies to me as much as it does to you! What you have
here is an account of what I’m doing “in my Eberron.” I
hope it will inspire you, but never let anything
anythi ng I say stop
 you from telling
telling a story you
story you want
 want to tell in your Eberron.
 And now,
now, let’
let’ss dive into the Chronicles of Eberron!
Eberron!

Keith Baker,
creator of Eberron
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CHAPTER 9: SESSION ZERO
 

CHAPTER 10: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE JOURNEY
 

Seekers and worked with Karrnath during the Last War; Lord Sylian Varonaen is the oldest member
member of the GrGrim.
im.
and ever since Kaius III
I II tur
turned
ned against the Blood of Vol, The Varonaen were allies of Vol long before the Mark of
Karrnathi vessels have become the primary targets for Death appeared, and Sylian Varonaen was one of the first
Bloodsail raiders. There are divine spellcasters among  vampires created on Aerenal.
Aerenal. Where Vol Vol studied ways to
to
the Bloodsails, but their powers are a form of focused imbue humanoid creatures with the energies of Mabar,
channeling that draws power directly
direct ly from Mabar, Sylian Varonaen explored its effects on plants. Varonaen
rather than being driven by faith in i n a higher power.  was fascinated by those
those strains of flora that managed to
Prince Shaen Tasil is the living
the  living ruler of Farlnen, but adapt to Aerenal’s Mabaran zones, and he improved on
the greatest power on the island is the Grim, a council of these with his
h is own hybrids; in fact, it was he who refined
mighty undead. Some of the Grim work for the benefit of the strain of darkwood that Aerenal exportsexport s to this day.
the Principality, while others focus on their
t heir own esoteric So it was no accident that Varonaen and his exiles
interests and arcane research. came to Farlnen. The elves knew they needed a powerful
Mabaran zone to continue their research, and Varonaen
MEMBERS OF THE GRIM
THE came prepared. The story quoted above is apocryphal, but
it holds seeds of truth. Varonaen brought his hybrids with
The members of the Grim are powerful undead. him across the Lhazaar Sea and established the first night
Canon lore includes one infamous member: Lady gardens. He planted darkwood groves, and in the centuries
Illmarrow, the self-proclaimed Queen of the Dead. that followed, he developed entirely new strains of vegeta-
Few of the Grim leave Farlnen; most make extensive tion that could thrive in the unique conditions of Farlnen.
use of the power of Mabar that permeates the island, The stories exaggerate when they say darkwood is watered
and they rely on retinues of skeletal and spectral ser-  with blood,
blood, b
but
ut so
some
me of
of Varona
Varonaen’en’ss creations
creations do
do thrive
 vants. More than
t han this,
th is, Farlnen is a safe haven. Many
M any  when fertilized with the flesh
flesh of the
the dea
dead.
d. Som
Some e of hi
hiss
 would-be heroes—t
hero es—the he Aereni Deathguar
De athguard, d, templars experiments are just plants, but others could be considered
of the Silver Flame, paladins of Dol A rrah—would be both Plants and
Plants and Undead; Varonaen
Varonaen has created assassin
as sassin
thrilled to destroy a Grim Lord. While few possess the  vines that
that drain th
the
e lifeforce
lifeforce o
off creature
creaturess they constrict
constrict,,
power to accomplish such a thing, most Grim lords and a shrieker that howls with the cry of a banshee.
prefer to remain in their estates, protected both by
powerful wards and by their peers. As a result, only a PERSONALITY
few of the Grim are known beyond Farlnen—and even Lord Varonaen
Varonaen played a vital
v ital role in founding Farlnen.
those are obscured by legends and rumors. The people rely on his hybrid plants as a source of
Most members
members of the Grim Gri m are vampires, with both food and lumber, and the exotic spices and wines
oathbound mummies as the next most common form; produced from his creations are unique exports
expor ts sold by
there are only one or two liches aside from Illmarrow Bloodsail merchants. Despite his part in ensuring the
and the Lords Vyrael. The following sections discuss survival of his people, Varonaen
Varonaen has never asserted his
some of the most unusual members of the Grim, lords power over his peers; his plants are his sole obsession,
 whose tales
tale s are k nown in Lhaza
Lhazaarar and beyond.
b eyond. and he has spent the centuries working on his gardens.
He has the manner of a mild, friendly scholar—but he
LORD VARONAEN: feels no compunctions about creating plant life that feeds
on the living, nor about sacrificing strangers in this work.
THE BLOODY GARDENER
 Before the elves
e lves came,
c ame, Farlnen
Far lnen was just bareb are rock USING LORD VARONAEN
 and sand.
sa nd. The sun
s un doesn’t
doe sn’t shine there
there,, and no living
liv ing There was a time when Lord Varonaen traveled in
search of exotic blooms, but on such a journey, he was
thing could prosper in that cursed place. But a land
destroyed by the Deathguard of Aerenal. His H is vampire
with no sun sounds mighty nice if you’re a vampire, form was reduced to ashes, but Varonaen had bound his
 like Lord Varonaen! So he steers steer s the elves to Farlne
Farlnen, n, spirit to his garden, much like a lich’s phylactery. He was
 and when he gets there,there , he br
breaks
eaks his ship
s hip to splin-
spli n- reborn in Farlnen as a wraith (albei(albeitt a unique one with
ters and he scatters the splinters across the t he stony spellcasting abilities; the
t he stat block for Lord Varonaen 
 ground. He kills
ki lls his
h is own sailors
sail ors and
a nd waters
water s the wood is provided below).
below). While he often remains in tthis his incor-
poreal form while doing his work, he has crafted a body
with their blood, and they sprout up as darkwood
from darkwood and can animate this vessel when he
trees and bloodstained roses. All the night-gardens  wishes to interact
interact with the physical world.
of Farlnen, it was Varonaen who planted their seeds.  V
 Varona
aronaen
en hasn’
hasn’tt left Farlnen
Farlnen since his death,
death, and it may
may

 And if
i f the Bloodsa
Bloodsails
ils k ill you on the
t he sea?
se a? They’ll keep be that he can’t travel far from this soul garden. However,
  your bones
b ones to work
w ork an oar, but they
t hey won t let your
you r adventurers could encounter his creations in Farlnen or
 flesh go
g o to was
waste;
te; cargoes
ca rgoes of ca
carr
rrion
ion make their way beyond, or they might need an exotic elixir that can only
be produced from his undead plants. He could even have
to Farlnen to feed the bloody gardens.
an interest in consulting with an adventurer renowned as
a master alchemist or a remarkable druid.

L󰁯󰁲󰁤 V󰁡󰁲󰁯󰁮󰁡󰁥󰁮 difficult terrain󰀮

terr ain󰀮 He takes
t akes 󰀵 󰀨󰀱d󰀱
󰀨󰀱d󰀱󰀰󰀩
󰀰󰀩 force damage if he ends his
turn inside an object󰀮
Medium Undead󰀬 Neutral Evil 
Magic Resistance󰀮 Lord Varonaen has advantage on saving
Armor Class 󰀱󰀴 throws against spells and other magical effects󰀮
Hit Points 󰀱󰀱󰀰 󰀨󰀱󰀳d󰀸 󰀫 󰀵󰀲󰀩
Tree Stride󰀮 Once on his turn󰀬 Lord Varonaen can
ca n use 󰀱󰀰 feet of
Speed 󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 fly 󰀶󰀰 ft󰀮 󰀨hover󰀩
󰀨hover󰀩
his movement to step magically into one darkwood tree within his
STR  DEX  CON  INT  WIS  CHA reach and emerge from a second dark wood tree within 󰀶󰀰 feet of
󰀶 󰀨−󰀲󰀩 󰀱󰀸 󰀨󰀫󰀴󰀩 󰀱󰀹 󰀨󰀫󰀴󰀩 󰀱󰀵 󰀨󰀫󰀲󰀩 󰀱󰀶 󰀨󰀫󰀳
󰀨󰀫󰀳󰀩
󰀩 󰀱󰀵 󰀨󰀫󰀲
󰀨󰀫󰀲󰀩
󰀩 the first tree󰀬 appearing in an unoccupied space within 󰀵 feet of
the second tree󰀮 Both trees must be Large
Larg e or big
bigger
ger󰀮󰀮
Saving Throws Con 󰀫󰀸󰀬 Int 󰀫󰀶󰀬 Cha 󰀫󰀶 Unusual Nature󰀮 Lord Varonaen doesn’t require air󰀬 food󰀬 drink󰀬
Damage Resistances acid󰀬 cold󰀬 fire󰀬 lightning󰀬 thunder󰀻 blud󰀭
geoning󰀬 piercing󰀬 and slashing from nonmagical attacks that or sleep󰀮
aren’t silvered A󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳
Damage Immunities necrotic󰀬 poison
Multiattack󰀮 Lord Varonaen makes four Slam attacks󰀬 or uses Life
Condition Immunities charmed󰀬 exhaustion󰀬 grappled󰀬 para󰀭
Drain and casts a spell󰀮
lyzed󰀬 petrified󰀬 poisoned󰀬 prone󰀬 restrained
Senses dark vision 󰀱󰀲󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 passive Perception 󰀱󰀳 Slam 󰀨Darkwood Form Only󰀩󰀮 Melee Weapon Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀷 Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀷 to hit󰀬
Languages Elvish󰀬 Common reach 󰀱󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 one creature󰀮 Hit󰀺
Hit󰀺  󰀱󰀶 󰀨󰀳d󰀸 󰀫 󰀳󰀩
󰀳󰀩 bludgeonin
blud geoningg damage󰀮
dama ge󰀮
Challenge 󰀱󰀰 󰀨󰀷󰀬󰀲󰀰󰀰 XP󰀩 Proficiency Bonus 󰀫󰀴 Life Drain 󰀨Wraith Form Only󰀩󰀮
Onl y󰀩󰀮 Melee Weapon Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀸 to hit󰀬
reach 󰀵 ft󰀮󰀬 one creature󰀮 Hit󰀺
Hit󰀺  󰀴󰀰 󰀨󰀸d󰀸 󰀫 󰀴
󰀴󰀩
󰀩 necrotic damage󰀮
dama ge󰀮 The
 Animate Darkwood󰀮 Once on his turn 󰀨no action required󰀩󰀬 Lord
target must succeed on a DC 󰀱󰀶 󰀱󰀶 Constitution saving throw or its
Varonaen can either transform into his wraith form󰀬 or he can
hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage
touch a darkwood tree or a Medium or larger nonmagical object
taken󰀮 This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest󰀮 The
made of darkwood and transform into his dark wood form󰀮
target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum
ma ximum to 󰀰󰀮
When he transforms into darkwood form󰀬 he animates the
darkwood he touched into a rudimentary body󰀮 While in that Create Darkwood Dryad󰀮 Lord Varonaen targets a Humanoid
form󰀬 his statistics change as follows󰀺 corpse within 󰀱󰀰 feet of him that has been dead for no longer than
󲀢 He loses his Incorporeal Movement trait󰀬 flying speed󰀬 and 󰀱 minute and that died violently󰀮 He binds the target’s
target ’s spirit to a
immunity to being grappled and restrained󰀮 darkwood tree he can see󰀮 The spirit becomes a dryad󰀬 except
󲀢 His AC increases to 󰀱󰀸󰀬 his speed becomes 󰀳󰀰 feet󰀬 his Strength that it is Undead rather than Fey󰀬 and its Fey Charm ac tion causes
becomes 󰀱󰀶 󰀨󰀫󰀳󰀩󰀬 and he has advantage on Strength and a creature to be frightened rather than charmed󰀮 The darkwood
Constitution saving throws󰀮 dryad is under Lord Varonaen’s control󰀮 Lord Varonaen can have
no more than twelve dryads under his control at one time󰀮
When he transforms into wraith
wrai th form󰀬 he relinquishes control of
the darkwood and appears in an unoccupied space next to the Spellcasting󰀮 Lord Varonaen casts one of the following spells󰀬
tree or object󰀮 using Wisdom as
a s the spellcasting
spellcas ting abilit
abilityy 󰀨spell save DC 󰀱󰀶󰀩
󰀱󰀶󰀩󰀺󰀺

Incorporeal Movement 󰀨Wraith

󰀨Wraith Form Only󰀩󰀮 Lord Varonaen 󰀱/day each󰀺 aura of vitality 󰀬 dispel magic󰀬
magic󰀬 entangle
entangle󰀬󰀬 plant growth󰀬
growth󰀬
can move through other creatures and objects as if they were vine 󰀨as an action󰀩
 grasping vine 󰀨as

HAELDAR KRAKENSBANE  his ship,

s hip, and
a nd no surpr
su rprise,
ise, kra
kraken
ken sinks
si nks it and kills
k ills

You think you’ve looked death in the eye? Wait until everyone aboard—including
aboard—i ncluding Haeldar’s childr
children!
en! You’d
You’d
think that
t hat would be the end of it, but weeks later, as
 you’ve stared
star ed into the empty
e mpty sockets
s ockets in the
t he sku
skull
ll of
them elves are camped out on the sunless shore, they
 a dragon
dra gon tuturtle
rtle,, after
af ter it’s capsized
capsi zed youyourr ship
sh ip and it’s
see a monster on the horizon. It’s the kraken; after
coming right for you. I’m telling you now, you get too
 it swallowed
swal lowed Haeldar,
Haelda r, he ref
refused
used tto
o die, dug his way
close to the Sunless Isle and pirates are the least
up through its heart and out its eye. Now here he is,
of your worries. I know you’ve heard these stories
 riding
 ridi ng the damn dead
de ad thing
th ing home.
home .
before, but have you ever wondered where the
That beast still patrols
patr ols the waters of Farlnen
 Bloodsails got these bones so they could animate animate ‘em?
today.. And Haeldar … well, he spends much of h is
today
 I can
ca n tell you in two w words:
ords: Hae
Haeldar
ldar K rakensbane.
rakensb ane.
time mourning his lost children, but when the mood
That elf was a legend in life, li fe, a dragonslayer who
 is upon him, he goes b back
ack to ssea.
ea. He won’t force h
his
is
 fought alongside
al ongside the rebel
r ebel e
elves
lves just
j ust for a chance
chanc e
own on the hunt, not again—so he boards a stranger’s
to fight dragons. So he gets himself exiled for his
vessel, assumes command, and takes it on another
troubles, and sails north with the rest of ‘em. His  monster hunt.
hu nt. If he comes to your ship, hope you’re
 ship runs afoul of a bloody great kraken, which
one of the lucky ones, that he takes down his prey
demands tribute from the fleet. The elves, they’re
with your vessel still intact. Haeldar Krakensbane
 rightly
 right ly ter
terrifie
rified,
d, and they alalll agree
agr ee to pay its pric
price.
e.
 never misses
mi sses his ma
mark rk … but the ships
s hips he sails
sai ls rarely
ra rely
 But Haeldar,
Haelda r, he’he’ss not hav
having
ing it. It’s his ancestor, see?
se e?
 make it home again.
agai n.
 Never would
wou ld bend
be nd to a beast. So he seizesseize s control
contr ol of

In life, Haeldar Arrael was a Tairnadal of the Draleus USING HAELDAR KRAKENSBANE

Tairn. He fought alongside the line of Vol not because  Adventurers on the water
water could encounter
encounter a vessel that’s
that’s
he believed in their cause,
c ause, but because it gave him the been seized by Haeldar and is in the midst of a hunt—or
opportunity to fight dragons. Over the t he course of the they could be aboard a vessel when Haeldar comman-
conflict, he fell in love with an elf of the Vyrael line, and deers it, and have to decide whether to fight the death
following the defeat of the line of Vol, he sailed north in knight or to assist him and hope to survive
sur vive his hunt.
the company of his wife and kin. As the t he story says, when
a mighty leviathan threatened
thre atened his ship, Haeldar
Haeldar put his
dreams of glory ahead of the safety of his family. He lost
THE S HIP OF E LDARAEN
everything,
everythi ng, including his own life—but his hunger for When
 a ship Idead
wasin just
t hea water
the boy innear
the rigging,
Farlnen.my captainl spots
Beautiful
Beautifu elven
 victory was so great that he returned as a death
death knight
in the very belly of the
t he kraken, slaying his enemy and vessel it is, not a soul aboard. We board the vessel, no
animating its corpse. sign of the crew, but it’s loaded with treasures. The
PERSONALITY sailors, they take what they can carry; but me, I’m just
Haeldar’s eternal quest for glory is the only thing that  a boy, and I’ve heard all too much about Farlnen to
distracts him from all- consuming guilt and shame. He's see such a thing as luck. After looting what he can, my
always searching for a greater, grander challenge, some- captain scuttles the ship and we watch it sink as he
thing to overshadow his pain. He's the source of many sails away. Late that night, the lass in the nest calls a
of the great beasts bound in undeath as guardians of ship on the horizon. It’s that same vessel, good as new,
Farlnen.
Farln en. Haeldar slays these creatures—serpents,
creatures—ser pents, dragon
 following us. The captain,
captai n, he panics, starts
st arts prepping
pr epping Zil
turtles, and his eponymous kraken—personally
kraken—personally,, and his
unique gift animates those he slays; however, he turns  fire he’d been saving to burn the cursed ship down. He
control of these sentinels over to living necromancers  launches six canisters,
ca nisters, and the
t he riggings of the elf ship
upon his return to the island. And as the tale says, when  are all aflame. But then,
then, as sure as
as I see you n
now
ow,, I see a
he's in the mood for a hunt, Haeldar sets out on board a shadow amid the barrels we had left … and that’s all I see
Bloodsail vessel—but he then boards and seizes control before the explosion. I’m the only one who survived, and
of some other ship, ensuring he doesn’t place more elves
whatever loot my captain claimed, it should be spread
at risk in his relentless
relentless pursuit of challenges at sea.

H󰁡󰁥󰁬󰁤󰁡󰁲 K󰁲󰁡󰁫󰁥󰁮󰁳󰁢󰁡󰁮󰁥 A󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳

Medium Undead󰀬 Chaotic Evil  Multiattack󰀮 Haeldar makes three Trident attacks󰀮

Armor Class 󰀱󰀷 󰀨studded leather󰀬 shield󰀩 Trident󰀮 Melee Weapon Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀱󰀰

Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀱󰀰 to hit󰀬 reach 󰀵 ft󰀮󰀬 one target󰀮
Hit󰀺 󰀷 󰀨󰀱d󰀶 󰀫 󰀴󰀩 slashing damage󰀬 plus 󰀱󰀸 󰀨󰀴d󰀸󰀩 necrotic damage󰀮
Hit󰀺 󰀷
Hit Points 󰀱󰀹󰀹 󰀨󰀲󰀱d󰀸 󰀫 󰀱󰀰󰀵󰀩
Speed 󰀳󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 swim 󰀳󰀰 ft󰀮 Kraken’s Call
Cal l 󰀨󰀱/Day󰀩󰀮
󰀨󰀱/Day󰀩󰀮 Haeldar conjures an enthralled Gargantuan
kraken in an unoccupied space he can
c an see within 󰀱󰀲󰀰 feet of him󰀮
STR  DEX  CON  INT  WIS  CHA Each creature within 󰀲󰀰 feet of the kraken must make a DC 󰀱󰀸
󰀱󰀹 󰀨󰀫󰀴󰀩 󰀱󰀶 󰀨󰀫󰀳󰀩 󰀲󰀰 󰀨󰀫󰀵󰀩 󰀱󰀱 󰀨󰀫󰀰󰀩 󰀱󰀴 󰀨󰀫󰀲󰀩 󰀱󰀸 󰀨󰀫󰀴󰀩
Dexterity
󰀨󰀸d󰀶󰀩
󰀨󰀸d󰀶 savingdama
󰀩 lightning throw󰀮
damage On 󰀲󰀸
ge and a failed
󰀨󰀸d󰀶󰀩save󰀬 a creature
bludgeoning takesand
damage󰀬 󰀲󰀸
Saving Throws Dex 󰀫󰀹󰀬 Wis 󰀫󰀸󰀬 Cha 󰀫󰀱󰀰
it is grappled and restrained 󰀨escape DC 󰀱󰀸󰀩󰀮 On a successful
Damage Immunities necrotic󰀬 poison
save󰀬 a creature takes half as much damage and isn’t grappled or
Condition Immunities exhaustion󰀬 frightened󰀬 poisoned
restrained󰀮 The kraken disappears at the end of Haeldar’s next
Senses dark vision 󰀱󰀲󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 passive Perception 󰀱󰀲
turn󰀬 releasing all grappled creatures when it does󰀮
Languages Elvish󰀬 Common
Challenge 󰀱󰀷 󰀨󰀱󰀸󰀬󰀰󰀰󰀰 XP󰀩 Proficiency Bonus 󰀫󰀶 B󰁯󰁮󰁵󰁳 A󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳

Freedom of Movement󰀮 Haeldar ignores difficult terrain󰀬 Leviathan’s Bane 󰀨󰀳/Day󰀩

and magical effects can’t reduce his speed or cause him to be
restrained󰀮 He can spend 󰀵 feet of movement to escape from
nonmagical restraints or being grappled󰀮
Magic Resistance󰀮 Haeldar has advantage on saving throws
against spells and other magical effects󰀮
Marshal Undead󰀮 Haeldar and friendly Undead creatures
within 󰀶󰀰 feet of him have advantage on saving throws against
effects that turn Undead󰀬 provided he isn’t incapacitated󰀮
󰀨󰀳/Day󰀩󰀮󰀮 Haeldar imbues his weapon with his
thirst for the hunt󰀮 The next
nex t time Haeldar hits a creature with a
melee weapon attack within the next nex t minute󰀬 his weapon tears at
a creature’s soul󰀬 and the attack deals an extra
extr a 󰀱󰀴 󰀨󰀴d󰀶󰀩
󰀨󰀴d󰀶󰀩 psychic
damage to the target󰀮
targe t󰀮 Creatures that are swimming or immersed
in water have vulnerability to the extra psychic damage from this
attack󰀮 On a hit󰀬 the targ
target
et must also succeed on a DC 󰀱󰀸 Wisdom
saving throw or it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability
checks󰀬 and it can’t take reactions until the end of its next
ne xt turn󰀮

Unusual Nature󰀮 Haeldar doesn’t require air󰀬 food󰀬 drink󰀬
or sleep󰀮
 across the bottom
bot tom of the ocean. But I tell
tel l you this, a
and
nd
 I’m telling you true:
tr ue: I remember my captain holding thatt hat
same golden skull you have in your hand now … and that
ship behind us, it’s the same one we sank so long ago.
Many see the days before
b efore Galifar as the golde
golden
n age of
piracy. Riedran merchant ships made inviting targets.
There was no united Galifar and
a nd the dragonmarked
houses had only a sliver of the power they wield today.
In those days, Bloodsail captain Vyra Eldaraen was the
terror of the northern seas, and she plundered the oceans
for two centuries before her luck finally ran out. With
all the plunder she’d
she’d amassed, Eldaraen had certa
certainly
inly
earned her right to undeath; she was restored as an oath-
bound and chose to be bound to her ship. Though other
members of the Grim warned against it, she sought to con-
tinue her career … and soon enough, the Deathguard and
a brave captain—Bright Lorrister, a distant ancestor of the
modern Prince of the Heavenly Fleet—destroyed Eldaraen
and sank her ship. But a century later, Lhazaar ships
reported another clear sighting of Eldaraen’s vessel, good
as new. It seemed that somehow, Eldaraen had become
something more than a mere oathbound; she was truly tru ly
bound to the ship itself, and just as a lich’s
lich’s body reforms
after it is destroyed, the Ship of Eldaraen will always
return … even if no original part of the ship remains.
USING THE SHIP OF ELDARAEN
Stories of the Ship of Eldaraen vary, but it seemingly goes
through stages. In some tales, the ship is actively crewed
by wights and shadows, with Eldaraen herself manifesting
as a wraith among them. In others (like the tale
ta le shared
above), the ship appears to be empty … and in some
stories, Eldaraen manifests aboard it in a form similar to
a demilich. A few facts remain consistent across all tales:
• The ship can't be targeted or perceived by any divina-
tion magic. Creatures can’t teleport into or out of the
ship or use planar travel to enter or leave it … unless
they’re traveling to Mabar.
• The ship essentially acts as a mobile manifest zone
tied to Mabar. While within 500 feet of the ship, the
radius of each light source is halved; saving throws
against necromancy spells are made with disadvan-
tage; and Undead have advantage on saving throwst hrows
against being turned
tur ned or frightened.
• The ship carries the
t he plunder of centuries,
centuries, but trea-
t rea-
sures taken from it often bring ill
il l luck. Sometimes the
items themselves
themselves are actively cursed. Other ttreasures
reasures
cause the victim to be tracked by the ship itself (as in
the story above) or specters from its crew, or haunted
by nightmares until the loot is flung back into the
 water.. The details vary, but
 water but the treasures of Eldaraen
always return to her eventually.
R󰁥󰁡󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳
Parry󰀮 Haeldar adds 󰀶 to his AC against one melee attack that
would hit him󰀮 To do so󰀬 Haeldar must see the attacker and be
wielding a melee weapon󰀮
could be that Eldaraen is in contact with other Lords
of the Grim, whether communicating through sending
sending  
spells or even interacting with them in the court of
the Bone King of Mabar. Even if this isn't the case, it’s
possible that should the Bloodsails have need of her, a
living Bloodsail elf could track down the ship and recruit
Eldaraen to help her people.
THE VYRAEL S ISTERS
The Bloodsail elves pursue undeath as a path to eternal
life. Some are content to endure the red thirst
thir st of the
 vampire oror undertake the vvows
ows of the oath
oathbound.
bound. Others
Others
 yearn for the
the power of
of the lich—but
lich—but that power
power isn’t
isn’t a gift
that can be given. It can only be claimed by a being who
possesses both tremen
t remendous
dous will and arcane knowledge,
as discussed in chapter 16. Few individuals possess these
traits … but on Farlnen, there’s one example of a family 
a  family  
claiming power no single member could achieve alon alone.
e.
SHARED UNLIFE
The Vyrael were one of the largest and most powerful
families among the exiled
ex iled elves that set out for Farlnen.
In the early days of the island, three sisters of the Vyrael
line rose to prominence, working with Lord Varonae Varonaen n
to establish the night gardens and to lay the t he foundation
foundationss
of Farlnen. Centuries later,
later, they knew their
t heir time was
running out. Torae
Torae believed she'
she'd
d mastered the ritual
r itual
that granted lichdom, but she was certain her two sisters
couldn’t survive the process … and she couldn’t bear to
leave them behind. Working together, they became some-
thing entirely new—the first skull lord of Farlnen, three
spirits bound together in a single form.
The Sisters are essentially an unusual form of lich,
and it’s quite possible that they have a phylactery and
 will return
retur n if they are destroyed; however
however,, returning in
this way would require the willpower of all three t hree sisters,
and if one sister lost her desire to cling
cli ng to existence, they
 would all pass on.
THE THREE SISTERS
The Vyrael Sisters serve as one of the more active
members of the Grim. However, they have a long-
standing feud with Haeldar Krakensbane, whom they
blame for the death of their aunt. While they’ve never
engaged in any direct violence against Haeldar, it’s
possible they’d provide surreptitious aid to adventurers
clashing with the Krakensbane.
Each sister has her own interests, and they take
ta ke
turns serving as the primary force of their shared body.
Though one of the Sisters always holds dominance, the
other two are an active presence at all times. They can
all speak and offer opinions, but the active spirit deter-
mines the capabilities of the skull lord ( Monsters
 Monsters of the
 Multiverse);
 Multiverse); this active spirit can be changed when they
 The Ship of Eldaraen is included in this article
a rticle because finish a long rest.
it’s a powerful undead entity tied to the
t he Bloodsail
Torae Vyrael is the most accomplished wizard of
Principality. However,
However, Eldaraen isn't believed to be an
the Sisters. She loves to spend her days studying
active member of the Grim; her ship follows its own path,
obscure lore or mento
mentoring
ring accomplished
accomplished Bloodsail
and it doesn’t appear to coordinate with the living
livi ng … but
necromancers. If an elf player character has Vyrael
it’s possible there’s more to this than meets the eye. It

blood (knowingly or not) and arcane talent, Torae  which is to say,

say, they mainly operate in Aerenal iitself.
tself.
could reach out to them through the sending or dream If you compare Mabaran necromancy to global
spell and offer to serve as a mentor; she'd make an  warming, Aerenal has enacted extremely
extremely strict regula-
excellent Undead patron for a warlock. While Torae tions within Aerenal itself … but they aren’t sending
is in control of the skull
sku ll lord, feel free to change or soldiers to Detroit to blow up automobile factories, let
expand that stat block's standard spells to reflect her alone smashing individual gas-guzzling cars in New
breadth of knowledge; she can also cast a single spell  Jersey. In the armies of Karrnath, the skeletons
skeletons alone
of 6th–8th level, and she has expertise in Arcana. likely outnumber the entire population of Farlnen. Yet
Solae Vyrael is the most politically active of the Sisters. the Deathguard hasn’t
hasn’t somehow brought down Karrnath
She advises Prince Shaen T Tasil
asil and enjoys hosting or destroyed Fort Bones. What they have done is send
salons and galas with Bloodsail captains
c aptains and other agents—notably,, a highly influential agent with direct
agents—notably
interesting individuals. While foreigners are rarely access to the king, who has convinced Kaius III II I to break
 welcome
 welcom e on the Sunless Isle, particularly intriguing
intrigui ng ties with the Blood of Vol and to limit military necro-
adventurers who visit might receive an invitation to mancy. That’s
That’s a more typical
ty pical path for the Deathguard to
such a salon. If so, they’d best prove entertaining; pursue in the wider world than direct military action.
boring guests rarely survive the evening. Of course,
spurning an invitation from Solae is even more more dan- FARLNEN’S MABARAN Z ONE
gerous than attending. While she's the dominant spirit, It’s also important to note that Farlnen is in a strong
the skull lord has expertise in Insight and Persuasion.
Persuasion. Mabaran manifest zone. Mabaran manifest zones are
 Vyla Vyrael is a scholar and philosopher. Though she a part of the world and always have been, offset by the
studies religions, Vyla herself draws her divine
div ine power presence of Irian manifest zones. Mabaran necromancy
through Mabar, shaped by her will. Nonetheless, has less impact on the environment when it’s practiced in
she'ss fascinated by tthe
she' he concept of religion, anda nd hopes such a manifest zone, because you’re already halfway in
to some day concretely prove the existence of the Mabar. So making skeletons on Farlnen adds less to your
Sovereigns—though she largely subscribes to the view v iew “carbon footprint”
footprint” than making
mak ing them in Sharn. Many
that if the Sovereigns exist, they are cruel.
cr uel. Should a other major centers for necromancy—such as Atur—are
group of adventurers
adventurers be seeking
seek ing the mysteries of the also in Mabaran zones. The Aereni don’t like any use of
divine, it’s possible Vyla may have answers they seek. Mabaran necromancy, but they’re not very concerned
She also collects divine artifacts, and adventurers about Atur, Odakyr, or Farlnen; in fact, it’s possible that
could clash with agents she’s
she’s dispatched to recover necromancers channeling the energies of such a zone
a new relic for her collection.
collect ion. When she's in control may actually reduce
actually reduce its overall environmental impact.
of the skull lord, she has expertise in History and
Religion, and she can replace the stat block's standard SMALL POTATOES
spells with any from the cleric spell list.
This helps to explain why the Aereni aren’t pursuing
the Bloodsails. Destroying individual undead
u ndead is small
AERENAL AND THE BLOODSAILS
THE potatoes for Aerenal; they aren’t trying to hunt down
every individual vampire in the
t he world any more
more than
 Why doesn’
doesn’tt Aerenal
Aerenal des
destroy
troy the
the Bloodsails
Bloodsails?? After all,
environmental activists in our world blo
bloww up individual
Mabar
anythingconsumes light
that draws theand life. Many
energies scholars
of Mabar intobelieve
Eberronthat gas-powered cars. Occasionally, they do target what they
see as high-value targets—they took down Lord Varonaen
is inherently destructive—and in particular, undead ani-
a few centuries ago, and they
t hey killed Eldaraen (though
mated by the power of Mabar ambiently consume the life
they worked with a local hero to pull that off). But
force of Eberron itself. In many ways, this is analogous to
overall, the Aereni don’t mind the Bloodsails existing
the threat of global warming in our world. It’s a threat that
as long as they remain largely confined to Farlnen.
plays out over a very long time
t ime with incremental impacts
The Aereni would be far more concerned if the
(such
(suc h as grass withering around a garrison of skeletal
Bloodsails spread the practice of Mabaran necromancy
 warriors).
 warriors ). Given
Given this, there are
are people
people who
who are co
concerne
ncernedd
throughout the Principalities—and
Principalities— and that’s one reason the
about it, others who are convinced it’s nonsense, and
Bloodsails haven’t
haven’t spread their knowledge or culture
meanwhile, the vast majority of people simply don’t care
beyond the island … but even if that occurred, as seen in
because it doesn’t affect their daily life.
Karrnath, Aerenal would be more likely to send a dip-
DEATHGUARD P RIORITIES lomat than an assassin to deal with the problem.
In short, Deathguard strikes can happen, but they're
The Aereni care deeply about Mabar’s threat to Eberron, extremely rare outside of Aerenal—and when they do
and they’ve created the Deathguard to eliminate undead
 occur, it s likely the Deathguard willwil l work with some
and police the
t he practice of Mabaran necromancy
necromancy.. But sort of local hero, like Bright Lorrister
Lorr ister in Lhazaar. So if
 Aerenal is an insular nation that takes almost no action
action the adventurers run afoul of the Grim Lords, it’s unlikely
in the world beyond its borders. As described in the the Deathguard willwi ll solve their problem for them; the
original Eberron
original  Eberron Campaign Setting,
Setting, the Deathguard was  Aereni would be muchmuch more likely tto o try to work with
with  
“created to battle
battle the corrupted spirits of tthe
he realm …” capable adventurers and deal with the problem together.

 󰁨󰁥 K 󰁡󰁲 󰁲󰁮 󰁡󰁴󰁨󰁩
󰁡󰁴󰁨 󰁩 󰁵󰁮 󰁤󰁥󰁡󰁤
󰁤󰁥 󰁡󰁤 󰁡󰁲 󰁥 󰁴󰁲 󰁥󰁭
󰁥󰁭󰁥󰁮
󰁥󰁮--  identity of the body
bo dy are hidden in the
t he tomes of the

T
dously efficient soldiers. A normal Corpse Collectors.
 zombie requires
requi res some ssort
ort of necro- The distinctive armor of the Karrnathi skeletons is
 mancer to sustain
sust ain and command it, but  forged for them and fitted to their
t heir fleshless bones. Fort

the sentient Karrnathi undead can integrate

integrate with any
a ny  Bones operates a small forge for this
t his purp
purpose,
ose, though
 most of this armor
ar mor is created at the Night Forge of Atur.
unit. Fear, hunger, and exhaustion are alien to them.
They can see in perfect darkness—an advantage over —“Eye on Eberron: Fort Bones,” Dungeon
Bones,” Dungeon 195
the warforged, and one that Karrnath
Karr nath often exploited
 in conflicts
confl icts with
wit h Cyre.
Cyr e. One of the few li
limitations
mitations of CANON AND KANON
the undead derives from their utter lack of mercy or The nation of Karrnath became infamous for its use of
compassion.
compassion. Left on its own, a Karr
Karrnathi
nathi skeleton
skeleton will undead during the Last War
War.. Initially, the bulk of the
slaughter
slaughter all opposing forces—soldiers, civilians, even undead forces were common
c ommon mindless skeletons and
zombies. But as the war progressed, thet he science of
children. A commander must exercise close control if
necromancy continued to evolve. The greatest break-
 he wants his
hi s undead to leave anyone alive.
a live. through came when the high priest Malevanor and
The Odakyr Rites—the ritual used to create the master necromancer Gyrnar Shult developed the Odakyr
 Karrnathi
 Karr nathi undead—isn’t a cheap form of Raise Dead. Rites—techniques that could imbue the skeleton or
The original victim is gone. A Karrnathi skeleton doesn’t corpse of an elite Karrnathi warrior with malign intel-
 have the specific memories of the warrior warr ior who donated ligence and increased resilience. The Karrnathi undead
possess deadly skill and considerable cunning; once
 his bones. The military
mil itary specialty
sp ecialty of tthe
he undead reflects
given direction, a unit of Karrnathi
Kar rnathi undead can operate
that of the fallen soldier, so only the bones of a bowman autonomously
auton omously,, adapting to deal with
w ith unexpected threats
can produce a skeletal archer. However, the precise or strategic setbacks.
techniques of the skeleton aren’t those of the living sol-  After the Treaty of Thronehold,
Thronehold, most
most Karrnathi
diers. Rekkenmark doesn’t teach the bone dance or the undead were retired, sealed away in vast vaults beneath
twin scimitar style common to the skeletal swordsmen.  Atur, or stationed
stationed at Fort
Fort Bones and Fort
Fort Zombie. B But
ut a
few remain in service,
ser vice, and people have questions about
So where, then, do these styles come from? 
them. What is the intelligence level of Karrnathi undead?
u ndead?
Gyrnar Shult believed that the Karrnathi undead Do they have any memories of their past lives?
l ives? Do they
were animated by the martial spirit of Karrnath itself. have thoughts and opinions? WouldWould a Karrnathi
Kar rnathi undead
This is why they can be produced only from the corpses be a viable player character?
character? Do the families of Ka Karrnathi
rrnathi
of elite Karrnathi soldiers: an enemy corpse lacks the undead get visiting hours to pay their respects to their
connection to Karrnath, while a fallen farmer has no dead relatives?
 As always, the real answer here is “whatever
“whatever makes
bond to war. However,
However, the [current
[curr ent commander of the
a good story.”
story.” But let’s start with the canon presentation
Corpse Collectors] fears that the undead aren’t ani- and move on from there.
 mated by the soul of Karrnath,
Kar rnath, but rather by an aspect
of Mabar itself—that the combat styles of the undead CANON: UNCHANGING UNDEAD
 might be those of thet he dark angels of Mabar. Over the  A Karrnathi skeleton is as intelligent
intelligent as a typical human
 years, he has felt a certain malevolence in his skeletal and it can speak
spea k Common, but it doesn’t
doesn’t have a human
creations that he can’t explain, not to mention their love personality or think like a human does. According to
the Eberron
the  Eberron Campaign Setting,
Setting, Karrnathi undead are
of slaughter. He has also considered the possibility that
“imbued with malign intelligence,”
intelligence,” and their alignment
they are touched by the spirits of the Qabalrin ancestors is always lawful evil.
ev il. This is notew
noteworthy
orthy because in
of Erandis Vo
Vol.l. The [commander] hasn’thasn’t found aany
ny proof Eberron, sapient creatures rarely have an “always”“always” align-
 for these theories,
theor ies, but they haunt his dreams.
dre ams. ment; and indeed, the elite
elite living soldiers of Karrnath
Kar rnath
 Karrnathi
 Karr nathi undead never show emotion and never can be any alignment.
alig nment. So this already tells us that the
 speak without cause. A Karrnathi skeleton is content to
stand motionless and silent for days if there is no reason
to move. A soldier’s name is typically a combination
of name and number … and the records of the original
consciousness of the undead isn’t the consciousness of
the deceased donor of the corpse. A dictated alignment
is typically tied to a creature that embodies an idea, such
as a celestial or fiend, or to a creature whose behavior is
dictated by a supernatural force, like a lycanthrope.

In addition to their intelligence, Karrnathi

Karr nathi undead Karrnathi skeleton might know
might know a poem—even though
possess remarkable skills—but the Eberron
the Eberron Campaign no one ever taught it to them—but if it does, then
then all
 all
Setting gave them no way to advance, unlike most stat Karrnathi
Karr nathi skeletons know that poem. And what about
blocks of that edition. One of the defining features of the that underlying cruelty? Is 
Is a Karrnathi commander
 warforged is that they can learn new things: a warforged
warforged truly confident that their obedient undead will always
built to be a fighter can become a wizard. By contrast, remain so, or do they have to worry
worr y that
that maybe
 maybe the dead
Karrnathi undead have tactical intelligence, but they are just going along with
w ith them? Maybe there’
there’ss a darker
can’t evolve
evolve.. force behind those eyeless sockets, waiting for the right
moment to turn its blades on you.

T HOUGHTS
 With  
all this inAND O PINIONS
mind, let’s look back at those qu
questions.
estions. MEMORIES
Do Karrnathi
Karr nathi undead have thoughts and opinions? By canon, Karrnathi
Karr nathi undead have no memories
memories of their
 Well, how
how would youyou know? A Karrnathi skeleton
skeleton obeys past lives. While
Whi le they can only be created from the
the orders of its commander without question. It fights corpses of elite Karrnathi soldiers, their skills and tech-
 without fear and holds
holds a position even at the cost of its
its niques don’t match those of the donor. They are always
own existence. Karrnathi undead never speak unless lawful evil,
ev il, regardless of tthe
he alignment of the donor. In
spoken to, or unless necessary in pursuit
pu rsuit of their my opinion, the Karrnathi
Karr nathi undead don’t
don’t even know the
duties; if they have thoughts, they don’t share them. If names of the people who donated their bones. But, with
questioned, their opinions appear 
opinions appear  to
 to be an absolute com- that said, see the
t he next section for other ideas.
mitment to the Karrnathi cause, and the opinions of one
are shared by all of them; so they do express opinions, UNDEAD PLAYER C HARACTERS
but they all have the same opinions.  With all
al l this in mi
mind:
nd: Would a Karrnath
Kar rnathii undead be a
Going back to the warforged comparison: a warforged  viable player character? By canon,
ca non, definitely not. They
might compose a poem, and they’re the only one to ever can’t learn new skills or advance. Their
Their true
tr ue opinions
create that poem from their own mind.
mi nd. Meanwhile, a and thoughts are intentionally mysterious. Ultimately,
 

the Karrnathi undead

u ndead are supposed to creep you out.  Are undead
undead used for menial labor in Karrnath?
Karrnath?
They aren’t just warforged who happen to be made There are a few factors at play when it comes to the use
out of bone. There’s a sense of malign intelligence in of undead for menial labor. The followers of the Blood
them … a touch of Pet
of  Pet Sematary , with that lingering of Vol—who
Vol—who prefer the term Seekers—are the t he ones who
fear that you should have let them stay dead. practice necromancy and embrace the undead. u ndead. The
KANON: UNCANNY UNDEAD Blood of Vol
Vol has had a presence in Karrnath for over
a thousand years, but it has never been the faith of the
The previous section discusses the canon details on majority. During the Last War, War, Kaius I embraced the
Karrnathi undead, along with a few ideas you can extrap- Blood of Vol
Vol and it gained greater influence; during this
olate from those details. But beyond that, I have a couple time, the undead were incorporated into the Karrnathi
“kanon” perspectives on Karrnathi undead. army. In more recent years, Kaius III I II and the Regent
Moranna turned against the t he Blood of Vol.
Vol. The chivalric
NECROMANTIC P ROGRESS orders of the Seekers were disbanded, and Kaius has
First, the science of necromancy has continued to used the Seekers as a scapegoat—blaming the famines
evolve—just because things were done a certain way and plagues that crippled Karrnath
Karr nath on the Seekers.
during the
t he Last War doesn’t mean that’s the only way So today,
today, the faith still has a significant presence
they’re done
done in 998 YK. So as a DM, you can introduce in Karrnath,
Karr nath, but it’s neither
neither the majority faith nor in a
sentient skeletons or zombies that aren’t produced position of power—and as a result, undead labor has
using the Odakyr
Odaky r Rites. Such skeletons
skeletons could possess fallen into significant disfavor.
disfavor. Karr
Karrnathi
nathi traditionalists
more distinct personalities, be capable of learning new despise the use of undead, which they see as a stain
skills, and
a nd possess memories of their former lives. on Karrnath’s proud martial tradition; this is another
 Y
 You
ou could play around with a form
form of undeath that can reason Kaius sealed thet he bone legions in the vaults below
preserve mortal soul and memory
memory in a rotting
rott ing shell. And  Atur. He doesn’
doesn’tt want to throw this weapo
weapon n away,
away, but he
despite what I said in the previous
prev ious section about canon
Karrnathi
Karr nathi undead, this could even work for a player gained political
 warlords pointsthe
by reducing
reducing among theundead.
role of established
undea d. Karrnathi
character if that’s the story you want to tell. The Seekers, on the other hand, have always used
undead for menial tasks. They have no emotional attach-
DISQUIETING UNCERTAINTY ment to corpses; a Seeker wants their body to be put to
Even if necromantic advances have created a more good use after they are gone. So within a Seeker commu-
advanced form
form of Karrnathi
Kar rnathi undead, I personally nity, you could definitely find zombies working the fields
believe the Karrnathi undead should feel creepy … today.. But these are traditional mindless
today mi ndless zombies, who
and I like to play up the idea that even the Seekers have to be provided with clear direction.
di rection. The sentient
don’t know exactly what they are dealing with. Mabar Karrnathi zombies are a different type of creature—a
is the plane of entropy and loss, the dark ness that more recent development, and ill-suited to noncombat
eventually consumes all light—and Mabar’s energies tasks. The Odakyr undead are weapons:
weapons : sentient, yes,
are animating the
t he Karrnathi undead. You
You can tell but imbued with malign purpose.
 yourself that a skeleton is animated by a pure spirit
of Karrnathi patriotism. You can insist that there’s Do the families of Karrnathi
Kar rnathi undead get
nothing
night, asofher
your wife left
skeleton in those
patrols the bones … but
line, you mightthen one
hear  visiting hours to pay their respects to
to their
her voice singing a song only the two of you knew. You dead relatives?
might wonder if you'd find her again, if you also died No. First of all, Seekers aren’t sentimen
sentimentaltal about
on the battlefield—and you might wonder if some piece corpses. The bones of a dead relative are no different
of her is trapped in those bones, held captive by the from a set of clothes or piece of jewelry the deceased
cruel spirit and never truly
tr uly able to rest.  wore in life. The basic principle
principle of the Blood of V Vol
ol is that
So as with anything in Eberron, do what feels right  what matters is the divine spark (what(what others might call
for the story. But I’m personally always looking for a the soul), and Seekers believe thisth is spark is obliterated in
 way to make the undead disturbing.
dist urbing. Even
E ven if tthere’s
here’s Dolurrh. A Seeker pays respects to the dead by recalling
a zombie with the perfect memories and personality their deeds and following their example. The bones the
of your friend, I’m going to point out that there are deceased leave behind are a resource to be used, not a
maggots in their flesh and the occasional falling thing to be treasured.
tre asured. In addition, while the identity of
tooth … and again, are you sure it’s the soul of your the donor is noted when the Odakyr Rites R ites are performed,
friend in there? this information
i nformation isn’t
isn’t publicly available and the
t he undead
  warrior doesn t know
know the name of the d
donor
onor..
FREQUENTLY ASKED Q UESTIONS
Beyond the above, here are answers to a few questions  What’s the origin of the Odakyr
Odaky r Rites?
I’m frequently
frequently asked about Karrnathi
Kar rnathi undead. The Odakyr Rites are discussed in Dungeon
in Dungeon 195. The
Blood of Vol
Vol has always had a strong presence
pre sence in the
agricultural region of Odakyr, which also contains a

powerful manifest zone tied

t ied to Mabar. When Kaius I How would the Kar
Karrnathi
rnathi undead react if
embraced the Last War, Fort Bones was established in they were deployed against each other during
Odakyr as a center for necromantic research. Gyrnar
a civil war?
Shult and Malevanor (then living) developed the Odakyr
Rites after years of research and work. It’s noteworthy
noteworthy No one knows whether Karrnathi undead would wage
that these can only be performed
per formed in a place with a strong  war against each other.
other. This is one reason the tradi-
manifest zone to Mabar; in Karrnath, this means Fort tionalist warlords hate the use of undead—they don’t
Bones or Atur. know where the undead’s
undead’s loyalty tru
truly
ly lies. The undead
u ndead
 As for exactly how the breakthrough was made, it’sit’s troops never betrayed Karrnath during
duri ng the Last War …

not defined in canon;

ca non; for me, the answer would depend but what
they followwould
theirhappen if Karrns
Kar rns fought
local commanders?
commanders Karrns?
Karthey
? Would rns?be
Would
loyal
on how I planned to use the Karrnathi undead in the
story. Did Shult and Malevanor discover some sort of to the crown? Would they be loyal to who they believe
artifact tied to Mabar at the heart of the manifest zone? deserves the crown, and if so, does that prove the legiti-
Did they tap into the power of Katashka
Katashk a the Gatekeeper,
Gatekeeper, macy of the candidate they support? Or could it be that
or acquire some sort of ancient Qabalrin tome from once you tell them to spill Karrnathi blood, they might
Erandis Vol? Or did they just legitimately develop a new turn on all
on all Karrns?
necromantic technique that no one had mastered before, Beyond this, Lady Illmarrow arranged the alliance
 which is entirely possible?
possible? Despite their
their cruelty, are the between the Blood of Vol and the Karrnathi
Karr nathi crown. It’s
Karrnathi undead truly what Shult believed—are they entirely possible that Illmarrow
Ill marrow has a backdoor—that
empowered by the patriotic spirits of the
t he fallen, or do she could seize control of all Karrnathi undead. Of
they hold a darker secret? course, if that’s the case, why hasn’t she used that power
already? It could be that she’s waiting for a specific
 Were Karr
Karrnathi
nathi undead created
created for
for any other moment.
momen t. Or it could be that there’s something she needs
to seize control of the undead—an artifact or eldritch
branches
branches of the Karrnathi
K arrnathi military?
Even more so than warforged, Karrnathi
Karr nathi undead aren’t machine—and the adventurers could be the
t he only hope
of keeping it from her!
robots. They aren’t precisely programmed; the Dungeon
the Dungeon  
195 article notes that you can’t use the Odakyr Rites
to create an undead farmer. The basic principle of
the Odakyr Rites is one of sympathy: if you perform
these rites on the corpse of an expert archer, you’ll get
an archer, and if you perform them on an elite melee
fighter, you’ll get a melee fighter. Beyond that, you
can only create soldiers, not farmers or poets.
p oets. This
reinforces the fact that there’s something disturbing
disturbing  
about the Karrnathi undead;
u ndead; you
you can only use the
rites to create killers.
kil lers. But even there, it’s not a perfect
proficiency match: oddly,
oddly, the Karrnathi skeletons
skeletons favor
a two-weapon style thatt hat isn’t a standard technique for
Karrnathi infantry. And again, they’re incapable ofof
learning entirely new skills.
So if you boarded a Karrnathi galleon with a skeleton
crew manning the oars, they wouldn’t be skilled sailors,
and they’d likely be mundane reanimated skeletons, not
sentient Karrnathi undead. However,
However, that same galleon
could be carrying a squad of undead marines (who also
have the advantage of not needing to breathe).
 While undead could make for interesting
interesting airship
paratroopers, remember that airships are a recent devel-
opmentt (they’ve only been in active use for eight years),
opmen
and they require Lyrandar pilots. Most air battles men-
tioned in canon involve aerial cavalry: Thrane wyverns,
 Aundairian dragonhawks. However,
However, you
you could certainly
equip undead troops with feather
with feather tokens
tokens and
 and drop them
 into enemy territory; they have darkvision, don t need
food or sleep, can operate tirelessly, and are happy to
engage in suicide missions.

󰁨󰁩󰁬󰁤󰁲󰁥󰁮 󰁩󰁮 B󰁲󰁥󰁬󰁡󰁮󰁤, A󰁵󰁮󰁤󰁡󰁩󰁲, 󰁡󰁮󰁤

USING THE FLESHWEAVER
the Eldeen Reaches are raised on stories of
Mordain the Fleshweaver and the monsters  
he creates. Parents warn that Mordain
steals disobedient children and carries
them off to his living fortress, leaving perfect simulacra
in their place so
s o even their friends
fr iends won’t
won’t miss them.
HISTORY OF MORDAIN  
As the mightiest
m ightiest mortal w izard in
i n Khorvaire,
Khor vaire, Mordain
can be as powerful as you want him to be. His spe-spe -
cialty is creating and transforming living creatures,
but he can easily have other talents. Notably, you
could substitute “Mordain” for “Mordenkainen” in
spell names in Eberron; this gives us Mordain’s
us  Mordain’s
private sanctum
sa nctum and and Mordain’s
 Mordain’s magnificent mansion,
suggesting that he has a talent for manipulating
mansion,

Mordain was born into House Phiarlan and became one
of the most gifted wizards of the Twelve; it’s said that the
standard House Jorasco potio
Jorasco potionn of h
healing
ealing is
 is Mordain’s
recipe. But his obsession with creating and improving life
drew him down dark paths, and he began adapting the
techniques of the daelkyr and delving into the secrets of
Sul Khatesh. According to one story, he sought to mage-
breed a new dragonmarked house, but instead produced
a line of aberrations that consumed his own family before
they were destroyed.
 Whatever
 Whatev er the truth of th
these
ese stories,
stories, Mordain
Mordain was
was
excoriated from House Phiarlan in 797 YK. According to
the records of Salyon Syrralan d’Sivis, the Twelve tried to
execute Mordain and failed. Salyon’s account states that
Mordain was bathed in acid, burned at the stake, drowned,
and even dismembered, but after each attempt, “he rose
again, his vigor unchecked and flesh rebound.” The Twelve
Twelve
then petrified him and sent to Dreadhold … but despite
being petrified, he mysteriously escaped before reaching
the island prison. Salyon speculated that “no lesser mage  
could set his will over the flesh of Mordain.”
The first confirmed sighting of Blackroot—Mordain’s
tower—occurred in 873 YK, during the Silver Crusade.
 A troop of Aundairian
Aundairian templars
templars pursued
pursued a few
few were-
were-
extradimensional space. Mordain might have a few
extradimensional back doors scattered around the
continent, allowing him to drop his experiments wher-
ever best suits your story.
 With that
th at said, Mordain
Morda in isn’t simply using
usi ng the
sorts of magic that player characters like wizards and
artificers might use. His techniques are adapted from
the daelkyr and the overlords, and they involve chan-
neling the energies of Kythri and Xoriat; the Mordain
the Fleshweaver stat block presented later in this
chapter gives an example of the powers he might wield
in combat. While Mordain can affect the subjects of
his experiments wherever he chooses, most of his
magic can only be performed in Blackroot, which is
essentially a vast eldritch machine. It’s quite possible
that through his centuries of work, he has essentially
become Blackroot—that
become  Blackroot—that his physical body is just a
shell he creates to interact with people, but that the
true Mordain is merged with his tower. This is one way
you could limit
l imit his
hi s impact and add a reason for him
h im
to work with adventurers. And while his tower is in a
dangerous region, his location is public knowledge, so
adventurers know where he can be found.

 wolv
 wolves
es far to
considered topart
theofsouth of modern
modern
Droaam). Weeks Aundair
Aundair (a
(a regio
region
later, another n now
now
patrol M󰁯󰁲󰁤󰁡󰁩󰁮 󰁯󰁲 D󰁡󰁥󰁬󰁫󰁹󰁲?
encountered a lone survivor from this force, delirious How does Mordain’s role in a campaign differ from that of the
and nearly incoherent. The templar spoke of a tower daelkyr? Why use him instead of󰀬 say󰀬 Dyrrn the Corruptor?
“with blackened, leathery walls, twisted as the limb of a There are a few simple answers󰀮 The first is that Mordain
operates on a smaller scale󰀮 He doesn’t have cults or armies
dragon reaching up to grasp the sun.” The soldier couldn’t
of minions spread across the continent󰀮 Additionally󰀬 the
account for his companions, but his own condition was
daelkyr are mysterious but unquestionably destructive󰀻
testimony to the horrors he'd seen—his upper torso had they’ll destroy civilizations if left unchecked󰀮 Mordain󰀬 on
been fused to the lower body of what was posthumously the other hand󰀬 has no desire to destroy civilizations󰀻 his
confirmed to be a werewolf. His mental state quickly experiments are on a smaller scale󰀬 and collateral damage
deteriorated and he soon died of self-inflicted wounds. is generally incidental󰀬 not intentional󰀮 A final critical factor
Today, Mordain is the most powerful wizard living is that Mordain is an eccentric sociopath󰀬 but he’s not as
in Khorvaire, and the region surrounding his tower is completely alien as the daelkyr are󰀮 You can have a real con󰀭
 warded against divinatio
divination
n and teleportation
teleportation.. Tho
Though
ugh versation with Mordain󲀔you can talk to him about what
paladins of Dol Arrah have attempted to destroy the foul he’s doing with his latest experiment󰀬 and he’d be happy to
  wizard and his works,
works, emissaries
emissaries of every
every nation
nation sought
sought pay adventure󰀮
last you for those
Heremorhaz
s infamousentrails
and heyou discovered
s deadly󰀬 but heon your
s more
Mordain’ss aid at some point in the
Mordain’ t he Last War; knights
grounded than the daelkyr󰀬 and his schemes are generally
and envoys both met with failure, and only a lucky few more focused󰀮
survived to share their stories. Mordain remains a sinister
enigma, a dark legend on the edge of Droaam. Some
believe he has an arrangement with the Daughters of Sora
Kell, but many believe that even the hags fear Mordain.

INTRODUCING M ORDAIN as a flesh golem!). The main question here is why?

How is the group interesting or useful
usefu l to Mordain?
Mordain pairs unmatched arcane power with an utter It’s Personal. Mordain might even take a personal
disregard for the suffering of others. At the same time, interest in the adventurers. Will he turn their friends
he has no interest in wealth or influence—he’s not trying into monsters,
monsters, or grant strange
st range powers to their
to conquer Khorvaire, and while he’s indifferent to the enemies? Is he testing the adventurers, or is there
suffering his creations can cause, he’s not trying to harm something about them that poses a threat to his
others. As DM, you could decide Mordain wants revenge experiments? Does he know
k now something about one of
on the dragonmarked houses for driving him away; but the adventurers that they have yet to discover
dis cover??
by default, he considers the houses to be as pointless and
irrelevant as the Five Nations. All that he cares about is
his work—creating and perfecting life. With this ini n mind,
SECRET ORIGIN
there are several ways Mordain can enter a campaign. Mordain can serve as an interesting backstory elemen elementt
for an unusual player character. Perhaps a player wants
MORDAIN THE VILLAIN to create a character using an ancestry with no estab-
Though Eberron is swimming in major conspiracies, lished place in Eberron,
Eber ron, such as a loxodon or a Simic
Mordain has no grand plans for Khorvaire, which makes hybrid. Simple answer: they were created by Mordain.
him an excellent source of one-shot
one- shot problem
problemss that The same approach can explain class features:
have to be dealt with but that have no long-term conse- perhaps a sorcerer’s arcane powers stem from being
quences. While he rarely leaves his tower (assuming
(assuming magebred by Mordain. A player could use the statistics
he even can), he uses scrying
scrying and
 and teleportation magic for a half-orc barbarian, except describe
descr ibe their character
to inflict his experiments on targets across Khorvaire. as an artificial
art ificial lifeform created by Mordain, and their
Consider the following options: “rage” reflects a hulking-out battle
batt le mode. A monk could
attribute their Unarmored Defense and enhanced abili-
Contagion. Mordain might engineer a magical plague ties to Mordain-crafted
Mordain-craf ted mutations. Or a character could
and inflict it on an isolated village to see what have ties to the village
vi llage of Dolurrh’s Dawn;
Dawn; they could be
happens. Can the adventurers find a cure? Perhaps a clone of a famous historical figure, perhaps Karrn the
he’s
he’s experimenting with a new form of lycanthropy: Conqueror or Tira Miron reborn … or even a clone of a
how does it differ from the traditional
t raditional form?  young Mordain the Fleshweaver!
Fleshweaver!
Predator. Mordain could introduce a dangerous monster  With any of these ideas, there are a few few critical ques-
into a region as an isolated threat, likely just to see tions. Was the character created in an isolated incident,
how things play out. If you want to drop a tavern- or are they part of a larger experiment (like Dolurrh’
Dolurrh’ss
sized gelatinous cube in the heart of Aundair, blame Dawn)?? Did Mordain release them into the wild,
Dawn) w ild, or did
Mordain. they escape captivity? Do they know 
they know  the
 the purpose for
Infestation. Mordain could also introduce a significant  which they were created—and are they defying defyi ng it, or
population of monsters to a region—possibly by trans- could their adventuring career be part of Mordain’s plan?
forming an entire village into a nest of kruthiks or a
band of yeti. Can any victims be restored? If not, can MORDAIN THE A LL
LLY
Y
the adventurers find a way to stabilize the situation? Mordain has much to offer, from magic items to mys-
Enigmatic Arrival.
be monsters. Mordain’s
He could creations
transform don’t have to
the inhabitants of a terious boons. He could easily serve ser ve as a patron for a
 warlock or a mysterious
mysterious menmentor
tor for a wizard … or eeven
ven
 village into tortles, or create a murder
murder of kenku. This an entire group (following the model of the immortal
can be a simple way to introduce a small popula- group patron from Eberron:
from Eberron: Rising from the Last War  War ,
tion of unusual creatures into a location (possibly even if he may not be immortal).
im mortal).
creating an origin
ori gin story for a player character,
character, as  Working
 Wor king with Mordain should never be an entirely
mentioned
mention ed in the next sect
section
ion);
); no one kknows
nows why comfortable experience. There should always be the
Mordain put a tribe of tabaxi into the King’s Forest, sense that he’s incredibly dangerous and could do
but he did. something terrifying
terrif ying at any
a ny moment.
moment. But again, Mordain
Ongoing Experiments. Adventurers could stumble is motivated solely by his experiments; as long as those
upon other bizarre experiments. Dolurrh’
Dolurrh’ss Dawn current experiments
experi ments aren’t
aren’t harming
harmi ng innocents, there’s
(originally
(originally presented in Dragon
in Dragon 365) is an isolated no reason he can’t be a useful ally. Here are a few pos-
 village in Droaam where Mordain has recreated
recreated sibilities of what he might he want from f rom adventurers:
adventurers:
legendary characters from history. It’s unclear why
he’s done this, but it’s an interesting location for Damage Control. Mordain wants the adventurers
 adventurers to find.
Hidden Hand. Mordain could be supplying or sup-
porting a faction the adventurers are fighting. He
could be providing symbionts or other magic items, or
giving them access to monstrous forces (you kill the
leader of the organization, but a week later he’s back
Lesser of Two Evils. A Cult of the Dragon
Dragon Below,
Below, the
Lords of Dust, the Dreaming Dark, or a similar force
might interfere with one of Mordain’
Mordain’ss experiments.
experi ments. He
sends the adventurers to resolve
res olve the problem.
Organ Donors. Adventurers encounter
encounter lots of rare
creatures. Mordain wants them to harvest organs of
monsters they defeat, and pays them (in gold or in
other ways) for unusual finds.
Searching for Symbionts. Mordain is always interested
in relics of the
t he daelkyr, and he could send adventurers
into dangerous dungeons in pursuit of symbionts or
other daelkyr creations.
Silver Tongues. Mordain could ask the adventurers to
mediate a local problem with some of his neighbors in
Droaam … likely as a last resort before resolving the
problem himself in a horrifying and deadly fashion.
FACING M ORDAIN
In general, Mordain’s role is as creator of monsters
and other threats. He’s not really intended to serve as a
monster himself, as he’s a grand instigator who has no
desire to be pulled into demeaning physical conflicts.
Nonetheless,
Nonethe less, a story could involve fighting Mordain,
and statistics are provided for him here … but defeating
defeating   actions. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties),
Mordain and killing
and killing him
 him are two very different tasks.
One of Mordain’s defining features is that he’s impos-
sible to kill. The Twelve took him prisoner, but even with
all of the resources at their disposal, they couldn’
couldn’tt ki
kill
ll
him. Think of it this way: through his work, Mordain has
essentially become a living artifact, and is as indestruc-
tible as any other artifact—including being immune to the
effects of a sphere of annihilation!
annihilation! So if the adventurers
have to kill Mordain, what can they do that the Twelve
couldn’t have tried back in the day? Could adventurers
gain the power to kill him by dealing with Katashka the
Gatekeeper or the Bone King of Mabar? Is there some
secret tied to his past that would reveal a weakness—
weak ness—
could he be killed by a member of his own bloodline,
or by one of his own creations? Like an artifact, there’s
surely some
some way
 way to destroy Mordain, but learning this
technique and executing it would be an epic challenge.
AROUND BLACKROOT
Over many generations, Mordain has transformed
t ransformed the
 woods surrounding Blackroot. The peoplepeople of Droaam
call it the Forest of Flesh, and that’s not just a colorful
title. Long ago, Mordain created skinweavers—spider-
like aberrations that weave webs from the muscles and
entrails of their victims. The forest is filled with a bizarre
array of flora and fauna, ranging from eerie natural things
from other environments (like phosphorescent vegetation
usually only found underground) to Mordain’s entirely
to clean
from theup his messes.
“Mordain Use thesection,
the Villain” same story seeds
but in t his
this
case, Mordain dispatches
dispatches the par
partyty to minimize
mini mize
collateral damage. He still feels a need to drop an
enormous gelatinous cube into Aundair, but once
he’s learned what he needed, he’s happy to have
the adventurers deal with it.
MORDAIN'S L AIR
The tower of Blackroot is Mordain’s stronghold and his
greatest tool. Blackroot is a disturbing blend of wood,
stone, and leathery flesh; rather than build it, Mordain
 grew  it.
 it. This gruesome structure is unnaturally durable.
Its walls are as strong as steel, and it swiftly
swift ly regenerat
regenerateses
damage. It’s impossible
impossible to teleport through the walls of
Blackroot, and divination magic can’t penetrate its walls.
Seen from afar, Blackroot
Blackroot is an imposing str structure,
ucture,
but it’s even larger on the inside; there are several extradi-
mensional spaces within the tower, similar to magnificent
mansions. Explorers may pass through a door to what
should be a small room and instead
i nstead find themselves in an
immense storeroom or a vast menagerie filled with crea-
tures Mordain has created and abandoned.
It's possible that Mordain has evolved beyond his
humanoid form and that he essentially is Blackroot. If
this is the
t he case, he has some degree of awareness spread
across the tower—though just as most humans don’t don’t know
k now
exactly what’s going
going on within their bodies at all times, it
 would take something
something signific
significant
ant to draw his attention.
attention.
LAIR ACTIONS
 While within Blackroot Tower,
Tower, Mordain can take lair
Mordain can take a lair action to cause one of the fol-
lowing effects; he can’t use the same
sa me effect two rounds
in a row:
Curated Copy. Mordain magically creates a body b ody double
of another creature he can see, placing the double
in any unoccupied space within his lair; he can’t
have more than one double per creature at a time.
t ime. A
double has the same statistics as that creature does
at the moment Mordain creates it, except the double
has 1 hit point and can’t take actions or reactions on
its own. Whenever a creature attacks, casts a spell,
makes an opportunity attack, or otherwise acts, it can
choose for that action to originate from its space or its
double’s space, as if the creature were in that space.
 A creature
creatu re can move its double up to the double’s
speed on its turn, regardless of whether that creature
also moves on its turn. Once on a creature’s turn, if
it isn’t incapacitated, it can magically teleport into its
double’s space, swapping places with it. Additionally,
Mordain can magically hijack a double’s movement
by moving a creature’s double up to its speed imme-
diately after that creature’s turn, and/or by using his
reaction any time during a creature’s
creature’s turn to magi-
cally teleport that creature into its double’s space,
swapping their places.
Limitless Self. Mordain magically creates a body
double of himself in any unoccupied space within
 unnatural
 with creations.
the wings and Adventurers
and Luring Song could
Song of encounter
a harpy,
harpy a troll
, or a manti- his lair; he can have up to three doubles
doubles of himself
at a time. These doubles follow the same rules as his
core with the massive head of a medusa—and its deadly other Curated Copy doubles, except he can choose
abilities. Like the skinweavers, some of these creations to split his actions between them, and he can’t hijack
have carved out a broad niche within the region, but for his own double’s
double’s movement.
the most part, the Forest of Flesh is filled with bizarre
and unique encounters.
 

least one of these targets fails its

i ts save󰀬 both targets are subjected
M󰁯󰁲󰁤󰁡󰁩󰁮
M󰁯󰁲󰁤󰁡󰁩󰁮 󰁴󰁨󰁥 F󰁬󰁥󰁳󰁨󰁷󰁥󰁡
F󰁬󰁥󰁳󰁨󰁷 󰁥󰁡󰁶󰁥󰁲 
󰁶󰁥󰁲 
to the effects of Mordain’s experiment 󰀨even if the other target
Medium Aberration󰀬 Neutral Evil 
succeeded on its save󰀩󰀻
save󰀩󰀻 these effects can be reversed only with a
Armor Class 󰀱󰀶 󰀨mage armor 󰀩 curse spell or similar magic󰀮
remove curse spell magi c󰀮 Mordain chooses one of the
Hit Points 󰀱󰀳󰀶 󰀨󰀱
󰀨󰀱󰀳d󰀸
󰀳d󰀸 󰀫 󰀷󰀸󰀩 following experiments when he uses this action󰀺
Speed 󰀳󰀰 ft󰀮 Horrific Merger󰀮 One target is teleported into the same space
as the other󰀬 and the creatures merge󰀮 The creatures act
STR  DEX  CON  INT  WIS  CHA
independently but share a space󰀮 Whenever one creature
󰀱󰀴 󰀨󰀫󰀲󰀩 󰀱󰀷 󰀨󰀫󰀳󰀩 󰀲󰀳 󰀨󰀫󰀶󰀩 󰀲󰀲 󰀨󰀫󰀶󰀩 󰀱󰀴 󰀨󰀫󰀲󰀩 󰀱󰀸 󰀨󰀫󰀴󰀩
moves󰀬 the other
have resistance toisalldragged
damage󰀬 with
andit󰀮
i t󰀮each
Bothtime
creatures
one of the
Saving Throws Con 󰀫󰀱󰀲󰀬 Int 󰀫󰀱󰀲󰀬 Wis 󰀫󰀸
Skills Arcana 󰀫󰀱󰀸󰀬 Medicine 󰀫󰀸󰀬 Nature 󰀫󰀱󰀲󰀬 Perception 󰀫󰀸 creatures takes damage󰀬 the other creature takes the same
Damage Resistances poison󰀻 bludgeoning󰀬 piercing󰀬 and amount of damage󰀮
slashing from nonmagical attacks Self󰀮 Each target is polymorphed
Exchange of Self󰀮 Each poly morphed into a form
Condition Immunities disease identical to the other target’s original appearance󰀮 The targetstarget s
Senses darkvision
arkv ision 󰀶󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 passive Perception 󰀱󰀸
󰀱󰀸 exchange their Strength󰀬 Dexterity󰀬
Dex terity󰀬 and Constitution scores󰀬
Languages Common󰀬 Deep Speech󰀬 Elvish󰀬 Goblin their Hit Dice󰀬 their hit points󰀬 and their maximum hit points󰀮
Challenge 󰀱󰀸 󰀨󰀲󰀰󰀬󰀰󰀰󰀰 XP󰀩 Proficiency Bonus 󰀫󰀶 Discorporation󰀮 The targets alternately blink in
Sympathetic Discorporation󰀮 The
and out of existence󰀮 Mordain chooses one of the targets󰀬
 Abiding Flesh󰀮 Mordain automatically succeeds on death saving which immediately vanishes from its current plane of
throws󰀬 and he can’t be killed by taking
ta king damage󰀮 existence and appears in the Ethereal Plane󰀬 as if affected by
Fey Ancestry󰀮 Mordain has advantage on saving throws against the blink spell󰀮 At the end of each target’s turn󰀬 it must roll a
being charmed󰀬 and magic can’t
c an’t put him to sleep󰀮 d󰀲󰀰󰀮 On a roll of 󰀱󰀱 or higher󰀬 it trades planes
pla nes with the other
target󰀻 the target that was on the Ethereal Plane vanishes
Fleshweaver’s Immortality󰀮 Mordain can’t be reduced to 󰀰 hit
and appears on the plane the other target was on󰀬 and the
points while he has at least one use of Legendary Resistance
remaining󰀮 target that was
the Ethereal on another
Plane󰀮 When theplane vanishes
targets tradeand appears
planes󰀬 eachon
Legendary Resistance 󰀨󰀳/Day󰀩󰀮 If Mordain fails a saving throw󰀬 returns to an unoccupied space of its choice that it can see
he can choose to succeed instead󰀮 within 󰀱󰀰 feet of the space it vanished from󰀮 If no unoccupied
Master Transmuter󰀮 Mordain can magically transmute one non󰀭 space is available within that range󰀬 it appears in a random
magical object󰀬 which must be no larger than a 󰀵󰀭foot cube󰀬 into unoccupied space nearest to the space it vanished from󰀮
another nonmagical object of similar size and mass and of equal These effects are suppressed if both targets are on the
or lesser value󰀮 He must spend 󰀱󰀰 minutes handling the object to Ethereal Plane󰀮
transform it󰀮 Spellcasting󰀮 Mordain casts one of the following spells󰀬 using
Mastery of Self󰀮 While Mordain is paralyzed󰀬 petrified󰀬 stunned Intelligence as the spellcasting ability 󰀨spell save DC 󰀲󰀰
󰀲󰀰󰀩󰀺
󰀩󰀺
or unconscious󰀬 his speed is reduced to 󰀰 feet󰀬 but he is not inca󰀭 At will󰀺 mage hand 󰀬 mending 󰀬 message
message󰀬󰀬 prestidigitati
 prestidigitation
on
pacitated and he can move within his space 󰀨for example󰀬 he can 󰀲/day each󰀺 animate objects󰀬
objects󰀬 flesh to stone󰀬
stone󰀬 mage armor 󰀬
attack while unconscious󰀬 but he can’t move to a different space󰀩󰀮
space󰀩󰀮  polymorph󰀬󰀬 prismatic spray 
 polymorph
If Mordain takes cold or radiant damage󰀬 this trait doesn’t function 󰀱/day each󰀺 true polymorph󰀬
polymorph󰀬 true seeing 
until the end of his next turn󰀮
L󰁥󰁧󰁥󰁮󰁤󰁡󰁲󰁹
L󰁥󰁧󰁥󰁮󰁤󰁡󰁲󰁹 A󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳
Veil
magicofor
Nondetection󰀮 Mordain
perceived through can’t scrying
magical be targeted by any divination
sensors󰀮 Mordain can take 󰀳 legendary
legendar y actions󰀬 choosing from the options
A󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳
below󰀮 Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only
at the end of another creature’s turn󰀮 Mordain regains spent leg󰀭
Multiattack󰀮 Mordain makes one Stinging Tentacle attack and one endary actions at the start of his turn󰀮
Unraveling Ray attack󰀮
Rapid Strike󰀮 Mordain makes a Stinging TeTentacle
ntacle or Unraveling
Stinging Tentacle󰀮 Melee Weapon Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀹
Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀹 to hit󰀬 reach 󰀱󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 Ray attack󰀮
one target󰀮 Hit󰀺 󰀱󰀴 󰀨󰀲d󰀱󰀰 󰀫 󰀳󰀩 slashing damage and 󰀱󰀱 󰀨󰀲d󰀱󰀰󰀩 Reform Flesh 󰀨Costs 󰀲 Actions󰀩󰀮 Mordain regains 󰀱󰀶 󰀨󰀳d󰀱󰀰󰀩
poison damage󰀮 hit points and gains advantage on Strength󰀬 Dexterity and
Unraveling Ray󰀮 Ranged Spell Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀱󰀲 to hit󰀬 rarange
nge 󰀱󰀲󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 o
one
ne Constitution saving throws until the end of his next turn󰀮
target󰀮 Hit󰀺 󰀱󰀶 󰀨󰀳d󰀶 󰀫 󰀶󰀩 necrotic damage and the target must Mordain can’t use this legendary action while incapacitated󰀮
succeed on a DC 󰀲󰀰 Constitution saving throw or become cursed󰀮 Fluid Form 󰀨Costs 󰀲 Actions󰀩󰀮  Mordain magically takes the
A cursed creature takes 󰀱󰀰 necrotic damage at the start of each form of another creature until the end of his nex t turn󰀮 The
of its turns󰀮 The creature can repeat the save at the end of each of new form can be of any creature with a challenge rating equal
its turns󰀬 ending the effect on a success󰀮 to or lower than Mordain’s󰀮 Mordain retains his own statistics󰀬
Magnificent Experiment
Expe riment 󰀨󰀳/Day󰀩
󰀨󰀳/Day󰀩󰀮󰀮 Mordain chooses two crea󰀭 except that he adopts the size and speeds of his chosen
 tures he can see within 󰀶󰀰 feet of him󰀬 subjecting them to a hor󰀭 form󰀮 In addition󰀬 he can choose one action available
availa ble to that
rific magical transmutation experiment󰀮 Each target must make a creature󰀮 He uses that action immediately as part of this
DC 󰀲󰀰 Constitution ssaving
aving throw󰀬 tak
taking
ing 󰀲󰀱 󰀨
󰀨󰀶d󰀶󰀩
󰀶d󰀶󰀩 necrotic damage legendary action󰀬 and can use it again as an action on his turn
on a failed save and half
hal f as much damage on a successful one󰀮 If at for as long as he retains this chosen form󰀮

T󰁨󰁥 H󰁡󰁮󰁤 󰁯󰁦 M󰁯󰁲󰁤󰁡󰁩󰁮?

The Hand of Vecna and
Vecna and Eye of Vecna 
Vecna are classic ar tifacts󲀔the
severed hand and eye of a legendary archmage󰀬 indestructible
and imbued with immense power󰀮
power󰀮 Vecna doesn’t exist in canon
c anon
Eberron󰀬 but Mordain is a legendary archmage who’s known
both for being indestructible and for loving anything to do
with body horror … so why not link these artifacts
artif acts to Mordain?
There are a few ways to do this󰀺
󲀢 When the Twelve tried to destroy him before󰀬 they couldn’t
kill him󰀬 but they did sever a hand and pluck out an eye󰀮
These were kept in the vaults of the Twelve … until they
were stolen and released into the world󰀮 Does Mordain
want them back?
󲀢 Mordain removed his own hand and eye and sent
s ent them out
into the world … for
fo r science!
󲀢 When the campaign begins󰀬 Mordain has been slain by an
epic hero 󰀨or a treacherous lieutenant󰀩󰀮 The Eye and the
Hand are all that remain of him󰀮 But was Mordain truly slain󰀬
or was this all part of his plan?

WHY S O POWERFUL?
One of the core principles of Eberron is “wide magic,
not high magic,” and spells beyond 5th level are all but
unknown in the Five Nations. So how does Mordain
 wield this level of power?
power? And perhaps
perhaps more importantly,
importantly,
 why hasn’t he had a greater impact
i mpact on life in the Five
Nations? Why don’t people just copy what he’s doing?
Ultimately, Mordain is a pulp villain. He’s not sup-
posed to logically fit into the structure of the
t he world; if he
 were sane and reasonable
reasonable and willing to lend his skills
to House Vadalis,
Vadalis, Khorvai
Khorvaire
re would be a better
bet ter place.
Instead, he’s
he’s channeling powers normal artificers
ar tificers and
 wizards can’t understand, and he’she’s using them for dan-
gerous and selfish reasons.
Beyond that, these powers can’t
c an’t be easily duplicated
and have come with a terrible cost. Through his experi-
ments, he has become an aberration, and he may be
bound to Blackroot and unable to leave it. So even if
people in Arcanix
Arca nix could copy what he’s
he’s doing, they might
not want to; anyone who could master his techniques
 would likely lose their humanity in the process.
Some might wonder why the dragons of Argonnessen
A rgonnessen
haven’t
haven ’t dealt with Mordain. Aren’t they concerned by
such a powerful wizard? In short, no. Argonnessen typi- typi -
cally doesn’t care about humanoids unless they threaten
 Argonnessen or the Prophecy,
Prophecy, and it seems that Mordain
Mordain
hasn’t done either. He attempted (and failed) to make a
new dragonmark; if he'dhe'd succeeded, they mig
might’ve
ht’ve taken
an interest, just as they
t hey took action after the line of Vol
successfully created an apex dragonmark. But even
in the example of Vol, the trouble only began after the
elves and their allies succeeded in creating the mark.
The dragons aren’t peeking over the shoulder of every
  wizar d, and they don t immediately murder high-level
 wizard, hi gh-level
adventurers. Mordain’s techniques are impressive, but
compared to the epic magics the dragons
dra gons used to destroy
 Xen’drik,
 Xen’drik, they’re not that impressive. He’s
He’s a big deal in
Khorvaire, but he hasn’t done anything that makes him
a serious threat to Argonnessen.

󰁯󰁵 󰁣󰁡󰁬󰁬 󰁨󰁥󰁲 󰁴󰁨󰁥 T󰁷󰁩󰁳󰁴󰁥󰁲 󰁯󰁦 R󰁯󰁯󰁴󰁳, USEFUL PLANTS

Y
 for you cannot see the
t he beauty in her  Avassh’s creations
 Avassh’s creations are unlike anything
anyt hing that exists in our
works. Open your mind and your body to  world; but
but while certainly unnatural,
un natural, some of these alien
the Bloody Cornucopia. Let her plant her resources can be harnessed to serve the greater good.

seeds in your thoughts and your fertile flesh, and she  Avassh
 Avassh doesn’t
do esn’t ping
care if
is reshaping
resha itsworld
the plantsinhelp
hits
elpimage,
you or
imageor, and
harm you.
whether
can show you wonders beyond imagination.  you thrive in this new environment is incidental.
incidental.
 Avassh is the ter raformer of the
t he daelkyr.
daelky r. Poisonous Brightwort is a fairly minor and benevolent example
blooms unfold at its touch, and fungus spreads in its of Avassh’s work. This faintly luminescent plant is
 wake. Dhakaani
Dhak aani accounts
acc ounts of the wars against
aga inst the immensely useful in creating potions
creating  potions of healing
heal ing and
 and
daelkyr speak of blighted fields
fields where rotting crops  potions of vitality 
vita lity . Most casual botanists assume it’s
rise up to consume the farmers, and jungles where the connected to Irian, like Araam’s Crown, another potent
screaming trees drink
dri nk goblin blood through barbed medicinal herb. But unlike Araam’s
Araam’s Crown, brightwort
roots. The Dhakaani on the western frontier had to doesn’t grow in Irian manifest zones, and there’s
burn their dead to ensure the corpses didn’t rise again, nothing natural about the way this herb promotes flesh to
overflowing with fungal blooms. Those Dhakaani facing knit and blood to clot.
 Avassh were ordered to be ext extraordinar
raordinar ily vigila
vi gilant.
nt.  Warpwood is a more more remarkable creation.
creation. If a warp-
Terrifying
errify ing as Dyrrn’s
D yrrn’s mind flayers may be, when an illi-  wood seed is pressed into the stump stump of a humanoid’
humanoid’ss
thid is slain, the threat is over. Avassh’s minions often severed limb, it takes root; over the course of a year, the
scatter spores when they are destroyed; unless preven- seed grows into a fully
ful ly functional wooden prosthetic,
tive measures are taken, a single shambling mound perfectly mirroring the functionality of the original limb.
could give birth to a new legion. The Gatekeeper druids  Warpwood trees are only foundfound in the Towering
Towering Wood,
helped the Dhakaani to contain Avassh’s influence, but and no one’s managed to get them to grow in other soil.
there weren’t enough druids to protect the vast empire; Some people in the Wood distrust warpwood, claiming
in many regions, fields and forests had to be razed to that a warpwood limb might one day tur n against the
utterly expunge this alien threat. creature that bears
bea rs it; but to date, there’s never been any
Today, Avassh is bound in Khyber, and mercifully, its confirmed case of this happening.
influence is severely restricted. Avassh is most active
in the Towering Wood of the Eldeen Reaches; the
D ISTURBING PLANTS
 Wardens of the Wood watch for its general influence, Other creations of the Twister of Roots range from
 while the
t he Children
Childr en of Winter contain
c ontain its threats in the dangerous to bizarre. The classic mandrake—a plant
Gloaming. However, Avassh could have a foothold in  with a human-shap
hu man-shapeded root that
th at screams when it’s dug
some of the other vast untamed jungles of Khorvaire— up—could definitely be in Avassh’
Avassh’ss garden. Carnivorous
Carn ivorous

or adventurers could discover an alien oasis beneath plants, flowers

ries, angry that
trees smell
with likeleaves—these
razor your most painful memo-
are just a
the surface. Beyond this, there are seeds thatt hat were
scattered across Khorvaire thousands of years ago, still few of Avassh’s creations (and the Twister of Roots also
 waiting for the right
ri ght moment (or cult rituals)
rit uals) to bear creates many plant monsters, described in the “Forces
deadly fruit. Some sages believe the Barrens of western of Avassh” section below). Consider these possibilities:
Khorvaire—the area now known as Droaam—was bru- Mourning Roses. These flowers cry in the darkness,
tally defoliated to counter the influence of Avassh, and if a haunting sob designed to lure victims. The thornst horns
so, there may be many forgotten seeds there waiting to on its vines are charged with powerful venom. Those
be recovered and cultivated.  who search for the
t he source of the cries
cr ies usually
usual ly fall
prey to the venom, and their corpses fertilize
fertili ze the
TWISTER OF ROOTS roses. The plant only cries when it's in bloom, and
the cries are actually a p sychic effect rath
rather
er than
 Avassh doesn’t embody mortal fears of nature;
n ature; rather,
rat her, audible sound; the voice feels
voice  feels familiar,
 familiar, even though
it transforms nature to create alien terrors. This trans- it’s impossible to identify.
formation appears to be the primary motivation of the
 daelkyr, and many of Avassh s creations are deadly Bone Orchards
humanoid . Colorless
bones. orchards
At a glance, theysprout
appearfrom
to be
threats. Blights kill creatures of flesh and corrupt
corr upt dead trees, with closely interlaced, leafless boughs—
natural vegetation. The compelling scent of Avassh’s but their bark has the texture of bone. The trees feed
blooms may be poisonous, or they could carry a more on the last vestiges of spirit that linger in the bones
insidious threat—psychic
threat—psychic spores that
t hat take root as that spawned them. You can effectively cast the
powerful psychoses. speak with dead  spell
 spell on any bone tree, as if you’d

dug up the corpse at its roots; strangely, this effect
 works regardless
regard less of whether
whet her the tree’s
tr ee’s corpse has
ha s a
mouth. Even without the spell, the whispers of the
dead can often be heard in a bone orchard. These
trees are t ypically found on ancient Dhakaani
battlefields or mass graves, but new orchards can
be found in areas with active Avassh cults or in
places close to the daelkyr’s prison.
Tree of Knowledge. Each of these trees is unique—
deciduous in appearance, but often strange in color
and texture. One tree of knowledge might appear
to be made of glass, while another could bleed
if its bark is cut. As its name suggests, a tree of
knowledge imparts information: each person who
consumes its fruit learns something they know
to be absolutely true. Each tree holds a particular
piece of knowledge, and sometimes this informa-
tion is entirely useful; a tree of knowledge could
grant understanding of the Goblin language or
proficiency with woodcarver’s tools. But a tree could
also grant absolute understanding of secrets that
mortals weren’t meant to know—secrets that might
drive someone to start
star t a cu
cult
lt devoted to the Twister
Twister
of Roots, for example. This is often how Avassh
cults spread, and NPCs may be powerless to resist
such infection. A player character
cha racter who eats such
fruit must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC
dependent on the story you want to tell) or become
friendly to and charmed by all Avassh cultists; that
character can repeat the saving throw each time an
 Avassh cultist harms
har ms them, as well as when they
finish a long rest.
CULTS AND CREATURES 
OF AVASSH
 Avassh’s cults typ
 Avassh’s typically
ically begin with a sseed.
eed. Sometimes
this is a relic of the Dhakaani conflict that suddenly
sprouts—perhaps watered by a particular emotion
or simply by contact with humanoids. In other cases,
a cultist might be compelled to perform rituals that
create the
create  the seed without truly knowing
k nowing what they are
doing. The form of the cult depends on what seed they
have sprouted. Cults that know Avassh as the Bloody
Cornucopia (described below) are similar to Dyrrn’s
Transcendent
ranscendent Flesh cults, yearning for an unnatural
transformation. Cults that know Avassh as the Twister
of Roots may cultivate deadly gardens. This could
be all they do—cultivate a garden of mourning roses
 without sinister
sin ister plans—or
plan s—or they
t hey could be tending a
blood mother (described
(described in
i n “Forces of Avassh”),
Avassh”), car
caring
ing
for it until it can unleash a blight.
section), but it often involves an actual
actua l transformation
rather than the use of a temporary symbiont. Most
cultists welcome such transformations, seeing it as
ascension to a higher state. Here are a few examples
of cult transformations.
transformations.
WOODEN SOLDIERS
These cultists appear normal, but beneath their
skin, their
t heir muscles become flexible roots and their
organs transform into wood. Wooden soldiers could
use the statistics of a  warfor
 warforged
ged sold ier  ( Eberron:
soldier  Eberron:
 Rising from the Last
L ast War ) or a sword wraith warrior
( Monsters
 Monsters of the Multiverse
Mult iverse);
); they don’t have visible
external armor, though they use the stat block’s
normal AC, and their creature type is both Plant
and Aberration.
ROOTBOUND
The cultists become bound to a wooden object—typi-
cally a living
l iving tree, but it’s also possible to be bound to
the wooden structure of a building.
bu ilding. These cultists can’t
 venture more thant han a few miles
mi les from the
t he object tthey
hey are
bound to. They use the statistics of dryads with the
following changes:
• Their creature type is both Plant and Aberration.
• They speak Deep Speech and the languages they
knew in life.
• They can’t cast druidcraft  or
 or shillelagh
shillelagh,, but they
know the primal
the primal savagery  and acid
 and acid splash cantrips
splash cantrips
(spitting acid from their mouth).
• Their Fey Charm action doesn’t affect Beasts, and
they can charm one Humanoid and up to three
Plants or Aberrations at a time.
DOLGAUNTS
 Whi le Avassh has ser vitors with
 While wit h the abilities
abil ities of dol-
gaunts, they are quite different from those created by
Dyrrn the Corruptor. Avassh’s dolgaunts begin with a
seed being implanted in the spine of a cultist. As the
seed grows, roots spread throughout the cultist’s body;
two of these pierce the skin, becoming the long ten-
tacles of the dolgaunt. The cultist’s eyes turn into dead
 wood and are eventually
eventuall y pushed out of their
t heir sockets
by roots. By this point, the original cultist is dead and
 what’s left is a dolgaunt servant.
serva nt. Avassh’s dolgaunts
are both Plant and Aberration.
MYCONIDS
There have been a few cases of cults voluntarily
infecting themselves with a consuming fungus,
fu ngus,
transforming into myconids. These cults are often
peaceful, interested only in their own fungal commu-
nion; however, they may decide to aggressively share
 BLOODY CORNUCOPIA this bliss w ith others. Avassh my
further in the
t he next section.
myconids
conids are discussed

 While Avassh creates new for

forms
ms of plant llife,
ife, it also
a lso
explores the line between animal and vegetable, often FORCES OF AVASSH
creating strange hybrids of the two.
t wo. This process can
In addition to the transformed cultists described in the
be reflected by its symbionts (see the “Gifts of Avassh”
previous section, the Twister of Roots has many other

creations that the adventurers could encounter.

encounter. These SHRIEKERS
forces could be found working with cults, or they could be Little is known about shriekers. Most sages believe
encountered on their own in regions influenced by Avassh. they’re non-sentient
non-sentient fungi that only react to the presence
pre sence
of light and motion. However,
However, Boroman ir’Dayne reports
BLIGHTS AND  BLOOD MOTHERS hearing a “haunting choir of shriekers” that seemed
Blights are a bioweapon
bioweapon originally unleashed against
to be singing to each other across great distances; he
Dhakaan. Blights kill humanoids
humanoids and transform the
 was unable to make any sense of the song or or induce
 vegetation of their
thei r region, spreading
s preading poisonous bram-
individual shriekers to replicate it or communicate
c ommunicate in any
bles, slimy vines, and other disturbing vegeta
vegetation.
tion.
 way.. There have also been a few examples of
 way of “shrieking
The Dhakaani called the trees that spawn these cults”—a seeming variation of Kyrzin’s gibbering cults—
blights khaar’niianu,, “blood mothers.” The sphere of
blights khaar’niianu
 who use the bodies of their dead
dead to fertilize shriekers.
influence of a blood mother is based on its size and
Such cultists claim to be able to hear the voices of their
age. Most ancient blood mothers were destroyed by
loved ones in the shrieks. It’s possible that Avassh is
the Dhakaani. Occasionally a new tree sprouts—a
linked to shriekers and can speak through any shrieker—
relic of the Dhakaani conflict
c onflict that never germinated,
if it ever has any reason to speak to adventurers. If this is
or the result of cult rituals—but such young trees have
true, Boroman’s mysterious
mysterious choir could be the equivalent
a limited range. A new blood mother might destroy
of Avassh humming to itself …
Sharn, but it couldn’t engulf Breland.

GAS SPORES TREANTS
During the Xoriat incursion, Dhakaani fortresses in
 Avassh created the
t he first gas spores.
spores . Some scholars
 what's now Aundair were
wer e assaulted by living
livi ng siege
believe that this is a key to understanding the relation-
engines they called the Gaa’avassh,
Gaa’avassh, the
 the Children of
ship between daelkyr—that the t he gas spores are in some
 Avassh. Since then,
t hen, these creatures
creatur es have been encoun-
 way a reflection
reflect ion of the relationship
relat ionship between
bet ween Avassh
and Belashyrra—but there is continuing debate as to tered in the touched
and forests depths of
bythe Gloaming
Avassh. Most and other jungles
gaa’avassh have
 whether this
thi s reflects cooperation or if it's a form of
the broad appearance of classic treants blended with
mockery or humor.
 willow trees;
t rees; however, their b
bark
ark has a sslick
lick texture,
text ure,
MYCONIDS they have nothing resembling a human face or head,
and the dangling “willow branches”
branches” are actually a mass
The only known account of a civilization of myconids
of prehensile tendrils. Avassh’s treants replace the stat
comes from Boroman ir’Dayne, who described a
block’s normal Slam attack with the following:
subterranean expedition that discovered an ancient
Dhakaani vault inhabited by these creatures. Boroman Tendril Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 +10
0 to h it, reach
describes the myconids as existing in a state of 5 ft., one target. Hit:
target. Hit: 16 (3d6 + 6) bludgeoning
“ecstatic union” and says they were awaiting the damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature,
coming of “the Harvester,” who had sown them long it is grappled (escape DC 18). The treant can grapple
ago and would one day harvest them to serve a greater up to six creatures at a time.
purpose. Boroman theorized that these myconids (a
The only language that all Avassh treants know is Deep
term coined by ir’Dayne and not used by the creatures
themselves) were the remnants of a Dhakaani kech Speech; ancient gaa’avash also know Goblin, and they
may have learned other languages from the t he creatures
that had been targeted by Avassh—possibly centuries
around them. They are reclusive creatures that largely
after the downfall of the empire on the surface. While
dwell in the deepest woods, and they consider animals
this is the
t he only account of an entire civilization
civili zation of
of all types
ty pes to be an infestation, seeing no difference
myconids, individuals can be encountered in Avassh’s
between humans and squirrels.
cults—as described above—or as un ique creatures
 While
 Whi le the above describe
des cribess the traits
tr aits of the
t he common
spawned by the Mourning or created by Mordain.
gaa’avassh, there are certainly more unusual examples.
SHAMBLING  MOUNDS One Dhakaani account speaks of a massive gaa’avassh
that also served as the blood mothe
motherr of a blight infesta-
The shambling mounds of Avassh form around the
tion, and an old Aundairian folktale seems to describe a
bones of dead sapient creatures. Most are just rough
gaa’avassh that falls in love with a parasitical dryad.
shapes, but occasionally a shambler more closely
resembles its original form; there’s at least one case
of an Avassh cult leader being restored as a sham-
OTHER CREATURES
 Assassin vines, violet fungus, and similar creatures
cre atures can
 blingAs
life. mound and retaining
with treants their
and other memo
memories
ries
creatures, of mortal
these are all be attributed to Avassh, and cults of the Twister of
Roots may cultivate such creatures and even have the
 Avassh’ss shambling
 Avassh’ shamblin g mounds; shamblers can al also
so be
ability to control them psychically. Plants with similar
created by primal forces, but those versions aren’t
statistics can have other origins as well, but any dan-
associated with bones.
gerous and unnatural plant could be the work of Avassh.
 

USING THE TWISTER OF ROOTS
THE
 Avassh isn’t hard to work into a story. If adventurers
adventur ers
 wander into a deep, untamed regregion—the
ion—the Towering
 Wood, the King’s
Ki ng’s Forest—they could d iscover th
that
at
 Avassh has influence
influence in the area. Alternatively, th
they
ey could
have to deal with a cult or a war-seed that has sprouted
in a town or city and needs to be dealt with. Here are a
few other ideas.
 Ancient Ruin. The adventurers stumble on an ancient
Dhakaani ruin
ru in that was destroyed long ago in conflict
 with Avassh. It It could be occupied solely
solely by aggressive
plants, or it could have myconids or wooden soldiers
based on the original inhabitants. Five
inhabitants. Five Nations
describes that Yarkuun Draal, a ruined Dhakaani
Dhakaan i for-
tress in Breland, is held by “the daelkyr Bhodex’av’gr”;
but I'd personally say that Bhodex’av’gr isn’t a daelkyr,
but rather an ancient, evolved cultist of Avassh. This
powerful lieutenant may not be a daelkyr,
daelky r, but it is
something very powerful and inhuman.
Lost Garden. The adventurers find the ruins of a cult
stronghold wiped out sometime during the golden age
of Galifar. Texts in the ruin speak of the gifts of the
AVASSH’S L AIR
 Avassh is bound in a prison demiplane in Khyber. Khyber. The
demiplane takes the form of a giant rotting tree, with wit h
fungus blooming and vines twisting along the slick
surface of the rotting wood. Avassh dwells deep within
the heart of this Dying Tree, surrounded by corpse
gardens and blight creatures. While W hile Avassh focuses on
its work, the roots of the Dying Tree burrow out through
Khyber, seeking new soil. Where the roots find purchase,
they can forge a temporary connection between the t he two
points, triggering the regional effects described below.
If it suits your story, and the proper rituals are enacted
and the energies converge, Avassh can physically mani-
fest at the terminus of a root. Avassh can take lair actions
anywhere within the Dying Tree’s root structure. Avassh
can’t travel more than 1,000 feet away from the root; if its
body is transported more than 1,000 feet from the root,
it immediately decomposes,
decomposes, and Avassh uses its Rebirth
legendary action to reappear at the root terminus.
Act ions.  Whi
 Lair Actions.  While le in its lair, Avassh can take lair
la ir
actions. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties),
 Avassh can take t ake a lair
la ir action to cause
c ause one of the fol-
lowing effects; it can’t use the same effect two rounds

Garden of Knowledge … and when the t he adventurers in a row:

find it, at least one tree of knowledge remains intact.
 Will anyone taste its fruit?
Uncanny Resemblance. After clashing with wooden
soldiers, one of the characters—likely an artificer—
notices a disturbing similarity between the root-like  
musculature of the fallen soldiers and the body of a
 warforged. Is House
House Cannith drawing on Avassh’s
Avassh’s
power to create the warforged, and if so, do they
know it? Could Avassh suddenly claim and control the
 warforged?
Plant. Adventurers discover evidence
evidence that Oalian, the
Great Druid of the
t he Eldeen Reaches, is a creation
of Avassh. Can they determine whether Oalian is a
figurative plant—a mole patiently waiting to enact an
ancient scheme—or whether the Great Druid is truly
 
as noble as he seems?
FACING AVASSH
Like all of the daelkyr,
daelky r, Avassh’s
Avassh’s appearance is subjective.
The mortal mind
mi nd can’t entirely comprehend
comprehend Avassh, and
two viewers will see different details when facing the
Dying Tree can be warped
daelkyr. The general impression, however, is of a femi-
if Avassh dies or the roots are destroyed, the effects fade
nine humanoid wearing barklike
bark like armor
ar mor.. Long, prehensile
away after 1d10 days:
roots emerge from its flesh and suspend it above the
ground; while Avassh has a flight speed, this actually
 
reflects this unnatural suspension. What at first appears
to be long hair is a mane of writhing
writhi ng vines, which can
lash out and crush its enemies.
Infectious Growth. Avassh releases
releases a plume of infec-
tious blight spores. Each creature it can see within
w ithin
its lair must succeed on a DC 22 Constitution saving
throw or become infected with a blight spore.
Arboreal Temptation. Avassh grows a magical tree in
an unoccupied space it can see within its lair. Each
creature that starts its turn within 20 feet of that tree
must make a DC 22 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed
save, a creature must use its movement
movement on its turn
to end its turn as close as possible to that tree. Each
creature that ends its turn within
w ithin 5 feet of the tree (on
that turn or subsequent turns) must pluck a leaf or
fruit from its boughs, and a creature that does so can’t
regainMinion.
Awaken hit points until the
 Avassh end ofeither
conjures its next
oneturtreant
turn.
n. or
two shambling mounds in unoccupied spaces it can
see within its lair. The creatures disappear when they
are reduced to 0 hit points or when Avassh uses this
lair action again.
 Regional Effects.  A region touched by the roots of the
warp ed in one or more of these ways;
Blooms . Natural plants within 1 mile
Aberrant Blooms. mi le of the
root terminus may develop unusual traits—while they
retain their normal appearance, they could become
poisonous or psychedelic,
psychedelic, or start
star t drawing on a source
 More than any other daelkyr, Avassh has a loose rela- of sustenance other than sunlight.
tionship with its physical form. Vegetation
Vegetation in tthe
he region  Alien Flora. Unnatural plants can appear within 1 mile
around Avassh shivers and shudders. Avassh spreads of the root terminus, as such as those described in this
seeds, and at any point it may dissolve its current body chapter.
and emerge reborn from one of its seed pods. Wherever
W herever Unnatural Growth. Plant growth and decay is unnatu-
it goes, plants secrete strange pollens and scents;
s cents; the rally accelerated within 5 miles of the root terminus.
 world smells
smells wrong, and leav
leaves
es rustle in an unfelt wind.

 A󰁶󰁡󰁳󰁳󰁨
 A󰁶 Ligneous Claw󰀮 Melee Weapon Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀱󰀴 to hit󰀬 reach 󰀵 ft󰀮󰀬
one target󰀮 Hit󰀺 󰀱󰀷 󰀨󰀳d󰀶 󰀫 󰀷󰀩
󰀷󰀩 slashing damage󰀬
dama ge󰀬 and the target is
Medium Aberration󰀬 Neutral Evil 
infected with a blight spore󰀮
Armor Class 󰀱󰀹 󰀨natural armor󰀩 Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀱󰀴 to hit󰀬 reach 󰀳󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬
Thrashing Vines󰀮 Melee Weapon Attack󰀺 󰀫󰀱󰀴
Hit Points 󰀲󰀸󰀷 󰀨󰀲󰀵d󰀸 󰀫 󰀱󰀷󰀵󰀩 one target󰀮 Hit󰀺 󰀱󰀸 󰀨󰀲d󰀱󰀰
󰀨󰀲d󰀱󰀰 󰀫 󰀷󰀩 slashing damage󰀬
d amage󰀬 and the target is
Speed 󰀴󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 climb 󰀴󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 fly 󰀴󰀰 ft󰀮 󰀨hover
󰀨hover󰀩
󰀩 restrained until the end of its next turn󰀮
STR  DEX  CON  INT  WIS  CHA Mourning Bloom󰀮 Avassh grows a bloom of haunting roses from
󰀲󰀴 󰀨󰀫
󰀨󰀫󰀷󰀩
󰀷󰀩 󰀲󰀱 󰀨󰀫󰀵󰀩 󰀲󰀵 󰀨󰀫󰀷󰀩 󰀲󰀴 󰀨󰀫
󰀨󰀫󰀷󰀩
󰀷󰀩 󰀲󰀲 󰀨󰀫󰀶󰀩 󰀲󰀲 󰀨󰀫󰀶󰀩 a point it can see within 󰀱󰀲󰀰 feet of it󰀬 and the roses cry out with

Saving Throws Int 󰀫󰀱󰀴󰀬 Wis 󰀫󰀱󰀳󰀬 Cha 󰀫󰀱󰀳 the voices of the blood that fertilizes their soil󰀮 Each creature
in a 󰀳󰀰󰀭foot󰀭radius sphere centered on that point must make a
Skills Arcana 󰀫󰀱󰀴󰀬 Nature 󰀫󰀱󰀴󰀬 Perception 󰀫󰀱󰀳󰀬 Survival 󰀫󰀱󰀳 DC 󰀲󰀲
󰀲󰀲 Wisdom saving throw󰀮 On a failed save󰀬 a creature takes 󰀲󰀲
Damage Resistances bludgeoning󰀬 piercing󰀬 and slashing from 󰀨󰀴d󰀱󰀰
󰀴d󰀱󰀰󰀩 󰀩 psychic da
damage
mage and becomes frightened of Ava Avassh󰀮
ssh󰀮 On a
nonmagical attacks successful save󰀬 a creature takes half as much damage and is not
Damage Immunities poison󰀬 psychic frightened󰀮 A frightened creature must repeat the saving throw at
Condition Immunities blinded󰀬 charmed󰀬 exhaustion󰀬 fright󰀭 the end of each of its turns󰀬 taking 󰀲󰀲 󰀨󰀴d󰀱󰀰
󰀴d󰀱󰀰󰀩 󰀩 psychic dama
damagege on
ened󰀬 petrified󰀬 poisoned󰀬 prone a failed save󰀬 and ending the effect on itself
i tself on a successful one󰀮
Senses truesight 󰀱󰀲
󰀱󰀲󰀰󰀰 ft󰀮󰀬 passive Perception 󰀲󰀳
Languages Deep Speech󰀬 telepathy 󰀱󰀲󰀰 ft󰀮 Rootbinding󰀮 Avassh attempts to remake one creature it can see
Challenge 󰀲󰀲 󰀨󰀴󰀱󰀬󰀰󰀰󰀰
󰀨󰀴󰀱󰀬󰀰󰀰󰀰 XP󰀩
X P󰀩󰀬󰀬 or 󰀲󰀳 󰀨󰀵󰀰󰀬󰀰󰀰󰀰 XP󰀩 in
i n lair
lai r within 󰀳󰀰 feet of it into a twisted tree󰀮 The target must make a
Proficiency Bonus 󰀫  󰀫󰀷
󰀷 DC 󰀲󰀲
󰀲󰀲 Constitution saving throw󰀮 On a successful save󰀬 the target
narrowly escapes being remade󰀬 and instead takes 󰀵󰀵 󰀨󰀱󰀰d󰀱󰀰󰀩
 Alie n Mi
 Alien Mind󰀮
nd󰀮 If a creature deals psychic damage to Avassh or necrotic damage󰀮 On a failed save󰀬 the target’s body is twisted
tries to read its thoughts󰀬 that creature must succeed on a DC 󰀲󰀲 into the form of a Large tree󰀬 becoming paralyzed and rootbound
rootbound󰀮󰀮
Intelligence saving throw or be stunned for 󰀱 minute󰀮 The stunned A rootbound creature must make a DC 󰀲󰀲 Constitution saving
creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its throw at the start of each of its turns󰀮 On a failed save󰀬 it is para󰀭
turns󰀬 ending the effect on a success󰀮 lyzed until the start of its next turn󰀮 On a successful save󰀬 it is no
longer paralyzed󰀬 but has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability
Blight Spores󰀮 When Avassh uses its Ligneous
Lig neous Claw or Infectious
checks󰀬 and its
i ts speed is reduced to 󰀱󰀰 feet󰀮 The creature continues
Growth󰀬 it has a chance of infecting creatures with a blight disease
making this saving throw at the start of each of its turns until it
carried by its corrupted spores󰀮 A diseased creature suffers the
either succeeds twice or fails twice 󰀨󰀨not
not including the initial failure
following cumulative effects for each blight spore infecting it󰀺
that made that creature rootbound󰀩󰀮 If the creature succeeds
󲀢 Its hit point maximum is reduced by 󰀱󰀰󰀮
twice󰀬 the effect ends and the creature takes 󰀵󰀵 󰀨󰀱󰀰d󰀱󰀰󰀩 necrotic
󲀢 When it makes a saving throw against any of Avassh’s
Avassh ’s effects󰀬 damage󰀮 If the creature fails twice󰀬 the effect ends󰀬 the creature
it must roll a d󰀴 and subtract the number rolled from the dies󰀬 and it is turned into an inanimate tree󰀻 this transformation
saving throw󰀮 can be undone only by a wish spell󰀮
Blight spore disease can be cured by the lesser restoration spell
restoration spell B󰁯󰁮󰁵󰁳 A󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳
or similar magic󰀻 when cured󰀬 all blight
blig ht spores currently infecting
the creature are destroyed󰀮 If blight spores reduce a creature’s Teleport󰀮 Avassh teleports up to 󰀳󰀰 feet to an unoccupied space
hit point maximum to 󰀰󰀬 it dies󰀬 then rises at the start of its next it can see󰀮
 dolgaunt  under Avassh’s control󰀻 this dolgaunt is both a
turn as a dolgaunt L󰁥󰁧󰁥󰁮󰁤󰁡󰁲󰁹
L󰁥󰁧󰁥󰁮󰁤󰁡󰁲󰁹AA󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳
󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳
Plant and an Aberration󰀮 This transformation can be undone only
by a wish spell󰀮 Avassh can take 󰀳 legendary actions󰀬 choosing from the options
below󰀮 Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at
Legendary Resistance
Resi stance 󰀨󰀳/day󰀩󰀮
󰀨󰀳/day󰀩󰀮 If Avassh fails a saving throw󰀬 it the end of another creature’s turn󰀮 Avassh regains spent legendary
can choose to succeed instead󰀮 actions at the start of its turn󰀮
Magic Resistance󰀮 Avassh has advantage on saving throws against Vine Whip󰀮 Avassh makes a Thrashing Vine attack󰀮
spells and other magical effects󰀮 Burst Seed Pod󰀮 Avassh chooses one seed pod it can see that
Regeneration󰀮 Avassh regains 󰀲󰀰 hit points at the start of its turn󰀮 was created by its Ruinous Seed󰀮 That seed pod is destroyed
If Avassh takes radiant damage󰀬 this trait doesn’t function at the and explodes in a 󰀲󰀰󰀭foot󰀭radius cloud of noxious fumes󰀮
start of Avassh’s next turn󰀮 Avassh dies only if it starts
star ts its turn with Creatures within the fumes must make a DC 󰀲󰀲 Constitution
󰀰 hit points and
a nd doesn’t regenerate󰀮 saving throw󰀬 taking 󰀲󰀲 󰀨󰀵d󰀸󰀩 poison damage on a failed
f ailed save󰀬
or half as much damage
damag e on a successful one󰀮 Creatures are
Ruinous Seed󰀮 At the start of its turn󰀬 Avassh grows a Medium
affected even if they hold their breath or don’t need to breathe󰀮
seed pod in an unoccupied space it can see within 󰀳󰀰 feet of it󰀮 A
Rebirth 󰀨Costs 󰀳 Actions󰀩󰀮 Avassh discards its current body
seed pod has AC 󰀱󰀲 and 󰀵󰀰 hit points󰀮 Creatures within 󰀵 feet of
and reemerges from one of its seed pods󰀬 destroying the seed
the seed pod when it grows take 󰀷 󰀨󰀲d󰀶󰀩 necrot
necrotic
ic damage󰀮
pod in the process󰀮 Avassh ends all diseases and conditions
A󰁣󰁴󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁳 afflicting it󰀬 and if it has fewer than half its maximum hit points󰀬
 Multiattack󰀮 Avassh makes two Ligneous Claw attacks and two it reemerges with half its maximum hit points 󰀨󰀱
󰀨󰀱󰀴󰀳
󰀴󰀳󰀩󰀮
󰀩󰀮 Avassh
can use this legendary action while incapacitated󰀮
Thrashing Vines attacks󰀮

GIFTS OF AVASSH symbiont. So a symbiont cloak of protection from

protection from Avassh
might be made of interlocked leaves; it feeds off the blood
The Trinkets of Avassh table provides inspiration for of its host, which visibly pulses through the veins of the
trinkets that a character tied to Avassh might carry—or leaves. Avassh cultists may use hungry
use hungry weapons made
weapons made of
that the adventurers might find along
a long the way.  wood and studded
studded with thorns, or a tongueworm
tongueworm that’s
 that’s
T󰁲󰁩󰁮󰁫󰁥󰁴󰁳 󰁯󰁦 A󰁶󰁡󰁳󰁳󰁨 a thorn-tipped vine.
v ine. Non-symbiont tools of Avassh
Avassh could
include enchanted
enchanted prosthetics or a dagger of venom 
venom 
d󰀸 Trinket
made of an Avassh variant of livewood.
󰀱 A sac
sachet
het of
of dri
dried
ed flflowe
owers󰀻
rs󰀻 tthei
heirr colors
colors nev
never
er fade
fade aand
nd th
their
eir
scent triggers
trigger s an intense surge of sorrow󰀮 CHARACTER IDEAS
󰀲 A pre
press
ssed
ed rose
rose th
that
at ssin
ings
gs soft
softly
ly aatt n
nigh
ight󰀮
t󰀮  Avassh cultists aren’t
aren’t all destructive; some wish to
󰀳 A pl
plain
ain w
wood
ooden
en brace
bracelet
let󰀻󰀻 whe
when
n blo
blood
od is spi
spille
lled
d on it󰀬 st
strang
rangee pursue their own vegetative communion or evolution
symbols appear on its surface󰀬 then fade after ten minutes󰀮 and have no interest in letting you in on the action. On
󰀴 A sm
small
all w
wood
ooden
en disk
disk󰀻󰀻 one sid
sidee of it shows
shows the silhou
silhouette
ette of the other hand, a character could be a former cultist
a tree with tentacle󰀭like roots󰀬 while the other side is blank  who’ss broken free from A
 who’ Avassh’
vassh’ss influence but retained
and has a sharp
shar p thorn in the center
center󰀮󰀮 the powers they gained in the process. Consider the
󰀵 A re
repli
plica
ca of a bir
bird’s
d’s sku
skull󰀬
ll󰀬 perf
perfectl
ectlyy fo
formed
rmed out o
off an u
unfa󰀭
nfa󰀭 following ideas …
miliar wood󰀮
Elixir of Knowledge. As a diviner,di viner, you could draw
d raw
󰀶 A dri
dried
ed m
mush
ushroo
roomm wit
with
h glea
gleamin
mingg sil
silver
ver p
patte
atterns
rns󰀻󰀻 som
someth
ething
ing
interesting might happen if you eat it󰀬 but there’s only one
 your talent
tale nt for divination
divi nation from an elixir
elix ir made frfrom
om
way to find out … a tree of knowledge. Do you have ongoing access
to the tree, or are you worried what'll happen when
󰀷 A mu
munda
ndane
ne d
dagger
agger carve
carved d from
from u
unna
nnatura
turally
lly har
hard
d wood
wood󰀬󰀬
with thorns on the hilt and pommel󰀮  you run out?
Herbalist of Avassh. As an A lchemist artific ar tificer,
er, you
󰀸 A sac
sachet
het of
of dri
dried
ed h
herb
erbs󰀬
s󰀬 wh
which
ich ccan
an be bre
brewed
wed to ccrea
reate
te a
could be drawing your magic from the strange herbs
bitter beverage that prompts especially vivid dreams󰀻 it may
be that you’re dreaming in Xoriat instead of Dal Quor󰀮 of Avassh. Are you a cultist who cultivates your own
sacred garden, or are you a scholar who recovered
plants grown by an Avassh cult, now experimenting
POTIONS to see what you can do with them?
The most common
common gifts of Avassh are potions—elixirs
potions—elix irs
Pla nts.  With your DM’s permission, you
 Wildsh ape Plants.
brewed using the alien properties of Avassh’s
Avassh’s creations.
could play a Circle of the Moon druid who wild
Cult herbalists are typically driven by unnatural intu-
shapes into plant forms instead of animal forms;
ition and don’t really understand the alchemy they are
this could include actual Plant stat blocks, as well
 working. So while Avassh’
Avassh’ss potions are potent,
potent, they may
as Beast stat blocks that you describe as if they’re
 well have side
side effects ranging from minor hallucinations
plants. You gained your gifts through communion
 while the potion is in effect (perhaps youyou hear strange
 with Avassh; do you stillstil l believe that the Bloody
Blood y
music whenever you come close to a living plant) to
Cornucopia is benevolent, or do you now oppose the
actual physical transformations. These effects could be
cults of the Twister of Roots?
 very minor on a single dose—so an adventurer
adventurer can use
Sol dier. With your DM’s permission, you
 Wooden Soldier.
the potion
the  potion of giant
giant strength they
strength they obtained from a cultist
could play a wooden soldier of Avassh using the
and only have green skin
ski n for a few hours—but repeated
statistics of a warforged. You can’t integrate armor
doses of the same potion likely
li kely come with more serious
 side effects … which explains
explai ns why adventurers won’t into your body
can wear it likelike a normal
humans warforged,
do; with but you
or without armor,
 want to embrace
embrace an Avassh
Avassh cult as a friendly pharmacy.
however, your Integrated Protection trait still gives
SYMBIONTS  you +1 AC. Do you enjoy your wooden condition,
or are you searching for a way to return to your
Symbionts of Avassh are made of wood or other
original form?
 vegetable matter
 vegetable matter.. As suggested in Exploring
in Exploring Eberron,
Eberron,
any existing magic item could be flavored as a daelkyr

 󰁡󰁲 󰁬󰁯󰁮 󰁡 󰁷󰁡󰁳 󰁯󰁮󰁣󰁥

󰁯󰁮󰁣 󰁥 󰁨󰁯󰁭 󰁥 󰁴󰁯 󰁯󰁶󰁥󰁲
󰁯󰁶 󰁥󰁲 󰁡 magic existing; with Riedra, we wanted to do the

S
dozen distinct kingdoms, but wars
devastated
devastated the continent. From this
chaos, a band of saviors rose up to forge
 a new world. Guided by celestia
celestiall spirits
spir its and endowed
with vast psionic powers, these champions became
 known as the Inspired.
Inspi red. Today,
Today, the Inspired have united
the broken nations into a single realm: the Empire
of Riedra. Outsiders aren’t welcome in Riedra, and
 little is known of the nation. Merchants tell
te ll stories
stor ies
of massive monoliths that control the dreams of the
 people, and
a nd of secret
secr et police who use psionics
ps ionics to root
r oot
out dissidents.
— Eberron: Rising
R ising from the Last
L ast War  Sarlonan teacher. It provides an opportunity to introduce
The fifth edition Eberron:
edition Eberron: Rising from the Last War 
War   Fifth edition doesn’t have the same extensive
focuses on the continent of Khorvaire, and Sarlona in its
entirety only gets a few pages of description. This is due
in part to Sarlona
Sarlona’s
’s strong ties to psionics, which play
a smaller role in fifth edition
ed ition than in previous editions.
This chapter delves deeper into Riedra, examining how
to use it in fifth edition and describing the cities and
provinces of Riedra.
RIEDRA’S PURPOSE
From the beginning of Eberron’s design process,
Riedra was always supposed to be mysterious and
extraordinary—a unique culture shaped by alien a lien
powers from the Region of Dreams. It’s a land where
people craft tools and towers out of solidified emotions
and where the rulers weave dreams for their subjects.
Riedra isn’t intended to reflect any nation or culture
on Earth. It’s home to psychic
psychic warriors and soulknives,
soulk nives,
not to samurai and ninja. Nor is it supposed to
evoke the Soviet Union—in Eberron, the cold war is
being fought between the Five Nations, not between
Khorvaire and Riedra. So, in looking for inspiration,
don’tt look to our world or our history. Instead, look
don’
to your imagination; this realm should feel as if it’s
shaped from dreams and nightmares.
This section discusses a few of the ideas Riedra was
designed to bring
brin g to the world (and to your campaign).
PSIONIC S OCIETY
same for psionics.
 At the same
sa me time, the
t he design team
tea m knew that
t hat many
DMs didn’t like psionics in classical fantasy, so it felt
appropriate to make Riedra isolated and mysterious.
That way, DMs who wanted to delve into psionics
could either take their adventurers to Sarlona, or
simply introduce more Riedran and Adaran charac-
ters. So at its core, our goal was this: “Psionics are
a well-established part of D&D that feel out of place
 when placed directly
di rectly alongside
a longside arcane
arca ne magic. LLet’s
et’s
create a place where psionics belong
belong—where
—where they’re
a key tool of civilization.”
So if you do want a deep psionic campaign, Sarlona
gives a place to run it. Characters with psionic classes
or abilities can be from Sarlona or have learned from a
psionic villains, and it’s a source for psionic artifacts.
psionic rules that third
thi rd edition did when Eberron was
developed. However, recent fifth edition sourcebooks
have expanded psionic player options, and I offer more
suggestions later in this chapter. If you want to use the
psi knight fighter or the soulknife
soulkni fe rogue, Sarlo
Sarlona
na is a
perfect home for them.
HUMANITY’S B IRTHPLACE
Sarlona and Riedra also serve an important purpose
as the birthplace of humanity. We decided from the
start that humans weren’t native to Khorvaire; while
they’re the dominant ancestry on Khorvaire, they are
colonizers there. So on a fundamental level, humans
are on the wrong side of history. But while humanity
came from Sarlona, it’s no longer the land they left
behind—and in Riedra, we have a new nation built on
the bones of those ancient realms, with many forgotten
secrets waiting to be found.
Since Sarlona holds the hidden bones of the nations
that gave birth to humanity,
humanit y, it may also hold many
secrets lost in the Sundering. What did Khalesh
Kha lesh know
about the Silver Flame that the
t he people of Thrane have
 yet to discover?
discover? Did the Pyrineans have ways to invoke
invoke
the Sovereigns—new divine spells—that
spells —that never made it to
Khorvaire? What wonders and terrors are hidden in the
 war mazes of Ohr Kaluun?
ALIEN R EALITY
The people of Sarlona are just like
li ke people anywhere, but
 The core idea of Khorvaire and the Five Nations is
“civilizations where arcane magic has been incorpo-
rated as part of society.” On the other side of that coin,
Riedra’s core idea is “a civilization where psionics are
the foundation of society.” With the rest of Eberron,
 we wanted to look at the logical consequences of
their continent has been shaped by vast otherworldly
other worldly
powers. Sarlona lies closer to the planes than
t han any other
continent. In addition to its massive manifest zones, it
has wild zones—regions where another plane essentially
projects into the Material—along with bewildering
reality storms.

Beyond the tangible effects of these interplanar is also a place to explore the question, “what would we
phenomena, Riedra is controlled by spirits from give up for security?” Riedra has no crime, no hunger,
another plane—alien entities with nightmarish minds no doubt. Are we so sure Khorvaire is better, with
and inhuman goals. The country uses a supernatural its greedy houses, warring Wynarns, and vindictive
science that’s all but unknown in Khorvaire, and its Boromar Clan?
culture is built on a foundation of nations that tapped
the planes in strange ways. After a thousand years of T󰁨󰁥 U󰁮󰁩󰁴󰁹 󰁯󰁦 R󰁩󰁥󰁤󰁲󰁡
Galifar, Khorvaire is known to the rest of the world;
The benevolent foundation of Riedra’s government is known
Riedra is home to thriving civilizations, yet it remains
as the Unity󰀬 and most of the nation󰀧s citizens serve one of its
carefully isolated and unknown. seven branches󰀮 The local leaders of each branch of the Unity
work together under the authority of the Inspired lord of each
UTOPIA? bastion city󰀮 The organization and leadership of the Unity is
Riedra is a dystopia where tyrants control even the separated from the Thousand Eyes and Harmonious Shield
dreams of their subjects … or is it a utopia without 󰀨responsible for surveillance and the military󰀬 respec
respectively󰀩
tively󰀩󰀮󰀮
crime, hunger, or doubt? Out of character, we know it’s Bountiful Horn󰀮 Food supply󰀬 logistics and agriculture fall
under the Bountiful Horn’s responsibility󰀮 Thanks to the tireless
an oppressive dictatorship, and yet it’s not the enemy
effortss of the Horn󰀧s farmers󰀬 no Riedran citizen goes hungry󰀮
effort
of Khorvaire and many nations want its aid. This is Industrious Forge󰀮 True to its name󰀬 the Industrious ForgeForg e
another part of its role in Eberron’s story: what do you manages the industry of Riedra󰀮 Extraction and distribution
do when your country allies with an oppressive nation? of raw materials also fall
f all under their purview󰀮
purv iew󰀮 Their hard work
(And in the case of Riedran player characters, what do ensures every citizen is well equipped󰀮
 you do when your country is
country  is the
 the oppressive
oppres sive nation?) Sturdy Wall󰀮 The builders and architects of the Sturdy
One of Eberron’s fundamental principles is that Wall manage construction and infrastructure
infr astructure across the Unity󰀮
things aren’t supposed to be simple. We We know
 know the quori Every Riedran under the Wall󰀧s leadership is proud of their role
in building the wondrous hanbalani altas monoliths󰀮
have stolen
greatest tricktheoffreedom of the people
the Dreaming Dark wasof Riedra, but the
convincing Healing Hand󰀮 Healthcare falls under the responsibility
of the Healing Hand󰀬 and no loyal citizen is left without󰀮 The
the people to forge their own chains; the Riedrans don’t
Unity󰀧s skilled healers largely employ nonmagical
nonmagica l methods󰀬 but
 want your freedom.
f reedom. So we look at Riedra and feel that th at powerful psionic healing can be found in the bastion cities󰀮
their leaders should be the enemy; the Inspired rule ru le Sheltering Hearth󰀮 The Sheltering Hearth sees to the
an oppressive dystopia, a vast and a nd alien-ruled empire. proper management and maintenance of Riedran communi󰀭
But by default, they aren’t 
they aren’t  the
 the enemy. How do you deal ties󰀻 as such󰀬 they often serve as a liaison between the other
 with a countr
c ountryy that’s the base
bas e of the Dreamin
D reaming g Dark, branches󰀮 Sanitation󰀬 waste disposal󰀬 and even disaster relief
 when the common people of Ried Riedra
ra don’t even know the fall under the Hearth’s broad influence󰀮
Dreaming Dark exists? Guiding Path󰀮 Proper education and spiritual direction are
Riedra’s dystopian tyranny is more inspired by 1984 1984   the Unity󰀧s gift to all the people of Riedra󰀮 The Path carefully
or The Giver  than
 than by any nation in our world’s history. chooses the trade and pairing of every citizen to ensure they
can contribute best to their nation󰀮
If you want to play out an underd
u nderdogs-against-the-empire
ogs-against-the-empire
Iron Gate󰀮 Overseeing all foreign affairs󰀬 including trade
campaign, Riedra is better suited to that than t han any
and diplomacy󰀬 the Iron Gate ensures that Riedra󰀧s border
nation in Khorvaire … whether on the Adaran front, as and its people are safe󰀬 secure󰀬 and untroubled by disruptive
a band of Doriak commandos, or a group of unchained outside influences󰀮
dreamers hiding in the
t he heart of the empire. Yet
Yet Riedra
 

WHAT FITS YOUR STORY?
HAT Lady Sharadhuna believes that the quori don’t don’t need
Khorvaire—that dominating Sarlona is sufficient for
 need
 As expressed earlier, if you have
have no interest in psio
psionics,
nics, their needs. Meanwhile, the Devourer of DreamsDrea ms does
 you can safely ignore Riedra completely
completely.. But if you
you'd
'd like plan to conquer Khorvaire, but not through
t hrough brute force;
to introduce it into your campaign, this isn’t an all-or- he wants the Five Nations to embrace the quori as
nothing commitment! You You can use as much of it as suits saviors, just as the Riedrans did. Keep in i n mind that the
 your story: quori created Riedra through manipulation; they tricked
•  Y
 You
ou can uuse
se Riedra in the background,
background, perha
perhapsps as a the old kingdoms
k ingdoms of Sarlona into fighting each otherother,,
source for psychic characters and tools; it might be the eroded faith in the old religions,
relig ions, played on prejudices
home of a single recurring villain or player character. and fears … and then they created  the  the Inspired as cham-
•  Y
 You
ou can emphasize Riedra’
Ried ra’ss role as an enigmatic pions who rose up from among the common people,
ally—highlighting its presence in Q’barra or intro- uniting the people to fix the disasters the quori had care-
ducing the Inspired ambassador at the Tain Gala. fully engineered. So the people of Riedra believe that t hat the
This presents Riedra as a force that is technically Inspired are heroes
are heroes—legends
—legends who guided them through
 helping and that the Five Nations want good relation- a terrible age of darkness
dark ness and into a golden age.
ships with, while also invoking its alien nature and The Devourer of Dreams plans to use the same script
dystopian aspects. If the Inspired ambassador offers in Khorvaire
Khorvai re … and he’s most likely already doing it.
aid, do the adventurers take it? Over the last century,
centur y, the long-stab
long-stablele kingdom of Galifar
•  Y
 You
ou can select the Dreaming Dark as a major major foe collapsed into chaos and civil war. This war was driven
in your Khorvaire-based campaign, making Riedra by the paranoia of the last king and by the ambitions
far more important. Player characters will have to of the heirs—exactly 
heirs— exactly  the
 the sorts of emotional states that
navigate international
international politics as Riedran villains aare
re could be engineered or enhanced by quori manipula-
shielded by diplomatic immunity and embassies. tion. We’ve
We’ve never said conclusively that the Dreaming
•  Y
 You
ou could lead the adventurers
adventurers to Riedra itself. Dark did cause the Last War, War, because ultimately
ulti mately we
Perhaps
Perha ps in their fig
fight
ht against the Dreaming Dark,  want each DM DM to make that decision
decision themselves. But But
they must work with the Adarans, or perhaps the it certainly
certai nly fits their style. They don’t
don’t conquer with
party needs to find a relic lost in a ruined temple in invading armies; they conquer by tricking people into
Khalesh or hidden in a war maze in Ohr Kaluun.K aluun. tearing their own nations apart. (As a tangent here: if the
•  Y
 You
ou could even set your
your entire campaign in Riedra quori did ignite the Last War,
War, they surely didn’t cause
(or
(or elsewhere in Sarlona),
Sarlona), focusing on the struggle
str uggle of the Mourning. After all, the Mourning brought a sudden
Sarlonan player characters
characters against an all-
all-powerful
powerful and immutable end to the war, leaving the nations afraid
alien dictatorship that holds the common people in to continue their battles until the mystery is solved. So
its thrall. if the Dreaming Dark did cause the war, the Mourning
is surely a deep source of frustration
frustr ation for them … and
A RIEDRAN INVASION? they’re likely trying to solve this mystery themselves!)

Riedra is a massive, tyrannical empire. The Dreaming BUILDING THEIR O WN CAGE

Dark yearns to control all mortal lives. On the surface, If you want to explore the quori conquest of Khorvaire,
Khor vaire,
this seems like
li ke it’s a setup for a vast invasion. And if there’s a crucial
there’s crucia l second piece of the puzzle. The quori
that’s a story you really want to tell in
i n your campaign, don’tt need the people of K
don’ Khorvaire
horvaire to adopt Riedran
 your player characters
characters will soon rue the name of Lord customs. The Dreaming Dark wants to create a stable
Zoratesh, the kalaraq quori who commands Riedra’s civilization where it controls the dreams
drea ms of the public,
armies. However, in canon Eberron, invasion isn’t a using a system similar to the hanbalani 
the  hanbalani  monoliths
  monoliths in
likely scenario. Riedra. But they
t hey don’t
don’t actually need people to worship
the Inspired or to follow the Path of Inspiration! They
SAVIORS, NOT CONQUERORS simply created the Inspired because it fit the situation
 Both the Devourer of Dreams (leader of the t he Dreaming they’d created—this gave them saviors who rose from f rom
 Dark) and Lady Sharadhuna (leader of the Thousand within to
within  to solve the problem. If the quori are using a
similar script in Khorvaire, they’ll create something
 Eyes) believe that open war with
w ith Khorva
Khorvaire
ire would be
local and new—a force the people of Khorvaire will
disastrous. It would provide a common enemy to unite accept as their saviors. Consider a few possibilities …
the people of Khorvaire, destabilize Riedra, and risk the
The Sovereign Swords. As presented in Dragon
in Dragon
 ire of the dragons,
d ragons, the Lords of D
Dust,
ust, and other con-
 spiracies currently watching from the shadows … The 412, the Sovereign Swords are an order of selfless
selfle ss
heroes guided by the Sovereigns and strengthened
streng thened
Unity of Riedra succeeds because the people believe by their angels. Or are they? The Swords truly are
that the Inspired are saviors, not conquerors. devout champions
champions who seek to aida id those in need.
— Secrets of Sarlona (
Sarlona ( paraphrased
paraphrased)) But are
But  are their
 their powers and visions coming from the
Sovereigns? Or are their “angels” actually quori,
and their visions carefully scripted by the Dreaming

Dark? The original Inspired were heroes who rose

up within the common people, guided and strength-
PSIONIC C HARACTERS AND NPC S
ened by celestial powers. The Sovereign Swords Fifth edition has some
s ome options for psionic characters,
characters,
could be unwitting tools of the quori, following the though they’re limited in scope. Tasha’s Cauldron of
same script … but how can adventurers be sure?  Everything presents
 Everything  presents several character options that are
The Dragonmarked Houses. One of the basic themest hemes described as being psionic in nature: the Psi Warrior
of Eberron is the balance of power between the old fighter,, Soulknife
fighter Soulkn ife rogue, and Aberrant Mind
M ind sorcerer,
monarchies and the dragonmarked houses. Perhaps along with the Telepathic and Telekinetic feats that any
the quori are working within one or more houses to character can acquire. And the
t he Great Old One warlock

drive this—pushing
this —pushing for a future in which the common has always
include had
telepa
telepathy,psychic
thy, flavor
a thought to its and
shield, powers, whichto
the ability
people accept that the old nations are irrelevant
ir relevant and
that the houses are the future—creating a functional mentally dominate a thrall.
dictatorship run not by godlike Inspired,
I nspired, but simply  Additionally,, this chapter contains
 Additionally contains a few more options
options
by gold. In such a future, the
t he mono
monolithic
lithic dreams for psionic player characters; namely, the “Psionic Talent
could be presented as a service
service:: House Cannith and Feats” and the “Sentira Lenses” sections. But you don’t
House Sivis working together to provide you with have to limit yourself to psionic
p sionic options—it all comes
OneDream™,
OneDream ™, the latest in somnambulant entertain- down to how you describe whatever options you choose.
ment! A House Sivis think tank t ank known
k nown as Tasker’s
Tasker’s
Dream is working on the potential of telepathy; could
MECHANICS VERSUS FLAVOR
If you separate class mechanics from thet he default flavor
it be a quori front? Remember that the Dreaming Dark
associated with them, you have the tools to create a wide
doesn’t need Khorvaire to resemble Riedra; it just
assortment of characters. A barbarian doesn’t
doesn’t have to
needs the situation to be stable, and it needs people to
be angry,
angr y, and a bard doesn’t have to be an entertainer.
accept their quori-designed monolithic dreams.
Consider the following ideas, which could inspire either
The Once and Future King. The Dreaming Dark could
have helped to tear down Galifar in order to rebuild agents of the Dreaming Dark or heroic player characters.
Tactile Telekinetic. This is a human child, perhaps
it in a design of the quori’s choosing.
choosing. The Dreaming
an urchin living in a bad part of Sharn, ignored by the
Dark could choose one of the existing candidates
 world. Despite
Despite their childlike appearance, they display
for the throne, working to present them as the true,
surprising strength because they are channeling teleki-
destined savior who will restore
re store Galifar. Queen
netic ability through their body. When forced into battle,
 Aurala is a possibility since she is known to want to to
they’re surrounded by a translucent field of energy—a
restore Galifar, but an especially interesting option
force field that reduces damage from physical attack and
 would be Prince Oargev of Cyre—this would allow
increases the damage of their melee attacks. As long as
the Dreaming Dark to create a narrative of how the
they are aware of threats, they can try to use their gift to
prince who lost everything
everythi ng is the one destined to
shield them from threats that require a Dexterity save.
save us all. This
Th is option is a way to have a little
a little bit of
Now, that’s the story —but
—but mechanically, this character
a Riedran invasion, since Riedra could lend troops
is a halfling urchin barbarian. The halfling statistics
to support Oargev’s claim. But again, the goal of the t he
are used to represent “young human”; they’re small and
Dreaming Dark would be to convince the common
quick. Mechanically, the character has a high strength
people to support Oargev; they don’t want to conquer , score, but they
t hey don’t
don’t look like it; nothing says that a strong
they want the people to build their own cage. So
character has to have big muscles! Their telekinetic shield
using dreams and agents, they’d work to convince
is provided by the barbarian’s Unarmored Defense, and
people that Oargev is blessed, that the Sovereigns are
it’s temporarily supercharged when the character enters
behind him, that he’s the one who can sweep away
a rage (which has nothing to do with anger for them).
the corruption and terrors of the war and restore a
The barbarian’s Danger Sense is flavored as being able
golden age, where even dreams are always happy.
to deflect threats with their
t heir telekinetic shield. The Fast
Regardless of which approach you choose, it generally Movement
Movem ent feature? Kinetic enhancement. And so on.
boils down to this: Riedra is a looming, powerful force, The point is that mechanically, Rage provides you with a
but it doesn’t want outright war with Khorvaire.
K horvaire. Instead, temporary boost to melee damage, resistance to physical
the Dreaming Dark seeks to rebuild from within. It’s just a attacks, and advantage on Strength checks. It’s up to you
question of who their figureheads and cat's-paws will be.  what that llooks
ooks like—whethe
like—whetherr it’s
it’s primal fury tha
thatt allows
allows
 you toto only take half ddamage
amage from physical
physical attacks, or
PSIONICS IN FIFTH EDITION  whether
 wheth er you’
you’re
re genera
generating
ting a telekinetic
telekinetic shield.
shield.
 Riedra’s society is built on a foundation of everyday Thoughtstealer.
training  This
w ith coercive
with clever agent
telepathic poweblends
power. r. Theyexceptional
carry
psionics … but there’s no dedicated psionics system no weapons, preferring
preferring to strike their
t heir enemies with
in fifth edition. So how do you run a campaign there? disorienting psychic blasts. They can use their telepathic
How can you make a Dreaming Dark assassin feel gifts to guide the actions of their allies or to disable their
different from a mundane rogue? How do you make enemies. And above
above all, they
t hey excel at beguiling their foes.
psionics feel truly alien? This is a bard of the College of Lore, who fights with

vicious mockery  and
 and describes Bardic Inspiration and MAGICAL AND PSIONIC INTERACTIONS
Cutting Words as telepathic guidance or interference.  When using the t he above approach, “psionic”
“psionic” spells are
 Friends, charm person
person,, and suggestion
suggestion round
 round out their still mechanically treated as magic; for example, psionic
powers of mental coercion; they could add sleep sleep as
 as the effects can be detected with a detect magic spell,
magic spell, sup-
power to shut down enemy minds, and detect thoughts 
thoughts  pressed by the antimagic
the antimagic field  spell,
 spell, and so on. The
is another obvious choice. Bardic Inspiration and vicious essential principle is that all forms of supernatural
 mockery 
 mocke ry  are
 are usually limited by the fact that the victim power—divine, arcane, primal, psionic—are different
has to be able to hear the target, but in my
in  my campaign,  ways of manipulating energy,
energy, but that the results are
if the bard is a kalashtar, I’d allow this to combine with
similar enough to overlap.
their Mind Link trait; so the caster doesn’t have to speak On the other hand, a DM could change those rules.
aloud if the target is within range of their Mind Link.
Perhaps psionic spells can’t be countered with counter-
 Mindbreaker.  Perhaps I want a more aggressive
spell  or
 or negated with an antimagic
an antimagic field.
field. In that case,
c ase, I’d
psion. Though they carry no weapons and wear no
say the flipside is true too: a kalashtar bard casting
c asting coun-
armor, this Inspired commando can shield themself
terspell  could
 could only use it on other “psionic” spells. This
 with a kinetic
ki netic shield, blast enemies with telekinetic
approach can emphasize the alien nature of psionics—
force, and unleash devastating blasts of psychic power p ower..
the diviner can’t even sense them!—but can raise balance
 When an enemy strikes
strike s them, empathic feedback
issues or simply cause confusion in your game.
causes the attacker to share their pain. This is a Fiend
 Your
 Yo ur approach will depend o on
n what you want
want from
pact warlock, flavoring eldritch blast  as  as telekinetic force
psionics in your game. If you want them to be entirely
bolts and mage
and mage armor  as  as a kinetic
k inetic shield. To add some
unique, with nothing in i n common with other forms of
flavor I’ve changed some damage types; the “empathic
magic, you’ll probably want to use a psionics system from
feedback” is armor
is armor of Agathys,
Agathys, but it deals psychic
a third-party publisher. But if you’re looking for unique
damage instead of cold damage. Similarly, I’m changing
 flavor 
 flavo r , you can add that directly using official fifth edition
the damage type on all their fire spells—burning
spells—burning
 hands, scorching ray, fireball —to —to psychic damage and rules. So personally, I don’t have any problem using the
Dreaming Dark in the
t he current system; I just make a few
saying that they can only damage living creatures …
changes to the creatures and characters I use as a base.
so the Mindbreaker can unleash a psychic blast that
devastates a crowd (psychic fireball 
(psychic fireball )) but doesn’t burn INSPIRED PLAYER CHARACTERS?
down the building. (Even if a DM isn’t willing to change
If one of your players has their heart set on playing an
a spell’s damage type, however, you can still describe
Inspired character, one obvious answer is to have themt hem
a spell as dealing psychic pain to its target, even if they
be a rogue Chosen who’s wearing a charm that t hat protects
mechanically take cold damage.)
them from being possessed by their quori spirit …
Other Ideas. You can apply the above principles to
but perhaps they want to play an actively possessed
any character, NPC or player character. Mage
character.  Mage armor ,
Inspired. This isn’t as impossible as it sounds. There area re
wall of force,
force, or Bigby’
or Bigby’ss hand? Telekinesis.
Telekinesis. Detect
 Detect
factions within the Dreaming Dark; Lady Sharadhuna of
thoughts or
thoughts  or enthrall ? Telepathy. Even disguise self  could  could
the Thousand Eyes believes that the Inspired
I nspired don’t
don’t need
be described as planting a telepathic image in the minds
to conquer Khorvaire and that the Devourer of Dreams
of viewers; to add flavor, a DM could say this spell won’t
is chasing personal ambition, not
not working for the
t he good
affect someone protected by a ring a ring of mind shielding or
shielding or
creatures immune to being charmed. A fighter could of all quori. A player character could easily be a Chosen
 vessel of Sharadhuna or one one of her ttop
op lieutenants, sent
sent
describe Second Wind as psychomp sychometabolic
etabolic healing, and
to Khorvaire to monitor
monitor and potentially interfere with tthe he
 Action Surge as momen
momentarily
tarily altering ttheir
heir perception of
Devourer’ss schemes. They’d be entirely loyal to R iedra
Devourer’
time. A monk can easily present their ki-relatedki -related abilities
and to their quori spirit,
spir it, but that doesn’t mean they are
as psionic disciplines, and for this th is reason, we’ve always
evil or intend any harm to the people of Khorvaire.
presented monks as being more common in Sarlona.
Personally,, I’d design this character as a kalashtar
Personally k alashtar
Sometimes it makes sense to change a damage type
 warlock—either using the Fiend Fiend patron and the
or a detail of an effect; perhaps a kalashtar quori-hunting
paladin deals psionic damage instead of radiant damage Mindbreaker model I suggest above, or the Great Old
 with their smite, and Divine Sense and Divine Smite Smite are One patron and more of a telepath/manipulation spell
effective against aberrations instead
i nstead of undead. On some set. The point of the Inspired is that the powerful spirits
levels, this is a question of balance; radiant damage is have multiple Chosen hosts, intentionally spread around.
a powerful tool against undead, and if my campaign So the character’s patron might be Sharadhuna, but she
 was going to be all about
about fighting the Emerald Claw, Claw, I  very rarely possesses the character except to give them
direction; she’s
she’s got far more important things
th ings to take
  wouldn’t make that change to a player character.
 wouldn’t character. But
But care of in Riedra.
R iedra. As with any warlock patron, they teach
if DM and player agree, there’
t here’ss nothing wrong w with
ith a
“paladin” who smites
smites with the power of their mind and the character to use their supernatural abilities and
lays on hands using a psychometabo
psychometabolic lic discipline. The guide them. Meanwhile, the DM would reserve the right
effect is extra-damage-on-melee-attack and heal-on- to have the character be fully possessed (temporarily
touch; the mechanics still work even if thet he ability doesn’t gaining a boost in power)
power) if it serves the needs of the
come from a divine power. story, but the character can’t trigger this—or resist it.

PSIONIC FEATS this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long
rest. You can also cast this spell as a ritual, or by using
 As a remarkable
rema rkable player character
ch aracter from
fr om Sarlona, spell slots you have of the appropriate level. This spell’s
 you might have developed innate p sionic gifts.
gif ts. The spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat.
Telepathic and Telekinetic feats from Tasha’s Cauldr
Cauldron
on
of Everything provide
Everything provide a couple options for psionic player
characters. Additionally,
Additionally, this section presents new feats
PSIONIC SHAPER
 You’ve
 You’ve learned to wield your
your psionic power to shape
shape
that are available to characters with psionic
p sionic talents.
intangible ideas into physical objects, granting you the
t he
SIONIC GOIST following benefits:
P
 Y
 Your  E
our innate psionic talents improve
improve your mast
mastery
ery of your • Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1,
own body, granting you the following benefits: to a maximum of 20.
• Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1, •  As an action,
action, you conjure
conjure a n
nonmagical
onmagical weapon,
weapon, tool,
tool,
to a maximum of 20. or similar object in your hand. The item must be worth
•  Whenever you gaingain temporary hit points, you gain a no more than 25 gp, weigh no more than 10 pounds,
number of additional temporary
temporary h hit
it points equal to be no more than 5 feet along its largest dimension,
 your proficiency bonus.
bonus. and be of a form and
a nd material you have seen and are
•  Y
 You
ou learn the enhance ability  spell,
 spell, which you can cast familiar with.
w ith. The item disappears after
af ter 10 minut
minutes
es
 without a spell slot or
or compone
components.nts. Once you cast the or when you conjure another item with this ability. If
spell in this
t his way, you can’t
can’t do so again until you finish a creature uses its action to examine the object, the
a long rest. You
You can also cast this
t his spell using spell creature can recognize it’s a conjured simulacrum
slots you have of the appropriate level. This spell’s  with a successful Intelligence (Investigation)
(Investigation) check
spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat. against your spell save
s ave DC; this save’s spellcasting
ability is the ability increased by this feat.

PSIONIC N OMAD •  Y
 You
ou learn the bestial spirit  TCE spell, which you can
cast without a spell slot or componen
components. ts. Once you cast
 Y
 You
ou learn to fold and manipulate space with your
your mind,
the spell in this way, you can’
can’tt do so again until
u ntil you
granting you the following benefits:
finish a long rest. Whenever you cast this spell, the
• Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1, summoned spirit is a Construct instead of a Beast.
to a maximum of 20.  Y
 You
ou can also cast this spell using spell slots you have
•  As a bonus action, you cause yourself to float float slightly, of the appropriate level. This spell’s spellcasting ability
skating 1 inch off the ground. Until the end of your next is the ability increased by this
th is feat.
turn, movement in difficult terrain doesn't cost extra.
•  Y
 You
ou learn the misty
the misty step spell,
step spell, which you can cast
 without a spell slot or
or compone
components.nts. Once you cast the EVERYDAY PSIONICS IN RIEDRA
spell in this
t his way, you can’t
can’t do so again until you finish If we’re primarily using reflavored spell effects to repre-
a long rest. You
You can also cast this
t his spell using spell sent psionics, that raises a question: how is the psionic
slots you have of the appropriate level. This spell’s society of Riedra any different from the wide magic
spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat. society of the Five Nations? And wasn’t that the whole
point of Riedra—to be built on a di
different
fferent founda
foundation?
tion?
PSIONIC S EER
 Y
 You
ou awaken your
your mind to see beyond space
space and time, HIGH PSIONIC, NOT WIDE MAGIC
granting you the following benefits: Unlike Khorvaire, the econo
economy
my and society of Riedra
• Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1, isn’t based on the widespread presence of low-level
to a maximum of 20. casters. Sarlona doesn’t rely on the psionic equivalent of
•  Y
 Your
our psionic senses grant you a vague
vague impression magewrights. Psionic training and power is concentrated
of a space you can’t see. By touching a solid barrier
bar rier in the hands of a small group of extremely powerful
that’s no more
more than 1 foot thick and concentrating people—the Inspired.
for 1 minute (as if concentrating on a spell), you learn  When talking about the Five Nations, we we say it’s
 whetherr at least
 whethe least one living creature
creature is within 30 feet
feet of “wide magic” instead of “high magic”; this is because
 you on the other side of
of the barrier,
barrier, and you
you learn the Khorvaire’s story is about a vast number of people
approximate size and rough shape of the space, to a employing low-level magic, while high-level spellcasters
maximum of 30 feet on each side. If any side is greater are very rare. Riedra is the opposite. It’s “high psionic”—
psionic”—
 than 30 feet, you don’t learn that side’s measurement,
and instead simply learn if it is an enclosed space
(such as a room or cavern) or an open space (such as a
courtyard or alley). Once you use this feature, you can’t
do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
•  Y
 You
ou learn the augury 
the augury  spell,
 spell, which you can cast without
a spell slot or components. Once you cast the spell in
a nation where a privileged corps of extremely powerful
immortals have used their powers to create the infra-
structure. Under third edition rules, there are 20th-level
psions among the Inspired; by comparison, Merrix
d’Cannith is a mere 12th-level character.
Because of this, depicting Riedra in your game
requires less wond
wondering
ering about “what effects are

used on a daily basis? What psionic powers might a  with flashes of the dark horrors
horrors that lurk outside the
local merchant use?” and more “what massive wondrous borders of Riedra.” These dreams can be fine-tuned,
systems have been put in place by the
t he metaconcert of the targeting a region or village with a specific village, but
Inspired?” In the Five Nations, most dragonmarked tools the goal is to have a single
sing le dream whenever possible.
require a dragonmarked heir to operate them. By con-
trast, Riedra’s infrastructure systems are powered by the THE VOICE OF RIEDRA
psychic energy gathered by the monoliths; the Inspired  Just as the hanbalani
the hanbalani broadcast dreams, they allow the
don’t
don ’t need the common people to do anything. So rather Inspired to broadcast telepathic messages over a wide
than widespread low-level casters, Riedra relies on the area. Through the network, a message can be broadcast
small corps of extremely powerful individuals creating across the entire Unity. However
However,, messages are usually
self-sustaining systems. tailored to a specific region or even a particular village.
The Voice
Voice provides news, instructions, a and
nd encour-
PSIONIC I NFRASTRUCTURE agementt throughout the
agemen t he day. It allows the Inspired
Since Riedra’s infrastructure
infrastructur e isn’t dependent
dependent on wide- to mobilize a region against a problem—for
problem—for example,
spread low-level magic (or psionics),
psionics), the infrastructure
inf rastructure sharing a description
descr iption of a dangerous group of of rogue
systems described in Secrets of Sarlona can
Sarlona can be used adventurers. It also provides the sense that the Inspired
as described. Even if we don’
don’tt have a perfect psionics are always watching, even though the Voice is just an
system underlying them, most of their effects are story   outward projection.
effects as opposed to magewrights actively casting
spells. Let’s take a quick look at the psionic infrastruc-
TELEPORTATION
Swift transit is an important area in which Riedra has a
ture in place in Riedra.
significant advantage over Khorvaire. Riedra's network network
HANBALANI A LTAS of massive teleportation circles connect points in space;
these operate very differently than the teleportation
Riedra’s
Riedra’
ovoid s most
mon
monolithsiconic
oliths visual
v isual
spread element
across the is the massive
t he landscape. These circle network House Orien is developing
developing in Khor
Khorvaire.
vaire.
 hanbalani altas draw on the thoughts
t houghts and emotions of Riedran psionic circles connect two specific gates. The
the surrounding populace and convert them into psychic circle in the fortress of Kintam Lar connects to the city
energy, which is used to power most of the effects of Durat Tal and
Tal and that’s
that’s all ; it can’t
ca n’t be adjusted to teleport
described below. The monoliths
monoliths also serve as planar to Dar Jin. While that’s inherently more limited than the
anchors, slowly helping to bring Dal Quor back into typical teleportation circle,
circle, it has an enormous advantage
alignment with the Material Plane. Where most services because it’s always on. As long as the portal can draw
in Khorvaire are provided through individual dragon- power from the hanbalani 
the hanbalani , it remains active, allowing the
marked enclaves and different dragonmarked focuses, Inspired to move entire armies across the continent, or
the hanbalani
the  hanbalani represent a chokepoint for the Inspired; to transport vast quantities of food and supplies.
disabling a hanbalan
a hanbalan is a way to essentially “cut power” Durat Tal is the central hub for this network—so in
to an entire region. This ties back to the basic point thatt hat moving that army, it marches through the t he gate at Kintam
the Inspired have great power in their systems
systems,, but that Lar, arrives in Durat Tal, then enters another
a nother gate to,
power isn’t spread throughout the populace. say, reinforce
reinforce Kintam Keera in Borunan.
Boru nan. The kintam

fortresses and bastion cities and

are thus
tcaravans
hus connected
deliverby reli-
NONDETECTION able teleportation networks, goods
Each hanbalan is the center of a massive nonde
Each hanbalan massive nondetection
tection   or troops from these hubs to surrounding villages.
vil lages. By
effect that prevents outsiders from scrying on Riedra. contrast, House Orien is developing a system that works
Once people are within the field, scrying and divination using the teleportation circle spell.
circle spell. This allows one
 work normally,
normally, and people
people within the field can scry Orien circle to connect to any other OrienO rien circle … but
on those beyond it. But this field prevents diviners in
in an heir must have the ability to cast the spell to open the
Khorvaire from spying on the Inspired. circle, and it only remains open for six seconds.
seconds. So cur-
rently the Orien system is a novelty—a way for wealthy
DREAMSHAPING clients to move swiftly, but not a system that can be used
The quori believe that by stabilizing the
t he dreams of to move armies or replace the lightning rail as a means
mortals, they can stabilize Dal Quor itself, preventing the of transporting goods.
prophesied turning of the age that will
wil l end il-Lashtavar It’s important to note that all Riedran gates are
and reshape all quori. One of the most important heavily guarded and this service isn’t available to the
functions of the monoliths is to broadcast the dream general public; Riedrans aren’
a ren’tt supposed to travel. But
 programming that's shared by all the people of Riedra. this ability to swiftly
swi ftly move forces across the length of
Secrets of Sarlona describes that “the typical Riedran Riedra is one of the most powerful tools of the Inspired.
dream is soothing and vague, blending images to project
the wonder of Riedra, the joys of being part of a greater LIGHT AND H EA
EAT
T
 whole,
 whol e, and the
the celestial benevole
benevolence
nce of the
the Inspired. In Khorvaire, light is provided by individually enchanted
Every so often, these soothing visions are interspersed everbright lanterns.
lanterns. In Riedra, the energy of the
the han-
 han-
balani flows into specially treated crysteel
cr ysteel (a substance

 with properties of both crystal and metal) and causes it provide illumination in most Riedran villages. Cr ysteel
to glow.
glow. In villages,
vi llages, light comes from mounted crystal is a substance that has the
t he appearance of crystal, but
globes, while in larger communities, the buildings the durability and flexibility of metal; it is an excellent
themselves shed light; seen from afar, a bastion city is a channel for psionic power and is used both to make
stunning vision of glowing domes and spires. This same buildings, tools, and weapons. Sentira, a substance
system can provide climate control, heating buildings inin  with the
t he appearance
appeara nce of polished shell, is actually
act ually a
the chill north or cooling them in the tropical regions of form of ectoplasm, created from pure, solidified emo-
the south. As such, fire is rarely seen in a R iedran com- tions. Sentira is a critical part of Riedran tools, as it
munity; light and heat are gifts of the Inspired. is an excellent channel for psionic effects tied to its
associated emotion; the “Psionic Weapons” section
CASUAL TELEPATHY presents new psionic weapons that use this remark-
 When presenting the alien flavor of Riedra'sRiedra's everyday able substance.
psionics, highlight the casual, institutional use of
telepathy. Street signs don’t bother with names (and CREATING PSIONIC TOOLS
many Riedrans are illiterate
il literate);
); instead, a subtle telepathic Riedra is the logical source for psionic tools. But even
signal means that you always know 
always  know  where
 where you are in a if you aren’t using a comprehensive psionics system,
Riedran city, if you stop to think about it. Riedran monu-  you can take
t ake a similar
si milar approach to what I’ve done with
wit h
ments project feelings or images; in studying a statue of a character abilities above. This allows you to create
hero, you may feel 
may feel  a
 a swell of pride
pr ide at their achievements, things that feel 
that feel  like
 like psionic tools but that use the rules
and when you visit a memo
memorial,
rial, you may remember 
may remember  the
 the for traditional magic itemsitems … perhaps with a twist or
tragedy that it commemorates
commemorates as if you were there. All of two. Any magical effect that t hat can be easily identified as
this is perfectly normal to a Riedran, but it can feel intru- telepathy, telekinesis, or teleportation can be described
sive or unsettling to people from Khorvaire. as psionic tools; the Psionic Tools table provides
inspiration for such items. For example, it makes sense
O THER SYSTEMS
The above are systems that are immediately
i mmediately obvious,
obvious,
for a Dreaming Dark spy to have a cape of the moun-
tebank, a
tebank,  a ring
 ring of mind shieldi
shielding
ng,, and perhaps a sword
even to outsiders. Other systems are more subtle; the of life stealing that
stealing that deals psychic damage instead of
Thousand Eyes has a network of remote viewing (psionic necrotic damage.
scrying)
scryi ng) that dwarfs the capabilities of even House
Phiarlan or the Trust. The Inspired also have an inter- P󰁳󰁩󰁯󰁮󰁩󰁣 T󰁯󰁯󰁬󰁳
esting advantage in terms of communication—any quori quori d󰀶 Ps
Psio
ioni
nic
c Tool
can leave the vessel they’re possessing and return to Dal 󰀱 A cr ysteel flame tongue sword that inflicts psychic damage
Quor at any time. There are Inspired whose sole role is to instead of fire damage󰀻 it channels the rage of the bearer
deliver messages; they have host Chosen in every major and directs it at the target󰀮
city and fortress, and can move between them to get news 󰀲 A ccry
ryst
stal
al that
that se
serves as a wand of fireballs󰀻 it deals psychic
rves
 where itit needs to
to go wi
within
thin seconds. damage instead of fire damage and deals no damage to
So in comparing Riedra to the Five Nations,
Nations, the targets that aren’t living creatures󰀮
Inspired have capabilities that far outstrip the nobles of 󰀳 A sha
shard
rd o
off cryst
crystal
al that
that serve
servess as tthe
he p
psio
sionic
nic eequi
quivale
valent
nt of a
Khorvaire. They  spell scroll 󰀬 holding a single charge of a psionic effec t󰀮
a vast network ofhave a systemand
observation, of swift communication,
the ability to trans- 󰀴 A psi
psioni
onicc tatt
tattoo
oo th
that
at ca
cann be tra
transfe
nsferre
rred
d to a will
willing
ing crea
creatur
turee
port forces across the continent in a brief time. But the by touch󰀬 and triggered as a bonus action󰀻 it duplicates the
common people don’t have access to any of these ser- effects of a potion󰀬 and v anishes when its power is used󰀮
 vices, and daily life is more limited than life in the Five 󰀵 A cr ystal figurine of wondrous power 󰀮 When activated󰀬
Nations. There’s
There’s no casual equivalent to the widespread the statue doesn’t grow or animate󰀻 instead󰀬 it projects an
magewrights and wandslingers of Khorvaire. While ectoplasmic construct of the associated creature around
there are humans trained in psionics or magic, they’re the crystal core󰀮
devoted to very specific roles—notably the Edgewalkers, 󰀶 A pa
pair
ir of crysta
crystall bra
bracel
celets
ets that
that gene
generat
ratee te
telek
lekine
inetic
tic fforc
orce󰀬
e󰀬
 who protect
protect the people from supernatural threats. The granting the effects of wings of flying without becoming
people benefit from crystal illumination, the guiding actual wings󰀮
 Voice,
 Vo ice, the unifyi
unifying
ng dreams. But they are dependent
dependent on
the Inspired for these services … and if a hanbalan
a hanbalan is To add more flavor to your “psionic magic items,” keep
deactivated, these services are lost. in mind that many psionic items can only be attuned or
activated by people with some degree of psionic talent.
 RIEDRAN TOOLS
 While Riedra
Riedrans
ns make use
us e of wood, metal, leather, and
Depending on how your game implements
could be a negligible
implements psionics, this
t his
neglig ible issue; on the other hand, agents of
the Dreaming Dark might wield powerful tools that can’t
other materials commonly found in Khorvaire, they
be immediately used by non-psionic adventurers (even
also use a few materials
materials that are less common. Crystal
if they can surely find people in House Cannith or Siv Sivis
is
is a useful medium for psionic energies; as noted in
 who'll
 who 'll be happy to pay for
for them!).
the “Psionics Infrastructure” section, crystal
cr ystal spheres

RIEDRAN A ESTHETICS
Most Riedran structures are built from stone, sentira, and
crysteel, adding to the land’
la nd’ss alien aesthetic. Structures
Str uctures
are often shaped through metacreative techniques, rather
than using mundane tools and physical labor. Spheres are
more common
common than sharsharpp angles, and ssentira
entira tools have
the look of horn or shell—more grown than built.bui lt.

PSIONIC WEAPONS
By taking advantage of the unique properties of psiactive
materials such as sentira and crysteel, Riedran artificers
are able to produce unique forms of weaponry unknown
unk nown
to the people of Khorvaire. This section presents a few
new items made
made of the shell-like material known as
sentira; you can learn more about how sentira is pro-
duced in the “Factories” section later in this chapter.

SENTIRA LENSES
 A common psionic armament found found among the ranks of
Riedra’ss Harmonious Shield is the sentira lens, a hand-
Riedra’
held ranged weapon that can focus a wielder’s psionic
potential to fire a harmful
har mful bolt of telepathic energy.
Unlike a wand or other arcane
arca ne implement,
implement, a sentira  You can fire psiactive weapons a num
 You number
ber of times
lens requires very little training to use effectively; even equal to twice your proficiency bonus. After that, your
a person with no other psionic ability can activate this psionic potential is temporarily expended and you can’t
 weapon. The Harmonious
Har monious Shield considers this an an fire another psiactive weapon until you regain your
important benefit, allowing their loyal soldiers to access psionic focus by using an action or a bonus action (your
psionic power while eliminating the usual dangers of choice).
choice ). Your psionic focus is shared between all psiac-
cultivating innate psychic power in an individual. Since tive weapons; whenever
whenever you make an attack with any
their development
development in Riedra,
R iedra, sentira lenses have gradu- psiactive weapon, you expend one of your uses.
ally found their way into the hands of Adaran
Adara n kalashtar,  As psiactive weapons channel
channel your own laten
latentt energy,
 who are busily trying to replicate the metacreative
metacreative they aren’t considered magic weapons and they can’t
powers necessary to recreate them. be sensed with the detect magic spell
magic spell or similar magic.
The Sentira Lenses table presents three variants of However, they don’t function in an antimagic
an  antimagic field .
this ranged weapon, along with its cost, damage, weight,
and special properties. The psiactive weapon property
propert y SENTIRA S HARDS
is described below.
below. Additionally, the “Sentira Shards”
section presents psionic shards that can augment the  A sentira lens typically delivers a blast of telepathic
telepathic
power that simply causes headaches
headaches before death.
powers of any sentira lens weapon.
However,
Howeve r, with more care during creation, Riedran
S󰁥󰁮󰁴󰁩󰁲󰁡 L󰁥󰁮󰁳󰁥󰁳 psionic artificers have created sentira
created sentira shards with
shards with
much more focused emotional resonance. When fitted
Weapon Type Cost Damage Weight Proper ties
to a sentira lens, these shards can imbue a shot from
Sentira Simple 󰀵󰀰 gp
gp 󰀱d󰀶 󰀵 lb󰀮 Psi
Psiactiv
ctivee a sentira lens with the emotion embedd
embeddeded in the ecto-
lens󰀬 light Ranged psychic 󰀨range 󰀳󰀰/󰀱󰀲󰀰󰀩󰀬
plasm during its creation.
two󰀭handed
Though sentira lenses aren’t consid
considered
ered magical,
Sentira Martial 󰀱󰀵󰀰 gp 󰀱d󰀴 󰀳 lb
lb󰀮󰀮 Psia
Psiact
ctiv
ivee 󰀨
󰀨ra
rang
ngee
the sentira shards presented
shards presented below follow the same
lens󰀬 hand Ranged psychic 󰀳󰀰/󰀱󰀲󰀰󰀩󰀬 light
rules as magic items. When one of these is affixed to a
Sentira Martial 󰀱󰀰󰀰 gp 󰀱d󰀸 󰀱󰀸 llb󰀮
b󰀮 Psia
Psiact
ctiv
ivee 󰀨
󰀨ra
rang
ngee sentira lens, the entire weapon counts as magical for the
lens󰀬 heavy Ranged psychic 󰀳󰀰/󰀱󰀲󰀰󰀩󰀬 heavy󰀬
purpose of imbuing it with an artificer infusion.
two󰀭handed
SENTIRA S HARD: ANXIETY
 Wondrous Item, Common
WEAPON PROPERTY: PSIACTIVE
 A psiactive ranged weapon
weapon draws its power from your For this shard’s properties to work, it must be attached
innate psionic potential, whether or not you're trained to to a sentira lens weapon. You can attach it or remove it
use it. When attacking with a psiactive weapon, you use from a sentira lens with 10 minutes of work.
work. A sentira
 your choice of
of your Intelligence
Intelligence or Charisma modifier for lens can only have one sentira shard attached at a time.
the attack and damage rolls.

 When you hit a creature with an attack using this
shard’ss sentira lens, you can instill vague and undirected
shard’
dread in the target.
t arget. The target must succeed on a DC 11
 Wisdom saving throw or be anxious until the end of its its
next turn. While anxious, the target can’t move more
than 5 feet on its turn, and it can’t
ca n’t attack
attack any individual
creature more than once. Once used, this shard can’t be
used again until the next dawn.
from a sentira lens with 10 minutes of work. A sentira
lens can only have one sentira shard attached at a time.
 When you hit a creature with an attack using this
shard’ss sentira lens, you can overcom
shard’ overcome e the target with
w ith
blissful calm. The target must succeed on a DC 11
Charisma saving throw or its emotions are suppressed as
if affected by the calm emotions spell
emotions spell for 1 minute. Once
used, this shard can’t be used again until the next dawn.

SWondrous
ENTIRA SHARD: DISGUST
Item, Uncommon DREAMSPACE
For this shard’s properties to work, it must be attached  Planar gateways that
t hat once linked
linke d Ebe
Eberron
rron and Da
Dall
to a sentira lens weapon. You
You can attach
att ach it or remove it Quor, the Region of Dreams, were sundered during
from a sentira lens with 10 minutes of work. A sentira the cataclysmic wars
war s that destroyed Xen’drik
Xen’drik and
lens can only have one sentira shard attached at a time. shattered the giant civilization.
civili zation. Since then, Dal Quor
 Y
 You
ou have a +1
+1 bonus to attack
attack and damage rolls made
made  has been
be en foreve
foreverr dis
distant,
tant, and
a nd no stable
st able manifest
man ifest zones
 with this shard’s sentira
sentira lens. Additionally
Additionally,, this shard has
to Dal Quor exist anywhere on Eberron.
3 charges, and it regains all expended charges daily at
dawn. When you hit a creature with an attack using this t his  However, Dal Quor
Q uor and Eberron
Eber ron remained
re mained inextri-
inext ri-
shard’ss sentira lens, you can expend 1 charge to flood the
shard’ cably linked by the state of dreaming—the process by
target’s mind with revulsion. The target must succeed on which mortal minds travel to the Region of Dreams, Dr eams,
a DC 13 Wisdom saving throwth row or become vulnerable to  and the
t he subtle
subt le gateway through
t hrough which the quori
quor i fir
first
st
poison damage and have disadvantage on saving throws began their conquest of Sarlona some fifteen centu-
against the poisoned
p oisoned condition for 1 minute.  ries past.
SENTIRA SHARD: FEAR  Discovered
 Discover ed shor t years
yea rs ag
agoo and stil
s tilll known
k nown only to
Wondrous Item, Uncommon  a few, the dreamspace
drea mspace is an effect that app ears related
to this spiritual connection between planes, but one
For this shard’s properties to work, it must be attached
that as yet has no explanation. It appears as a kind k ind of
to a sentira lens weapon. You You can attach
att ach it or remove it
from a sentira lens with 10 minutes of work. A sentira  ripple of ar
arcane
cane and ps psionic
ionic energy— a borderbor der of sort
sortss
lens can only have one sentira shard attached at a time. between the mortal world and the world of dreams …
 Y
 You
ou have a +1
+1 bonus to attack
attack and damage rolls made
made  Regard less of its origi
origin,
n, di
different
fferent factions among bot bothh
 with this shard’s
shard’s sentira lelens.
ns. Additionally
Additionally,, this shard ha
hass the kalashtar and Inspired
Inspire d distrust—some even say
3 charges, and it regains all expended charges daily at  fear—the
 fear —the dreamspace.
drea mspace. In pa parti
rticular,
cular, a good
g ood number
numb er of
dawn. When you hit a creature with an attack using this t his  Inspired
 Inspi red aare
re said
s aid to be distur
d isturbed
bed by the existenc
e xistencee of a
shard’ss sentira lens, you can expend 1 charge to focus
shard’  power connected
c onnected to Dal Quor tthat hat they neither control
fear on the target. The target
t arget must succeed on a DC 13
 nor understand
unde rstand..
 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of of you until the
end of its next turn. — Secrets of Sarlona

SENTIRA SHARD: MISERY Secrets of Sarlona introduced the concept of the

Wondrous Item, Rare dreamspace, along with a set of dreamtouched feats feats that
allowed third edition characters to attune
attu ne themselves to
For this shard’s properties to work, it must be attached
the dreamspace. These included the Dream of ContactC ontact
to a sentira lens weapon. YouYou can attach
att ach it or remove it
(which allowed long-distance telepathic communica-
from a sentira lens with 10 minutes of work. A sentira
tion, not unlike the sending
sending spell)
 spell) and Dream of Insight
lens can only have one sentira shard attached at a time.
(which allows the dreamer to make a Intelligence-based
 Y
 You
ou have
have a +2
+2 bon
bonus
us to attack
attack and damage
damage rolls made
made
ability check with a substantial bonus—essentially,
bonus—essential ly,
 with this shard’
shard’ss sentira
sentira lens.
lens. Ad
Addition
ditionally,
ally, this shard has 3
drawing knowledg
k nowledgee from the collective unconscious)
unconscious)..
charges, and it regains all expended charges daily at dawn.
Techniques like these ser ve as cr ucial tools for the
 When you
you hit a creature with an attack
attack using
using this shard’
shard’ss
Unchained, a resistance movement
movement within
withi n Riedra whose
sentira lens, you can expend 1 charge to drench the target
members engage in unsanctioned “free dreaming.”
in misery. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom
 saving throw or have disadvantage on attack rolls, ability
checks and saving throws until the end of its next turn.
SENTIRA SHARD: TRANQUILITY
Wondrous Item, Common
For this shard’s properties to work, it must be attached
to a sentira lens weapon. You
You can attach
att ach it or remove it
Natural Connectivity. The dreamspace might just
be part of the natural infrastructure
i nfrastructure of the planes.
Think of it as the phone lines that connect mortal
dreamers to Dal Quor. There’s nothing sinister
about it; it’s just a (super)natural part of the world.
ifact. The dreamspace could be an artifact
 Artifact.
 Art ar tifact created
by the quori of a previous age when they interacted
 with Eberron.
Eb erron. Rather
R ather than
tha n tying
ty ing tthis
his to the giant-
quori conflict in Xen’drik, I’d tie this to an even
older age of Dal Quor—long before il-Lashtavar—
that’s potentially associated with long-forgotten
civilizations in either Khorvaire or Sarlona …
civilizations destroyed by the rising
r ising of the Daughter
Daughter
of Khyber or another overlord. This would allow
characters
characte rs to discover a
ancien
ncientt rituals or artifacts
designed to manipulate the dreamspace. It leaves
the question open as to whether the quori of that
past age were benevolent, or if the dreamspace
itself was designed as some sort of weapon or tool
of oppression.
New Phenomenon. People might’ve only recently dis-
covered the dreamspace because it’s only recently
come into existence. It could be the side effect of
unforeseen damage the Inspired are inflicting on
the psychosphere of Eberron through their use of
the hanbalani
the  hanbalani monoliths. At the moment it’s a useful
tool, but as the damage becomes more extensive,
it could connect unwilling minds, cause dreaming
spirits to be lost in the dreamspace instead of
reaching Dal Quor, or far worse.
Hoax. The dreamspace might be a hoax. Created by
the Dreaming Dark, it's a lure that’s being used to
draw out rebels like the Unchained. Attuning the
dreamspace and developing dreamtouched tech-
niques actually makes the user more vulnerable to
quori possession.
These are all interesting possibilities. But like the
Mourning, I wouldn’t want to present a single kanon
or canon answer, because a central point of the dream-
space is that the people using it don’t know what it is.
It’s a new tool that’s being latched onto by a desperate
resistance—is it a blessing, or could it be a trap? Is it
secretly a tool of the Dreaming Dark, or is it the hor-
rifying result of dabbling in powers beyond even their
control? Each of the four options
opt ions above would form
the foundation of very different stories. Using the first
option, it could be a simple, reliable tool that has no
other significant impact on the story. Using the second
option could unveil a quori scheme from a previous age
that dwarfs the ambitions of the Dreaming Dark. And
the third option could end with the Dreaming Dark and
the player characters working together to disassemble
POSSIBLE E XPLANATIONS
There’ss no other canon information
There’ i nformation on the dreamspace—
 we just know it was “discovered
“discovered a few short
short years ago”
and both the Inspired and kalashtar distrust it. So what
 is the dreamspace? A few possibilities come to mind …
CITIES OF RIEDRA
Riedran communities typically consist of small villages
that serve a specific function (typically agriculture or
mining), which are spread out around a central massive
city, known as a bastion. The bastion serves as a military
garrison and houses the Inspired who govern the region.
Crucially, every bastion has a teleportation circle, typically
connected to Durat Tal. So if you’re on official business
for the Inspired and need to travel
t ravel quickly, you travel to
the nearest bastion, use thet he circles to reach the bastion
closest to your destination, and then go from there.
In describing the city of Dar Jin, Secrets of Sarlona 
Sarlona 
says that the people “go about their business silently,
speaking only when it is absolutely necessary.” With
this in mind, it’s reasonable to ask whatwhat life is like in the
cities of Riedra. Is it like being in a city of zombies? Why
does Riedra even have cities?
ABOUT BASTIONS
Bastions serve as military strongholds, transportation
hubs, and centers of industry. Most villages gather raw
materials, while the bastions contain the
t he factories that
produce goods.
FACTORIES
Riedra has factories, though thet he nation lacks the wide
magic of Khorvaire, so its factories are more primitive
than their Cannith counterparts in Khorvaire. In Riedra,
factory work is done by hand, without the aid of constructs
or arcane tools. But you don’t have a lot of individual
blacksmiths running their own businesses; instead, the
bastion has a massive foundry, with a hundred smiths all
 working togeth
together
er.. Assembly
Assembly lin
lines
es are co
common
mmon,, with each
each
individual focused on a single task. AndA nd while you don’t
don’t
see the magecraft 
the magecraft  or or arcane tools of Cannith, there are
psionic tools at play. Riedran factories employ background
telepathic projection. In some cases, this is simply a tool
that helps the workers clear their minds
mi nds and focus on a
task. In others, the projection actually guides the t he hands
of the worker, operating as a constant form of magecraft.
of  magecraft.
Riedra’s most unusual factories are the sentira produc-
tion facilities. Sentira is a form of solidified ectoplasm
formed from intense emotion. Where tools of crysteel and
steel can be created by mundane workers, sentira can
only be worked by shaper psions, using a powerful psionic
form of the fabri
the fabricate
cate spell.
 spell. The role of the common worker
in a sentira factory isn’t to produce the finished goods, but
rather to feel 
to feel ; the Inspired
I nspired need concentrated emotion
to create raw sentira. Different emotions create different
forms of sentira, and factories that focus on hatred or
sorrow are usually also prisons; the Inspired have no
 desire to force loyal citizens to feel miserable, but this is
theSo,
the hanbalani
 hanbalani system before
the dreamspace it tearsintended
was always reality apart.
to be an a perfect use for dissidents. So if a group of adventurers
idea that each DM could use in different ways; I hope is looking for a force of possible allies, they should find a
one of these ideas inspires you! sentira factory with an unpleasant aura.

ADMINISTRATION PSIONIC N AVIGATION

In addition to being centers of industry, military
militar y In Riedran cities, casual psionic projection is used to
fortresses, and transport hubs, the bastion cities are identify streets and buildings. At a glance,
g lance, it seems like it
administrative centers. Chosen and Inspired monitor could be impossible to find your way. But when you stop
events in the bastion, tracking production, transport of to think about it, you realize that you know 
you know  where
 where you
supplies, dissident activities, and other critical informa- are. It’s an alien memory nestled in your subconscious,
tion. While paper is used to some degree, information is but one you’re
you’re aware of; this casual projection makes it
primarily stored in crystal form, using a system similar easy to find your way around. Likewise, the dormitories
to spellshards
spellshards.. Administrative centers have large crystal look exactly the same, but you know 
you know  which
 which one is Jhora
repositories that are managed by psychic figments fi gments tied Hall and which is Ula Hall.
to Dal Quor by the Inspired. These simple personalities
(nott unlike tthird
(no hird edition’s
edition’s psicrystals or the
t he spirits associ- COMFORTABLE SILENCE
ated with the Archivist artificer from Unearthed Arcana) Secrets of Sarlona describes
Sarlona describes that R iedrans go about
assist and manage data access, as well as performing their business silently, speaking only when necessary.
other minor administrative functions. Each center has a This doesn’t mean they act like zombies! Riedrans are
figment capable of moving
moving between
bet ween Dal Quor and Riedra, taught to be focused on their tasks. They know exactly
and all records are also stored in a central repository
rep ository in  what they need to do, and they’re determined
determi ned to do
Dal Quor; if an Inspired in i n Dar Jin needs to know about the best job they can; they don’t have time for small
troop requisitions in Dar Ulatesh,
U latesh, the figment clerk can talk. But this doesn’t mean they’re emotionless robots.
quickly retrieve that
t hat information from Dal Quor. Riedrans may smile or nod to each other in passing.
If someone drops what they are carrying,
carr ying, the people
C󰁡󰁮 S󰁥󰁮󰁴󰁩󰁲󰁡 󰁢󰁥 F󰁡󰁫󰁥󰁤? around them likely stop to help pick it up. They may
not say  anything
 anythi ng while at work, because nothing needs
The Adaran kalashtar also work with sentira󰀬 so you can find
sentira items in Adar
Ada r󰀮 However󰀬 they don’t have the facili
facilities
ties or to be said; it’s understood that “we're all working
resources to produce it in the same quantities as the Inspired󰀮 together, we're here to help you.” So while many things
Notably󰀬 pela󲀔the horned headdresses kalashtar are often about Riedra are oppressive, the silence isn’t one of
shown wearing󲀔are usually sculpted from sentira󰀬 but you them; it occurs because most of the time,
t ime, nothing
won’t find entire buildings made of sentira in Adar󰀮 needs to be said. Most Riedrans are comfortable
comfortable with
One interesting question is whether the emotions used to their lives, and they feel they share a common cause
generate sentira can be artificially
artificiall y induced󰀮 Can you create love  with the
t he people around
ar ound them. They aren’t
a ren’t shuffling,
with a charm effect󰀬 or generate fear with psychic
ps ychic power? The emotionless zombies; most are content, determined to
simple answer is yes󰀬 but it’s more interesting  if   if you decide  work as hard as they can
ca n and to earn
ear n their advance-
that the answer is no󲀔that the emotion has to be sustained ment on the Path of Inspiration.
and natural󰀮 This makes a factory that deals in fear more hor󰀭
rifying󰀬 because they can’t simply cast a psionic fear  spell󰀻
 spell󰀻 they
have to truly make people terrified for an extended period of
PURPOSE AND PREDICTABILITY
For a Riedran citizen, daily life
li fe is very predictabl
predictable.
e.
time󰀮 And this would also lean toward certain emotions being
much harder to produce in a factory setting󰀮 It could be that  You work with the same
sa me people in the same building
bu ilding
love sentira is rarely made in Riedra󲀔but it can be found in following the same general schedule. You all dream
Adar 󰀨where it’s often crafted by hand󰀩󰀬 whereas Adarans are the same dreams; you all receive the same messages
rarely found using fear or hate sentira󰀮 from the Voice. Again, this doesn’t make Riedrans
zombies, it just means that they have safe, reliable pat-
terns. This is a primar y reason that adventurers
adventurers make
LIFE IN A RIEDRAN C ITY most Riedrans uncomfortable: they are disrupting
 Dar Jin
J in is larger than any cit y in Khorvair
Khor vaire.e. It is
i s com- that pattern. Riedrans know what to expect from one
 posed
 pose d of fiv
fivee spherical
spher ical wards,
wards , each a metropolis
metr opolis in its another. They have no idea what to expect from a
 warforged, an
a n elf, and a dragonmarked
dragonmarke d human—all
human—a ll the
own right. Four of the wards are ar e almost identical. The
 worse if these three
t hree appear
appe ar to be armed
a rmed and prepared
pr epared
streets are paved with smooth black cobblestones, for violence!
 interspers
 inters persed
ed with
wit h squares
squar es of clear crysteel.
cry steel. When So what is life like
l ike in a bastion city? There are many
darkness falls, the crysteel blocks glow with a soft people but little conversation. People aren’t standing
 light. Workhouses
Workhouses,, dormitories
dorm itories,, and storehouses
storehous es are ar e around, shopping,
shopping, or killing
ki lling ttime.
ime. They act with a
 made of blocks
bl ocks of black and whit
whitee stone; crysteel
cry steel sense of careful purpo
careful purpose se,, quietly devoted to their work.

 panels serv
serve
e as skyli
s kylights
ghts dur ing the
t he day and glowing
 lanterns
 lanter ns at ni
night.
ght. Most build ings a
arere curve
cu rved
d or
whorled; hard angles are few and far between. The
city is beautiful in its way, but is extremely repetitive;
every dormitory looks exactly the same.
— Secrets of Sarlona
events or grand triumphs. There are statues of the
Inspired that radiate awe, plazas where priests of the
Path of Inspiration inspire the crowds, spaces where
soldiers drill or people engage in group exercise. But
there aren’t luxuries, nothing that’s designed for pure
leisure; everything serves a purpose.
FOREIGNERS IN THE JHODRA
If adventurers from Khorvaire manage to visit R iedra,
they’ll find that people keep their distance. Civilians
largely ignore outsiders, avoiding eye contact; adven-
turers are seen as a curiosity
cu riosity at best and as threats
at worst. Meanwhile, soldiers watch outsiders closely,
clearly concerned that they may be up to something
dangerous. If forced to interact, most Riedrans are
polite to adventurers but seek to end the conversation
as quickly as possible; of course, they have somewhere
else they need to be.
It’s no surprise that in Dar Jin and Dar Ulatesh—the
only two major ports where foreigners are welcome—
they have foreign quarters that cater to the needs of
outsiders. The Jhodra is the foreign quarter of Dar Jin,
Riedra’s greatest port. It has dragonmarked enclaves
and embassies of several nations of Khorvaire. There
are theaters, shops, and taverns, most of which
are actually run
r un by the dragonmarked houses, not
Riedrans. So the good news is that after your long
 journey across
acr oss the sea
s ea to the empire
empi re of the mysterious
my sterious
Inspired, you can still get a bowl of tribex stew at tthe
Gold Dragon Inn (Disclaimer: the tribex stew served ser ved
at the Jhodra Gold Dragon Inn is not actual tribex,t ribex,
but rather a pomow-plant-based meat substitute being
tested by House Ghallanda).
Most Riedrans are forbidden from entering the
 Jhodra. Those
Thos e who work in the t he foreign quarter
qua rter are
ar e
trained and prepared to deal with foreigners, and thus
don’t
don ’t display the discomfort
d iscomfort seen elsewhere. There are
many guides, always watching for travelers who seem
lost or confused, always ready to provide assistance;
there are even some who are only guides,
gu ides, as opposed
to also being agents of the Thousand Eyes!
So in imagining a scene in the Jhodra, keep that
cosmopolitan
cosmopo litan population in mind.
mi nd. Walking through
the Jhodra, you’ll have that odd sensation of knowing
of  knowing   edge to avoid accidentally breaking Riedran laws󰀮 A successful
 where you are—of
are —of remember
remembering ing the
t he name of the
street even though you’ve never read it. Most Riedrans
are going about their business: sailors headed for
the docks, envoys headed to an embassy, all moving
quietly and with purpose. Dragonmarked
Dragonmarked heirs share
 jokes with embassy staffers.
sta ffers. A n expat grabs
gr abs you—“Did
 you just get off the
t he Sharn boat?
b oat? You
You don’t have any of
Mazo’s shaat’aar, do you?”—and perhaps they have a
story to share, or a risky
r isky opportunity for a few capable
They know where they re going, they know what they
have to do, and they’re always moving toward that goal.
Riedran cities aren’t designed for
for tourists or con-
sumers. There are no shops or restaurants; Riedrans
R iedrans
eat in their dormitories or garrisons. There are no
theaters, no gambling. Now, they do have gardens of
reflection and memorials that share memories of tragic
Riedran gives you a look 
a look  or
 or makes an odd gesture.
 What are
ar e they try
t rying
ing to convey? Do they
t hey want to find a
 way to speak to you alone? Is somethi
somethingng going on? Or
is it an agent of the Thousand Eyes, testing you to see
if you're searching for dissidents?
Crime is almost unheard of in Riedran communi-
ties—in part
par t because most people have little to steal.
There are criminals in the Jhodra, but they’re mostly
from Khorvaire and focus their attentions on fellow
travelers. However, the Jhodra is well defended,
both by soldiers of the Harmonious Shield and the
imposing oni of the Horned Guard. The Jhodra
also has an unusual number of Inspired, who help
monitor the area and support the soldiers if needed.
For example, in other cities, the priest in a garden of
reflection is usually an unoccupied Chosen or even a
mundane human—but in the Jhodra, such a priest is
likely a hashalaq Inspired with significant
signi ficant powers of
coercion and empathy.
Secrets of Sarlona discusses
Sarlona discusses Dar Jin and the Jhodra
in more detail, including the mercantile center, the
Tower of Eyes, and the Song of Skin—a meditative
talhouse catering to changelings.
E󰁮󰁴󰁥󰁲󰁩󰁮󰁧 R󰁩󰁥󰁤󰁲󰁡 P󰁲󰁯󰁰󰁥󰁲
There are several clandestine ways to enter Riedra󰀺 you might
travel through Khyber󰀬 pass through another plane󰀬 or work
he with the Dream Merchants or other smugglers󰀮 But if you want
to leave the Jhodra to explore another part of Dar Jin or to
travel across Riedra󲀔and if you truly have a good reason to
do so󲀔all you have to do is ask󰀮 Secrets of Sarlona describes
Sarlona describes
the following󰀺
“In order to explore Riedra󰀬 a traveler must acquire a transit
visa from the Iron Gate󰀬 the foreign relations office󰀬 in Dar Jin
or Dar Ulatesh󰀮 This scroll provides a description of the trav󰀭
elers󰀬 states the nature of their business󰀬 and delineates any
restrictions on travel󰀮 A bearer might be limited to traveling
in specific provinces or spheres󰀬 and the visa usually has a
set expiration date󰀮 The document is notarized with a sentira
seal󰀬 a psionic sigil that carries the thought󰀭signature of the
Inspired … The Iron Gate does not charge for transit visas󰀬
but it rarely grants them󰀮 Riedra isn’t for tourists󰀮 Travelers
must provide a valid reason for entry and show that they have
no criminal tendencies or intent󰀬 as well as enough knowl󰀭
󰁛DC 󰀲󰀵 Charisma 󰀨Persuasion󰀩 check󰁝 is sufficient to get an
entry request considered󰀬 but even then the reason must
stand on its
it s own󰀮 Finally󰀬 󰁛a
󰁛a psionic mind probe is often
of ten used󰁝
to ensure that the travelers have no hidden motives󰀮 If the
request is especially intriguing or risky󰀬 the Iron Gate might
allow travel but send a member of the Thousand Eyes along
as a chaperone and observer󰀮 Unless the party is deemed a
serious risk󰀬 this observer is a Chosen󰀻 the controlling spirit
only takes possession of the vessel every few hours to check
 on the situation󰀮
people. You see a statue of the Inspired, and you can’t
help but be impressed … but is that your actual feeling,
or just a projection of the statue? And perhaps—
though it’s unlikely—one of those silent, hardworking

PROVINCES OF RIEDRA
The Unity of Riedra is one nation, a single political
entity. But it’s made up of eight provinces, and all of
them were once unique nations shaped by environ-
mental factors, religions, arcane discoveries, and most
of all, by planar influences. While the provinces are
now unified—and while the Inspired
I nspired work to discourage
any strong sense of provincial nationalism in modern
Riedra—understanding these fallen nations is crucial
to understanding the landscape of Riedra, the history
of the Five Nations, and the secrets or wonders that
adventurers might travel to Riedra to uncover. Riedra
may be one nation, but you’ll have very
ver y different adven-
tures in Borunan versus Ohr Kaluun.
FALLEN KINGDOMS
Secrets of Sarlona implies
Sarlona implies that the
t he old kingdoms were
fairly advanced—that they had wizards, sorcerers, divine
champions. If so, why did these
t hese techniques not travel to
Khorvaire? And
A nd in general, why don’t the Five Nations
show their Sarlonan roots more strongly? Most followers
of the Sovereign Host in the Five Nations know that their
faith is “the Pyrinean Creed,” but very few actually know
that this means it originated in the Sarlonan nation of
Pyrine.
Pyri ne. Why have these nations been forgotten? A couple
factors contribute to this loss.
RENEGADE COLONIZERS
The Sarlonan “settlers” of Khorvaire weren’t the
paragons and pride of their nations. We’ve called out
that Lhazaar was a pirate, and it’s no accid
accident
ent that her
lieutenant was known as Malleon the Reaver. Many who
followed Lhazaar were outlaws, renegades, or rebels of
one brand or another. Later waves of colonization were
largely driven by refugees. In both cases, these migra-
tions weren’t
weren’t organized efforts to preserve
pres erve the culture
cu lture
and achievements of the old kingdoms.
PLANAR I NFLUENCES
Equally important is the
t he fact that the Sarlonan settlers
couldn’t  transport
 transport many of their greatest achievements
(which is part of why there weren’t more active pro-
grams driving
driv ing Sarlonan colonization of other lands).
lands).
The one thing Sarlona has in greater amounts than
any other continent is planar influence—manifest
zones, wild zones, reality storms, and more. Simply
put, Sarlona is closer to the planes than Khorvaire,
and this creates both threats and opportunities.
Depending on their traits, manifest zones and wild
zones can be extremely dangerous—but as seen in
Sharn, Shae Mordai, and Dreadhold, they can also
planar energies into the surrounding region. This can
be tapped to produce magical effects … and can also
subtly shape the personality of mortals. Creatures that
live in the vicinity of a Shavarath wild zone are more
likely to be aggressive—and to have an instinctive
knack for developing martial skills.
LOST MAGIC
The wizards of Khunan and the
t he sorcerers of Corvagura
 were channeling Sarlona’s
Sarlona’s planar magic … and when
Khunan wizards fled to what’s now Valenar, they found
that their magic didn’t work there.
there. So the reason the
Five Nations don’t seem to be that much more advanced
than the fallen
fal len kingdoms of Sarlona is because they had
to
to rebuild 
 rebuild  their
 their arcane science … in the process, creating
forms of magic that are more reliable and versatile.
Nonetheless,
Nonethe less, it’s possible that adventurers sifting
through the ruins
ru ins of the old kingdoms may find rituals,
relics, or spells that are a match for (or even superior to)
modern techniques … though it might take the skill of
an exceptional arcanist—or a player character—to adap adaptt
these techniques to the modern style!
S󰁡󰁲󰁬󰁯󰁮󰁡󰁮 󰁶󰁳󰀮 K󰁨󰁯󰁲󰁶󰁡󰁩󰁲󰁩󰁡󰁮 M󰁡󰁧󰁩󰁣
Most Khorvairian scholars refer to the old Sarlonan style of
magic󲀔drawing on planar energies󲀔as “Externalist” magic
󰀨or “wielding external forces”󰀩󰀮 By comparison󰀬 the most
common form of arcane science employed by the Five Nations
is called “Siberyan” magic󰀬 as it manipulates energies exuded
by the Ring of Siberys󰀮
There are a few practitioners of Externalist magic in
Khorvaire󰀮 The technique can still be effective if the caster is
familiar with the manifest zones and planar influences within
a region󰀮 Some of these old traditions still linger among the
human wizards of Valenar󰀬 for example󰀮 But it’s an unusual
style rarely seen in the Five Nations󰀮
HE the
T  P
Though ROVINCES  TODAY
following sections discuss the modern-day
provinces of Riedra, they largely focus on aspects not 
aspects not  
covered in Secrets of Sarlona: namely, the impact of the
planes and interesting aspects of the old cultures. But
always remember that the Inspired have worked to sup-
press the old traditions. In particular,
particu lar, the Edgewalkers
are an elite order tasked to protect innocents
in nocents from extra-
planar threats, and one of their major duties is patrolling
the borders of wild zones. Many
Ma ny zones do contain deadly
threats; but in other cases,
c ases, the Inspired simply don’t
don’t
 want the locals to find ways
ways to use the zonzones
es as their
ancestors did, or for them to be influenced by the t he zone.
These sections include information on the most
 enable wonders
wonders that can
c an t be replicated in the
t he mundane common and powerful
powerful planar influences in a region,
 world. Manifest zones
zones can be a source of unusual flora, along with the common wild zones. But manifest
mani fest zones
fauna, or other resources. The drug known as absentia to
to all 
 all  planes
 planes (save Dal Quor) can be found anywhere in
is created using a root that grows ini n certain Xoriat Riedra; for example, in the novel The Gates of Night ,
manifest zones, while the pomow plant—mainstay the protagonists travel between
bet ween Xen’drik
Xen’drik and Sarlona
of the R iedran diet—was developed
developed in Lamannian using manifest zones tied
t ied to Thelanis. So feel free to add
zones. Beyond this, the more powerful zones leak manifest zones anywhere it suits your story!

BORUNAN BIRTHPLACE OF THE ONI
In Borunan, you might … The origin of the
t he oni is a secret
sec ret long forgotten, but
one possibility is this: just like the rakshasa and the
• Be drawn into the overlords, the immortals of Shavarath can't be perma-
schemes of oni and nently bound. But during their service in i n Gul Dol, the
ogres plotting rebellion. champions of Borunan found a way to bind defeated
• Find an ancient forge fiends to their own bodies—sort of an involuntary version
 where oni crafted weapons
weapons of the process that created the kalashtar, trapping a
for ogre champions. fiend within a bloodline of ogres. Thus the supernatural
• Be forced into an powers of the oni may be tied to the essence of devils
extension of Shavarath, bound to the bloodlines. This could be why many oni are
 where celestials and fiends
fiends drawn toward evil; but the oni of Borunan resisted those
fight an endless war. sinister instincts, using the power of their defeated foes
• Use a passage from Khyber to enter Riedra. to fight alongside celestials.
In the days of the old kingdoms, the ogres of Borunan were In addition to being fierce warriors, the oni of
peerless warriors. Their champions possessed inhuman Borunan forged their weapons in the Cauldron, a wild
strength, martial discipline, unshakable courage, and zone tied to Fernia. Their weapons weren’t
weren’t as well-
 weapons
 weapo ns fo
forged
rged in Fernian flame. Time and again,
again, they crafted as the arms and armor of the Dhakaani, but
repelled the legions of Nulakesh and the crusaders of the oni spell-smiths
spell- smiths were able to channel the energies
Khalesh, and yet Borunan never sought to conquer any of of Shavarath and Fernia to imbue their creations with
its neighbors. Some might wonder why this was. Borunan powerful magic. While
Whi le most of these weapons were
is a harsh land; did the ogres never consider claiming the destroyed long ago, legendary
legendary items or even ar artifacts
tifacts
more fertile fields of Nulakesh? What kept their population could remain in Gul Dol, the Cauldron, or other ancient
so low that they never needed to expand? ruins; it’s up to the DM to decide whether these enor-
mous items, designed to be wielded by ogres and oni,
PLANAR INFLUENCES magically adjust to the size of smaller folk.
Today, it’s
it’s commonly believed tthat
hat the people of Borunan
considered their neighbors to be “unworthy foes”—the
foes”—the THE FALL OF B ORUNAN
usual assumption is that the ogres were cruel brutes who Despite the might of its champions, Borunan was easily
constantly fought one another.
another. In fact, the ogres were laid low by the Dreaming Dark. The humans of the sur-
 waging a truly divine war,
war, fighting al
alongsi
ongside
de ang
angels
els in an rounding regions had long feared the ogres,
ogres , and it was
endless struggle against devils. The center of Borunan easy for the quori to fan these flames. Within Borunan
contains a wild zone to Shavarath where a fragment of the itself, the quori sowed doubts and created feuds, shat-
Eternal Battleground extends directly into the Material tering centuries of unity. “Are the oni secretly in league
Plane. So the ancient ogres devoted their might not to  with devils? Was
Was the battle for Gul Dol a poin
pointless
tless
conquest, but to defending this keep—known to the ogres sacrifice?” Civil strife
str ife decimated Borunan and left it
as Gul Dol, the Gate of War—against the forces of tyranny.  vulnerable to outside
outside attack.
Borunan contains several wild zones tied to Fernia
and Shavarath, along with multiple passages into Khyber.
The forerunners of the ogres emerged from a demiplane B ORUNAN TODAY
In the present day, the ogres of Borunan are kept
 within Khyber; tectonic activity destroyed this passage, from the wild zones that served as the strongholds
leaving them stranded in this barren
bar ren region of rocky of their ancestors. They're also largely kept from any
desert and hills. Of the Shavaran wild zones, only Gul Dol form of war; they use their
t heir strength for manual labor
is a direct passage to the Eternal Battleground. But the as opposed to battle. The oni are raised to believe
ogres built their fortresses in the other Shavaran zones, in a t wisted form of their actual history, taught that
and over generations, the influence of Shavarath helped their gifts are the result of being living pr
prisons
isons for
shape them into fierce warriors. fiends. Thus, it's the duty of the oni to redeem the fiend
The ogres of ancient Borunan cared nothing for the  within
 withi n them through
th rough their
t heir own devoted servic
se rvice
e to the
Sovereigns or the Silver Flame—they
Flame—t hey were entirely Inspired. Largely,
Largely, this indoctrination has proven suc-
devoted to the battle for Gul Dol. The angels of the Legion
L egion cessful, and the Horned Guard—an elite corps of oni
of Freedom battle
battle the
t he devils of the Legion
L egion of Tyranny
Tyranny soldiers—is one of the most powerful weapons in the
for control of this massive fortress, which is broken into Riedran arsenal.
 multiple rings and wings. The angels believe that the
balance of this war reflects the balance between tyranny
and freedom across the multiverse. Of course, this is only
one of countless fronts in the eternal war between these
forces, but the ogres embraced this idea and believed that
in fighting alongside the angels, they were fighting for
freedom for all people.
 whether the Horned Shadow is entirely heroic—a
throwback to the champions of ancient Borunan,
 who devoted their lives
l ives to defending freedom from
tyranny—or if the oni leaders are driven by fiendish
impulses and have malevolent goals.
KEEP IN M IND
Borunan has many passages to Khyber. These could
provide ways for adventurers to cross from Khorvaire
into Riedra, intentionally or by accident. This could
also be a vector that could bring the minions of a
daelkyr into Riedra. The Edgewalkers monitor these
passages, and have sealed those that can be sealed.
The public is kept away from the wild zones that hold
the ancient ruins of Borunan, and believe them to
be the domain of foul altavars
foul  altavars (the
 (the Riedran term for
fiends). The two most powerful zones are the Cauldron
(a Fernian
Fernian zone in the Broken Blade Mountains and
the seat of old Borunan’s oni spell-smiths) and Gul Dol.
Today, the majority of the Gate of War is in i n the hands
of the Legion of Tyranny, but the angels stillsti ll hold an
isolated keep. Their forces include several Borunan
sword wraiths—the spectral vestiges of the ogre-kin
champions that fought and died alongside
a longside them.
The ogres of Borunan are generally more intel-
ligent than their cousins in Droaam, with an average
Intelligence of 9. It’s likely that the ancestors of
Droaam’ss ogres and oni were transported across the
Droaam’
 world by a planar anomaly; this might explain their
reduced Intelligence and the lack of any Borunan tradi- t radi-
tions. Another possibility is that the ogres of Khorvaire
are a separate branch of that people—that
p eople—that they came
from the same demiplane but emerged in Khorvaire
instead of Sarlona, and were untouched
untouched by the influ-
in flu-
ence of Shavarath.
CORVAGURA
In Corvagura, you might …
• Seek to sabotage the
teleportation network
of Durat Tal.
• Explore a mysterious
magebreeding facility
in a Lamannian
 wild zone.
• Try to rescue a youth
 who manifested
manifested sorcerous powers.
• Explore the tomb of a forgotten
forgotten sorcerer-king.
sorcerer-ki ng.
Corvagura is a tropical region marked by deep
 jungles and lush fields. It has long been
be en the most
densely populated region of Sarlona, and it was
one of the most powerful and influential of the old
However, over the last two decades, a group of
Borunan rebels has been forming a resistance move-
ment, the Horned Shadow, that seeks to protect the
ogre-kin (ogres, oni, eneko).
eneko). This is still
stil l a young move-
ment, struggling to build power while avoiding the
gaze of the Thousand Eyes. It’s up to the DM to decide
the region and its inhabitants. The influences of the
other planes were made manifest in two powerful
lines of human sorcerers. Anyone born within the t he
planes’ sphere of influence could potentially develop
sorcerous powers; the nation of Corvagura was born
 when leaders rallied
ra llied these
t hese sorcerers
sorcer ers into ttwo
wo noble
houses, then used their powers to conquer the city-
states in the region.
The House of the Sun  drew its power from Thelanis.
Its members had powers like those of Wild Magic
sorcerers. Their magic tended toward glamour
and glory, twisting the thoughts and emotions of
others or striking
striki ng down foes with bolts of flame.
Though biologically human, members of the House
of the Sun often had fey features and could be
mistaken for Khoravar. The sorcerers of the House
of the Sun were taught to be proud and glorious,
demanding adoration from their subjects.
The House of the Moon  drew its power from Mabar.
Its members had powers like those of Shadow
sorcerers, and their magic drew on darkness and
inspired fear. They never animated the dead, but
they could command shadows and summon spec-
ters. The sorcerers of the House of the Moon were
taught to be calm and cruel, instilling terror in any
 who might challenge
chal lenge them.
 Whi le these houses were presented
 While pr esented as families
fa milies,, one’s
position within them was based entirely on sorcerous
power. Anyone who manifested such powers would
be adopted into the appropriate house, while any
heir who failed to show sorcerous talent by their
eighteenth birthday was cast out. The majority of the
sorcerers of Corvagura were convinced that their
powers elevated them above the common people,
and they were infamous for their casual cruelty and
tyrannical rule. But they did protect the common
people from many deadly threats, including the
colossal beasts that emerged from Lamannian wild
zones, as well as the restless dead and capricious fey
unleashed by the other wild zones.
THE FALL OF CORVAGURA
The quori attacked Corvagura on three fronts. They
encouraged the cruelty and narcissism of the worst of
the sorcerers, pushing their subjects past the limit of
 what they would endure. They created a deep, para-
noid rift between the houses, leading to destructive
 vendettas. And they encouraged
encouraged the spirit of revolution
revolution
among the people—culminating in the appearance
of early Inspired, commoners wielding supernatural
powers capable of defeating
defeating the
t he sorcerers.
 one of the most powerful and influential of the old
kingdoms.
C ORVAGURA TODAY
Today, Corvagura is the heart of Riedra, both in
PLANAR I NFLUENCES terms of population and administration. It’s home
Corvagura includes manifest zones and wild
wi ld zones to both the capital city of Durat Tal and the primary
tied to Lamannia, Mabar, and Thelanis. Notably, the eastern port, Dar Jin, along with other important
influence of Lamannia lends unnatural fertility to

bastion cities. The influence of wild zones tied to

Mabar and Thelanis are largely contained by the
DOR MALEER
Edgewalkers; the Shanjueed Jungle has been called cal led In Dor Maleer, you might …
out as the largest Mabaran manifest zone in Eberron, • Use a passage to Dolurrh to
dwarfing even the Gloaming of the Eldeen Reaches. rescue a lost soul.
Lamannian wild zones and manifest zones have been • Release an ancient
tapped to contribute to the agricultural programs of champion who’s been
Riedra; this includes
includes the creation of unusual hybrids, bound in ice for thou-
such as the pomow plant. sands of years.
 As the I nspired keep
ke ep people out of the wild
wi ld zones • Battle rocs or other
and work to contain their influence, planetouched colossal beasts.
sorcerers are rarely born in Corvagura. People know • Help a band of duergar
 what to watch for, and they know 
they know  such
  such sorcerers are commandos strike a blow against the Inspired.
 vessels for evil altavars
evil  altavars,, responsible for chaos and Dor Maleer is a region of harsh plains, cold deserts, and
bloodshed in the days before the Unity. Any sorcerers mountains. Its barren land is only slightly more hospi-
identified by the Thousand Eyes are either killed or table than the Tashana Tundra
Tundra that lies to the north. In
forced into service with the Edgewalkers. However, the days before the Sundering, the northern
nort hern mountains
as with other provinces, there may well be a few  were the domain of the Doriak dwarves, while the plains
 who have managed to concealc onceal their
thei r powers or who  were claimed by the Hual
Hual Maleer, a loose
loose federatio
federation
n of
fled into wild zones and survive there—rebels who human and shifter clans.
could assist player characters. On the other hand,
some such sorcerers have internalized the teachings PLANAR INFLUENCES
that these powers are the gifts of fiends, and believe Dor Maleer contains multiple wild zones and manifest

that the
acts; path
such to greater
criminals arepower lies in dangerous.
exceedingly performingIt’s
vile zones
of thattied to Lamannia,
plane. Most people showcasing
show casing
think the versatility
of Lamannia as the
 worth noting
noti ng that while
wh ile the lines of sorcerer-
s orcerer-prince
princess Twilight Forest, as a plane that enhances the fertility
of ancient Corvagura were human, there’s nothing of plants and animals … and this is one common
stopping a Corvaguran changeling, shifter, or other element of Lamannian zones. But Lamannia embodies
ancestry from developing
developing such powers. the power of nature, and that includes deadly storms,
frigid tundras, raging
ragi ng volcanoes, and more.
KEEP  IN  M IND The plains of Dor Maleer are broken up by regions
Corvagura is the heart of Riedra. Dar Jin is a center of environmental extremes at odds with the surround-
for trade and diplomacy. Durat Tal is the admin- ings. As the plains lack the resources to support large
istrative center of the Unity, and also the hub for settlements, the Hual Maleer always lived in small
the network of teleportation circles that
circles that allow the communities, splitting and forming new clans when
Inspired to swiftly move troops and supplies across the population began to outstrip local resources.
the length of their realm. Because of this, Corvagura  Wild zones could cause endless hurricanes,
hurrica nes, with
has the largest number of hanbalani
of hanbalani monoliths and free-roaming air
ai r elementals howling
howling with the winds.
wi nds.
the greatest effort made to ensure the loyalty of its There are vast pools of lava in the Maleeri plains, and
a nd
people; while there could be a few rogue sorcerers, fire elementals occasionally emerge to scorch the soil.
Corvagura is a difficult place to find support for any There are also a few wild zones where the environ-
sort of rebellion. ment is more welcoming—a stretch of dense forest, an
The manifest and wild zones tied to Mabar and impossibly verdant valley. Maleeri hunters forage and
Thelanis provide all sorts of potential for adventures. hunt in these regions, but attempting to settle them is
These zones may contain ruins associated with the unwise. These zones represent the indomitable force
Houses of the Sun and Moon, along with the forgotten of the wild, and they resist the intrusion of civilization.
treasures of the sorcerer-kings. Mabar zones may Disease, accelerated decay, and hostile wildlife all
 yet be haunted by the spec
specters
ters of ancient t yrants or plague any would-be settlers. And hostile wildlife in
by newly animated undead. The Edgewalkers are these zones is quite literally a big deal—these regions
dedicated to keeping fey and undead contained, produce megafauna, massive beasts similar to rocs
and the Thousand Eyes ensure that no one tells the in size and power, though they can take many forms.
stories of the fey. But this can still be another way to These powerful beasts can’t reproduce outside their
 enter Riedra; Thelanian zones often allow passage
to the Faerie Court under the right circumstances,
ci rcumstances,
and adventurers exploring the Twilight Demesne
in Khorvaire could accidentally
accidentally end up facing
Edgewalkers on the edge of a forest in Corvagura.
 
zones, and thus they haven’t spread. But there are tales
of ancient hunters feeding a village for a month with
the corpse of a mighty bear dragged from the deep
forest. These wild zones can't be tamed, but there are a
few manifest zones with less extreme effects, and these
were the sites of Dor Maleer’s largest communities.

The mountains of Dor Maleer contain wild zones
tied to Risia and Dolurrh. In the Risia zones, chasms
are filled with ice, and temperatures
temperatures are far more
severe than nature should allow. But the ice of Risia
preserves, and time ceases to flow for creatures or
objects encased in ice in such a zone. It’s possible
explorers could find ancient champions from the
Sundering or the days of the old kingdoms—or even
a frozen dragon from the Age of Demons! Meanwhile,
the influence of Dolurrh is unpredictable. The region’s
most dramatic landmark is the Final Passage. When
the moon Aryth is full, those who venture into this
cavern can enter the Catacombs of Dolurrh. This
offers a way to recover a soul that can't be resurrected
through normal means. But the Catacombs have
guardians, and the Queen of the Dead doesn’t sur-
render her subjects easily.
DORIAK DWARVES
The Frostblade (Paqaa) Mountains were once the
home
hom e of the Doriak dwarves, a dwarf culture that
produces mountain,
mountain, hill, and gray dwarves. The
Doriak duergar are thought to be a mutation resulting
from generations dwelling in the radius of the Dolurrh
 wild zones,
zones , and they hhave
ave an unusually
unusua lly strong
st rong bond to
Dolurrh. This often results in a dampened emotional
affect; though they aren’t paralyzed by the infamous
ennui of Dolurrh, the Doriak are somber by nature.
Doriak duergar hear the whispers of spirits, both
the voices of their own ancestors and of others who
have died in the places they pass through. These
 voices usually
usua lly form an
a n incomprehensible chorus.
choru s.
However, some Doriak duergar hone their skills and
become mediums (as per the magewright specialty in
 Eberron: R ising from
fr om the Last War ).
). All duergar can
learn to channel this babel, harnessing this
t his choir of
excess thought as pure psionic power; it’s by chan-
neling this power that a duergar can hide from the
perceptions of others or temporarily expand their
mass. Doriak champions learn to wield this power
to produce devastating effects. In the days before the
Sundering, the Doriak pioneered the development of
psionic tools and channeling devices; the hanbalani
the hanbalani
monoliths that ensure Inspired dominance over
Riedra are based on Doriak techniques.
handsomely for their aid in creating the hanbalani
handsomely the hanbalani and
other elements
elements of R iedran infrastructure. But once
the dwarves had served their purp ose, Riedra turned
on them, launching a brutal preemptive strike. The
Doriak survivors
surv ivors were driven from their mountain
home and into the Tashana Tundra.
DOR MALEER TODAY
This harsh frontier region can’t support the civic
infrastructure that
t hat is common throughout
throughout the rest of
Riedra. As such, there is only a single bastion city:
Dar Vuleer, a port on Lake Kelneluun. This city is in a
Lamannia manifest zone that allows limited agricul-
ture and exceptional fishing. The fortress of Kintarn
Malin coordinates the defendefense
se of the
t he northeastern
border and also serves as a training center for the
shifters of the Taskaan Legion. Beyond this, Maleeri
 villages
 vil lages are smaller a and
nd more loosely st structu
ructured
red than
tha n
their southern counterparts. There are relatively
few hanbalani
few  hanbalani monoliths in the province, and many
 villages
 vil lages don’t have the sha
shared
red dreams
drea ms or receive mes-
sages from the Voice. As such, while most Maleeri
still support the idea
the idea of
 of the Unity, they aren't as deeply
indoctrinated as the people of other provinces. Rebels
from other provinces who don’t want to flee Riedra
entirely might take shelter in Dor Maleer, where the
Thousand Eyes aren’t watching so closely.
Because of the sparse population of Dor Maleer, the
 wild zones of the province
prov ince don’t receive the
t he same level
of attention from the Edgewalkers as those in southern
population centers. Local hunters work together to
deal with rampaging megafauna, and elementals rarely
stray far enough from their zones to endanger the
inhabitants. The Final Passage doesn’t unleash threats
into the world, and mortals who enter it almost never
return; so while there are a few E Edgewalker
dgewalker outposts
monitoring
monit oring the region, these zones are largely acces-
sible to adventurers.
The Doriak were driven from the region and their
t heir
towns and fortresses were destroyed; their ruins can
c an
be found in the mountains, though most have been
picked over by Doriak rebels in the intervening centu-
ries. As described in Secrets of Sarlona,
Sarlona, the Doriak are
currently expanding their resistance movement,
movement, even
sabotaging monoliths.

THE FALL OF DOR MALEER
Dor Maleer was never a strongly united nation. The
first step for the Dreaming Dark was to drive a wedge
between the Hual Maleer, causing tensions between
clans and between human and shifter. Inspired
champions
champio ns arose within the clans, uniting them and
KEEP IN MIND
The mountains are home to manifest zones and wild
zones tied to Dolurrh. Unlike Mabar, Dolurrh rarely
produces hostile undead. However, the mountains
are certainly haunted , carr
 , carr ying echoes of the ancient
dead. Shadows might replay powerful or emotional
 spreading the word of the Path of Unity. The psychic moments, or adventurers could stumble across battles
Doriak proved resistant to the manipulations of the being refought. Like the information gleaned from a
Dreaming Dark, but the
t he quori amplified fear and speak with dead  spell,
 spell, these are typically
t ypically just traces of
conflict between them and the people of the low- memory—but
memo ry—but they can certainly be eerie.
lands. As the Unity of Riedra emerged, the first true
Inspired offered peace to the Doriak, and paid them

KHALESH simply be a region where aggressive thought is impos-

sible, or a place of floating rubble and remnants of great
In Khalesh, you might … towers—a warning of what could become of Sharn. But
• Recover a long-lost arti- as a wild zone, it could be something far stranger, or even
fact from a couatl tomb. a portal into Syrania itself. Perhaps one of the floating
• Discover a hidden towers of Syrania is in Khalesh—the tower of a Dominion
enclave of shulassakar. of Knowledge who has been recording the conflict
confl ict
• Channel the power between the overlords and the couatl since time began.
of Irian to perform a
crucial ritual.
• Find a portal to one
THE C OUATL OF KHALESH
Planar in fluences aren’t
influences aren’t the only supernatural
supernatura l force at
of the floating towers play in Khalesh. Glance across a Khalesh plain plai n and you
of Irian. may see what looks to be a giant bone projecting from
Khalesh is a land of temperate plains and desert—green the earth—a fallen column of something like polished
grassland fading into sunbaked plains and mesas. While ivory. The locals call
cal l these “dragon bones,”
bones,” saying they’re
it’s more hospitable
hospitable than neighboring Borunan, at a the bones of Eberron herself. But search further and
glance it’s rather barren—endless and empty. And yet,  you may find patches
patches of wall,
wall, foundations, oror even small
if you wander these plains, you may find yourself envel- buildings formed from this dragonbone.
dragonbone. It’s virtually
oped by a sense of well-being, a deep-rooted optimism, indestructible and seemingly immune to the passage
and the knowledge that all will be well … with an under- of time. In truth,
t ruth, this isn’t made
made from the bones of the
lying conviction that you’ll fight to keep it that way. earth; it’s a building substance used by the t he ancient
couatl, the most numerous of the native celestials of
PLANAR INFLUENCES Eberron. Khalesh is one of the places that the couatl
came into the world in the Age of Demons, one of the
Khalesh
Shavarath.is suffused
It is Irianwith
thatthe
fillsenergies
land’of
t he land’s
the Irian and
s people with opti- anchors where these immortals would reform if they t hey
mism and draws them toward the light. The influence  were destroyed. In a sense, it’s the celestial
celestial counterpart
of Shavarath is slower and more subtle, but over many to the Demon Wastes
Wastes of Khorvaire;
Khorvai re; a place suffused with
thousands of years, it produced a culture
cu lture determined lingering celestial power.
not only to embrace the light, but to battle the t he darkness. The humans of Khalesh built their cities on couatl
There are some patches where Syrania reaches through, foundations,
foundation s, and Khaleshite
K haleshite champions had visions of
 where the dominant
dominant mood is one one of peace. But for for the the celestial serpents and their greatg reat sacrifice to protect
most part, it's a realm that breeds hope and the willing-will ing- the innocent. The couatl graced the banner of Khalesh,
ness to fight for it … two things that are very ver y dangerous and its people took up their ancient battle against fiends.
for the Inspired. The Khaleshites drew on the power of the Silver Flame
Due to these influences
in fluences (and
(and that of the couatl dis- and embraced the call to fight supernatural evil. Irian
cussed below), the people of Khalesh were constantly inspired them with hope and the belief that they could
clashing with their neighbors. They fought supernatural build a better world. And Shavarath drove them to fight
threats, sometimes battling aberrations from Khyber, for that world—to push beyond the purely compassionate
destroying undead, or smashing extraplanar threats. But aspects of the Silver Flame and to use the sword to battle
they were unduly proud of their virtue, and the pervasive
per vasive mortal evil as well as fiends.
influence of Shavarath drove them to fight 
to  fight —to
—to look for The Khaleshite crusaders wielded
w ielded the power of the
flaws in the people around them. They fought the tyrants Silver Flame, but they didn’t call it by that name. They
of Nulakesh, clashed with the reavers of Rhiavhaar fall under what the Library of Korranberg has defined as
and the bandits of Sunyagir, and battled the beasts
be asts a “serpent cult”; their focus was purely on the celestial
of Borunan. In periods when they were at peace with couatl and their battle against the fiends. Precedent
Nulakesh, they would join forces to attack Ohr KaluunK aluun … suggests that the Khaleshites
K haleshites must have had their own
 which, to be fair,
fair, certainly deserved
deser ved it. equivalent of the Voice
Voice of the Flame,
Fla me, but few details of
So Khaleshite civilization
civili zation was built around constant the ancient champions remain.
conflict, blended with a sense of moral superiority and an
endless quest toward the light. Khalesh was a virtuous
THE FALL OF KHALESH
society, but all too quick to draw a sword when a compas- Khalesh was always deeply unpopular with its neighbors,
sionate
sionate word could better
b etter serve. so it wasn’t hard for the quori to harness that resentment.
 It’s up to the DM to decide just how wild the wild But they also had another card to play. Quori agents
zones of Khalesh are. Unlike the ogres of Borunan, the t he revealed that the noble families of Khalesh
K halesh had long
Khaleshites weren’t fighting a war in i n Shavarath. But it’s concealed a bizarre secret: that over untold generations
possible their capital city was in a wild
w ild zone tied to an of devotion to the serpent cult, Khaleshite champions had
actual projection of Irian, and Khaleshite emissaries regu- gradually become something inhuman. The Khaleshite
larly visited the Amaranthine City. Khalesh is also known leadership was riddled with shulassakar, a feathered
to have at least one wild zone tied to Syrania. This could form of yuan-ti tied to the couatl. While the shulassakar
 were devoted
devoted servants of th
the
e light, the quori
quori were able to
to

twist this through dreams and agents, convincing the

common people that the shulassakar were monstrous
NULAKESH
alien invaders—that they
they were
 were the fiends, and that the In Nulakesh, you might …
corrupted bloodlines of Khalesh
Kha lesh had to be completely • Try to convince an
exterminated. And exterminated they were, to a largela rge Edgewalker commander
degree. The Inspired largely depopulated the region and of the threat posed by the
leveled
leveled its cities—fortified citadels built in manifest zones Dreaming Dark.
tied to Irian and Shavarath. All couatl relics that
t hat could be • Steal planar research
found were destroyed, and records of the virtuous victo- from the arcane work-
ries of the Khaleshites were wiped from history. shops of Dar Mun.
• Destroy a Riedran
KHALESH TODAY resurrection facility.
The current inhabitants of Khalesh
K halesh are descended •  Venture
 Ve nture into the Iron
from people resettled from the forgotten nations of the  Ward of Daanvi,
Daanvi, a realm of
Syrkarn region. The modern people of Khalesh shun tyrannical devils.
the ancient ruins and
a nd know that the ancient people were
Long before anyone had dreamed of the Unity of
corrupted by the vile spirits
spir its in the region, and they are
Riedra, the Empire of Nulakesh was the most pow-
especially observant
obser vant in their devotion to the Path of
erful force in Sarlona. Beginning as a single city- state,
Inspiration. A few of the Kintam fortresses are built in
its legions conquered and assimilated the people of
manifest zones tied to Shavarath, but people are for-
the surrounding region, incorporating them into its
bidden to enter
enter the powerful wild zones, and these areas
 war machine. At its height,
heig ht, the Empire of Nulakesh
are patrolled by the Edgewalkers; all know that the
dominated much of what's now Pyrine and Dor
sense of hope one feels around these areas is the lure of
Maleer. The empire waxed and waned many times;
fiends trying to set hooks in your soul.
Khalesh has the potential to be especially interesting its current borders reflect the lands it held when the
Inspired rebellion finally wiped out the I mperial line
for any adventurers tied to the Silver Flame. The
at the end of the Sundering.
Khaleshite faith was closer to that of the Pure Flame
than to the modern Church of the Silver Flame; the PLANAR INFLUENCES
Shavaran influence drove them toward unnecessary
Nulakesh is strongly influenced by Daanvi and
 violence. But this
t his land still holds relics tthat
hat respond
Shavarath.
Shavara th. While the Khaleshites were urged by
to the touch of anyone who channels the power of the
Irian and the
t he Silver Flame to fight for the light,
Flame. There is surely a holy
a  holy avenger 
avenger  waiting
 waiting in a tomb,
the Nulakeshi were driven by war and order. This
and couatl artifacts might help a party
part y that needs to bind
drove deep martial instincts
insti ncts and an innate aptitude
demons or resist the power of the Lords of Dust. This
for martial discipline … a legacy that still lingers in
is also an opportunity
opportun ity to introduce new spells, feats, or
Karrnath
Karr nath today.
today. But the Nulakeshi genius for war was
archetypes; perhaps a connection
c onnection to a couatl or wisdom
all too often wielded by tyrants, as the influence of the
shared in an ancient scroll teaches a champion of the
Iron Ward shaped the Imperial line.
Silver Flame a new way to wield its power.
Nulakesh has many manifest zones tied to
There’s also
shulassakar theable
were question of whether
to survive any of purge.
the Inspired the Shavarath. These were the foundations of most of
the ancient city-states, and still are today; Nulakesh
 An unusual possibility is that in their last days, the
provides the bulk of the soldiers of the Harmonious
Khaleshites developed their own form of deathless,
Shield, and even Nulakeshi peasants engage in regular
similar to the councilors of the Undying Court. If I f so,
martial dr ills. However,
However, the region also has w ild zones,
there could be ascendant shulassakar,
shulassak ar, Khaleshite cham-
and these have been a danger throughout its history.
pions who survived the Sundering but who can’t leave
One of the Shavaran wild zones is connected to the
the wild zone that now sustains them.
layer known as the Warring Cities, but unlike the
KEEP IN M IND experience of the ogres of Borunan, there’s no role for
The energies that permeate Khalesh inspire
inspir e and provide mortals to play in this layer. Other zones don’t serve as
hope, but also urge war. The ruins of the couatl are actual portals to Shavarath, but they recreate its deadly
largely very ruined, having endured the full
ful l force of environs. All too often, these Shavaran wild zones have
both the overlords and the Inspired … though
t hough it’s always been the source of bloodshed or tragedy, with razor
possible there are some hidden subterranean sanctums storms or sword wraiths flowing beyond the borders of
 the zone to threaten the lands beyond.
that
own were
Voicenever
Voice of thefound.
SilverThe people
Flame;
F lame; of Khalesh
could that spirithad their
reach
re ach out The region’s
region’s Daanvian zones are less dramatic, but
to a modern follower of the faith, and if so, is it a purely they are largely tied to the oppressive layers of Daanvi.
positive power or does the influence of Shavarath make The ancient capital of the empire, the city
cit y of Nulakar,
it a dangerous threat? The current people of Khalesh are  was built in a zone tied to Daanvi’s
Daanvi’s Iron
Iron Ward. While
devoted to the Inspired and hard to sway, but could the there was no direct portal between
b etween the planes, accounts
touch of Irian lend hope to insurgents? suggest that more than one devil passed from Daanvi

into Nulakar, and that there was a time

t ime when the and there are surely many secrets to be discovered here
Nulakeshi emperors had fiendish advisors. and powerful eldritch machines.
There are only a few wild
wi ld zones tied to Dolurrh in The ruins of the Imperial Crypt
Cr ypt lie close to Dar Mun,
Nulakesh, but they are noteworthy. The Imperial Crypt, and they are heavily guarded by Edgewalkers. The
the royal necropolis, had curious powers of resurrection. Inspired have limited access to resurrection and largely
 When any form of magic
magic that returns life to the dead is don’t need it, because they simply employ new hosts;
used here, it only requires half the usual costly
c ostly mate- but it could be that the Inspired are working on new
rial components. In some cases, the dead interred here techniques,
techniqu es, trying
tr ying to transform this zone into a resur-
have spontaneously returned to life … though perhaps rection factory.
not with the same souls they began with. The other
noteworthy wild zone tied to Dolurrh is a stretch of fields KEEP IN M IND
known as the Gray; this region is suffused with the ennui The people of this region are both fiercely loyal to
of Dolurrh, and those who remain in it for long soon the Inspired and the most martially inclined of all
succumb to a deadly apathy. Riedrans. The widespread manifest zones tiedt ied to
Shavarath
Shavara th encourage aggression and can enhance
THE FALL OF N ULAKESH it in many ways, as detailed in Exploring
in  Exploring Eberr
Eberron.
on.  
Nulakesh was at a low point when the Sundering began. This region also has the highest concentration of
The Dreaming Dark began by firing fi ring up the people’
people’ss Edgewalkers, in part
par t because it has some of the most
imperial spirit, giving
giv ing the emperor and warlords dreams dangerous wild zones.
of regaining their past glories. The Sundering lasted
for generations, and the resurgent Nulakesh was just OHR K ALUUN
the beginning of their plans. It became a tool they used In Ohr Kaluun, you might …
to cripple surrounding nations—the force that fiercely
battled the foul serpent-people of Khalesh and brought
•  Work with the Dream
 Work
righteous fury to Ohr Kaluun. Along the way, the quori Merchants to enter
encouraged the emperors to indulge in ever-greater acts Riedra unseen.
of cruel tyranny
ty ranny,, and to work with their Daanvian devils
• Be hunted by a ruthless
(who were acting independently, with no idea of the role family of skulk assassins.
they were playing in the quori’s greater schemes). Even
• Search for a powerful
the stoic Nulakeshi had a breaking point … but as they artifact hidden in a
grew close to it, the first Inspired rose up, promising constantlyy shifting maze.
constantl
to overthrow the tyrants—whom they revealed to be
• Fight a cabal of wizards
 working with devils!—
dev ils!—and
and to lead the
t he people on the
t he preparing to unleash chaos on all of Sarlona.
true path of r ighteousness,
ighteousness, cleansing all the foulness The island kingdom of Ohr Kaluun may be the most infa-
from Sarlona. Once the Inspired of Nulakesh convinced mous nation in the history of Khorvaire.
K horvaire. Its lords were
their forces to unite with the I nspired-led armies of ruthless in their pursuit of supernatural power, commit-
Corvagura, the fate of the continent was sealed. ting countless atrocities in their quest for mystical might.
It’s thought that the first changelings were created in
Ohr Kaluun, and spread to Khorvaire in a wave of refu-
N ULAKESH
Nulakesh has TODAYbeen an important part of Riedra’
always Riedra’ss gees. Likewise, refugees from Ohr Kaluun are believed
strong foundation. It is the base of the Edgewalkers to be the ancestors of the humans found in the Carrion
and the primary
primar y source of the Harmonious Shield.
Shield. Its Tribes of the Demon Wastes.
people are happy to have a cause to fight for, and to the
degree that Daanvi is allowed to influence them, they PLANAR INFLUENCE
are more inherently comfortable
comfortable with tyranny
ty ranny in pursuit The influences of Xoriat, Mabar, and Kythri permeate
of order. However, the city of Nulakar is a shunned the islands of Ohr Kaluun, even beyond their manifest
ruin, and the
t he Edgewalkers patrol all of the dangerous zones and wild zones; the islands also hold lesser
 wild zones.
zones . The Inspi
Inspired
red remain
remai n ever aler t: they don’t manifest zones tied to other planes. These powerful
mind Daanvi instilling an appreciation for ordorder
er in their forces shaped the psyche of the Kaluunite people.
subjects, but they won't allow other immortals to influ- Mabar wiped away empathy,
empathy, drivi
driving
ng people to be cruel
cr uel
ence their people. and predatory. Kythri drove constant change, a quest
The Edgewalkers are based in the massive fortress- for innovation and endless emerging factions. And
 city of Dar Mun, which is poised between four wild zones
(including old Nulakar,
Nulakar, the Imperial Crypt,
Cr ypt, and two
Shavaran zones).
zones). In addition to being the primary
pr imary gar-
rison and training facility for the Edgewalkers, it holds
the finest arcane library
librar y and workshops in Riedra. The
Edgewalkers are allowed to study arcane magic, as they
must be prepared to fight any sort of threat. The Inspired
also conduct much of their planar research in i n Dar Mun,
 wielded astonishing powers but rarely passed
pa ssed their
knowledge on to future generations. The most
 widespread and
a nd consistent advancements in
i n Ohr
Kaluun were made by their warlocks and priests; the
lords of Ohr Kaluun were more than willing
will ing to make
dangerous bargains in exchange for the power that
they craved.
SHADOW LORDS
Throughout most of its history, Ohr Kaluun was ruled
by an alliance
all iance of Shadow Lords. In theory, these were
hereditary bloodlines, but in practice, the title was
held by whoever could claim power and hold on to it,
and feuds and uprisings were common. Ohr Kaluun
is well known for its war mazes, vast labyrinths that
served as both fortresses
fortresse s and cities. Each Shadow Lord
dwelled at the heart of a great maze, pursuing their
own paths to power and scheming against their rivals.
Each lord generally followed a different path to power,
and a maze would be devoted to to a particular
particu lar sinister
patron, whether that was a member of the Dark Six, an
overlord,
overlo rd, or an archfiend from one of the t he planes. While
there were a few Kaluunite lords knownk nown to have actu-
ally been loved by their people, the influences of Mabar
and Xoriat drove the Kaluunites to horrific excess and
cruelty. If you're
you're ever looking for an image of a classi-
cally evil cult, for people willfully embracing the service
of fiends or performing vile sacrifices,
sacrifice s, there are surely
tales of Ohr Kaluun that serve
ser ve that need.
WAR MAZES
Every war maze was built within
w ithin a manifest zone, and
the influence of each zone colored the practices and
achievements of its inhabitants. Evidence suggests
that both the skulks
skulk s and the changelings were created
in Ohr Kaluun, using magebreeding techniques that
surely drew on the power of Kythri. The influence of
 Xoriat led them
t hem to pursue paths
p aths of magic no rational
mind would conceive of. Thus, while Ohr Kaluun was
known for its warlocks, the Kaluunites dealt with
many different patrons; one maze might use the Fiend
patron to reflect bargains with native fiends, another
 would use thet he Great Old One to reflect dealing
dea ling with
 Xoriat, while
whi le another mi might
ght use the
t he Hexblade to reflect
bargains with the Dark Powers of Mabar. The priests
of Ohr Kaluun revered the Dark Six, but different
mazes had their own unique pairings,pair ings, names, and
interpretations
interpretatio ns of the Six.
 A critical
critic al aspe
aspect
ct of th
this
is chaotic history
hi story is that
almost any mystical approach could be found in
a Kaluunite war maze. We’ve never mentioned
Ohr Kaluun as working with the daelkyr or symbi- sy mbi-
 Xoriat inspired
in spired the
t he Kaluunites
Kaluu nites to pursue
pur sue strange
stra nge and
terrible visions, to attempt things no mundane mind
 would consider.
The people of Ohr Kaluun possessed advanced
forms of both divine and arcane magic. Thanks to
the influence of Kythri, they made countless break-
throughs in arcane science, but rarely maintained or
preserved these techniques;
techniques; thus Kaluunite
K aluunite wizards
THE FALL OF O HR KALUUN
The people of Sarlona always feared and hated Ohr
Kaluun, and Pyrine, Nulakesh, and Khalesh had clashed
 with the island in the past. Fear of Ohr Kaluun was a
common thread the quori used in stirring up conflict
across Sarlona; on the island itself, it was easy to
amplify the existing paranoia
para noia and feuds of the Shadow
Lords until it reached a breaking point. The Shadow
Lords had by
destroyed weakened one another
the combined forces long before they
of Nulakesh t hey
and were
Corvagura, united by their Inspired
I nspired champions.
OHR K ALUUN TODAY
 As with Khalesh, the Inspired were ruthless in their
cleansing of Ohr Kaluun.
K aluun. The vast majority of its people
 were simply slain. The war
war mazes were nearly impos-
sible to destroy, but were blocked off and shunned.
Riedra maintains a presence
pres ence on Ohr Kel, the largest
island of the train. Dar Kel is the sole bastion city in
i n Ohr
Kaluun; while it serves as a port, it’s primarily there
an to monitor
monitor the area, seeking to stop or at least reduce
the activities of smugglers and the Heirs of Ohr Kaluun
(dissidents who seek to recover dangerous power from
the ancient ruins). The Inspired are legitimately afraid of
Ohr Kaluun; they know that they don’t know what deadly
forces remain bound in the sealed mazes.
Ohr Kaluun is sparsely populated; aside from Dar
Kel, its legitimate inhabitants are mainly dedicated to
fishing, and they avoid the inland ruins. However, as an
area shunned by the Inspired,
I nspired, it’s a haven for smugglers
(including the faction known as the Dream Merchants)
and renegades.
There is only one place where the traditions of
Ohr Kaluun survive today: the Venomous
Venomous Demesne
of Droaam. The ruling families of the Demesne are
tieflings, the result of magebreeding and pacts made
by their ancestors. They possess the strongest warlock
tradition in Eberron and
a nd have built on the achievements
of the past; however,
however, long removed from the corrupting
influences of Mabar and Xoriat, they are ar e neither as cruel
nor as inventive as their ancestors.
KEEP IN MIND
The powers wielded by Ohr Kaluun are supposed to be
legitimately dangerous and frightening.
fr ightening. It’s not simply
that they were powerful warlocks and wizards, it’s that
their techniques were things rational people would
avoid. In some cases, Kaluunite powers may have had
a price in
i n blood or suffering. But it’s also possible that
they used spells or techniques that had unusual and
dangerous side effects, much
much like those discussed iin n
chapter 8, “The Dark Six.”
 onts—but there certainly could have been a Shadow  A secondary point is that anything is possible in Ohr
Lord who bargained with Belashyrra. Necromancy Kaluun. The Venomous
Venomous Demesne only preserved
preser ved the
 wasn’t a widespread practice
pr actice iin
n Ohr KKaluun,
aluun, but traditions of a single maze, and the Shadow Lords didn’t
didn’t
adventurers could be drawn into a war maze share techniques. There’s no telling what secrets are
 whose lord dealt
dealt with the Bone King of Mabar,
Mabar, and buried in these ancient labyrinths … but whatever
whatever they
 whose mummy still
sti ll rules
r ules over tthe
he deadly tomb. are, they’ll be dangerous and disturbing.

PYRINE
In Pyrine, you might …
• Explore one of the earliest
human shrines of the
Sovereign Host.
• Be granted a divine
 vision or entrusted with
a sacred artifact.
• Debate religion with
a priest of the
t he Path of
Inspiration.
• Discover a hidden library vault filled with ancient
knowledge.
Pyrine is a land of warm plains and forests, welcoming
both in its aspect and its aura. Something about Pyrine
Pyr ine
inspires calm reflection. When standing in a Pyrinean
meadow, it's easy to feel a sense of joy and contentment—
to know that somehow,
somehow, all is right in the world.

PLANAR INFLUENCES
Pyrine has strong ties to Ir ian, Daanvi, and Syrania.
The effects are strongest when people are close to a
 wild zone, but even
even beyond the zones,
zones, a general sense ofof
peace and well-being pervades the region. The people
of Pyrine
Pyri ne are naturally inclined to follow the rules and
avoid conflict; even where there are
a re problems, surely
they can be worked out.

THE PYRINEAN FAITH
Pyrine was never a conquering kingdom. It was a
nation of scholars and sages, and it shared its knowl-
edge freely with its neighbors; Pyrinean tutors and
advisors could be found in courts across Sarlona. But
there was one pillar that was even more important
than knowledge: the Sovereign Host. The form of the
Sovereign Host embraced by most Vassals of Khorvaire
is known as the Pyrinean Creed; this is because it was
established and codified in Pyrine. According to myth,
a Pyrinean shepherd stumbled into the First Library,
 where Aureon taught them the nature of the t he Host and
the basis of Aureon’s laws. True or not, the Pyrineans
 were people of deep conviction
convict ion and faith. They had
deep and detailed visions of the Host, cataloged in
countless scrolls; as a result, they also wielded remark-
able divine power, matched only by the crusaders
cr usaders of
Khalesh. But they never used their powers for war;
instead, Pyrinean priests traveled across Sarlona,
spreading the word of the Sovereigns and using their
gifts to help those in need.
Largely, Pyrine was left in peace by its neighbors.
The Vassal faith became common across Sarlona, and
 many people did see Pyrine as a blessed land with
a special connection to the Sovereigns. One notable
exception was Nulakesh; while many Nulakeshi
adopted the faith, several emperors used their faith as a
basis for invasion—“the blessed land must be protected
by the Empire, for the good of all!” There were also
periods where Pyrine was targeted by Rhiavhaarian
a tower in Syrania. If this is the case, there
t here may
be other portals to the First Library in Pyrine. Did
 Aureon truly
tru ly teach the first Vassal? Or was “Aureon” a
Dominion of Knowledge or a plane-traveling dragon?
KEEP  IN MIND
The most interesting question about Pyrine is why the
Sovereign faith was so strong there.
t here. Was it promoted
by angels from Irian and Syrania? Or is there some
deeper tie between the region and the faith? A Vassal
cleric or paladin could be drawn to Pyrine to reclaim
an ancient artifact, or adventurers in Sarlona for other
reasons might experience divine visions while passing
through Pyrine.
RHIAVHAAR
In Rhiavhaar, you might …
• Help Unchained dis-
sidents escape the
Thousand Eyes.
• Find an ancient artifact
tied to the legendary
Lhazaar.
• Search for an
ancient treasure
trove hidden in the
height of Rhiavhaar’s power.
• Deal with an archfey whose defining story has been
long forgotten.
The people of Rhiavhaar have always been the finest
shipwrights and sailors of Sarlona; but they weren’t
weren’t
simply merchants or fisherfolk. Long before
b efore their
descendants settled the Lhazaar Principalities—named
after the notorious Rhiavhaarian explorer—they were
known for their piracy. In general, Rhiavhaarians
Rhiavhaari ans were
seen as wild, capricious, and dangerous; “Rhiavhaarian
luck” was a common curse suggesting that fortune
favors a scoundrel.
PLANAR I NFLUENCES
Rhiavhaar has wild zones tied to Lamannia, Thelanis,
and Shavarath, and the influence of all three planes
can be seen in its history. The Rhiavhaarian knack
for sailing is due in part
par t to the unusual lumber har-
 vested from their Lamannia wild zones; Rhiavhaarian
ships have always been faster and more durable than
their counterparts in other nations. Beyond
Beyond this,
Rhiavhaarian sailors have long known tricks for finding
favor with wind and water. Some of these were tied to
Lamannia and a limited form of primal magic. Others O thers
 were tied to bargains with the fey,fey, whether the friend-
power, and feuds between
power, bet ween archfey often played out in
Rhiavhaar. While many of the t he champions of Rhiavhaar
could be considered to be Archfey warlocks, this tradi-
tion wasn’t as developed or understood as it was in Ohr
Kaluun; Rhiavhaarian
Rhiavhaar ian warlocks generally stumbled into
their pacts, and only a few wielded significant arcane
power.. The Rhiavhaarians
power Rhiavhaaria ns valued their connections to
their fey “cousins,” but they placed much of their
t heir faith
in strength and
a nd steel. As a result, many of the benefits
Rhiavhaarians received from the fey were closely
tied to location—and as such, were largely lost when
Rhiavhaarians crossed the seas to Khorvaire.
THE FALL OF RHIAVHAAR
 While it was never as despised as Ohr
Ohr Kaluun,
Rhiavhaar was also never loved by the people of
Sarlona. Internally, the Dreaming Dark exacerbated
the feuds between clans. Externally,
Externa lly, they fanned the
flames of those who desired vengeance for generations
of Rhiavhaarian reaving, and further convinced people
that the R hiavhaarian “cousins” were fiends, not fey.
RHIAVHAAR TODAY
Rhiavhaar serves
ser ves as the western hub for sea traffic,
and Dar Ulatesh is the legitimate port of entry for visi-
tors and merchants. While the region is firmly under
Inspired control, the people of Rhiavhaar aren’t as
devoted as their counterparts
counterparts in Nulakesh or Corvagura.
There is, perhaps, still a touch of fey wildness in the
Rhiavhaarian people. The Edgewalkers patrol the wild
zones, but they can’t cover all the manifest
mani fest zones tied to
Thelanis. Meanwhile, the various tools of the Inspired—
I nspired—
the Voice, the dreams, the remote viewing of the
Thousand Eyes—can be unreliable in these areas. Cells
of the Broken Throne or the Unchained often meet in fey
 woods or circles of stones,
stones, trusting the ancient powers
to shield them. Because of this dissident streak and the
region’ss role as the western gate, Rhiavhaar has a high
region’
concentration of soldiers and many active agents of the
Thousand Eyes. The Edgewalkers and the Thousand
T housand
Eyes are always watching for fey influence, and it’s a
dangerous place to be an Archfey
A rchfey warlock.
The Inspired continue to harvest lumber from a few
of the Lamannian wild zones, though these zones can
produce many dangers. Many of the region’s wild zones
are on the coast and extend into the water. Sailors who
don’tt know the reg
don’ region
ion can run afoul of endless storms,
megafauna sharks, fey curses, and other threats.
KEEP IN MIND
The Inspired and the
t he Edgewalkers have been largely
successful in containing the influence of the archfey
 ship of a minor mischievous sprite or a pact made with associated with the Rhiavhaarian
R hiavhaarian wild zones. However,
However,
an archfey. But adding to the touch of these planes, the this is a point of frust
frustration
ration for these fey, many of who
whom
m
influence of Shavarath has long driven the Rhiavhaarian  yearn to see their stories told once more—and want want
people to piracy and reaving, and anyone
a nyone who lived on revenge against the Inspired who have humiliated them.
the Sarlonan coast dreaded the sight of their sails. This could drive an adventure, perhaps by entering
 Alliances with the fey were a crucial part of Riedra through Thelanis, or just provide a source of
Rhiavhaar’s culture. The fey-favored families rose to unexpected assistance.

󰁮󰁥 󰁯󰁦 󰁴󰁨󰁥 󰁣󰁯󰁲󰁥 󰁣󰁯󰁮󰁣󰁥󰁰󰁴󰁳 󰁯󰁦 E󰁢󰁥󰁲󰁲󰁯󰁮 surrounds them … so if they decided to start moving, they

O
is that player
that player characters
characters are remarkable.
remarkable.  would leave a trail of utter devastation.
From the original Eberron
original Eberron Campaign So Eberron has evil entities that rival the power of
Setting onward,
Setting  onward, we’ve emphasized that gods of other settings … But should the overlords be
most NPCs are relatively low level—even released, there are no good
no  good forces of equal power that
those who wield significant political power.
power. In third
thi rd can face them. Given this, one might ask why the people
edition, it was common for these characters to use NPC of Eberron believe in gods at all. Simply put, the people
classes (warrior, magewright, adept) rather than player of Eberron don’t expect the Sovereigns or the Silver
classes such as fighter or wizard. And continuing in fifth Flame to manifest in the world; they expect these deities
edition, we’ve emphasized that spells of up to 3rd level are to guide and empower the mortals who face evil. The
common in the Five Nations, but those of 4th or 5th level Sovereigns defeated the overlords in the dawn of time and
are remarkable, and higher-level effects are legendary. then ascended to maintain reality. The Silver Flame is
However,
Howev er, this often leads to tthe
he mistaken assumption the prison that binds the overlords. These are vital tasks
that Eberron is a “low-level
“low-level setting”—that there are
a re no  worthy of respect
respect and worship.
worship. And again, should
should an over-
over-
real challenges for characters of 10th level and above. lord be released, people don’t expect Dol Arrah to appear
That was never the intent. Yes, the people of the Five to fight it. They expect a mortal champion to face it, guided
Nations are typically
typical ly low-level magewrights and com- and empowered by Sovereigns and Flame—which is
moners, and city guards in Sharn are low-level warriors. exactly what Tira Miron did when she battled Bel Shalor.
But when we designed the setting, we didn’t expect If these malevolent entities with godlike power rise again,
 your high-level characters to
to be fighting city guards in it’s up to you
to you to be the Tira Miron of this age.
Sharn! A comparison here would be The Hobbit . When
Smaug comes to Laketown, the Master of Laketown isn’t
a mighty champion who can fight him. All the soldiers
A WORLD IN NEED OF HEROES
EED
of Laketown are helpless against the dragon. Their only Eberron is always one bad day away from an apocalypse.
chance lies with a hero who can beat the odds and do the There are dozens
dozens of
 of overlords straining against their
impossible. And in Eberron, that’s
t hat’s you. The Lord Mayor bonds, plus thousands of lesser fiends in the world; most
of Sharn isn’t supposed to be able to beat you in a fight; fiends are trapped in places like thet he Demon Wastes,
Wastes, but
he’s the Master of Laketown, and his power isn’t about those allied with the Lords of Dust could be walking
being good at fighting. If you’re
you’re a high-level
h igh-level character,
character, the streets of Sharn right now, waiting for the momen
momentt
sure, maybe you can defeat all the guards in Daggerwatch to strike. The daelkyr and their
t heir minions crawl beneath
Garrison—but you’re not supposed to be fighting them! our feet, while the quori study our dreams. Perhaps
 Y
 You’
ou’re
re supposed to be the one
one who
who defends the city when tomorrow there'll be a new wave of lycanthropy. Perhaps
the tarrasque shows up and no one else can stop it. the Lord of Blades will lead a force of restored warforged
colossi against Korth. Perhaps the ancient vampires of
the Qabalrin will arise from their forgotten tombs. These
A WORLD WITHOUT GODS?
ODS
Eberron is also sometimes mistakenly described as a
things don’t happen every day, which is why the civiliza-
tion of the Five Nations still exists. But they could  happen
 happen
“low-level
“low-level setting” because gods don’t walk the world. any day, and that’s why the world needs heroes. Most
 While it’s true you can’t
can’t meet the gods in the flesh,
flesh, of the time, Laketown is perfectly
p erfectly stable and safe … but
Eberron does have overlords, the archfiends
a rchfiends who domi-  when the dragon shows up, the common peop people
le need a
nated the world
world at the dawn of time. In their original
origi nal champion. As a player character, you’re supposed to be
presentation in the third edition rules, overlords have remarkable, because there are
there are powerful malevolent forces
“divine rank” (a term used to compare relative power of and you may be the only one who can deal with them.
 various entities);
entities); they aren’t
aren’t gods, but they have
have the same
 power  as
 as gods in other settings.
Looking to the overlords’ fifth edition statistics, MIGHTY AND MALEVOLENT
 Eberron: Rising from the Last War War indicates that the Here’s a quick roundup of some of the most dangerous
avatar of a partially
part ially released overlord might have a CR of forces in Eberron.
 28 (with the side bonus of being immortal,
i mmortal, which means
that unless you do it properly
properly,, defeating them will only
F IENDS
incapacitate them for about a day). Meanwhile, a fully Fiends appear countless times in
i n Eberron’s
Eberron’s lineup of
unbound overlord
overlord can reshape
re shape reality over the space of powerful villains. In fact, once upon a time, Eberron was
an entire nation; one plausible theory for the cause of entirely dominated by them.
t hem. Eventually, the overlords
the Mourning is that it’s the side effect of an overlord’s  were bound,
bound, along with thetheir
ir most
most powe
powerful
rful foll
followers
owers …
release, and that the Mourning is just an aura that but some of their lesser minions escaped the Flame like

tiny fish slipping through a net, while others managed the puppeted host any special abilities; the fiend may
to escape over time as bonds
b onds weakened. As discussed be able to use a few of its own powers, such as innate
in chapters 13–15, most fiends (including overlords and spellcasting, while in
i n the host body.
rakshasas) have no interest in ruling over mortals. They're Transformation. The host is fully controlled by the
immortal beings of transcendent
t ranscendent powerpower,, and ruling
rul ing fiend. The host body has no special powers,
p owers, but at a
mortals is like babysitting deeply annoying children … suitably dramatic moment, the fiend can transform
t ransform
also, doing so risks starting a fight with the neighbors in the host into a replica of its fiendish form for a short
 Argonnessen. So fiends don’ don’tt try to rule
to  rule humanoids, but time—likely 1 minute. So when the adventurers
they are out there. They can appear any time it actually challenge the corrupt judge, he can become a full
serves the goals of the Lords of Dust. And they can appear nalfeshnee … until he’
he’ss defeated, at which point his
at other times—perhaps summoned by a foolish wizard, or body reverts to the battered form of a dead mortal.
 just a random
random fiend
fiend following
following their
their own agen
agenda.
da. In using any of these options, a key question is who can
Native fiends are the pure embodiment of evil and be possessed. If the host has to agree to possession,
of mortal fears. They are
a re most common in the Demon then things are relatively straightforward. If allies of the
 Wastes
 Wast es and similar places, but can be found anywhere adventurers can be possessed (or with a player’s consent,
in the world—and the more powerful that t hat adventurers perhaps even their player character),
character), then heroes will
wil l
become, the more chance they have of drawing the atten- have to find ways to protect their allies
all ies and to exorcise
tion of these beings or stumbling into their plans. While involuntary hosts instead of just smiting them. Protectio
them.  Protection
n
 we’ve
 we’v e always said that rakshasas are the most numerous numerous  from evil and
and good  is
 is an adventurer’s best friend!
native fiends, any 
fiends, any  fiend—devil,
 fiend—devil, demon, or otherwise—
could be spawned by Khyber. Native demons demons and native DISGUISED I MMORTALS
devils differ due to their embodiments of malevolent  According to Eberron canon, there are definitely
definitely dis-
concepts; all fiends embody pure evil, but demons reflect guised dragons and rakshasas around, using ancient
chaotic
tied ideas
to Rak while devils
Tulkhesh arean
will be more orderly. But
embodiment any and
of war fiend magic to hide from mortal eyes. This same principle
can be added to any fiend. Again, stat blocks provide
bloodshed, whereas
whereas any fiend tied to Sul Khatesh will a foundation, but nothing is stopping you from saying
embody secrets and the malevolen
malevolentt power of magic. that one particular erinyes can assume a perfect mortal
These native fiends don’t have the same vast hier- disguise. For example, instead of just saying “all fiends
archy as the immortals of the planes—after
planes—af ter all, they are are shapeshifters,” perhaps amulets can be created
the Lords of Dust 
of Dust . Their kingdoms
ki ngdoms fell a hundred thou- through blood sacrifice that let the fiend assume the
sand years ago, and they are the handful who escaped form of the mortal sacrificed. The erinyes can’t just
its destruction; they want to restore the Age
A ge of Demons assume the form of any
of any mortal; they can assume the
so they can go back to the way reality is supposed to be. form of one particular mortal, and only while they
t hey wear
But you can still play out immortal vendettas between the amulet … and that amulet
a mulet also shields them from
servants of different
d ifferent overlords. most divinations, showing them to be that mortal.
Now, fiends can be a powerful force, but you might say,
“I can’t just have a nalfeshnee randomly walking around ARTIFICIAL FIENDS
Sharn.” And it’s true that we don’t see fiends often in the Perhaps House Vadalis and Jorasco, working together,
 world. But
 world. But ne
never
ver fforge
orgett that the
the rules are a foundati
foundation
on ffor
or create a horrific monster with the power of a goristro—
us to build a story on; fiends don’t have to be bound by the a beast they can’t control that breaks free and starts
exact rules listed in their stat block. Here are a few sug- a terrible rampage. Perhaps Cannith creates a steel
gestions for slipping fiends, sight unseen, into your stories. marilith. These could be vessels for actual fiends, driven
by an immortal consciousness—or they could be entirely
POSSESSED M ORTALS artificial creatures that have the statistics of fiends, but
It could be that there
t here are more fiends in the world than don’t have their minds or motivations.
anyone knows—because they’re possessing mortal hosts.
If you want to take this approach, the first step is to ABERRATIONS
decide what forms possession can take. Again,
A gain, there’s no
Existing aberrations have their own roles in the world.
need to be limited to rules for possession that exist in the
t he
 A cult devoted to Belashyrra could be led by a beholde
beholder,
r,
current rules. Consider the following ideas …
 while aboleths scheme
scheme in the depths of the Th
Thunder
under
Observer. The fiend can’t control the host and doesn’t Sea. But the general concept of aberrations is that
 grant any powers to them, but it perceives everything they are things that should not be.
be. And aberrations
the host does and can push ideas into their sub- can appear anywhere.
any where. Yes,
Yes, the daelkyr have armies
ar mies of
conscious if the host fails a Charisma saving throw t hrow existing aberrations, and you could look at a source-
against that thought. Putting an observer in your game book for ideas on specific creatures and locations for
allows a fiend to gather information, but you can also  your adventure
adventure about the daelkyr … But the daelkyr
use it to explain weird shifts in behavior. can also create
cre ate new aberrations (as
(as can Mordain the
t he
 Vessel. The host is fully
fu lly controlled by the fiend, much Fleshweaver,, while others might be created spontane-
Fleshweaver
like the Inspired of Riedra.
R iedra. It’s up to you
you if this grants ously by the energies of Xoriat).

“NEW” A BERRATIONS MORTAL I NGENUITY

The point of aberrations is that they’re, well, aberrant. Eberron’s common people aren’t that tough. But that
They’re unexpected and unexplainable, so make them leaves room for uncommon people—peopl
people—peoplee like the
however you want and drop them wherever it suits player characters. The Lord of Blades. Mordain the
 your story. Do you want
wa nt your adventur
adventurers
ers to fight
fig ht an Fleshweaver. They were low-level characters once, and
aboleth in the sewers of Fairhaven, but you can’t think like the player characters, they have potential beyond that
of an explanation for how it got there? It could’ve been of the common folk. We say there aren’t many powerful
created by the daelkyr Kyrzin, fused from the ooze of benevolent NPCs, because that’s your job as player char-
the sewers
different wayand given
from foul life. I’d
a standard simply describe
aboleth—it’s it in a
translucent, acters. But there can easily be NPCs with however much
power the story requires; the point is simply to emphasize
formed from the same mucus that surrounds it, just that they are
they are remarkable. If you want Merrix d’Cannith
fused into a solid form. to have the abilities of a 20th-level artificer in your story,
Similarly, the slaadi may be natives of Kythri, but give him the abilities of a 20th-level
20t h-level artificer; just make
there’ss nothing stopping Dyrrn
there’ D yrrn the Corruptor from sure to call out how astonishing that is, and perhaps
creating a creature that
t hat uses the red slaad stat block, add details to emphasize that point. Maybe he’s actually
but that pursues the daelkyr’s agenda and doesn’t look transforming himself into a construct (in the style of the
anything like a red slaad. Again, stat blocks are a foun- old renegade mastermaker). Maybe he has embedded an
dation. There’s no reason a creature with the stat block ancient docent
ancient  docent into his forehead. He can be ridiculously
of a red slaad has to be either red or a slaad! It could be powerful, but he isn’t typical—it should be clear he’s just
a slimy green humanoid covered with tiny tentacles, and as remarkable as the player characters are.
it infects its victims by embedding one of those tentacles Even when you aren’t dealing with individual
 within
 withi n them. This
Thi s has the added bonus of confoundi
confounding ng “uncommon” NPCs, you can encounter “common”
players who have memorized the Monster
the Monster Manual  and
 and ones—magewrights, adepts—who
adepts—who create
create things
 things that
are baffled by this “Green Corruptor
Corr uptor”—even
”—even though you
though you   pose threats to high-level PCs. N PCs don’t don’t use tthe
he
know you just converted a red slaad. same rules as PCs, so they
t hey may be using rituals that
This same principle holds true for stat blocks that require multiple casters, that take years to complete,
 aren’t  aberrations.
 aberrations. A daelkyr could create a creature and so on—but they eventually accomplish things no
that uses the goristro stat block; just change its creature single wizard can do. Artificers
Art ificers can create constructs
type from Fiend to Aberration.
Aberration. After al
all,
l, nothing’s  with tremendous
t remendous power: just look at the war forged
stopping the daelkyr from creating anything. DyrrnDyrr n titans and colossi! As I suggested earlier, maybe Vadalis
could even create aberrant unicorns—it’s not a horn could create living weapons with the power of fiends …
projecting out, it’s their spine protruding out through only to find that they can’t actually control them.
their brain … Mortals may have even created the Mourning!
So you could say an artificer has created a suit of
UNDEAD armor that gives its wearer incredible power … just
consider giving the adventurers a compelling
c ompelling reason to
There are any number of high-CR undead
u ndead creatures
avoid putting it on after the villain
villa in is defeated (“because
that can pose challenges to high-level adventurers.
adventurers. At a it taps into your spine and kills you within three days”).
quick glance,
dracoliches,
dracolich you have vampires,
es, demiliches, mummy
death knights, andlords, liches,
so on…
chapter 16, “Ghost Stories of Eberron,” I discuss how
In PLANAR DANGER
 When you’re
you’re searching for high-level threats, you can
such creatures might appear. These forces could be tied
always leave the world behind and travel to the planes.
to the Lady Illmarrow and the Order of the Emerald
 Exploring Eberron provides
Eberron provides details about the thirteen
Claw, but they can just as easily be entirely unique. An
planes, and all
al l of them
t hem have options for high-level play.
ancient Qabalrin vampire may have come to Sharn and
Engage in dangerous wagers with an efreeti in Fernia.
started creating a network of vampire minions (and for
Fight alongside the Legion of Freedom in Shavarath.
a high-level games, those “minions” could be CR 13+
Try to free your city after it’s been claimed by Mabar,
 vampires,, with the
 vampires t he Qabalrin
Qabalr in elder bei
being
ng a far more
before it’s fully consumed by the Endless Night. Go to
powerful creature that I’d create for the campaign). A Daanvi to try
tr y to break someone out of the Inescapable
death knight could’ve been formed by its own tragic Prison. Research the location of Illmarrow’s
Il lmarrow’s phylactery
phylactery
backstory. A dracolich bound to Katashka could be by reading Minara’s diary in the Library of Dolurrh.
expanding its reach. The denizens of the planes usually have little interest in
 Undead
Undead can be especial
especially
ly handy in a campaign Eberron, but you
but you might be interested in accomplishing
because common people can become undead. So the something in the realms beyond.
adventurers could’ve
could’ve spent their low levels fighting a
group of criminals, and then as they
t hey reach tier 3, they AND S O O N …
discover the guildmaster they killed has returned
retu rned as
The above sections are just a starting
sta rting point. I haven’t
haven’t
a vampire—and both she and her minions are now far
discussed the dragons, the Dreaming Dark, the Heirs
more powerful than they were in life.
of Dhakaan, or artifacts—all of which could drive

higher-level adventures and serve as dangerous foes. exceptional enforcers—their own party of adventurers, if
The critical point
p oint is that even though most of Eberron’
Eber ron’ss  you will (they might even
even hire them from the Deathsgate
Deathsgate
population is low level, Eberron certainly
certai nly doesn’t lack  Adventurers’ Guild!).
high-level threats; and the people
p eople need you to face these Or perhaps Boromar has a transformative
t ransformative event
because city guards
gua rds can’t solve the problem on their that creates worthy high-level foes. They become lycan-
own. And as previously stated, the rules are a founda- thropes. Saidan becomes a vampire and transforms
tion that you can change to fit your story; you can give his lieutenants. They make a bargain with an overlord
disguise self  to
 to any fiend, or even use the
t he statistics of a and are possessed by fiends. So they continue to be a
marilith but make it an Aberration. threat, but they are a very different threat; as you have
become more powerful, they have too, in a way that feels
WITH GREAT POWER
ITH natural within the
t he story. Meanwhile,
Meanwhile, all of you are more
powerful than the common folk around you. You You are
 As characters grow in power,
power, do
do they outgrow the things exceptional, but your enemies are exceptional as well.
that make the setting unique? Once they’re fighting
fiends and liches, once they can do things that are GREAT RESPONSIBILITY
beyond everyday magic, doesn’t that just make Eberron
 When planning an epic campaign, my typical approach
like any other setting?
sett ing? Once they’re fighting overlords,
is to shift the story’s focus as the adventurers gain
how is it any different from fighting gods? Maybe your
power,, recognition, and
power a nd connections across the
t he world.
characters began as plucky orphans in Callestan dealing
Consider this campaign arc based around a Seeker
 with Daask and the Boromar
Boromar Clan; you enjo
enjoyy low-level
low-level
paladin player character; their starting character note
play, and you don’t want to clash with dragons and vam-
 was “I want to overthrow Kaius III, even though that’that’ss
pires. There are a few ways to approach this.
probably a terrible idea in the long run.”
r un.”
EVER ROW
ROW P
N  G  U
If you want a campaign where the city guard is always
is  always P ROLOGUE (Lare
The adventurers
EVELS  1–4)
on an a irship to Stormreach. They
airship
a threat, simply don’t
don’t advance your characters to higher
hi gher have to foil a skyjacking, but despite their success, the
levels. Decide what the maximum level for the campaign ship passes through a manifest zone into Lamannia
 will be, then use milestone advancement.
advancement. It’s
It’s good to and crashes. The adventurers must work together
together,, both
allow characters to advance in some
some way
 way so there’s
there’s a to help the other survivors and
a nd to find a way to escape
sense of progression and players don’t get bored, but Lamannia. This brings the characters together, as only
there are many ways to handle that. Here are some ideas: they have the skills required to succeed.
Feats. Yo
 Youu could grant characters re
relatively
latively minor ADVENTURERS (
 (L
L EVELS 5–1
 5–100)
mechanical boosts by giving extra
extr a feats instead of
Having made it to Stormreach, each character has a few
class levels. This gives them
t hem new options and capabili-
hooks to explore—but they need allies, and they don’t
don’t
ties, but doesn’t increase their hit points
p oints or give them
know anyone in town. Some of the challenges they face
access to spells beyond the reach of everyday magic.
are local intrigues (drawing them into the schemes of the
Favors. Instead of granting magic items, let the party
Storm Lords and the Kraken), and others are action (one
earnarrested
 are favors from powerful
by the people;
city guard, thatwhen
favorthey eventually
the captain character wants to find the crown of the last emperor of
Dhakaan). Along the way, they grow more powerful—
owes them might be more useful than a +1 sword !
both in their abilities and personal
pers onal connections. The
Responsibilities.  Give characters new territory, new
key piece is that the Karrn player character needs to
titles, and new responsibilities—these add to the sense
 win the loyalty of the Blades of
of Karrn, who'll serve as
of story progression even if they
t hey rarely gain a level.
their core force in their campaign against Kaius.
For example,
example, I played in a campaign where the adven-
turers were professional ratcatchers.
ratcatchers. We started at 3rd REBELS (LEVELS 11
 11–16
–16))
level … and we stayed 3rd level for the entire campaign.
ca mpaign. The scene shifts to Karrnath. To achieve the paladin's
Instead of leveling up, we made connections and we goal— not just of killing Kaius but of claiming the
earned improvements for our business (Sewer maps! crown—the action must shift to a much higher level. The
 A superior toxin
toxin kit!). We were never
never going to go from adventurers are powerful enough to easily kill dozens of
being ratslayers to being dragonslayers, and we knew
k new it. Karrnathi soldiers, but that won’t win them the loyalty
of the common people. They instead need to negotiate
 LEVEL UP THE O PPOSITION  with warlords, inspire
inspi re commoners, use the all
allies
ies they
Maybe you want to level up, and
up, and you
 you want to
to keep made in Stormreach, make dangerous bargains with
fighting the Boromar Clan, and
Clan, and you
 you don’t
don’t want them dragonmarked houses, and unwisely accept help from
to become irrelevant because of your newly magnified Lady Illmarrow. Furthermore, they need to identify
power.. No worries: have them evolve with you. This
power T his and eliminate
elimin ate Kaius’s hidden weapons. When they do
doesn’tt mean all
doesn’ al l Boromar standard enforcers have to fight, they aren’t fighting common soldiers, but Kaius’s
be 7th-level rogues. But Boromar might have a team of greatest champions—bone knights, Rekkenmark para-
gons, and strange things created during the Last War.

Finally, they face Kaius, but only at the end of a long

road of diplomacy and investigation.

RULERS (LEVELS 17–20)
To the adventurers’ dismay, it turns out Kaius was
somehow
someh ow preventing Illmar
Illmarrow
row from exerting control
over the Karrnathi undead. With his downfall, Illmarrow
turns Karrnath’s
K arrnath’s legio
legions
ns of undead against the living.
She cares nothing for who rules Karrnath—she just
 wants massive casualties to fuel
fuel her rituals. Karrnathi
Karr nathi
undead might not be a threat to high-level player charac-
ters, but the adventurers can’t personally destroy tens of
thousands of them; time is in short supply
supply,, and the death
count grows with every hour.
hour. The adventurers need to
direct the forces they’ve amassed and allies they’ve
t hey’ve made
made
as effectively as possible to slow down the undead apoca-
lypse while they find the real answer.
They face Illmarrow’s champions at the sites that
are crucial to her ritual—champions including mummy
lords, death knights, and liches. They must find
Illmarrow’s phylactery—which is so well hidden even
she doesn’t
she  doesn’t know where it is—and destroy it. Then
they must face Illmarrow herself and defeat her. But

even
party in defeat,
must it’sgo
finally possible her ritual
to Dolurrh itself,might
eitherwork. The
to destroy
Illmarrow once and for all … or perhaps to guide her
onto a positive path as the new Queen of the Dead. And
even after all that, the adventurers must restore order to
Karrnath. There, they must not only deal with the after-
math of the undead attack, but with the very real threat
that that one or more of the Five Nations will take advan-
tage of Karrnath’s weakness, especially if the players
 

U NSE L   
UNSEAL NCIENT   
ANCIENT ARCHIVES
RCHIVES
Join Eberron setting creator Keith Baker for another journey across the realms of
Eberron, from the trackless void of the Astral Plane to the unknown depths of the Barren
Sea. Chronicles
hronicles of Eberron takes
takes a dee perr dive into Keith's vision of Eberron, with
deepe
expanded mechanics and detailed illustrations that bring the world to life.

This companion to Exploring Eberron contains

contains lore and new options for players and
Dungeon Masters alike. Play a Tair
Tairnadal
nadal champion with the Oath of Veneration, explore
the mysteries of the Dark Six with the Aspiration Domain, or—if you dare—wield the
forbidden magic of the Shadow. Learn more about the nobility of Khorvaire, the people
of Riedra, and the stormsingers of Lorghalan. Face deadly new foes,
f oes, from the daelkyr
Avassh and Mordain the Fleshweaver to the infamous Grim Lords of Farlnen!
Farlnen