Sanctum Library: Eberron

The Sanctum

Inside Alustriel's Sanctum library, the group uncover the following information on the world of Eberron:

A Scribe's Compendium of Eberron
As compiled by Scribe Kaelen of the Clifftop Library, Sharn

The World of Eberron: A Foundation of Dragons

To truly grasp our world, one must first look to the sky. Not to the sun, but to the great ring that circles our planet, a river of shining rock and crystalline fragments. That is the Ring of Siberys, the Dragon Above. The world itself, the very earth we stand upon, is Eberron, the Dragon Between. And the deep, abyssal realm within the planet is Khyber, the Dragon Below. This ancient creation myth, though debated by some who prefer the Sovereigns, is the foundation of our reality. The Progenitor Dragons gave birth to the planes, the mortal races, and the very forces of magic that now shape our society.

The skies of Eberron are a source of great prophecy and a beautiful spectacle. We're not graced with just one moon, but twelve, each with its own colour, name, and purported influence. This is a world of "wide magic." Unlike the high-fantasy realms of myth, we don't see archmages conjuring forth new planes of existence on a whim. Instead, magic is a commonplace utility, a part of everyday life. A common magewright can mend a broken tool or light a streetlamp with a simple cantrip. This isn't a world of grand sorcery, but of arcane innovation, where magic is a science, and the Dragonmarked Houses are its grand corporations.

Eberron & The Ring of Siberys

The Dragonmarked Houses: Pillars of Industry

The Dragonmarked Houses aren't nations, nor are they a unified front, but rather thirteen immensely powerful dynasties that function as multinational corporations. They hold monopolies on specific industries across the continent of Khorvaire, and their power often rivals, and in some cases, surpasses, that of the nations themselves.

The true source of their influence lies within the dragonmarks themselves. These are intricate, mystic sigils that appear on the skin of certain individuals from specific bloodlines. They are an inherited trait, and a mark’s appearance grants the bearer innate magical abilities tied to their House’s specialty. A member of House Jorasco with the Mark of Healing, for example, can heal wounds with a touch. An heir of House Cannith with the Mark of Making can mend an object with a thought.

Dragonmarks & Crests

The Last War: The Century of Fire and Folly

The Last War was a brutal, hundred-year-long conflict that redefined the continent of Khorvaire. It began not with a sudden cataclysm, but with a slow, grinding dissolution. For over a thousand years, the continent had been united under the glorious banner of the Kingdom of Galifar, founded by the visionary King Galifar I. It was a golden age of prosperity and peace, but the seeds of its destruction were sown with the king's death.

The war's first shots were fired not on a battlefield, but in the court of Galifar. When the king died, his five surviving children each had a legitimate claim to the throne. Instead of a peaceful succession, the royal siblings refused to yield their power. Each child was a viceroy of one of the kingdom's five great provinces, Cyre, Aundair, Breland, Karrnath and Thrane.

What began as a political squabble quickly devolved into a series of small skirmishes, which then escalated into a full-blown war of succession. The five provinces declared themselves independent nations, and the conflict raged on for generations, consuming fathers and sons, mothers and daughters. The war was fought with a chilling mix of traditional warfare and arcane innovation. The Dragonmarked Houses, initially bound by ancient oaths, were soon drawn into the conflict, selling their services and goods to the highest bidder and profiting immensely from the bloodshed.

The nature of the war was one of constant stalemate and shifting alliances. No single nation could gain a decisive advantage for long. The war wasn't a heroic struggle, but a cynical, drawn-out affair fought in muddy trenches and across blasted landscapes. It saw the rise of new technologies and terrible weapons such as the warforged. Living constructs, created en-masse by House Cannith to serve as soldiers. They were tireless, fearless, and felt no pain. House Cannith's warforged were supplemented by arcane weaponry of unprecedented scale, from magical cannons that fired bolts of pure energy to floating siege towers. While now used for commerce, the elemental airships of House Lyrandar and lightning rails of House Orien were first conceived to move troops and supplies with breathtaking speed, turning the logistics of warfare on its head.

Cyre's most ambitious project was the creation of the colossi, massive war machines built to turn the tide of the war. Colossi were the largest living constructs ever built, towering over battlefields and armed with devastating siege weaponry. They were essentially walking fortresses, each powered by a bound elemental and piloted by an elite crew of warforged and Cyran magewrights.

The war’s most pivotal, and final, event was the Day of Mourning. On that fateful day, the century-long struggle came to an abrupt, terrifying end as the heartland of Cyre was utterly consumed in a magical cataclysm. The remaining nations, horrified by the sheer destructive force on display and fearing a similar fate, finally came to the negotiating table. The Treaty of Thronehold was signed, officially ending the war and recognising the sovereign independence of the major nations of Khorvaire.

The legacy of the Last War is ever-present. Nations distrust one another, borders are heavily guarded, and old grudges simmer beneath a fragile peace. The war’s conclusion left a fractured, paranoid world, where heroes are hard to find and the scars of a hundred-year conflict are visible on every face.

A Warforged and Lightning Rail

The Human Condition: A Weary, Cynical Age

The people of Khorvaire, particularly the humans who bore the brunt of the Last War, live in a world steeped in a weary cynicism. The ideal of a unified kingdom, the great empire of Galifar, has been shattered. A century of brutal conflict, espionage, and betrayal has left its mark on the collective psyche. This isn't a world of clear-cut heroes and villains, but of shades of gray, a moral ambiguity that permeates every level of society. The heroes of this age aren't knights in shining armour, but often flawed individuals—spies, private detectives, and ex-soldiers—who operate in the morally gray spaces between the law and the underworld.

The class divisions are stark, exacerbated by the war's economic fallout. While the Dragonmarked Houses and powerful nobles prospered, the common folk struggle. The lower classes, especially in urban centres like Sharn, are crammed into squalid districts, living a hand-to-mouth existence where crime and desperation are rampant. The vast majority of the population lives in constant struggle, a stark contrast to the glittering spires of the privileged few.

This is made worse by the continent-wide refugee crisis. Countless people were displaced by the war, their homes destroyed and their lives uprooted. The most numerous and pitiable are the Cyran refugees. They are people without a country, living in sprawling camps on the borders of Breland and other nations. The other nations of Khorvaire, suspicious and weary from the war, have shown little willingness to provide them with a new home. They are a forgotten people, often living on the fringes of society, facing prejudice and poverty.

The war's legacy also includes the warforged, who are now a free people but a people without a home. The Treaty of Thronehold granted them their freedom, but it did not grant them a place in society. Forged for war and built by a now-shunned House, they face widespread discrimination. Many see them as dangerous, unemotional automatons, or as walking reminders of the long and terrible war. They are often exploited for cheap labour, as they do not require food, drink, or sleep, making them ideal for hazardous and exhausting work. They are a minority that must fight for its very place in society, and many find themselves lost without the purpose for which they were created.

The Mournland: The Scourge of Khorvaire

The Mournland is the most terrifying and poignant scar left by the Last War. It's the former nation of Cyre, a nation often referred to as the "Jewel of the Kingdom." They were a people of great artistry, elegance, and progressive thought, a culture that embraced innovation and beauty. That all ended on the Day of Mourning, an event that remains the single greatest tragedy in living memory.

At a moment with no recorded cause or warning, a magical cataclysm of impossible scale swept across the entire nation, utterly annihilating it. The once-bustling cities, lush forests, and fertile farmlands of Cyre were transformed into a silent, dead-gray wasteland. The very fabric of reality was warped, and a clinging, sickly mist now perpetually shrouds the land.

The Mournland is a place of profound and unnatural stillness, a cemetery on a national scale. It's a land of paradoxes and bizarre, static dangers. Rivers are frozen in mid-flow, their waters turned to solid glass. Trees are petrified and twisted into screaming, inhuman shapes. Buildings stand half-melted, their stone and steel fused into grotesque new forms. Magic itself behaves erratically here. Spells can backfire, produce unexpected effects, or simply fizzle out. Wild magic zones exist where the laws of arcane physics are utterly broken.

The few living things that can be found are horribly mutated and malevolent. Warforged, who were caught within the blast, are the most common inhabitants, some driven mad by the cataclysm, others simply wandering without purpose. The few creatures of the Mournland are twisted abominations, some of flesh and metal, fused together by the arcane energy of the Mourning, while some may be living spells, magical effects cast at that fateful moment that have gained a terrible, twisted consciousness. 

Approaching the Mournlands

The City of Sharn: A Vertical Metropolis

The City of Towers. The City of a Thousand Eyes. Sharn is built on a manifest zone tied to the plane of Syrania, the Azure Sky. This gives rise to the magical levitation that allows our city's towers to reach higher than any spire in Khorvaire. The city is a marvel of architecture and a labyrinth of social strata.

The Upper Wards: Here, in the clouds, the wealthiest citizens reside. The spires of Central Plateau, the diplomatic envoys of Tavick's Landing, and the elegant entertainment of Skyway are home to nobles, scions of the Dragonmarked Houses, and powerful merchants.

The Middle Wards: The heart of the city, a bustling hive of commerce and industry. Here you'll find the markets of Dura, the academic halls of Menthis Plateau, and the bustling trade districts where business is conducted and intrigue flourishes.

The Lower Wards: The underbelly of Sharn, where the towers are close-set and the sun rarely shines. These wards, such as the shadowy alleys of the Lower Dura and the industrial Cogs, are home to the poor, the desperate, and the criminal elements that make Sharn so dangerous and so vibrant.

The City of Sharn

The Goblinoid Metropolis: Rhukaan Dral

While Sharn is a symbol of human ingenuity, across the continent lies a city that represents a resurgent past. Rhukaan Dral is the capital of Darguun, the nation carved out by the hobgoblin warlord Haruuc during the Last War. Once a minor Cyran town, it has been transformed into a sprawling metropolis, a patchwork of old Cyran structures, ancient Dhakaani stonework, and newly erected goblinoid tenements.

Rhukaan Dral is a far cry from the orderly spires of Sharn. The roads are unpaved, the architecture is a crude and impressive mixture of styles, and the "Bloody Market" is a place where the haggling can lead to actual bloodshed. It's a city of warriors and opportunists, a sanctuary for criminals and a clear demonstration of the hobgoblin claim to their ancestral lands. It serves as a stark contrast to the modern kingdoms of Khorvaire, a reminder that the old ways still hold sway in the world.

Rhukaan Dral

Docents: The Living Archives of Xen'drik

Among the many peculiar magical artifacts of Eberron, few are as enigmatic as the docents. These small, smooth metal spheres are typically found in the ruins of the shattered giant civilization on the continent of Xen'drik. It is believed they were a creation of the giants, or perhaps even a race that predates them, and were used as a form of repository for knowledge or as a kind of companion.

When a warforged attunes to a docent, the sphere mystically embeds itself within the warforged's body, often in the chest. A docent is a sentient magical item, but not one of raw power. Its primary function is to serve as a conduit of knowledge, capable of communicating telepathically with its warforged host. Docents typically know the Giant language and Common, and can absorb new languages with remarkable speed. They act as a living archive, and can provide a warforged with insights, translations, and historical context. The relationship between a warforged and its docent is a unique and often personal one, as the docent's personality, and its willingness to cooperate, is entirely its own.

While most magical items require a standard attunement process, docents possess a unique property that allows them to function as a key to other ancient artifacts. It is a little-known fact that some magical items from the Age of Giants—weapons, armour, and even wondrous items—were designed to only function for a creature attuned to a docent. This is not a simple attunement in the common sense; rather, the docent acts as a "master key," unlocking the latent abilities of the item. For example, a warforged might find a maul crafted by the giants. While a normal creature could wield it as a mundane weapon, a warforged with a docent attuned to them might find the weapon's true power unleashed—it might glow with arcane energy, become a bane to giant-kin, or even gain the ability to cast spells. This synergy suggests that the docents were not just tools for information, but were a crucial part of an ancient, lost magical network.

A Docent