Eberron is the newest setting for Dungeons & Dragons. It's a Dungeon Punk setting influenced by pulp serials, Indiana Jones and Film Noir, as opposed to classical High Fantasy. Eberron has taken a different path compared to most D&D settings in that it averts and subverts most classical D&D tropes (Color-Coded for Your Convenience for example).The setting focuses on the continent of Khorvaire, which has just concluded a hundred-year long war between five nations that has left a once-unified kingdom shattered. But even though the articles of peace have been signed, everyone knows that the enmity still lingers, and a new Cold War is being fought in the shadows of the four remaining thrones. The world of Eberron is full of Chessmasters, from the lowly mob boss that wants to rule the underworld of his city to an entire race of extraplanar Eldritch Abominations that have used a century-long Xanatos Gambit to bring an entire country (and not a small one) under their control. And above of all this is the mysterious Draconic Prophecy and those who seek to control it; and by extension, the very fate of Eberron itself. Cue the Big Damn Heroes.Eberron was the result of the 2002 setting search conducted by Wizards of the Coast. The winner was Keith Baker's Eberron. When Eberron was announced there was an outcry against it due to its unconventional nature, though this seems to have mostly subsided.The following works taking place in the Eberron setting have their own pages:
Adventure Guild: There are a few, such as the Clifftop and Deathsgate guilds in Sharn.
Adventurer Archaeologist: An archetype you can use while designing your next character. Common enough to be mentioned every now and then in sourcebooks.
Alien Sky: 13 minus 1 moons and a ring composed of Siberys dragonshards. Which makes this a Crapsack World if you're a lycanthrope, since there's at least one full moon every couple of days.
Always Chaotic Evil: Averted. Eberron is very flexible when it comes to alignment. There is a trustworthy, non-evil fiend in the setting.
For example, Orcs are much more spiritual in Eberron- Their druidic sect is responsible for keeping the Daelkyrsealed in their can, if you will.
The setting handbook does indicate the existence of neutrally-aligned mind flayers and/or beholders, though these are usually Lawful Evil instead of Chaotic Evil. Interestingly, the alignment listed for daelkyr is "usually neutral evil," which means that technically there can be good daelkyr.
Amalgam Of Souls: The Silver Flame is the amalgamation of couatl souls. They sacrificed themselves to bind the Rakshasa Rajahs and other forces of Khyber. The Faithful believe that they will become a part of the Silver Flame after death. There's also a Rajah soul in there too. Uh-oh.
Arch-Enemy: The Eberron books and adventures have a few of these.
Arc Number: Everything important follows the pattern of there being 13 of them with one lost/evil/destroyed.
You want to know where that came from? Baker's Dozen.
Arm Cannon: Warforged have this little friend called "Armbow."
They also have the Wand Sheath, which might be better, as it can shoot (among other things) 10-foot-diameter fireballs and 60-foot bolts of lightning instead of just wimpy little crossbow bolts. Though you could put some supplements to work and create an infinite-ammo armbow that shoots explosive crossbow bolts to really have some fun with it...
Authority Equals Asskicking: Mostly averted. Keith Baker himselfclaims, "The general premise in Eberron is that influence does not equal personal physical power. Typically, the king won't be the mightiest warrior in the kingdom (Boranel aside)." And many groups like the Aurum have their power based on money and influence rather than personal power. However, the trope is played straight in the following instances:
Jaela Daran, normally a 3rd level character — gains the powers of an 18th level Cleric within the walls of Flamekeep simply by virtue of being the head of the Silver Flame church. To top it off, she is eleven years old. YOU READ IT RIGHT, AN ELEVEN YEAR-OLD CHILD IS STRONGER THAN YOUR INITIAL PC.
The talking tree Oalian is the leader of the Druid sect called "The Wardens of The Woods" and is a level 20 Druid, making him the highest level character whose level is explicitly revealed in the campaign guide (Erandis Vol has templates that give her a higher effective character level, but that only matters for XP).
In 4E, the Lord of Blades is now level 21. They also retained the whole "level 11 is legendary status" thing, so that makes him even more awesome.
An article in Dragon Magazine had statistics for one of the rakshasa rajahs, the fiends the Lords of Dust hope to free (or siphon power from). In a campaign setting where level 10 is considered masterful and level 15+ legendary, the rajahs are level 60. Make note that 20 is the traditional level cap of the system, and though supplemental rules do allow for and support higher levels, these officially only go up to level 40 for PCs. This puts them literally on par with gods who rarely have more than 60 levels, and only a few are even that high.
And let us not go without mentioning the city of Io'lokar in Argonnessen. A city built of five tiers, each tier with more and more powerful residents. The lowest level tier has an average level for its resident (in 3.5e) of between 8 and 11. That's right. The Lord of Blades is level 12, and the lower to lowest residents of this city can make him sweat. That doesn't even get into the next tiers, which go from 12-15, 15-17, 18-19, and 20+. And the high council that runs the city ranges from high level to epic level in scope. One of the NPCs on the council has twenty-nine levels to his name. 29. He may just be the highest-level character around short of the Rakshasa Rajahs themselves. Woe betide the adventurer, or party of adventurers, who thinks they can attack this city. It's perhaps best for everybody else in Eberron that the residents have little to no interest in the outside world.
Badass: The Valenar Elves. Elves of the "Sociopathic Klingon Riders of Rohan Vietcong Vikings with Scimitars" variety.
The dinosaur-riding halflings, who held their own in war against Karrnathi undead armies and the aforementioned Valenar Elves. At the same time. We are FAR from the Tolkien-esque Hobbits here.
Bad Powers, Bad People: People with aberrant dragonmarks, to some extent. The powers they gain vary widely, but on the whole tend to be associated with madness, fear, anger, illness, plague, and fire; and their bearers are hunted ruthlessly by all of the dragonmarked houses, which basically form the basis of industry on Khorvaire... so perhaps it's not surprising that they turn out to be villains, madmen, pyromaniacs, and members of aberrant-founded House Tarkanan. The books point out that Tarkanan has a good point however, and the founders were pretty nice people.
Base on Wheels: Argonth, a hovering fortress. Apparently there are two, but as Argonth is the more famous and the other one, Dejarn, is a mystery even in-universe.
Battle Boomerang: Eberron has more boomerangs and goodies than other settings.
Berserk Button: Vadis nia, meaning "disgracer of the blood," is THE worst insult in the culture of the Valenar elves.
Big Bad: The Dreaming Dark, the Daelkyr, the rakshasa Rajahs, and Vol are some of the most common, but there are a lot of forces out there that can be story-spanning antagonists if rubbed wrong. Even some of the supposedly nice ones, as Secrets of Argonnessen tells us.
Bishounen Line: Daelkyr, the ultimate rulers of the plane of madness, lords and creators of monstrosities such as beholders and mind flayers, resemble "perfectly formed athletic human males, possessing unearthly beauty." Well... mostly. They don't actually have certain characteristics necessary to be considered 'male', after all...
Word Of God is that the Daelkyr aren't the worst creatures Xoriat has to offer- just the worst that have any interest in the mortal world. Also, we shouldn't think too closely as to why the ultimate EldritchAbominations are so humanlike...
The Dragon Below trilogy has a Khyber cultist encounter a daelkyr, and he contemplates some of his cult's lore: "They have no flaws except those that they choose to have..." That particular Daelkyr was called the Master of Silence, and had no mouth.
Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The dinosaur names—"clawfoot" for velociraptor, for instance. In a world where Latin and the like doesn't exist, and science has a lot more mysticism in it, it's no wonder that no-one calls a dinosaur a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Canon Welding: You can connect to other settings via the World Serpent Inn.
Came Back Wrong: When Dollurh is coterminous resurrection spells might give you unexpected results...
Can't Argue with Elves: Averted. Some Elves, however, such as the Valaes Tairn, might get violent about it.
The Undying Court is still a good source of information and obscure lore, even if they do mostly have a non-interference directive and don't really care about the rest of the world.
Capital City: Sharn and Stormreach, though neither is an actual seat of government.
Character Alignment: Corrupt Clerics of good religions and Good Clerics of evil religions can still cast spells as long their faith is strong enough. Unlike normal D&D, which has a "one-step rule" for clerics.
While the Church of the Silver Flame is based on noble ideals and the binding of evil supernatural beings, the powerful rakshasa rajah bound under Flamekeep is said to whisper ideas into the minds of the faithful, misguiding them to do evil in the name of good.
Let's start by the obvious: the mainland for humans, Khorvaire, has just got out of a hundred years war. Do you remember how devastated Europe was after the world wars? Yeah...
It got a lot more than just this, though. Remember the dragons? Well, they are not color-coded for your convenience anymore. Metallic dragons can be evil. And even good dragons won't blink before killing you. They will just make sure you don't feel pain. The real problem? They control a continent. A. WHOLE. CONTINENT.
But Wait, There's More! Daelkyr, the embodiment of madness itself, want to rule everything that is above the ocean. Although they are a Sealed Evil in a Can, they are just waiting for the seal to get loose for them go after everything. And did we mention that the organization that keeps them sealed is in decline?
Another threat is the Quori, the lords of the dream. Omnipotent on their plane, they want to extend their domains to the rest of the planes. And they already have spies in every nation of the world. And they also control a large country. The kicker? They've made it so that their human slaves like it.
Let's not forget the Lords of Dust who scheme to free the demonic rakshasa rajahs from imprisonment, and the Aurum and... let's just say Eberron is screwed.
But, wait, it gets worse! In 3.5, it's confirmed that people who die end up wasting away to Oblivion in the afterlife that is Dollurh. 4E is a bit nicer, leaving a few exit strategies (one of which requires one to side with the Silver Flame, which unwittingly BEARS A LORD OF DUST). So ya see, even if you die, you're still doomed. Creates the idea that the Blood of Vol and the Undying Court are right.
The Chessmaster: So, so many. Hell, there's an entire nation of Chessmasters! To say that trying to outwit their Secret Police is akin to robbing a police station.
Creating Life: House Cannith did this and created the Warforged. Things went better than expected.
Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Silver Flame, led by Jaela Daran, is based strongly on the Roman Catholic Church.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Grafts. Some of them are biological symbiotes that try to take control of your body. Or make you go evil and Ax Crazy.
Damaged Soul: When Dollurh is coterminous, this might happen.
Darker and Edgier: Ultimately averted. Despite the myriad ways things could go wrong, there is still hope.
Dark Is Not Evil: What in most settings would be a "monster" is in Eberron a "tax payer". And the goblin nation is quite similar to the elf nation on the main continent.
In the elven homeland of Aerenal, the elves have a culture that revolves around death, produce the most skilled necromancers, and are both ruled by and worship their reanimated ancestors. They also tend toward Neutral Good.
Death World: Let's just say that some places are not tourist attractions. At least half the planes of existence will kill an unprotected mortal in a matter of moments.
Demonic Possession: Possession by extraplanar entities is quite common. Hell, the aforementioned Quori actually designed a drug which sends the user on out-of-body highs—so that they can steal the user’s body.
Demon Lords and Archdevils: The rakshasa rajas. They're not actually rakshasas any more than gods are humans—rakshasas are just the most common fiends on the surface of Eberron, so the name stuck. The rajas are the most powerful fiends, which also includes demons and devils.
Demon Slaying: The Church of the Silver Flame, the Gatekeepers, and the Chamber.
Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Byeshk, targath, and crysteel weapons don't exist in all settings. Take care when borrowing Eberron monsters fellow DM.
Deus Ex Homine: The goal of the Godforged is to build their own god(s).
Warforged have no physical sex. Some are more masculine or feminine, but the 3.5e rulebook states "different people may judge the same warforged different ways."
Dual Wielding: The aforementioned Double-Scimitar, as well as the Xen'drik drow habit of dual-wielding short swords balanced for throwing.
Evil Counterpart: The Blood of Vol is remarkably similar to the Undying Court, except for being less patient about it. This is partly because the Vol herself, is, well, an elf, so it is in many ways an offshoot of the Undying Court.
Fantastic Nuke: Cyre was apparently destroyed by one of these.
Fantastic Racism: There is hatred against warforged, changelings, and shifters. And against goblins, partially because of the events that led to the formation of Darguun. And against all the nasty things that live in Droaam, but that’s to be expected. And the lizardfolk/common races conflicts going on in Q'barra. And the dragons against everyone else, the Inspired against anyone else, the Qualitar drow against everyone else... actually, name a canon character or a faction in this setting, there is a good chance it has racist tendencies.
Fantastic Science: Thanks to artificers and forward looking Wizards and others, we get this.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Mostly averted. Aside from the Five Nations having a vague western European feel, almost all of Eberron's cultures are completely original. The biggest exception is Adar, a mountain land of peaceful monks strongly influenced by Tibet.
Flat Earth Atheist: Averted. Religion works differently in Eberron. Nobody knows if the Gods actually exist.
Flaying Alive: "Excoriation" or what Dragonmarked Houses used to do to when one of their own made them angry.
The Flayed Hand, worshippers of The Mockery, do this to *themselves* over a long period of time, without using healing magic, so the can make magic cloaks that only work if when worn by the 'donor'.
Glamour Failure: Changelings need to be careful with their disguises. Something as simple as wrong clothing can give them away, not to mention things like bad accents.
A more Beast Woman-like protrayal of Shifters is seen here◊, and is probably made from around the point where they started becoming a fair bit more popular.
Grey and Gray Morality: The Lawful Evil Vampire King? He works for world peace. The Neutral Good Queen? She's planning world domination.
The supplemental material unfortunately backpedals a bit on this moral ambiguity and seemingly goes out of its way to excuse or outright Retcon statements made in the campaign book, with the Church of the Silver Flame presented in a more traditionally Lawful Good light and Kaius, the vampire king, coming across as considerably less well-intentioned.
Drow also get kick-ass chains that are used like scorpion stingers. And three-pronged boomerangs and short swords that can be used like massive throwing knives.
Warforged have an option to graft one-handed crossbows into their bodies.
Yuan-ti in Xen'drik have the serpent bow. It is a longbow with a shortsword blade built into one end. Just imagine Legolas with one of those!
Goblinoids have various chain weapons. And spikes. And chains with spikes on them.
Incredibly LameStealth Pun: The (almost) extinct House of Vol bore the Mark of Death. Using the pseudo-French naming conventions prevalent in Eberron, this would make it House Vol d'Morte.
Light is Not Good: The Church of the Silver Flame. The Silver Flame is an amalgamation of several good spiritual entities. It's also a prison to demonic forces.
Low Fantasy: Compared to other D&D settings, though only in the sense that it isn't High Fantasy. It is often stated that magic is significantly more common in Eberron than standard settings (to the point that nearly every blacksmith and baker can cast at least a couple spells), not to mention the flying ships, lightning train, intelligent Magitek robots...
Luck Manipulation Mechanic: In 4th Edition Eberron, the Dragonmark of Detection allows one to roll twice on perception checks and pick the best result.
Made of Iron: Warforged. Literally. They can have plating upgrades at first level that cause them to be made of mithril or adamantine. Both are much stronger than normal iron.
Metaplot: Averted. The setting does not advance with adventures, novels or new sourcebooks. Some executives tried to impose this on the setting for 4e, but they backed off when the fans strongly indicated their displeasure.
Mission Control: Steel, an intelligent (albeit unimaginatively named) dagger, wielded by the Dark Lanterns.
Mr. Seahorse: Changelings, thanks to their doppelganger heritage.
Mother Nature, Father Science: Played straight. In the Sovereign Host, Aureon the god of Lore and Onatar the god of Craftsmen are both males. Arawai is the goddess of Life, and is female.
Nightmare Dreams: The quori are this, and like to do this to others.
No Biological Sex: Warforged are sexless. Gender identity is something they may pick up. A changeling's "natural" sex can be meaningless outside of high level magic that ignores their shape shifting.
Ominous Fog: The "dead-gray mist" surrounding the Mournland.
Omniglot: Changelings are capable of becoming this easily—in 3.5 terms, Speak Language is always a class skill.
One-Man Army: By the time you're 5th level, you've seen more than a city guard will have seen a lifetime. And in fourth edition, the Mark of Scribing makes one close to this.
Only the Pure of Heart: There are no restrictions in using Good, Evil, Lawful or Chaotic spells.
Our Monsters Are Different: Eberron is pretty good at this. Especially with Droaam, in which a horde of ogres and minotaurs and whatnot united under a covey of hags to make a monster nation!
Our Demons Are Different: Demons and devils are actually native inhabitants of the world rather than extraplanar beings, and they ruled the planet for millions of years before being ousted from power by the dragons. Also, "demon" is a term that can is applied to either Chaotic Evil fiends specifically or all fiends in general (true demons, devils, rakshasas, yugoloths, etc.). The most common fiends (on the surface of Eberron, at least) are actually the tiger-headed rakshasas.
Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Most ogres in Eberron follow the D&D standard, but the ogres of Sarlona are mostly peaceful and docile, having been pacified by centuries of occupation by the Inspired.
Prophecies Are Always Right: The Draconic Prophecy foretells every single possible event that has happened or can happen... with the twist that they tend to take the form of "If X happens, then Y will happen" instead of, "X, Y and Z will happen in exactly that order". This means that you can manipulate fate to a certain extent: if you want Y to happen, then you'd better make sure X happens. (This is a fact that has not escaped the attention of the various Chessmasters of the world.)
Punctuation Shaker: Xen'drik, Zharash'ak, Q'Barra... the list goes on. Subverted in that the ' is explicitly stated to represent a glottal stop... it's not just thrown in to make the word look all exotic-y, it's actually supposed to be pronounced.
Psychic Powers: Psionic powers are more common than magic on the continent of Sarlona due to the influence of the quori (psychic spirits from the dimension of dreams).
Released To Elsewhere: You live in Sarlona? Don't go around saying bad things about the Inspired.
Reincarnation: The reincarnation spell is available as in most D&D settings, but is not the natural destiny for souls, most of which go to the plane of Dollurh after death. In Riedra, though, the citizens are indoctrinated in the Path of Inspiration, which tells them that they will be reincarnated in a higher caste after death, which helps them accept their lot in this life and keeps them from rebelling against the Inspired.
Released To Elsewhere: You live in Riedra? Don't go around saying bad things about the Inspired.
Religion of Evil: The Dark Six. Though the 4E campaign guide points out that they're really more like the Greek gods (i.e., still epic Jerk Asses, but really more the embodiments of destructive nature than truly malicious). Even before then, one of them wasn't really evil, just... mysterious. Terribly mysterious.
The Blood of Vol and the cults of the Dragon Below, especially as seen in the first Blade of the Flame book and the Dragon Below trilogy.
The Lord of Blades seems to be working towards this, what with his "destroy all non-warforged" policies.
Religious Robot: Many warforged adhere to the faiths of other races, such as the Sovereign Host and the Silver Flame. In addition, some warforged have their own Robot Religion in the form of the Lord of Blades.
Robot War: The Lord of Blades is trying to start one of these.
Rocket Punch: Check the self-forged paragon path. Alternatively, a +1 returning battlefist.
Rule Of Cool: Warforged and halflings that ride dinosaurs. Bedouin elves with double-ended scimitars. Viet Cong drow who worship scorpions. Elementals making longships fly. Half the setting is based on the Rule Of Cool, for Flame's sake!
Saintly Church: Despite the corrupt clergy and atrocities associated with the Church of the Silver Flame, it's still a powerful force of good. The Sovereign Host is a straighter example of this trope. At least it tries.
Screw You, Elves!: The elves can be argued with. Some, like the Valenar, will need more violent persuasion.
Sexy Backless Outfit: The Dragonmarked Heirprestige class from the 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting book.
Shape Shifter Mode Lock when the elves, most of which where the slaves of the giants rebelled, the Gyrderi, who where the free elves decided to help their kin. Being druids they had an ability called wild shape, which lets them shape shift into animals. "the giants enacted a terrible curse that forever bound them in the wild shapes they were wearing, trapping them and their descendants in the forms of animals"
Shrouded in Myth: Xen'drik. Partially because of the Traveler's Curse (things will never be in the same place twice).
Secret Police: Don't mess with the gnomes in Zilargo. The Trust is to be feared. As is the Dreaming Dark and the Thousand Eyes, who seek the quori's foes abroad and at home.
Space Jews: Dwarves control the banks. Or rather, House Kundarak does. And House Kundarak is composed of dwarves. (And dwarves also happen to rule a sinister organization of bankers and financiers, secretly pulling the strings of Khorvaire's economy...)
The Chessmaster: As a general rule of thumb, any creature that has a lifespan greater than that of an average half-elf is a Chessmaster. To wit, the Lords Of Dust, the Dreaming Dark and the Draconic Chamber are organisations full of Chessmasters... and naturally, they tend not to get along.
The Dwarves might be an exception to this rule, as despite being long-lived by human standards they're considered fairly trustworthy. On the other hand, in the Banking Guild of House Kundarak they have managed to figure out a way to mine gold, trade it to other races for goods, then (and this is the brilliant part) get the other races to hand it back over for safekeeping. Along with various other valuable items. And pay for the privilege of doing so.
The Multiverse: 13 planes, of which one has been severed from the rest and remains unreachable through conventional magic. And for good reason, as it is currently the plane of nightmares. Another is going to be out of close contact with the main world for the next twenty thousand years, which is also good, as it is the plane of insanity and non-Euclidean geometries and the sort of place Cthulhu might fit in very well.
Thirteen Is Unlucky: Eberron used to have thirteen moons, thirteen Dragonmarks (with associated lineages), thirteen coterminous planes, thirteen dwarven clans, and the continent of Khorvaire had thirteen regions. One of the moons has vanished, one of the dragonmarks had the entire line who had it exterminated by dragons and angry elves (though it lives on in one person; however, that person - being undead – can't use her mark), two dragonmarked houses now share a mark, contact with one of the planes was severed forever (when its Cosmic Horror inhabitants tried to invade), one of the dwarven clans mysteriously disappeared, and one region in Khorvaire was rendered a wasteland.
Took a Level in Badass: A few prestige classes, like the Extreme Explorer or the Heir of Siberys. Manifesting a dragonmark can also lead to this.
Traintop Battle: One of the reasons why the Lightning Rail exists.
Trauma Inn: The "Last Chance", a co-operation by Ghallanda and Jorasco. Situated in Xen'drik
Two Fisted Tales: Eberron takes a lot of inspiration from these.
The Remnant: Warforged are sometimes this. Darguun is the remnant of the ancient empire of Dhakaan (sort of). Cyre has a lot of dispossessed citizens wandering around.
Überwald: Karrnath used to be this. Still is in some places.
Word Of God: Keith Baker (aka "Hellcow") posts on the Eberron forums every now and then, though he can only give his opinion on certain things since Wizards has control over the direction of the setting. He also has a blog and a website.
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