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 - 13-1 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.
Oh, that's alright, the lycanthropes were hunted nearly to extinction before play begins... wait, that doesn't make it better for lycanthropes?
And the prejudice from that purge still exists today. To the point where even those with a connection to the lycanthrope family tree (their far less dangerous player counterparts, the Shifters) are discriminated against.
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 Daelkyr Sealed in their can, if you will.
Have you ever met a non-Chaotic Daelkyr? Or a non-evil any one of their misbegotten creations? No? Didn't think so.
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.
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.
Applied Phlebotinum - Dragonshards. Chunks of magic crystal used to power everything. Good for everything from making a ship fly, to infusing a random scrub with infinite cosmic power, to making a flying island crash.
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.
Or all of the above.
You want to know where that came from? Baker's Dozen.
Arm Cannon - Warforged have this little friend called "Armbow." It needs More Dakka.
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 - Loli Pope Jaela Daran- normally a 3rd level character- gains the powers of an 18th level character within the walls of Flamekeep simply by virtue of being the head of the Silver Flame church.
Not to mention that by the setting level standards, level 3 is something.
To top it off, she is eleven years old. YOU READ IT RIGHT, AN ELEVEN YEAR-OLD CHILD IS STRONGER THAN YOUR INITIAL PC.
Her predecessor is in prison, and is an 11th level Cleric. However, this turns into a 21st level cleric when in Flamekeep. It's a very good thing that she was locked up and is now kept far away.
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.
At the end of 3.5, a permanent dragon resident named Haze-of-Death was introduced to the Mournland. He's CR 26.
To clarify, in the dragon homeland of Argonnessen, your rank and status depend on your power, which is connected to age in 3.5. Haze-of-Death is really, really, old.
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.
Hellcow 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. But with all of the examples above, Authority Equals Asskickingdefinitely has not been averted.
This seems to be drifting from the trope, which states "The higher a person is in a hierarchy, the tougher they are in a fight... could the president of the US beat up Rambo?" Bringing dragons and rakshasa rajahs into the mix seems like an entirely different point; is it really that surprising that the ultimate evil force in the world is also powerful? And ancient dragons being powerful is simply a basic conceit of D&D itself, not something specific to Eberron; Haze-of-Death isn't part of a hierarchy, so how is it relevant to this trope? Meanwhile, looking to Oalian and Jaela, both do have great power, but they are also limited. Jaela is the most powerful cleric in the world - until you take her out of town and take her lunch money. Oalian is powerful, but he's also literally a talking tree; if something happens a hundred miles away, there's not much he can do about it. Furthermore, they are the exceptions to the rule. If you look at the majority of the influential figures in the world - nobles, dragonmarked lords - they are below tenth level and often don't even use PC classes. Queen Aurala of Aundair is an 8th level aristocrat. Her power derives from the fact that she has a kingdom loyal to her - but if you got her in a back alley, you could easily beat her up. If the question is "Are their powerful people in Eberron," the answer is clearly "Yes." If it's "does high position in a hierarchy automatically equal physical power", reviewing Five Nations and Dragonmarked shows that it's not a reliable rule.
Oalian can do something about it. That's what Wild Shape and the resultant change to animal forms that can move rapidly are for. Or various spells that can be used to instantly move from point to point. There are ways, by the system, around Jaela's limitations as well. They simply remain unused so that the players aren't overshadowed.
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 Dreaming Dark trilogy plays them as rather eccentric, but mostly harmless. Except for a few bad eggs who sell powerful artifacts to one of the numerous Big Bads of the setting.
4e specifcally says that how House Tarkanan is portrayed depends on how the DM wishes to portray the Dragonmarked houses in turn.
Base on Wheels - Argonth, a hovering fortress. Apparently there are two, but as Argonth is the more famous they never tell you anything about the other ones.
4e states the other was destroyed in the war.
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 Valaes Tairn.
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.
For that matter, 'Forged can do it with any weapon, even if it's not actually a sword.
Blood Knight - The Valenar Elves, who live for battle, so much that some of them are considering starting another World War simply to get more fighting.
Pretty much the rule for all settings in 4e (theropods fall under drakes now, while ornithischians are called behemoths).
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 Dolurrh is coterminous resurrection spells might give you unexpected results...
Can't Argue with Elves - Averted. Some Elves, such as the Valaes Tairn, might however 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.
Every nation has one, but some are just weird. Ashtakala, the capital of the Demon Wastes, is mostly composed of illusions of its thirty-thousand-year gone height of glory. The capital of Aerenal is almost entirely composed of tombs. The Great Craig, capital of Droaam, is a giant spire housing such creatures as minotaurs, ogres, orcs, and harpies. Though places like Flamekeep and Korth are perfectly normal cities, if you discount the oppressive theocracy in Flamekeep and the martial law in Korth... all right, maybe they aren't.
Official artwork tends to vary on the "animal-ness" of the Shifter. A good deal are closer to the classical Wolf Man look of early monster movies than truly anthropomorphic.
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.
Chest Blaster - With a lenient DM and some trickery, this can be achieved.
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 Dolurrh. 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.
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.
Death World - Let's just say that some places are not tourist attractions.
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."
It would be interesting to point out that, like warforged, their entries in the rulebooks mention that neither actually have inherent genders of their own. Almost all fluff contradicts this - including an adventure in the same book that says this which contains a female warforged.
Dual Wielding - The aforementioned Double-Scimitar, as well as the Xen'drik drow habit of dual-wielding short swords balanced for throwing.
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.
Though if you examine the nations closely you might come up with Breland = England, Karrnath = Pre-WWI Germany, and Cyre = someplace that just got nuked. Xen'drik might be India, the Lhazaar Principalities as the East Indies (albeit with a colder climate and a much, much smaller Australia), Riedra and Aerenal could be pre-open trade China and Japan... you have to dig a bit, but they are there.
Khorvaire is roughly our world post-WW 2. Cyre was nuked and that was the end of WW 2. Breland (USA) escaped WW 2 relatively intact as the most technological and richest nation. Post-war, warforged fought for their civil rights much like the post-WW 2 Civil Rights era of the USA. Breland is known for being "constitutional". Karrnath (People's Republic of China, PRC) is dirt poor. It couldn't afford warforged like Breland, and relied on undead for that war, and still relies on undead to bolster its economic recovery. This is symbolic of the questionable strategies and morals of the government as it engineers the economic recovery of the country. It's ruled by a relatively benevolent Lawful Evil King (A vampire who faked his own death to fight the influence of the Blood of Vol in his nation, then resumed the throne by stealing his grandson's identity). This king is, despite his flaws, sincerely concerned with his country and being undermined by people in Karrnath's government (Blood of Vol and its pet Order of the Emerald Claw) is analogous to the lack of control within the not-so-monolithic single Party state. Aundair appears to be a mishmash of European countries if we look at their exports, style of education (especially their [floating] ivory towers).
Justified; in a world where a great-axe to the head deals 1-12 damage (plus modifiers), and your basic fireball spell does at least 5-30 damage (within a blast radius of at least 25 ft), guns are just needlessly expensive toys for people with no combat ability.
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.
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.
Here There Be Dragons - The continent of Argonnessen houses 99% of all the dragons in the world.
Hidden Elf Village - Aerenal, not quite hidden and more of a continent. Valenar might also count, though the elves there mostly stay hidden by constantly moving around in the middle of the continent's largest desert and killing anyone who enters...
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 on 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.
Knight Templar - Some knights and priests during the Lycanthrope Purge.
Some of the novels portray followers of the Silver Flame this way.
Especially in Zed Arthen's backstory in Heirs of Ash.
Actually averted in the case of the Trust of Zilargo. Sure, they're manipulative, conniving bastards who will do anything to protect the peace and order of Zilargo... yet they have a pretty narrow, logical code as to what constitutes "disturbing the peace" - "Free Speech" not being one of them - and tend to fire "warning shots" before actually attacking. And frankly, everyone from Zilargo is a manipulative, conniving bastard.
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.
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.
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.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot - With the right templates this is possible. At the very least you can play a Robot Ninja-Pirate riding a Zombie Dinosaur.
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.
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.
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.)
And for some reason this does not extend to Sarlona, which has zero Draconic Prophecy and Dragonmarks don't manifest in the newborn, even if there is potential.
Technically, Adar has some connection to the prophecy. Which kind of makes sense, given that that's the only place the dragons themselves have any influence.
Punctuation Shaker - Xen'drik, Zharash'ak, Q'Barra and 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. Played straight in that it's often hard to figure out what kind of demented language would choose to put a glottal stop at that particular location in many of these names, or how it's supposed to be pronounced. "Xen'drik" is a particularly notable example.
That isn't quite as hard as you might think — it's possible that in some cases it's easier to pronounce it as a schwa sound, and in the case of something like "Xen'drik", there's two possible ways — one is to pronounce "en" nasalized as in French or Portuguese with the glottal stop slammed in at the end, and the other is to swallow the n so it sounds something like "ent".
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.
While the cults of the Dragon Below certainly qualify, the Blood of Vol is a little more ambiguous; yes, the people secretly in charge of the religion are evil, but the followers are mostly people who simply live in grim and inhospitable places (such as Karrnath) and hold a similarly grim (but not evil) set of beliefs.
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.
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.
Though, to be fair, halflings are actually the right size to ride a velociraptor.
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...)
D&D-esque Dwarves also traditionally hoard gold and hide it underground vaults. The Dragonmarked Houses resemble medieval fantasy corporations so it's closer to a Corrupt Corporate Executive twist on Our Dwarves Are All the Same.
Considering the setting creator's wife at the time was of Jewish descent (and their separation was amicable) it's probably not intended as Anti-Semitic.
Steampunk - Eberron is often mistaken for Steampunk.
Given that it practically invented (at the very least codified and made famous) Dungeon Punk, it's rather understandable since that's the closest thing.
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.
The Necrocracy - Karrnath, Aerenal and the Blood of Vol.
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), and one region in Khorvaire was rendered a wasteland.
As noted above, thirteen minus one is the setting's Arc Number, so whatever event resulted in the "minus one" was probably rather unfortunate for that thirteenth thing.
They almost added the extra moon and plane back in the Dreaming Dark books, but the heroes managed to fix it in time.
When the setting was updated to 4e, Baator was added to the cosmology. However, this was to make up for the fact that Xoriat technically stopped being a plane and became Eberron's Far Realm, which is supposed to be beyond the universe.
Tragic Mulatto - Half-Orcs have a good opportunity for social advancement in the Shadow Marches, since they are seen as lacking bias against either humans or orcs. In some tribes, they are even celebrated.
Traintop Battle - One of the reasons why the Lightning Rail exists.
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 Dakhaan (sort of). Cyre has a lot of dispossessed citizens wandering around.
Überwald - Karrnath used to be this. Still is in some places.
Wallet of Holding - Thanks to House Kundarak, you need not carry all that gold, silver and platinum! Not to mention anything else you might want to store.
Word Of God - Keith Baker 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.
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