Eberron Major Races
Player's Handbook
Humans- Humans come from Sarlona mostly, during a time of unrest known as the Sundering. The people of the Lhazaar Principalities were first to come to Khorvaire, but the those fleeing the Sundering came soon after, landing all over the continent. Humans range from the clannish folk of the Shadow Marches all the way up to Galifer's previous provinces, but no one ethnicity or skin colour from old Sarlona dominates any region, with the people of the ancient kingdoms mostly mixed and spread out over Khorvaire.
The swamp dwelling dragonshard hunters of the Shadow Marches developed the Mark of Finding (Tharask), the wilderness dwelling druids and rangers of Eldeen developed the Mark of Handling (Vadalis), the messengers and couriers of Aundair manifested the Mark of Passage (Orien), the warlike soldiers of Karrnath bear the Mark of Sentinel (Deneith) while the cunning smiths of Cyre developed the Mark of Making (Cannith).
Dwarves- hailing from the frozen north of the Frostfell, the dwarves crossed into northern Sarlona and Khorvaire in antiquity, and in Khorvaire they settled the Ironroot and Hoarfrost Mountains into the Mror Holds and began their great kingdoms and clan intrigues. Thousands of years ago the lands of the dwarves were destroyed by some fell evil, and now the dwarves who have reclaimed the Ironroot Mountains are descended from the exiles, criminals and wanderers cast out of those same great kingdoms. A dwarf of any standing at all is always judged by the things he owns, the clothes he wears, the bearing he has and the food and drink he can afford. Servants and goods are the mark of a successful dwarf, a fine axe is good both for how well it is made and how beautifully it is decorated.
The only remnants of the original dwarves of the Mror Holds, House Kundarak developed the Mark of Warding some time after sealing the vaults and kingdoms below. Though they've become rich and powerful bankers and warders, Kundarak (and all the other dwarven clans) would love to mount a successful campaign to retake the kingdoms below from the aberrations who dwell there and recover lost dwarven artifacts
Elves - In ancient Xen'Drik the elves were first brought low by the giants, made into slaves, save the ones who escaped into the wilds of the mountains and forests. After the giants won their war with creatures from the planes, the elves rose in rebellion. The shadowy drow were created by the giants from loyal elves and the kinslaying and great deeds and bitter betrayals became the stuff of epics until the elves fled Xen'Drik before the dragons cast the giants down. Those that escaped swore to remember and preserve their great mages and warriors, so no more of their greatest members would be lost to death. The Aereni of Aerenal took ancient necromancy and the natural positive energy of Aerenal to create the deathless, undying elven warriors and councilor mages, while the warrior Tairnadal of Aerenal's northern steppes (mostly descended from the escaped elves of the wilds) preserved their ancestor's stories and memories in emulation, each elf assigned an ancestor to emulate in battle and in deeds, whether butcher, craven or great hero. The third group of elves who settled Khorvaire are neither Aereni or Tairnadal, and besides age and an obsession with death, perfection and stories, are mostly like their shorter-lived neighbours. One of the defining marks of an elf is this lust for perfection, after a childhood measured in a century. Where humans adapt and improvise, an elf knows the technique, because they practiced it a thousand thousand times.
The spies and bards of the rebellions against the giants are also keepers of the stories, and traveled with the Khorvaire elves in exile from Aerenal, manifesting the Mark of Shadows and establishing House Phiarlan until the Shadow Schism, a bitter civil war of assassinations and bloodlines being extinguished. Now the Mark of Shadow is split in two between Houses Phiarlan and Thurrani, both expert entertainers, spies and, when necessary, assassins.
Gnomes - hailing from Thelanis, the plane of stories and fey (much like the elves), the gnomes tumbled into southern Khorvaire in antiquity and carved a series of kingdoms in the jungles of Zilargo. Quickly establishing themselves as a thorn in the goblin and kobolds' sides they took to using illusion, small size and poison to strike back against their larger enemies and a ruthless dedication to security to thwart the small reptilian tunnlers. The first to map the continents of the smaller races (they claim), they were also early seafarers, trading with remnants of the giant civilization in the north of Xen'Drik, the Aereni and the dwarves and Lhazaar humans. Always conflict was a last resort, the gnomes often ceding ground, goods and autonomy to get what they needed. And if that failed, poison and trickery. The gnomes count chronicles (newspapers), the finest universities (they say) and elemental binding among their contributions to Galifer's culture
Always the law and the bindings of the agreement have ruled Zilargo, and House Sivis and their Mark of Scribing have the magical power to seal legal documents and translate ancient or foreign writings, making them indispensable to Khorvaire's interests anywhere in the world.
Half-Elves - The Khorovar are the children of two great continents, Sarlona and Xen'Drik. The true children of Khorvaire (no word what the goblins, orcs, kobolds and halflings think of this claim) claim descent from both human and elven blood. Half-elves are mostly a true breeding population, large enough to sustain themselves without elven or human pairings, though that doesn't mean they shun those. A half-elf and a human produce half-elves, as does a half-elf and elf. The light of Aerenal dims, but never fades, as the Aereni say. Anywhere the Khorvaire elves and humans lived in proximity in the early days of Galifer, the Khorovar served as a bridge between the two peoples. And now they are counted among the diplomats, artists and explorers of the Nations, effortlessly walking the line between human flexibility and elven perfection.
The rainsingers of Thrane gave birth to the house of Lyrander and the Mark of Storms, great sailors and weather controllers, of late the sole house controlling the fielding of airships in commerce and travel. The Mark of Detection manifested among the Brelish Khorovar, enabling them to becomes amazing bodyguards and investigators, though the House Medani has long been rumoured to serve the Prince (and after Jarot's death, King) of Breland to the exclusion of the other Nations
Half-Orcs - The Jhor'gataaal are a proud lineage. When the humans of Sarlona mixed with the orcs of the Shadow Marches, their two bloods mixed in one, the "Child of Two Bloods". A half-orc in the marches is considered an auspicious person to have at any agreement, marriage or mediation, even if a human or orc does the talking, as their presence shows a common agreement. So powerful is the blood of the orc that a half-orc results from any coupling of orc or half-orc and any other medium race, be they human, dwarf or goblin. Though there is something special about the Jhor'gataaal of the marches.
As if to underscore this, while a half-elf cannot manifest the Marks of Making or Shadow, the half-orcs can manifest the Mark of Finding of House Tharask as often as the human members of the house, though full-blood orcs cannot. As a matter of fact, the half-orcs are some of the house's best trackers, surveyors and manhunters.
Halflings - when the dwarves founded their great kingdoms, the halflings were there in the great Talenta Plains. When the gnomes sailed the seas, the halflings tamed and rode their dinosaurs in great migrations. When the orcs and goblins ranged across Khorvaire, the halflings moved out of their way. The lizardfolk and dragonborn claimed the Endworld Mountains and jungles of Q'Barra and the plains beyond them, but the halflings continued to ride the grasslands and deserts undeterred. Only the coming of Galifer forced the halflings to ride beyond, some of the nomadic dinosaur riders even coming to live among the cityfolk and take on their ways. As it turns out, the halflings have a rare skill at organized crime . . .
The Marks of Hospitality and Healing originally manifested on the nomads who would become Houses Ghallanda and Jorasco and were seen as blessings of the gods before the Dragonmarked Houses discovered the tribes and bade them join their august number. Now the Ghallanda Golden Dragon Inns dot the landscape, a sign of quality and security where none break the laws of sanctuary and hospitality, while the Jorasco hospices and healers have driven disease and death from the cities of Khorvaire.
Eberron Campaign Setting
Changelings - In the times before the humans came to Khorvaire, a woman named Jes prayed to the Traveler to protect her children. They had many enemies who wanted to kill them, and so the Traveler cast his cloak over Jes' Children and they were able to blend in with other people, taking on their forms and hiding from those who would kill them. Other people would call them changelings, and they would be hated and feared in many places. Changeling came over with Lhazaar in her expedition, they fled Sarlona in the Sundering. They are here in Khorvaire, and still they believe the Traveler watches over them. But the gifts of the Traveler are to be wary of, and they do not serve for good or for ill, only for change. Some Changelings live in communities together, and often share roles and jobs across a static identity with multiple people who work as that person. Others live in isolation, trying to pass as a member of another race, or flitting between identities as the mood suits them.
Kalashtar - Before the Sundering in Sarlona, the mountain lands of Adar served as a peaceful refuge for those seeking enlightenment. Monastery fortresses dotted the landscape with schools of devout monks walking the path to a greater understanding of the cosmos. But all that changed when thirteen monks were possessed by creatures from the planes. Dal Quor, the plane of dreams, was in turmoil. Twice before it had undergone cataclysmic change, and now it stood to change a third time, erasing all that lived there. The Quori, the masters of Dal Quor, wished to stop it. And these Quori who had fled to Adar and bonded with the monks, they sought to bring the change on, to hasten the natural cycle. Because the plane of dreams was a place of nightmares.
Hounded by the Inspired of Riedra, the Kalashtar are the children of the bloodlines of twelve of these thirteen monks, psionically gifted and otherworldly in their looks and manner. Strong emotions caused their eyes to glow, and they are fond of wearing delicate metalwork and diaphanous silks. Some come to Khorvaire to escape the endless sieges of Adar, or being hunted elsewhere in Sarlona. But the Inspired have embassies in all the major cities of Khorvaire, and Riedran ethnic conclaves in Sharn (and elsewhere). Always the Kalashtar must be watchful, for the spies of Riedra are everywhere, and they sometimes cannot trust anyone but the quori spirit within them and all who share their bloodline.
Shifters - In Sarlona the Shifters once roamed all over the great continent, through the tundra, mountains and forests, until one day the moonspeakers, their sacred druids, foresaw a great migration would be undertaken. Wandering through a portal into Thelanis, the land of dreams, the shifters who undertook this quest were guided by Olarune, the moon of Thelanis, to the other side, where they emerged in Khorvaire's Eldeen Reaches long before the gnomes built their first boats.
Divided amongst groups which share animalistic traits when they shift, the shifters are strong in Eldeen but can be found all over Khorvaire, often thought of as the brutish and simple laborers and hunters in the Five Nations, better than goblins, but not amounting to much. The Last War changed these perceptions in places though, as the shifters also took to war exceptionally well, with a larger percentage of the shifter population being decorated veterans by war's end than the greater humanoid populations. But Khorvaire is slow to trust them, as the Lycanthropic Inquisition of the late 800s shows, when the Church of the Silver Flame and the shifters joined forces to end the threat of lycanthropes, only for zealots and opportunists to turn on the shifters as "potential lycanthropes" after the Church left Eldeen.
Warforged - In 965 YK, in the midst of the Last War, Cannith perfected the warforged, a golem of sorts capable of independent thought and learning. Able to be trained, to continue training and to make decisions for itself. Their first buyer was the beleaguered Cyran kingdom, but soon enough warforged fought on all sides of the war (after all, the Korth Edicts prevented Cannith from choosing a side, and profits were as profits did). The first models were limited to the more simple vocations, barbarians and rogues and sorcerers tapping into their dragonshard components, while as the years went on Cannith was able to perfect warforged who could do any job, even one as complicated and intricate as wizardy. Some even became clerics, raising the question of if a warforged had a soul.
At the end of the war, the Treaty of Thronehold provided warforged with the rights of a citizen of the Five Nations, but did not provide them any resources with which to live. They do not eat, drink or need to sleep, so their needs are few, but already they have need of work to earn their place in society in peacetime and there are cries of unfairness from certain circles that the tireless, strong and undistracted warforged are being given the work of other labourers at half the pay.
Monster Manual
Goblins - Once, the goblins ruled Khorvaire. The Tairnadal may have set up beachheads in Valenar, the orcs may have held the swamps and high mountains, and the dragonborn may have ruled Q'Barra, the dwarves might have had the valley between the Ironroot and Hoarfrost Mountains, but as far as the goblins were concerned they ruled all that was worthwhile in Khorvaire. The Dhakaani Empire stretched from the Bitter Sea to the Thunder Sea, from the Barren Sea to the Sea of Rage and Lhazaar. They worked metallurgy still unmatched by Cannith, they built the foundations of cities so strong they stand today. But when the Daelkyr invaded Eberron, they targeted the goblins with madness. Even with the help of the orcs, victory only led to the Empire fracturing as they turned to the worship of strange gods, and took to infighting. A few cells of goblins locked themselves away beneath the earth to avoid this plague of madness, but the damage was done. The Dhakaani broke down into tribes and sects, the bugbears taking to the high mountains and the hobgoblins to the lower crags, the smaller goblins suffering under both. And the humans of Sarlona only enslaved them or drove them off from good land.
When Cyre wanted mercenaries, the hobgoblins provided the forces they needed to hold off Breland and Thrane in the west, but treachery led to the goblins annexing southern Cyre (those mountains and hills they'd dwelled in already) and renaming it Darguun. Now the goblins seek to rediscover their old cultures, reconnect with the lost cells of Dhakaani who are only now emerging, and come together under one banner. It just can't be decided who should rule between the bugbears and the hobgoblins as of yet, and great artifacts of the Dhakaani empire may tip the balance
Lizardfolk - the lizardfolk once ruled the Talenta Plains, the Endworld Mountains and the jungles of Q'Barra, roaming and warring with the Tairnadal, the goblins and even the dinosaur riding halflings. Of special note were the dragonborn, somewhat smaller but more given to civilization, building palaces, walls and keeps in the places the lizardfolk went, the first of their number sent from Argonnessen as the Dhakaani Empire rose to oversee the lizardfolk and guide them back towards the teachings of the dragons. They took this to mean, after a time, ruling the lizardfolk and warring with the other races. Before the Empire had crumbled fully, the dragonborn already had diminished to warring tribes and clannish feuds, ignorant of the darkness they'd been sent to watch over in Q'Barra.
Now these two lizardfolk groups are considered one by the humanoids of Khorvaire, and a nuisance by most, occupying good land and raiding the towns of honest prospectors who have come to mine the dragonshards of the jungles. A joint effort by Purifiers of the Church of the Silver Flame and House Tharask would see the dragonborn and lizardfolk driven back into the sea to make New Galifer a true home for the good folk. The "scales" respond in kind, though some other motivation seems to move in the unsmiling eyes of the lizardfolk proper which not even the dragonborn can fathom.
Orcs - In ancient times the orcs rose in the Shadow Marches, the first druids of Khorvaire's lands. Tutored in the ancient druidic secrets by a renegade dragon, the orcs have sang and danced and kept the mysteries in the swamps and mountains of the continent. And one day, the prophesied danger they'd trained for came. The Daelkyr ravaged across the land, the goblins (hated enemies) stood on the brink of extinction. And some of the orcs came to their aid (though many also joined the Daelkyr), for while the goblins had long since done away with faith and gods, the orcs had long held the secrets of divine magic by that point and took to binding the Daelkyr away beneath the earth, in Khyber. Orcish and goblin alliance fell apart as the Empire crumbled though, and the orcs returned to their swamps and mountains, to keep watch over the seals.
In the Ironroot Mountains the Jhorash'tar clans of orcs have long menaced the dwarves of the Mror Holds, raiding their lands and even occupying the underkingdom halls of their forefathers to plunder Daelkyr and dwarven treasures alike. The addition of Karrnathi military strength under Galifer's alliances to drive the orcs deeper into the wilds of the mountains only inflamed the tensions between the two groups. Now the dwarves are split, some wishing to mount a final campaign of blood to drive the orcs from the mountains, while others wish to give them a seat on the council of clans, to involve them in decisions which affect all of the Holds, and hopefully to stop their raiding and fighting.
Northwest of the Eldeen lies the Labyrinth of the Shadowcrag Mountains, and the Ghaash'kala of the Kalok Shash. The orcs and half-orcs here are a shadowy and elusive group, seldom seen except when absolutely necessary, but they serve a power they describe as a ghostly flame which sends them forth to make war with the Carrion Tribes of the Demon Wastes beyond. Khorvaire would long have fallen to the fiends of Khyber spilling forth from the Demon Wastes if not for these stern and watchful guardians of the Labyrinth.
Other races of note are:
Planetouched (aasimar and tiefling) who are mostly born of exposure to the planes though the fiendish rakshasa also produce the tiger-stripped Kalah, and the Heirs of Ohr Kaluun in Sarlona produced a number of tieflings which mostly live in Droaam.
Kobolds have been on Eberron since the dawn age, claiming to have sprung from the blood of the great dragons who forged the universe. Whatever the truth of that, three subraces exist, the violent and deadly Irvhir below, the binders of the Iredar between and the elusive winged Irsvern
The monsters of Droaam count the medusae, the harpies and the minotaurs among their number, as well as roving mercenary packs of gnolls.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:47, Sun 22 Dec 2019.
