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{{work}}
[[File:eberron-logo 4999.jpg|frame]]
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 [[The Chessmaster|Chessmasters]], from the lowly mob boss that wants to rule the underworld of his city to an entire race of extraplanar [[Eldritch Abomination]]s 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 [[Broken Base|outcry]] against it due to its unconventional nature, though this seems to have mostly subsided. Three major things set Eberron apart from ''[[Greyhawk]]'' and ''[[Forgotten Realms]]''. The first is that few, if any, NPCs have both the ability ''and'' desire to be potent forces for good. Good NPCs tend to be limited in power/resources, or stuck under an uncaring bureaucracy, while most NPCs of power are potential enemies (or at least ''obstacles'') for player characters to overcome. This prevents the problem of why the PCs are needed when overpowering forces like Elminster or Drizzt don't just snap their fingers and solve the issue. The second is that the timeline never progress. By default every campaign begins in 998 YK, no novels are canon and premade adventures are only assumed to have happened in their direct sequels. Third is that several parts of the setting are intentionally left blank for dungeon masters to fill in on their own.
The following works taking place in the Eberron setting have their own pages:
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* [[All There in the Manual]]: Common to all D&D settings.
* [[Alternative Calendar]]: 13 minus 1 months. They share their names with the moons.
<!-- * [[Amalgam
* [[Exclusively Evil]]: Averted. Eberron is very flexible when it comes to alignment. There is a trustworthy, non-evil ''fiend'' in the setting.▼
** For example, [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orcs]] are much more spiritual in Eberron- Their druidic sect is responsible for keeping the [[Eldritch Abomination|Daelkyr]] [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed 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. {{spoiler|There's also a Rajah soul in there too. Uh-oh}}.
* [[Amazing Technicolor Wildlife]]: The Tribex.
* [[Animal Wrongs Group]]: The Ashbound.
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* [[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.
* [[Cannot Dream]]: Kalashtar.
* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: Stories (novels, modules and video games) are only canon to their direct sequels. This was an intentional decision from the birth of the setting to avoid overwhelming it with an [[Continuity Lock Out|incomprehensible web]] like the literally hundreds of ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' novels had woven ''and'' allow these stories to do things that would otherwise destroy the setting.
* [[Canon Welding]]:
* [[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.
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* [[Child Mage]]: Jaela Daran.
* [[Church Militant]]: The Church of the Silver Flame and orders of Dol Arrah.
* [[City of Adventure]]: Sharn and Stormreach. Some people go to
* [[City of Canals]]: Zarash'ak, the City of Stilts, built over a swamp.
* [[City of Spies|Country of Spies]]: Zilargo. By the way, it's where the gnomes are from, so if you meet one, bring antivenom.
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* [[Cool Gate]]: The Changegate, among other things.
* [[Cool Horse]]: Magebred horses and the Valenar horses.
* [[Cool Old Guy]]: King Boranel, king of Breland and former adventurer. His biggest issue is that he is old and his heirs are nowhere near as skilled or popular.
* [[Cool Train]]: The Lightning Rail.
* [[Corrupt Church]]: Cardinal Krozen of the Silver Flame is just one example.
* [[Corpse Land]]: The Mournland.
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: Dragonmarked Houses aren't always led by the nicest people.
* [[Crapsack World]]: One of the setting's design philosophies is that the world needs heroes, and that the PCs are these heroes, not anyone like Eleminster. As a consequence there's lots of world ending threats detailed, and no one exists to stop them that won't just raze human civilization from the planet to do so.
* [[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.
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* [[Deus Ex Homine]]: The goal of the Godforged is to build their own god(s).
* [[Diabolical Mastermind]]: The Aurum is a club for Diabolical Masterminds to trade schemes, hatch plots, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|drink dwarven beer]].
* [[Die or Fly]]: The ''Test of Siberys'' for the Dragonmarked Houses as dragonmarks tend to manifest under extreme stress.
* [[Does Not Like Magic]]: The Ashbound druids.
* [[Doomsday Device]]: Many Eldritch Machines are this.
* [[Double Weapon]]: The Double-Scimitar of the Valenar.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Daelkyr are in the main Eberron book for this purpose. Though, being CR 20, they would give Vol pause...
* [[Draconic Divinity]]: If one believes the most popular creation myth in Eberron, the world was created by the three Progenitors Siberys (the Dragon Above), Eberron ("the Dragon Between" or "the World Itself") and Khyber ("the Dragon Below"), all of whom were/are dragons. Due to the non-provable nature of the divine in ''Eberron'' (a strong contrast to most other ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' settings), if there's any truth to the matter is left to the Dungeon Master to decide, though there definitely is an alternate dimension of evil below Eberron if you go low enough, and a planetary ring of magically useful rocks if you go up enough.
** The pantheons of the Sovereign Host and Dark Six have no fixed appearance (as the non-provable nature of the divine means every culture will vary wildly), but all The Nine and Six and One have some form of dragon on the list of how they're commonly depicted in-world. The dragons themselves believe the Sovereigns were powerful dragons who ascended.
** Unlike most settings, Tiamat is "merely" a dragon-themed fiendish Overlord rather than a true deity. Since overlords are so puissant as to be undefinably powerful if unsealed, and fiend worshipers can get divine spells (as in ''Eberron'' those are powered by internal belief, not external divine power) the difference is largely pedantic. Bahamut is just a dragon-shaped constellation and largely exists in the setting only to have some explanation for the sheer amount of rules elements in third edition that included his name.
* [[Dream Land]]: Dal Quor.
* [[Dropped a Bridget On Him]]: Changelings can change their sex at will.
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* [[Evil Sorcerer]]: Erandis Vol.
* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: Everice, Flamekeep, Thronehold, the Demon Wastes...
▲* [[Exclusively Evil]]: Averted. Eberron is very flexible when it comes to alignment. There is a trustworthy, non-evil ''fiend'' in the setting.
▲** For example, [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orcs]] are much more spiritual in Eberron- Their druidic sect is responsible for keeping the [[Eldritch Abomination|Daelkyr]] [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed 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.
* [[Fantastic Noir]]: Eberron is geared towards this.
* [[Fantastic Nuke]]: Cyre was
* [[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.
* [[Fantasy Gun Control]]: The world is far more advanced than [[Medieval European Fantasy]] standards, but
* [[Fantasy Pantheon]]: The Sovereign Host and the Dark Six.
* [[Fantasy World Map]]
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* [[First Church of Mecha]]: What the Becoming God will be. Or to meme it up: [[Memetic Mutation|The Warforged are building a god! IN A CAVE! WITH A MOUNTAIN OF SCRAPS!]]
* [[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. Now the name is simply a leftover used for all exiled from the houses.
** 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 [[Genuine Human Hide|magic cloaks]] that only work if when worn by the 'donor'.
* [[Fluffy the Terrible]]: One Blood of Vol sect is called "Cult of Life".
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* [[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.
* [[Healing Factor]]: There's a shifter feat for this. The otherwise lame Warshaper [[Prestige Class]] inadvertently gives Changelings this among other powers.
* [[Here There Be Dragons]]: The continent of Argonnessen houses 99% of all the dragons in the world.
* [[Hijacked by Jesus]]: The Sovereign Host uses this tactic.
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* [[I Am Not a Gun]]: The warforged. Unless, of course, they embrace it. Which some, like warforged juggernauts, do.
* [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place]]: The Mournland.
* [[Immortality Immorality]]: Averted with the deathless, positive-energy-charged elven undead.
* [[Impossibly Cool Weapon]]: The double-bladed scimitar of the Valaes Tairn elves.
** 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.
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* [[In the Doldrums]]: Dollurh.
* [[Item Caddy]]: The artificer.
* [[Knight Templar]]: Many of the followers of the Silver Flame, especially in their anti-lycanthrope inquisition, which killed thousands (though not necessarily unjustly).
* [[Kung Fu Wizard]]: The kalashtar practice kung fu psionics. Some of them. Others are just [[Squishy Wizard|Squishy Psions]].
* [[Land of the Shattered Empire]]: ''Eberron'' is set a few years after most of the countries that used to make up the Empire of Galifar have finally made an uneasy peace following one of them being destroyed overnight in mysterious circumstances. Galifar left behind [[Global Currency|standardized coinage]] and (now unenforceable) agreement of checks and balances on the [[Mega Corp|Dragonmark Houses]], though railways, major roads, the primary language, and many other institutions are attributed to the still extant Dragonmark Houses. Since the Five Nations can't move militarily without fear of breaking the truce, [[Sealed Evil in A Can]] and other international threats must be solved by the player characters.
* [[Law Enforcement, Inc.]]: House Medani and in certain areas, House Deneith.
* [[Left
* [[Legacy Immortality]]: King Kaius I poses as his descendants, though is actually kind of immortal.
* [[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.
* [[Like a Badass Out of Hell]]: It's quite possible to escape Dollurh.
* [[Lilliputian Warriors]]: The halflings of the Talenta Plains.
* [[Loads and Loads of Races]]: Type 2. Everything in D&D has a place in Eberron.
* [[Loophole Abuse]]: The Dragonmark houses, bar Deneith, are forbidden from maintaining armies. Tharashk cut in on the mercenary business by becoming a ''broker'' for independent mercenaries while not having any forces of its own.
** One point mentioned in reference books is that the continent spanning empire that would enforce the various edicts on the houses no longer exists. Some houses (or at least senior members) are quite willing to see how far they can stretch things before anyone calls them out.
* [[Luck Manipulation Mechanic]]: Action Points in 3rd and 5th Edition. 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.
* [[Made of Phlebotinum]]: '''''Eberron''''''s [[Dungeon Punk]] world comes to mind as an especially obvious example of this trope. Without that magical-flavored [[Phlebotinum]], everything in that world would fall apart ''hard''. It's pretty much [[Made of Phlebotinum]].
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* [[Medieval Stasis]]: Averted. Society advances in Eberron, which is described as "post-medieval".
* [[Medusa]]: They have a culture of their own and various customs relating to the eyes. Most live in Droaam.
* [[Mega Corp]]: The Dragonmarked Houses can be used this way, with some favoring it more than others.
* [[Merchant City]]: Syrania in 4E.
* [[Metaplot]]: Averted. The setting does not advance with adventures, novels or new sourcebooks and only direct sequels consider previous story advancement canon. Some [[Executive Meddling|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.
* [[Mister Seahorse]]: Changelings, thanks to their doppelganger heritage.
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* [[Mordor]]: The Mournland.
* [[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.
* [[Muscles Are Meaningless]]: Jaela is a minor example due to poor scaling and sticking to normal NPC scores despite her exceptional status. She's an 11 year old girl with "slim shoulders", who has a strength score of 8 and size of "medium", enabling her to lift '''160 pounds''' over her head and still stagger around.
* [[Mundane Utility]]: The Magewright NPC class.
* [[My Grandson, Myself]]: King Kaius III (aka King Kaius I), who poses as his son to avoid [[Our Vampires Are Different|uncomfortable questions]] about his lack of aging.
* [[Mythical Motifs]]: The Dragonmarked Houses.
* [[Nay Theist]]: The Blood of Vol believes in obtaining divinity and immortality for oneself and that, even if gods exist, worshiping them is merely a distraction from presuming one's own divinity.
* [[Nebulous Evil Organization]]: [[Diabolical Mastermind|The Aurum]], [[Bad Powers, Bad People|House Tarkanan]], [[Our Demons Are Different|the Lords of Dust]]... Even the Dragonmark Houses can be used as [[Cyberpunk]] style [[Mega Corp]]s, so it's probably easier to list which international organizations ''aren't'' NEOs.
* [[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.
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* [[No Delays for the Wicked]]: Riedra keeps things running smoothly.
* [[Non-Human Undead]]: The Deathless of Aerenal.
* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]: Deliberate, though Keith Baker has given the ones he uses. The five nations are named after people, which helps to ''some'' degree like making it clear Breland, named after its first modern ruler Brey ir’Wynarn, should be "Brey Land".
* [[Not-So-Safe Harbor]]: Stormreach. Which is also easily the most used port on Xen'Drik.
* [[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]]:
* [[Organic Technology]]: Daelkyr and their fleshcraft.
* [[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!
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* [[Power Tattoo]]: The dragonmarks. Which are really more like birthmarks that appear later in life.
* [[Praetorian Guard]]: There are a lot of examples of these.
* [[Private Military Contractors]]: Various. House Deneith is the most famous and licenses most of them.
* [[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 [[The Chessmaster|Chessmasters]] of the world.)
* [[Prophet Eyes]]: Kalashtar and the Inspired.
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* [[The Nothing After Death]]: Dollurh.
* [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]
* [[The Only One]]: Most NPCs are low level characters with NPC classes, the few good aligned powerhouses have some kind of impaired mobility, and armies can't be mobilized without reigniting the war. Thus the PCs are the only ones capable of handling any major disasters.
* [[The Order]]: The Knights Arcane.
* [[The Right Hand of Doom]]: The battlefist.
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* [[The Sleepless]]: Warforged.
* [[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 {{spoiler|(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
* [[Touched by Vorlons]]: The kalashtar origin story.
* [[Traintop Battle]]: One of the reasons why the Lightning Rail exists.
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* [[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.
* [[
* [[Ultimate Evil]]: ''Khyber, the Dragon Below.''
* [[Undead Tax Exemption]]: {{spoiler|King Kaius III.}}
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
[[Category:Tabletop Games]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Tabletop Games]]
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