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Don't tell anybody, but for as much as I like Paizo's APs, I don't care much for Golarion.
What I do like is Eberron, and I've been keeping an eye on what APs work best in that setting. I'm not opposed to fudging the setting a bit to taste, though, and with that in mind, these are how I'd adapt some of Paizo APs to fit in Eberron:
(some spoilers involved)
I think those are the only four I'm considering. Carrion Crown or Council of Thieves might work, but I don't know enough about either of them to really say for sure. Second Darkness, Legacy of Fire and Jade Regent are too Golarion-specific to want to even try adapting to another world.
How about y'all? Any other Eberron fans have any thoughts or past successes in adapting Paizo's APs to that world?
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AP starts in Karrnath
Karrnath - Korovsa
Talenta Plains or The Mournland - Cinderlands
King Kaius - Queen Ileosa
Tribal Halfings (Talenta Plains) or Warforged (Mournland) - Shoanti
Rekkenmark - Sable Marines
White Lions - The Guard
Emerald Claw - Red Mantis
Blood of Vol - The Gray Maidens
House Deneith - Hellknights
House Jorasco (exorciates)- Plague Doctors & Doctor Davauls
The Twelve - The Acadamae
Nice, Xenomorph 27!
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Were I to run any of the Pathfinder APs in the Eberron setting (which I am a gigantic fan of), it would be Rise of the Runelords, and I would repurpose the Runelords to be Eldritch Giants (from Secrets of Xen'Drik) who went into slumber to avoid the destruction of their kingdom at the hands of the Quori.
Imagining Karzoug as a towering giant with a polearm is pretty amazing. Maybe instead of being "Sin" based the Runelords could each be based on one of Eberron's moons (thereby in a sense the Dragonmarks.) Perhaps these ancient "Runelords" were the first Marked houses in ancient times and now their power has been divested to "lesser beings." I'd probably also rename the AP something interesting.
As for the other APs:
I would set it in Aundair and replace Queen Ileosa with Queen Aurala. Create the Gray Maidens in-game just as they are created in Curse of the Crimson Throne. You could have Kazavon be an imprisoned Rakshasa Rajah.
Hardly any changes really need to be made. The "drow" in the story can certainly be subterranean drow who fled Xen'Drik and developed along different lines than the drow of that land, becoming twisted by Khyber.
Then, were I feeling bold, they wouldn't be trying to drop a rock on the world. No, they'd be trying to recreate the mourning. That would up the stakes considerably for the whole world.
I'd set Council of Thieves in Throneport, which is perfectly set up for a political drama where multiple parties are trying to vie for control of a powerful and ancient city. Little else would need to change in terms of the villains, Mammon could easily be a Rajah.
Set this in Xen'Drik and go to down, so little was established of Xen'Drik that Ydersius could easily just slot in somewhere, though making him a Rakshasa Rajah (or maybe a Daelkyr lord) would be necessary instead of a deity.
While the climate is different, you could conceivably run Skull & Shackles up in the Lhazaar Principalities, with Karrnath filling Cheliax's role.
I love the idea mentioned upthread about Kingmaker in the Eldeen Reaches, and this is exactly what I would do. Xen'Drik would be easy, but way less flavorful, especially if it happens after an Aundairian "Curse of the Crimson Throne."
Here's where things get tricky. Sarlona is the obvious "Far East" of Eberron in the best possible sense, but the entire continent is ruled by the Quori, which makes a Jade Regent campaign there far more tricky. It would be a huge world-changer if the PCs managed to overthrow a vassal nation of Sarlona, but if that's something you're comfortable with, I'd say go for it.
Making the "Caravan" trip across the crown of the world instead a journey by ship across the ocean, and then a land journey across Sarlona as I don't think Sarlona physically connects to Everice or Frostfell.
Turning the Five Storms into agents of the Dreaming Dark is also terrifying and sinister. Perhaps Ameiko could be a Kalashtar!
VOL VOL VOL VOL VOL VOL VOL VOL VOL VOL.
Seriously, put it in Karrnath and have it involve a plan to return the Mark of Death in full power to Erandis d'Vol. Bam.
This one would hinge a lot on what you decided to do with Crimson Throne, Runelords and Second Darkness. I'd make the finale take place off the coast of Sharn (and honestly substitute Sharn for anything Magnimar-related) and substitute the capitol of Droaam (I forget it's name off-hand) for anything in Kaer-Maga. There's also a 'Pathfinder'-esque group based in Sharn, too! (Heck I even think they're called the Wayfinder Society!)
This one is where things really fall apart. While one of the three hags from Droaam would suffice to substitute Baba Yaga, there's no "eternal winter" kingdom that isn't another planet entirely. Furthermore, Reign of Winter eventually takes players to Earth. I'd recommend skipping this one for Eberron unless you wanted to rewrite the whole thing.
DEMON WASTES + THRANE.
Again, easy analogy there. The plane-hopping elements might need to be tuned to trips into Khyber. But this one would be super solid.
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Were I to run any of the Pathfinder APs in the Eberron setting (which I am a gigantic fan of), it would be Rise of the Runelords, and I would repurpose the Runelords to be Eldritch Giants (from Secrets of Xen'Drik) who went into slumber to avoid the destruction of their kingdom at the hands of the Quori.
Imagining Karzoug as a towering giant with a polearm is pretty amazing. Maybe instead of being "Sin" based the Runelords could each be based on one of Eberron's moons (thereby in a sense the Dragonmarks.) Perhaps these ancient "Runelords" were the first Marked houses in ancient times and now their power has been divested to "lesser beings." I'd probably also rename the AP something interesting.
This is similar to what I'm doing. I'm running RotRL AE in Eberron. Sandpoint (which I renamed to Hagsgate) is across the bay from Stormreach. The Runelords were the Giant leaders of Xen'drik before the fall. And all of the PCs are missing 4 months of memory after having arrived in Xen'drik, only to wake up in Hagsgate, on the eve of festival, with newly acquired Aberrant Dragonmarks--which I am calling the "Marks of Sin."
(I even created graphic marks that incorporate the sin runes and the Sihedron.)In my game, the Runelords were experimenting with rune tattoos, but the empire fell (to the Dragons) before the research was completed. And I get to have all sorts of fun with it. >:)
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That sounds great, Teresake! Using giants as the Runelords also allows for you to replace the "clockwork" elements of Xin's empire with original generation Warforged too!
Precisely that!
Converting some of the gods to Eberron was challenging, but it can fit if you approach it from the point of view that the gods' personalities and portfolios may have been a little different 10,000 years ago.
Xeno, the only reason I'm not 100% on board with your CotCT in Karrnath is that I had a hard time seeing the Talenta halflings as viable substitutes for the Shoanti. But since everything else fits in so well, I may try to find a way to overcome my narrow visions.
But Brookes, you've got me seriously wanting to take another look at Carrion Crown now. I really enjoyed the first book, but I'm not a gothic horror fan so skipped the rest. Through the lens of "Vol trying to repower her Dragonmark", it sounds like a real winner.
And remaking the Runelords into proto-Dragonmarked lords is genius.
Q'barra is a good place to run Kingmaker.
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To expand a bit on that Vol angle, years ago Keith Baker and I were having a conversation about Erandis and we both agreed that she isn't so much the mustache twirling villain that the books that went to print sometimes portrayed her as. She was, in effect, a teenage girl who was forcibly turned into a lich and could never come back to life thanks to the means of magic used to transform her.
Therefore, given that Keith and I both like the idea that when you become undead you get "stuck" in the mindset you were in while alive (discussed at length in Libris Mortis in 3.5) it makes Erandis d'Vol a much more sympathetic character. She is imprisoned in the mindset (and physical appearance) of a young woman. While her knowledge may have expanded over the 7,000ish years she has been undead, she is still at heart a young girl who just wants to live. A young girl who was murdered because of her bloodline.
Taking Carrion Crown and injecting that sorrowful story into it could really be exciting and tragic. And tragedy, after all, is the heart of all good horror stories.
Reign of Winter is still quite doable for Eberron. At least... initially.
Woops. Forgot to put a spoiler tag around some discussion of Reign of Winter...
For the ice planet, you could substitute the plane of Risia.
Not sure what to do about Rasputin, though. The best I can think of is to replace 20th century Earth with some ancient era of Khorvaire (pre-Galifar). That kills what makes that adventure cool, though.
Woops. Forgot to put a spoiler tag around some discussion of Reign of Winter...
** spoiler omitted **
leave earth and Baba Yaga as is, there are Thousands of planets that Baba Yaga has put her footprint on, why couldn't Eberron be one?
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I ran age of worms in Eberon. The group played evil characters working for "The Keeper". The idea was that Kyuss was trying to rise to ascension and steal power from the keeper. Was fantastic. Simple translation into the setting, moved much of the early stuff into Breland and Sharn, then jumped them all of the place for the rest of it. I even did a time loop for the valley with all the giants and dragons in it. Set it in the era when the dragons fought the giant kingdoms. The discontinuity effect from the players efforts in that event caused the epic event that ended the last war. My players were kinda happy hat they had actually brought about such a huge tragedy on the world. Evil buggers.
At the end of that campaign the cleric of the keeper who had run through the entire campaign became a Demi god as he dealt the killing blow to Kyuss himself. I used this to move the campaign world on a little.
I then ran the Legacy of Fire campaign on the progressed Eberron setting. This time the players were good guys. I set it in the desert lands west of the halflings nomads and the Valenar elves. We set up the main city on the border of those mountains and the southern ocean of the main continent. The whole campaign for this one is far more contained than age of worms was, so once I got the desert placed, there wasn't any more converting to worry about. The politics of the rest of the continent was fairly heavily ignored, though it did come through as rumours at times, to give a sense of continuity to the game for my players.
What's more, the level 20 characters from our last campaign made the odd appearance too. Dead heroes who'd disappeared after the age of worms were discovered in some parts, their tombs providing riches for the new characters. One of them even went on to be trapped in the Demi plane the characters discovered in the scroll.
Was fun, and actually less work to convert than Age of Worms.
I was planning on setting King Maker in the Eldeen Raches area, but now I've stopped DMing for a while and our group has almost totally moved to Golarion.
Cheers
leave earth and Baba Yaga as is, there are Thousands of planets that Baba Yaga has put her footprint on, why couldn't Eberron be one?
You could do that, and I've no good reason not to. It's just that I like my Eberron as a primary world and don't want to saddle it with parallel prime planes.
Clearly my stubborn views will keep me from enjoying 'Rasputin Must Die' on Eberron, but there it is...
it's all good, we all have our preferences, i used to be the same way til i invested in golarion, i like Eberron well enough (dinosaur riding halflings, necromantic elves, yes!) but there was enough i didnt like to switch (banker dwarves, vaguely racist drow, lake of human ethnicity, trains, erratic artwork ) if there is any old setting that would benefit from pathfinder it is Eberron, especially with the extra feats and expanded classes and class abilities.
if there is any old setting that would benefit from pathfinder it is Eberron, especially with the extra feats and expanded classes and class abilities.
I noticed this, very much, when I started running an Eberron game with Pathfinder. Eberron, Forgotten Realms, & (to a lesser extent) Greyhawk, seem to be "more accurate" to their stories when using Pathfinder. That isn't the exact phrase, but pretty close. Dragonlance is about the only setting that just doesn't seem to mesh as well.
To expand a bit on that Vol angle, years ago Keith Baker and I were having a conversation about Erandis and we both agreed that she isn't so much the mustache twirling villain that the books that went to print sometimes portrayed her as. She was, in effect, a teenage girl who was forcibly turned into a lich and could never come back to life thanks to the means of magic used to transform her.
Therefore, given that Keith and I both like the idea that when you become undead you get "stuck" in the mindset you were in while alive (discussed at length in Libris Mortis in 3.5) it makes Erandis d'Vol a much more sympathetic character. She is imprisoned in the mindset (and physical appearance) of a young woman. While her knowledge may have expanded over the 7,000ish years she has been undead, she is still at heart a young girl who just wants to live. A young girl who was murdered because of her bloodline.
Taking Carrion Crown and injecting that sorrowful story into it could really be exciting and tragic. And tragedy, after all, is the heart of all good horror stories.
Nice.. I like it. :)
ah!! this thread makes me want to look for the Eberron campaign guide again:) all great stuff especially from robert brookes about Vol, very insightful.
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For those of you that use Hero Lab, there is a fan made file for Eberron. It is even available for the auto update system.
I could talk for days about Eberron. I really miss it.
One of Eberron's big handicaps (to me) is that it has just enough unique traits that make using published, "generic" adventures there challenging. The totally different drow and the comparatively civilized goblins, fer instance, differ from some assumptions in many modules. But some of these APs seem like what Eberron was made for.
Serpent's Skull has Xen'drik written all over it, and I think Skull & Shackles would benefit from Eberron's gonzo magic renaissance setting over trying to squeeze real-world Caribbean tropes into a sword & sorcery setting. I'm even inclined to go take a second look at Carrion Crown. I'm not a fan of gothic horror adventuring, but the talk above about Karrnath and Vol has me really intrigued.
I could talk for days about Eberron. I really miss it.One of Eberron's big handicaps (to me) is that it has just enough unique traits that make using published, "generic" adventures there challenging. The totally different drow and the comparatively civilized goblins, fer instance, differ from some assumptions in many modules. But some of these APs seem like what Eberron was made for.
Serpent's Skull has Xen'drik written all over it, and I think Skull & Shackles would benefit from Eberron's gonzo magic renaissance setting over trying to squeeze real-world Caribbean tropes into a sword & sorcery setting. I'm even inclined to go take a second look at Carrion Crown. I'm not a fan of gothic horror adventuring, but the talk above about Karrnath and Vol has me really intrigued.
I've got the same problem. My group's default setting is Eberron. So I'll have to either adapt the APs I own to the setting, or introduce them to a new setting plus making my own adjustments to it.
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Keith Baker has a blog where he talks all about Eberron. Among the things he discusses is the fact that if you want more traditional drow, there are ways to include them. Khyber isn't the "Underdak" on other worlds.
Khyber isn’t just a set of caves; it is a different layer of reality. What you find going through one passage to Khyber may be completely different from what I find down a different tunnel just a dozen miles away. In the Forgotten Realms, the Underdark is a country that happens to be under the map. Khyber has a few of those—the lost kingdom of the dwarves destroyed by the Daelkyr, the realm of the Umbragen, the home of the Kech Ghaalrac—but you could still take a fork in the road and find something entirely different.
Personally I prefer the idea of "dark elves" having extremely pale skin - in my game world they're called moon elves because their skin is as white and pale as the moon (and that's when you'd see them).
The dark-skinned elves are desert and jungle elves.
Personally I prefer the idea of "dark elves" having extremely pale skin - in my game world they're called moon elves because their skin is as white and pale as the moon (and that's when you'd see them).
That's how the Shadow Elves are depicted in Mystara/BECMI's Known World. It allows them to infiltrate their upworld cousins who may not even know they exist.
Now, my love for Eberron does not preclude me rewriting the setting to match my tastes. Fer instance, I've reduced the gnome nation from Zilargo to just the single, warren-like, city-sized university/library of Korranberg, and I've completely deleted the nation of Valenar because I didn't need another nation stolen from Cyre and serving as a barbaric fringeland.
And yet I'm hesitant to rewrite the drow. I want to populate Xen'drik with a type of wild elf and move the drow into the depths of Khyber. However, I don't really want to mess with deep-seated expectations like that. Jungle drow are iconic to Eberron. It'd be like saying "warforged are now sentient earth elementals."
Don't tell anybody, but for as much as I like Paizo's APs, I don't care much for Golarion.
What I do like is Eberron, and I've been keeping an eye on what APs work best in that setting. I'm not opposed to fudging the setting a bit to taste, though, and with that in mind, these are how I'd adapt some of Paizo APs to fit in Eberron:
(some spoilers involved)
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
I think...
Stumbled across this thread, and like so many here, it reminds me how much I miss Eberron. LOVED a lot of the brainstorming on how to "transplant" all (or practically all) of Paizo's APs over to Eberron.
Marking for continued reading and interest.
I've been considering starting a second game (I used to GM (2) games a week ... but it got difficult with players scheduling, my scheduling, and I think another part was it was "back to back" Sunday night, and then Monday night ... and I was trying to GM (2) [different] APs. Ugh.
Anyway ... now I find myself at a point where I think I can handle GMing a 2nd game again (although not "back-2-back" as before ...) and I was considering converting a D&D module trilogy (for Pathfinder/Golarion) ... But finding this thread, as I said above, has really re-awakened or renewed my love of Eberron ... and I'm even tempted to try an AP as my second game and place it in Eberron as opposed to Golarion/Inner Sea making all appropriate changes. (Admittedly that might be "too much" and lead to the same troubles I had before).
And again like others here, I have found Roberts Brookes thoughts and insights into Erandis d'Vol rather thought-provoking ... almost to the point that I'd want to take a stab at the "Carrion Crown" AP (likely rename it to "The Mark of Death" and also likely rename one or two other parts, like the final chapter for example ... rename it to "The Thirteenth House").
Ah ... decisions, decisions.
~Dean
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Thanks for the kind words. Erandis d'Vol is one of my favorite antagonists in Eberron, probably next to the Dreaming Dark. If I ever had the spare time, I would probably run a reimagined Eberron AP here on the boards as a PbP, but I'm already running a Reign of Winter AP right now and that's more than enough work as-is.
This thread has reignited my love of Eberron and its wonderfully crafted world, though.
Thanks for the kind words. Erandis d'Vol is one of my favorite antagonists in Eberron, probably next to the Dreaming Dark. If I ever had the spare time, I would probably run a reimagined Eberron AP here on the boards as a PbP, but I'm already running a Reign of Winter AP right now and that's more than enough work as-is.
This thread has reignited my love of Eberron and its wonderfully crafted world, though.
Robert neither here nor there, I was giving some thought (today) to Erandis d'Vol and was considering what her class(es) might be ... and then I feel like I had an epiphany ... which I will "spoiler" just in case ... ;)
Dean
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If I recall correctly Erandis was statted out, in so much as her total levels/classes were given, back in the day. As for the spoiler...
Historically, Erandis was the progeny of an Aerenal elf and a true Green dragon (one who may very well have been the same green dragon that taught the Gatekeepers how to defend against planar intrusions in ages past.)
Erandis is nothing less than a full on Elf Half Green Dragon Lich. As for her classes, with already being a half dragon there's no need for the dragon disciple PrC. Were I to stat her up in Pathfinder, I would make her a Sorcerer with either the Destined or Martyred bloodline. The former representing her purpose in the Prophecy, the latter representing her tie to the line of Aaeren himself.
She was statted up at 16th, as that was very "high level" for Eberron, your mileage may vary for what level you need her at.
I would either not give her a Prestige class, or if you wanted to do a crazy take on her, give her a remodeled "Heir of Syberis" prestige class, insinuating that she had the syberis mark of death.
Also note that Erandis was not in possession of her own phylactery, nor did she have any knowledge of what it was. That was a plot point left largely up in the air by Keith.
Hey there Robert,
Yeah ... I totally "forgot" she was a half-dragon for a moment.
So, you are completely correct (of course) that at least "half" of my idea is unnecessary. Although I still like the idea of her being cross-blooded ... part of that is also unnecessary (in so far as what I had originally considered ... I like your ideas for her sorcerer bloodline, particularly ...
And, yes, I think she might have been statted out during the latter days of the WotC DDM line before the 4e "series" came about. Those cards that came with the minis often had abbreviated stats for PC or NPC style minis (particularly those that represented character classes and/or PrC's).
Hey there Robert,
Yeah ... I totally "forgot" she was a half-dragon for a moment.
So, you are completely correct (of course) that at least "half" of my idea is unnecessary. Although I still like the idea of her being cross-blooded ... part of that is also unnecessary (in so far as what I had originally considered ... I like your ideas for her sorcerer bloodline, particularly ... ** spoiler omitted **
And, yes, I think she might have been statted out during the latter days of the WotC DDM line before the 4e "series" came about. Those cards that came with the minis often had abbreviated stats for PC or NPC style minis (particularly those that represented character classes and/or PrC's).
Oh and nevermind the my question about "Martyred" I clicked on the link and found out about it. I'd likely go for Destined.
~Dean
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Of course the old timer in me miss the good old days in Greyhawk and Forgotten realms but that being said Eberron is by far THE BEST SETTING for D&D/ Pathfinder period, second only to Ravenloft!
I love Pathfinder and the way they "rescue" D&D but like the OP i too find Golarion to the be quite boring!
The warforged, the dragonmark, elemental bound object/ vehicle, the concept of the planes "orbiting" instead of just sitting there, i could go on and on about Eberron but thats not the point of the OP.
If i would ever consider starting an AP in Eberron it would be Carrion Crown right in Karnnath, that realm "beg" for it!
Replace the whispering tyrant and the whispering way by Vol and the emerald claws and their you go!
Minimal changes and very few fine tuining in my opinion!
Eberron is a SOLID setting and Carrion Crown is by far one of the best AP, you can't go wrong with these!
While Eberron is pretty good, i found it was a bit small, i much preferred the vastness of forgotten realms but found the high level-ness of many NPCs and the constantly advancing timeline tiring. i found golarion mixed both rather well (the vastness of size, not so over powered or hyped NPCs) and did it in such a way as to be easier for me to relate to then both ever did. i like a lot of things Eberron did but Golarion will forever more be my favorite campaign setting (as long as there is Kaer maga, Nex andoran, the darklands and the River Kingdoms that is)
While Eberron is pretty good, i found it was a bit small, i much preferred the vastness of forgotten realms-
100% agree. I too am ill-content with the "all borders mapped" status of Eberron (and the way all the continents seem to easily fit the dimensions of an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper).
As hinted at before, I've totally redrawn Khorvaire. Zilargo is now a single city and Valenar is totally gone. I moved Talenta to the west of the Five Nations, pushed the Shadow Marches to the border of Breland, moved the Demon Wastes to the north of Karrnath and on and on.
I've pasted Golarion's "Shackles" onto the northeast corner of Xen'drik and imported the Scarred Lands' "Blood Bayou" into Q'barra.
It's still distinctly Eberron, but now it's Eberron Double Plus Good.
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Years ago I ran Savage Tide in Eberron (in 3.5e), and while it was fun while it lasted, I feel like following the AP too closely removed a lot of the great Eberron flavour. I might as well have been playing in Faerun or Greyhawk or Golarion. If I did it again I would work harder to integrate many more elements of the setting into the stories.
I was reading my old Eberron hardcover a couple of weeks ago and it rekindled my love of the setting, though. What I really wanted to do was run Skulls & Shackles as some kind of Lyrandar airship adventure. :)
I'd probably skip the first adventure entirely, or at least strongly modify it--mostly because I did not like it at all, to be fair. Starting out from volume two with the PCs being granted (or otherwise obtaining) their own airship should be fun.
Years ago I ran Savage Tide in Eberron (in 3.5e), and while it was fun while it lasted, I feel like following the AP too closely removed a lot of the great Eberron flavour.
Ooh yeah, except for "Shackled City," I think the ol' Dungeon APs translate pretty well to Eberron as well.
Hello there Eberron fans ... looks favorable that I'll be running a 2nd game (at least for a while) and while using the PF RPG rules, I'll be utilizing a lot of the Eberron campaign setting.
(I have a TON of ideas as to what I'd like to do, and I probably won't get to half of them). :)
Anyway ... just looking or wondering for suggestions or ideas about game stats or even hints about what powers the Mark of Death (least, lesser, greater, and even a Siberys mark) might have had.
I may use some published adventures, but I think a lot will be my own work, and blend in some character development stuff to further invest the PCs in the story.
Thanks in advance for any hints/suggestions about the Mark of Death.
Dean
I'll post here in the morning. I have some notes from Keith on the Mark of Deaths powers and art for it.
Robert,
Thank you very much for your support/advice/interest ... I'll admit I was hoping you might be one of the folks to reply.
I really appreciate the help.
Thanks again,
Dean
Just giving this a little "nudge" or a "bump" (as the saying goes).
PS: Robert Brookes ... anything yet? :)
~Dean
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Okay, so! Here's the skinny on the mark of death.
This is all from ancient conversations with Keith online from back before the switch to 4E. I've reformatted it and excised some digressions, so it's not word-for-word and some of it might run contrary to what was established in the books since Keith wasn't always consulted on changes:
See, the elves who founded Aerenal were refugees from many backgrounds and cultures. One thing linked them together: the cataclysmic loss they had suffered as a race, and the determination to ensure that the greatest elves should be preserved from death. As the new nation took shape, three philosophic and religious movements took root. One group was determined to preserve the heroes of the past by becoming their avatars in the present. These were the first of the Tairnadal, and they soon split off from the others. The second group tapped the positive energy found on the island and the reverence of the elves, and used this power to sustain the wisest and most worthy members of society beyond the grave and this was the foundation of the Undying Court.The final faction shared territory with the followers of the Court, but favored a different approach. Despite the power of the Undying Court, it relies on the continued existence of living elves and outside sources of positive energy. This other faction preferred to draw on the energies of Mabar, creating undead who could sustain their own lives by consuming the blood or life-force of others. The necromancers who created these liches and vampires were the members of the line of Vol.
The members of the line of Vol held these beliefs for thousands of years before the Mark of Death manifested among them. They weren’t alone; the Bloodsail Principality is made up of the descendants of other elven lines that were allied with Vol. Over the course of generations, the Undying Court grew more powerful and influential. The priests of the Undying Court asserted that all Mabaran undead consume the life-force of Eberron to sustain themselves – that while a lich may not require blood to survive, its mere existence is a threat to living creatures. The allies of Vol called this a ridiculous political ploy—an excuse to threaten their undead elders. They were in part, right.
This tension continued to grow, and then the Mark of Death appeared. This cemented the line of Vol’s position among the Mabaran faction. They continued to research ways to improve their techniques and to pursue true immortality for their people. This quest led them down questionable paths, notably an alliance with a faction of dragons from Argonnessen. These dragons were concerned that the dragonmarks had appeared on the lesser races, and wanted to see if a mark could be made to manifest on a dragon.
The Undying Court had put up with the existence of the Mabarans for thousands of years, and the existence of the Mark of Death for centuries. The thing is, Erandis wasn’t even immediately seen as a threat. She wasn’t the first half dragon produced in this program; she was simply the only one to manifest the mark. And yes, this means that in my version of Eberron, Erandis is physically an adolescent (albeit an adolescent half-dragon).
Erandis’ dragonmark is not least, lesser, or greater. It’s not even a Siberys mark. It is something more amazing than all of them: the ultimate distillation of the mark. If she had time to learn to fully harness its powers, there’s no telling what she might have been able to accomplish with it. Essentially, she was a living eldritch machine... and this is what triggered the destruction of her line. This was the line in the sand that they had crossed.
So forces from Argonnessen joined with the Undying Court and it inevitably came to war. The line of Vol was completely eradicated, and its remaining allies either slain, exiled, or sworn to abandon their Mabaran practices. Yet unknown to the Undying Court, Erandis herself survived. Together, her father and mother transformed her into a lich. Even she doesn’t know where her phylactery is (and that's a big thing); she knows only that she returns in a new location every time she is destroyed. You may ask what sorts of demises has Erandis suffered, and they're many. There's no way she could have eluded the deathguard, and she's likely tried to destroy herself too over the course of her long, painful life.
Some of that would be out of shame/depression. A dragonmark has no power when carried by the undead. So Erandis Vol (not there's no d' prefix. Vol was never an officially recognized house, after all) is the ultimate scion of her house, the cause of its destruction, and yet unable to achieve her destiny. It's really frustrating!
Powers? Well, the Mark of Death was a true dragonmark, as opposed to an aberrant dragonmark. There are two things that distinguish these. Firstly, they can be passed to offspring. Secondly, the true dragonmarks are almost universally constructive as opposed to destructive. There are a few marks with powers that can be used in an aggressive fashion, but the point is that the pure marks are things like making, healing, hospitality – productive, positive things. Aberrant marks are either destructive or in some way disturbing.
My point is that the Mark of Death should be about interacting with death and the undead, but I wouldn’t make it about KILLING, because that’s an aberrant path. Things like speaking with the dead; animating the dead; controlling or even laying undead to rest; these all fit. It could be that a dragonshard focus item could be created that would harness that power in a destructive fashion – but that’s not the innate power of the mark.
Again, with Erandis Vol you have to bear in mind that she doesn’t just have the Dragonmark of Death, she has the ultimate expression of that mark, something beyond even a Siberys mark. If she returns to life, Erandis may be able to do things with her mark that no one else could do – raise an army of undead with a wave of her hand – but that’s because she is in essence a living Eldritch Machine.
As for the artwork for the mark of death, as far as I know only two pieces were made, and they were the two lowest-power marks and were commissioned when the first Eberron novel about the mark of death (Marked for Death) was released.
Coincidentally, the Eberron wikia seems to have those two marks, as well as two others that I can't be sure if they're canonical or not, but it may be the Greater and Siberys marks.
I'm not sure if Keith backpedaled or revised any of this in the past few years. His old Hellcow posts pre-4E on the Wizards forums appear to have been lost as are all of his old pre 4E livejournal entries from back in the day. I dunno where he's updating stuff now.
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...you, ma'am, are a horrible person. I thought was done with Eberron! This whole thread is awesome BTW. :D
>:)
I'm trying to work out a way to make it work now actually. I'm hoping I can run a PbP here on the Paizo boards of it. The biggest roadblock I'm finding is that I loathe the first adventure so much and wondering what I should do in its place.
I read in some book somewhere of a hook of a party being sent into the Mournlands (by who? I dunno, maybe a Windwrights Guild higher up?) to try and find the wrecked ruins of some old, experimental airship. I thought that would be an awesome way to begin the adventure, personally. When the party finds the airship, it neatly segues into chapter 2 of the adventure, with them requiring it to be repaired (instead of "refurbished" as it is in S&S) and then sent out on some test runs where they can find adventure :)
Can you imagine - rather than the Regatta in the ocean, the Regatta in the sky? HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE?
My next problem is trying to come up with a cool meta-plot to replace the Chelish army/Hurricane King stuff at the end. Simply replacing it all with a fleet of enemy airships isn't cool enough I feel - besides, I am pretty sure House Lyrandar wouldn't want to invite war into their prospering business. Really not sure.
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...you, ma'am, are a horrible person. I thought was done with Eberron! This whole thread is awesome BTW. :D>:)
I'm trying to work out a way to make it work now actually. I'm hoping I can run a PbP here on the Paizo boards of it. The biggest roadblock I'm finding is that I loathe the first adventure so much and wondering what I should do in its place.
** spoiler omitted **
Try dragons. I'm fairly sure they'd have something to say about fleets of sky flyers. Maye they read something in the profecy.
Cheers
Leaving a dot here, as a fan of Eberron.