Eberron
Scope
The motivation behind building Eberron
I adore the Eberron campaign setting created by Keith Baker. This project is both a love letter to the world of Eberron and a (hopefully) useful tool for curious folks to explore the world using the mechanics and features afforded by WorldAnvil.
The goal of the project
Personally, I’m hoping to create a guide for my own reference and a player and DM in the world of Eberron. Further, I'm interested in this as an exercise in worldbuilding as I fill in the gaps that are intentionally left by the original creators. I hope to answer the Big Questions left open by the campaign setting books as well as breathe life into the unexplored places between the oft-celebrated adventure sites.
Eberron's Unique Selling point
Eberron is a world where arcane magic is treated as a science. In the same ways that we have harnessed physics and chemistry in our world for transportation, communication, and medicine, the people of Eberron have constructed their societies around the use of magic. Magic is not just treated as another branch of science: magic IS science.
Theme
Genre
Eberron often is assigned labels that fail to capture the full scope or aesthetic or tone of the world: steampunk, high fantasy, etc. One of my favorite things about Eberron is that it is diverse and varied enough that you can tell any sort of story you'd want. That being said, themes of noir mystery, swashbuckling adventure, and political intrigue are particularly interesting to me. There's a lot of technology that could be called "Clockwork-Punk" or "Arcane-Punk", but just throwing "Punk" after a noun doesn't fully encapsulate the vision.
Reader Experience
My goal is to express a world that feels alive and lived in. When an NPC from one city arrives in another to interact with the player characters, I want them to be able to imagine that unseen journey. When the players pass through a village that's a mere footnote on the map, I want it to feel like a Place that has People that Live there; I don't want every village to feel like a copy & pasted husk with a blacksmith, tavern/inn, and general store.
Reader Tone
I want the world that I present here to bring to life the wide-eyed excitement in others that I feel when I dive into the source books. I want you to be able to smell the fetid bogs of the Shadow Marches, sense the hidden eyes of The Trust as you explore Zilargo, and feel the wind in your hair as you ride an Elemental Airship.
Recurring Themes
A recurring numerological motif in the world of Eberron is "13 minus 1": 13 moons with one destroyed, 13 dragonmarks with one exterminated, 13 planes of existence with one shoved away, and many more examples.
Character Agency
Your player characters ought to be the heroes of their era. Perhaps they don't become THE most powerful beings on the planet, but they should play a critical role in the events that shape the world.
Focus
Drama
Only four short years ago, the nations of Khorvaire were ripping themselves apart in a brutal and protracted civil war. Today, the tense and fragile peace hangs in the balance as all sides wait with bated breath.
There are ancient evils in this world; more ancient than any of the sentient races of mortals. They may be bound or trapped outside our reality, but they are constantly straining at their bondage and vying for a way to breach into our world.
Geopolitical tensions run high. Resources and trade are major contributors. Populations of refugees need to find a home, but where should that home be. A nation needs food to feed its people, but it lacks sufficient farmland; where does it get its food when they're on bad terms with the continent's breadbasket societies?