Sharn

I’ve been here a week, and it’s still hard not to feel overwhelmed by the city. The towers rise up until they disappear into the clouds. Lights gleam in a thousand windows. Skycoaches work their way through the maze of bridges connecting the towers, and up above I can see the burning ring of an elemental airship. Distracted by the sights in the sky, I nearly walk into a warforged as it brushes past me. It’s my first time seeing one, but then there are so many things I’ve never seen in this place. Over there, a tattooed elf haggles with a masked halfling, arguing about the price of lizard meat. Beyond them, a gargoyle watches from a high perch. I gather my senses and keep moving.
It’s not until I reach the lift that I realize the warforged stole my purse.
—A newcomer to the big city

Sharn is the most populous city in all of Khorvaire reaching roughly half a million people. The city literally towers atop a cliff above the mouth of the Dagger River in southern Breland. Sharn is known as the City of Towers, for its impressive skyline of tall towers, but has also been called many other names, including the City of Knives, the City of Lost Souls, the City of a Thousand Eyes, the Gateway to Xen'drik, and the Gateway to Perdition.

Description

Sharn is a vertical city. It is divided up into five distinct plateaus: Central Plateau, Menthis Plateau, Northedge, Dura, and Tavick's Landing, as well as the Cliffside district built into the sides of the cliff near the Dagger River. While each plateau divides the city into districts, the city is also stratified vertically and divided into several sections. The lowest wards of the city are called the Cogs, and if one were to walk to the heights of Sharn they would pass through the Depths, the Lower City, Middle City, Upper City, and then finally they would need to find some method of travel to the highest section of Sharn, which is Skyway. Generally, the higher one is in Sharn, the wealthier the citizens are. Each section of the city is further divided into smaller districts.

Geography

Sharn looms atop the cliffs overlooking the Hilt, a bay at the mouth of the Dagger River in southern Breland. The city sits upon the foundation of an ancient goblinoid city. Below that, a rumored lake of molten lava rests, but its presence can be felt only in the lowest parts of Sharn, the Cogs. The inhospitable outcropping that Sharn sits on allows the city to grow only in vertical height. This might have been a problem for other cities, but Sharn happens to be located within a manifest zone linked to the plane of Syrania, the Azure Sky. The manifest zone enhances magic that creates flight and levitation. This allows Sharn to have towers that rise nearly 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) in height, transportational flight, and even a section of the city that floats above the highest towers on clouds.

History

The city now known as Sharn was built upon a foundation that dates back thousands of years before humans ever settled Khorvaire. During that time, the goblinoid Dhakaani Empire's greatest city was carved into the jagged cliffs that Sharn now towers over. This city was called Ja'Shaarat. This metropolis didn't rise toward the skies, like Sharn does. Instead, the architects of the Dhakaani built a vast number of chambers and tunnels into and under the ground. As the city grew in size, the Dhakaani eventually built great monolithic buildings on the plateaus above the Dagger River that would later serve as the foundations for Sharn. When the daelkyr invaded Eberron, the city was devastated, and the goblins never had a chance to restore it to its greater glory.
Thousands of years later, when human settlers from Sarlona began to explore Khorvaire, they stumbled upon the Dagger River. The river led Malleon the Reaver and his explorers to the site where Ja'Shaarat once stood. There, he enslaved what goblins still resided in the ruins and erected a fortress. He sealed off the lower wards of the ancient goblinoid city and named the city Shaarat, as a result of stories told by the goblins he enslaved. For 600 years, Shaarat prospered and grew into a powerful metropolis once again. Breggor Firstking, the first ruler of what would become Breland, eventually conquered Shaarat and renamed it Sharn.
Over the course of the next 800 years, Sharn's towers began to rise and the city developed into something resembling Sharn today. Around this time, the dragonmarked houses began to prosper and this helped cultivate Sharn into an economic power. But the dragonmarked houses also brought with them War of the Mark. The leader of those who bore the aberrant dragonmark, Halas Tarkanan, took control of Sharn and turned it into a home for all who wore the destructive marks.
Tarkanan couldn't hold the city for long, but in the end he used his terrible powers to destroy much of the city. For the next 500 years, the city was looked down upon and the city remained in ruins. Then, when Galifar I took control of the Five Nations he rebuilt Sharn. The metropolis felt the blessings of Galifar and eventually developed into the center for trade, diplomacy, and intrigue that it is today.

Tourism

When you live on the inside low, you never see the sun. People hear “towers,” they think of graceful little spires, the sort of thing you see poking up in the corner of your lord’s keep. We’ve got those, and lots of ’em. But the foundation of the city is the core towers. The walls of these towers are so thick you could fit your lord’s castle in one. You’ve got your outside districts where you get the open air, built on the bridges and platforms that connect the core towers together. You’ve got the little turrets, built on the core tower walls and the bridges between. You’ve got the folk in the middle, who live and work in the walls themselves. And then you’ve got those of us on the inside, our districts entirely contained in the hollow well of a great tower. When you look up in Callestan, you see twinkling lights, to be sure. But those aren’t stars, and that isn’t the sky. You’re looking up through a mile of bridges and platforms crossing the well, looking up at the districts above you.
You live up high, you can touch the sky. In the middle you can still see the sun. Down on the inside low, all we have is gloom and the constant drip, water and worse descending from the city above us.
—A street urchin describing Sharn
Sharn is the most cosmopolitan city on the continent. Describing all the activities and offerings in the city could fill an entire book. Here’s a summary of what you need to know to appreciate the city to the fullest.

Maps

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  Sharn

  All the major themes of Eberron are manifest in the great city of Sharn. It’s a place of magic, with skycoaches circling mile-high towers and mystic forges toiling endlessly in the bowels. It’s a place of adventure and intrigue. A fallen angel is gathering minions in the ruins below the city. A gang war is gaining strength in Callestan. The corpse of a murdered aristocrat has just been discovered in a floating mansion. A Cannith artificer is experimenting with a planar gateway—and something is about to go terribly wrong. All of these adventures and a hundred more are waiting in the City of Towers.

Location under

Breland