Xen'Drik
It rises out of the mist to the south of Khorvaire, beyond Shargon’s Teeth and the Thunder Sea. Today, Xen’drik is a continent of secrets and mystery, a wild place full of promise and danger. In the distant past, Xen’drik was home to a great civilization of giants, and the remains of these kingdoms hide within the dense jungles of the continent. Giants of all types still roam the jungles and mountains of Xen’drik, but they are primitive and disorganized compared to the society of the distant past. The elves of Aerenal also trace their origin to these mysterious shores, and the dark-skinned elves called drow still live among the ruins of the giant civilization.
The sahuagin guard the seas leading to Xen’drik, making the trip to the mysterious continent dangerous. Some sahuagin tribes can’t be reasoned with; they attack any who attempt to pass through Shargon’s Teeth to reach the jungles of Xen’drik. Other tribes, however, make a living by selling their services as guides and leading ships through the hard-to-navigate waterway. Working through malenti intermediaries, these friendlier sahuagin regularly trade with and assist explorers and merchants from Khorvaire, and many people in Sharn have standing deals with these tribes.
In many ways, Xen’drik is a lost continent. It’s a huge place, and only a fraction of it has been explored. Ancient ruins, dungeons, tombs, and treasure vaults abound, and monsters of all types roam the land or lair in these sites. Explorers from Khorvaire have mapped portions of the coastline, but much of the interior of the continent remains a mystery.
Cyclopean ruins have been found in the deep jungle, the remnants of a bygone civilization of giants that came to an end quickly and violently. Primitive clans of giants, regressed socially and technologically, still inhabit many of the enormous ruins. Some of the ruins have been overrun by monsters, and still others serve as home to organized tribes of drow who have the most advanced society on the continent.
The Ring of Siberys circles the world high above Xen’drik, and when Siberys dragonshards fall to the ground, they land on the mysterious continent. Thus, Xen’drik is the only source of Siberys dragonshards. (Some believe Argonnessen may also contain Siberys dragonshards, but the dragons won’t let anyone in to check.)
A trade city sits at the tip of Xen’drik’s northern peninsula. Called Stormreach, it was built as a pirate hideout but now serves as the first stop for expeditions to the continent of secrets. All the dragonmarked houses have agents in Stormreach, and many have outposts and emporiums as well. Some of the giant tribes living in the area trade with the city, but the farther one travels into the interior of the continent, the more inhospitable the denizens become.
Settlements
For nearly thirty-eight thousand years Xen'drik has been an unsettled and untamed wilderness according to the scholars from Khorvaire and Sarlona. Over the past two hundred years a few settlements on the fringes of Xen'drik have emerged as points of entry into the wilds. A few of these settlements have lasted long enough to be note on a map or two. Originally a pirate hideout built amongst the ruins of the Giant Civilization the city of Stormreach has become the largest settlement on the continent as has become the primary entry point for expeditions into the vast continent.
Ruins
Ruins of Xen'drik dot the landscape throughout the continent – from the fallen city states of the giants to the drow and elven cities of ages past. Explorers and Adventurers who spend even a few months in Xen'drik will know of a dozen or more ruins. Hundreds of sites from single Quori monoliths to sprawling cities can be found across the land. It is a wild and untamed place with fabulous eldritch machines along with unimaginable treasures, still largely unexplored.
Hidden within the wild and untamed lands are the desolate ruins of the ancient Giant civilization. After battling the Quori, the Giant's civilization was destroyed by the Dragon population of Argonnessen when they attempted to use their highly advanced devices to put down an elven slave revolt.
Geography
The mysterious continent of Xen'drik is a massive landmass south of the continent of Khorvaire, beyond Shargon's Teeth and the Thunder Sea. Around the end of the Last War, agents of the Four Nations began to explore the land in hopes of making profit from the numerous relics found there among vast natural resources. South of Xen'drik is the land mass of Everice.
Mountains
- The Ash Cauldrons
- The Bluespine Peaks
- Fangs of Argarak
- The Scimitar Spires
- Skyraker Claws
- The Sun Pillars
- Tempest Spine
- Titan's Teeth
REGIONS
Jungles dominate the north-east of the continent. Deserts cover most of the north-west of the continent. The mountains are scattered throughout the continent, but are most extensive near the border of the icy waste. Along the southern coast is the icy waste.
Localized Phenomena
The Traveler's Curse
The Traveler's Curse alters Xen'drik temporally and spatially. The effect is that adventurers will find that maps sometimes fail them. On the positive side, sometimes the curse will cause a person to arrive where they need to be earlier than they anticipated. Or even better, the curse can cause a treasure seeker to find an unexplored ruin filled with treasure. No one knows what causes the curse. Interesting, it has less effect on natives to Xen'drik, like drow and giants. And strangely, the Traveler's Curse has no effect on Thri-kreen.
History
Giants built the first civilization on Eberron eighty thousand years ago on the continent of Xen'drik. At the height of these empires they covered much of the continent. The giants and their slaves, drow and elves, built sprawling cities and massive temples throughout the land.
After twenty thousand years of building their Empires in Xen'drik, Giant explorers left the continent and started exploring the world and the seas of Eberron. Crossing the Dark Sea these Giants encountered the ancient race of Dragons for the first time on the shores of their homeland Argonnessen. Fascinated by the much-younger race, eventually collections of Dragons traveled to Xen'drik and began sharing their knowledge of Magic and the Arcane with the Giants.
The Giants quickly mastered the lessons taught by the Dragons and began constructing hundreds if not thousands of artifacts and locations that sixty thousand years later have not been equaled. Growing conflict and intrigue in their homeland caused the Dragons that had settled in Xen'drik to return home, leaving the Giants and their slaves in peace. The Giants began to teach their slaves, the Elves, this magic. This instruction at first was to help the smaller Elves overcome their diminutive stature in the eyes of the Giants. In time, this instruction evolved in teaching elves more and more of the arcane magic. For another twenty thousand years the Empires of the Giants flourished in Xen'drik.
Forty thousand years ago, living nightmares from Dal Quor, the plane of dreams, crossed the planes and entered in the primal plane of the Giants. For a thousand years the Giants and Elves battled the interdimensional foes throughout Xen'drik. A conclave of the greatest Arcanists in all of Xen'drik was assembled and a weapon of cataclysmic power was unleashed, severing the connection from Dal Quor to the primal plane. The power of the weapon was so devastating that the cataclysmic result nearly equaled the damage caused by the war itself.
Magical curses, maladies, blights and turmoil afflicted the lands and people of the Giant empires. For a thousand-year the empires of the Giants sought to regain control of the land. Wars between the various empires erupted and the slaves saw an opportunity to throw off their yoke and rise up. The empires of the Giants were forced to unite against the common foe the elves, their former slaves.
In this war, the Giants again called upon their conclave of arcanists to use magic to put down the Elven Slave Revolt. With Giantish magic unleashed the Dragons of Argonnessen returned to Xen'drik. The Dragons were forced to call upon their greatest magics to stop the Giants from destroying the world. No one knows how close the Giants came to destroying the world or even how much power the Dragons exerted to stop the Giants.
In the aftermath of this war the empires of the Giants were no more. The great cities, temples and monuments of the Giants were left for ruin. Xen'drik was destroyed. For thirty-five thousand years the echoes of the conflict between the Dragons and Giants have distorted the lands of Xen'drik. The unleashed echoes of eldritch power have created bizarre monsters and twisted landscape in its path. Formerly enslaved elves fled to Aerenal. Giants devastated by the war were left shattered and hopeless. Their civilization lost, the Giants began degenerating into primitive and violent beasts. The wilds of Xen'drik returned and the glory of the continent's ancient culture was forgotten in myth and legend.
Two centuries ago adventurers and explorers from Riedra and Khorvaire began delving into Xen'drik; those that returned brought with them fantastic stories of unimaginable wealth and glory hidden deep within the heart of the land.
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