Sharn

Sham is the largest city in Khorvaire, with a population of half a million people. Humans make up about a third of that number, and dwarves are a sixth of it; the rest is a blend of every race found across Khorvaire. Halflings, elves, and gnomes all have a significant presence in the city, but even kalashtar and changelings have communi­ties in Sham. Beyond the permanent population, tens of thousands of people pass through Sham every day. Ref­ugees from the war still find their way to the city, along with tourists, spies, merchants, and folk hoping to find their fortune in the grandest city in Eberron.

Demographics

• Humans 33%
  
• Dwarves 17%
  
• Halflings 10%
  
• Goblinoids 9%
  
• Gnomes 8%
  
• Elves 6%
  
• Half-elves 5%
• Shifters 4%
• Changelings 3%
• Orcs 2%

Government

Although the Lord Mayor appears to have the most power in the Sharn government, in actuality it's the City Council who appoints the Lord Mayor. The City Council also commands the Sharn Watch. The Council of Sharn is made up of a councilor from each ward in the city (although Cliffside is merged into Dura, and one councilor represents both Ashblack and Blackbones), to a total of 17 councilors. The City Council establishes laws, determines how to use resources (taxes), and also appoints high officers of the city. While the City Council holds the true power, the Lord Mayor does represent considerable influence in Sharn by being in direct contact with the Brelish Crown.

Industry & Trade

Communication Service

Need to get a message to someone? If you're not in a hurry, the Orien post has boxes throughout the city; you can mail a letter for 1 cp. Hiring a courier generally costs between 5 cp and 5 gp, depending on the size of the package and where you need it delivered. You can find Sivis message stations in almost every upper and middle ward, and if you absolutely have to contact some­one instantly, the Sivis enclave in the Dragon Towers district (Middle Central) can perform a sending spell for 200 gp.

House Tharashk has brought an innovation to mes­sage delivery in Sharn: the use of gargoyles. Tharashk has several of these creatures in its employ, and these flying couriers are a quick way to get a message across the city. If you spot a gargoyle without a burden, you can flag it down, and it costs 5 gp to deliver a letter or a small package.

Spellcasting Service

Magewrights and adepts can be found in every district of Sharn, selling their services. These costs can vary depending on the spell and the spellcaster, and they don't include the price of expensive components. People who can cast higher-level spells are rare, typically found only in the dragonmarked houses or the wizard circles; the cost and availability of such services varies based on the caster.

Education and Research

Morgrave University, though not the most respectable institution of higher learning in Khorvaire, has an ex­tensive library that boasts definitive collections of lore in certain fields, particularly arcana, dungeoneering, geography, and history. Characters seeking knowledge in any of these fields or others ought to be able to find re­sources in the library to aid their search. The university is an excellent source of sages who hire their services out on a short-or long-term basis. Even those who pro­fess to be sages but have no connection to the university tend to cluster around Morgrave, with their homes and businesses almost all located in the University, Den'iyas, and Ivy Towers districts of Upper Menthis.

Another important site for certain kinds of research is the City Archive, in the Highest Towers district of Upper Central. The archive contains exhaustive historical doc­uments of Sharn; birth, death, and marriage records; and copies of legal documents such as identification papers and letters of marque issued in the city. Access to these records, however, is more restricted than to the contents of the Morgrave library.

Those who want to further their research through some hands-on experience might find undiscovered lore in the lowest regions of Sharn, where sewers and tun­nels snake through ancient ruins. Similarly, the crypts of the City of the Dead might hold some relevant histori­cal information.

Shopping Centers

Sharn contains a number of major shopping districts. The Tradefair district in Middle Central focuses on top-quality goods-everything you'll need to maintain a wealthy or aristocratic lifestyle. North Market in Lower Northedge has a fine selection of common goods. Al­most anything can be found in the Bazaar of Middle Dura, as long as you're not concerned about the origin of secondhand goods. Tavick's Market in Middle Tavick's Landing is a center for produce and other goods brought in from the farms and artisan workshops outside Sharn.

Healing

House Jorasco operates houses of healing throughout the city, largely in the middle and upper wards. The Panaceum in Dragon Towers (Middle Central) is the primary Jorasco enclave. The houses' services use the prices in this book's introduction.

The Panaceum has an altar that can be used to per­form raise dead, but this service isn't without its risks. Sometimes the wrong spirit returns to a body, or ma­levolent ghosts or wraiths might escape from the neth­erworld along with the person being raised. Before the healers take gold to perform a resurrection, ajorasco adept will first cast augury. If this divination indicates looming disaster, the adept will reject the request.

A few divine spellcasters in Sharn can raise the dead, notably the high priest of the Undying Court in Shae Lias. These devout clerics rarely sell their services, however, and the high priest would need a compelling reason to help someone who has different beliefs.

Infrastructure

Sham is an enormous city, and traveling on foot from one side of the city to the other can be time-consuming. Here are some travel-time guidelines:
• It takes at least 30 minutes to cross a ward.
• If you're traveling between wards, add 30 minutes for each ward you pass through.
• Dura and Tavick's Landing are especially large; dou­ble the time it takes to move through one of them.

For instance, traveling from Lower Menthis to Upper Central involves passing through three wards and can take 90 minutes or longer. Not all the quarters are linked to one another by bridges.
The connections that do exist include these:
• Central Plateau has bridges that lead to Northedge and Menthis.
• Dura is connected to Tavick's Landing and Menthis.
• Tavick's Landing is connected to Dura, Menthis, and Northedge.
• Menthis is connected to Tavick's Landing, Dura, and Central.
• Northedge is connected to Central and Tavick's Landing.

Traveling from district to district involves the use of bridges and ramps, along with magic lifts-vast floating disks that slowly ascend and descend along threads of mystical energy. Lifts are mainly used to move cargo and can be up to 30 feet in diameter. Most lifts have rails but aren't fully enclosed; if combatants fight on a lift, someone falling or being pushed off the edge is always a possibility

For a speedier journey through the streets, House Orien manages a system of carriages for hire. Taking an Orien carriage cuts travel time in half and costs 2 cp per ward traveled. Flight is, of course, the fastest way to get around in Sham, cutting travel time down to one­sixth of the walking pace (5 minutes per ward). It's also more expensive, at 2 sp per ward. The most common form of aerial transport is the skycoach, but many flying mounts, including hippogriffs, griffons, pteranodons, and giant owls, can be found for hire around the city

Guilds and Factions

• The Council of Sharn
• The Lord Mayor
• The King's Citadel
• The Sixty Families of Sharn
• Dragonmarked Houses
• House Cannith
• House Deneith
• House Kundarak
• House Phiarlan
• House Sivis
• Adventurer's Guilds
• Clifftop Guild
• Deathsgate Guild
• Wayfinder Foundation
• The Circle of Song
• Wizard's Circles
• The Esoteric Order of Aureon
• The Guild of Starlight and Shadows
• Mercenary Services
• House Deneith
• Blademarks Guild
• Defenders Guild
• Sentinel Marshals
• Organized Crime
• Boromar Clan
• Daask
• House Tarkanan
• The Tyrants

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 hobgoblin 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 would build 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 hobgoblins never had a chance to restore it to its greater glory.

Thousands of years later when human settlers from Sarlona began to explore Khorvaire, the Dagger River was stumbled upon. 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 within the ruins. He sealed off the lower wards of the ancient hobgoblin 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 economic power. But the Dragonmarked Houses also brought with them the War of the Mark. The leader of those who bore the aberrant dragonmark, 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 would eventually develop into the center for trade, diplomacy, and intrigue that it is today.

Tourism

10,000 people enter Sharn every day seeking fortune and status in the big city while another 10,000 people leave the gleaming towers towards adventures in the broader world.

Being a tourist can be hazardous, however, since the Sharn Watch isn't too concerned about pickpockets and street swindlers who are targeting outsiders.

Architecture

Sharn is a vertical city. It is divided up into five distinct plateaus, as well as a district built into the sides of the cliff near the Dagger River. The five plateaus are known as Central Plateau, Menthis Plateau, Northedge, Dura, and Tavick's Landing. And, Cliffside is a neighborhood perched on the side of the cliff. 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 you were to walk to the heights of Sharn you would pass through The Depths, the Lower City, Middle City, Upper City, and then finally you would need to find some method of travel to the highest section of Sharn, which is Skyway. Generally, the higher you are in Sharn, the wealthier the citizens are.

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 hobgoblin 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 a mile in height, transportational flight, and even a section of the city that floats above the highest towers.

Watch Your Step!

As befits the City of Towers, Sharn is also a city of bridges and balconies. These thoroughfares and out­croppings can be extremely narrow or comfortably wide. Although most of them are bounded by walls or railings, there's always a chance that during your time in Sharn, you or someone you know will go over the edge. So, how do residents cope with this risk?

Those who can afford it usually carry a feather token as insurance. No token? Don't panic! Because of the maze of bridges and spans connecting the towers, there's an excellent chance that you won't fall more than a hundred feet before impacting on a lower bridge. Though this alone might seem like small comfort, it's also true that the major bridges in the upper and middle wards are enchanted with feather fall effects that trigger automatically, keeping you from crushing an innocent passerby in your descent.

Alternative Name(s)

City of Towers, The City of Knives, The City of Lost Souls, The City of a Thousand Eyes, the Gateway to Xen'drik, The Gateway to Perdition

Type

Metropolis

Population

2.5 million

Included Locations

• Upper Central Plateau

Owning Organization

Breland

Aftermath of the War

Far from the front lines, Sham never fell under siege during the Last War. Regardless, the war's impacts af­fected the city's citizens and continue to even today.

Physical Damage

Although Sham was never subjected to a sustained assault, it didn't avoid damage. On many occasions, commandos and saboteurs launched significant attacks inside Sham. The most infamous of these was the Aundairian attack that brought down the floating Glass Tower, devastating the district now known as Fallen. In any of the lower or middle wards, you might encounter evidence of the conflict in the form of a shattered bridge, a building collapsed by an arcane explosion, or an area some say is haunted because of the large number of peo­ple killed there during the war.

Psychological Scars

There are places in the city that house people who suf­fered because of the actions of other nations. For exam­ple, many of the residents of Dura hold all Aundairians responsible for the destruction of Fallen. In another district, folk could hate the Karrns for an undead attack that occurred during the war, and a different group could blame Thrane for the siege ofVathirond. These kinds of sentiments can shape the feelings of an entire district, but in the city as a whole there are far more people who have personal burdens to carry than those who feel resentment toward particular nations. For instance, on an individual level, most members of the Sharn Watch might not care about a gnoll being seen in a neighborhood, but a guard who fought on the Droaam front during the war might be out for revenge. War­forged are sometimes also the targets of this sort of prej­udice; a person whose friends were killed by warforged soldiers might resent all such creatures.

Shortages

Because the ink is barely dry on the Treaty of Throne­hold and relationships between the signatories are still being normalized, Sharn doesn't currently benefit from a lot of commerce with other nations. Problems could arise from a short supply of any imported goods, whether this manifests as inflated prices, the need for rationing, or certain items being simply unavailable. The factors of supply and demand also play into smuggling and the black market; some desirable goods might be available only through the Boromar Clan.

Refugees and Victims

Cyran refugees have filled the district of High Walls in Lower Tavick's Landing beyond capacity, and Sharn is also home to a significant number of refugees from else­where in Breland-people whose homes and villages were destroyed during the war, and who have come to Sharn in search of new lives. The city also has its share of other people harmed during the war, soldiers and ci­vilians with severe physical or psychological injuries. All these folk are most likely to be found in the lower wards. They aren't just poor; they're suffering-and they might seek vengeance against those they blame for their pain.