IFAQ: 5N Fleets, Rune Arms, and the Next War

October was a busy month, between Threshold, Eberron Confidential, and my many non-Eberron projects. As a result, I have a backlog of interesting questions from my Patreon supporters; here’s a few of them.

How strong are the naval traditions of each of the Five Nations, and which one would have the strongest navy?

In considering this, keep in mind that the existing maps of Khorvaire do a poor job of showing rivers, and there are considerably more rivers and lakes than have been called out. Having said that, even with what we have seen keep in mind that during the Last War these rivers and lakes were likely more significant than sea travel. Scion’s Sound is a lengthy border that connected all of the Five Nations except Breland. Lake Galifar is a massive body of water that creates a front between Breland and Aundair, and fishing and shipping along Lake Galifar has always been an important part of life in Aundair. Beyond this, Karrnath was the primary seat of Galifar’s navy in the north—keeping watch on the Lhazaar Principalities—while Sharn was the main point of trade between Galifar and Stormreach. In general, though, Galifar had no need of a significant militarized navy. The Lhazaar Principalities didn’t present a united threat; the bulk of commercial trade was handled by House Lyrandar; and Galifar wasn’t especially devoted to intercontinental trade or exploration.

So when the Last War began, as with many elements of Galifar, people who’d served the united kingdom pulled back to their nations. So one question is who were the common sailors of Galifar? Karrnath provided most of the soldiers of Galifar; was there a nation that provided the majority of the sailors? Yes, and that nation was Aundair. While all of the nations had their coastal fishing trade, Aundair had two key factors: the central role of Lake Galifar and the presence of House Lyrandar. The Windwright’s Guild has its home in Aundair, and Aundair was always home to the largest shipyards and trade schools of the Windwright’s Guild.

So Aundair has always had the greatest expertise. However, Karrnath had the most significant force of warships in service as the war began, which gave it an early edge. Breland—which had a strong naval tradition based on the trade across the Thunder Sea and ties to the expert shipwrights of Zilargo—was able to quickly get up to speed.

As the war progressed, the naval forces of each nation evolved to reflect their nation strengths. Aundair generally had the best sailors, and warships well-outfitted with arcane weaponry and defenses. Karrnath had fewer ships, but relied on its exceptional marines. By the end of the war, Breland had a significant fleet, employing Zil elemental and alchemical weaponry. Cyre never had an especially strong fleet, but it generally had the cutting edge of Cannith developments; my novel The Fading Dream includes a Cannith breacher, an aquatic construct designed to attack ships from below.

What are your thoughts on Thrane’s role in Scion’s Sound? I feel like Thrane’s Navy is not only an opportunity to expand on how important Scion’s Sound was to Galifar, but also I feel like Thrane could use some more interesting facets to it.

Thrane definitely had was to exert its power over Scions Sound, but that wasn’t tied to its SHIPS. Thrane brought two unique elements to the Scion line. The first were lantern posts, lighthouse-like structures burning with silver flame; manned by devout priests, these towers could blast vessels that drew too close with bolts of radiant fire. Their second advantage was their air force. To the best of my knowledge, Thrane is the only nation canonically called out as conducting aerial bombardment. Through their wyvern cavalry and other tools, Thrane had air superiority over the Sound; they didn’t need to match Karrnathi ships on the water if they could destroy them from above.

So yes, Thrane had a significant role in Scion’s Sound and they had ships, but their ships weren’t the source of their power.

Besides Thaliost, what are the other ‘hot spots’ of Khorvaire that could trigger a new large scale war similar to the last war?

You’re not going to see a new large scale war until there’s an answer to the Mourning. The Mourning is, essentially, the equivalent of the nuclear deterrent in our world. And entire country was destroyed in a day, and one of the dominant theory is that it was caused by the cumulative effect of war magics used in the Last War — that the world could be a mystical powderkeg, and it could be that one barrage of siege staffs is all it would take to trigger another Mourning and destroy Breland. Another possibility is that it was an experimental weapon, in which case who built it and could they use it again? It is this fear that holds the great powers of Khorvaire in check, and they won’t risk a large scale conflict until it’s resolved. So until then, the threat is about SMALL conflicts. Thaliost is one example. The Eldeen Reaches is another; will Aundair seek to reclaim the eastern Reaches? Droaam and Breland is another potential hotspot. Valenar is actively provoking its neighbors and is another strong contender. The Heirs of Dhakaan could try to seize control of Darguun…. assuming the Ghaal’dar don’t fall into civil war when Haruuc dies. You could also see an uprising in Breland spearheaded by the Swords of Liberty when Boranel dies, or have Karrnathi warlords rise up against Kaius.

Assuming you’re set on a large scale war, the first thing you need to do is resolve the Mourning. Someone has to find out the answer. Was it a fluke that won’t happen again? Was it a weapon, and if so can it be replicated? Assuming that answer doesn’t prevent war, a major hotpot beyond the ones I mentioned before is Thronehold, which is currently divided between the four surviving nations.

What do you think of Rune arms and how would you handle them in-game?

Rune arms are something created for D&D Online. I haven’t personally played DDO since they were introduced, so I don’t have in-depth knowledge of them. But what I understand is that they’re an offhand weapon that allows the artificer to make an energy attack as a bonus action, with a secondary effect of adding elemental damage to the artificer’s main weapon attack.

So, how would you introduce the rune arm into fifth edition? Well, let’s look at it again: it’s an offhand weapon that can only be used by artificers and allows them to make a ranged attack as a free action. Well, my immediate thought is you just described the artillerist artificer’s Eldritch Cannon. In creating an Eldritch Cannon, an artificer can make it a tiny object that can be held in one hand. The artificer can use a bonus action to make an attack with the cannon. So… artificer-only one-hand weapon that can be used to make an attack as a bonus action… Sounds like a rune arm! Now, in DDO, adventurers can find rune arms that inflict a range of damage types or have greater power. But given that these items can only be used by artificers, my response to this would be to treat the rune arm object as a sort of schema—as long as it’s in the possession of an Artillerist artificer, it allows them to summon a different type of Eldritch Cannon. So it still uses the Eldritch Cannon ability and takes the place of the standard cannon, but could change the damage type or enhance the effect.

So that’s what I’d personally do: say that the rune arm is is the common tiny form of Eldritch Cannon used by Artillerist artificers, and create rune arm items that enhance the feature in various ways.

That’s all for now! Thanks as always to my Patreon supporters for making these articles possible!

43 thoughts on “IFAQ: 5N Fleets, Rune Arms, and the Next War

  1. Can Argonth and its brethren fortresses hover over sea/large bodies of water as well or are there mostly terrestrial vehicles?

    • My personal opinion is that the floating fortresses are limited to terrestrial operations, but I could see it either way.

  2. What are your thoughts on Thrane’s role in Scion’s Sound? I feel like Thrane’s Navy is not only an opportunity to expand on how important Scion’s Sound was to Galifar, but also I feel like Thrane could use some more interesting facets to it.

    Also, while I recognize that you don’t use the Forge of War in your games, the parts of Western Thrane that got captured by Aundair bordered Lake Galifar. Makes for an interesting question of how Aundair and Breland collectively cut Thrane off from the lake’s resources http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ag/20070625a

    • What are your thoughts on Thrane’s role in Scion’s Sound? I feel like Thrane’s Navy is not only an opportunity to expand on how important Scion’s Sound was to Galifar, but also I feel like Thrane could use some more interesting facets to it.

      I agree that Thrane could use some more interesting facets to it… which is why in my opinion Thrane made up for its relative weakness in the water by investing in its air force and coastal batteries. So while they had some ships in the water, in my opinion their strength was sinking your ships with their wyvern bombers and burning them with silver flame.

  3. If there are “considerably more lakes and rivers than have been called out”, that raises some very interesting possibilities for riverine warfare. Historically, rivers allowed for the large-scale transportation of supplies to allow armies to operate in the field for long periods of time, and in the American Civil War we see extensive use of rivers for both logistics and for fire support (with river gunboats).

    On another note, are there canals in Eberron? Europe traditionally made far more use of canals than the US did, and it could provide yet another string in the web of Khorvaire logistics.

    • If there are “considerably more lakes and rivers than have been called out”, that raises some very interesting possibilities for riverine warfare.

      Absolutely, and I feel that this played a more significant role in the Last War than conflict on the seas.

      On another note, are there canals in Eberron?

      Definitely.

      • While not the types of canals the poster is probably referring to (eg Erie Canal), Trolanport in Zilargo is canonically a city of canals like Venice

    • Piggy-backing on Ogiwan; boats crewed by rowers had advantages overs sails, keeping oars the dominant naval propulsion on riverways up until the point that steam power became more reliable. Would you play that elemental river-craft are the current state of the art, or that the smaller scale makes them economically unfeasible for Lyrandar? Would skeletons or zombies be the preferred choice for a Karnnath corpse-galley? How many Droaam trolls does it take to blockade a river or harbor? Would any Valenar warbands commission a Lyrandar fast-landing craft which allowed them to send cavalry assaults across the Kraken Bay & up the Ghaal river?

      • I believe that there are arcane tools that improve river shipping and fill the same role as steamboats in our world. However, these might vary by nation and I don’t have time right now to do a thorough exploration of the possibilities. I wouldn’t just say “It’s all elemental!” even though there surely are elemental riverboats. I’d say skeletons are generally preferred crew for Karrnathi ships. And sure, it’s possible Valenar could commission fast landing craft.

  4. Not exactly a 5N fleet…but what about Valenar? They did sail here from Aerenal, and they have a massive aquatic border, between Kraken Bay and the Dragonreach. Is there a patron ancestor who was a sailor or something like that?

    • Nope, not at all. The Tairnadal DIDN’T sail to Khorvaire; they were ferried to Khorvaire by Cyre as part of the terms of their employment. While they do require ongoing traffic with Aerenal, that’s one reason they’ve formed a strong bond with House Lyrandar. But culturally, Tairnadal have no love of boats.

    • If we take it that there’s several more rivers in Xen’Drik too then almost certainly.

      Also I’m not familiar with the physics involved but would a ship sized for a Giant crew have a lot of issues with speed and maneuverability? If so then naval hit-and-run might have been an option.

      • Personally, I see the Elven uprising as being primarily guerrilla warfare. This is the reason Tairnadal society is so nomadic; they’re focused on remaining constantly in motion and on being able to live off the land. Which is not to say that they wouldn’t make use of rivers, but I wouldn’t see a Tairnadal fleet; burning giant vessels at dock or using sloops to hit-and-burn seems more likely that ship-to-ship conflict.

  5. A question regarding the Eldeen Secession. With Karrnath historically keeping the Principalities in check, and with raids on the Eldeen Reaches being carried out by bandits sponsored by Lhazaar pirates and the Karrn military, what changed during the Last War?

    It seems that Aundair, if they were a great naval power, should have been easily shielding Eldeen from Karrnath and the Principalities interfering. Is this discrepancy an in-universe problem (it speaks to Aundair’s lack of care in the west provinces)?

    Are there old soldiers and traditionalists in Karrnath who saw this working together with pirates as beneath Karrnath’s noble martial spirit, or was it largely accepted due to Karrn pragmatism?

    As a side note, I like the air, land and sea specialties of Thrane, Karrnath and Aundair (called the Triangle of Cheese at my table) here, very evocative.

    • …with raids on the Eldeen Reaches being carried out by bandits sponsored by Lhazaar pirates and the Karrn military…
      This is news to me, and it sounds like a story the Voice of Aundair would run. I’m sure it’s canon (Forge of War?), but I’ve always seen the Eldeen Troubles as primarily involving Aundairian and Brelish deserters, with secret support from Breland. The idea of Karrnath running this sort of operation across the continent and using Lhazaar to do it just seems like an unnecessary stretch. I COULD see the possibility of Karrnath choosing to allow Lhazaar ships across their lines to harass Aundair and Aundairian shipping, but a) as said, I’d think Aundair and Lyrandar would largely be able to deal with this and b) I’d see these as coastal raids, not establishing bandit armies in the interior. The split was definitely driven by the crown’s lack of care for its western provinces, but I don’t see why Karrnath and Lhazaar should be a part of that equation.

      • This also comes back to old assertion that Karrnath is the fighter and Breland is the rogue. Breland providing covert support to bandits seems right up their alley, while it’s a very subtle play for Karrnath.

      • It IS canon, I had to check because no place I found it online had sources. It’s from pg. 170 of the Eberron Campaign Setting from 3.5, so Bill Slaviseck or one of the editors (or you forgot)?

        Either way, that it sounds off to you is a good thing because like you said it seems out of character and the lack of care is enough of its own thing.

  6. Oh I love me some ships hope you don’t mind me asking some questions. Did Aundair ever have dragonhawk or skystaff carriers?

    Karrnath is noted to hire the bloodsails as privateers to compliment their fleet, did other nations similarly hire pirates to aid their initially lacking fleet? And was there any bleed over in traditions with the bloodsails and karrnath navy, such as trying to make ghostbound ships or karrnathi joining the bloodsails or oathbound to the ships?

    What submarines did Cannith develop? The Sea Dart is noted in the grasp of the emerald claw to only be one of three. Was the sea dart class ship a special espionage vessel and there are other submersible vessels? And do they need mark of storm?

    • Did Aundair ever have dragonhawk or skystaff carriers?
      Certainly. One of them is called “Arcanix.” OK, that may be an exaggeration, but we know they have floating towers, which would certainly serve that purpose — although I don’t think they are very FAST.

      Karrnath is noted to hire the bloodsails as privateers to compliment their fleet, did other nations similarly hire pirates to aid their initially lacking fleet?

      The Bloodsails are the principality immediately adjacent to Karrnath and have some overlapping traditions thanks to the Seekers, so it’s a reasonable alliance. I think other Lhazaars sold their services as privateers, but I don’t think they had formal alliances with the nations; we haven’t called any of them out as having strong ties to the Five Nations TODAY, which suggests a lack of such bonds.

      And was there any bleed over in traditions with the bloodsails and karrnath navy…

      It’s possible, but I wouldn’t say standard. Among other things, I don’t see Bloodsail mercenaries essentially saying “Hey, we’re going to teach you all the techniques that make our ships better than other people’s ships”—and on top of that, many Karrns were unsettled by the crown’s embracing of necromancy and I don’t think non-Seekers would be lining up to be bound to ships. So I could imagine a few experimental vessels that were created by Karrnathi necromancers emulating the Bloodsails, but I wouldn’t say the practice was widespread or as effective as the Bloodsail ships.

      What submarines did Cannith develop? The Sea Dart is noted in the grasp of the emerald claw to only be one of three. Was the sea dart class ship a special espionage vessel and there are other submersible vessels?
      This is my error and I’ll edit the article accordingly. I knew that the elemental submarines were presented in the Explorer’s Handbook, which is a book I didn’t work on – but since I DIDN’T work on it, I didn’t read it closely and notice that they only made three. I see no reason to change that — it’s not that I think Eberron should have extensive submarine warfare at this stage of development, I just knew that they were out there in canon.

      The Fading Dream includes Shargon’s Tooth, a submersible designed as a troop transport as opposed to a warship. It does require the Mark of Storm to pilot; in the novel, it’s an asset of the Dark Lanterns piloted by a Lyrandar excoriate. I don’t know if the same restrictions apply to the EXPH design.

      • I agree. I see eberron closer to 20000 leagues under the sea. Exceptional and experimental vessel of adventure and exploration. I can’t see it stated in the EXPH, however in the grasp of the emerald claw adventure the submersible is piloted by a gnome, might be a oversight of the author or a wink to the hypothetical non lyrandar zil airship.

  7. On canals: Mold Earth is an arcane cantrip in 5E. Digging up five cubic feet of dirt every six seconds per magewright is a massive level of digging (its over half a mile of digging every hour) and is fast even compared to modern road construction. Going by the English canal system, 5 feet is plenty deep for a canal, so you just need extra casters (or, worst case, doubling back) to expand the width. Past 10 feet wide however, you’re going to need an exponential number of casters or slower unskilled labor with wheelbarrows to expand the width simply because you have to get rid of the dirt.

  8. In your article, you say: “Was it a fluke that won’t happen again? Was it a weapon, and if so can it be replicated? Assuming that answer doesn’t prevent war…”

    What sort of answers do not, in fact, prevent war? If it was a deliberate weapon created by one nation or another, why does it matter if it can be replicated or not?

    • Plenty of ways it can’t be replicated make people conclude it can’t be replicated

      If it was a Cyrean superweapon backfiring, it doesn’t prevent war unless people find out how to replicate it and use it offensively
      If Cyre was sucked into Ravenloft and Queen Dannel made a Darklord to punish her for keeping the continent at war (or whatever Ravenloft grabs its victims for since that’s as undefined as the Mourning).
      If it was a one-in-a-million interaction between the planes and Cyre’s magic

      • Exactly. Once people know that there is no danger of it happening again, it ceases to be a deterrent.

        • It could be interesting to have a campaign set a few years later with a group of people trying to replicate a smaller scale Mourning as a way to keep the peace. Have a campaign that is about small scale conflicts left and right with the PCs in the middle of it (maybe espionage-based) with evidence of a shadow group trying to keep the peace. Then things get completely out of control, war almost starts again only for Thaliost to disappear behind the mists.

    • What sort of answers do not, in fact, prevent war?

      If it was a one-time event that had nothing to do with the Last War and that cannot be replicated, then people can return to war. The primary reason people are afraid to return is the belief that the war itself caused the Mourning, and continued conflict could trigger a second one.

      If it was a deliberate weapon created by one nation or another, why does it matter if it can be replicated or not?

      If I have a gun with only one bullet, and I fire the bullet and you KNOW I don’t have any more bullets and can never make any more, then the gun is no longer an effective deterrent.

      Again, what holds the Next War at bay is the threat of a SECOND Mourning. If there is proof that this cannot occur, for any reason, it’s no longer an effective deterrent.

  9. According to Sharn: City of Towers, the Black Arch district is supposed to be a major garrison. Is this because Black Arch handles Sharn’s naval defense? If not, what does Sharn’s naval defense look like?

    According to the Forge of War, in 991 YK, Karrnath invaded Sharn by sea. (This is also implied in page 56 of Five Nations.) Is this true, and if so, how was it actually viable to do so? How does Karrnath possibly have a fair reputation in Sharn, particularly the Graywall district, when Karrnath tried to take Sharn by sea merely seven years ago?

    • the Black Arch district is supposed to be a major garrison. Is this because Black Arch handles Sharn’s naval defense?
      Black arch is a fortress garrison. It’s built to protect the city from invaders trying to enter the city from the ground, regardless of how they arrive. It’s not specifically associated with naval defense, but if troops arrive by boat, they’ll still have to get past Black Arch to threaten the higher levels.

      If not, what does Sharn’s naval defense look like?

      Sharn’s primary naval defense isn’t at the city itself, it would be at the mouth of the Dagger (as any ship approaching Sharn would have to come up the Dagger) and would largely take the form of defending ships. The secondary defense is that Sharn is actually far ABOVE the river; ships could claim the docks, but they’d have to scale the cliffs to reach the towers, and the defenders could simply shut down the lifts.

      According to the Forge of War, in 991 YK, Karrnath invaded Sharn by sea. (This is also implied in page 56 of Five Nations.)
      Page 56 of Sharn is a pretty vague statement: “(The Lhazaar Principalities) even tried to take Sharn by sea once. Or was that Karrnath?” From that statement, it doesn’t seem like they made much of an impression. I didn’t work on Forge of War, and I don’t agree with a lot of its content, so I can’t tell you what sort of scenario the author had in mind when they wrote that. On paper it’s a crazy idea, so it would have to have involved some sort of arcane superweapon or similar concept.

      How does Karrnath possibly have a fair reputation in Sharn, particularly the Graywall district, when Karrnath tried to take Sharn by sea merely seven years ago?

      How does Aundair? Or Cyre? Or Thrane? ALL of the Five Nations were at war until just two years ago. It’s Aundair that’s blamed for the destruction of the Glass Tower and devastation of Fallen, which had a far more significant impact on the city than a recent Karrn attack. If you read the novels, there’s people that hold grudges and those that don’t. Page 56 of Five Nations says the Brelish attitude is “We didn’t fight the Karrns very often, but when we did we gave as good as we got.” Some people are willing to forgive and to try to move forward; others hold onto their anger and will never forgive their former enemies.

      • Would a naval assault from 7 years ago not be fresher in the minds of the populace than a terrorist attack from 80 years ago?

        I do not see any dedicated Aundairian district in Sharn, whereas Karrnath has the Graywall district.

        • The naval assault had no lasting effect (they aren’t even clear who did it) and the “terrorist attack” severely ravaged an entire district. Which one do you think is going to stick?

        • Would a naval assault from 7 years ago not be fresher in the minds of the populace than a terrorist attack from 80 years ago?

          What makes you think that the Glass Tower was the last time that Aundair attacked Sharn? Aundair and Breland are neighbors, while Karrnath is on the other side of Cyre; and with its skystaffs and arcane expertise, Aundair is far better equipped to make attacks against Sharn. I certainly think Sharn suffered Aundairan bombardment within the last decade. A Karrnathi attack against Sharn would be an oddity, and in all likelihood a MISERABLE FAILURE. Consider that Sharn: City of Towers doesn’t talk about any damage done by the attack, and that Five Nations has people being unable to remember if it was Karrnath or the Lhazaar Principalities that made the attack. It sounds more like something people remember as a joke rather than a bitter memory; “Remember that time those crazy Karrns thought they could attack Sharn BY SEA?”

          The next thing to keep in mind is that the inhabitants of Graywall largely aren’t Karrns. They’re people whose families have lived in Sharn for centuries who have held onto their ancestral Karrn traditions. In that, they’re like any ethnic community in any major city today—Chinatown in San Francisco. The people of Graywall didn’t fight for Karrnath during the war, and they weren’t part of the Karrnathi attack. There’s are surely people who still BLAME them for it — the Voice of Breland undoubtedly runs stories about how they’re all traitors — but MOST people know that they aren’t in any way responsible for the actions of Karrnath.

          By contrast, consider High Walls. Breland WAS at war with Cyre four years ago. And many of the refugees in High Walls are FORMER CYRAN SOLDIERS. If people are willing to welcome Cyrans into Sharn, they’re likely to accept that the Karrn-Sharn families weren’t responsible for the Karrnathi attack.

          So yes, there IS hatred and surely violence directed against people of Graywall. S:CoT calls this out on page 93 — “Due to prejudices and incidents that occurred during the Last War… the people maintain a small local militia that patrols the district.” But MOST inhabitants of Sharn know that the people of Graywall are people of Sharn, not Karrns.

  10. I’ve always thought the lack of rivers and lakes was the one geographical detail that detracted from Khorvaire as a setting. In my Eberron I’ve taken to using a modified version of the map: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eberron/comments/eg1h6r/homebrewed_khorvaire_revised_map/

    I suppose a more prominent “Scion’s Sea” might detract from the importance of The Lightning Rail and Lyrander airships. But on balance I’ve found this a more geographically rich option.

    • I like that map overall, but dislike how the Mournland covers water. The mourning stopping cleanly at the water’s edge was an important detail.

      • What was the significance of stopping at the shoreline? I know it stopped at the then-current borders of Cyre, but was there an added significance I may have missed?

        • It was established that people hiding on docks avoided the Mourning. Extending it into the waters dramaticly lowers how many Cyrans could survive.

  11. Love this stuff. Lyrandar was the big funder of my last group until COVID hit, and I had extrapolated them working on a big canal building enterprise from the bits about river elves in Fairhaven and Aundair’s need to reestablish a breadbasket after losing the Eldeen Reaches. One plot I have in my back pocket was to have a long-term scheme by a scion of House Lyrandar to use the existing contract with Aundair as cover to construct a secret leyline that would channel arcane power for himself. Perhaps at the expense of the population of several major towns and based on the principle of the Mourning.

    Yes, this idea came after rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood…

  12. It’s almost axiomatic that if the cause of the Mourning were established, and it were unconnected to the Last War itself, then the Next War would break out. But could you speculate on what would happen if the active effects of the Mourning were to cease, without explanation? Cyre would still be devastated, but there would at least be the possibility of reclaiming the land to habitability. Would the adjacent Thronehold nations grab to partition it? Would Valenar charge in, hoping to draw other nations into a fight? Would Breland seek to grab a piece, or would they back Oargev’s claim to it, figuring that that would get the Cyran refrugees out of New Cyre, and that a weak Cyran state would be a better neighbor than a more aggressive Darguun or Valenar? Do you think that there would be a Second Congress at Thronehold to decide the issue? Would Oargev have a seat at the table this time? While everyone is there, might there be an effort to renegotiate other issues? Might Droaaam be able to wangle a seat at the table by offering to politically ally with some other faction? Obviously, this is a “what story do you want to tell?” situation, but I’m curious to hear what you think the most plausible outcomes might be.

    • I’d question if there are enough Cyrans left to reclaim the full land, but adding just the human+demi-human population of Q’barra and New Cyre populations gives 130,200, a bit under a 10th of the 1.5 million pre-Mourning population of Cyre.

      • Good point. I doubt Oargev would concede it, but still a good point. You could also have a situation where the Lord of Blades would make a claim for some of Old Cyre as a Wargoged homeland. If there was anyone with the power and will to enforce it, it might be fun to have a version of the Organian Treaty from ST:TOS – any state could lay claim to a piece of Cyre, but they would have to make it habitable to a specified degree within a certain time to retian their claim.

  13. Great post! Always happy to see the neat stuff DDO did, even if there is a lot DDO does I wouldn’t use in my games.

    If I were to do runearms this way, I’d probably make it so these advanced designs that do more than the class feature be something that has to be wielded, as I don’t know if I’d be ok with one of these doing its own thing moving with legs, or usable remotely, since runearms are supposed to be something you wield rather than command. Plus hard to have it enhance your attacks if you aren’t wielding it.

  14. Forgive me if Im a bit late, but where do the Lhazzar pirates pirate?
    I cant seem to think of many trade routes in Khorvare other than the odd ship form Sarlonia. Ive heard speculation that ships go around there to trade laditudally, but given the distance as opposed to using a lightning rail that seems impractical.

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