Chronicles of Eberron is my latest release on the DM’s Guild… over two hundred pages of Eberron lore and advice. The content in Chronicles began with articles on this site, but with each chapter I reviewed, reconsidered, and expanded the material. In some case this involved significant rewriting; in others, the additions are mainly art and the mechanical elements. Here’s a look at just a few of the surprises in Chronicles of Eberron!

Sentira Lenses

Over the past few years I’ve delved into the uses of sentira, a material used by both the kalashtar and the Inspired. Sentira is a psiactive material that is, essentially, crystalized emotion. Canon long ago introduced the concept of sentira armor; now Chronicles of Eberron provides sentira weapons, lenses that allow you to cripple your enemies with bolts of emotional energy. Sentira lenses inflict psychic damage, and someone has asked what this FEELS like. In my opinion, that’s based on the type of emotion involved. It’s essentially an overwhelming, intense burst of the emotion in question, so powerful that it’s a shock to your system even if the emotion is pleasant. I think the typical Inspired weapon would use negative emotions, blasting you with fear or despair. On the other hand, I like the idea of a kalashtar lens that is a blast of love; it reduces your hit points not by hurting you, but rather by overwhelming you with bliss.

Chronicles of Eberron includes a deep chapter on Riedra and on the role of psionics in 5th edition Eberron. Sentira lenses are something Imogen Gingell and I developed for the book, expanding on the idea of psionic science.

Mordain’s Little Friends

Chronicles of Eberron includes an image of Mordain the Fleshweaver working at a cauldron. Some people have responded to this saying Does he have an extra hand? Nope! What he has is friends. Dragon 364 introduced skinweavers, creatures Mordain creates from the heads and hands of other creatures. Papadaki’s image is a callback to the art in Dragon 364; there’s a skinweaver hand stirring the pot, and a skinweaver head looking down from above. Of course, these aren’t his only little friends; if you look at Mordain’s belt you’ll see that he has a frightened frog—or is it a grung shrunk down with reduce—in one of his flasks!

Akiak/Doriak

One of the questions that’s come up regarding Chronicles of Eberron is why I changed the name of the dwarves of Dor Maleer from Akiak to Doriak. The short form is that they never should have been called Akiak in the first place. The Akiak are indigenous people of North America. I don’t know how this was overlooked in the first place; I didn’t work on that section of Secrets of Sarlona and don’t know how the name was developed, and I appreciate the members of the Eberron community who called this out. “Doriak” is a term that has been used by the Eberron community; it keeps enough of the original sound for some familiarity, and Do- evokes both Dor Maleer and Dolurrh.

Riedra Map

Marco Bernadini is a joy to work with. He created the planar map in Exploring Eberron, and he’s made a wonderful map of Threshold I look forward to sharing in the future. For Chronicles of Eberron we commissioned him to create a detailed map of Riedra—including callouts that gave a glimpse into each province. The details he added to the piece are astonishing. Marco developed symbols for each of the branches of Riedran government. Looking to the Provinces, he did just as we asked—giving a glimpse of a moment in each province—but he added an extra detail, working the symbols of the planes that have the greatest influence in each province into the frame of the callout. So in this image you see the ominous gate of the Final Passage, but also the symbols of Dolurrh and Risia around it.

That’s all for now! If you’ve read Chronicles of Eberron, feel free to share something that surprised you or drew your attention in the comments.