Dragonmarks: Ask Questions Here!

Welcome to my website. My goal is to publish a new Dragonmark every Wednesday (by evening, Central time) with occasional time off for good behavior and travel. If you’ve got a question or topic, this is the place to ask it. However, I’d like to clarify exactly what Dragonmarks are and what they aren’t.

These articles aren’t canon in any way. This is NOT a place for me to provide the sort of Eberron material you’ll get on the WotC website. The Eye on Eberron articles I write for WotC are essentially content you could find in an Eberron sourcebook. By contrast, Dragonmarks are more what it would be like if you had a chance to ask me a question at a convention: informal and just my personal opinion. If I’m going to answer your question, it needs to fit this format. If you just say “I’d like to know more about the Lhazaar Principalities” I’m going to say “And I wish I had the opportunity to write more about them. If you say “What’s the relationship between House Thuranni and the Bloodsail Principalities?” I’ll say “It’s actually something we don’t discuss at all, but given that the ancestors of both fled from Aerenal following the destruction of the Mark of Death, I think there’s room for something interesting. I might do this…” Of course, it will still be conversational in tone, as opposed to a sourcebook-ready chunk about Bloodsails & Thuranni.

I’m also happy to have questions or issues that people want to discuss. Someone’s brought up what might happen if Boranel died. When I answer this, I’d love to see anyone else who’s had Boranel die chip in with their experiences. Where Eye on Eberron is an article, this is more of a conversation. We’ve always encouraged DMs to make Eberron their own. I’ll tell you MY answer, but I’d love to hear yours.

SO: The following questions would be great.
“Why doesn’t the Dreaming Dark kill PCs early on while they are weak?”
“Why’s the Church of the Silver Flame allow evil people to be priests?”
“What’s your favorite theory about the Mourning?”
“What’s the point of having the Mourning in the setting?
“Who do you think would win the next war?”
“Why is Queen Aurala so unlikeable?”
“Do planes like Fernia have civilizations?”

The following questions AREN’T so likely to get answered.
“Can you tell us more about the planes?”
“I’d like (game system) stats for the (insert thing here).”
“I’d like to know more about Zilargo.”
… again, either too general or too concrete (in the case of stats).

I look forward to your questions!

4 thoughts on “Dragonmarks: Ask Questions Here!

  1. Hi Keith! Love the setting, been playing on and off in it since it was released.

    Regarding the Inspired and Dal Quor, could you tell us a little bit more about how Inspired are “born”? I know the Chosen were bred to be susceptible to possession, but how does that possession happen? Is there some sort of selection process and ritual to bring the Quori spirit from Dal Quor into the Chosen’s body? Or maybe the Quori spirit just finds a host it likes while the host is dreaming and ‘rides’ the dream-self back into its body?

    I’m running a setting where the Inspired will be the Big Bad. I’m tweaking a lot (heavily borrowing from Stargate SG-1 in this campaign) but would like to keep the basics along the same line, or at least have a baseline to play off of.

    Thanks a ton!

    • Each Chosen bloodline is genetically attuned to a particular spirit, and their family has been bonded to that spirit for centuries. As such, as they are growing up they train in the skills that are useful to that spirit. Within Dal Quor the Chosen are essentially flagged for the Quori; it automatically knows about a new host, and it COULD possess the vessel at any time. However, I suspect there’s probably a formal ceremony of Inspiration that takes place after the vessel has demonstrated mastery in a core set of skills.

      The main thing is that important Quori have multiple Chosen vessels at the same time. This allows the Quori to quickly move between locations; vessels can be stationed in different provinces, and the Quori possesses the body that’s most useful to them. This is why it’s important for them to master a core set of skills; they can act as a proxy for the Quori even when they aren’t possessed.

      Now: this is the case with the important Quori who have Chosen lines specially attuned to them. Less important Quori would be granted a host from a Chosen line. But the Chosen would have to voluntarily accept the possession, which means that there would need to be a formal ceremony, and the quori couldn’t switch between hosts so casually; they might only have a single host.

      • Thanks so much for replying, and so quickly! Great stuff. This definitely gives me a great starting point for building up their society to fit my vision as a DM. I didn’t know they could switch hosts, and that will make them even more alien. With the Inspired being stand-ins for the Goa’uld, I can only imagine how much formidable an enemy a Goa’uld who could host-hop at will would be.

        Thanks again, keep up the great work! I really, really appreciate and admire how committed you are to your setting and its fans even after all this time. Kudos.

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