Already a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.
17 thoughts on “Patreon Exclusive: Hektula, the First Scribe”
Hektulas ghost writers seems like the Allip, but to preserve a secret rather than a curse for uncovering one. Awesome post! Hektula is best kitty, even her tal is of a secret recepie no mortal knows!
Like any good Game Master, Hektula is less powerful without her Core Rulebooks.
Very wonderfully done, Imogen and Keith! Thank you for sharing!
“No one has living memory of these events”? I thought that one of your previous articles in this blog pointed out that the Aereni Undying Court could attest to and chronicle historical events, to say nothing of immortal records in Syrania, Daanvi, and Dolurrh. It seems like any of these could contradict Hektula’s tampering. The Undying Court is right on the Material Plane.
More recent history, within the past several centuries, could be attested to by regular old elves. Dragons could likewise record the past several millennia.
I thought that one of your previous articles in this blog pointed out that the Aereni Undying Court could attest to and chronicle historical events, to say nothing of immortal records in Syrania, Daanvi, and Dolurrh.
I was speaking broadly. You are absolutely correct that both dragons and the Undying Court could have living memory of the War of the Mark. But when we’re talking about history as it’s encountered by the people of the Five Nations, the Undying Court is largely a non-issue. Aereni is an isolationist culture. They had no interest in the War of the Mark in the first place and thus no particular reason to keep a detailed record of the events of the war. Even assuming they DID keep a record of it, they have no reason to correct things if people in Breland started teaching a flawed version of that history.
The Chamber is the definite potential counterpoint. The dragons are recording history. At the same time, what we’ve called out before is that dragons only care about humanity if it directly impacts their interests. And that’s a thing for you to decide in your campaign. Is there a REASON for the Chamber to stop Hektula from rewriting the history of the War of the Mark? If so, then that won’t have happened in your campaign. If not, then that’s exactly the point: when the adventurers discover that the history they’re familiar with is wrong, they will HAVE to go to an outside source like Argonnessen or Daanvi to learn the real truth. Because that goes double for the planar forces. The Dominion of Knowledge will RECORD history from their seat in Syrania; it’s in no way their job to ensure that the history books used by mortals in the schools of Khorvaire are teaching it accurately.
History of the last five centuries lies within the scope of living memory of elves and dwarves, but EVEN THERE you have the question of who will notice if records start being changed from what they remember and who will actually do anything about it. I’ll just note that we have a few major historical events within the last century that some people claim never happened, despite there still being living people who were involved in those events.
The idea of Hektula manipulating recorded history is a story idea. You don’t have to use it if you don’t like it; because you’re right, there are dragons and angels that could actively prevent it. The question is whether they WILL prevent it—or whether they will be the sources of truth adventurers will have to work with to repair the damage Hektula has done.
So one might call it the Eberron specific version of the Mandela effect, a “Hektula effect” if you will.
I imagine the average Brelish elf likely had a hard enough time with the aftermath of Sarath usurping his Khorovar sibling Laeren for the throne…or something, than remembering exact records
Is there a reason that you did not include Hektula’s stat block in ERLW, EE, or COE? I am so excited to have this stat block and I know others would too.
Is there a reason that you did not include Hektula’s stat block in ERLW, EE, or COE?
… Because it didn’t exist until a week ago? It’s not like I’ve been secretly sitting on it. After we’d released Chronicles of Eberron I thought “Dang, why didn’t we include Hektula?” That’s not the kind of change we can make after the fact, when a thousand people already have print copies of the book. So, I added her here.
I apologize, I made the mistake of thinking that you’re just hoarding all your knowledge of your awesome world just to build suspense : D
Thank you for everything you’ve made : )
You’re welcome, and no apology needed.
Hektula is a wizard-like rakshasa. Indeed, in 3.5, she was literally a wizard thanks to class levels. There seem to be many sorcerer and wizard rakshasas. In contrast, I can find only one artificer rakshasa in canon: Ethon Panjilcuttra, who operates the Drain Works of Ashtakala (first described in the 3.5 Explorer’s Handbook, and then further referenced in 5e Chronicles of Eberron).
Does Hektula have to rely on a handful of rare artificer fiends if she wants an eldritch machine constructed?
Does Hektula have to rely on a handful of rare artificer fiends if she wants an eldritch machine constructed?
Nope. Artificers specialize in the creation of magic items, but they’ve never had a monopoly on it; wizards have always been able to create magic items, provided they had the appropriate feats (as a random note, in her 3.5 stat block Sul Khatesh has a bunch of item creation feats). Eldritch Machines in particular have no requirements on who can create them; from the ECS, “creating an eldritch machine is not the exclusive province of high-level spellcasters. The task has no specific spell requirements or even a minimum caster level.” Hektula or Durastoran could well have created an Eldritch Machine or two over the centuries.
Thank you so very much for this addition. Will a release of the full cover image happen in the future? I love the art and can’t wait to use it as my desktop 🙂
I kind of like the idea of Hektula running the equivalent of a misinformation bot farm. I wonder if, lacking the creativity of a mortal, she would limited to amplifying existing errors and conspiracy theories, rather than making them up on her own?
Could Hektula slowly “kill” an archfey by erasing all records of its story?
IMHO archfey stories are not like historical records; often, they embody ideas that would naturally occur or could re-occur in many cultures. Archfeys are related to the truths or ideas behind the stories. Even if you erase all trace of folklore about the Forest Queen, people may still be inclined to naturally believe that forests are magical and dangerous places filled with strange creatures and beings. How do you extinguish such a concept? I think a Forest Queen or King may return to existence even if the previous one has been erased.
What magic items, other than her spell scrolls obviously, do you think Hektula would have on her at any given time?
The Hektula Stat-block is much more powerful in comparison to the normal Rakshasa Stat-block. Obvviously, Hektula is a very powerful Rakshasa. The same could be said of Mordakhesh. But I don’t like the normal Rakshasa Stat-block, it’s obvious to me that it doesn’t include Magic Items as part of the game when determining it’s difficulty, the other abilities of the Rakshasa are also just a “floor” due to the anti-play nature of the abilities, I.E. Limited Magic Immunity and Immunity to Non-Magical Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing Damage. With this in mind, how would you improve the Rakshasa Stat-block to more accurately reflect the danger of these Shape-shifting Demons, perhaps adding additional curses that they can have, more damage with their strikes, more manipulation abilities? Which path seems the most appropriate I know that you as a Writer tend to work within the framework of the system and to consider the ideas presented of other writers as “Canon” for the purposes of design space, you’ve done this before with the Commoner Stat-block, but if you had to design this enemy (conceptually speaking, not Stat-block making I’m not certain you have the skill or the know-how for this particular subject, much more than that it’s a bit unfair to ask of you this particular idea); how would you change the Rakshasa to be more “threatening” overall to its’ CR? This answer need not be exact, the Concepts to me are more important.
Unlock with Patreon
Hektulas ghost writers seems like the Allip, but to preserve a secret rather than a curse for uncovering one. Awesome post! Hektula is best kitty, even her tal is of a secret recepie no mortal knows!
Like any good Game Master, Hektula is less powerful without her Core Rulebooks.
Very wonderfully done, Imogen and Keith! Thank you for sharing!
“No one has living memory of these events”? I thought that one of your previous articles in this blog pointed out that the Aereni Undying Court could attest to and chronicle historical events, to say nothing of immortal records in Syrania, Daanvi, and Dolurrh. It seems like any of these could contradict Hektula’s tampering. The Undying Court is right on the Material Plane.
More recent history, within the past several centuries, could be attested to by regular old elves. Dragons could likewise record the past several millennia.
I thought that one of your previous articles in this blog pointed out that the Aereni Undying Court could attest to and chronicle historical events, to say nothing of immortal records in Syrania, Daanvi, and Dolurrh.
I was speaking broadly. You are absolutely correct that both dragons and the Undying Court could have living memory of the War of the Mark. But when we’re talking about history as it’s encountered by the people of the Five Nations, the Undying Court is largely a non-issue. Aereni is an isolationist culture. They had no interest in the War of the Mark in the first place and thus no particular reason to keep a detailed record of the events of the war. Even assuming they DID keep a record of it, they have no reason to correct things if people in Breland started teaching a flawed version of that history.
The Chamber is the definite potential counterpoint. The dragons are recording history. At the same time, what we’ve called out before is that dragons only care about humanity if it directly impacts their interests. And that’s a thing for you to decide in your campaign. Is there a REASON for the Chamber to stop Hektula from rewriting the history of the War of the Mark? If so, then that won’t have happened in your campaign. If not, then that’s exactly the point: when the adventurers discover that the history they’re familiar with is wrong, they will HAVE to go to an outside source like Argonnessen or Daanvi to learn the real truth. Because that goes double for the planar forces. The Dominion of Knowledge will RECORD history from their seat in Syrania; it’s in no way their job to ensure that the history books used by mortals in the schools of Khorvaire are teaching it accurately.
History of the last five centuries lies within the scope of living memory of elves and dwarves, but EVEN THERE you have the question of who will notice if records start being changed from what they remember and who will actually do anything about it. I’ll just note that we have a few major historical events within the last century that some people claim never happened, despite there still being living people who were involved in those events.
The idea of Hektula manipulating recorded history is a story idea. You don’t have to use it if you don’t like it; because you’re right, there are dragons and angels that could actively prevent it. The question is whether they WILL prevent it—or whether they will be the sources of truth adventurers will have to work with to repair the damage Hektula has done.
So one might call it the Eberron specific version of the Mandela effect, a “Hektula effect” if you will.
I imagine the average Brelish elf likely had a hard enough time with the aftermath of Sarath usurping his Khorovar sibling Laeren for the throne…or something, than remembering exact records
Is there a reason that you did not include Hektula’s stat block in ERLW, EE, or COE? I am so excited to have this stat block and I know others would too.
Is there a reason that you did not include Hektula’s stat block in ERLW, EE, or COE?
… Because it didn’t exist until a week ago? It’s not like I’ve been secretly sitting on it. After we’d released Chronicles of Eberron I thought “Dang, why didn’t we include Hektula?” That’s not the kind of change we can make after the fact, when a thousand people already have print copies of the book. So, I added her here.
I apologize, I made the mistake of thinking that you’re just hoarding all your knowledge of your awesome world just to build suspense : D
Thank you for everything you’ve made : )
You’re welcome, and no apology needed.
Hektula is a wizard-like rakshasa. Indeed, in 3.5, she was literally a wizard thanks to class levels. There seem to be many sorcerer and wizard rakshasas. In contrast, I can find only one artificer rakshasa in canon: Ethon Panjilcuttra, who operates the Drain Works of Ashtakala (first described in the 3.5 Explorer’s Handbook, and then further referenced in 5e Chronicles of Eberron).
Does Hektula have to rely on a handful of rare artificer fiends if she wants an eldritch machine constructed?
Does Hektula have to rely on a handful of rare artificer fiends if she wants an eldritch machine constructed?
Nope. Artificers specialize in the creation of magic items, but they’ve never had a monopoly on it; wizards have always been able to create magic items, provided they had the appropriate feats (as a random note, in her 3.5 stat block Sul Khatesh has a bunch of item creation feats). Eldritch Machines in particular have no requirements on who can create them; from the ECS, “creating an eldritch machine is not the exclusive province of high-level spellcasters. The task has no specific spell requirements or even a minimum caster level.” Hektula or Durastoran could well have created an Eldritch Machine or two over the centuries.
Thank you so very much for this addition. Will a release of the full cover image happen in the future? I love the art and can’t wait to use it as my desktop 🙂
I kind of like the idea of Hektula running the equivalent of a misinformation bot farm. I wonder if, lacking the creativity of a mortal, she would limited to amplifying existing errors and conspiracy theories, rather than making them up on her own?
Could Hektula slowly “kill” an archfey by erasing all records of its story?
IMHO archfey stories are not like historical records; often, they embody ideas that would naturally occur or could re-occur in many cultures. Archfeys are related to the truths or ideas behind the stories. Even if you erase all trace of folklore about the Forest Queen, people may still be inclined to naturally believe that forests are magical and dangerous places filled with strange creatures and beings. How do you extinguish such a concept? I think a Forest Queen or King may return to existence even if the previous one has been erased.
What magic items, other than her spell scrolls obviously, do you think Hektula would have on her at any given time?
The Hektula Stat-block is much more powerful in comparison to the normal Rakshasa Stat-block. Obvviously, Hektula is a very powerful Rakshasa. The same could be said of Mordakhesh. But I don’t like the normal Rakshasa Stat-block, it’s obvious to me that it doesn’t include Magic Items as part of the game when determining it’s difficulty, the other abilities of the Rakshasa are also just a “floor” due to the anti-play nature of the abilities, I.E. Limited Magic Immunity and Immunity to Non-Magical Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing Damage. With this in mind, how would you improve the Rakshasa Stat-block to more accurately reflect the danger of these Shape-shifting Demons, perhaps adding additional curses that they can have, more damage with their strikes, more manipulation abilities? Which path seems the most appropriate I know that you as a Writer tend to work within the framework of the system and to consider the ideas presented of other writers as “Canon” for the purposes of design space, you’ve done this before with the Commoner Stat-block, but if you had to design this enemy (conceptually speaking, not Stat-block making I’m not certain you have the skill or the know-how for this particular subject, much more than that it’s a bit unfair to ask of you this particular idea); how would you change the Rakshasa to be more “threatening” overall to its’ CR? This answer need not be exact, the Concepts to me are more important.