Over the course of this year I’m delving deeper into the Dragonmarked House. Each month I’m writing an article for my Patreon supporters that explores the dragonmark, history, structure, and families of each house, along with story hooks for players and DMs to use. You can find my article about the Mark of Passage here, and if you’re a Patreon supporter, you can find the full article here—and read about the Mark of Detection on Patreon!

THE HISTORY OF HOUSE ORIEN

Most people of the present day know the names of the nations that preceded Galifar—Daskara, Metrol, Thaliost, Wroat, and of course Karrnath. But these names give the deceptive impression that the basic structure of the present day—the cultural dominance of five nations—has always been the case. When the Mark of Passage first appeared, the northwest was a patchwork of lords and leagues. People prospered based on their ability to harness the supernatural resources of the land, and on the bargains they made with fey and other forces. There were a host of freeholds, farm lords, and self-declared kings, and all of them needed something. And in this age, there were those who realized that their path to prosperity lay not in standing still—in tilling the soil or mining for ore—but rather in travel, carrying goods and news between communities. Nineteen hundred years ago, the Mark of Passage bloomed along the roads of this region, taking root in those families that traveled for a living. By this time, people knew what dragonmarks were; the deeds of the House of Cannith and the Sentinel Lords of the north were known far and wide. The new bearers of the Mark of Passage celebrated their good fortune and carried on with their work. Over the course of the next two centuries, most of the marked coalesced around three forces. The Thorn Post was the most reliable system of communication in the region. The Baynes were the most successful merchants in the northwest, while Cordamar caravans were renowned for their reach and safety. While these forces prospered on their own, the example of the House of Cannith inspired Orien Bayne to build something similar. He found a valuable ally in the Nhuli, a family known both for its missionaries and bards; Afki Nhuli declared that Orien was the vessel of Kol Korran, and the Nhuli used their persuasive voices to promote Bayne’s cause. With both gold and his golden tongue, Orien Bayne wooed the Thorns and the Cordamars to his endeavor, promising prosperity for all. It says something of talent that the alliance came to carry his name—not that of Bayne, for no one family was to be placed above another, but of Orien, whose vision paved the way. 

The Orien Alliance grew and prospered over the next two centuries. Soon the Unicorn Post was known across Khorvaire, and Orien caravans pressed further east with every year. While Hadran Vown Cannith and Lyosa Lyrriman Sivis devised the concept of the Twelve, it was unicorn riders who spread the word of it far and wide, and the Orien Alliance embraced the proposed traditions and became House Orien. Five hundred years later, House Orien supported Galifar Wynarn, providing invaluable logistical support to his campaign of unification. And as that united kingdom took shape, Baron Agate Bayne d’Orien presented the grateful Galifar I with a vision of a system of roads that would help to maintain communication and commerce throughout the new kingdom. So Orien established the great trade roads with the blessing and financial support of Galifar. These roads were indeed a boon for Galifar, and even moreso for House Orien. As noted in Frontiers of Eberron: 

The even, well-maintained surface of the road helps travelers maintain a swift pace—while traveling exclusively on Orien trade roads, travelers gain a 10% bonus to their travel pace. A vehicle or mount carrying a passenger with the Dragonmark of Passage can add an additional 10% to its pace; the passive enchantments worked into the road are triggered by the Mark of Passage, enhancing the momentum of the Orien heir and their mount. 

Throughout the history of Galifar, House Orien has been a reliable part of everyday life. Every house and nation relies on Orien shipping, and the Unicorn Post allowed people across Khorvaire to stay in touch even during the worst days of the Last War. The Passage Ring provided the invaluable (albeit very limited) service of teleportation to the rulers of Galifar. The greatest leap in the history of the house came in the Ninth Century, when Cannith and Orien unveiled the Lightning Rail. Over the course of the next century, Orien’s star grew ever brighter. And then the Last War came and shook the house to its core. On the one hand, every nation depended on House Orien to help maintain supply lines—and recognizing this invaluable service, leaders initially pledged not to target Orien infrastructure in the war. But a century of war knows no promises. Some roads and rails were intentionally targeted; others were unintended collateral damage. The rise of Darguun devastated Orien’s operations in the region, but this was merely a precursor to the horror of the Mourning. Orien is still reeling from the loss of its Cyran routes. The house is negotiating with Thrane and Karrnath in the hopes of rebuilding the White Arch Bridge. For now it is relying on temporary solutions—but the humiliating truth is that Orien usually has to rely on Lyrandar services to cross from east to west. This tension is exacerbated by the emergence of the Lyrandar airship, a development that threatens to completely upend travel and shipping. For a thousand years, Orien has been a stable foundation of life in Khorvaire. But this last decade has left it shaken, and leadership is desperately searching for a path forward. 

What Happens Next? House Orien continues to play a crucial role in the daily life of the Five Nations. Thunder coaches and the Unicorn Post rumble along the trade roads. Orien crews work at all hours repairing the damage that lingers from the Last War. But this isn’t enough. Orien leadership believes they need something to counter the rise of House Lyrandar. These are a few of their prominent projects.

• The Passage Ring. House Orien believes that teleportation is the future of the house. Who needs to fly if you can get to your destination in the blink of an eye? However, as discussed earlier in this article this is limited by the number of heirs with the Greater Mark of Passage and the fact that most such heirs can only cast Teleportation Circle once per day. The Passage Ring is working to develop a more affordable form of the Helm of Teleportation; to find a way to maintain a Teleportation Circle for an extended period of time, so more passengers could cross in a single casting; and to create a form of Teleportation Circle that draws from an independent power source. This work is dangerous. Orien heirs could easily be lost in this research; in a serious mishap a chunk of Passage itself could be teleported across the world. Adventurers could be assigned to “test drive” experimental gates, or to help acquire exotic components that could be the key to an extended gate.  
• Shortcuts. Khyber demiplanes often have entry points at multiple locations in Eberron, but the space within the demiplane itself doesn’t match the geography of the Material Plane. You can enter the Ironlands in the Demon Wastes, walk three miles, and emerge in Darguun. Baron Kwanti is fascinated by this phenomenon and dreams of finding a way to take advantage of it for commercial purposes—to bore passages into a demiplane, run a lightning rail through it, and be able to cross Khorvaire in under an hour. The nature of an adventure depends on how far along Orien is with their work. If they’re brought in early, adventurers could be scouts hired to investigate a newly discovered demiplane entrance—entering the demiplane, identifying its dangers, trying to locate other exits, and determining their locations in the Material Plane. Alternately, adventurers could be hired as guardians to protect the Orien team that’s establishing transit operations within a demiplane—fighting fiends or aberrations as workers place a warded line of conductor stones. Or, it could be that adventurers are brought in after the maiden voyage of the first demiplane train—because someone needs to enter the train and wipe out whatever’s now on board before it reaches Sharn. 
• The Mourning Rail. Baron Kwanti yearns to establish a rail line across the Mournland. He believes that if the conductor stones were laid, the coaches’ speed would protect them from the effects of the Mourning. The consensus of the Twelve is that this is a foolish idea; even if the train itself wasn’t destroyed by the Mourning, odds are good that the new conductor stones would be corrupted or destroyed. Despite these expert opinions, Kwanti is determined to proceed with this project. Adventurers could be tasked with protecting the team laying the conductor stones as they move deeper into the Mournland; with recovering resources within the Mournland that could be repurposed for this cause (notably, wrecks of lightning rails caught in the Mourning itself). Another possibility is that they could be sent to investigate rumors of ANOTHER ’Mourning Rail” that has been sited traveling across ruined rails: Cyre 1313. 

THE SHAPE OF THE HOUSE

House Orien is the most widespread of all of the Dragonmarked Houses. It has outposts in virtually every significant town in the Five Nations, as well as most of the Thronehold nations. However, most of these outposts are extremely small—they are designed to support the Unicorn Post and to offer relief or maintenance to Thunder Coaches and caravans passing through the area. Such a post might have a single bunk, a space for storing goods and sorting mail, and a trunk of holding with supplies needed to repair damaged vehicles. The most basic outposts are typically maintained by local, unmarked employees. The Mark of Passage helps people move between towns; in a small town, they don’t need an actual heir to deliver the mail to the door. Larger outposts will have a marked courier ready to run goods to their final destination as soon as they come off the coach. A large outpost will often incorporate a Sivis Speaking Stone, with a courier ready to deliver messages to their intended recipients; they may also have a Vadalis farrier in residence to care for the beasts used by the coaches and caravans. 

So House Orien has small outposts all across Khorvaire. It has major enclaves in Sharn, Wroat, Varna, Flamekeep, Korth, Trolanport, Fairhaven, and Krona Peak. The Baron’s seat is the enclave of Journey’s End in the Aundairian town of Passage; House Orien employs nearly half the adult population of Passage. In addition, House Orien has three mobile enclaves—custom lighting rails coaches—that travel along the conductor stones, allowing the house to focus its resources on critical projects (usually, negotiations involving the expansion of the lightning rail). While Journey’s End is the heart of the house, Baron Kwanti d’Orien has the wanderlust that drives everyone who carries the Mark of Passage, and he spends much of his time on his own enclave-train—the Free Passage. Luxuriously appointed, Free Passage contains a Speaking Stone (with a Sivis operator) that allows Kwanti to conduct business wherever he may be. Recently he’s installed a Teleportation Circle in the train itself. Some house artificers fear that invoking the circle while the train is in motion carries risks, but it’s functioning normally… so far. 

The Courier’s Guild

Before the Mark of Passage appeared, the Thorn Post served people in what is now Aundair, Thrane, and northern Breland. The Thorn Post was the most reliable delivery service of its age. Its riders were renowned for their determination and their honesty, and they overcame brigands, weather, and countless other challenges in the course of their duties. The Courier’s Guild grew from this seed. While initially there was tension when House Sivis developed the Speaking Stone, today Orien and Sivis are strong allies that work closely together. When you send a message with a Speaking Stone you pay by the word, and even though Sivis has earned broad trust for keeping the contents of its messages confidential, the sender still has to dictate their message and be willing to have it be read by the clerks on both ends. Which means that it’s not the ideal medium for a 25 page love letter or the details of a plan to blow up the Brelish parliament. Beyond this, you can only send messages from one stone to another. If you’re in Clifftop in Sharn, you can use a Speaking Stone to send a message to Ardev, but you can’t send a message to Quickstone; the town doesn’t have a working stone. Beyond that, you can send a message to Ardev, but unless your intended recipient knows to go to the station to pick up the message, how will it get to them? This is where the Sivis-Orien alliance comes in. The Courier’s Guild maintains corps of runners who handle local deliveries within towns; add one gold piece to the cost and your message will be carried from the stone station to its final destination.

With this in mind, the Courier’s Guild has two distinct divisions. The Unicorn Post is the largest component of the guild. This is the postal service of Khorvaire, delivering messages and packages to any community on its service map. While the popular image is of a unicorn rider racing along the road with a bag of mail, guild operations use many different systems to move massive quantities of mail. The enclaves mentioned earlier are major hubs with ties to the Kundarak Vault Network. This allows bags of mail to be passed from one hub to another. From these hubs, bags of mail will be transferred to a lightning rail or Thunder Coach; street runners or unicorn riders will carry the mail to its final destination. While unicorn riders are always marked, street runners usually aren’t. What’s most important for a street runner is knowledge of the town and reliability. As such, Orien prefers to work with families that have proven themselves to be trustworthy and reliable; in many towns, there’s a family or two that has no blood connection to the house, but has worked with the Courier’s Guild for generations. 

The Unicorn Post is the main business of the Courier’s Guild, but there is a second branch: the Outriders. These rugged individuals are House Orien’s answer to the Sentinel Marshals. They are the most capable and respected scions of the house, trusted to deliver messages or packages of utmost importance. The Unicorn Post only delivers to Thronehold Nations and only to relatively civilized areas. The Post runs to the Rukhaan Draal, but if you need to deliver a message to a dangerous part of Darguun, or to Blood Crescent in the Demon Wastes, or to someone last seen in Stormreach, you need an Outrider. Outriders will subcontract with scions of other houses as necessary to accomplish their missions; notably, if the target of the delivery is in motion, an Outrider will hire a Tharashk tracker to help locate them, and if the region is dangerous they may employ a Denieth bodyguard. This can be an interesting option for a one shot or even a campaign: the player characters are an Outrider team tasked to deliver messages to some of the most dangerous places across Khorvaire. There is no standard rate for an Outrider delivery; the costs will be set on a case by case basis, reflecting the supplies, staff, and dangers of the mission. 

The Transportation Guild

While the Unicorn Post is an iconic aspect of House Orien, the Transportation Guild is far larger and more crucial to the ongoing stability of the house. The guild has a number of major branches; ask a Scion what they do and they’ll say “I work for the Road.” These are the most important branches of the Transportation Guild. 

• The ROAD runs the caravans and Thunder Coaches, managing the transportation of goods along roads. 
• The RAIL operates the Lightning Rail. Agents of the Rail like to cast themselves as the heart of the house; they see the Road as outdated and the Portal as too small to be relevant. 
• The PORTAL oversees the teleportation circles. It is the smallest arm of the Guild, but because the house charges such a high price for its services, the Portal is quite profitable, and many believe it is the future of Orien. The Passage Ring is a separate entity focused on research and development; it works with the Portal, but the Portal deals with the practical business of teleportation services. 
• CONTINUANCE maintains the infrastructure that makes transportation possible. The Road and Rail repair their own vehicles, but it is Continuance that maintains the roads, rails, and circles themselves. This requires close interaction with the nations through which the services run, though negotiations are typically handled by the Purse.  
• The INITIATIVE develops new rail lines and expands and improves roads. As with Continuance, the Initiative works with local authorities to improve infrastructure and split costs.
• The PURSE manages negotiation and finance. House Orien transports freight for other people, but through the Purse it also engages in simple speculation, buying bulk goods it can resell at a profit elsewhere in Khorvaire. In addition to overseeing these operations, the Purse handles negotiations on behalf of the other branches of the Guild—working with Continuance and the Initiative to secure the rights to build and convince the resident nation to fund the construction (as Orien’s roads and other infrastructure benefit the citizens of the nations). Orien had a long-standing relationship with the united Galifar that covered this, but now the house is having to renegotiate these agreements. Darguun and Valenar have proven especially difficult to negotiate with. While the Five Nations haven’t recognized Droaam, House Orien has been working with the Daughters of Sora Kell—an agreement whose fruits can be seen in the trade road that runs to Graywall and the lightning rail line heading in that direction. 

Guild Employees

As the most widespread of the dragonmarked houses, it’s no surprise that House Orien has one of the largest workforces of the houses. However, the vast majority of Orien employees aren’t part of the house or bloodline. The House needs its dragonmarked scions to move things; it needs them on the roads and rails. But this requires a massive support staff—the people who work the warehouses, sort the mail, lay conductor stones, and much more—and these people don’t have to have dragonmarks to do their jobs. As noted earlier, in cities with Orien enclaves there are many families that have served with one of the Orien guilds for generations. While they aren’t part of the dragonmarked bloodlines, these are effectively a secondary layer of the house; as they work closely with the scions, it’s not unusual for members of these families to marry into the house itself. Unmarked Orien heirs often serve in leadership positions in the Guild arms, especially the Purse. But if the task doesn’t require movement, talent and motivation are more important than a dragonmarked bloodline. You need a dragonmark to pilot a lightning rail, but the regional director who makes sure the trains are on schedule could be a shifter or a dwarf with no blood tie to the house. There’s even some outer families that have gained special recognition within the house itself. Here’s a few examples. 

• The Roof Runners. The Grigoras are a family of shifters in Sharn that have long served as street runners for the Courier’s Guild, delivering messages and packages within the city. Most Grigora shifters have Swiftstride traits, and they are experts in swift and acrobatic movement, leaping across roofs and bridges. 
• The Khaar’paal. While expanding the lightning rail into western Breland, House Orien formed an alliance with a clan of kobolds who dwell in the Graywall Mountains. These Khaar’paal (Spellblood) kobolds have an affinity for electrical energy that helps them set and activate conductor stones. Currently, Orien is employing the Khaar’paal as it extends the lightning rail into Breland, but the House is seeking to hire more Khaar’paal to work across Khorvaire. 
• Orlo Matayne. The Mataynes are a family of Aundairan dwarves with deep ties to the Transportation Guild. In particular, Orlo Matayne has been serving with the Initiative for over two hundred years. Tunnels are his specialty. He has helped the house drive passages through hill and mountain, and he has overseen the construction of subterranean facilities such as the supposed location of Shadowstep (see below!). When Orien needs to shift a lot of earth, you can bet they’ll get Orlo Matayne on the next train. 

The Baron’s Council

In principle, the Baron is the ultimate authority within a dragonmarked house. Within House Orien, leaders have always sought consensus. The Baron’s Council is composed of nine people: three from the Courier’s Guild, three from the Transportation Guild, and three chosen by the Baron to represent the interests of the house itself—traditionally one from each of the three great families aside from that of the Baron. While in theory this is an advisory council, in practice Kwanti won’t move forward on a project without the support of two-thirds of the members of the council. While the three Councilors appointed by the Baron are always members of the dragonmarked bloodlines, the other six councilors are appointed from within the Guilds themselves; at the moment, there are two councilors who aren’t directly tied to a house bloodline. 

That’s all for now, and it’s my final post on House Orien. If you want to know about families, customs, and story hooks you can find the full article here, and you can read about the Mark of Detection on Patreon! Patron support is what determines how much time I can spend on articles like this, so if you want to see more, check it ou.

Over the course of the next year I’m writing a series of articles about the Dragonmarked Houses. The point of these articles is to provide my take on the houses—their culture, history, and hooks for characters or NPCs from those houses. As always, this work is kanon—it’s how I use the houses in MY campaign and may contradict or ignore elements of canon lore. I’ve already written one of these articles, about House Orien. I’ve also written an article that considers various aspects of dragonmarks and how they work. But that’s a long, speculative article, and I want to call out a specific element that I will be using as kanon in all of the articles I’m writing from this point on… and that concerns Lesser and Greater Dragonmarks.

When Eberron was originally released, Dragonmarks were a chain of three feats. The first feat gave you the Least Mark, which gave you access to 1st or 2nd level spell effects. Lesser Dragonmark was a second feat that gave you access to a 3rd or 4th level spell. Greater Dragonmark was the final link in the chain, providing access to a spell of 5th level or more. In addition, the Dragonmarked Heir prestige class gave a character with a Dragonmark greater use of its powers; and the Dragonmarked sourcebook provided a host of additional feats that enhanced marks. Fourth and Fifth Edition abandoned this approach. Instead, the basic Dragonmark feat provides access to “Spells of the Mark”, a set of spells that are added to the class list of any spellcasting character who carries a mark. These mirror the original spell lists of the 3.5 Dragonmarks, but are inaccessible unless the bearer can cast spells. The Potent Dragonmark feat offers a way around this. Instead of just adding the Spells of the Mark to the list of spells a marked character can prepare, it says that the character always has those spells prepared… and grants the bearer a spell slot of up to 5th level that can be used to cast Spells of the Mark, which they regain after a short rest. Finally, the Unearthed Arcana article presents a set of “Greater Dragonmark” feats. But these don’t provide access to new spells; they simply enhance the effects of a dragonmark, and are more like the mark-enhancing feats in Dragonmarked than the original Greater Dragonmarks.

With this in mind, here is how I am dealing with dragonmarks going forward.

• The size and designation of a Dragonmark—Least, Lesser, Greater—is determined by the highest level Spell of the Mark the bearer is capable of casting, whether through Spellcasting or the Potent Dragonmark feat. Anyone who possesses a Dragonmark begins with the Least Mark. When they gain the ability to cast a 3rd level Spell of the Mark their mark increases in size, becoming a Lesser Mark. When they gain the ability to cast a 5th level Spell of the Mark, the mark grows again, and is recognized as a Greater Dragonmark.
• Dragonmarked NPCs who are spellcasters can add their Spells of the Mark to the list of spells they can cast. If they aren’t spellcasters, my default approach would be to follow the example of the 3.5 Mark, and to give the ability to cast a spell from each level of their Dragonmark (Least, Lesser, Greater) once per day.
• While this is a good general model for NPCs, specific NPCs could squeeze more out of their marks—just as the Dragonmarked Heir prestige class and Dragonmarked feats allowed in 3.5. They could also have one of the Dragonmark Focus Items presented in Exploring Eberron. A second point is that while a player character would have to be 9th level to get access to 5th level spell slots and thus, a Greater Dragonmark, an NPC could have a Greater Dragonmark without having the power of a 9th level adventurer. The heir who activates the Orien Teleportation Circle for you may have a Greater Dragonmark, but aside from their Dragonmark they could have the stat block of a Scout.

So in my Dragonmark articles, when I refer to a character as having a Greater Dragonmark, I mean that they have the ability to cast 5th level spells of the Mark. I am not addressing Siberys Marks at the moment. In 3.5 they were an entirely separate thing from the Dragonmark feat chain, and so rare that they weren’t a standard part of the services offered by the houses… so I’m not worrying about them here.

That’s all for now! Thanks to my Patreon supporters for making these articles possible. And it’s my Patreon supporters who have chosen House Medani as the topic of my next article, and who will get to see pieces of that article as I develop it.

You’ve got roots, my friend. You’re Aundairian, through and through. Not I. Orien? We’re everywhere. We deliver your mail. We transport your goods. We bring Aundairian wines to Wroat and Nightwood Ale to Flamekeep. Today we’re dining in Fairhaven, but tomorrow I’ll eat dinner in Thaliost. I may have been born in Passage, but the road is my home. 

One of the key aspects of a dragonmark is often described as intuition—a natural talent for a particular set of skills. An heir to the Mark of Making is comfortable using any sort of artisan’s tools, while someone who carries the Mark of Detection has sharp senses and a knack for reading nonverbal cues. Consider then the gifts of the Mark of Passage. At its most basic level, it makes its bearer faster—able to run with remarkable speed, with an intuitive talent for athletics and acrobatics. The mark compels its bearer to move, and to do so with grace and precision. Heirs of the Mark of Passage are infamous for fidgeting and pacing, finding it almost unbearable to stand still. Many struggle with an insatiable wanderlust, an urge to move across the world. This is especially strong when the mark first manifests, and because of this Orien has a tradition called The Wander. When an Orien heir completes the Test of Siberys and develops the Mark of Passage, they undergo a month of intensive training, learning to harness their dragonmark’s gifts and brushing up on geography and customs. Once this is complete, the heir is given a set of traveling clothes, a good cloak, a backpack, a bedroll, and nine platinum pieces—a coin for each of the Sovereigns—and sent out into the world. They may travel for as long as they wish, whether that’s days, weeks, or years. But when they next set foot in an Orien enclave, their Wander is over, and it’s time to join a guild and get to work.    

So when considering the heirs of House Orien, remember that raw physical energy—the speed coiled within them, waiting to be unleashed. Consider the base gift of the Dragonmark, Misty Step. This is a manifestation of that same energy, that drive to move and be unbound, so strong that it can tear through space itself. In any encounter with an Orien heir, consider if there’s a way that they could be moving instead of standing still. And if you’re playing a scion of House Orien, don’t just think about where you’re going now; consider where you’ve been, how far you’ve traveled, the things you’ve seen and the people you’ve met. Discuss this with your DM: how long did you wander, and where did you go? How do you feel about the path that you’re on today? Or are you still on your Wander—technically an heir of the house, but still refusing to enter an enclave and join a guild?   

The House of the Unicorn. For many of the Dragonmarked Houses, the beast in the house sigil is merely a symbol. Few members of House Thuranni have actually seen a displacer beast, and House Sivis doesn’t cultivate cockatrices. House Orien is a special case… because every dragonmarked heir has their own unicorn! For over a thousand years, House Orien has carried goods and messages across Khorvaire. The most basic gift of the Least Mark of Passage is Expeditious Retreat; while this burst of speed is useful, it’s not going to help you travel a hundred miles. But an heir who unlocks the full potential of the Least Mark—whether on their own or by using a focus item—gains the ability to cast Find Steed. Which is to say, they gain the ability to summon their unicorn. When an Orien heir casts Find Steed through their Dragonmark, the creature emerges from the dragonmark itself, a tangle of blue and purple energy that solidifies into a mount. For at least 99.9% of heirs, this steed takes the shape of a unicorn. Orien lore maintains that the mount is the bearer’s mark made manifest—a reflection of their personality, their potential, and their destiny. While the overwhelming majority of Orien steeds appear as unicorns, the precise details can vary tremendously from heir to heir. As an Orien heir, consider the form of your unicorn. Is it lithe and graceful, or does it have the build of a draft horse? What is the shape, length, and material of your unicorn’s horn? Does it have a lion’s tail or a beard? Is its mane made from horsehair or from sparkling dragonmark energy? If you possess the Lesser Mark and can summon your unicorn using a 4th level spell slot, it gains the ability to fly. Does it simply run on the air—which is the most common manifestation of this within the house—or does your unicorn have wings? While it is manifested, your unicorn can communicate with you telepathically. While it has its own personality and identity, its memories are drawn from yours; it only knows what you know. It is a part of you—the manifestation of your Dragonmark. 

Find Steed conjures a creature with the Fey, Fiend, or Celestial creature type. This reflects the abilities, demeanor, and appearance of the unicorn, but it doesn’t imply any sort of extraplanar connection; an Orien steed is tied only to its Dragonmark, and if banished it returns to it. The vast majority of Orien heirs manifest Fey steeds; this fits with the fact that the Fey gift of teleportation echoes the power of the Mark of Passage. The Celestial steed has the power to heal, while the Fiend steed instills fear. If an Orien heir manifests such a steed, it is a reflection of their own nature. An heir with a Fiend unicorn is likely to be ruthless and cruel, dominating the people around them; while an heir with a Celestial unicorn is more likely to be kind and empathetic. Beyond creature type, while 99.9% of heirs conjure unicorns, that still leaves a rare few who manifest steeds of other shapes. Often this is seen as an ill omen, but there have been a few Orien heirs in history who have earned fame due to their unusual mounts. Iliana d’Orien, better known as the White Hart, accompanied Galifar I into battle while riding her celestial stag; in the Sixth Century, Castal d’Orien hunted brigands astride his Fiend tiger. If you are playing a character with the Mark of Passage, consider the shape and creature type of your steed. Even if you can’t cast spells and don’t have the Potent Dragonmark feat, a Channeling Rod or Dragonmark Reservoir from Exploring Eberron can give you access to Find Steed. Even if you don’t have such an item yet, some day you may summon your steed—what form will it take? Once “found,” an Orien steed is tied to you for the rest of your life. Its appearance is a reflection of your Dragonmark and your own subconscious mind. Generally, its appearance or creature type shouldn’t change unless you yourself go through a dramatic shift in personality, or if something alters your destiny. 

Phantom Steeds. Bearers of the Lesser Mark of Passage can cast Phantom Steed, but this is quite different from Find Mount. Once summoned, a Phantom Steed only remains for an hour. The summoned steed is faster than the standard Orien steed, but has no ability to fly and doesn’t communicate telepathically. Most heirs only use Phantom Steed when they need a short, intense burst of speed—or to provide an ally with a mount, while the Orien heir rides their unicorn. Phantom Steeds can manifest as unicorns, but they can take other forms. The summoning heir can’t precisely shape the steed, but they can give a general direction—unicorn, horse, tribex. 

All Orien Heirs With Dragonmarks Have Unicorns? Why Haven’t I Heard About This? This aspect of the Mark of Passage isn’t new; the original powers of the Mark of Passage as presented in the 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting include the ability to cast Mount (3.5’s version of Find Steed) and Phantom Steed. It’s just not something that was explored in canon. And part of the reason for that is that many Orien heirs don’t NEED a unicorn in their everyday life. There’s no room for a unicorn on a lightning rail or in the cabin of a thunder coach. An Orien negotiator hiring crews to lay conductor stones doesn’t need her unicorn crowding her office. Even a courier carrying messages through Sharn might find a mount to be more trouble than it’s worth in the crowded streets. Beyond this, while anyone with the Least Mark of Passage potentially could summon a unicorn, many can’t do it without a Channeling Rod or Dragonmark Reservoir. So Orien heirs can summon unicorns, and most have at some point in their life; they know the shape of their unicorn and it means something to them. But even those who can summon a steed at will rarely do unless they actually need its speed. 

Other Spells of the Mark. Most of the spells associated with the Mark of Passage are straightforward. Expeditious Retreat and Jump enhance the speed of the heir. Blink and Dimension Door expand their iconic power of teleportation. Freedom of Movement highlights the idea that an Orien Heir (at least, one with the Lesser Mark) cannot be restrained. And Pass Without Trace reflects the idea that in addition to moving swiftly, they can move lightly, dancing through the world without making sound or leaving tracks. All of these are well known and long-established. With that said, there are other spells that make sense for the Mark of Passage. Expeditious Retreat is great for a burst of speed, but Longstrider makes sense for someone who’s regularly traveling long distances on foot. The Blades of Orien (from the 3.5 Dragonmarked sourcebook) possess an ability similar to the Vortex Warp spell. This is why we’ve called out the idea that a spellcasting character with a Dragonmark could describe any logical spell as being drawn from their Mark; a talented wizard with the Mark of Passage could say that they are using their Dragonmark to teleport in a Cloud of Daggers, propelled by the kinetic energy of the Mark.  

HOUSE ORIEN TELEPORTATION CIRCLES

Under the original third edition rules, the Greater Mark of Passage provided a single daily use of the 5th level spell teleport. Under fifth edition rules, teleport is a 7th level spell, and the Greater Mark (as I described in this article, if you can cast a 5th level Spell of the Mark, I say you have the Greater Mark) provides access to teleportation circle. Eberron Rising From The Last War says “For those with no time to spare and plenty of money to spend, House Orien also has teleportation circles in each of its enclaves in cities across Khorvaire. At significant cost, a member of the house will transport passengers instantaneously from one enclave to another.” 

To understand the limitations on teleportation in the Five Nations, it’s vital to remember that a teleportation circle has no power of its own. The circle is a destination. But the power comes from the Passage-marked heir who actually casts the spell… and heirs that possess the Greater Dragonmark are few in number. A major enclave that serves as a hub for teleportation might have two or three Greater heirs. An enclave in a large town may have a single heir, and typically they can only cast the spell once per day. In a smaller town, it’s possible that there is a circle in the enclave but that there’s no one at the enclave who can cast the spell; they are a viable destination, but once you’re there you can’t teleport out… though if you have both time and money, the enclave can use a message station to call in an heir from another town, who will be able to teleport you out after they rest to restore their power; in this case, you’ll be charged twice the price, as they’ll charge you for the heir’s trip to your location. So the point is that teleportation exists, but it is an exotic, expensive service—not a standard option or something used every day for freight. Orien enclaves have teleportation circles, but unless you book in advance, there’s no assurance that the service will be available on any given day, even in a major city.

So, how do we reconcile the shifting mechanics of editions with the lore? The simplest answer is simply to ignore them, especially if you’ve only played in fifth edition. However, this is an opportunity to explore the idea that Teleportation Circles are a recent development. The Greater Mark of Passage has always allowed teleportation, but before the development of the Teleportation Circle, it was extremely unsafe and unreliable. If I decided to embrace this, I’d introduce a spell called wild teleport—a bonus Orien spell of the Mark available at 5th level. This is identical to teleport, but it uses a 5th level spell slot; it can only be attempted if the caster is very familiar with their destination; and the DM uses the following table to determine success. 

These have the same effects that are described in Teleport, but a Mishap inflicts 5d10 force damage. A Mishap requires the DM to roll again, which could produce another Mishap and inflict more damage; if the caster drops to zero hit points then they and their fellow travelers are lost forever. So the point is that Orien could teleport long distances, but it was very dangerous. They worked on focus items to improve this, and this allowed them to produce the first Helms of Teleportation seen in the Five Nations. But these helms are expensive and fragile (and only someone with the Greater Mark of Passage can attune to one of them); the House continued to search for a better solution. Working with House Cannith and the Twelve, they eventually developed the Teleportation Circle, creating a safe anchor any Greater Heir can use to reach their destination. 

My personal inclination is to say that the circles have been in use for a little over a century. As a result, most Orien heirs only know how to cast Teleportation Circle; they were never taught the techniques to perform the risky Wild Teleport. Meanwhile, a foundling would have access to Wild Teleport instead of Teleportation Circle, because they’ve never been trained to use the circles. An Orien adventurer could potentially learn to cast Wild Teleport—perhaps by working with a foundling—and a foundling taken into the house could learn to cast Teleportation Circle. But in either case, it would be a story. 

Another point on Teleportation Circle. In THEORY, the spell allows you to travel to “any destination you know the sigil sequence for.” In MY campaign, teleportation circles created by different cultures and especially different styles of magic are not instantly interchangeable. The giants of Xen’drik used teleportation circles. Riedra uses teleportation circles created using psionic disciplines. Learning to connect to one of these isn’t as simple as memorizing a phone number. For most people it simply isn’t possible; a typical Orien heir can only connect to Orien circles. A remarkable individual—such as a player character—could learn how to bridge the gap. So it’s possible that an Orien adventurer (or a nefarious villain) could figure out how to use Teleportation Circle to reach a circle in Riedra. But this would be an ADVENTURE. It would require the sigil code, certainly. But it would also require the would-be teleporter to have a significant amount of time studying a circle of the type they are hoping to travel to, and I would likely also require them to either work with a mentor from the discipline in question (so, working with a Kalashtar psion to learn to hack a psionic circle) and/or to possess a focusing item that allows them to bridge the gap. The point being that a typical Orien heir can’t just hop into Riedra—and that likewise, under normal circumstances the Inspired can’t use their gates to suddenly teleport into Orien enclaves. On the other hand, if a clever Kalaraq Mind Seeded a prominent Orien heir and gained extended access to an enclave, maybe they COULD develop a way to connect the two networks…

What does this mean for you?

House Orien has been providing teleportation for approximately a century. This service only allows teleportation to Orien enclaves. Only large enclaves will have a teleporter in residence, and unless you reserve a jaunt in advance, there’s no way to know if the service will be available on any particular day. In particular, if a villain escapes from the adventurers, reaches an Orien enclave, and teleports away, the adventurers will likely have to wait a day before they can pursue them, because the local heir’s just cast their only use of the spell! House Orien is actively trying to improve their teleportation services—this is discussed in the What The Future May Hold section of the full article. 

What about the Kundarak Vault Network?

The House Kundarak Vault Network allows people to create an extradimensional safety deposit box that can be opened from any Vault outpost. This operates on the principle of Leomund’s Secret Chest; notably, it cannot contain living material, and any attempt to place a living creature in the chest results in it being spat back out. The first thing to understand about the Kundarak Vault Network is that while it’s operated by House Kundarak, it’s created and maintained by Kundarak, Cannith, and Orien. It was exactly the sort of breakthrough that the Twelve exists to facilitate—using the combined abilities of the marks to create things no house could create alone. So a Vault station is operated by an heir with the Mark of Warding, but maintaining the system requires the efforts of both Cannith and Orien, and the network has become an integral part of the Unicorn Post, allowing the house to pass bags of mail through from one hub point to another. 

What happens when a PC caster chooses to learn Teleportation Circle? Does Orien charge the PC for usage of circles?

In my campaign teleportation circles aren’t universally accessible. Orien circles are designed to interact with the Mark of Passage, while Riedran circles tap psionic energies; an Orien heir couldn’t just beam into a Riedran citadel. Likewise, an unmarked wizard who knows Teleporation Circle can’t automatically use either Riedran or Orien circles. However, an exceptional mage could essentially hack the system. This is something we specifically see in my novel The Fading Dream, where one of the protagonists does just that—noting that the Circle network is designed to interact with the Dragonmark, but that he can essentially “pick the lock” by manipulating arcane energy. The point here is that it’s something that takes time and access to an Orien circle, and that it’s NOT supported by the house. Just like House Lyrandar won’t invite your druid to steer the airship, House Orien won’t be happy about your wizard using their teleportation circles. Consider that there’s very few people actually capable of doing this in the Five Nations, so again, it’s not like it’s a big market they’d want to cater to. If your wizard pops up in an Orien circle you’d likely have to do some very fast talking to keep from being charged with trespassing.

That’s my default position: Orien won’t share access to its circles with people who aren’t part of the house, and would treat anyone who accessed the circles without permission as a criminal. But perhaps you WANT your PCs to have access to the Orien circle network. There’s three easy ways you could make this happen.

• One of the adventurers is an heir of the house in good standing. If they at least vouch for the teleporting wizard, I’d probably allow it.
• The adventuring party has a Orien patron or ally with significant influence (such as a viceroy) who authorizes their use of the circles, giving them ID papers they could show on arrival.
• The teleporter joins the Transportation Guild as a licensed independent operative of the Portal. This would allow them to use the circles when on their own time, but it would mean that during downtime the Guild would expect them to put in some hours providing services through the guild. Which could be a hook for an adventure, if the teleporter is paid to teleport someone interesting to a specific location, and the adventuring party wants to follow after them!

So in short, in my campaign House Orien doesn’t provide access to its circles to members of the general public, but an adventurer could gain access by having a connection to the house—whether that’s through blood, friendship, or employment.

FRONTIERS OF EBERRON AND UNEARTHED ARCANA

In Frontiers of Eberron we introduced a set of backgrounds and feats that provide a form of Dragonmark that works with the 2024 rules. Since then, Wizards of the Coast has released an Unearthed Arcana article with a different approach to Dragonmark feats. The biggest difference between the two is the approach to Spells of the Mark. The official UA approach follows the model of Rising From The Last War, meaning that a Dragonmarked character needs to have a Spellcasting class feature or the Potent Dragonmark feat to cast any Spells of the Mark; the version in Frontiers of Eberron provides access to lower level spells, but lets the bearer of the mark use them regardless of class. 

Personally, I’d allow a player in my campaign to choose either form of the Mark, though it would have to be one or the other. However, the UA/FotA version is what will be officially supported going forward and for that reason, it’s like the best choice. With that in mind, I did want to share two things. Exploring Eberron introduces a few magic items that allow a Dragonmarked character to make use of Spells of the Mark; I’m sharing two of these here. If you’ve got a Dragonmarked Reservoir, at least you can summon your unicorn!

I also want to share the Orien Step cantrip we introduced in Frontiers of Eberron. The point of this cantrip is to give an Orien heir a limited ability to teleport all the time. In my campaign, I’d make this an additional Spell of the Mark for the Mark of Passage: if you can cast spells, you can add this to the list of cantrips you can choose. So not every heir can do it, but it’s a talent you can develop. When used in this way, I would expand it in the following ways. 

• It doesn’t allow the caster to escape from manacles or bonds, but it will allow them to escape from a grapple. 
• The caster can’t go through solid objects, but I’d allow them to pass through any barrier that has some form of opening (similar to an amorphous creature). So you can’t pass through a solid wall, but you could pass through a portcullis or the bars of a prison cell. 

However, as always this is Kanon material and a DM may choose not to allow this cantrip in their campaign. 

That’s all for now! However, this is just part of the full House Orien article available to my Patreon supporters. The full article is three times the length of this one, and includes the history and structure of the house, details on its four founding families, story ideas and more. Patreon support is what allows me to spend time working on Eberron, so if you want to see more content like this—and to help choose the next house I write about—check it out!