World of Eberron - Creatures - Other Creatures and Races

Other Creatures and Races

The Eberron Campaign Setting introduced four new player races: the warforged, the shifters, the changelings and the kalashtar. Two other playable races were later added in the Magic of Eberron supplement: The Psiforged, and the Daelkyr Half-Blood.

Psiforged are a new breed of Warforged that can focus and channel psionic energy. Psionic crystals are imbedded within their bodies and can be seen beneath their exoskeletons. These crystals help focus the psionic energy that can be found in all living things. Although they are the same race as the Warforged, they have come to be set apart by being referred to as the "Psiforged."

Changelings developed through the breeding of humans and doppelgangers. While they do not have the full shapechanging and telepathic abilities of doppelgangers, they still have a minor change shape ability that allows them to take on other appearances at will. Changelings lack a distinct culture and history of their own, instead using their abilities to blend into the societies they live in, in many cases keeping their true race a secret to all.

Daelkyr Half-Bloods, introduced in the supplement Magic of Eberron, are formed when the venomous spirit of a Daelkyr, sealed beneath the earth, leaks into the surrounding environment. Unborn children within this sphere of influence are born Daelkyr Half-Bloods.

Eneko, introduced in the supplement Secrets of Sarlona, are the descendants of half-giants and ogres, and are most common in the Sarlonan nation of Syrkarn. Half-giants themselves can be played as characters from Xen'drik or Sarlona

Finally, Eberron introduced the kalashtar — humans bound with a spiritual psychic connection to a quori, a creature originally from Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams. This bonding first happened thousands of years ago and resulted in a new and distinct race with minor physical differences from humans and significant mental ones; kalashtar have psionic abilities and some degree of shared memory due to the common spirit they share with their ancestors.

As for traditional races, elves are relative newcomers to the continent of Khorvaire. Originally the elves were slaves to a race of giants on the continent of Xen'drik. They escaped to and founded a nation on the smaller continent of Aerenal. Aerenal elves in Eberron practice a form of ancestor worship. On Aerenal, those elves deemed to be particularly beneficial to the race are magically revived as Undying. The lich-like beings are enchanted with positive energy instead of the negative energy that animates undead. The Undying act as counselors to the Aerenal elves. Elves have occupied parts of Khorvaire sporadically, only recently forming their own nation there known as Valenar. Valenar elves hold different traditions from Aerenal elves, and stress bringing glory to their Xen'drik ancestors through combat.

Dwarves, by legend, originated from the Arctic subcontinent of Frostfell and now live in a region called the Mror Holds. In addition to their traditional role as elite warriors, they also put much importance on wealth, and their dragonmarked house -- House Kundarak -- is used throughout Khorvaire for banking.

Halflings usually live in nomadic tribes in the Talenta Plains where they train dinosaurs as mounts.

In the Eberron campaign setting, unlike other campaign settings, orcs are given to spirituality and nature-worship. They established successful societies, learning druidic secrets from the black dragon Vvaraak while the goblinoid races built a mighty empire, some 16,000 years ago. The orc societies took a massive blow during the daelkyr invasion 9,000 years ago, though it was the orcs now known as the Gatekeepers who were able to stop the invasion by sealing the daelkyr beneath Eberron and severing the link between Eberron and the daelkyr home plane of Xoriat. The Gatekeeper druidic sect remains a presence in Eberron, albeit one largely concerned with defending the world from outsiders, aberrations and other unnatural foes rather than politics.

Gnomes commonly live in their own country of Zilargo and are considered excellent shipwrights, the masters of elemental binding, information seekers, and social manipulators. Because of widespread immigration though, any race can be found anywhere on Khorvaire.

Other significant races and monsters to Eberron include goblinoids (goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears) who had an empire which once dominated Khorvaire, but powerful magics unleashed during the daelkyr invasion led to a period of decline. The remnants of their empire were largely wiped by the humans when they immigrated from Sarlona; however the Last War weakened the Five Nations to a degree that the goblinoids were able to form a new nation in part of what was once Cyre. Drow, unlike the elves, remained in Xen'drik. They use scorpion imagery but they do not venerate scorpions as drow in Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms do for spiders. Rather than being a subrace of elves, Keith Baker considers drow their own distinctive race. A special warped race of drow called the Umbragen or the shadow elves also exists, with information on them revealed in Dragon magazine and the computer game Dragonshard.

Couatl — good creatures of positive energy — are responsible (with the aid of the dragons) for bringing an end to the Age of Demons 100,000 years before the campaign begins. Some believe that most couatl have bound themselves to the force known as the Silver Flame, which now has a church devoted to it.

Rakshasas are part of an evil organization called the Lords of Dust who scheme in Khorvaire to release their godlike masters from Khyber. These evil spirits are the undisputed masters of illusion, treachery, and subversion, and they have a hand in the politics of practically every nation of Khorvaire.

Daelkyr are extremely powerful, evil creatures from the plane of Xoriat, the Realm of Madness. Only a handful in number, several Daelkyr were trapped in Khyber by potent seals of magic that were established by the Gatekeepers thousands of years ago. Though each likely seeks to free itself from Khyber, return to Xoriat, or destroy Eberron, as a whole they seem content to remain in their subterranean prisons for now; their motives and intents inscrutable to even their most trusted lieutenants.