House Cannith: Structure (Patreon)

There is little separation between House Cannith and its guilds. While it’s not required, almost every heir of House Cannith starts out by working in either the Fabricator’s Guild or the Tinker’s Guild. House Enclaves conduct research and business on behalf of the Fabricator’s Guild, and even if they aren’t working directly for the House, every Cannith heir is expected to keep the interests of the Fabricator’s Guild in mind. 

The Three Factions

The terms Cannith South, Cannith East, and Cannith West have two meanings. Legally, these are administrative regions within the House that fall under the authority of one of the three Barons. A magewright who works at the enclave in Fairhaven works for Cannith West. However, these three regions were established by the Sharn Accords and are all still part of the united House. They are cogs in a single machine and they work together. The three Barons all want to claim the sole leadership of the House, but there is a process in play, albeit a slow one; the Cannith officers will convene to discuss succession on the first of Vult. So Cannith East concretely refers to Cannith operations in Karrnath, the Mror Holds, and the Lhazaar Principalities, and Baron Zorlan d’Cannith is responsible for this region. 

With that said, these terms are also used to reflect political allegiance, which may be entirely distinct from an heir’s place of employment. A Cannith heir who works at the Fairhaven enclave works for Cannith West; but if they support Merrix as the leader of the House, they are politically aligned with Cannith South. This is a choice every heir makes for themselves, regardless of their family or place of work. Merrix Vown d’Cannith is the Baron of Cannith South, but the adventure Shadows of the Last War finds adventurers in Sharn working for a Vown Cannith who supports one of the other factions. Most of the heirs in Korth support Zorlan, but this isn’t absolute; any Cannith heir can support any of the three factions, or none of them. Ultimately, the House is still united and heirs should work together for the greater good, regardless of which Baron they support. 

In creating a Cannith character, consider which of the three factions they support. Here’s some key facts. 

Cannith East covers Karrnath, the Mror Holds, and the Lhazaar Principalities. Baron Zorlan Harn d’Cannith is cold, calculating, and cruel. He is celebrated for his genius at creating artillery and weapons of mass destruction, and this is a focus of the Karrnathi forgeholds; Zorlan has also proven to have a great talent for combining necromancy with traditional artifice. Zorlan is known for his discipline and ruthlessness, and those who support him believe he will increase the power of the House. His loyalists respect him but also fear him. Zorlan has embraced the faith of the Seekers of Divinity Within and encourages other heirs to follow this path. Specifically, he’s latched on to the idea that there is a spark of divinity in mortal blood, and he is conducting strange experiments as he seeks to isolate and harness this power. 

Cannith South covers Breland, Zilargo, Droaam, and Valenar, in addition to Cannith operations in Droaam and Stormreach. It holds many of the House’s foundries and steelworks, not to mention the facilities for creating Lightning Rails and Elemental Airships… and, some say, the last operational Creation Forge. Baron Merrix Vown d’Cannith is a prodigy with the greatest raw talent and charisma of the three Barons. Merrix has specialized in constructs, but he’s a polymath who could come up with something entirely new and unexpected at any time. Compared to Zorlan, Merrix lacks discipline but is much more charming—not unlike Karrnath and Breland themselves. Merrix’s greatest weakness in his bid for leadership is that he’s a far better Artificer than administrator, lacking patience for paperwork. Merrix is thus known for innovation and charm, and those who support him believe that he will lead the house to greater profit. Notably, Zorlan is seen as a war profiteer, while those who support Merrix believe he is more likely to invent new things that can improve civilian life—the next Everbright Lantern. Canon has presented a range of views of Merrix. He might be a ruthless monopolist who uses the warforged as tools. On the other hand, the liveplay Legacy of Worlds presents an older Merrix who has had a change of heart and seeks to improve the lot of the warforged. A final note is that Cannith South is a stronghold of the Cannith followers of the Traveler; whether Merrix himself has ties to this sect is left as a mystery.         

Cannith West covers Aundair, Thrane, and the Eldeen Reaches. It is the center of Cannith’s alchemical facilities. While House Cannith produces potions, one of the most important functions of Cannith alchemy is creating components that are used in the creation of more complex items—mystical oils, gases, and crystals that channel or transform arcane energies. In addition to her talents as an alchemist. Baron Jorlanna Edoro d‘Cannith is respected for her diplomacy and common sense. Her followers believe that she offers the greatest promise for the long-term stability of the House and that she will maintain and strengthen its foundational role within the Twelve and throughout the Five Nations. Jorlanna is unquestionably the least arrogant of the Barons and the best actual administrator of the three. While she isn’t personally as innovative as her two rivals, Jorlanna has also been investing strongly in physical research, seeking out ruins tied to the Age of Demons, Khyber passages, and points of power in the Eldeen Reaches in hopes of finding inspiration in the past. Jorlanna is rumored to be romantically involved with an heir of House Orien; this is reflected by her desire to spread acceptance of Aberrant Dragonmarks and to end the persecution that began with the War of the Mark. Finally, one of Jorlanna’s greatest strengths is her ability to work with others. She’s used her Alchemical knowledge to help House Ghallanda develop artificial flavoring and preservatives, worked with Jorasco on medicinal salves, and helped Vadalis with magebreeding. As a result, Jorlanna has a lot of friends outside of Cannith. 

Looking to the Artificer subclasses, Cannith East is strongly associated with Artillerists, Cannith West with Alchemists, and Cannith South with Battle Smiths and Armorers (as well as the Maverick of Exploring Eberron). This isn’t a hard restriction, and all of the subclasses had strong representation in Cyre itself. But it’s something that can be used to flesh out the backstory of a Cannith Artificer if there’s no story driving things in a different direction. A Cannith Alchemist likely studied in Fairhaven early in their career, while an Artillerist may have been trained in Korth. 

Enclaves, Workshops, and Forgeholds

Outposts of House Cannith are divided into a few distinct categories. Enclaves are population centers where Cannith heirs live. They also include schools—both general schools for young heirs and highly specialized trade schools—and administrative offices. Workshops are centers for arcane research. Forgeholds are production facilities, so named because each contains at least one arcane forge. Enclaves and forgeholds may include workshops, combining research with production or administration. Beyond these official outposts of the House, the Fabricator’s Guild licenses and supplies storefronts, smithies, and artisans. A black Cannith forge stamped on a trade sign indicates that the smith maintains Cannith standards of quality and pricing. 

Most outposts of House Cannith are well known to the people of their community. Forgeholds typically employ workers from outside the House, and Magewrights who don’t learn their trade directly as apprentices likely study at a Cannith enclave. However, House Cannith has always maintained a number of hidden enclaves and workshops. Many of these are fortified, subterranean facilities, designed to be able to sustain themselves without outside contact for extended periods; others are smaller workshops hidden in plain sight in a city or town. The isolated facilities are where Cannith conducts its most dangerous experimental work. Because this work is often kept secret from even the bulk of the House, this is what leads to the “hundred kingdoms of Cannith,” where these forgeholds often operate with a high degree of autonomy. They are named in a pattern of [Color][Object], which is tied to a secret mapping system that allows heirs to locate the hidden facilities. Whitehearth, Red Knight, and Black Dragon are all hidden Cannith forgeholds. While most Viceroys and Seneschals know the basic list of hidden forgeholds, each of the current Barons knows about at least one hidden Forgehold that their rivals know nothing about. And there are a few hidden Forgeholds that even the current Barons know nothing about—facilities that were known only to Starrin d’Cannith, or to other long-dead Barons. Some of these were simply abandoned, in which case a former worker might have left records of the facility and its location. Others may have come to a sudden and deadly stop when a project went disastrously wrong and killed the staff. A few could still be working, staffed by warforged or other constructs who know nothing about the state of the outside world and who are waiting for their creators to return…

House Cannith was born in the heart of Khorvaire, and there were many forgeholds and enclaves in Cyre. The cities of Making and Eston were both almost entirely devoted to Cannith; both contained multiple Forgeholds and major enclaves, along with wonders like the Steel Gardens of Eston. Here’s a few notable Cannith outposts. 

Cannith Tower is a massive enclave in Sharn, spanning all three levels of the city; thus Cannith has a presence in Granite Halls (Lower Central), Dragon Towers (Middle Central) and Highest Towers (Upper Central). This is the home of Merrix Vown d’Cannith, the Baron of Cannith South. The House maintains Forgeholds in Granite Halls and in the Cogs below it, and there are whispers of a secret forge hidden even deeper. The schools in Cannith Towers specialize in constructs, steelworks, and the arts of the Battle Smith.  

The College of Flame, aka “The College,” is a fortified enclave in Korth. The name is derived from its focus on siege staffs and long rods. The College teaches people how to create and operate arcane artillery; the adjacent Harnhold is a forgehold devoted to producing them. The College of Flame is the administrative seat of Zorlan Harn d’Cannith, the Baron of Cannith East. However, Zorlan spends much of his time at a hidden forgehold where he conducts necromantic research. While the location of this hidden hold is secret, many theorize that it lies beneath Atur. 

The Font is a Cannith enclave in Fairhaven. It is the ancestral seat of the Edoro family and the current home of Jorlanna Edoro d’Cannith, the Baron of Cannith West. It includes one of the finest schools of alchemy in Khorvaire, along with a remarkable alchemical workshop. 

Gorgon Steel is a forgehold in Starilaskur in Breland. It’s a refinery that produces steel in a range of forms that are then shipped to other facilities. Longrail is a second forgehold in Starilaskur; it’s devoted to the production of Conductor Stones and Lightning Rail coaches. There’s a lingering rivalry between the two forgeholds; Longrail workers imply that the work done at the Gorgon is simplistic and that it’s a dumping ground for heirs and magewrights who don’t have the skill for more complex work. 

Red Knight is believed to be a hidden forgehold personally established by Starrin d’Cannith during the Last War. If the story is true, Starrin hid its existence from the officers of his own House. It’s possible that rather than developing weapons of war, Red Knight was experimenting with advances that would shift the balance of power in other ways—for example, a teleportation network that doesn’t require the Mark of Passage, or a method of resurrection that doesn’t draw on the Mark of Healing. At the moment, Red Knight is just a rumor—a story shared by someone who heard it from an adventurer who saw a scrap torn from a map found in Eston. More information can be found in this article.  

Whitehearth is a hidden Forgehold in Southern Cyre, now lost to the Mourning. Far from any town or city, it was tasked to study manipulations of arcane energy deemed too dangerous to be conducted near populated areas. Toward the end of the Last War, magewrights at Whitehearth were working on a number of different weapons of mass destruction. Some Cannith leaders wonder if the work at Whitehearth could have caused the Mourning; at this point, no one knows. No one knows what’s become of Whitehearth since the Mourning; the 3.5 adventure Shadows of the Last War involves a party of adventurers being sent to find and investigate the lost forgehold.

Whiteheart, on the other hand, was an enclave in Eston—the ancestral seat of the Vown family. Whiteheart showcased many of the wonders created by Cannith over the centuries, and was the location of the legendary Steel Gardens of Eston. The semantic similarity between Whitehearth and Whiteheart has caused a number of humorous mixups, including in our world. When the Dragonmarked sourcebook refers to Cannith heirs mourning the loss of Whitehearth, it actually means Whiteheart; Whitehearth was a hidden, secret facility whose existence was known only to viceroys and other officers of the House.  

The Fabricator’s Guild

Many people don’t realize just how vast the Fabricator’s Guild is—the range of products House Cannith produces. Everyone knows that Cannith produced swords, artillery, and Warforged during the Last War. But Cannith also produced the uniforms worn by the soldiers and the boots on their feet. Smiths, cobblers, woodworkers, weavers—the Fabricator’s Guild trains and employs them all. The Guild has four primary divisions. The Foundry refines raw materials and produces the components used by the other divisions, turning cotton into cloth and ore into steel. The Assembly turns refined materials into finished goods. The Binding enchants finished items. And the Bazaar is the arm that focuses on the work of the Guild that’s not concretely making things, managing the many trade schools, licensing independent artisans, and maintaining the Guild’s own storefronts. Each of these divisions splits into branches based on the products involved, so someone would identify themselves as I’m in the Fabricator’s Guild; I’m an Assembly Weaver. 

It’s important to note that the Foundry and the Assembly use magic to accomplish their tasks, but they primarily produce mundane items. While Cannith is the primary source of magic items, it also produces boots, blankets, and hammers. The Foundry produces copper ingots, the Assembly turns them into copper rings or inlays copper into wood to create the basic shell of a wand, and the Binding then infuses magic into the wand or ring. The Foundry and the Assembly are increasingly working with assembly lines and mass production, but the work of the Binding still requires a skilled Magewright to weave an enchantment. Forgeholds are typically devoted to either the Foundry or the Assembly, but where appropriate the Binding may have facilities alongside either one—so there’s a leatherworking forgehold where the Assembly workers are making boots and leather armor, and these are passed directly to Binders who enchant them on the premises. The Binders are also the division associated with arcane research. 

Independent businesses licensed by the Fabricator’s Guild have access to the materials produced by the Foundry (at a fair price, of course) and are backed by the reputation of the House. However, they are expected to maintain Cannith standards of quality and to follow Guild pricing guidelines. As has been called out elsewhere, this is what establishes the baseline values and costs of equipment in the Player’s Handbook: the fact that a longsword does 1d8 damage, weighs 3 pounds, and costs 15 GP are all based on the Cannith standard. A longsword produced by an unlicensed smith could vary on any of those aspects. Perhaps it’s poor quality and only does 1d6 damage. Perhaps it’s got a good edge and deals 1d8 damage, but weighs 4 pounds… and the merchant wants 20 gold for it! The point is that the Cannith seal means that gear is reliable—you know what to expect and how much it should cost. While goods purchased from a Cannith-licensed merchant will meet Cannith standards, goods produced by the Assembly are mass-produced and virtually identical. If a Cannith forgehold is producing longswords, it’s using the same components and molds and the same leather for the hilt; two longswords from that forge will be virtually indistinguishable. With this in mind, one reason people work with independent artisans (even if they ARE Cannith licensed) is in order to get something that is unique. This ties to the fact that Cannith, at the moment, doesn’t do fashion. During the war, the Assembly devoted textile factories to creating uniforms for the armies of the Five Nations, and now that the war is over they need to find new uses for those forgeholds. This has led to a series of Cannith clothing designed for specific purposes. There’s a Cannith “uniform” for a number of basic trades—smith, cook, fire-fighter—Cannith raingear, and a few basic outfits for daily use. These outfits are functional and durable, but they are also identical; as such, there’s still a need for legendary designers like Davandi and Clebdecher. While this applies to clothing produced by the Assembly, the BINDING often purchases finished goods from independent artisans for enchantment. Consider Cloaks of Billowing. The Zephyr Cloak is a standard model that uses a uniform Assembly-made cloak; but the Binding also purchases Glamerweave cloaks from Davandi and enchants those, selling them at a significantly higher price.

The Tinker’s Guild

For centuries, Cannith tinkers have traveled the back roads of the Five Nations, traveling between villages and farms. Tinkers specialize in repairing things that are broken. This is often more complex than mere Mending; Guild-trained tinkers learn how to restore fading enchantments and recharge exhausted magic items. Tinkers are proficient in a range of tools and most can serve as smiths, woodcarvers, leatherworkers, or jewelers if required. They carry news and gossip between the communities they serve. And finally, a traveling tinker carries a form of Handy Haversack filled with Cannith goods, things they can sell to the communities they travel through—usually basic goods, but things that aren’t always easy to come by on the back roads. A Tinker’s Haversack can only be opened by someone who carries the Mark of Making or the Mark of Warding. Throughout history, Cannith has shown a willingness to employ Sentinel Marshals and Tharashk Hunters to pursue anyone who harms a tinker. Because of this, bandits and brigands are more likely to engage a tinker’s services than to rob them.  

While the traveling tinker is a romantic figure that every citizen of the Five Nations knows from countless stories, not every tinker follows the back roads. Most Cannith enclaves or forgeholds have one or more dedicated tinkers who keep things running. In major cities, tinkers may follow daily routes that run through different neighborhoods. The Tinker’s Guild is far smaller than the Fabricator’s Guild and tinkers have relatively low status within the House itself. However, most traveling tinkers love to wander the open roads and pity the Foundry and Assembly workers who spend their lives in one place, doing the same thing over and over.  

Travelers

The roots of House Cannith are tied to the Sovereign Host. The first Vowns proclaimed the Mark of Making to be a gift of the Sovereigns, and Cannith is the name of an ancient shrine to Onatar. However, over the centuries Cannith has put arcane science ahead of religious zeal. While many Cannith heirs—especially those of the Vown family—are casual Vassals, House Cannith doesn’t have a religious arm like Medani’s Voice of Aureon. However, individual heirs can always choose their own paths. A Cannith adventurer could be a Forge Cleric drawing on the blessings of Onatar, a Warlock who’s bargaining with Hektula and Sul Khatesh, or a Battle Smith devoted to the Silver Flame. And there is one sect that has lingering in the heart of House Cannith, always in the shadows but never fully disappearing: Devotees of the Traveler. These Travelers believe that the Sovereign of Change offers inspiration to those willing to challenge established paradigms. Hadran d’Cannith forbade any Cannith heir from trafficking with the Traveler and established protocols whereby any innovations produced by Traveler cultists would be destroyed along with all schemas and records, so in the present people know very little about what the Cannith Travelers have done. Oblique references hint at self-replicating constructs; a weapon of mass destruction exponentially more dangerous than anything seen in the Last War; and a method of time travel. Despite this, there are always a few heirs who believe that the fears are irrational, either saying that the claims are overstated and the techniques of “trafficking with the Traveler” are simply a highly effective form of brainstorming and introspection, or that if such a supernatural source of inspiration exists it’s foolish not to embrace it; surely modern artificers are capable of handling arcane advancement in a safe and careful way. And perhaps these doubters are correct! An adventurer could be a Cannith Traveler, in which case the DM could present them with occasional inspiration—the occasional opportunity to create a remarkable, paradigm-shifting magic item—and see if they can use it wisely. Or a hidden sect Cannith Travelers could be a dangerous force adventurers have to deal with, creating things that could unbalance or even destroy the civilization of the Five Nations. 

House Cannith and The Twelve

It’s often said that House Cannith and House Sivis willed the Twelve into existence. House Sivis has always delighted in mediation and in facilitating communication between the Dragonmarked Houses, helping to establish shared customs and the common traditions used by most of the Houses today. House Cannith, on the other hand, has long focused on the concrete benefits of cooperation between the Houses—the tools and Eldritch Machines that can only be created when heirs of different Houses work together. House Cannith designed most of the Dragonmarked Focus Items used by the Houses, and it was the driving force behind innovations that have changed the shape of modern life: the Kundarak Vault network, the Lightning Rail, the Speaking Stone network, Elemental Airships, and more. Because of this, Cannith heirs have often had an arrogant attitude that members of other houses find annoying or condescending. On the other hand, that attitude is somewhat justified by the fact that the other Houses have profited tremendously from Cannith’s work. And so, Cannith has long enjoyed its status as the first among equals within the Twelve. 

Lady Dalea Juran d’Cannith is the Cannith Viceroy of the Twelve; she also holds the title of “Minister of the Dragonmarked Cooperation Initiative.” Dalea has held this position for fourteen years and while some people resent Cannith’s influence, Dalea has earned the trust of her counterparts; she truly seeks to lift the fortunes of every House. Starrin’s death and the destruction of Cyre have shaken House Cannith, but Lady Dalea remains at her post; her position was affirmed in the Sharn Accords. The challenge now is that she has to negotiate with three Barons instead of one, and she has to deal with three times as many requests as the Cannith factions seek to leverage her influence with the other Houses. Combined with the crippling amount of resources lost in the Mourning, Lady Dalea has had to shut down a number of promising projects and to delay deals she’s made with other Houses. Dalea prides herself on her neutrality and refuses to take sides in the factional conflict within her House. This could be her undoing; surely at least one of the three Barons is working to have Dalea removed and replaced by someone who favors their cause. 

CANNITH CUSTOMS

Cannith heirs are almost always working on something. This could be an arcane project—scribing a scroll, mixing alchemical reagents, preparing a wand to channel elemental energies. But it can also be entirely mundane. Some Cannith heirs enjoy knitting. Wandcarvers often whittle when they aren’t working on practical projects. Tinkers almost always have some tricky thing they’re trying to repair. Any act of creation is deeply satisfying for a Cannith heir, and it’s comforting to work with a tool. A side aspect of this is that it’s polite to ask an heir What are you working on? Most Cannith heirs love to discuss their current projects, talking through the process and the potential—especially with someone who understands the elements involved and can offer insight or advice. Refusing to discuss a personal project is considered rude, though it’s understood that an heir may not be able to discuss their professional work. 

Within the Fabricator’s Guild, the “hundred kingdoms of Cannith” attitude comes into play. Fabricators are often territorial, and there are often rivalries between individuals, divisions, and forgeholds. These tensions are balanced by the understanding that everyone wants the House and the Guild to prosper; rivalries should never be the cause of costly accidents or threaten the success of a project. But it’s common for directors to compete for resources and to prioritize their favorite projects. And at the lower levels, these rivalries play out as competition. The goal isn’t to sabotage a rival, which threatens the overall success; it’s to outshine them, to prove your superiority by exercising your own remarkable skills. 

The Fabricator’s Guild doesn’t produce food, as that’s the domain of House Ghallanda. But Cook’s Utensils are a form of Artisan’s Tools, and cooking is an act of creation. Many Cannith heirs love to cook or to bake, and while it’s very rare for an heir to pursue this professionally, the House has a host of fine chefs. Within an enclave, heirs often take turns overseeing food preparation. Bake sales and cooking competitions are both frequent events in Cannith communities. The Edoro delight in the creation of cocktails, and Edoro alchemists regularly invent new concoctions that might have magical properties.