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January Q&A Mailbag (Patreon)

Published:
2026-01-04 18:36:19
Imported:
2026-01

Content

Hello, Everyone!

Welcome to 2026! I started out the year teaching at DM University, and in a few weeks I’ll be a guest at the Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo. Beyond that, I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on. I’ll be posting the first House Kundarak article next week, and we’ll have two live streams this month:

Saturday, January 10th at 10 AM Pacific: Deep Dive (subject TBD)

Wednesday, January 28th at 6 PM Pacific—Mailbag Miscellany.

I can’t talk about what I’m doing for Daggerheart just yet, but we’ll lift the shroud soon, and there’s a number of other exciting things in the works!

And now… POST QUESTIONS HERE. You can ask questions about anything: Eberron, my other games, game design in general, what I'm reading at the moment, or anything else. If I can answer a question in a few minutes, I might answer it here. Otherwise, I’ll answer the most interesting questions when I do the Mailbag Miscellany Q&A. As a general rule, I will only answer a maximum of one question per patron per month, so if you ask a lot of questions I'll only answer one of them, but you can always pose unanswered questions again next month!

Thanks for your support!

Files

Comments

Jarrod Taylor

What adventure hooks could you present for the Face of Mror? I feel like it doesn't get as much attention as a mountain-sized monument should.

Jarrod Taylor

Alternative question, how would you integrate 3.5 Races of the Dragon's spellscales into Eberron? Their electic nature seems like they would integrate well into the Five Nations better than dragonborn and lizardfolk.

Micaerys

Happy new year, Keith!! My question: in older editions there were mentions of snow elves with impressive cities in the Frostfell, and while some believe them to be gone, others believe them to still exist in Everice; how would you integrate them (or their history, if they were to be extinct) in the current version of Eberron? Thank you in advance!

Dan Smith

Hi Keith, hope you're doing well. I have a myriad of Eberron related questions so take your pick. 1. While there are a variety of world-ending threats within the world of Eberron, are there any in-world mainstream/common beliefs or books (particularly religious ones) that present or predict possible apocalypses? 2. What are some of the major in-world books/writings for the various religions found in Eberron? Exploring Eberron gives a solid idea of what the main beliefs are of the settings various religions, but I was wondering if there are any well-known writings that one might find in a church/temple or in the home of a particularly religious individual. 3. What were the major administrative regions of the Dhakaani Empire and any unique functions of them? I've been curious about this since you mentioned that the area of modern Zilargo was home to the Imperial Dhakaani archives and it's foremost Duur'kala college. 4. While Xen'drik was the primary location of the Giant Empires, are there any locations in Khorvaire with ties to them? I know in the past you've presented the Stoneheart Principality as an explanation/role for Goliath in the setting that ties them back to the Giants of Xen'drik. 5. Who is your favorite suitor from Phiarlan Presents: The Prince?

Nedgehog

What are some birthday traditions in different cultures?

Aliendile

Hello, I ve got 2 questions related to the end of the campaign I m running. The BBEG is Lady Illmarrow, and her goal is to "ascend to godhood". I ve read your article about the Raven Queen, and I like the idea that one of the issues could be that Lady Illmarrow becomes the Raven Queen. Question 1 : what other "less good" options could result of her ascend ? Replace de Keeper ? Awake the Gatekeeper ? Any good idea ? Question 2 : In your opinion, would she need her philactery to ascend ? Thanks a bunch

David Byrd

Do you have a place in my for Tanarukk’s in your Eberron Keith?

James Eustice

Concerning Droaam: I'm currently running a game in Droaam where the Players are agents of the Daughters of Sora Kell, and there will be a lot of interaction with the Warlords and various factions within Droaam. Which Warlords would potentially work together to reach their goals? Or even just which share commonalities that would make working together make some amount of sense? This is assuming some sort of event pushing them to work towards their own goals, or something... I feel like Rhesh Turakbar and his followers could potentially make good allies with the Dark Pack, mostly based on my interpretation of the Queen of Stone. With the Dark Pack being so closely tied to the Wild Heart, and although Turakbar follows the Horned Prince, I feel like he would respect many aspects of the Wild Heart. The Znir Gnolls obviously grant their services to whoever pays, but seem like they respect honor, and could throw support behind someone like the Queen of Stone or some sort of strong cause (again, based on my interpretation of the Queen of Stone). I could see Kethelrax opposing most forces, but maybe if a Dragon secretly showed up, him and his followers being easily brought under a Dragon's influence against the Daughters. Gorodan Ashlord seems pretty apathetic and honestly I have a hard time placing his motivations. From what I can find so far, there's not much material on Tzaryan Rrac or his motivations either.

Eric Smith

Which of the Houses would currently maintain the most members still hunting Aberrant Dragonmarks? Which would really just wish this thing would go away?

Leann Davis

Happy New Year, Keith! My husband and I are co-running a Restore Cyre adventure and we plan to incorporate Dread Metrol as a key to undoing the Mourning. Currently, the idea is for Prince Oargev to learn of a "hidden" Metrol where Queen Dannel is still alive vs. the known haunted city and hire the party to investigate. What suggestions do you have for how Oargev might learn of it, and what ways might the party get into Dread Metrol specifically from within the Mournland (rather than through the Vadalis outpost in the adventure)?

Ben

If you absolutely had to justify quori and kalashtar as aberrations like they are in 2024 5e rules, how would you do it?

hyperewok1

What's astrology like in Eberron?

Felix Shafir

Happy new year! According to the Five Nations sourcebook, Shadowlock Keep in southwestern Breland, by the southern tip of the Graywall Mountains, stands guard against incursions from Droaam. Is there a major pass in those mountains between southern Droaam and Breland (for example, from Shaarat Kol)? Most of the discussions of conflicts between Droaam and Breland seem to involve the area around the northern Graywall Mountains, and I’m curious if there’s a similar history of conflict in the south that led to the construction of Shadowlock Keep, and what kind of adventures might crop up in that less explored part of the Breland/Droaam border.

Sergei Lakissov

If a party of adventurers really wanted to get to Thelanis, what would be the best way for them to go about doing that?

Matt Dance

Happy new year! I hope you’ve had restful and pleasant holidays. So I love idea of a compressed timeline, particularly for Galifar and the Last War. But given the longevity of dwarves and elves, how does a compressed timeline affect their views and attitudes about the empire and the war? On a 1/3 scale, many old dwarves would have lived through the entirety of both, and even on a 1/2 scale the same would be true of an even larger share of elves. So how does a smaller timescale affect them?

Thomas Brøgger

Hi Keith How does the Sword of Liberty cells in larger cities like Sharn and Wroat differ from ones on the western frontier? Are there any iconic leaders like Beggar Dane and The Red Owl?

MajorTotoro

Happy new year, Keith! You've mentioned before the presence of an Overlord in the island of Turnaway, which I'm currently developing for my campaign. While this could be its own article topic for sure, I'm just curious about how you would approach one specific aspect: would you tie any of the existing Principalities to this overlord, or create a new faction as its agents?

The Bard Himself

Happy New Year Keith! Masvirik is currently possessing the Dragon Rhashaak. In addition, Tol Kharash in Frontiers of Eberron is implied to be capable of manifesting via possessing a mortal host as its Avatar. Are these routes of Overlords claiming mortal hosts as Avatars a way of bypassing the Draconic Prophecy, or would these possessions only be possible through it? I cannot help but notice neither of these Overlords have Prakhutu within The Lords of Dust, so the former would make sense to me

John Barleycorn

Hi Keith! Im running a campaign which heavily features Blood of Vol and Dragonmarked houses. One of my players plays a cleric of BoV - and he is a dragonmarked Orien Heir. He has a pet theory that dragonmarks are actually just manifestations of inner divinity, and thats why his dragonmark grows when they mechanically progress levels. They are level 11 now and i expect it to go all the way to 20. Is there any connection between Dragonmarks and Inner Divinity in Kanon? I use your suggestions in terms of dragonmark size - the higher level spells they can cast, the bigger their dragonmark is.

James McConnell IV

Hey Keith, thanks again for the opportunity to pick your brain (I'm not a mind flayer, I swear : D) Who are your top three villains you've created for Eberron? If that's too hard because there are so many cool ones, who have been your favorite to run in your games?

Seth Metusalem

Since it's too deep for the Q&A I'll put it here! The question: What is the relationship between the Kar'Lassa and the Moons of Eberron, and how could/do they interact? Of course we know each moon and each Kar'Lassa are tied to a specific plane, but what else is there to know about their relationship? Thanks in advance!

Ternaket

If we got all the Eberronian moons to align in one line, sacrificed a couple truly exceptional dragonshards by throwing them into Haka'torvak, then asked politely with a please and cherries on top, could we talk you into making the entire articles of The Houses into a POD book? (I really like buying your books.)

Djinn XVII

Sup Keith! Long time, first time: Is there an Eberron equivalent to tea? i.e. a consumed gastronomic resource with many varieties that has had an effect on civilization and history for thousands of years to the present day? If so, could you please touch on some of the historical impact or some of the varieties? Thanks! Keep the forge burning bright.

Kris Miranda

The Five Nations sourcebook has Mishann become governor of Cyre in 858, and Thalin become governor of Thrane almost 30 years later, with the rest of their siblings taking their governorships pretty close to each other after that. I guess a simple justification for the striking gap between Mishann and Thalin's ascensions is for Mishann to have had a different mother than the others, but in a world where she didn't, are there some likely or obvious reasons for Jarot's younger children to have become governors much later in their lives than Mishann did in hers? I went down this rabbit hole because I was trying to figure out/decide how old the current monarchs are in 998 (I do like that they're not all of the same generation). Given how granularly detailed some elements of the Eberron timeline are, is there any particular reason there aren't a lot of canonical birth dates for major NPCs? In your Eberron, how old do you generally like the monarchs to be? Thanks and happy new year!

Evan Sageser

It's been mentioned before that magical clocks are a fairly ubiquitous device in Eberron, since telling the time can be achievable by a cantrip level effect. Do you have any ideas on how such clocks would present said time? I can't imagine that a clock developed to operate via magic rather than clockworks would be read the same as our own. I can certainly imagine a magical clock that was read similar to older non-mechanical timepieces like sundials, hourglasses or waterclocks, but at the same time if a timetelling cantrip operates as simply as telling the caster the exact time it currently is, it feels like presenting it as resembling an older time format would be needlessly sacrificing a lot of its legible accuracy. I guess I'm just struggling to imagine how to present how such a magical clock device in a way that both makes sense for its purpose and is appropriately evocative as being magical rather than simply being a clock wound up by a wand instead of a key.

小绵羊海兔

Regarding the original 3.5 Edition Artificer: I really appreciate how the class mechanics were built directly upon the existing magic item creation system and spell lists of that edition. It truly makes the Artificer feel like a crafter creating and customizing magic items. Was this design approach your original idea, or was it developed by the wotc team?

Nedgehog

What are some typical birthday traditions in various cultures/nations?

David Mitchell

Happy New Year to you Keith. Regarding Druidic sects, one thinks instantly of the sodden reached and the shadow marches. Are the big 5 sects primarily based in this region of do they have a presence all over Khorvaire even eberron? We're or are there Sarlonan, or Aereni traditions? Is the an order of Draconic Druids or was VVaraak one off?

Herbert Helzer

Now that Forge of the Artificer has introduced plans (like Magic item “recipe cards” for artificers), I was reminded of Schemas from 3.5. How might Schemas fit into current visions/versions of Eberron?

Dragonback Lancer

What's the general religious makeup of the Lhazaar Principalities? I remember the Blood of Vol being popular there, but is the Sovereign Host still more prominent? How popular is the Church of the Silver Flame, and are there principalities with it as their "state religion", for lack of a better term?

Inquisitor Thomas

Assuming you were to compress the Eberron Timeline, would you change the standard start date for campaigns, or would you change event defining the year zero so we can maintain the tradition of always starting in 998 YK?

Jesse

Based on what I've read, Vulkoor is kind of an Eberron equivalent for Lolth (bein an arachnid themed diety for Drow), but D&D Online also had the Spinner of Shadows as an Overlord (of sorts) that was essentially a fragment of Lolth thrown into Eberron. While the overall story of the Spinner of Shadows isn't really compatible with traditional Eberron lore, would you ever consider "Kanonizing" a version of the Spinner of Shadows as an Overlord that originates within Eberron's cosmology? Do you think that might conflict/overlap too much with Vulkoor's established place in the setting?

Toast

Hello, Happy late New Year to you all! I had a question about how the Mournland affects the Plane of Shadow. Obviously the Mournland on Eberron/the Material Plane is horribly dangerous, but I wondered how its reflection on the Plane of Shadow would be.

Anonymoogle

Heya Keith, this is Moogle from PAGE, nice to meet you! Just to let you know, the discord link on your website is expired. Would love to join that too!

Ender Darkos

Hello Keith! You've talked in detail about how Qabalrin created the first mummies and vampires, and were the best necromancers in mortal history! But you've also said that liches were probably a later development, designed by the Line of Vol! How would you do the two? I would think liches would be exactly the thing that the best mortal necromancers would be able to develop! I have my own fanon take (Namely, that Qabalrin thought lichdom to be an issue because of the decay, and that vampires was closer to their desired form of immortality) on the matter but I wondered if you had an answer!

Matthew Kaczmarek

Happy New Year! I am considering having the identity of Vael from Frontiers of Eberron be Eliri, the Valenar weaponmaster who trained Boranel when he was a prince as detailed in Five Nations. If you were to write Eliri in a campaign, how would you consider her personality, relationship to Boranel and if her existance in the Frontier or Khorvaire was known to the king - how would this affect Boranel's actions? (e.g., would he try to rekindle an old flame)

James McAtamney

In 3e, there are eight kinds of dragonmarks: least, lesser, and greater true marks; least, lesser, and greater aberrant marks; Siberys marks; and apex marks like Vol's, which you described in one article as "an evolution beyond Siberys, but not an entirely new type of mark." So it kinda looks like you can stick them in a three-by-three grid based on power level and associated Progenitor Wyrm, with aberrant marks being explicitly associated with Khyber, Siberys and apex marks associated with Siberys, and true marks associated with Eberron by default, which is a pretty interesting pattern. 1) From an in-world perspective, are apex marks a second or third degree of Siberys mark that arise naturally (if extremely rarely), or are they normal Siberys dragonmarks that have been magically or unnaturally enhanced somehow and so can only be created artificially? 2) From a design perspective, is there a particular reason why Siberys dragonmarks were made to build on top of the true dragonmarks while aberrant Khyber marks were entirely different mechanically, as opposed to (for example) having both Siberys and Khyber marks be distinct things that were aberrant in different ways, or making aberrant marks "inverted" versions of true dragonmarks (like a Khyber Mark of Hospitality producing poison and so forth)?

House Sivis Echoer Station

What is some real advice you'd give to someone writing an adventure for publication on DMsGuild? Whether it is some solid advice on dungeon design, or your own personal rules for limiting scope creep, I'd love to hear any guidance you'd give.

man-of-bvz1n3ss

The Dhakaani Empire in its prime fought a great many enemies before it was brought down by the daelkyr. The Tairnadal, the trothlorsvek dragonborn, the Deep kingdom dwarves, the, uh, gnomes... anyway, what would you say was the most powerful of these rivals? In other words, what was the most powerful non-Dhakaani nation in Khorvaire in the Age of Monsters?

Benjamin Tucker Marcus

Happy New Years, Keith! Do you see Shavarath having legions dedicated to concepts that are harder to fit into a Good vs Evil dichotomy (such as a Legion of Glory, or a Legion of Profit)? If so what kinds of immortals would serve in them?

Zuruve

How does the Contact Other Plane spell work in Eberron? When a mortal wizard casts the spell, who answers?

Stephen

You say in Chronicles of Eberron about the Keeper, "One of the things he desires most are souls." How does the Keeper/cults of the Keeper regard those who keep their own collection of souls like the Aereni and their spirit idols? Do the Aereni have any notable thoughts on the Keeper and his followers?

shinnya matsubara

About a secret of Erandis, ECC and ECG say that "revelation" of existence of a half-dragon heir caused the war, so I thought a modern sage could know that "There was a half-dragon heir of Mark of Death, and her name was Erandis Vol" by studying history of Aerenal (they could NOT know her Apex Mark or lichdom). Is that abandoned Cannon?

dirDav3

hey Keith. Been a while since i've posted here. I'm running a game in the Bitter Shield based on your article about hellfire weapons from 2024. the players are high level and can cast Etherealness. I don't need a long answer to this one. i just need something to go off of. what do you think the ethereal veil is like in Rak Tulkhesh's heart plane?

Snark Knight

While I realize the Giant-Elf War raged for thousands of years so they could've lived in different eras, might Aeren have had some correspondence with any of the patron ancestors like Vadallia and Cardaen?

Dragonback Lancer

I remember you mentioning that you dislike the way Thrane is portrayed in Forge of War. What particular things do you disagree with? Specifically, I was interested in the 974 YK bombing of Rekkenmark. What do you think of that?

TimHunter

Following on the Dragonmarked Houses theme lately; what alternative communities could exist for people with dragonmarks or potential for dragonmarks that are not part of the traditional Houses and Guilds? I am thinking of places like Wind Whisperers Principality of khoravar with the Mark of Storm or Mark of Detection (canon); Isle of Lorghalen of gnomes with the Mark of Scribing (CoE, Kanon); Aerenal of elves with the Mark of Shadow (canon). But for other dragonmarks. Where it is accepted in society for people to manifest dragonmarks, if rarely. And they resist being controlled by the main families of the Houses over time, either by sheer distance or local authorities. This is asking for more than the typical exile/foundling/orphan story of an individual character, but as villages and clans.

Carlton Anderson

IME the Dreaming Dark are behind a number of significant events the PCs have been involved in. Some of the PCs are *just* starting to twig to that fact and don't know if they can trust the others, leading to a need to "vet" their allies. What are some of the methods you'd use to help confirm that reality and how might the PCs be able to identify those who have been compromised, whether by dream manipulation, possession, or mind-seeding?

Inquisitor Thomas

Not sure if this counts towards the monthly questions or not, but I saw the 2024 Exploring Eberron update for D&D beyond, and I'm wondering if the updates to the rules will also be available for Roll20 and people who already bought it on DMsGuild?

Dragonback Lancer

Would heirs of two different Dragonmarked Houses that are of the same sex (or are otherwise unable to have children) be allowed to be in a relationship, or are there still strong enough social taboos against that?