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December Call for Questions: Arcane! (Patreon)

Published:
2020-12-15 21:47:25
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Greetings, Patrons!

I've returned from travel and I'm diving back into work. However, we're halfway through the month; I have two articles (Arcane History and Arcane Industry) to write; I want to run the first Threshold session before the end of the month; I'll be taking a few days off for holidays; and I have my regular work to do as well. Put all this together, and it's clear that I will not have much time for IFAQs this month. With that in mind, I'm issuing this call for questions, but asking you to limit those questions to those related to magic in Khorvaire, especially arcane magic. I'm NOT going to have time to answer everyone's questions -- but if your questions are related to the arcane, I'll do my best to work those answers into the upcoming articles. 

As always, I'm looking for questions that can be answered in a paragraph. My time is very limited this month, and if a question would require an entire article on its own to answer, it's not going to happen. Likewise, if you ask four or more questions, just be aware that I will not have time to answer them all—asking lots of questions is a way to give me more to choose from, I just want to clearly set expectations: I cannot answer every question. I wish I could, but there's not enough hours in the day. 

It's going to be a little tight fitting in the first Threshold adventure, since I still have setup work to do for the campaign, but I would like to make it happen this month. I'll be posting a poll in the next few days for Threshold patrons to determine the date and time of the session; once that's settled, I'll pose the first challenge to select players! In the meantime, enjoy Julio Azevdo's depiction of the Marshal!

Thanks as always for your support!

Files

Comments

Brian Jennings

Have the Zil had any success in attempting to bind fiends/celestials/spirits of the dead to magic items in the way they do elementals?

Joseph Meehan

- Do elementals have a role in Kythri? What's this mean for the 4e Chaos Fleet? - How developed are plant magebreeding techniques compared to animal ones? - What role do factories play in Khorvaire's economy?

Jason PB

Has Thrane had any success with blending arcane and divine magic? Of course there’s the ever popular Silver Pyromancer and the Church has Argentum artificers, but what about on the smaller more day to day scale?

Michael Bakula

Are magewrights trained in schools, or is it an apprenticeship process? Are there regional variations?

Earth Seraph Edna

What are the primary differences between the Brelish specialties of arcane magic and the Aundairian specialties of arcane magic? Both are magical countries, but one seems more industrial and artificer-like, while the other is more traditionally wizardly; but is there something more to this? 3.5 Five Nations's section on Arcanix and 5e Eberron: Rising from the Last War's section on Aundair both seem to insinuate that Aundair has a specialty in conjuring extraplanar creatures and making pacts with them. Is this the case? How do dragonmarks relate to arcane magic, if at all? Where do the Ashbound fit into all this? What is their reasoning for loathing arcane magic to the degree that they do? Do the Children of Winter also take issue with arcane magic, inasmuch as your article in Dragon Magazine #418 presents a scenario favorable to the Children of Winter, the death of arcane and divine magic?

Bekah McCue

Considering that spells higher than 5th-level are incredibly uncommon and at times even legendary in Eberron, how do arcane characters learn them (in your Eberron ofc)? Inventing them themselves, having found ancient Giant texts and deciphered them, etc?

Teettan

What does wide magic look like at sea and in the Principalities. For example, would ships have wands that send up flares for emergencies. Would large ports have a short range message station to contact the ships before they dock. I imagine any aspiring pirate needs a good ship mage.

Reighndragon

Would Arcane industries create pollution? I'm thinking about making the start of magical industry in Aundair one of the reasons for the Eldeen Reaches to declare independence. I'm having difficulty determining what kind of pollution would result from the magical industry.

Sunev

Is arcane science + artifice advanced enough to produce essentially 'mass produced' children's toys? Things like magical trick mirrors or harmless flame breathing dragons?

Rodrigo Kuerten

Where does the 9th level spell limit comes from? It is simply because of the D&D system restriction (carried over from Forgotten Realms) or there's more to that?

Heroic Pierogi

Like with the Noble Families, would you ever list out a handful of prominent instructors at Arcanix, University of Wynarn, and/or Morgrave?

Jacob Villa

How deeply has the loss of the House Cannith factories in the Mournland affected manufacturing and the economy?

JM

How much control does House Cannith have over arcane artifice throughout Khorvaire? Are there magical Guilds that are independent of the dragonmarked Houses? Can artificers invent/manufacture/distribute products without needing some form of Cannith license?

Matthew Szlucha

What differentiates theories of psionic magic from the arcane? Especially those that also use Intelligence. How does a psion manipulate planar energy or the blood of Siberys differently than a wizard?

Jarrod Taylor

From an out of character perspective, we know that spells are organized into levels for mechanical balance, and that spells up to 3rd level are more commonly available to the people of Eberron. How are these restrictions and limitations seen in-world, are spells referred to by circle or level, or are there other classifications that arcane scholars use to establish what magics are common vs uncommon or legendary?

Joseph Meehan

Throwing these questions out not because they fit the theme, but because they're on my list for whenever you have time - Previously you made an off hand comparison that "Masvirik is to the lizardfolk as Katashka is to humans" - what did you mean by that? - What role do the Blackscale Lizardfolk play in Q'barra?

Zed Bundershot

Apologies if this has previously been addressed, but how much are skilled specialists able to shop around their talents? For example, can a Brelish noble hire/poach a specific Lyrandar Windwright/Vadalis horse whisperer to their own service without fear of House reprisal/censure, or do they have to bribe the House first? It isn't necessarily either, but I find myself seeing some houses as following an NCAA model, and other houses following an NBA/NFL/MLB model.

David Mitchell

Is their copyright on names spells and rituals? What is the faculty structure of Arcanix? Do any of the pre human races of Khorvaire have their own magical traditions and what is particularly noteworthy about them? What does a magical education look like for most wizards/magewrights?

Farouche

Greensingers and the fey: where to draw the line between druidic and arcane magic? I think I remember you mentioning you see druidic magic as different than either arcane and divine (maybe I got that part wrong?), and sometimes it's not always clear where the fey would fall as well as their "followers".

Syltorian

Given how the afterlife works in Eberron, and how outsiders are largely uninterested in the material plane, is there a way to fit Faustian pacts in? Apart from including Baator and Asmodeus, as was done in 4E. What interest would outsiders who do have a stake in Eberron itself (the Lords of Dust, primarily, and the Overlords) have in mortal souls, seeing as they tend to consider mortals as ephemeral insects most of the time. How concerned are the regular citizens about the omnipresence of magic, and about new developments? Our own history shows that inventions are frequently condemned as dangerous (the first trains, electric light, nuclear power, 5G...). Especially in the light of 100 years of war magic and the Mourning.

shinnya matsubara

How does old Sarlonan Externalism survive in remote regions (like some Lhazaar principalities or Khunan in Valenar)? Surely your history article will include something about old arcane methods of Sarlona evolving to present arcane science, but how is "outdated knowledge which has not integrated modern science" preserved in a backwater now? Because I like stories of "heroes prove an old fringe theory to be something", it makes sense that Khunan's old traditions inspire PC wizard.

Parker Wimberly

This might be off-topic somewhat but how much wide magic does Darguul have. I'm assuming not much but I'm trying to figure out how a village or a clanhold in Garguul would compare to Aundair.

Parker Wimberly

I have a different question, are the Qabalrin, their magical theories, and techniques going to be detailed in either article

Daniel Balard

What would be the differences of the wide magic available to the Five Nations, and the one available to the Eldeen Reaches, Q'Barra, Valenar and other "frontier-like" places?

Joseph Meehan

Hi Keith, wanted to follow up on my earlier Q'barra questions. Is the shared dreamscape of the Masvirik'uala in Dal Quor, like the Uul Dhakaan, or is it separate from the plane?

Asmuz

Oh a little too late, but two points/questions: 1. I support the question about Wide Magic on Lhaazar and in the seas. Any information about boats, ships and wide magic would be great too 2. How is Arcane war tradition, possible from Rekkenmark academy, from Karrnath that not is related with Blood of Vol?

Joseph Meehan

Back with some more Q'barra questions - Do the Shulassakar play any role in the region? The dragonshard on them says "The shulassakar devote their energy to guarding Krezent and other couatl ruins scattered across Eberron." - What kind of magic do the lizardfolk use? Dragons of Eberron mentions that Vvaraak taught many other groups of druids, including that " lizardfolk boast Gatekeepers in Q’barra and Xen’drik". While Gatekeeper specifically might not make a ton of sense, do the lizardfolk wield both primal and divine power? Do they have a speaker of the flame? Is having a speaker of the flame important to wielding its divine power?

Joseph Meehan

More Q'barra - When did Rhashaak arrive? How has he survived? Was he the first draconic guardian of Haka'torvhak? The Eberron Campaign Guide, in the timeline on p. 36 says "Dragons and dragonborn come to Q’barra to guard Haka’torvhak" 75k years ago, but then Dragon 185 says "In time they dispatched the black dragon Rhashaak to watch over Q’barra. He was accompanied by a host of dragonborn soldiers, hand-picked from the legions of the Light of Siberys. These sentinels established garrisons at various demonic sites across the region" which seems to suggest that Rhashaak showed up as the first guardian. But then D185 suggests it was only a few millennia before the dragonborn made an empire, not the ~60k an arrival of -75,000YK would suggest

Joseph Meehan

sorry to keep adding Q'barra questions but - What's the big difference between a dusk shard and a khyber shard with a demon in it? Is it just that dusk shards, being based in Eberron shards, were a more convenient storytelling mechanism for Q'barra?

Teettan

Have you thought about how Dunamany from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount would fit into Eberron. Since time travel and alternate realities exist and can be accessed through Xoriat, I was thinking it might be discovered through studying Xoriat.