[Eberron] Warforged Origins - SPOILERS!

[Jürgen Hubert]

OK, thanks to "Secrets of Xen'drik" (which I got yesterday and browsed through) we now know that the original warforged were created by the quori in their war against the giants.

Still, these warforged seem to be ordinary constructs, with no intelligence or free will. So why does the new generation of warforged seem to have both of them? Just how did House Cannith alter their creation process? (It's probably significant that they only managed to get truly intelligent warforged at a later date, and that their first attempts were rather dim creatures like the Warforged Titans...)

And wasn't there some sort of rumor in the "Eberron Player's Handbook" about a "city of warforged" in Xen'drik? I suppose that if that does exist, it won't consist of ordinary, non-intelligent "quorforged"...


What's your theories on all this?

 

[shilsen]

OK, thanks to "Secrets of Xen'drik" (which I got yesterday and browsed through) we now know that the original warforged were created by the quori in their war against the giants.

Interesting. In my game I made it the other way around, the giants having created warforged because an army of warriors who don't sleep would be perfect for use against enemies who can invade and attack you in your dreams.

Still, these warforged seem to be ordinary constructs, with no intelligence or free will. So why does the new generation of warforged seem to have both of them? Just how did House Cannith alter their creation process? (It's probably significant that they only managed to get truly intelligent warforged at a later date, and that their first attempts were rather dim creatures like the Warforged Titans...)

And wasn't there some sort of rumor in the "Eberron Player's Handbook" about a "city of warforged" in Xen'drik? I suppose that if that does exist, it won't consist of ordinary, non-intelligent "quorforged"...

What's your theories on all this?

A few possibilities, based on who/what you want to be behind it all, and the ramifications thereof:

* The quorforged were prototypes, with the built-in potential to be advanced to attain sentience later. House Cannith managed to stumble on that aspect. Which then raises all sorts of interesting possibilities, like the new warforged being susceptible to eventual quori control in some way.

* The experts on manipulating life in various ways, the daelkyr, had some of their minions infect important people (Aaren?) at House Cannith and teach them how to imbue the warforged with sentience. What is the eventual aim of the daelkyr? Nobody knows, but don't say I didn't warn you when a warforged juggernaut with tentacles comes for you.

* The main thing needed for sentience is the existence of a soul. And where do warforged souls come from? Remember a particular mystical flame supposedly made up of souls from the ages? Now think what would happen if a particular Lord of Dust found a way for the creation of each warforged to result in the loss of a soul from that Flame.

* Gnomes. The gnomes are behind it all. Why/how? Who the hell knows - they're gnomes!

 

[Stone Dog]

Cross quoting from WotC boards...

Honestly, I don't remember precisely how the information is presented in the book, and as such whether it's presented in vague or concrete terms. But the key is that knowing who created the first warforged doesn't tell you who created Warforged X that you encounter in Xen'drik. The section on docents may say that culture A created the first docents, and culture B then copied them for its own purposes... and that still leaves the possibilities of cultures C and D. So when you find a docent in Xen'drik - or a warforged - you've still got many options to explore.

Docents are going to be key in my book. the forged will be meant as host bodies for the Quori using the docents as focus devices. This is mainly because they didn't have time to breed the Inspired as yet and needed forms to reliably posess. During the great ritual that shatered Xen'Drik and locked Dal Quor away many Quori were trapped in their docents. Some of them have degraded to mere shadows of their former selves and are as harmless and useful as the listing in the ECB. However, some of them have been supremely patient and wait for a new body to influence.

 

[MarkB]

OK, thanks to "Secrets of Xen'drik" (which I got yesterday and browsed through) we now know that the original warforged were created by the quori in their war against the giants.

Still, these warforged seem to be ordinary constructs, with no intelligence or free will. So why does the new generation of warforged seem to have both of them? Just how did House Cannith alter their creation process? (It's probably significant that they only managed to get truly intelligent warforged at a later date, and that their first attempts were rather dim creatures like the Warforged Titans...)

Oh, that's simple enough. Warforged had a secondary function, largely unexploited in the giant/quori war, that they could be used as interim housing for a displaced quori soul. Now that the quori can no longer physically travel to Eberron, they have been using warforged as the ultimate possession host, even better than an Inspired, and downloading themselves wholesale ever since House Cannith perfected the constriction process.

At the moment, every quori who possesses a warforged (with a few selected exceptions) voluntarily has all its memories suppressed to avoid arousing suspicion. But as soon as the quori are ready to take on Khorvaire, they will activate their monolith network and send out the signals which will re-awaken the latent quori memories in every warforged on Eberron, giving them an instantaneous army that's already spread and infiltrated throughout the continent.

 

[Driddle]

Rule 0.1: When in doubt, blame gnomes.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

OK, thanks to "Secrets of Xen'drik" (which I got yesterday and browsed through) we now know that the original warforged were created by the quori in their war against the giants.

And wasn't there some sort of rumor in the "Eberron Player's Handbook" about a "city of warforged" in Xen'drik? I suppose that if that does exist, it won't consist of ordinary, non-intelligent "quorforged"...

Those are ordinary (current design) warforged. Most of them would be warforged who switched allegiance to the Lord of Blades with the end of the Last War, and a few others may have been made by the LoB's barely functional forge.

There's no reason at all for these warforged to be different from regular warforged.

 

[XCorvis]

Haven't picked up SX yet, but I will soon.

For some further info, in the novel Tales of the Last War, there is a story involving warforged, quori and a giant ("War Machines -- 992 YK" by Ian Burton-Oakes). The giant says explicitly that the quori first created the warforged, but that they stole the idea from the dreams of the giants. I'm not sure how much of that is canon, considering how uninformed some of the Eberron fiction writers are, but it seems to jive with what you've said here.

 

[Desdichado]

they will activate their monolith network

??

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Interesting. In my game I made it the other way around, the giants having created warforged because an army of warriors who don't sleep would be perfect for use against enemies who can invade and attack you in your dreams.

But that could also have been a reason for the Quori to build Warforged - they needed a way to attack the Giants on all fronts - night, day, dream. A constant stream of attack would finally break throught he Giants defenses...

Oh, that's simple enough. Warforged had a secondary function, largely unexploited in the giant/quori war, that they could be used as interim housing for a displaced quori soul. Now that the quori can no longer physically travel to Eberron, they have been using warforged as the ultimate possession host, even better than an Inspired, and downloading themselves wholesale ever since House Cannith perfected the constriction process.

At the moment, every quori who possesses a warforged (with a few selected exceptions) voluntarily has all its memories suppressed to avoid arousing suspicion. But as soon as the quori are ready to take on Khorvaire, they will activate their monolith network and send out the signals which will re-awaken the latent quori memories in every warforged on Eberron, giving them an instantaneous army that's already spread and infiltrated throughout the continent.

Or maybe they were only supposed as housings for quori spirits. Unfortunately, the "soul housing" became independent, and created its own soul, eventually resulting in souled and sentient/sapient Warforged. The Quori's plan might fail, unless they find a way to reverse the process.

(I think there was a series of novels by Piers Anthony (or by some other Sci-Fi author) that had a similar concept - a powerful master race developed the ability to create their own universes - including our own - and then strived for eternal life, creating a housing for their mind. Unfortunately, this housing became intelligent and these two races are now effectively at war)

Or the Warforged gained to much independent sentience, and the attempt to reawaken might lead to a inner conflict between Quori and Warforged spirit, resulting in chaos among the Warforged as some Warforged souls win, some lose, and others ally themselves, some even creating their own "amalganous" spirit, resulting in a new, independend faction.

Ah... so many possiblities...

 

[Glyfair]

Rule 0.1: When in doubt, blame gnomes.

Given the pervasiveness of the Trust (the Zilargo secret police), I think that may no be very safe. People who spend a lot of time blaming the gnomes tend to disappear or have a lot of "accidents."