Dragonmarks and their houses

What information is available on Eberron dragonmarks and their houses? I want a good feel for the interplay between the houses. I'm going for a Dune / Renissance Italy style campaign and I think I like some of the concepts there.

Baron Opal said:

What information is available on Eberron dragonmarks and their houses? I want a good feel for the interplay between the houses. I'm going for a Dune / Renissance Italy style campaign and I think I like some of the concepts there.

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In general, they seem to be somewhat cooperative. House Cannith & House Orien work together to operate and maintain the lightning rail, for example. In most cases, there isn't a lot of direct conflict.

There is a bit though. In Drooam, Tharashk and Orien have some sort of friction, because Tharashk has the market Orien typically covers. Tharashk, Medani & Deneith have a certain amount of overlap in the mercenary/bodyguard areas, too.

There is a pretty strong taboo against breeding between families (strongly believed to be a source of aberrant dragonmarks). I can definitely see a Romeo and Juliet type subplot being usable.

Keith has written a couple of Dragonshards on House Phiarlan ( http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20050124a , http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20050207a . http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20050221a ).

I'd always thought it might be fun to have someone who's a member of both houses and 2 different dragon marks. Probably more of something to run a campaign about, as this person would attract attention from all the houses, as well as other observers.

The two houses with the Mark of Shadow tend to not get along, though that's been a bit subdued as they're a bit more geographicly divided. I know many of the houses do get along and use services of the others (Deneith protects many of the other less combat oriented houses, Jurasco and Galifar work along side eachother occasionaly, ect)

Bront said:

I'd always thought it might be fun to have someone who's a member of both houses and 2 different dragon marks. Probably more of something to run a campaign about, as this person would attract attention from all the houses, as well as other observers.

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Unfortunately, that's impossible as written, they'd end up with an aberrant mark instead. (Unless you House Rule it)

Geoff.

Check out the WotC Eberron boards here and especially the Ask Keith Baker FAQ thread. Keith provides a lot of very useful information about the interactions between the houses there.

So far the Houses have not been fleshed out, altho there are allusions thoughout vairous sources.

A good example is the 'stater' adventure path where there are three factions within House Cannith.

Most conflict betwixt houses will arise over a point of power, be it control of trade routes in the Shadow Marshes or even a political position.
Layer on top of that the 5 Nations political see-saw and you have huge potential for some great world shattering adventures.. with the PC's as pawns of course.

I think you could easily do a Dune style setup.. and depending on whether my players draw the attention of the houses, that is how I will use them.

One of the PC's in my game, the daughter of both House Jorasco and Galifar, recently manifested a Dragon-Mark. Once they get back to civilization the word will gradually spread and eventually she may become a point of contention between the two {her father is a minor noble in House Galifar... but her Mark is of Healing, coming from her mothers side. }
To make matters worse, IMC there is a right of passage for young warriors. As her parents fled perceived persucution to Breland, she has not gone through the rites and is viewed by the tribal halfings as still being a child...

Anyway, back to the point at hand. I don't see any detailed publishing on the Houses in the near future as most DnD games don't ever get to the level of politics that the Houses are capable of. IMO it will be left to the DM to devise the warped and convoluted politics of the Houses when the campaign requires it.

Primitive Screwhead said:

One of the PC's in my game, the daughter of both House Jorasco and Galifar, recently manifested a Dragon-Mark. Once they get back to civilization the word will gradually spread and eventually she may become a point of contention between the two {her father is a minor noble in House Galifar... but her Mark is of Healing, coming from her mothers side.}

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Interesting story line, but isn't the line of Galifar human? Was her father adopted in, or is she a human/halfling mix?

Anyway, back to the point at hand. I don't see any detailed publishing on the Houses in the near future as most DnD games don't ever get to the level of politics that the Houses are capable of. IMO it will be left to the DM to devise the warped and convoluted politics of the Houses when the campaign requires it.

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In my unfortunatly short lived Eberron game, I ran the Houses in the same mode as the corporations in Shadowrun. That seemed to be the best hook for me and my players, though I like the Dune analogy.

Maybe he's referring to House Ghallanda (the halfling House of Hospitality).

Officially, I believe all houses are neutral and cooperative with each other, having even a means of mediating disputes between them (The Twelve, IIRC). The exception are Houses Thuranni and Phiarlan, who stage a very literal shadow war between them. All Houses rely on one another at some point (Orien and Lyrandar for transportation, Sivis for notation, Kundarak for banking, Deneith for guards and protection, etc.)

There is a fair amount of debate on the WotC boards on how much dragonmarked houses compete. Some feel that with no central government; pricefixing, bid rigging, and other forms of collusion would be the norm. Others feel that those who would cheat their customers would also try to cheat the other houses (or other members of their own house) for personal gain. I feel that individuals will feel grudges of deals that did not work out well for them, and over time will develop into fierce competion.

House Vadalis does not compete with any other houses, but with the Ashbound Druids & the Elves of Valenar against them, they don't need more problems.

House Lyrandar and House Orien compete over transport/commerse issues. (Including transporting dragonshards out of the Shadow Marshes; currently House Tharashk who mines the dragonshards, has an alliance with House Lyrandar.)

House Phiarlan and House Thuranni compete, over... performance venues, right, that's it, performance venues. While House Sivis deals in information, and doesn't seem to compete with anybody. Although both House Orien & House Vadalis maintain messenger services, but I definately don't see any elven houses intested in information.

House Kundarak and House Medani compete over security work (small scale). So would not in any way come into conflict with elven "entertainers". No conflict there.

If you want troops (large scale security) then they are provided by either, House Deneith (Standard Race Troops) or House Tharashk (Monsterous Humaniod Troops, typically from Droaam). Of couse, during the war House Cannith started providing troops (Warforged) also. I bet House Deneith is glad that nobody is making warforged any more. Because if someone was making more warforged, then it could be a threat to House Deneith. But they're not making warforged anymore. Nope, no more warforged.

Of course House Ghallanda and House Jorasco have pratical monopolies, with no serious competition, so they could probably take over all of Khorvaire, and eventually all of Eberron, if they weren't halflings.

No one ever suspects the halflings.

Oh and Mav: At some point in the future, if my current players eventually get sick of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, I might try to start another Eberron game.