Eberron - Age of Demons

[vongarr]

Here is a bit written by Mr. Baker in his Eberron Expanded column

"According to Lords of Madness, the civilization of the aboleths is the most ancient in existence. The memories of these creatures stretch back to a time before time, and they can recall ancient evils that have long since faded from human knowledge. Only a few simple changes are needed to adapt this concept for use in an Eberron campaign.

The mythology of Eberron mentions a war that took place at the dawn of time. Most legends speak of the rakshasas as the first fiends and refer to them as the most ancient enemies of the light. But these creatures were not the only children of Khyber -- the oceans became home to the aboleths at about the same time as the first rakshasas were created. The rakshasas ruled the land, but the aboleths held sway in the deep waters, unknown to all but a few. Both battled dragons and couatls, and in time, both saw the Elder Evils cast down and bound by the Silver Flame. After this defeat, the aboleths retreated to the depths where no dragon could follow them. In the hundreds of millennia since, they have slowly returned, spreading their influence across the world. Now the aboleths wait for the day when the Silver Flame will gutter and die, allowing the Elder Evils to return and claim the world as their own.

If you accept this version of Eberron's history, the aboleths become contemporaries of the Lords of Dust and enemies of the Chamber and the Church of the Silver Flame. The Elder Evils -- those ancient powers bound by the Silver Flame -- are also known as the rakshasa rajahs, though this latter name is simply a title. Eberron's history portrays these overlords as unique spirits with powers far beyond those of any rakshasa, and the Elder Evils detailed in Lords of Madness certainly fill the bill. Thus, they can also serve as the powers behind the Lords of Dust and the Carrion Tribes of the Demon Wastes.

Like the dragons and the rakshasas, the aboleths have the perspective required"

Perhaps this had something to do with the underground aspect of Eberron that he was unable to write into the ECS?

So the elder evils are furry/slimy. Even better.

 

[Vocenoctum]

My question is....Other than Rakshaka, who were the demons? Demons from the MM? Tan'arri and whatnot? I see the demons in the MM, and they don't do it for me. Personally, I think the Devil's work better.

First thing you must remember with Eberron, is the planes are different. There is no "Hell" nor "Abyss", nor "Heaven" (though Syrania is close to Heaven, in an airy goodness sort of way).

Devils and Demons and Celestials are not based on a plane by alignment. The militant types (such as Mariliths and others that fight the blood war) are from Shavaraith where Eternal Battle reigns. Fiery types (demon devil or otherwise) are from Fernia, and Ice Devils hang out in Risia.

Rather than bound by alignment, with a theme based on alignment, you have planes based on theme, with appropriate residents.

The Rakshasa don't have the background either, they're simply spirits of a certain type. Rajah's are lords of demons, devils, rakshasa, yugoloths, everything that fits their individual army. A Rajah itself is akin to a Demon Prince/Lord, or ArchDevil, but it doesn't mean all Rajah's are CE or LE, each one is an individual menace.

(The Daelkyr are similarly unique beings of power, probably more like Pit Fiends or Balors than Archdevils though.)

Lots of the Rajah (or Daelkyr) are Bound in Eberron, so they can't just respawn on their home plane, but I'm sure there are more out on the planes. Gatekeepers seals keep other Daelkyr/ Xoriat away, perhaps the Silver Flame does the same with other Rajahs. (Or maybe Rajah's just don't care much about Eberron.)

 

[Solarious]

The Rajahs are like the Elder Evils, although more conventional in their outlook. We can sort of understand their motivations, and this may or may not make them more frightening than the Great Old Ones, because we see something of ourselves in them. They are the embodiments of concepts of Evil, reflections everything negative in existance... or perhaps we mortals were reflected in their evil in the dying throes of the First Age, imperfect shades of their darkness.

While they are called the Rashasa Rajahs, they bear little resemblence to their most numerous servitors and minions: they take whichever form is most convienient, although some favour one set form or another. Rahjas are definitely among the greatest heavyweights in Eberron cosmology: in a world where gods are dinstant, if they exist, and the Prime Material is viewed as a backwater plane where you go to hide or to be banished, they weild such powers like divine immunities, divine salient abilities, and so on and so forth. My take is that they are powerful enough to completely obliterate entire flights of Draconomicon-equiped Epic dragons if they wanted to. You have to realize, the Age of Demons lasted over three times longer than the rest of history combined. If the Couatls hadn't come up with the binding, then it would still be the Age of Demons, with any luck.

My favoured sample Rajah is Katashka the Gatekeeper: the Lord of Crows and Ravens, Keeper of the Last Threshold, and Despoiler of Flesh. A fully-advanced Atropal with spellcasting of a level 30 Dread Necromancer, and full spontaneous access to all available Necromancy spells as per Advanced Learning (including broken DM versions of spells), plus Epic Spellcasting. It's servitor specters take the forms of ghostly crows and ravens, although they don't have any statistical change otherwise.

By the by, dead Rajahs respawn in as little as half an hour in Khyber, for an ordinary death, up to a maximum of a week for expoiting a a particular Rajah's weakness. They literally cannot be permenantly killed: this is the reason why they were bound instead of killed, because death is simply a minor inconvience to them. Indeed, on a lesser scale, this is the same for more powerful Rakshasas.

As for the children of Khyber, I believe the various Rakshasa varients to be the most common of them all, although there are probably other fiendish offspring of Khyber... choose some fiends in a splatbook you don't want showing up on other planes, and mark them as native to Khyber. It's best not to let them show up on other planes afterwards, otherwise you'll cheapen their existance and unique status as spawn of Khyber. If you can't avoid a such an event because of internal consistancy, then try to change it's flavour so it doesn't match that of your new spawn of Khyber... or you can change the mechanics and wing it a little. You're allowed, as a DM.

 

[Glyfair]

One of the Dragon magazines had an article on them and I think a few were stated in it.

One was stated. There were also various members of the Lords of the Dust stated.

IMO, the "demon" in "Age of Demons" isn't the D&D specific term. It's a general term for various fiendish creatures whether they are raksashas, demons, devils, night hags, etc.

First thing you must remember with Eberron, is the planes are different. There is no "Hell" nor "Abyss", nor "Heaven" (though Syrania is close to Heaven, in an airy goodness sort of way).

Keith had a really good idea he presented when asked about using the Fiendish Codex in Eberron. He suggested that the Abyss be within Khyber. Khyber has sort of an mythological underworld feel anyway. Just add some variation of the Abyss there, that can only be reached by venturing there.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Keith had a really good idea he presented when asked about using the Fiendish Codex in Eberron. He suggested that the Abyss be within Khyber. Khyber has sort of an mythological underworld feel anyway. Just add some variation of the Abyss there, that can only be reached by venturing there.

I'm actually fine without the Abyss, I think the Eberron planes are cool and work better in a general sense. It's just a disconnect from what folks are used to in D&D. Domains of various sorts can be worked into other planes easily enough, so the Abyss as a concept doesn't really matter.

 

[Glyfair]

I'm actually fine without the Abyss...

So am I. However, I like the idea of the Abyss not being in Eberron, but an Abyss being in Khyber.

This lets you put some elements in without having to go wholesale crazy in adding all 666 layers of the Abyss and the baggage it brings with it.

 

[vongarr]

So am I. However, I like the idea of the Abyss not being in Eberron, but an Abyss being in Khyber.

This lets you put some elements in without having to go wholesale crazy in adding all 666 layers of the Abyss and the baggage it brings with it.

That's the great thing about Khyber, you could put anything in there. You could have the Abyss, the nine layers of hell, and the blood war somewhere (Well, maybe not the blood war.) But Khyber is also very intimidating at the same time due to the lack of information on it.

 

[Doug McCrae]

You could have the Abyss, the nine layers of hell, and the blood war somewhere (Well, maybe not the blood war.)

Yeah, the battle plane of Shavarath is Eberron's version of the Blood War, with the twist being that it's a threeway.

 

[Desdichado]

So... just out of curiosity. If you're playing Savage Tide, which ends up spending a fair amount of time in the Abyss near the end dealing with celebrity demon lords like Orcus, Demogorgon and more, what's the conversion guidelines for Eberron? Are there any?

 

[vongarr]

So in addition to Villians of Eberron, there needs to be a Planes of Eberron. With how creepy/awesome Mr. Baker made Thelanis sound in his books, Planes of Eberron would be a book I'd buy in a second if it was half as good.