D&D 4E Eberron and 4e - hopes and fears

[Plane Sailing]

Looking at some of the FR changes to suit 4e, I've started wondering about how they plan to do things regarding Eberron.

One of my biggest fears is that they ditch the Eberron cosmology, which I think is one of the most wonderful things about the setting.

What I hope is that they map the new planes onto existing Eberron planes:

Feywild == Thelanis (not sure what this means for Lammania)
Shadowfell == Dolurrh (not sure what it means for Mabar or plane of Shadow)
Far Realm == Xoriat
The elemental chaos == Kythri (not sure what it means for Fernia and Risia)

What I fear is that they introduce a bunch of new planes (feywild, shadowfell) and/or effectively toss out the unique Orrery version of the planes for Eberron.

Has anyone heard any rumours or comments about plans for Eberron in this regard?

Cheers

 

[Elphilm]

I certainly hope the wonderful Eberron cosmology remains largely as it is. I think that if Planescape taught anything about setting flavor, it was that hardwiring a single cosmological view to every setting does not have many actual benefits. Given that Eberron is not supposed to undergo radical changes in 4E, a massive reworking of the planes is most likely out of the question.

 

[Nymrohd]

While a massive reworking certainly should be out of the question, I don't see it as unreasonable to suggest that a few aspects of the orrery could not be changed, especially on how near the planes are.
This could either be in the introduction of much more fluff about manifest zones, or a simple suggestion that several planes are coterminous or waxing at the campaign start.

 

[sinecure]

Man, they should not change Eberron. It's doesn't deserve to get the +100 years deal the Realms is getting. I get why they needed to have an example core setting to fit all the new rules. But couldn't they have a non-core setting as an example on how to modify that stuff?

It's like the cool places in Worlds and Monsters could be put in Eberron, but it would be even better if they just said, "Here's a way to use that stuff in the Eberron you already know. See, we said this was portable!"

 

[Klaus]

Looking at some of the FR changes to suit 4e, I've started wondering about how they plan to do things regarding Eberron.

One of my biggest fears is that they ditch the Eberron cosmology, which I think is one of the most wonderful things about the setting.

What I hope is that they map the new planes onto existing Eberron planes:

Feywild == Thelanis (not sure what this means for Lammania)
Shadowfell == Dolurrh (not sure what it means for Mabar or plane of Shadow)
Far Realm == Xoriat
The elemental chaos == Kythri (not sure what it means for Fernia and Risia)

What I fear is that they introduce a bunch of new planes (feywild, shadowfell) and/or effectively toss out the unique Orrery version of the planes for Eberron.

Has anyone heard any rumours or comments about plans for Eberron in this regard?

Cheers

I think precisely 0 changes will be made to the cosmology. The native creatures of the new planes will be moved about to their new Eberronian planar homes, as it is today with the Great Wheel, but I don't think there's any need for the new planes to be grafted onto the setting.

 

[the illathid]

I'd actually prefer if they didn't flat out replace any planes at all. I'd just have them say that the Feywild and Ethereal are equivalent, as are the Shadowfell and the Plane of Shadow (The other new planes don't seem like they need to be adapted into the setting).

My reasoning for this is that both the Feywild and Shadowfell appear to be transitive planes, but they each seem have traits similar to those of the (for lack of a better term) rotary planes. IIRC the Feywild seems to combine aspects of Thelanis, Lammania, & Irian, while the Shadowfell combines Mabar & Dolurrh.

Because of that I don't think it wouldn't be effective to map either the Feywild or Shadowfell to one of the rotary planes and just calling it a day. Instead, I think it would be the least intrusive for one to say that the Ethereal plane (i.e. Feywild) and the Plane of Shadow (i.e.) are actually always coterminous with the respective rotary planes planes I mentioned above.

Of course, all of this is hinging on the idea that there are in fact mechanical links to the transitive planes like there were in the 3e (e.g the spells Ethereal Jaunt and Shadow Walk). If there aren't any things like that I hope that they don't change the planes at all (and that we can get a planes of Eberron splat book)

 

[Klaus]

I think the Feywild is identical to Thelanis, and apart from the dead-connection, the Shadowfell and the Plane of Shadow are also the same.

 

[Nymrohd]

Well 4E does not have an Ethereal Plane nor a Plane of Shadow so I think neither should Eberron (did they add anything to each cosmology anyway?)
Spells that in 4E require access to the Feywild to work should require access to Thelanis. Spell that require access to the Shadowfell could require access to either Mabar or Dolurrh (take your pick). They work normally when the plane is waxing/waning, may recieve a bonus when the plane is coterminous, and cannot be used when the plane is remote.

 

[the illathid]

I think the Feywild is identical to Thelanis, and apart from the dead-connection, the Shadowfell and the Plane of Shadow are also the same.

While Thelanis and the Feywild do have some striking similarities (namely, the Fey), there are some areas that seem to not match up perfectly. This biggest among these I feel is the raw natural danger that is supposed inherent to the Feywild.

To see what I mean, look at the example inhabitants that the ECS gives for Thelanis:

dryad, eladrin, lillend, nymph, satyr, sprite, triton, sylph, petal, shimmerling swarm, & thorn.

There isn't much in that list that seems as dangerous as they're making the feywild out to be.

Now look at the the example inhabitants that they give for Lamannia:

achaierai, animals, arrowhawk, belker, celestial animals, bebilith, hellcat (devil), air elemental, earth elemental, water elemental, fiendish animals, djinni, avoral (guardinal), leonal (guardinal), hellwasp swarm, invisible stalker, lycanthropes, air mephit, dust mephit, earth mephit, ooze mephit, salt mephit, water mephit, nightmare, thoqqua, tojanida, vermin, xorn, yeth hound, dao (genie), marid (genie), ooze paraelemental, smoke paraelemental, avalancher, battlebriar, dust wight, gulgar, wood woad, woodling creatures

There's definitely a lot more dangerous creatures living in Lamannia.

Also, while I don't have any clear evidence to back it up, I think that since it seems that Shadowfell has killed the negative energy plane and taken it's stuff, it would make sense for the Feywild to have done the same to the Positive energy plane. The closest analogues for each of those in Eberron is Mabar and Irian, respectively.

 

[Christian]

Man, they should not change Eberron. It's doesn't deserve to get the +100 years deal the Realms is getting.

I'm pretty sure that it's already been established that it's not. There was some talk about moving the base timeline a few (like 2-3 or something) years up, but IIRC, even that idea's been scrapped.