I have been enjoying reading the Eberron Campaign setting, but I feel that there is something missing or my understanding is flawed.
They just abruptly stopped a war that has lasted 100 years. A war where killing machines and killing magic thrived and it was an active war (not a skirmish war) with many and nearly constant battle.
The population of this world continent should be devastated. Sharn and other cities should be 1/2 abandon and potentially filled with monsters or the creatures of the under dark or something similar. Skilled labor shortages should be abundant, food supply issues etc. 100 years of non stop hardcore war would leave a shell of those countries.
Am I missing something?
It wasn't 100 years of nonstop trench warfare, there were too many sides involved for that because if Breland (f/ex) decided to wipe out Karrnath with their full military, Aundaire, Cyre, Thrane, or someone else would waltz through & level Breland. Instead you had lots of smaller strategic battles here & there. The last 33 years have had massuve numbers of warforged made. A huge number of Valenar elves came over 42 years agofrom Arenal, likewise with the dar (goblinoids) & monstrous humanoids from places like droaam & such. Somewhere along the line Karrnath switched from living soldiers to using almost if not exclusively undead troops. Yes, the population is devastated & there are going to be all sorts of mining/factory/farming/etc towns that are just abandoned (or were till
someone moved in/woke up/broke out/etc)
Monsters are people too & tensions are more national than racial. If an Ogre from Karrnath were in Breland where he saw a Brelish or Thrane Ogre acting badly towards a Karrnathi human/dwarf/orc/halfling/etc He's probably have the urge to join the side of his fellow Karrnathi rather than fellow ogre. You do have monstrous humanoids throughout khorvaire, that Gnoll that used to be a Tharask Mercenary from droaam but decided to settle down with a Minotaur Ogre or human & buy some land to become a farmer...
or maybe the gnoll was born in Breland & settled down as a sentinel marshal keeping the peace after getting married to halfling.
"
Khyber is a fundamentally different place than the Underdark". You have bound Overlords & imprisoned Daelkyr among other things down there... but it'd not The Underdark you know. The cities aren't overrun by
The Lords of Dust because they (and the Dragons who also live in them) are openly reputable (or not so reputable) members of society running businesses, participating in organized groups, secretly working in businesses, & more in order to influence
The Prophecy towards their own goals.
Places like the New Cyre refugee camp or lower levels of sharn like the Cogs indeen have problems with getting food & such that you mention... In the case of New Cyre that's because any refugee with skills or connections either found work elsewhere or stayed behind to help the other refugees. In the case of places like The Cogs, you have institutionalized generational poverty. In both cases, magic goes a loooong way A few hundred thousand refugees who are usually eating most of their meals are less likely to go out with torches & pitchforks to go find food from somewhere that has it.
Because the Dragonmarked houses pretty much made & still make (or control)everything in the economy, no nation would risk striking one of the Houses even if it was supplying an enemy nation. Doing so could wind up getting very unfavorable terms on critical resources/services to make up for the favorable terms someone else is getting in order to make sure you & your replacement don't make that mistake again. End result is that you wouldn't see anyone destroying those factories/farms/etc let alone killing the House's dragonmarked Heirs & perhaps the skilled labor within.
Hope that helps cover some stuff