Eberron: The War-Torn Book 1, The Crimson Talisman

[Enforcer]

Good or bad writing aside, how the hell does the main character have an Orien dragonmark if he's a half-elf?

 

[Crothian]

It's a book and books don't always follow the rules of the campaign setting.

 

[Glyfair]

It was the first or second book released. Either the author didn't do his research, or this is something that changed between his starting the book and the ECS being published.

It was widely derided on the Eberron forums, and it's still considered the worst of the books. Most of that (but not all) was because of this error.

Of course, James Wyatt (one of the designers of Eberron) got the halfling houses confused in his hardback Eberron novels. So, these things can slip through.