How would you fit Red Wizards (FR) into Eberron?

[Pants]

The Red Wizards could be a cult devoted to the God of Crafting or Magic (Aureon? Can't recall the name atm) with embassies based around Khorvaire that provide semi-cheap magical items. The lower echelons of the cult are made up of Magewrights and Wizards who honestly believe in their organization, while the leaders may be secretly allied with House Phiarlan or maybe they're a sect of Cultists who secretly revere the Keeper. Each embassy may be used for 'ultra secret' missions of House Phiarlan or as bases of operations to create cells of worshippers for the Keeper/Daelkyr/Lords of the Dust/etc.

 

[Staffan]

As an aside, don't forget that you haven't had a real pulpy Xendrix adventure until you have talking apes!

This reminds me of one of the fluff pieces in Adventure!. It's a letter to the Aeon society, requesting membership. It goes something like: "I would like to join the Aeon society. I am an expert in biology and botany, specializing in rare jungle species. You would have to arrange passports and other travel permits for me. P.S. I am a gorilla."

 

[Staffan]

D'oh! The only WotC monster book that I don't have! That's kinda weird, though--obviously some development's been done on Xen'drik for them to have named features--I wonder when they'll see print?

From what I can tell, the Xen'drik development that went into doing the stuff in MM3 basically boils down to "Make some names up."

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I agree with Lord Morte and Arwink, that bringing the (relatively new) concept of the Red Wizards as "magical merchants" (who have a secret agenda) is a really good angle to play up, especially in an Eberron campaign (one might argue that that take on the RWs is more appropriate to Eberron, actually, than the FR). Perhaps many of them are wizard/artificers, or else are purely wizardly, seeking to challenge the role of the artificer on Eberron. Both Arwink and Lord Morte's suggestions, again, are intriguing in and of themselves.

 

[Klaus]

From what I can tell, the Xen'drik development that went into doing the stuff in MM3 basically boils down to "Make some names up."

Indeed. Don't be surprised if the entire Xen'drik-related fluff from MMIII is disregarded in the future.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Sorry if someone has already mentioned this idea...

If you want to have the Eberron-version Red Wizards to have some ties to Xen'drik, or even the Emerald Claw, then the Grasp of the Emerald Claw module has a feasible plot point for this. (since there's SPOILERS for said module, I'll place stuff in spoiler text):

Spoiler

In Grasp of the Emerald Claw the PCs chase the Emerald Claw to Xen'drik, to retrieve the stolen schemas. The PCs reach an ancient giant temple, where, after many encounters (including with drow nearly slaughtered by the Emerald Claw) the PCs find a hidden-away room/realm full of weird magictech and, for all intense purposes, what appears to be a gigantic primitive warforged, suggesting that the warforged tech is quite ancient, possibly created by the giants themselves.

The Red Wizards could be a sinister, secretive organization trying to use their magic services front to amass knowledge, wealth, and resources in order to create their own army of loyal warforged. The Lord of Blades and current "batch" of warforged have proven too be too unreliable for the Red Wizards' needs. Perhaps the Red Wizards are nihilistic Cyrans seeking revenge for the destruction of their homeland by destroying the rest of the world. Perhaps they're the "Emerald Wizards" or "Jade Wizards," the secretive leaders/think-tank of the Emerald Claw, searching for the ultimate weapon to ensure their success. Maybe the Red Wizards are a secretive splinter group within a house, trying to wrest control of the house into their hands. Heck, maybe the Red Wizards are a gnomish organization, trying to amass as much knowledge and power as they can (since information seems to be a big thing[no pun intended] with the Eberron gnomes).

Then again, here's another idea drawing on the events in Grasp of the Emerald Claw (placed in spoiler text):

Spoiler

Perhaps the Red Wizards are a new organization formed by the drow after their harsh encounter with the Emerald Claw. This hostile encounter has only made them severely distrustful of outsiders, & see the only way to ensure their safety is to be proactive against any threat. In addition to this, these drow discover the "secrets" of the warforged in ther giant ruins. They realize they'll need knowledge & resources beyond their current means to create new warforged for their purposes (drowforged? steel scorpions?, etc.), so they have to travel to/covertly invade Sharn & other lands to do so. They use magic to disguise themselves as locals to fit in for their cover identity, but drop all guises when the dirty work must be done.

Imagine a drow, dressed in red robes, head shaven and covered with the ornate white-scarring tattoos made by scorpion venom. Their version of the "Thayen Knight" may be a devoted warrior drow, or perhaps a local converted to the purpose (heh, imagine a warforged Thayan Knight).

I know that this is yet another thing that emphasizes the warforged, but then again, the warforged seem like something the Red Wizards would want a hand in (rather, an iron fist over).

Heck, if you wanted to add more FR elements later on, it seems feasible. The Zhentarim stuff seems to be good for use with the Emerald Claw, and the Black Blood could be a secretive cult of shifters & the few remaining (hostile) lycanthropes in Eberron.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

the Black Blood could be a secretive cult of shifters & the few remaining (hostile) lycanthropes in Eberron.

Any surviving lycanthropes in Eberron would be hostile as all get-out, I'd think. And woe to any clerics and paladins, of any sort, they came across.

 

[Terraism]

D'oh! The only WotC monster book that I don't have! That's kinda weird, though--obviously some development's been done on Xen'drik for them to have named features--I wonder when they'll see print?

I believe - though I can't come up with any quotes at the moment to back it up - that they were deliberately leaving Xen'drik untouched as of yet so as to allow licensed properties - most especially Dragonshard and the D&D Online game - room to develop without contradicting established canon.

 

[Desdichado]

Imagine a drow, dressed in red robes, head shaven and covered with the ornate white-scarring tattoos made by scorpion venom. Their version of the "Thayan Knight" may be a devoted warrior drow, or perhaps a local converted to the purpose (heh, imagine a warforged Thayan Knight).

I know that this is yet another thing that emphasizes the warforged, but then again, the warforged seem like something the Red Wizards would want a hand in (rather, an iron fist over).

DUDE! d00d!!!!!!11111oneone!

That idea is really good. Now I've got to decide if I want some kind of Cyran twist to that, or if the two ideas aren't compatible and I'll need to somehow choose between the two of them.

I've provisionally come up with a place for the Red Wizards too--if you look at that big featureless map on the inside cover of the entire world of Eberron, you'll see that Xen'drik is a roughly circular shape with a big peninsula sticking up from the very top of it. That peninsula and nearby archipelagos are what are close (relatively) to Sharn. Presumably most of the exploration of the continent that the setting book posits are really taking place on this peninsula, and much of the rest of the continent is a complete mystery.

If you look right to the west of that peninsula, however, there is a large island. I'm thinking about having that area be the headquarters of the Red Wizards, and their budding magocracy. Depending on where I go with them, they may be really recent settlers in the area--Cyrans that avoided the disaster at home because they were exploring Xen'drik looking for more warforged type artifacts, or some other "Doomsday weapon" amongst the ruins of the advanced giant civilizations. When word of the disaster and subsequent treaties reached them, rather than return home to the Mournland, or attempt to squeeze a place for themselves as refugees in the other established nations, they stayed where they were and started working on establishing a new nation (of Thay?) on that large island off the coast of the Xen'drik mainland.

That, of course, is assuming I don't use the drow idea. I could perhaps combine them--the Red Wizards are a development of an offshoot drow magocracy on that same island and a bunch of Cyre artifers and wizards who have "gone native." The resulting fusion of the two cultures is what leads to something much like the Red Wizards of Thay in culture, attitude and outlook.

Anyway, still thinking "aloud" here, but these are really good ideas I'm getting.

By the way, which issue of Dragon is it that has the drow of Xen'drik article? My public library has a subscription; I'll go look it up and make sure I read that issue.

 

[Desdichado]

Found the answer myself--Issue 330. And BUMP.