I want to give Sharn the Atlantis treatment

[MoogleEmpMog]

In your opinion then, what would be the effect if Sharn were to shoot through said field?

Consider two results:

1.) that Sharn carries with it a similar but smaller field?
2.) that it also tears a whole in the field that surrounds Eberron?

Between those two? I'd go with the second. Having the city itself protected from divine power seems like it would make situations in Realmspace less interesting.

However, since the Siberys Ring would be continually rotating on multiple layers, the hole would quickly be covered up by one or more layers. However, that hole would leave open a gap that a god could theoretically exert power through at certain ring conjunctions, which, in accordance with Eberron cosmology, would occur "as often as the plot needs it to"

An enterprising god, perhaps one light on worshippers but big on ambition, could shoot an avatar through the gap, who could then begin forming a cadre of Eberron faithful by demonstrating his impressive divine powers. I'm not sure where the FR gods stand right now, but virtually any fallen or minor god could reap huge rewards by converting wide swathes of Eberron. Since Eberronic clerics have learned to draw divine power without a godly focus, they would think they were receiving power from the avatar even if they weren't.

Incidentally, if you want to run Toril and Krynn as worlds where the gods must grant clerical spellcasting, Eberron's clergy could be unwittingly drawing their power from the divine aura of their planetary progenitor wyrms.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Hmm, well, I certainly like the conjunction based hole idea, it gives all sorts of interesting factions a motivation for doing that to Sharn.

Carrying the Siberys ring should have more interesting results than simply defending sharn from direct divine manifestation, if the ring was even completely effective in doing that.

Though even that would be an interesting dynamic considering how the weave works in FR and who might be interested in using such a shield, manipulating it, or seeing it destroyed.

Perhaps it functions as a foriegn magical contagion/contaniment and begins spreading dragon marks around in whatever population it visits.

Further there's no guarantee that the people of sharn would see these shards as anything other than an easy source of magical power, harvest them, and make themselves horrificly vulnerable to forces they couldn't possibly comprehend.

 

[Jupp]

That idea from Moogle is mind-boggingly cool. Add to all that was said the fact that about every major planar power (aside from the gods) will have a major interest in this city. Just imagine a city like Sharn filled with armies to invade the next planet. And they bring their new capital already with them! Others will see it as a great oportunity to create a whole city devoted to trading and business. The first inter-planar Wal-Mart, so to say. Then there are those that would want to use it as a place of hiding like the pirate ports in the Carribbean of the 17th century. A lawless place for all the renegades of the planes.

In the end Sharn could become a major player in the planes and whoever gains control of it will be on a wild ride to fame and fortune.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

That idea from Moogle is mind-boggingly cool. Add to all that was said the fact that about every major planar power (aside from the gods) will have a major interest in this city. Just imagine a city like Sharn filled with armies to invade the next planet. And they bring their new capital already with them! Others will see it as a great oportunity to create a whole city devoted to trading and business. The first inter-planar Wal-Mart, so to say. Then there are those that would want to use it as a place of hiding like the pirate ports in the Carribbean of the 17th century. A lawless place for all the renegades of the planes.

In the end Sharn could become a major player in the planes and whoever gains control of it will be on a wild ride to fame and fortune.

Sharn would actually be a rather dangerous place for outsiders if it continued spelljamming - every time it entered the phlogiston, their connection to their home planes would be lost or disrupted and many of their best abilities (like the nigh-universal greater teleport) would be ineffective. That would serve renegades well, but armies and especially traders might be uncomfortable with it at best.

Lacking the anti-god defenses and Epic inhabitants of a city like Sigil or Union, Sharn probably won't become a planar hotspot. Of course, even a single renegade demon prince or archdevil can cause no end of havoc!

"Mundane" powers, on the other hand, stand to gain much from taking over the city. For instance, it would instantly transform any groundling Realmspace nation from a big fish in a small pond to a major player in space, especially with the functioning creation forge.

Of course, Sharn itself is hardly defenseless. It boasts the aforementioned creation forge, a large supply of Siberys shards and more low-level mages and artificers than many small planets, not to mention incredible economic leverage if it can direct its own course - it's virtually unassailable by the arcane and provides an alternative source of spelljamming helms. If the city's leaders recognize what they have (and considering Eberron's almost Ivalician level of backstabbing and scheming, they're well trained to do so), they can play one faction against another to become an independent powerhouse.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Lacking the anti-god defenses and Epic inhabitants of a city like Sigil or Union, Sharn probably won't become a planar hotspot. Of course, even a single renegade demon prince or archdevil can cause no end of havoc!

Ah, but couldn't said cloud of shards provide such defenses?

Not to mention, I'm wondering what would happen, well, might sharn have the potential to act as a sort of mobile mini-crystal sphere? Certainly not as effective, but with the potential effects of the shards and the large devout population could it prove to be a sort of planar anchor or antenae through the phlogiston?

Admittedly, I don't have a good enough view of Spelljammer to understand how this would effect the cosmology beyond Sharn, but it is Sharn that interests me.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Ah, but couldn't said cloud of shards provide such defenses?

Not to mention, I'm wondering what would happen, well, might sharn have the potential to act as a sort of mobile mini-crystal sphere? Certainly not as effective, but with the potential effects of the shards and the large devout population could it prove to be a sort of planar anchor or antenae through the phlogiston?

Admittedly, I don't have a good enough view of Spelljammer to understand how this would effect the cosmology beyond Sharn, but it is Sharn that interests me.

I wasn't thinking of Sharn collecting its own cloud of shards, but now that you mention it, I wasn't thinking Spelljammer style! Of course Sharn would collect Siberys shard as they passed through its gravity well, and yes, that would provide anti-divinity defenses on a small scale just as the Ring does for Eberron itself. Now, those defenses might not be perfect, and they would certainly be weakened if enterprising Sharn inhabitants (is there any other kind) decided to scoop up a few, or more than a few. But they would be far better than nothing, and better than anything anyone else has.

I can't see the shards serving as a mini-crystal sphere, planar antenae or planar anchor, but I can see them sending off a planar signal strong enough for powerful dimensional magic to hone in on them even in the Flow. That may be what you mean by an antenae, but I think of that more as a broadcasting system.

However, I would restrict what the shards can accomplish in this regard (for plot purposes only ) - outsiders check in, but as long as Sharn remains in the phlogiston, they don't check out. They can hone in on its signal in spite of the Flow's disruption, but once inside that strange substance, they suffer from the same disruption of planar effects they would without the shards. Making Sharn a sort of giant outsider roach motel... one no demon, devil, angel or otherwise can warn their comrades about.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

You and I are on the same page Moogle. This is absolutely the way to go.

But I had another inspiration. It hit me when we were discussing the hole Sharn might make in the Siberys shroud.

What if the reason spelljammers hadn't visited Eberron too often was that the shroud was hazardous to navigate?

And what if the crashed ship they built spelljamming helms off of created a very tiny only very rarely open in conjunction hole through said shroud even before Sharn takes off?

A hole just large enough for one cunning tricksy avatar to sneak through long enough to trigger the initial calamity and then become stuck once Sharn gathered the shroud?

Oh, the pure unadulterated wickedness of it all!

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

You and I are on the same page Moogle. This is absolutely the way to go.

But I had another inspiration. It hit me when we were discussing the hole Sharn might make in the Siberys shroud.

What if the reason spelljammers hadn't visited Eberron too often was that the shroud was hazardous to navigate?

And what if the crashed ship they built spelljamming helms off of created a very tiny only very rarely open in conjunction hole through said shroud even before Sharn takes off?

A hole just large enough for one cunning tricksy avatar to sneak through long enough to trigger the initial calamity and then become stuck once Sharn gathered the shroud?

Oh, the pure unadulterated wickedness of it all!

Heh... I definitely figured the reason spelljammers hadn't visited the planet was the interference of the Siberys Ring.

However, having an avatar "coincidentally" be onboard the crashed vessel (or manifested in wildspace just in time to slip through) seems like too much of a stretch. So...

Why not have the avatar be the reason for the initial spelljamming expedition? I'd probably use an evil god's avatar for these purposes (Loki would be the most appropriate in Dieties and Demigods), although if you could think of a reason he would do such a thing, Corellon probably stands to gain the most by doing it and has the most advanced spelljamming followers. Of course, a trickster god like Loki might well persuade a group of elves to take him aboard by impersonating an elven god.

Heck, if you wanted to get the FR angle going earlier in the saga, the Thayans could conspire with some Faerunian divinity to produce a spelljammer theoretically capable of penetrating the Siberys Ring.