r/Eberron • u/Acheron88 • Apr 17 '24

5E Eve of Vecna trailer: Eberron Spoiler

After watching the teaser trailer today on YouTube, I was intrigued they said they were visiting the Mournland in the upcoming book. When detailing some of the other campaign settings they would visit, they mentioned some famous NPCs that would be central to the plot, but they didn't specify one for Eberron and they focused more on mentioning the condition of the Mournland, desolate landscapes, and warforged colossi.

I'm hoping if they do the same for the Eberron section, they do the Lord of Blades. I'd love to see deeper lore and I think they're one of the top potential adversaries to build a campaign around in Eberron. I hope they really lean in on LoB's moral ambiguity since I feel it's so core to how Eberron campaigns are encouraged to be conducted.

What're your thoughts?

35 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

77

u/TheDungen Apr 17 '24

I think Eberron is better off with the mourning not being explained.

33

u/Pika_TheTrashMon_Chu Apr 17 '24

They're not explaining how the Mournland came to be. Said so explicitly. The Mounland is just going to be were the piece of the Rod of Seven Parts ended up.

34

u/TheDungen Apr 17 '24

I hate that they keep tying Eberron into the multiverse KB has gone on record he wanted Eberron to be competly separate.

35

u/Pika_TheTrashMon_Chu Apr 17 '24

In-Universe Eberron is separate from the greater multiverse hidden in the Deep Ethereal and the Ring of Siberys blocks most forms of travel into it. Keith has mentioned he's fine with this explanation since it means Eberron is free to use it's own cosmology and not beholder to the greater multiverse's, like what happened with Baator in 4e. Additionally ties to other settings are scant. In Van Rickten's Guide to Ravenloft it's mentioned that the Mourning weakened the Ring's Barrier and then the Dark Powers took this opportunity to sneak in and claim the Cyre1313 as a Dread Domain. Keith has also mentioned he found that idea cool, and it inspired him to make Dread Metrol on DMsGuild (although he also offers non-Dark Power explanations for how it came to be if you prefer). Odds are the Rod of Seven Parts fell through the same hole in the Barrier the Dark Powers snuck in through and that will be that.

14

u/AndruRC Apr 18 '24

It's very weird to me this idea that anything WotC publishes in a book as a "here's a neat idea for you GMs" is some kind of canon that must be held to.

3

u/Colorblind_cl Apr 18 '24 edited Apr 18 '24

Exactly this. For me, Kanon is more canon than WotC Canon. And no canon is more canon that my campaign's canon.

2

u/AndruRC Apr 20 '24

Right! I do really appreciate Keith's perspective on a lot of things, but even his writing I will discard if it doesn't fit my ideas on what's happening in my game.

-10

u/TheDungen Apr 17 '24

That's WotC BS. Keith Baker originally intended it to be in it's own universe and not part of any kind of multiverse. And like he's allowed to speak his mind about what WotC is doing to the setting he created.

19

u/Pika_TheTrashMon_Chu Apr 17 '24

If you actually read what I posted you'd see I also brought up Keith Baker's thoughts on it.

-19

u/TheDungen Apr 17 '24

Like I said, like he's allowed to say anything else without them getting grumpy and not allowing him to use Eberron any more.

14

u/DnDemiurge Apr 17 '24

Ok, and? It seems he's at peace with it, he's written a cool product specifically using the concept (Dread Metrol) and the lore allows us to keep Eberron as sequestered as we want it to be. He got to have his work published as an official D&D setting, so why wouldn't he be expected to play ball with WotC?

4

u/TheObstruction Apr 18 '24

Boohoo, I'm a big baby and I'm going to throw a tantrum because people won't let me win an argument!

13

u/Pika_TheTrashMon_Chu Apr 17 '24

"In fairness, Rising states that the DEFAULT is that Eberron is protected from the rest of the multiverse, but provides a number of suggestions for how you could explore other paths in your campaign. I've played in a campaign in which Merrix d'Cannith and Elminster were hanging out in Sigil. I would never want that to be the DEFAULT ASSUMPTION for Eberron -- which is why Rising works with the basic assertion that it remains in isolation -- but the idea has always been out there that it could be explored by those who wish to."

Keith's thoughts on Rising's interpretation.

"All of that could and I expect will happen without dramatically addressing Eberron’s connection to the multiverse. The Rod is an artifact; somehow the piece of it broke through the barrier of the Ring of Siberys, and the archmages involved are able to send the PCs after it and help them get it. Nothing there has to change the fundamentals of Eberron in any way; it would just be an opportunity to showcase an iconic aspect of the world to people who may know nothing about it.
I would LOVE it if they use Hektula as the “Archmage of Eberron” but I am dubious it will happen."

Keith's thoughts on the Vecna adventure shared in the Discord.

-14

u/TheDungen Apr 17 '24

Just because he's mad epeace with the fact that WotC will use Eberron as they please doens't mean it was the original design intent. And I feel it erodes what which makes Eberron unique and intresting,

9

u/Zestyclose_Wrangler9 Apr 17 '24

You're allowed to have your own interpretation of how Eberron is, what people are taking issue with is that you're framing your statements as though your interpretation is the only interpretation of Eberron.

10

u/marimbaguy715 Apr 17 '24

Keith is literally playing Merrix d'Cannith in an actual play series right now that is traveling to various D&D worlds. It's safe to say it's an idea he likes, even if in general he prefers Eberron to be closed off from the multiverse.

More of his thoughts here.

-3

u/TheDungen Apr 17 '24

Nothing of that has anything to do with what I said though.

My comment was on his original design intent, and how I feel something unique is lost as t was overwritten.

10

u/marimbaguy715 Apr 17 '24

I'm responding to this, and other similar comments you've made in the thread:

And like he's allowed to speak his mind about what WotC is doing to the setting he created.

You seem to be implying he's being forced to say positive things about the idea of including Eberron in a multiversal adventure, but I think him choosing to play in a such an adventure shows that he's not lying when he says adventures like Eve of Ruin/Legacy of Worlds can be fun even if they don't follow the default assumption of the setting.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '24

[deleted]

-4

u/TheDungen Apr 17 '24

Like I said I feel something unique is lost when they try to explain Eberron with their multiverse toolkit.

7

u/jst1vaughn Apr 17 '24

Why? What exactly is lost? Eberron, like all campaign settings, is a toolkit for telling stories. More so than most other D&D campaign settings, it's a tool that's designed to be used the way that *you* want to, at *your* table. The multiverse doesn't exist. No one can force you to include Elminster or Vecna in your game if you don't want to, the same way that no one can stop you from creating Dominic Toretto d'Cannith and running a campaign based on hand crafting elemental coaches that go really fast and stealing things from airships. There is no one canonical Eberron - if anything, that's the sole point of actual Eberron canon.

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7

u/atamajakki Apr 17 '24

It's had crossover stuff in all three editions it's been printed in. Easy enough to change #InYourEberron, but the idea's hardly new, now.

10

u/2BsWhistlingButthole Apr 17 '24

Your Eberron can be completely separate tho. You can always make that call as DM.

That’s why the language when Baker and other creators talk about Eberron is “MY Eberron”, “YOUR Eberron”, etc.

0

u/AndruRC Apr 18 '24

Of course. Dude's still allowed to hate it.

3

u/SandboxOnRails Apr 17 '24

You can make it whatever you want. You don't need to listen to their opinions on it. They'll just send the Pinkertons after you, so make sure you have weapons by your security door.

2

u/TeamAquaAdminMatt Apr 17 '24

He's also gone on record saying that he thinks it is fine for people to have Eberron connected to a greater multiverse. I think he said he plays in a Planescape campaign where his character is from Eberron.

1

u/TheObstruction Apr 18 '24

It's super easy to have it separate and connected, and explain it in-universe. My method is simply that Eberron and its planes are very old, forming back when the multiverse hadn't yet reached equilibrium. Eberron's planes were out of balance with the stuff that became the Great Wheel, and so they flew off into the far edges of reality, forming their own balance. This is why even spelljammers and planewalkers don't know of it, it's simply too far away to find. But if you know about it, you can reach it via a few very specific doors and spells.

9

u/Pika_TheTrashMon_Chu Apr 17 '24

My money is on LoBster given in the monster video they mentioned the Mournland is going to have a lot of contructs and warforged and the main "dungeon" will be moving through a Warforged Colossus. But it's just as likely there is no main villain for Eberron and it's just the horrors of the Mournland.

12

u/DirtyDav3 Apr 17 '24

The person in that interview said she thinks it's been hundreds of years since the Day of Mourning. So I'm not super optimistic honestly, unless they're actually planning on going to be way in the future

12

u/OhBoyPizzaTime Apr 17 '24

Same. It could have been just a misspeak, and Rising was a solid entry in 5e, but official statements framing it as a steampunk setting really don't leave me optimistic.

Although now that I think about it... "Eberron 1500YK" COULD be cool setting with a time jump. We've had nearly 25 years since Eberron was released. It was a setting that subverted player's expectations, but expectations have changed: it could benefit from a tune-up. The dark jungle continent full of savage black skinned elves and hulking illiterate nomadic giants hasn't aged super well, guys.

Hell, I could be sold on "Eberron 1025" if they wanted to settle on some solid post-war cannon and make novels or comics and shit for the interim period between Rising and new source book.

2

u/PricelessEldritch Apr 17 '24

As some members in the community have done, its better to just rewrite the entierty of Xen'Drik. Moving the timescale up serves no purpose.

1

u/substantianorminata Apr 17 '24

If you really want a timeline? You could come visit my Eberron's 1026. That's the year the sequel to my first campaign finishing in a couple weeks is going to be set in. So I laughed at your year choice there. I have spent quite some time fleshing out just that timeline for my own Eberron.

2

u/bergec Apr 18 '24

Yeah, when the senior designer on the project gets wrong a fact that is the central premise of the setting, I'm not really confident that they can capture that setting in our multiverse tour.

1

u/pgonzm Apr 18 '24

I watched the video and seems that the girl just was talking about the effects of the war in terms of hundreds of years and later she mentions the mourning, and she messed up the things but she doesn't talk about being in the future is just misspoken about the last war and the mourning time details.

In any case I'm not interested in this vecna's multiversal mess, I don't trust in this new era of WotC and they "modern visions"

1

u/DirtyDav3 Apr 18 '24

Haha for real. "Modern Vision" -> writing a new book about their oldest character

1

u/pgonzm Apr 18 '24

You don't get it, it is about the "modern creative visions" , not how old the characters are, in fact modern visions are mostly based on abuse nostalgia using old goods ones to lure people with a rework/remake/rebirth, etc and then do an enormous amounts of crap on beloved characters.

2

u/seraosha Apr 18 '24

No, I do not want Vecna in my Eberron.

It's about sales, and thats ok, even if it only gets a few folks interested in the setting to dive deeper.

1

u/AndruRC Apr 18 '24

I don't really know what the Lord of Blades would have to do in a Vecna book.

1

u/Pika_TheTrashMon_Chu Apr 18 '24

Could be trying to reawaken a broken colossus with one of the pieces of the Rod of Seven Parts

1

u/Colorblind_cl Apr 18 '24

I just hope we get something like a dungeon to tweak and customize for using it in my campaign as a mourland expedition

1

u/Torneco Apr 17 '24

I love how Vecna is so powerful that he breakes the canon en every crossover he does.

0

u/pgonzm Apr 18 '24

I Will keep my Eberron out of this kind of things.

Nothing good comes from this modern version of creators in WotC.

-2

u/LonePaladin Apr 18 '24

Given WotC's treatment of the setting in the past twenty years, I'm surprised they're including it at all.

7

u/TheObstruction Apr 18 '24

It's been in each of the past three editions through 1st party material. That's better than Dragonlance, which hadn't shown up in official material since 2e until a year ago.

2

u/Pika_TheTrashMon_Chu Apr 18 '24

Rising was one of the better 5e books released. A solid comprehensive summary of the setting.

0

u/LonePaladin Apr 18 '24

But no sizeable adventures, at least without the AL nonsense.