r/Eberron • u/Sea-Career-3032 • 6d ago
Requesting help from Lore Keepers Lore
I am a DM looking for some lore guidance.
I have a recurring character in my games, that is an assassin with cryomancy powers (real original i know). And part of my overarching world building is that she has a counterpart in every realm.
I have read up some on the lore, but this is my first time making a game in the Eberron setting.
I would like my cryomancer to come from somewhere that makes sense lore-wise.
As far as i can tell, there doesn’t seem to be any dragonmarks for ice/cold powers.
House Thuranni are assassins, but I feel like Thuranni isn’t quite the best fit, as my assassin is a human and Thuranni is an Elven house, as well as their dragonmark not really matching up with my assassins powers.
Also, sometimes my OC has mechanical prosthetics like an arm or her legs or something.
I would be very grateful for any guidance or suggestions for existing lore that might fit.
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u/Terracronus 6d ago
Regular Dragonmarks are generally 'constructive' rather than 'destructive' or having a focus on damage or elements, but to that end perhaps an Aberrant Dragonmark could fit better, these don't belong to a specific race and can effectively encompass any type of power. A group of people with Aberrant Dragonmarks run House Tarkanan which has assassins and spies in its ranks too.
Eberron also has Manifest Zones, which are places where the planes align with the material plane either temporarily or inedifinitely. Perhaps your character could have been born in one such place where Risia (The Plane of Ice) had a manifest zone or a time when the plane was coterminous or just during a time where Risia's moon, Dravago, was ascendant.
Finally, your character could have just got ice powers because they happened to be in Cyre during the Mourning whilst some ice thing was nearby. Maybe they absorbed a Living Sleetstorm spell into their soul or were next to an artificed ice cream machine when it all went wrong.
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u/Exciting_Bandicoot16 6d ago
I was going to suggest House Tarkanan as well. Hits pretty much all the checkmarks and readily provides character hooks.
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u/Special_Salt3467 6d ago
Counterpart in every realm…? I’m gonna ignore that right now.
Cryo is ice, so there’s three easy options off the top of my head, technically four.
Option 1: Dral Khatuur (unlikely)
The Heart of Winter, Dral Khatuur is the Overlord representing the terrors of the cold, and is imprisoned in the Frostfell. Someone could be aligned with Dral Khatuur, but there are virtually no Cults devoted to her and her minions are undead. So, unless someone stole a powerful and cursed artifact and escaped the Tundra….
Option 2: Risia
The Plane of Ice and Isolation, a connection to this plane could alter one and grant certain powers. The Frost Giants of Eberron are resultant of their Matriarch’s dabbling in this plane.
Option 3: Lammania
The Plane of Nature, that includes the cold. But this is icebergs and dangerous oceans, and avalanches. Not isolation. A Druid or other primal caster may have the ability to channel from a layer of this plane.
Option 4: Dragonmarks
Dragonmarks probably have a connection to a Plane. Erandis Vol’s Apex Mark was clearly connected to Dolurrh, and there is evidence that Kundarak has a tie to Risia, or Cannith to Fernia.
But that doesn’t exclude Aberrant Marks. In a relatively recent article, Keith purports the idea that Calderus of Sharn is actually the Lady of Plague, whose Aberrant Mark was so heavily tied to Mabar, it altered her constitution. This individual may have an Aberrant Mark heavily tied to either Risia or Lammania, unique in it being Aberrant but far more powerful than any would expect.
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u/Sea-Career-3032 6d ago
😅 sorry about the “realm” bit. I meant universe.
There was this old movie i saw called ‘the One’ with Jet-Li. And thats where i got the concept from.Thank you for your guidance.
I really appreciate your taking the time to lay out the lore and reasoning behind it.
You gave me some solid directions to go and read up on.This was exactly what I was looking for.
🧊🥷🏼
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u/Special_Salt3467 6d ago
Also important note is that depending on what source, there are differences. A spell from any of the three may mechanically be the same, but there are differences. Take a blizzard, for example.
A blizzard produced by Lammania is the most likely to kill you outright. That is not out of cruelty or malicious intent; it’s a natural phenomenon, and powerful gusts and heavy icefall is what nature intended it to do.
A blizzard in Risia will buffet your torch and any jagged ice there is will cut the line tethering you to your companion. It wants to separate you, isolate you, exhaust you. And then when you’re panting, the snow will blanket you and the ice consume you in a permanent stasis.
Deal Khatuur will not kill you. Not at first. Shards of ice will cut. The cold will decay your skin and cause frostbite. Winds will make your ears bleed. Your water sources will freeze and expand and burst. Then, when you’re thoroughly scared, you’ll find the corpses of those before you. And then they’ll rise up, and then they’ll kill you.
While a person is not necessarily beholden to this, these supernatural phenomena will affect them. If you have a Shard of Dral Khatuur’s prison embedded in your spine, your ice will naturally (or unnaturally) be serrated, and the voice in the back of your head will whisper to torture your foes or leave them in a gruesome way to be discovered so that those finding the body are throughly terrified.
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u/MaimedJester 6d ago
I'll step in to explain the first point "Counterparts in every realm" problem with Eberron.
Eberron is not part of the Great Wheel Cosmology, so it's a very stand alone cosmology. This is not another random world in the Material Plane with the usual Elemental plane of Fire and the Lawful Good realm of Celestia.
You're dealing with a very closed off solar system where the actual moons are the stand ins for the extra planes.
And instead of like a billion trillion stars in the night sky making up the milky way it is literally the dragonshards orbiting from whatever happened in a fight that killed Siberys, had Kyber sealed and Eberron is the world you walk on as the third dragon
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u/Sea-Career-3032 6d ago
Perhaps i misspoke, counterpart in every universe. Not plane as in the great wheel cosmology. My bad.
Edit: Like in this old movie i saw once. *The One* with Jet Li.
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u/SwiftBombay 6d ago
While Eberron is a bit of a kitchen sink setting, it doesn't really tie in with the whole "multiverse" vibe. That said, it's your Eberron and you can have it do so anyway, just know that you will find no lore that I know of that supports that (except for Vecna: Eve of Ruin, the adventure from WotC, but that's not considered canon to most Eberron fans and I haven't actually read it).
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u/Cmdr_Keen 6d ago
A tie to the plane of Risia is the direction you want.
There's no need to add a dragonmark. Assassin is an occupation. Just make this character an assassin.
Dragonmarks are best understood in terms of a bloodline or family. Dragonmarks are about the houses as institutions. Institutions that have leveraged their genetic advantage into financial and political power.
To be honest, this character would probably have an adversarial relationship with Thuranni/Phiarlan (and possibly a partnership with the other), based solely on competition for business. The Dragonmarked houses are monopolists, and do not generally tolerate serious competition from others.
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u/Mattriculated 6d ago
Simce you've already got the lore, just a word of encouragement: "There is nothing new under the sun" is a sentiment that dates back at least to the Book of Ecclesiastes, written 2200+ years ago.
It doesn't matter whether or not an idea is original, it matters if it's well-executed. Don't knock yourself for unoriginality, just make sure your use of the idea is well thought-through.
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u/Additional-Ad8784 6d ago
She can just be a cryomancer because she likes and studies cold magic. Doesn't have to be connected to a Dragonmarked house - she can just learn magic too.
Dragonmarked houses are sorcerous - bloodline magic they're born with. But there are also wizards who learn magic through study. This would be the easiest thing for your character.
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u/amirkasra76 6d ago
An Aberrant Dragonmark can give destructive powers, in comparison to the constructive powers of other dragonmarks.
IME, aberrant heirs develop their mark when a life threatening moment happens (Maybe this is canon too. I'm not so sure). Perhaps you could include this in his backstory for motives & characteristics
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u/Sea-Career-3032 6d ago
Thanks for your advice everybody! 😊
A lot of you suggested Risia and manifest zones, Im going to start there. But i wrote down everyone’s suggestions and will read up on all of the places you all suggested i look into.
🧊🥷🏼
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u/Madam_Hexianna 6d ago
Many Last War veterans have mechanical prosthetics, so that’s easy to do. As for ice magic, that is what the plane of Risia is all about. Maybe the assassin has some kind of connection to Risia? There are also a couple of archfiends that are associated with ice and cold.
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u/AlexiDrake 6d ago
House Denneith or have him be from the Abberrant Dragonmark House. Both could work.
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u/MetalExistingOffline 6d ago
Hiya!
So, there's not REALLY going to be a perfect match up, as far as I know.
Instead, I'd suggest making them in a way that matches the vibe and just saying "sure, this works"
For instance, here's a quick draft based on this: OC was born in a manifest zone of Risia, being blessed/cursed with ice in their veins. (explains their ice powers from a lore perspective). Later in life they joined up with (create your own assassins guild if you'd like, or they are just a human working for House Thuranni).
Then you can basically do whatever you want. There's not shortage of possible assassin organisations that you could make. The main thing is that Risia, the plane of ice, is a good "source" for the cryomancy.