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Being a total whore for Keith Baker and the entire world that he has come up with for my role playing pleasures, I was asked to write this little FAQ for all you newbies to the land of Eberron. Before I start, I'd like to point out that this FAQ will offer just a small taste of what Eberron has to offer and that if you'd like to learn more you should go out and buy the Eberron Campaign Setting book. Even if you don't play the D&D pen and paper game, the ECS offers a great amount of flavor and history behind this great world. It's very easy to ignore the rules for the game and instead just read the book for it's background. So without further ado...here's the guide.

So what is this "Eberron", other than a name for just another random fantasy setting?

Eberron is the brainchild of a great man named Keith Baker. Originally, it was made as a submission for a contest Wizards of the Coast was running to create a new setting for the Dungeons and Dragons pen and paper game. Mr. Baker's setting was chosen from among 11,000 other one-page proposals and eventually made it to a full featured addition to the Dungeons and Dragons universe.

Okay, you haven't told me anything. How about you actually tell me about the setting, rather than making yourself sound like a Wizards of the Coast representative, m-kay?

Oh. Okay! Eberron is an awesome mix of medieval fantasy with 1800s technology. It was written to be an action packed, dark adventure setting that puts an emphasis on the heroes rather than the NPCs. The setting itself very closely mirrors real life, from religious ideals to modern conveniences, but keeps itself in a deeply rooted medieval world.

Medieval fantasy with 1800s technology? That doesn't make a lick of sense.

Sure it does. Instead of technology as we in the computer generation see it, the technology of Eberron is fueled by magic. Everything from trains, air ships, lighting, construction, long distance communication and many other modern conveniences are made possible by the use of magic. Eberron even features banking systems, passports, photo identification cards, and a sort of customs system to keep people from smuggling goods they shouldn't be.

What about the religious ideals mirror real life?

Well, I'll try and do this without offending anyone's beliefs, but if I do please send all hate e-mails here. If you're familiar with the standard Dungeons and Dragons setting, or Forgotten Realms for another good example, the gods physically exist in the world. Granted, most of them live on alternate planes, but they can make a very real impact on the world as well as hang out with the mortals for a mug of ale if they so choose. In Eberron, the gods don't really exist...or maybe they do. No one knows for sure. However, if they DO exist, they don't meddle directly with the lives of mortals like in other D&D settings. This is why it mirrors real life religion. No one really knows if a God or gods exist or not. You either believe they are there, or you don't. Some religions within Eberron are more formal like many of our real world religions, while others are simply cults. You know, like Scientologists and their alien possessors. If you are familiar with the D&D pen and paper game, the alignments are also skewed to be a bit more realistic.

I am highly offended by your ideas about religion. I even sent you an e-mail but it was returned.

I'm sorry. (Actually I'm not, but maybe that'll make you feel better. Please don't sue.)

I am just an MMO addict who does nothing but power level and camp spawns. What are these alignments of which you speak?

Basically, they are a roleplaying tool that every character in a pen and paper D&D game has which helps define how they should act. An alignment has two parts. The first is good or evil. This is pretty easy to understand, since everyone should know what good and evil is. If you don't, please don't play this game as you're likely to go kill all your friends at your school and blame it on playing this game because today's society is awesome like that. Secondly, a character can be lawful or chaotic. What this means is that you either follow the law and a code of conduct, or you do whatever you please or feel is the cool thing to do at the time. If you want more information on this simply Google for "D&D Alignments". There are a lot of good sites that describe each in better detail than I care to here.

Okay, so how does Eberron treat these alignments differently than other D&D settings and what makes them realistic?

Everything in D&D is pretty standard. If you see a red dragon, you know it's evil and being the good upstanding person that you are, you would want to kill it and purge it from the world. If you see a gold dragon, you know he's good and isn't going to eat you at first sight. Eberron treats alignments very loosely. A red dragon is just as likely to be good as it is evil, and a gold dragon is just as likely to be evil and eat you on sight it is to be your friend. In standard D&D, vampires are always evil, vile creatures, but in Eberron you're likely to find kind, benevolent vampires. There is no truly defined line between good and evil -- it's all in the eye of the beholder. Granted, I really don't know at the time of writing this how alignments affect characters and NPCs within the online game, so this may all just be pointless filler. I mean, it's not like anyone is going to read this anyway, right?

Okay, so what else makes Eberron so darn cool?

One of the things that I really enjoy about the setting and that first got me interested is the new races. The first, and coolest, new race are the Warforged. These guys are basically living constructs. Ever wanted to be a robot in an MMO? Well, now you can! Next up are the changelings, whom are the distant relatives of doppelgangers. The other new race is the Kalashtar, who are basically the Scientologists of Eberron. Aliens from another plane merged themselves with humans and made a new race. Kalashtar are the good versions who are fighting the Inspired, which are the evil aliens who instead of merging with a human body simply possess them for their evil plans. The Inspired are not playable characters, so don't get your hopes up. Lastly are Shifters, who are the distant relatives and offspring of lycanthropes. They don't actually have the hybrid form or anything like that, but they do have some minor bestial traits depending on what type you choose. Options include claws, teeth, tougher skin, faster movement, and other similar options.

What? No Elves? Halflings? Dwarves? Gnomes?

Calm down, all your favorite standard races exist within Eberron as well. Elves in Eberron are especially awesome, as most come from the land of Valenar are war loving, bow wielding, cavalry men. Dwarves are your usual miners and smiths, and also the race that controls most of the currency and banking within Eberron. The halflings (hobbits for you Lord of the Rings addicts) are hilarious because they ride domesticated raptors for their mounts. As for gnomes, yeah, they're in the game, but do you really care? I mean, the only thing gnomes are good for is as throwing objects!

So not only do you offend religious people, but you're sexist and racist too? What about cavalry women? What do you have against gnomes?

Cavalry women? Everyone knows women don't exist on the Internet. I have nothing against gnomes -- like I said, they make great throwing objects.

Okay, now that we've found out that you're a racist and a male chauvinist pig.

Thank you.

... You mentioned Valenar? Is this a country or something?

Yes. It's one of the many countries on the continent of Khorvaire.

Khorvaire? I thought D&D Online took place somewhere called Xen'drik.

It does. Nothing says fantasy like a random apostrophe.

Okay...so what is this "Xen'drik"?

It's a continent south of Khorvaire. Xen'drik used to be the home of an ancient civilization of giants, but has since fallen into ruins full of secrets and mystery. In the ECS this continent isn't described in much detail, mainly because they decided to leave it as a free place for Dungeon Masters (the geeks who run pen and paper D&D games) to use as they see fit within their campaigns. Originally, Keith Baker said it would be somewhere that would be pretty much undocumented for just this reason, but apparently that has changed since D&D Online is going to do a pretty good job of fleshing out the continent for adventuring. However, this makes for a great setting for an MMO. The whole continent is basically unexplored territory, with the exception of a single city on the coast that works both as a launching point for ships to and from Xen'drik, and as a home of sorts for adventurers seeking, well, adventure!

I get the feeling you're a geek who runs pen and paper D&D games, is this correct?

Yes. Yes it is.

I think I will take this time to laugh at you for being a nerd and a geek who can't get laid and would rather play fantasy games than hang out with real people and be social.

Wow, that's cold. Then again, this is coming from someone visiting a site about a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. At least running pen and paper games requires me to interact with REAL people and not just over the Internet.

Touché. So, what are the other continents of Eberron?

Most of them aren't really important, at least not from a DDO standpoint. One of the larger continents is Argonnessen, which is the home of the dragons. Another is Frostfell, the north pole of the world -- a land of ice, snow, and lots and lots of cold. Lastly, Sarlona is where the Kalashtar and Inspired come from. Another notable place is Khyber, the underground caverns beneath all of Eberron. It's possible that you will be exploring these mysterious caverns as part of your adventuring in Xen'drik, but this is unknown for sure as of writing this FAQ.

You make this setting sound pretty cool. Where should I go to learn more?

Why, thank you! Like I said in the introduction, the best place to learn more would be to buy the Eberron Campaign Setting book. This is a great book even if you don't play the pen and paper game. Be warned, the book mainly covers Khorvaire, and I'm not sure how much it would help in an MMO that deals with an uncharted continent. Nonetheless, it's a great read, and would be a good help for those of you who actually role play within MMOs. Other than that, the Eberron forums on wizards.com have a lot of great information, especially Keith Baker's thread.

Wait, Keith Baker, the guy who CREATED Eberron has a thread on some crappy Internet forums?

Yep. Keith Baker is an awesome guy and is more than willing to answer every random idiot's questions about his amazing campaign setting.

That's pretty cool.

Yes. Yes it is. Now, if you don't have any more questions I'm going back to being my usual geeky self. Ta ta, and enjoy your adventuring in Eberron.