Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
Hey everyone. Sorry if the title of the thread is a bit unclear. The purpose of this thread is to brainstorm some ideas for a concept that I came up with in my Eberron, which is that every few hundred years or so (occasionally thousands of years apart), the spirits/souls of the Progenitor Dragons choose a Huge or larger Dragonshard to become their "Heart", which increases the shard's power beyond what it should already have for a Dragonshard of that size, and ties it (and whoever possesses it) to the Draconic Prophecy and lets them manipulate it (to an extent). I think I was inspired when I heard of the Heart of Siberys from either an article on Keith Baker's Blog Website (possibly this one), or I just coincidentally came up with the same sort of idea on my own. I'm not sure which it was, as I got this idea a few years ago for my Eberron campaign (which is ongoing, due to a pause in play during the pandemic).
My players' characters came across the Heart of Siberys, which had fallen from the sky in the Shadow Marches, very early on in the campaign, which granted them a piece of the Draconic Prophecy foreshadowing some of the decisions that they could make later on in the campaign, but extremely vague and in a way that only makes sense in context and once the events come up. They claimed the Heart of Siberys (not knowing what it was) for themselves, and sold it to Zorlan d'Cannith from House Cannith East for 5 million gold pieces, which the party used to become famous (and a bit infamous), buy and create magic items (and some magical vehicles that run on Eberron Dragonshards that the party's Artificer designed), and fund their adventuring throughout the campaign. The party only recently discovered what the Heart of Siberys really was, and all that they know about what House Cannith plans to do with it is to create some extremely powerful Eldritch Machine with it, which they believe would be capable of manipulating reality/the future in some way. They also know that they need to get the Heart of Siberys back and restore it to the Ring of Siberys, or else the Ring of Siberys will continue to lose power and more and more invaders from elsewhere in the non-Eberronian Multiverse will be able to get into Eberron.
The party came across the Heart of Khyber earlier in the campaign (also not knowing its true nature at the time), getting a semi-creepy warped part of the Draconic Prophecy from some malevolent entity that was trapped inside the giant Dragonshard (which was Rak Tulkhesh, but they didn't know that at the time and still don't know this bit of information), which was inside the Crypt of the Ebonmother. They know that the Hearts of the Progenitors are important to the plot somehow and that their energy must be used to twist the Draconic Prophecy and world of Eberron in some way, but they're not sure about the extent of their powers (yet), and have been bogged down by some side-quests, some backstory-based quests, and side-quests that are essential to the main plot but grew into something else altogether. Once they finish those up, they're going to go try and get the Heart of Eberron ASAP.
The only Heart that they haven't come across yet is the Heart of Eberron, which is definitely going to be the hardest to get their hands on. It's underground (not quite in Khyber, but near it) and being protected by and experimented upon by a Mind Flayer colony that serves Dyrrn, the Daelkyr of Corruption (the colony appeared earlier in the campaign, one of them searching for the Heart of Khyber, and the other at the crash-site of the Heart of Siberys, waiting for the rest of their colony to come and claim it). The colony will be trying to corrupt the Heart of Eberron with their psychic powers, which, depending on how quickly the party reaches and claims the Heart of Eberron, could have long-term ramifications for the campaign.
Now, for the purpose of this thread. I have the basic ideas for what these giant dragonshards, the Hearts of the Progenitors, will be capable of doing, but I need a bit of help solidifying the ideas into an actual, workable concept that can affect the campaign. Here are my ideas:
My players' characters came across the Heart of Siberys, which had fallen from the sky in the Shadow Marches, very early on in the campaign, which granted them a piece of the Draconic Prophecy foreshadowing some of the decisions that they could make later on in the campaign, but extremely vague and in a way that only makes sense in context and once the events come up. They claimed the Heart of Siberys (not knowing what it was) for themselves, and sold it to Zorlan d'Cannith from House Cannith East for 5 million gold pieces, which the party used to become famous (and a bit infamous), buy and create magic items (and some magical vehicles that run on Eberron Dragonshards that the party's Artificer designed), and fund their adventuring throughout the campaign. The party only recently discovered what the Heart of Siberys really was, and all that they know about what House Cannith plans to do with it is to create some extremely powerful Eldritch Machine with it, which they believe would be capable of manipulating reality/the future in some way. They also know that they need to get the Heart of Siberys back and restore it to the Ring of Siberys, or else the Ring of Siberys will continue to lose power and more and more invaders from elsewhere in the non-Eberronian Multiverse will be able to get into Eberron.
The party came across the Heart of Khyber earlier in the campaign (also not knowing its true nature at the time), getting a semi-creepy warped part of the Draconic Prophecy from some malevolent entity that was trapped inside the giant Dragonshard (which was Rak Tulkhesh, but they didn't know that at the time and still don't know this bit of information), which was inside the Crypt of the Ebonmother. They know that the Hearts of the Progenitors are important to the plot somehow and that their energy must be used to twist the Draconic Prophecy and world of Eberron in some way, but they're not sure about the extent of their powers (yet), and have been bogged down by some side-quests, some backstory-based quests, and side-quests that are essential to the main plot but grew into something else altogether. Once they finish those up, they're going to go try and get the Heart of Eberron ASAP.
The only Heart that they haven't come across yet is the Heart of Eberron, which is definitely going to be the hardest to get their hands on. It's underground (not quite in Khyber, but near it) and being protected by and experimented upon by a Mind Flayer colony that serves Dyrrn, the Daelkyr of Corruption (the colony appeared earlier in the campaign, one of them searching for the Heart of Khyber, and the other at the crash-site of the Heart of Siberys, waiting for the rest of their colony to come and claim it). The colony will be trying to corrupt the Heart of Eberron with their psychic powers, which, depending on how quickly the party reaches and claims the Heart of Eberron, could have long-term ramifications for the campaign.
Now, for the purpose of this thread. I have the basic ideas for what these giant dragonshards, the Hearts of the Progenitors, will be capable of doing, but I need a bit of help solidifying the ideas into an actual, workable concept that can affect the campaign. Here are my ideas:
- The Heart of Khyber - The spirit of Rak Tulkhesh is trapped in Khyber Dragonshards that are scattered across both Khyber and Eberron, but in my Eberron, this dragonshard has most of his power trapped in it. If this dragonshard were to be destroyed, have most of its power used up, or experimented upon enough, enough of Rak Tulkhesh's power could be released to allow him to recreate his physical formand start to destroy the world. This obviously is not a good thing, and even though the party is level 13 now, they almost definitely could not beat the CR 28 Demon Overlord. Ideas for how this dragonshard's power could be used, besides unleashing a Demon Overlord:
- If a person with a Dragonmark was exposed enough to the Heart of Khyber, it could corrupt their Dragonmark and turn them into a normal member of their race with an Aberrant Dragonmark, losing all the benefits that their dragonmark granted them before (a Mark of Making Human would just become a Human or Variant Human with an Aberrant Dragonmark, while a Mark of Shadow Elf would probably become a Shadar-Kai with an Aberrant Dragonmark). In the process, they might gain an Indefinite Madness. If the Heart of Khyber is used in an Eldritch Machine, it possibly could be used to corrupt every single dragonmarked humanoid on all of Eberron in this manner. This clearly would be quite bad.
- If a person with an Aberrant Dragonmark was exposed enough to the Heart of Khyber, it could expand upon their Aberrant Dragonmark, possibly granting them an Epic Boon from the DMG (as Aberrant Dragonmarks have the potential of doing), or possibly allowing Rak Tulkhesh or the Spirit of Khyber to use Dominate Person/Monster on the Aberrant Dragonmarked person. If used in an Eldritch Machine, the Heart of Khyber could grant an Epic Boon to or mind-control anyone on all of Eberron that has an Aberrant Dragonmark.
- If used in a specifically-built Eldritch Machine and brought to the location of an imprisoned Demon Overlord or Daelkyr, the Heart of Khyber could be used to release this malevolent entity. If fueled with enough magical energy (possibly by releasing the energy inside the Heart of Eberron or through the death of a Greatwyrm Dragon), the Eldritch Machine could possibly be used to release every single Demon Overlord and/or Daelkyr imprisoned in Eberron's Multiverse, bringing about an extremely violent and unrelenting apocalypse.
- If the Heart of Eberron is consumed, the Heart of Siberys is destroyed/corrupted, and the Heart of Khyber is incorporated into an extremely powerful Eldritch Machine that runs off of the magical energy trapped inside the Heart of Eberron, and this Eldritch Machine is brought into the innermost Demiplane inside Khyber (the plane of existence), this Eldritch Machine can be used to release Khyber (the Progenitor Dragon), having the crust of the world of Eberron crack as the Colossal Khyber escapes like when a Wyrmling hatches from a Dragon Egg, ending the world as every being on the world dies almost immediately. Khyber then ventures out into the multiverse to do whatever she feels like doing (destroy any world on the Material Plane that she comes across, conquer the Outer Planes, murder every god in existence, etc)
- The Heart of Eberron- Just as normal Eberron Dragonshards can be used to create extremely powerful magic items, fuel spellcasting, or power Eldritch Machines, the Heart of Eberron can do all of that without being consumed, but can also do even more powerful feats of magic if used in different ways. For example, magic items that rely on using charges can be used without expending that magic item's charges while within 100 feet of the Heart of Eberron, spells that require material components (even ones that require consumed or expensive material components) don't while within 100 feet of the Heart of Eberron, and the Heart of Eberron can fuel any Eldritch Machine without being consumed. Less mundane ideas for how to use this dragonshard's power:
- If the Heart of Eberron is shattered into 13 different pieces, 12 of its fragments' power can be used consumed and used to create one Artifact per fragment if using the Craft an Item Downtime option. If the last fragment of the Heart of Eberron is ever destroyed, these artifacts all lose their magic.
- If the Heart of Eberron is ground into a powder, and a level 20 Spellcaster with 9th level spell slots is within 100 feet of all of the powdered dragonshard, and they have done at least a year of downtime researching the spell, they can cast an Epic Level spell or the Wish spell without any downsides or possibilities of the spell going wrong.
- If the Heart of Eberron is ground into a powder and then consumed to fuel an Eldritch Machine, the effects of the Eldritch Machine may span the whole world of Eberron. (For example, using this with a Storm Spire could allow a person that is using the Storm Spire to control the weather of the whole planet. Using this for a Spell Sink would prevent magic from being cast all across Eberron, which would be disastrous, to say the least. Or if you used this for a Mabaran Resonator, you could make it so when anyone on all of Eberron died, they would become a Zombie under the control of whomever is using the Eldritch Machine. Erandis Vol would love that last option.)
- Other examples are listed in the Heart of Siberys or Heart of Khyber listings (such as freeing Khyber, a Demon Overlord, or a Daelkyr). I could use some help with other ideas for using the Heart of Eberron.
- The Heart of Siberys- The Heart of Siberys is probably the Heart of the Progenitor that has the most potential to help the party, due to the fact that the Heart of Khyber is so malevolent and destructive, and the Heart of Eberron requires downtime/foresight in most cases, or relies on using another Heart of the Progenitors to have its most powerful effects. The most obvious option is to allow the Heart of Siberys to bring Siberys back to life, possibly by using the Heart of Siberys as a dragon egg, but that one would probably take more time than the party would have on their hands. Here are some other ideas that don't involve the rebirth of a godlike draconic entity:
- If a person with a non-aberrant Dragonmark is exposed to the Heart of Siberys enough, it could grant them an Epic Boon or Draconic Boon, reflavored as a Siberys Dragonmark. This could also possibly make them immune to domination effects and protect them from certain damage types (most likely giving them resistance to necrotic and radiant damage like the Nyxborn Supernatural Gift from Theros). Incorporating the Heart of Siberys inside an Eldritch Machine specifically designed for this purpose could affect everyone on all of Eberron that has a Dragonmark in this way.
- If a person with an Aberrant Dragonmark is exposed to the Heart of Siberys enough, it could grant rid them of the dragonmark and replace it with one of the 13 non-aberrant dragonmarks (including the Mark of Death), possibly allowing the character to choose, or just picking one that fits the best (an Artificer would get the Mark of Making, a Druid would get the Mark of Handling, etc). Incorporating the Heart of Siberys inside an Eldritch Machine specifically designed for this purpose could affect everyone on all of Eberron that has an Aberrant Dragonmark in this way. This would even work on races that can't normally have dragonmarks, but has an Aberrant one, like Warforged, Changelings, Shifters, Lizarfolk, and more.
- If incorporated in an Eldritch Machine similar to a Dimensional Seal and if fueled by the Heart of Eberron, the Heart of Siberys could completely cut off one Eberron's planes of existence from the world, in the same way that the Giants of Xen'drik did to Dal Quor 40,000 years ago. Doing this would prevent creatures native to that plane from physically manifesting on Eberron and would prevent Manifest Zones from that plane of existence from manifesting on Eberron (getting rid of all already existing manifest zones from that plane). If the Heart of Khyber is destroyed beforehand, this same process can be used on Khyber, permanently sealing it off from interacting with Eberron and preventing all Demon Overlords/Daelkyr and their fiendish/aberrant followers from physically entering Eberron.
- If the Heart of Siberys is physically restored to the Ring of Siberys, allowing it to orbit the world of Eberron as it did before, the abjuring shield of the Ring of Siberys that prevents travel to or from the rest of the D&D Multiverse into/from Eberron will be restored.
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