My current campaign is going to be wrapping up soon and our DM has said that the next one is going to be set in Eberron. I'm pretty new to D&D and I'm completely unfamiliar with any of the settings, so I did a bit of research for character ideas. The concept I'm leaning towards is a half-elf rogue inquisitive with the mark of detection (House of Medani). I read that there's an organisation within House Medani called The Basilisk's Gaze which hunts down war criminals, so I thought my character could be part of that. Before I write up my backstory, however, I need the answers to several questions:
1) I understand that the dragonmarked houses actually recruit people, rather than just keeping it in the family. Can someone who was recruited still have the dragonmark, or are the marks hereditary?
2) All the key figures in each house seem to have the house's name as their surname. Does every member of a dragonmarked house take on that surname, or could someone join the house and keep the name they had before?
3) How powerful are the houses? If one of the less important members of a house (such as my character) was arrested for murder in Sharn, would his house have the power to get him acquitted?
4) Regarding Sharn (which is where the campaign will start), is there a lot of corruption? If a powerful criminal organisation wanted to frame someone for murder, is it possible that they would have corrupt law enforcement officers and judges on their payroll who could guarantee a conviction?
Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated. I really love what I've read about Eberron so far, so I want to learn everything!
1. Dragonmarked houses do recruit outsiders, but to my understanding, the dragonmatks are hereditary.
2. The Dragonmarked houses are named for the family, as it is like a family business dynasty. Therefore, the Medani's control House Medani, even if they do have other employees from outside the family who do not share the name.
3. Think of the Dragonmarked Houses like modern corporations, each one having cornered the market on a certain magical service that's generally not available to the non-dragonmarked, due to Eberron's wide magic focus over high magic. They have power to rival some governments.
4. Sharn has everything. Because Eberron is a pulp- fantasy-noir setting, there's plenty of crooked politicians, gang clashes, greedy cops, grizzled detectives, political dissidents, you name it.
Dragonmarks are strongly hereditary, in that most people bearing a given dragonmark will have some blood tie to the family, but they do sometimes show where there is no known relationship, or even cross species. If you want your character to be dragonmarked, but not be related to any known family lines, it’s more than possible. (Cross species marks are a bit trickier to manage given how they are implemented in 5e, but you could probably craft an ‘aberrant’ dragonmark to mimic an ‘normal’ one closely enough to work.)
1. The dragonmarked houses don’t recruit people into the house per se. The only typical ways to actually become a member of the house is to be born into it or to marry into it. However, lots of people are associate with a house in one way or another without actually being members. The houses act as a sort of licensing board for their respective economic niches. Any private investigator, regardless of species, can be licensed by House Medani, even if they’re not full members of the house. As has been mentioned, dragonmarks are normally hereditary. But your half-elf could very easily manifest a mark even outside of House Medani; there’s any number of reasons why you might be descended from a Medani but not legally a Medani. In such a case, House Medani would very much want to bring you into the fold; if you refused and were acting in a way that would threaten Medani’s interests (competing with them economically, for example), they would make your life miserable until you gave in or gave up. Additionally, dragonmarks are magical marks of prophecy, and it’s not unheard of to spontaneously manifest a mark without hereditary descent. Being the “wrong species” but manifesting a mark anyway can happen because prophecy, but that goes into “this is actually immensely significant” territory and you and your DM should think about that if you want to do it.
2. The core line of each house bears the house’s name, but the houses are bigger than one core family, and there are countless surnames within each house, more closely or more distantly related to the core line. You wouldn’t take the name of the house unless you married someone with that name and decided to change your own to match. If you have a dragonmark, you’re entitled to append the nobiliary particle “d’” before your surname, e.g. “Baron Elvinor Elorrenthi d’Phiarlan.” This is true even if you’re not a main line member of the house. The Cannith artificer “Steve d’Smith” is a full member of House Cannith and bears the Mark of Making. He just belongs to a cadet branch of the family.
3. The houses are immensely powerful. If they decided it was worth it to get you acquitted, they could certainly have that arranged. How willing they would be to do so depends on how bad it would be for the house for you to be convicted. They’re not going to go out of their way to get you acquitted if there’s not substantial self-interest in play. But they certainly have the power.
4. Yes, absolutely. There’s corruption everywhere, and you’re gonna get even more of it in a city as huge as Sharn.
1. As said, usually the only way in is to be born into a House, or marry into it. However, the concept of Foundlings exist. Foundlings are members of the race that manifest the mark outside the house. Many times a house will try to recruit foundlings into a house. They aren't required to join, but they do take a dim view of a foundling competing in the Houses' business, or saying they are a house member, when they haven't actually joined.
2. This actually depends a little on the house. Some of the houses, like Sivis, also have a third name that denotes the specific family line. An example is Lysse Lyrriman d'Sivis, who is of house sivis, of the Lyrriman line/family. This applies to Phiarlan, Thurrani, and Tharaskh as well. It also is different from the 'IR' prefix, used to denote someone connected to the royal houses of old Galifar. Usually its ir'Wynarn, but there are other family names as well, and you can't have both. To be a member of a royal house, you have sever your connection to a Dragonmarked house. Otherwise, any full member of the house, can use it, not just Dragonmarked members.
3. Very powerful, but some have more than others. Medani doesn't have power in terms of manpower (Deneith and Tharaskh do) or industry (Cannith does), but it does in information putting it in rivalry with Phiarlan and Thurrani. Will they stick their neck out to save a house member with favors/bribes/rescue? Depends on how important you are. A ill behaved scion of the house is a mark of shame. But if you know something important...Medani might whisk you away.
4. There are a lot of criminal groups, notably the Boromars (halfling mafia), the Tyrants (changeling gang), Daask (another gang from Droaam, putting the screws to the Boromars,) House Tarkanan (assassins), to name the big ones. And all of them have bribes with the city watch, and some of them have direct seats on the city council. So...there is a bit of corruption going on. So could they do a murder and not get caught? Yep. Could they frame someone? Yep. Could a convicted criminal get away and hidden? Yep. It's all possible.
My current campaign is going to be wrapping up soon and our DM has said that the next one is going to be set in Eberron. I'm pretty new to D&D and I'm completely unfamiliar with any of the settings, so I did a bit of research for character ideas. The concept I'm leaning towards is a half-elf rogue inquisitive with the mark of detection (House of Medani). I read that there's an organisation within House Medani called The Basilisk's Gaze which hunts down war criminals, so I thought my character could be part of that. Before I write up my backstory, however, I need the answers to several questions:
1) I understand that the dragonmarked houses actually recruit people, rather than just keeping it in the family. Can someone who was recruited still have the dragonmark, or are the marks hereditary?
2) All the key figures in each house seem to have the house's name as their surname. Does every member of a dragonmarked house take on that surname, or could someone join the house and keep the name they had before?
3) How powerful are the houses? If one of the less important members of a house (such as my character) was arrested for murder in Sharn, would his house have the power to get him acquitted?
4) Regarding Sharn (which is where the campaign will start), is there a lot of corruption? If a powerful criminal organisation wanted to frame someone for murder, is it possible that they would have corrupt law enforcement officers and judges on their payroll who could guarantee a conviction?
Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated. I really love what I've read about Eberron so far, so I want to learn everything!
1. Dragonmarked houses do recruit outsiders, but to my understanding, the dragonmatks are hereditary.
2. The Dragonmarked houses are named for the family, as it is like a family business dynasty. Therefore, the Medani's control House Medani, even if they do have other employees from outside the family who do not share the name.
3. Think of the Dragonmarked Houses like modern corporations, each one having cornered the market on a certain magical service that's generally not available to the non-dragonmarked, due to Eberron's wide magic focus over high magic. They have power to rival some governments.
4. Sharn has everything. Because Eberron is a pulp- fantasy-noir setting, there's plenty of crooked politicians, gang clashes, greedy cops, grizzled detectives, political dissidents, you name it.
Hope that helps!
That's great, thank you.
Dragonmarks are strongly hereditary, in that most people bearing a given dragonmark will have some blood tie to the family, but they do sometimes show where there is no known relationship, or even cross species. If you want your character to be dragonmarked, but not be related to any known family lines, it’s more than possible. (Cross species marks are a bit trickier to manage given how they are implemented in 5e, but you could probably craft an ‘aberrant’ dragonmark to mimic an ‘normal’ one closely enough to work.)
1. The dragonmarked houses don’t recruit people into the house per se. The only typical ways to actually become a member of the house is to be born into it or to marry into it. However, lots of people are associate with a house in one way or another without actually being members. The houses act as a sort of licensing board for their respective economic niches. Any private investigator, regardless of species, can be licensed by House Medani, even if they’re not full members of the house. As has been mentioned, dragonmarks are normally hereditary. But your half-elf could very easily manifest a mark even outside of House Medani; there’s any number of reasons why you might be descended from a Medani but not legally a Medani. In such a case, House Medani would very much want to bring you into the fold; if you refused and were acting in a way that would threaten Medani’s interests (competing with them economically, for example), they would make your life miserable until you gave in or gave up. Additionally, dragonmarks are magical marks of prophecy, and it’s not unheard of to spontaneously manifest a mark without hereditary descent. Being the “wrong species” but manifesting a mark anyway can happen because prophecy, but that goes into “this is actually immensely significant” territory and you and your DM should think about that if you want to do it.
2. The core line of each house bears the house’s name, but the houses are bigger than one core family, and there are countless surnames within each house, more closely or more distantly related to the core line. You wouldn’t take the name of the house unless you married someone with that name and decided to change your own to match. If you have a dragonmark, you’re entitled to append the nobiliary particle “d’” before your surname, e.g. “Baron Elvinor Elorrenthi d’Phiarlan.” This is true even if you’re not a main line member of the house. The Cannith artificer “Steve d’Smith” is a full member of House Cannith and bears the Mark of Making. He just belongs to a cadet branch of the family.
3. The houses are immensely powerful. If they decided it was worth it to get you acquitted, they could certainly have that arranged. How willing they would be to do so depends on how bad it would be for the house for you to be convicted. They’re not going to go out of their way to get you acquitted if there’s not substantial self-interest in play. But they certainly have the power.
4. Yes, absolutely. There’s corruption everywhere, and you’re gonna get even more of it in a city as huge as Sharn.
1. As said, usually the only way in is to be born into a House, or marry into it. However, the concept of Foundlings exist. Foundlings are members of the race that manifest the mark outside the house. Many times a house will try to recruit foundlings into a house. They aren't required to join, but they do take a dim view of a foundling competing in the Houses' business, or saying they are a house member, when they haven't actually joined.
2. This actually depends a little on the house. Some of the houses, like Sivis, also have a third name that denotes the specific family line. An example is Lysse Lyrriman d'Sivis, who is of house sivis, of the Lyrriman line/family. This applies to Phiarlan, Thurrani, and Tharaskh as well. It also is different from the 'IR' prefix, used to denote someone connected to the royal houses of old Galifar. Usually its ir'Wynarn, but there are other family names as well, and you can't have both. To be a member of a royal house, you have sever your connection to a Dragonmarked house. Otherwise, any full member of the house, can use it, not just Dragonmarked members.
3. Very powerful, but some have more than others. Medani doesn't have power in terms of manpower (Deneith and Tharaskh do) or industry (Cannith does), but it does in information putting it in rivalry with Phiarlan and Thurrani. Will they stick their neck out to save a house member with favors/bribes/rescue? Depends on how important you are. A ill behaved scion of the house is a mark of shame. But if you know something important...Medani might whisk you away.
4. There are a lot of criminal groups, notably the Boromars (halfling mafia), the Tyrants (changeling gang), Daask (another gang from Droaam, putting the screws to the Boromars,) House Tarkanan (assassins), to name the big ones. And all of them have bribes with the city watch, and some of them have direct seats on the city council. So...there is a bit of corruption going on. So could they do a murder and not get caught? Yep. Could they frame someone? Yep. Could a convicted criminal get away and hidden? Yep. It's all possible.
GLHF in Eberron!