Dragonmarks

A halfling healer touches a dying man; the mark on her forehead blazes with blue fire as his wounds close and vanish. A half-orc bounty hunter reaches out with the power of his mark to find his prey. A human artificer touches a creation forge and the symbol on her hand flares as the eldritch machine rumbles to life.
Each of these people possesses a dragonmark, a symbol etched on the skin in colors more vivid than any tattoo. This sigil is a source of mystical power. A dragonmark enhances the user’s ability to perform certain tasks. The Mark of Making guides the hands of the smith, while the Mark of Shadows helps its bearer avoid enemies. The power of a dragonmark can also manifest in more dramatic ways. An heir with the Mark of Storms can scatter enemies with a blast of wind, while someone with the Mark of Shadows can weave illusions. While these effects may function in the same way as spells, the power is drawn and focused through the dragonmark.
You can’t buy a dragonmark, or simply choose to develop one. Each mark is tied to specific bloodlines. A dragonmark appears around adolescence, but not every heir manifests the mark. Long ago the families that carry the marks joined together to form the dragonmarked houses. Over the course of centuries, the houses have used their gifts to establish powerful economic monopolies. House Jorasco holds the Mark of Healing, and Jorasco maintains the vast majority of healing houses and clinics. Only House Lyrandar heirs with the Mark of Storms can pilot airships. Control over vital services — medicine, transportation, communication, manufacturing — gives the houses tremendous power.
In the past, the dragonmarked houses were held in check by the united kingdom of Galifar. But in the wake of the Last War, people wonder if any one nation has the power to enforce its wishes on the houses. Some say the dragonmarked barons wield more power than kings and queens.

Creating a Dragonmarked Character

Dragonmarks are associated with race, depicted by a combination of variant races and subraces.
For humans and half-orcs, a dragonmark is a variant race that replaces normal traits associated with those races. For half-elves, a dragonmark is a variant race. You keep some of the standard half-elf traits and replace others with the traits associated with your mark. For dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings, the dragonmark replaces your subrace. So, if you’re making an elf character, you can choose to take the Mark of Shadow instead of being a wood elf or high elf.
There is another option related to dragonmarks if your group uses feats: the Aberrant Dragonmark feat grants potentially dangerous magical abilities. Aberrant dragonmarks aren’t tied to the dragonmark houses and can be taken by a character of any race.

Dragonmarks and Backgrounds

Dragonmarks are bound to certain bloodlines, and by choosing a mark you are establishing that your character has a blood connection to one of the families in the dragonmarked houses. However, it’s up to you to decide on your relationship to the house. Were you brought up in the house? Or are you completely independent from it? This is best represented by your background. Consider the following options.


Agent. You have a close, ongoing relationship with your house. The house agent background is a good choice if you are actively working for the house. Alternately, you could take the noble background to reflect a blood tie to the leaders of the house.
Independent Scion. You were raised or trained by the house, but you’ve kept your independence. This means you don’t have many special privileges, but you also don’t have responsibilities. Guild artisan is a good choice to reflect basic house training, but you could choose entertainer for the Mark of Shadow, sailor for the Mark of Storms, soldier for the Mark of Sentinel, sage for the Mark of Scribing, and so on.
Excoriate. When a dragonmarked heir defies their house, they may be cut off from it. In the past, your mark would be flayed from your body. Although this mutilation is no longer practiced, such exiles are still called excoriates. If you’re an excoriate, consider what you did to deserve this punishment. Were you a criminal? A charlatan? Or perhaps a sage who engaged in forbidden research?
Foundling. Your ancestors left the house long ago. You have no ties to the house and may not have known you were connected by blood before you manifested your dragonmark. As an outlander or an urchin you might know nothing about the houses. As an acolyte or hermit, you could have put your faith ahead of worldly things, choosing not to pursue a connection with the houses. Whatever you decide, this is an opportunity to talk with your DM about the role you’d like the house to play in a campaign. Do you want them to be your enemy? Would you prefer to avoid them completely? Or do you want to work your way into a position of power in the house, despite being an outsider?
Dragonmarks and Houses Table
Dragonmark House Race Guild Specialties Detection Medani Half-Elf Bodyguards, Investigation, Risk Management Finding Tharashk Human, Half-Orc Bounty Hunting, Investigation, Prospecting Handling Vadalis Human Animal Training and Breeding Healing Jorasco Halfling Healing Hospitality Ghallanda Halfling Food, Lodging, Urban Information Making Cannith Human Manufacturing Passage Orien Human Land Transportation Scribing Sivis Gnome Communication, Translation, Verification Sentinel Deneith Human Bodyguards, Mercenaries Shadow Phiarlan Elf Entertainment, Espionage Thuranni Elf Entertainment, Assassination Storm Lyrandar Half-Elf Air and Sea Transportation Warding Kundarak Dwarf Banking, Storage, Prisons The Powers of the Mark

Each dragonmark grants a set of abilities that reflect the inherent powers of the mark. Your dragonmarked race gives you a set of traits derived from the magic of your mark. If you are a spellcaster, your dragonmark also fuels or channels some of your spells. Each dragonmark’s description includes a list of dragonmark spells that flow from the magic of the mark. If you play a character with the Spellcasting or the Pact Magic class feature, your dragonmark spells are added to the spell list for each of your spellcasting classes, thereby expanding the spell options available to you.
You might also consider your dragonmark the source of any or all of your spells or class features. As a cleric with the Mark of Healing, for example, you could say your mark is the sole source of the healing and supportive spells you cast, or your magic might come from a combination of your mark’s power and your faith in the gods. As a warlock, your aberrant dragonmark might actually be your fiendish patron, the source of all your magic. These descriptions add flavor to your character but don’t change your character’s abilities, beyond the dragonmark spells added to your spell list.
Over the centuries, the houses have developed tools that enhance and channel the powers of a mark, and these items give the houses much of their economic power.

Dragonmark Appearance

A dragonmark appears on the skin. There are twelve known dragonmarks, each unique in design and power. A dragonmark can appear on any part of the body. One half-elf could have the Mark of Detection across an eye, while another has it in the palm of the hand. Dragonmarks appear with vivid shades of blue and purple and shimmer or even move slightly. When used, they grow warm to the touch and sometimes glow (though this doesn’t produce useful illumination). A dragonmark can’t be removed — even if a limb bearing a dragonmark is cut away, the mark eventually manifests on another part of the bearer’s body. All dragonmarks share a similar initial appearance, but a dragonmark can grow in size and complexity as a character gains levels and uses it to cast more powerful magic.
While dragonmarks share the same general appearance, your dragonmark could have a unique quality. Roll on the Dragonmark Quirks table for inspiration.

Dragonmark Quirks

1d6 Quirk 1 Your dragonmark is unusually small or remarkably large. 2 Your dragonmark slowly moves around your body. 3 Your dragonmark glows dramatically when you use it. 4 Your dragonmark tingles when you’re near someone with the same mark. 5 Your dragonmark tickles when you use it. 6 Your dragonmark is an unusual color but a normal shape.

ALL ABOUT THE HOUSES!

Every house has traditions, cabals, and secrets. Here’s a few facts that apply to most of the houses.
Most Dragonmarked houses maintain enclaves in major cities. These serve as hubs for house businesses and strongholds for the house families. A city may also have any number of businesses tied to the house — a Ghallanda inn, a Cannith smith, a Sivis message station — but these are simply providing services and don’t have any direct connection to house leadership.
Any heir of the house who develops a dragonmark is allowed to add the d’ prefix to the house name: Merrix d’Cannith. Regional leaders within the houses are called Barons. Most houses are led by a matriarch or patriarch, though some are led by councils.
The Twelve is an organization that facilitates communication and cooperation between the Dragonmarked houses. Excoriates are dragonmarked heirs who have been cut off from their houses. Foundlings are people who develop a mark outside of a house and have no connection to it.
Dragonmarks manifest around adolescence. Each house puts its heirs through a trial called The Test of Siberys. The specific trials vary by house, but they place the heir in circumstances where they are likely to manifest the mark, if they have it. About half of the members of a bloodline manifest the mark.
The Korth Edicts prevent the houses from owning land, holding noble titles, or maintaining military forces (with an exception for Deneith). The Edicts were established long ago when the Five Nations were united. Today, many in the houses feel the Korth Edicts have become obsolete in the wake of the Last War.