The Fall of Dhakaan
Disaster / Destruction
The remnants of a great empire doom what's left of their civilization.
Terribly weakened by the Daelkyr War, the Dhakaani Empire was shattered by infighting and constant civil strife in the wake of the conflict, eventually leading to the collapse of the great goblin civilization into scattered goblin tribes. A small grouping of five goblin clans descended from the Dhakaani known as the Heirs of Dhakaan managed to maintain the culture and history of their lost empire in the region of Khorvaire that became the present-day goblin nation of Darguun. These Dhakaani heirs never gave up hope that one day they would be able to recover the glories of their ancient past even as their races fall back into barbarism.
Like the Dhakaani, the orc nations of the Shadow Marches were also devastated by the Daelkyr War and degenerated into scattered clans that call the Marches home. About half of the orcs pursue a simple, agrarian lifestyle and continue to observe the druidic traditions of the Gatekeepers as taught by the black dragon Vvaraak. Unfortunately, the psychological scars of the Daelkyr War were most deep among the orcs of the Marches and at least half of the clans in the region eventually gave up the benevolent spiritual traditions of the Gatekeepers for the worship of Khyber. Despite the all-inclusive name for these beliefs as the Cults of the Dragon Below, these cults had nothing in common beyond devotion to the darkly insane forces of the daelkyr and fiends imprisoned within Khyber by the Gatekeepers and the couatl. They did not communicate with one another and did not usually share the same aims or religious interpretations.
The Elf–Dragon Wars
Although the destruction visited upon Xen’drik by the dragons was monumental, some of the continent's denizens did survive. While the dragons brooded, elven refugees established the nation of Aerenal on that tropical island-continent after fleeing Xen’drik. Thousands of years of research into necromancy and the magical teachings of Argonnessen produced the Undying Court, an alliance of undying elves with a collective magical and divine might that rivaled the fiendish Overlords of the first age of the world. Since that time—nearly twenty-five thousand years before the founding ofGalifar—dragons and elves have been at war. The tides of strife ebb and flow, and centuries might pass between battles . . . but sooner or later the dragons return to fight once more. The basis of this age-old conflict, and its conduct, is another of the mysteries of Argonnessen.
Many find it impossible to imagine that the Aereni could stand against the force that utterly destroyed the giant civilizations of Xen’drik. In truth, the elves have never faced the full power ofArgonnessen. The strike on Xen’drik was carried out by the full, unified force of dragonkind; theElf–Dragon Wars have involved only a few flights from the Light of Siberys, the draconic army ofArgonessen. The fact that the Undying Court has been able to hold off the dragons remains an impressive feat, but the undying have never faced the true power that ravaged a continent.
hose who study this puzzling behavior ask: Why not? What motivates this seemingly endless struggle? If the dragons truly wished to eliminate the elves, why do they not commit their full forces to the task? If they do not care enough to do so, why do they continue to fight in the first place?
One theory is that the dragons despise the extensive practice of necromancy, even when it draws on the radiant energy of Irian, but do not view it with the same abhorrence or alarm as the giants’ planar studies and blood magic. Thus, they cannot agree en masse that Aerenal should be laid low.
Another possibility is that the struggle is a form of exercise for the dragons, a proving ground for the younger warriors of the Light of Siberys. Conversely, it might be that the wars are fought to test the elves and harden them for some future conflict foreseen in the Prophecy, just as a soldier will sharpen his blade in preparation for battles to come. The dragons might be unwilling to share the secrets of their arcane power with lesser races, but they can still push the lower creatures to reach their full potential. The long struggle with the dragons has certainly forced the clerics and wizards of the Aereni and the warriors of the Tairnadal to master the arts of battle and magic.
The elder wyrms of Argonnessen offer no explanations for their actions, nor do they negotiate. Only two instances of elves and dragons working side by side are known, and both involve the noble line of the House of Vol. Following the appearance of the Mark of Death, a number of green dragons began working with the Aereni family line of Vol in whom the dragonmark appeared. This alliance produced the half-dragon female Erandis d’Vol. Allies of Vol in the present time claim that her birth was intended to forge a bond between the two races and bring an end to the constant wars.
Others believe that the emerald-skinned dragons sought to gain control of the Mark of Death through their half-dragon offspring. In the end, the birth of Erandis d’Vol did unite Aerenal andArgonnessen . . . in a quest to eradicate the line of Vol. But this alliance was short-lived and involved minimal communication between the allies. Once the House of Vol fell into shadow, the dragons returned to Argonnessen, and in a few centuries, the cycle of war began anew.
Vvaraak’s Betrayal
Throughout time, rogue dragons have pursued their own agendas and dreams. Still, in the aftermath of Aureon’s Folly and the destruction of Xen’drik, few dared to share the secrets of Argonnessen with lesser creatures. One such rebel was the Emerald Claw, the father of Erandis d’Vol, and it destroyed him. A more well-regarded rogue was Vvaraak, the black dragon who trained the first Gatekeepers, and brought the secrets of druidic magic to Khorvaire.
A true Child of Eberron, Vvaraak foresaw a disaster that would wound the world itself. The Conclave of Argonessen had no interest in this struggle; just as the dragons had stood aside while the giants of Xen’drik battled the natives of Dal Quor, the elders of the Conclave told Vvaraak that they would act when a clear threat to Argonnessen existed, and not before.
Frustrated, Vvaraak abandoned her elders and her flight, traveled across the world, and began training humanoids and other creatures in the use of druidic magic and primal power. Although she is best known for teaching the orcs of the west coast of Khorvaire, Vvaraak had other students. Some Seren druids (the spiritual leaders of the human barbarians of the Seren Islands, the archipelago off the northern coast of Argonessen that acts as a protective shield against those who seek to reach the dragons’ homeland) attribute their skill to the teachings of the Ebon Mother, and lizardfolk boast adherence to the Gatekeeper druidic sect in both the nation of Q’barra on Khorvaire and Xen’drik. Vvaraak stayed in the Shadow Marches of Khorvaire for less than a century, and her final fate is unknown. Perhaps she lived out her final days in humanoid form, moving among her students and hiding from the angry Eyes of Chronepsis. Perhaps she descended into Khyber to teach the denizens
of the deep. Some say that she returned to Argonnessen, that her act of rebellion was actually a carefully calculated move on behalf of the draconic Conclave. If so, it could be that the dragons subtly planned and implemented both the destruction of the Dhakaani Empire and the defeat of the daelkyr.
Of course, it is possible that the invasion of the daelkyr from Xoriat was not the great threat to the natural order Vvaraak foresaw in the future. If this is the case, what monumental danger still lies ahead for the world?
Ghaash’kala: The Ghost Guardians’ Eternal War
In the wake of the Daelkyr War, one faction of orcs took the Gatekeepers’ philosophy of guardianship to an extreme, believing that they were meant to protect Khorvaire and the rest of Eberron from the fiends and other dark races of the Dragon Below that roamed the portion of northwestern Khorvaire known as the Demon Wastes.
North of the Eldeen Reaches, life gradually seeps out of the earth. The lush forests and great trees slowly fade into a broad tableland of dried soil and cracked volcanic rock. Further north, the elevation rises into the bleak chain of mountains known as the Shadowcrags, then drops dramatically. The land beyond, a highland plateau, is broken into badlands, a network of canyons and mesas that forms a natural labyrinth leading out to a plain of blackened sand and volcanic glass. This is theDemon Wastes—the last remnants of the rakshasa and fiendish civilization that ruled Khorvairemillions of years before the rise of goblins or humans during the Age of Demons. Amid the ruins of infernal cities, fiendish creatures searched for fresh blood while ancient forces watch from the shadows. In this realm of death and desolation, long-forgotten treasures and primeval secrets hid in the blasted wastes and the rakshasas and fiends known as the Lords of Dust plotted endlessly to corrupt the hearts of men.
Those orcs who believed that their duty was to enter the Demon Wastes to prevent its malevolent inhabitants from infecting the rest of Khorvaire were known as the Ghaash’kala, the“ghost guardians” in the Orc tongue. The Ghaash’kala barbarians believed they had been awarded a sacred duty to prevent evil in all its myriad forms from leaving the Demon Wastes. Primarily composed of orcs mingled with a handful of humans and half-orcs, the Ghaash’kala clan members were fierce but not bloodthirsty by nature. They acted to keep travelers from entering the Wastes, preferring to convince with words before drawing weapons. On the other hand, they considered anything that emerged from the Wastes—whether wild beasts, other barbarians, or travelers returning from an expedition—to be hopelessly tainted by exposure to the Wastes’ demonic residents, and they moved against such creatures without mercy.
The Ghaash’kala worshipped a force they called Kalok Shash, Orcish for “the binding flame.”The clerics and shamans of the clans say that the flame consists of the souls of noble warriors and that this force holds the powers of darkness at bay. Kalok Shash is in actuality the same divine force revered by the Church of the Silver Flame that is composed of the collective souls of the celestial couatls, although it could be difficult to convince a templar of the Flame that a branded orc barbarian is a champion of his faith. When Ghaash’kala barbarians rage, they seek to submerge their identity into the flame, drawing on the strengths of the great warriors of the past and losing all fear of death. Noble warriors are often called to serve as paladins—although the Ghaash’kala paladin presents a very different image than the silver-armored knight of the Church.
All in all, the Ghaash’kala clans see it as their sacred duty to guard the Labyrinth passages of the Wastes from escaping fiends, rampaging horrors of the Dragon Below, and other evils that might seek to slip past the Shadowcrags and invade the Eldeen Reaches and beyond. Through the light of the
Kalok Shash, new members are constantly called to join the clans and keep the ghost guardians strong lest the dark powers overwhelm them.
The Ghaash’kala clan members were relatively technologically sophisticated as barbarians went and their warriors made use of studded leather armor, steel-bladed weapons, and bows. Clan warriors carried the brand of the binding flame on their skin as they believed that these brands helped to protect them from demonic possession. Four Ghaash’kala clans were spread throughout the region of the Demon Wastes known as the Labyrinth, where they share a common priesthood and have strong interclan ties with one another to help them carry out their sacred mission.
The Labyrinth is a convoluted series of canyons and depressions carved into the flat highland plain of the Demon Wastes as though by gargantuan claws. No part of Khyber, the Dragon Below, rests so close to the surface of Eberron as in the Labyrinth. In ages past, the orcs that eventually became the Ghaash’kala entered the Labyrinth for the express purpose of keeping the horrors of the Wastes trapped and cut off from the rest of the world. One of the oldest of these clans, the Maruk, has a long and bloody history of fulfilling this mission.
The Maruk clan of Ghaash’kala guards the central passages through the Labyrinth, the routes most often used by the Lords of Dust and their agents to reach the outside world. The sly and clever rakshasas often manage to slip past the vigilant eyes of the Maruk guards, but the sacred warriors of the binding flame are not without their resources. They can see through disguises used by the fiends, and when a fiend’s disguise is seen through, deadly battles can erupt in the depths of the canyons. The Maruk clan suffers terrible casualties as a result of these constant battles; the only reason the clan has survived to the present day is because of the steady infusion of new blood from elsewhere in Khorvaire. Orc barbarians from the Shadow Marches, human rangers from the Eldeen Reaches, and even human youths from the Carrion Tribes often hear the call of Kalok Shash, a divine beacon that draws them to the Maruk and other clans of the Ghaash’kala. However, the Maruk clan counts more humans and half-orcs among its members than any other Ghaash’kala clan and possesses slightly better equipment because of this greater outside immigration. The Maruk clan also has a higher percentage of paladins than the other three clans of ghost guardians. Members of the Maruk Ghaash’kala are somber and serious, prepared to die at any time in battle with the fiends of the Demon Wastes and other horrors spit up from the depths of Khyber.
