Aryth

Aryth
Aryth, the Gateway
Color: Orange-red
Associated Dragonmark: Passage
Associated Plane: Dolurrh
Approximate Diameter: 1,000 miles
Approximate Mean Distance from Eberron: 221,000 miles
The black dragon Vvaraak told the first druids that Aryth has a similar effect on manifest zones as Zarantyr has on tides, and that particularly weak manifest zones appear only when Aryth is in its full moon phase. Some say that those born under this moon are restless folk, driven to travel and explore; Lhazaar, who led the first great migration from Sarlona to Khorvaire, is said to have been a child of Aryth.
I have not touched on religion amongst the moons of Eberron in previous editions of this gazette; as a wizard, I prefer the practicalities of the arcane over the vague abstractions of the divine. There are numerous religions and cults spread across the moons; some reflect in some ways the Sovereign Host and the Silver Flame, though of course their tenets would be seen as heretical in the mainstream churches of Khorvaire. The closest recognizable priests would be the Aventans, who lived in Sarlona before their nation was destroyed, but the Pyrinean Creed had not been canonized at that time. The closest religion similar to the Silver Flame is known as the cults of the Dragon Above. While couatls are native celestials of Eberron, the followers of the Dragon Above broadly believe that it is in the remnants of Siberys that true divine fire can be found. Most are beneficent, living in monasteries in the Ring of Siberys, but some are dangerous fanatics, especially for visitors from Eberron, who they view as too deeply entangled with Khyber.
I mention these beliefs because one of the most important questions faith seeks to answer is what happens after death. Despite the objective truth of the Plane of Dolurrh being the only destination of the afterlife, those of a religious inclination offer false hope that Dolurrh is merely a first stop on a larger journey, to join the service of the Sovereign Host or to seek oblivion in the Silver Flame, or other even more elaborate fantasies. Aryth is not Dolurrh, but it is bound to that plane, and few of those who visit leave unchanged. As a result, faith and divine mystery is particularly strong here; many visitors have a tendency to lose their memory, or their sense of self, and get attracted to one cult or another and join the masses.
The landscape of Aryth is filled with orange-red vegetation. The surface tends to be calm, tranquil, and peaceful, a last place of sanctuary before the journey past Vult to the Astral Sea. The moon is dotted with tombs, temples, shrines, and monasteries where the faithful from across Siberspace gather to contemplate their place in the afterlife, but the primary residents of Aryth are the Mercane and the Aventan city of Xinlenal. The Mercane are the mutated remnants of Xen’drik giant spelljammers, and they believe that they are the guardians of the knowledge of spelljamming. They offer a place for explorers to rest and prepare for the final push into the Astral Sea beyond Siberspace, and offer the Trial of the Helm. Those who wish to become spelljammer captains may undertake a quest directed by the Mercane; if they are successful, they are rewarded with a spelljammer helm, with the understanding that upon the captain’s death the entire ship will be returned to Aryth. A vast fleet of decommissioned spelljammers lie sprawled across the red plains of the moon, a veritable graveyard of ships. Some people who are suspicious of the motives of the Mercane believe that the psionic essence of the dead captains are trapped in the ships surrendered to the Mercane, and that one day they will raise the fleet and conquer Siberspace.
The Aventan city of Xinlenal is not on the surface of Aryth, but orbits around it. As far as they know, they are the last of the great floating cities, held aloft by powerful artifacts known as mythallars. During the cataclysm that destroyed their nation, a few of the floating cities managed to slip free of the wreckage. Some remained on Eberron, but crashed later; a few managed to emerge into Siberspace, but even fewer made it through the Ring of Siberys. The Aventans populated some moons, and are a major source of the human populations mentioned previously, as well as other natives of Eberron. But the residents of Xinlenal believe themselves to be the last true heirs of Aventus, and are hostile to outsiders. They orbit Aryth but keep to themselves. Some believe they are gathering and preparing for a final jaunt out to the Astral Sea, some believe they are attempting to relearn the secret of the mythallars and create a fleet of floating cities. But few travelers attempt to land on Xinlenal, and even fewer are privy to the plans and counsels of Mage-Emperor Elminster.
Adventure Hooks:

Why the Mercane decided to pursue their lifestyle revolving around spelljammers is a mystery, as is how they acquired their psionic ability to communicate with each other despite enormous distances. Some of their myths suggest that it is in penance for some transgression in the past, perhaps even their part in destroying Crya, the thirteenth moon associated with Dal Quor. When the party encounters agents of the Dreaming Dark on Aryth, they not only have to worry about possible infiltration of their fleet, but what they would want with a Mercane treasure vault rumored to contain nothing more than a chunk of white rock.

Up until now, one of the few dangers *not* present in Siberspace have been the fiendish Overlords of the Age of Demons. It is held to be self-evident that because of the cosmological origin of Eberron that the Overlords were borne from Khyber, and history suggests that they have been almost entirely concerned with dominating the surface of Eberron. However, a disturbing cult has recently been exposed on Aryth with superficial similarities to the draconic practices of followers of the Daughter of Khyber. Is this a recent import from Eberron? Did the belief spread from dragons trying and failing to escape Her influence? Or did She, and possibly other Overlords, once roam the moons of Eberron?

There are two major obstacles that explain why the natives of Siberspace have not visited Eberron, and why the early explorers from Eberron like the dragons, giants, and others have not returned. One reason is that the Ring of Siberys forms a major navigational obstacle, and without a specific wildspace orrery depicting a path through it’s almost impossible to pass, essentially like a celestial Northwest Passage. The other reason is that the spelljammers developed by the Mercane and other natives are much slower than the modern spelljammers created by the new space race. Old-fashioned spelljammers barely travel faster than an airship, at 960 miles per day. Modern spelljammers can travel at 6000 miles per day, unless they come into combat range or into range of a gravity well of a moon. As a result, journeys that take days for an Eberron spelljammer to go from one moon to the next can take a Siberspace spelljammer weeks. It would take almost two years for a Mercane spelljammer from Aryth to reach Eberron. The secret is that Eberron spelljammers utilize tri-elemental binding; a fire elemental for propulsion, an air elemental for the atmosphere envelope, and an earth elemental to impose the gravitational plane.

If they learned about this technique, both the Mercane and the Aventan navy would be very keen to acquire it. They would attempt different ways; the Mercane would be more likely to try to negotiate or bargain, and the Aventans would be more likely to use force to seize an Eberron spelljammer. Denying either would make a powerful enemy on Aryth; how would a wily captain negotiate this tenuous position? Or leverage it to their advantage?