A Source of Inspiration 

Disclaimer: Eberron is property of Wizards of the Coast. I am not an employee of Wizards of the Coast, and any answers given here are in no way sanctioned by Wizards of the Coast. This is NOT official material, and may be contradicted in future Eberron sourcebooks or articles. My answers are in this forum my opinions and reflect how I might run a situation in MY personal campaign – nothing more.  

July 23, 2006

The Dreaming Dark is one of my favorite elements of Eberron. But it is also one of the most difficult forces for DMs to understand and to use, because of its subtle nature.

If you don't understand the primary motivation of the Dreaming Dark, please refer to Races of Eberron or Secrets of Xen'drik; it would be inappropriate for me to reprint that material here. The Inspired, Riedra, and the Dreaming Dark will all be covered in more detail in the Secrets of Sarlona sourcebook, coming out in 2007.

Until then, however, here are a few things to consider when drawing the Dreaming Dark into your campaign.

CHOOSE YOUR PAWNS

At its heart, the Dreaming Dark seeks to control creative thought… to control the dreams of humanity, both while they sleep, but also while they are awake. A common misconception is that they will seek to conquer Khorvaire using the armies of Riedra. While this is a plotline a DM could certainly choose to explore (perhaps the Quori are driven to it by panic, if they believe that the turn of the age is nearly upon them) it runs counter to the established methods of the Dreaming Dark. The two cultures are radically different; even if the battle could be won, it would be extremely difficult to assimilate the people of Khorvaire into the culture of Riedra, and extended contact between the nations could have an unintended backlash and break the Inspired hold over the Riedrans. Like a man who fully completes one corner of a crossword puzzle before moving to the next, the Dreaming Dark has secured its position in Riedra; as it moves to Khorvaire, it will try to avoid any action that could place its foundation at risk.

While the Inspired may provide military assistance to Khorvaire (as they are already doing in Q'barra), a full-scale invasion of Khorvaire isn't their style. This is shown by the manner in which they conquered and unified Sarlona. The Dreaming Dark manipulated the Sarlonan nations into fighting one another, playing on feuds and fear. At the height of the conflict the first Inspired appeared across the continent, as a religious movement dedicated to peace and unity. Once in power, the Inspired used military might against their enemies. But the Dreaming Dark won its greatest victory through deception… tricking the people into welcoming their conquerors and placing chains around their own necks.

Whatever else it is doing (and we'll come to that later) the Dreaming Dark is surely laying the groundwork for such an attempt in Khorvaire. The Dreaming Dark didn't anticipate the Mourning, and this disaster ended the war prematurely; the Quori would like to see war begin anew, to continue to weaken Khorvaire. And meanwhile, it is building up the power of its chosen pawns… the figureheads that will rule the new Galifar just as the Inspired rule Riedra.

But who are these pawns? And are they knowingly participating in this scheme, or are they unwitting dupes? That's up to you. Consider the following possibilities:

The Dragonmarked Houses. The Dreaming Dark has undoubtedly infiltrated most if not all of the Dragonmarked houses. It's possible that one or more of the houses has been completely subsumed by the Quori. Over the last few centuries, Quori might have manipulated the magebreeders of House Vadalis into experimenting on humans… secretly creating a Quori host superior to the empty vessels of Riedra! By now, these magebred heirs could hold positions of power and influence throughout the house, with none suspecting that their unusual abilities are the result of Quori bonding. Or perhaps the Dreaming Dark has assumed control of one of the three factions within House Cannith, and now has the resources and influence of the House of Making at its disposal. In time, the houses might rise up to challenge the aristocracy, calling on the people of Khorvaire to abandon the feudal traditions of old Galifar and create a new, modern world. And once these new leaders are firmly ensconced… then the Dark begins to change things.

The Aurum. A step down from the Dragonmarked houses, perhaps, but nonetheless, an alliance of rich and powerful people from across Khorvaire. Many would like to replace the monarchy with a new form of government. But are they just tools of the Quori agenda?

Churches. Religious zealots are often moved by visions and dreams. A gullible priest could be tricked into thinking the Quori are divine messengers, and thus into possession. A newly energized movement within the Sovereign Host? Renewed fervor on the part of the Silver Flame puritans? Or an entirely new faith? Whatever the choice, faith is a powerful force… and if it rises up at just the right moment, a religion backed by the Quori could spread across the continent.

The True King. The Dreaming Dark could easily choose to back one particular faction within the Five Nations. Aurala, Diani, or Oargev all have ambitions that could be turned to Quori ends. Meanwhile, the antimonarchy movement in Breland and Kaius' rebellious warlords could be encouraged by the Dreaming Dark, to continue to stir unrest.

 … And the list goes on. The critical factor is that Riedra is, if anything, a red herring. The Dreaming Dark's plans for Khorvaire will make use of a figurehead drawn from Khorvaire itself, something that the people will willingly follow… not an outside force which they would band against. As a DM, you need to decide who YOU want to be the true foe, because this will affect the flavor of the campaign to come. If one of the major forces within Khorvaire has been irredeemably corrupted by the Quori, who do you want it to be? There's a big difference between struggling with religious zealots who believe in Quori-spawned visions, and dragonmarked houses who truly believe in the virtues of a corporate state!

Whoever you pick, the Dreaming Dark has eyes and spies spread across the nation. But it helps to pick a focal force. The Dreaming Dark may manipulate a dozen guilds, cults, and minor cabals… but what's their ace in the hole, the force that will serve as the new Inspired of Khorvaire in the new regime?

DEVELOP YOUR VILLAIN

It's good to know the overarching plan of the Dreaming Dark. But now you need a few recognizable faces of the darkness. Agents of the Dark are ideal recurring villains, because they are so hard to kill. Destroy one body, and the spirit returns in another. Quori can possess any willing human, and powerful quori can use mind seed on unwilling victims. So an agent of the Dark can always turn up when the heroes least expect it. When they finally get to the bottom of the cult that's been plaguing their lives – the cult leader turns out to be their old enemy Kiratai. Later, when they are crossing the Thunder Sea, they are attacked by pirates – led by Kiratai. Much later, when an adventurer is about to get married, he discovers that his fiancée has been mind seeded by Kiratai. Of course, the key here is to make things fun for the players. You want your Dreaming Dark agents to be people they love to hate. Put effort into their personality; bodies will change, so it's the personality that is the identifying factor. Come up with distinct mannerisms, turns of phrase, and the like that you can suddenly pull out… so when the airship captain suddenly smiles and says "Did you ever dance with the Devil by the pale moonlight?" the party cries "Curse you, Kiratai!"
And if the PCs start to forget about Kiratai, she can always send a nightmare to one of them just to show that she cares…

The Dreaming Dark doesn't go overboard with the use of mind seed. It’s a very powerful tool, but there is always the chance that a seed will turn against the Dark, becoming a rogue agent with dangerous knowledge. Use it as you see fit… but there is a reason why the Dreaming Dark doesn't mind seed entire cities.

Bear in mind that the first time PCs meet an agent of the Dreaming Dark, they may not know her true nature. They could kill her and still never know. But then, when they are facing a new enemy, and she suddenly says her catchphrase and makes her signature gesture, they start to realize… this is the woman we left for dead! If she wants to toy with them, she could even pretend to be a ghost, seeking vengeance for the murder!

QUORI DREAMS

One of the most subtle yet important tools of the Dreaming Dark is the gift of dream manipulation. By controlling the dreams of their pawns, the Quori can plant ideas and set people on courses of action that serve the Quori agenda. These are not magical compulsions; a Quori dream can't FORCE someone to do something he wouldn't willingly do. But love, fear, pride, and desire can all be enflamed by our dreams. A dream could be the final push that ignites the ambition of a would-be conqueror. An artist or an artificer could suddenly have a brilliant idea for a new creation, never realizing that he is creating a tool for the Quori. In earthly history, consider the dream of Constantine the Great, which caused him to embrace Christianity and end centuries of persecution… one simple dream, with astonishing long-term consequences.

If you're playing with the Dreaming Dark, one entertaining approach is to actually play with the dreams of your PCs. Don't overdo this; pick one PC per session and discuss his dream. Perhaps it will be meaningless fun. Perhaps it will be a warning or clue, and in that case he'll have to wonder – is this the work of the Quori, some benevolent divine force, or even a dragon? If it is the Quori, how does it serve their agenda?

The key is that few dreams are significant, and the PCs should realize that. But it's because of this that it's so hard to tell when the Quori DO manipulate you… because most of the time your dreams are about fighting a dragon and realizing you left your sword and armor at home. Still, playing with the dreams of the PCs is a good way to remind them that everyone dreams, and that other people in the world may be influenced by their dreams.

SHORT-TERM GOALS

The Dreaming Dark wants to restart the Last War, shatter Khorvaire, and then ultimately rebuild it in a new image. But that's a long-term goal. What happens until then? What schemes can your PCs actually foil? 

One of the primary activities of the Dreaming Dark is sowing discord, breaking alliances that could stand against Dal Quor. As such, the actions of the Dreaming Dark actions may result in wars between criminal organizations or dragonmarked houses, feuds between noble families, religious persecution, or things like the antimonarchy movement in Breland. The Dark may also attempt to weaken an organization it plans to infiltrate, in order to soften resistance to its plans. On the surface this appears as a traditional feud, but once the PCs have dealt with the conflict, they may find that it really doesn't make sense; at the end of the day, neither party can explain why the feud began. On its largest level, the Dreaming Dark is interested in restarting the Last War itself. As a result, PCs fighting the Dark could end up trying to stop border clashes, to prevent murders at peace conferences, or to find the truth behind stage events that could set the war in motion. The Dreaming Dark could even provide a false explanation for the Mourning, believing that once the looming threat of the Mourning is removed, war will begin again – can the PCs reveal the hoax?

The Dark will also work to increase the power and prestige of its figurehead. In this, the PCs might actually serve as tools. Hired by House Cannith, they actually perform some marvelous deed which reflects well on them and the house. Again, this seems innocent enough… until they find that House Cannith is a quori front, and the action a) was excellent PR to build up popular support for the house and b) provided them with a critical piece of a Quori-designed eldritch machine… an object that seemed completely innocuous at the time.

While the Dreaming Dark has its long-term agenda, it's always looking for short-cuts. One of the keys to this is Xen'drik, and the Quori incursion that occurred during the Age of Giants. The Dreaming Dark knows nothing about the prior age of Dal Quor. As such, it's possible that the Quori of the previous age had amazing weapons or tools that they never quite brought into operation – something the Quori of today can complete. If you as a DM like the threat of a true Quori invasion, have the Dreaming Dark locate an eldritch machine that can restore the balance between the planes. If the PCs stop it, the Dark still has its long-term plan; but the PCs have still saved the world (again)!

Xen'drik is also an ideal place to have the Dreaming Dark operate in the open. In Khorvaire, the Dreaming Dark will operate through figureheads and pawns. But in the wilds of Xen'drik, they are free to bring Inspired and even Riedran agents to bear; it's neutral territory, and the Riedrans have as much claim to ancient artifacts as the people of Khorvaire. So if you just want a wild psi-fu shootout with the Inspired, Xen'drik is the place to do it!

Finally, the Dark may perform actions that seem inexplicable to outsiders. For example, the Dreaming Dark may be harvesting emotions at various points of Khorvaire to empower a psionic eldritch machine. To accomplish this, they sponsor a fantastic celebration in Sharn. There is nothing sinister about this festival whatsoever. So what do the PCs do when a group of kalashtar atavists tries to sabotage the event?

ENEMIES OF MY ENEMY?

How do the Lords of Dust feel about the Dreaming Dark? What about the Dragons? Or the Daelkyr?

To a large degree, the other great powers are ignoring the Dreaming Dark… because the actions of the Quori don't really affect them. The Dreaming Dark doesn't want to destroy humanity; it just wants to reshape human civilization. It's not that different than a war between two human nations. During the Age of Giants, the dragons didn't interfere in the war between the Quori and the giants; they only acted later when the giants used magic that threatened Eberron itself. In general, these powers will seek to avoid one another – and if their plans come into direct conflict, they may use pawns (say, groups of adventurers) to strike against their foes.

One thing to bear in mind about the Dreaming Dark is that they are one of the most monolithic forces in the campaign setting. The Lords of Dust have their own competing agendas. The dragons of the Chamber pursue different interpretations of the Prophecy. Every Cult of the Dragon Below is carrying out its own mad scheme. But the servants of the Dreaming Dark are fanatically loyal to their cause and their kin. The first thing to remember is that the Quori are not human. Part angel, part Borg, they are incarnations of Dal Quor itself, and they are fighting to ensure the survival of their reality. This steadfast loyalty is something that sets them apart from many other fiends, and shouldn't be forgotten.

WHY ARE WE STILL ALIVE?

One problem DMs may have is the question of why the Dreaming Dark doesn't just kill the player characters. If it's so powerful and tricky, if its agents can be anywhere, why doesn't it get a possessed innkeeper to poison their drinks?  There are a few factors that play into this. Arrogance is one. Boredom is another. As I said earlier, many Quori are over 350,000 years old. They don't believe that humans can inflict permanent harm upon them. And they expect to be alive long after human enemies die of old age. As such, what appears to be a mortal setback to the PCs may be seen as entertainment to the Quori; it's like a game, and it's nice to finally have an opponent who makes a clever move. As the party claims victory after victory, the Dark may begin to see them as a true threat. But it has time, and is more likely to set up an elaborate form of vengeance – arranging for a hero to fall in love with a princess, mind seeding the princess, and having her betray the hero to his worst enemy – instead of just killing him.

Another possibility is that the Dreaming Dark will choose not to turn its full force against the adventurers because it has other plans for them… schemes that are so far-reaching that they may take years to come to pass. The Dreaming Dark might even go so far as to set up schemes with the intention of letting the party foil them, because it wants to build up the reputation of the party, so they'll eventually get invited to the Tain Gala, where they'll meet the princess who… you get the idea. The Dreaming Dark is working on an immense jigsaw puzzle, and it's willing to take years or decades to finish it. If the PCs throw out one piece, there's a hundred others still on the table. And the PCs may BE one of those pieces! One of the key principles of Eberron is that the PCs are destined to be some of the great heroes of the age. The Dreaming Dark may know that – and you don't destroy such useful tools because one of them cut your thumb.

CONCLUSION

The Dreaming Dark moves slowly. It hides in the shadows, it pulls strings, and it may take years to accomplish a goal. It should be very rare for PCs to realize that they're dealing with the Dreaming Dark in a first encounter. But as they deal with pawns and figureheads, as they encounter the recurring villain in multiple guises, they'll slowly start to see how the plan fits together.

You don't need to use the Dreaming Dark in your game. If you do, don't rush things. My novel trilogy is called The Dreaming Dark, and the Dreaming Dark appears in all three books. But it's not even mentioned by name in the first book, and in the second book, we are only beginning to see the pieces of its plan come together. The Emerald Claw is an obvious, clumsy foe; the Dreaming Dark is subtle, and is intended to play a very different role in the game.

Additional material about the Quori can be found in the Eberron Campaign Setting Book, the Player's Guide to Eberron, Races of Eberron, the Explorer's Handbook, the Dreaming Dark trilogy, and Secrets of Xen'drik; you'll find a great deal of information about them in the upcoming Secrets of Sarlona.

In the next installment, we'll get to some of the questions you've sent in. If you have a question, ask now!