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 18, 2006

How do you think the various monarchs of the Five Nations (well, I guess the High Cardinal in the case of Thrane) would react if alerted to the threat of Dal Quor, and concrete evidence of the link between Inspired and Quori?

Well, this seems like an appropriate question for our first column. There's a few issues here.  

First: What IS the "threat of Dal Quor"? The plane hasn't posed an obvious, concrete threat to Eberron since the Age of Giants, and that was an entirely different batch of Quori. Arcane scholars will point out that being off its axis, Dal Quor is the plane least likely to produce an incursion. For the most part, the Quori threat appears to be "we are going to verrry slowly spread monoliths across the entire world, which will stabilize our plane." Certainly, to accomplish this goal, they will try to unite Khorvaire into a monolithic society under Quori rule. But that's still a very nebulous threat, especially considering the amount of time it took them to deal with Riedra. Meanwhile, as one of the rulers of Khorvaire, I have a few MAJOR threats. The Mourning. The growing power of the Dragonmarked Houses. Violence on the part of the Valenar and Darguuls. And last but certainly not least, the OTHER monarchs of Khorvaire. King Kaius is more concerned about Queen Aurala than the Inspired ambassador… because just four years ago, Karrnath and Aundair were at war, and if not for the Mourning they'd STILL be at war. And if Aurala learns how to duplicate the effect of the Mourning herself (and let's face it, which the magical expertise of her nation, the others have to be afraid that she will) – that's a terrifying concept. That's the key. Nebulous invasions from other planes are a concern, certainly. But the monarchs already HAVE serious mundane concerns, and they won't drop everything to deal with a vague potential threat.  

With that said, let's take a look at the three actual components of the "Threat of Dal Quor" – the Inspired, the Quori, and the Dreaming Dark.  
 

THE INSPIRED

The key thing to remember here is that the Inspired lords of Riedra are NOT agents of the Dreaming Dark. They are completely dedicated to their roles as ambassadors and administrators. They must obey the orders of agents of the Dreaming Dark if it comes up, but it usually doesn't. And you don't even have the same relationship that you have between, say, Breland and the King's Dark Lanterns, because the true leadership of the Dreaming Dark is based in Dal Quor, not Riedra. The typical Inspired ambassador DOESN'T know what the Dreaming Dark is up to in the city he's operating in. There's no need for him to know. His duty is to represent the interests of Riedra, not those of Dal Quor.  

Next, remember that as creepy as Riedra is, the Inspired didn't conquer Riedra. They unified the region after it had collapsed into war. So the main issue is that the Inspired have minimal history of obvious aggression, and no history of direct aggression against Khorvaire. And frankly, a military invasion of Khorvaire just isn't the Quori's style. It would cause chaos, and be more likely to promote the turn of the age than slow its progress. Even assuming the Riedrans could conquer Khorvaire – no small feat – maintaining this control in the face of insurgency would be a massive undertaking. So, essentially, whatever the threat of Dal Quor is, the Inspired lords of Riedra play a relatively minimal part in it; they truly are focused on Riedra, not conquering the world. This shouldn't stop you from running a Riedran invasion arc in your campaign if that appeals to you, but as the setting stands, the monarchs are far more concerned about attacks from their neighbors than a strike from across the sea.  
 

THE QUORI

But wait! The Inspired may not be trying to conquer the world… but wouldn't people freak out if they knew the Inspired were possessed by demons?  

Well, to begin with, they aren't possessed by demons. They are possessed by spirits from the plane of dreams… which, again, haven't posed any sort of clear threat to Eberron since the Age of Giants. The Riedrans believe that the Quori are spirits of inspiration embodying the knowledge of the past. That's not entirely true, but a Quori can certainly say "Yes, I'm from Dal Quor. So? Dal Quor is the source of all dreams. Our vessels choose their path and seek to benefit from our wisdom. We cannot possess your kind against their will. What do you have to fear?" The quori rarely spell things out, but neither do they really hide the fact that the Inspired are possessed. Even the Church of the Silver Flame – which is most likely to take offense at such a thing – is going to be slightly handicapped by the fact that it is an entirely voluntary process. Bear in mind that the couatl aided Tira Miron through divine channeling, which is to say a benevolent spirit voluntarily granting power and guidance to a mortal. The Riedrans claim that this is what the Inspired do. Obviously, an Inspired ambassador in Thrane is going to want to conceal his evil alignment from his hosts, but there's many ways to do that.   

Nonetheless, if anyone is going to freak out about the Inspired, Thrane and the Church of the Silver Flame are the logical choice. Thrane simply doesn't have the numbers to engage in an all-out war with Riedra, especially with Khorvaire as unstable as it is; but they could choose to break off diplomatic ties with the Inspired and expel the Inspired from their borders.   

So Quori don't pose an automatic threat. Inspired don't pose an automatic threat. Which brings us to the REAL problem… the Dreaming Dark.  
 

THE DREAMING DARK

THIS is the group that is actually engaged in subversion against Khorvaire. This is the group that monarchs will need to take seriously. Again, the key here is that the Dreaming Dark is NOT an arm of Riedra; it's an arm of Dal Quor. Tied to that is the fact that the Dreaming Dark will rarely use Riedran agents in its schemes, aside from its top Inspired agents. The Dreaming Dark makes extensive use of mind seed and humans who for whatever reason have accepted possession. This means that the Dreaming Dark can be anyone. The anti-monarchy movement in Breland could be the Dreaming Dark at work. Any one of the Dragonmarked houses could be subverted by the darkness. Any one of the OTHER MONARCHS could be.  

So what will the rulers of Khorvaire do if they learn about the threat of the Dreaming Dark? There's not a lot of bold action they CAN do. Essentially, think of the Dreaming Dark as terrorists in the modern world. By their nature, they are a hidden foe who strikes from the shadows; you can't just send an army against them. You can't easily sanction Riedra for their actions, because they have no obvious official ties to Riedra; the Riedran ambassador can stand on an Eye of Aureon and say that he has no knowledge of Dreaming Dark activities in the nation, and no influence over the actions of the Dreaming Dark. Furthermore, in the wake of the war, many nations are receiving aid FROM Riedra to help with recovery; cutting off contact would be a blow and would weaken the kingdom's position relative the other nations. As such, you have the following possibilities:

• A nation concerned about the Dreaming Dark would undoubtedly create a branch of its national intelligence agency specifically dedicated to uncovering and countering Dreaming Dark subversion. Such a force could potentially serve as an ally to the PCs.
   
• Of course, as such a force uncovered the mysteries of the Dreaming Dark, it might also look to psionics as a possible tool to use in the inevitable war against the other nations. What begins as a "study psionics to find ways to counter them" could become "master the opponent's weapons to use them against him"… or against the other nations. Now the Citadel's shadowminds are pitting their newfound psionic might against the magic of the Royal Eyes of Aundair!
   
• And once you have a psionic branch of the King's Citadel and the potential of a mental arms race, there's another possibility… that this agency itself will be subverted and BECOME an arm of the Dreaming Dark. Taking over the agency dedicated to stopping them is EXACTLY the sort of thing the Dreaming Dark does, and the quori are experts at playing on people's greed, pride, and so on. If this were to occur, suddenly the Dreaming Dark would have a strong foothold at the heart of the nation. Can the player characters uncover the deception?
   
• One possibility is that a nation might seek the assistance of the kalashtar. However, it's also quite possible that they will take a paranoid approach to any use of psionics – and thus might persecute the kalashtar, who are in many ways similar to the Inspired. Should the Dreaming Dark successfully infiltrate a national organization, they would certainly turn its power against the kalashtar!
   
• Even if you don't put the Dreaming Dark in charge of the Secret Psions, don't forget the other forces that might take an interest in such a thing. Perhaps the commander of the anti-Dark force is actually one of the Lords of Dust. Sure, he's protecting national security… as long as it serves HIS purposes.

Looking to the Five Nations, I would see Breland and Karrnath as being the kingdoms most likely to develop psionic programs of their own. Aundair would be more likely to develop arcane magic that the Royal Eyes could use while hunting for the Dark, while Thrane would rely on the faith and divine magic of the Silver Flame.  

Now, having said all of this, I can imagine some people saying "So what do I DO with the Inspired and the Dreaming Dark? If they're so #$@% subtle, how do I actually use them? And what if I just want my players to get to fight a cool Inspired hit squad?" All good questions, and I'll address them in part two of this article.    


Ask the Dreaming Dark Main Page