1. Notes

Everyday Magic

Lore

There are challenges facing every society, problems that need to be solved. Communication. Transportation. Even entertainment. In Khorvaire, magic is the tool people use to solve these problems. But what does that look like? Everyone knows about the lightning rail and the elemental airship. But what about when you walk into a tavern or down the main street of a small town? The Magical Ambience table provides a few examples of everyday magic seen at work.

This section explores many different aspects of how magic works in Khorvaire, from the role of cantrips and common magic items to the magic services that adventurers can take advantage of

Magical Ambience

d10 Magic in the World
1 A passerby is wearing a black cloak that resembles the night sky, complete with the moons, twinkling stars, and the golden Ring of Siberys.
2 A child is playing with a wooden doll. They tap the doll on its chest, and it loudly exclaims, “Magecrafting is hard!”
3 A blacksmith prepares her anvil. She whispers as she traces a pattern over the metal, and you see glowing lines following her fingertips.
4 A gnome in a bright blue doublet stands on a street corner, holding a rod of brass and wood. As he runs his fingers along the rod, you hear unearthly music—soft, soothing, seeming to come from all around you.
5 A lamplighter uses a long hook to raise the shutter on a nearby streetlight. This reveals the globe of cold fire within the everbright lantern, casting golden light across the street.
6 A shadow falls over you as an elemental airship passes overhead. The vessel is surrounded by a ring of fire, blazing brightly as the airship accelerates and sails away.
7 Two gnomes are having an animated conversation. One notices you looking at him; he makes a gesture, and the sounds of their voices are suddenly muffled and nearly impossible to hear.
8 A street performer weaves minor illusions in the air, depicting the events of a local hero of the Last War.
9 A man with gleaming silver hair emerges from a salon. He pauses to admire his new reflection in the mirror.
10 A dwarf merchant passes by you. A large trunk follows close behind her, floating a foot above the ground.

Wide Magic

The Five Nations are built on a foundation of magical tools and services. Arcane magic is understood to be a form of science: anyone with the aptitude for it can train at a house trade school to become a magewright or learn how to be a wandslinger. There’s nothing strange about seeing an airship in the sky or sending a message to a distant friend using a speaking stone. However, a common maxim about Khorvaire is that it possesses “wide magic, not high magic.” While the speaking stone allows you to send messages between two stone stations, sending is a rarer service that fewer people can afford. Lesser restoration is available at any good Jorasco healing house, but raise dead isn’t so trivial.

As a broad rule, the people of Khorvaire are used to dealing with tools and services that mimic cantrips or spells of 1st and 2nd level. They’re familiar with 3rd-level spells—fireballs on the battlefield, aristocrats using Sivis sending services— but these things are expensive. Effects of 4th or 5th level are known—Orien maintains a network of teleportation circles, the dead can be raised, an oracle can cast divination—but these things aren’t part of everyday life, and the typical commoner doesn’t expect to run into them. Magical effects of 6th level or higher are usually the product of more advanced civilizations—the dragons of Argonnessen, the elves of Aerenal, the ancient giants of Xen’drik. The same principle applies to magic items. Common and uncommon items are part of everyday life. Rare items exist, but they’re rare. And very rare and legendary items are typically the product of advanced civilizations or remarkable events.

There are exceptions to this rule. There are higher-level spellcasters in the world: Mordain the Fleshweaver, Jaela Daran, the Great Druid Oalian. But civilization is built on a foundation of common and uncommon items, and spells of 3rd level and below. High-level spellcasters are capable of remarkable feats, but these can’t yet be mass produced.

Common Magic Items

Common magic items are common throughout Khorvaire. This isn’t to say they are trivial—Eberron: Rising from the Last War sets the price of a common magic item at 2d4 × 10 gp, so even the simplest item will cost 20 gp. A farmer might treasure her everbright lantern and the gown of clothes of mending that has been in her family for generations, while a wealthy young noble may flaunt his glamerweave and cloak of many fashions.

Common magic items generally aren’t all sold in one place. A high-class tailor will sell both mundane and magical clothes, but you can’t buy an everbright lantern at their shop. People don’t see these things as a separate class of “magic item”; they're simply the most effective tools of their type.

Beyond this, consider that both in price and description, there’s a wide range of quality between items, reflected in the range of price. A 20 gp everbright lantern is ugly but functional, while for 80 gp you can get one inlaid with beautiful patterns, and you might even be able to adjust the shade and brilliance of the light source. Glamerweave is clothing that's been imbued with illusions: both the quality of the base clothing and the illusion factor into the cost, and the finest glamerweave can be far more than 80 gp. In short, the magic item description tells you what a common item does, but it’s also an object beyond that, and it’s good to think about its form and quality.

Uncommon Magic Items

Eberron: Rising from the Last War only calls out common magic items, but at the DM’s discretion, uncommon magic items can also be purchased in major cities (especially in Aundair). Such items are more expensive—the price is typically between 200-500 gp, set by the DM based on the power and quality of the item—but selection will be far more limited. Just because you could theoretically purchase a cloak of protection doesn’t mean one is always available in that particular shop or town. However, an exceptional weaponsmith may have a +1 weapon for sale or take a commission to create one, and large House Sivis enclaves often sell sending stones. Ultimately, it's up to the DM to decide what sort of uncommon magic items are available and who is selling them.

Dragonmark Focus Items

Chapter 7 includes a list of dragonmark focus items. These represent that it’s easier to create an item that can only be used by someone with a dragonmark—presenting focus versions of other magic items, but with a reduced rarity. Dragonmark focus items can only be created by a character with the Mark of Making or the dragonmark used by the item; while they are more common than similar items that work for unmarked characters, they are typically only available through the dragonmarked houses and often only as rewards for house service.

Static Items

Most magic items are portable and designed for adventurers. However, you may also encounter magic items that are meant for industrial use. Just as a dragonmark focus item is easier to create because of its limitations, a large, immovable industrial item can make a rare or uncommon item’s properties accessible to the public. An Aundairian village may have a large cleansing stone set into the town square. If a theater has a magical tool that can generate minor illusions, it could be similar in size and shape to a pipe organ. Essentially, in thinking about the magical items that people may encounter, keep in mind that they aren’t necessarily designed for use in adventuring

Magewrights

The magical economy of Eberron is built on the backs of the magewrights: spellcasters who know a handful of cantrips or rituals that allow them to provide vital services. Wizards are exceptional; their ability to prepare any spell with a few hours of study reflects remarkable talent and versatility. By contrast, a magewright knows few spells, but because of their intense focus on those spells, they’re able to cast them in ways others cannot.

An artificer is equally exceptional. Most of the people assembling magic items at Cannith forgeholds aren’t artificers; they work using industrialized processes, massive tools that enhance the creation process (like the creation forge), and house resources. These craftspeople couldn’t just create a wand at home alone. By contrast, as an artificer, you are unconventional, using personalized techniques and improvising solutions.

Just because you can create any common magic item with little time and effort doesn’t mean that this is typical or that others could duplicate your work. Never forget that in Eberron, player characters are exceptional. Even at low levels, you have potential that the common magewright can’t match. There are also exceptional NPCs, ones who can do things player characters cannot; but remember that as a player character, not everyone who follows your path can match your abilities.

Magewright Spells

For simplicity’s sake, magewrights cast spells from the existing spell lists. But magewright spells are unique in a few ways. First of all, magewrights cast all their spells as rituals—even spells that don’t normally have the ritual tag. The drawback is that they can only be cast as rituals with an extended casting time. All magewright spells have a minimum casting time of 10 minutes, and the DM can choose to give a spell an even longer casting time; it may take a medium a full hour to cast speak with dead.

As magewrights can only cast spells as rituals, they don’t use spell slots. But they do require a surge of magical energy to power the spell, typically generated by refined Eberron dragonshards, the fuel of arcane industry.

When a magewright performs a ritual, it consumes an amount of Eberron dragonshards worth 20 gp × the spell’s level, in addition to any costly material components of the spell. This is the cost to the magewright to cast the spell; they might charge far more for offering that service to others, generally at least twice the casting cost. Following the general limitations of everyday magic, it’s unusual to encounter a magewright that can cast a spell of 4th level or higher, and any such magewright would likely charge a significant premium for their services.

At DM discretion, a magewright’s spells may have expanded— or limited—effects. Consider what it takes to make a spell a viable commercial service. For example, augury only allows the caster to predict events 30 minutes in the future—useful for adventurers in the midst of a dungeon, but not for the farmer wanting an opinion on planting crops. A professional oracle might be able to predict woe or weal anywhere from a day to a week in advance—but such an oracle could have very specific limitations, such as only being able to make predictions related to weather or agriculture. As a DM, use the existing spells as a model, but adjust them as necessary to create a viable business.

Player characters can’t duplicate these effects. The unique aspects of magewright spells reflect both their devotion to a single subject and personal aptitude; the oracle has a unique talent for divination that even a diviner wizard can’t replicate. Player characters have unmatched potential and great versatility; magewrights are extremely limited, but have unique advantages.

Casual Cantrips

In Aerenal, almost every citizen knows a few cantrips. The Five Nations aren’t quite so advanced; there, cantrips are common, but still reflect specialized training. Most people rely on common magic items; a magewright can be proud of their talents, though just as magewrights have a narrow spell selection, their cantrips are also more limited than those used by player characters. A magewright chef uses effects similar to prestidigitation to heat and flavor food, but they can’t conjure illusions or extinguish flames. The idea is that the most versatile cantrips—such as prestidigitation and thaumaturgy—represent knowledge of a range of discrete spell effects, all categorized under one greater cantrip. Your spell list merely says prestidigitation, but that encompasses a host of lesser cantrips; when you extinguish a fire, you’re actually casting incendiary purge, and when you chill your drink, you’re performing culinary transmutation.

While this has no effect on player characters, consider that magewrights and other lesser spellcasters might only know limited forms of common cantrips, such as the following:

Boldrei’s Broom. You clean an object or surface made from wood, stone, or metal no larger than 1 cubic foot.

Culinary Transmutation. You chill or warm up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material.

Grogan’s Grime. You soil an object or space no larger than 1 cubic foot.

Halan’s Dramatic Entrance. You instantaneously cause an unlocked door or window within 30 feet to fly open or slam shut.

Incendiary Purge. You extinguish a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.

Kellan’s Kindling. You light a candle, torch, or small campfire.

Phiarlan Whispers. You create an instantaneous sound that originates from a point of your choice within 30 feet, such as a rumble of thunder, the hooting of an owl, or ominous whispers.

Shol Flame. You cause flames to flicker, brighten, dim, or change color for 1 minute.

Tialaen Tongue. Your voice is up to three times as loud as norma for up to one minute.

Verran’s Textile Restoration. You clean an object made of cloth or leather no larger than 1 cubic foot.

Zolan Zest. You flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material; this lasts for one hour.

Magewrights in Action

Magewrights weave magic into their work. They are not only limited spellcasters, but skilled professionals who use magic as a tool. In addition to a limited range of magic ability, magewrights are also skilled in the mundane aspects of their specialty. A magewright chef doesn’t make food by snapping their fingers; they’re skilled with cook’s utensils, as well as using culinary transformation and Zolan zest as tools in their repertoire. Below are a few examples of magewright professions.

Arcane Locksmith. Locksmiths are typically trained by the Warding Guild of House Kundarak, and most people expect a locksmith to be a dwarf. An arcane locksmith is proficient with thieves’ tools and tinker’s tools, using these for most of their work. They can cast arcane lock and knock as rituals. When casting these rituals, they use tinker’s tools as an arcane focus, tracing symbols and sprinkling powdered dragonshards over the object to be locked or unlocked.

Artisan. Blacksmith, cobbler, or cooper, a typical artisan is proficient with their tools and learns mending and magecraft. The magecraft cantrip allows them to enchant their tools and supplies, creating the perfect conditions for their work. Most receive this training from the Fabricator’s Guild of House Cannith, but others apprentice with local magewrights, while adepts cast magecraft by invoking Onatar or the Traveler.

Healer. Professional healers are usually trained by House Jorasco. A healer is proficient with Medicine and Herbalism kits, using these to treat common injuries. They know the cantrips spare the dying and detect poison and disease, and can perform lesser restoration as a ritual, but the ritual uses the herbalism kit as a focus and includes the trappings of mundane healing. They don’t just snap their fingers to cure people; they use pinches of herbs and tap glands and pressure points.

Medium. No dragonmarked house trains mediums. Instead, some come from communities steeped in the Blood of Vol, while others are Vassals who invoke Aureon and the Keeper. A medium performs speak with dead as a ritual, and many use a form of minor illusion to conjure up an image of the deceased in conjunction with the ritual. Some less-scrupulous mediums rely on Insight, History, or Deception to simulate speaking with the dead without going through the full ritual.

Oracle. Every oracle has a preferred method of divination. Some use cards, others use bones or dice. The bread and butter of the oracle is augury. As noted earlier in this chapter, most oracles can use augury to make predictions stretching further into the future than the spell normally allows, but they may be limited in the subjects they can predict—some oracles only make predictions related to agriculture, while others discuss romance. Greater oracles may have the ability to cast divination, but this requires the oracle to have a connection to a spiritual guide. A religious adept will deal with a celestial tied to their faith, while a secular oracle may deal with a fiend or other spirit.

Truthteller. Licensed by the Warning Guild of House Medani, truthtellers are proficient in Insight and can cast zone of truth as a ritual. The ritual casting includes a lengthy invocation and chalk symbols traced across the area of effect. The truthteller knows if someone succeeds or fails their saving throw, and encourages them to voluntarily submit to the ritual; thus, saving against it will be seen as an attempt to evade questioning.

The above are just a few examples of magewrights. A launderer uses Verran’s textile restoration to clean the toughest stains, while a professional stagehand uses Phiarlan whispers or Shol flame to add details to a performance. The critical element is to see these things are part of their profession. They aren’t dropping everything to cast a spell; the spell is incorporated into the way in which they perform their job.

What About Adepts?

Arcane magic is a science—magewrights master its techniques. However, there are other forms of magic which can likewise be adapted to everyday functions. An adept derives their magic from their faith, a more limited form of what a cleric can do; similarly, a gleaner masters the simplest forms of druidic magic. Especially with the adept, this is more of a calling than a job; you don’t decide to become an oracle of Aureon, you find that you are gifted with visions. The rituals of an adept invoke divine forces, while a gleaner draws on the world around them and often uses an herbalism kit as a spellcasting focus. Adepts are common in Thrane and other religious communities, while gleaners provide useful services in the Eldeen Reaches.

Source: Exploring Eberron


Throughout Khorvaire, magic has become a primary underpinning of daily life. For millennia, magic has been used in craft, construction, agriculture, war, and even fashion and entertainment. Among particularly wealthy populations, the possession of magic “trinkets” has become a status symbol.

This is not to say that magic goods can be found everywhere in Khorvaire, or that magic is so commonplace as to be considered mundane. Money and status bring access to greater luxuries, and magic is no exception. Even the poorest citizen can benefit from a city’s magic streetlights (everbright lanterns), but he can’t afford to magically preserve his food or to travel regularly aboard the lightning rail. A young crafter might occasionally enjoy such a journey or purchase a ritual to chant over his goods. The truly rich, however, might own a sky-carriage to carry them about Sharn’s towers and ritual protections to keep thieves out of their palatial estates.

Similarly, widespread magic doesn’t equate to high magic. Magewrights (see “Magewrights and Master Crafters,” below), mystically augmented crafters, and lesser priests who have learned a ritual or two by rote are common across Khorvaire. True wizards, clerics, and other powerful wielders of magic remain rare, however. The player characters remain exceptional, set above the mass of society by their potential as well as their ability

Magewrights and Master Crafters

Most magical services and goods available to the average citizen come from magewrights. In the broadest sense, a magewright is any individual who makes a living providing magic goods and services or creating magic items and effects using rituals. By this broad definition, anyone—a local elder with a smattering of knowledge, even a full-fledged artificer (see the EBERRON Player’s Guide)—could be considered a magewright. More specifically, however, the term “magewright” refers to an individual who has spent years mastering a single ritual—or at most two or three rituals. He or she has mastered the ritual so thoroughly that it exists entirely within his or her head. However, a magewright cannot expand his or her abilities without spending additional years learning new rituals.

Crafters such as blacksmiths, potters, architects, and weavers often learn a single ritual in addition to their particular craft. This is usually a low-level ritual to increase the quality of their goods. This ritual is often combined with a prayer to whatever deity or deities the crafter worships; in fact, such a prayer might even be a necessary component of the ritual.

On rare occasion, a crafter is so good at what he or she does—or else has spent long enough working in an area of ambient magic—that he or she develops the ability to work magic into his or her creations without conscious knowledge or effort. These so-called “master crafters” are capable of creating magic items as though they had performed the Enchant Magic Item ritual, but without any actual knowledge of the ritual or expenditure of its component cost. Such an individual is limited to creating items that fall into his or her area of expertise, and cannot predict when a magic item might emerge from his or her workshop. It’s considered a sign of status and prestige to own an item crafted by one of these individuals, even if that item isn’t magical.

Uses of Everyday Magic

So what is “everyday magic”? What sorts of goods, services, and options are available to the folk of the Five Nations? The descriptions that follow are an overview of what is available, not a comprehensive list. Let your creativity and your understanding of Khorvaire’s cultures guide your campaign.

Farming and Livestock

Food supplies—crops and cattle, grains and grazing lands—are far and away the most vital aspects of any society. Even though farmers, laborers, and ranchers are often among a nation’s poorer citizens, a great many magewrights make their services available to so important an industry.

Although House Vadalis is most commonly associated with animal breeding, and indeed the house uses techniques both magical and mundane to ensure ever-healthier generations of food animals, it also sells rituals to prevent insects, gophers, and other pests from infesting farmland. Groups of farmers sometimes pitch in to hire House Lyrandar to adjust the weather over adjoining fields in order to prevent drought or flooding. House Jorasco sells its services to prevent plague among the cattle or blight among the crops, and House Cannith sells (or leases) magic tools to make harvesting faster and more efficient.

Although the halflings of House Ghallanda rarely provide magical services directly to farmers and ranchers, they often provide financial aid to those who require help, or negotiate deals between landowners and dragon marked houses. After all, the House of Hospitality would be among the first to feel the financial pain if the farmlands and stockyards of Khorvaire fell upon hard times.

Communication and Delivery

In Khorvaire’s political and geographical climate— where great cities stand at the intersection of broken highways and deadly wilderness, where travel is either expensive or hazardous, but kings and citizens alike desperately need to know what has occurred beyond their borders—long-distance communication is an enormous boon, no matter the price.

And pricey it is.

House Sivis makes use of rituals and magic items (such as sending stones) to send messages across hundreds of miles. These communications are highly secure, almost infallible, and quite expensive. Only the richest of Khorvaire’s merchants, aristocrats, nobles, and military leaders make use of this service, and even then only when need dictates.

Far more common, and somewhat less expensive, are House Sivis’s document services. Again through the performance of rituals, house scribes can write documents in unbreakable codes, translate to or from any language, and notarize papers and letters of credit using marks of identification that are all but impossible to forge. (This last service makes House Sivis utterly indispensable to Khorvaire’s system of banks and trade—a fact that greatly irritates House Kundarak, which otherwise manages the various banking guilds and lending houses and would prefer not to have its customers relying on another house.)

House Sivis maintains a number of message stations in scattered communities, places where messages can be sent and received. This communication method is cheaper than having a message sent directly to an individual.

House Orien specializes in courier and delivery services, particularly over long distances, making use either of its lightning rail or the Linked Portal ritual. These deliveries are not quite as immediate as spoken communication through sending stones, but they’re the best solution for transporting documents or packages across long distances—and the cost is appropriately high.

Craft and Construction

Although some magic-using crafters are independent magewrights, the majority are associated with a dragon marked house or with a guild that is in turn overseen by a house. House Cannith provides tools and construction materials to those who can afford them, enabling buildings to withstand weather, age, and simple neglect. Its members construct forges that improve the skills of the smiths who use them, and spinning wheels that bestow a bit of magic into the yarn they create. Cannith and Lyrandar have both been commissioned to create buildings that could not exist without magic, some in peculiar shapes (Cannith) and others that hover in the air like the towers of Sharn (Lyrandar).

House Kundarak makes some of its income providing security systems for the rich and powerful, including portals that cannot be opened without the proper password and illusory bells that chime when an intruder nears. House Orien has been known on occasion to move entire buildings, when hired to do so.

Comfort and Hospitality

Ghallanda is known as the House of Hospitality, and it is most well known when it comes to the magic of comfort. Its inns and hostels provide food and water guaranteed pure (or even enchanted to ensure the health and vitality of the customer), pest-free rooms, and even rooms enchanted to prevent disturbance by outside noises. Ghallanda also offers services for the balls and celebrations of the rich and famous, such as bottomless punch bowls, self-cleaning platters, and animated decorations and instruments.

But not all magic of comfort and convenience is limited to taverns or soirees, nor to House Ghallanda. Magewrights of all houses (and many independents as well) know how to create simple items of convenience, such as magic streetlights that never burn out, storage boxes that keep food from spoiling, beds that ensure a good sleep without bad dreams, even garbage receptacles that instantly turn waste into rich soil. The performance of rituals such as Make Whole is a common (if expensive) magic service provided by House Cannith. A cobblestone city street made utterly clean of mud, scuffs, random refuse, or horse droppings; a shop that is cool and comfortable even on a blistering summer day; a party where the glasses refill each time they touch the table—these signs indicate that magic of comfort and convenience is being employed.

Scrying, Spying,and Investigation

When they’ve been stymied by a monster they can’t identify or a spell they’ve never seen, city guards and even Deneith Sentinel Marshals sometimes turn to other houses. The most commonly approached houses are Phiarlan and Thuranni, which have scrying magic second to none. With the exception of certain public or powerful figures, these houses are willing to scry anyone or anyplace—for a price. A very, very high price.

Some of the less scrupulous scions of House Phiarlan and House Thuranni hire out their services to others as well—politicians, criminals, private investigators, even adventurers. As for any criminal activity that might come of that scrying—well, the house made it clear that its services were not to be used for nefarious purposes. It’s hardly the house’s fault if that happens. The fact that these houses also sell rituals and services to counter scrying is, of course, a simple coincidence of business.

House Medani and House Tharashk are both heavily involved in the work of private investigation. House Tharashk, true to its dragonmark, is best at finding people and things, while the inquisitives of House Medani excel at unraveling mysteries of all sorts, aided by the magic of rituals.

Transportation

Some of the most common everyday magic in Eberron involves the many methods of transportation. The most famous are the House Orien lightning rail and the House Lyrandar elemental galleons and elemental airships. These transports are frequented by the rich, but even members of the middle class can afford the occasional lightning rail journey.

The lightning rail and the elemental galleons are far from the only mystical means of transport. Flying coaches take people across the length and height of Sharn, magebred animals serve as mounts and living weapons of war, and many merchant caravans use enchanted harnesses to increase the speed and endurance of draft animals. Many governments and major institutions have their own permanent teleportation circles, ensuring that instant transport from one such location to another is, if not easy, at least no harder than it must be.

Source: Eberron Campaign Guide


Magic breathes life into Khorvaire. It moves the wheels of industry and serves as an aid to the common folk, a tool of the wealthy, a weapon for soldiers, and a source of power for adventurers.

Everyone on Eberron knows what magic is and recognizes it on sight. Indeed, magic is part of the everyday lives of Khorvaire’s people. It supplies them with transportation, with healing, with light, and for some, a way to make a living. Eberron is suffused with magic more thoroughly than most worlds, with all the attendant ramifications.

Low-level spellcasters are plentiful in Khorvaire. An individual seeking a 0-level or 1st-level spell might not have to look hard to find it. In some places, competition in spellcasting might allow a buyer to purchase a spell more cheaply than normal.

The abundance of minor spellcasters also leads to a great deal of experimentation. Magewrights and other casters tinker with their spells, devising new and variant forms for specific uses. Multiple variants of prestidigitation have been devised, usually more focused than the basic spell from which they are derived. Chefs use it to flavor their dishes, weavers to coax impossible designs into their cloth, and nobles to impress or seduce the unwary. Rumors tell of magewrights who have developed specialized magecraft spells, granting greater benefits on specific Craft checks.

The people of Khorvaire see magic as another form of knowledge or scholastic discipline—a wondrous and powerful discipline, certainly, but still one that can be understood and utilized by people making their way in the world. Budding magewrights, wizards, and artificers attend schools to hone their natural talents. Artificers in particular understand the fundamental workings of magic, and the world’s best artificers strive to uncover more of its secrets. They trap power in items, create animated guardians, and further increase their own abilities.

Minor magic helps cities keep peace on their streets. The everbright lanterns that line most boulevards keep the night at bay and help prevent crime. Squads of city guard have members with access to prestidigitation or ghost sound, who use those spells in lieu of a whistle to alert their comrades. Such spells allow for a wide range of sounds and tones, and some cities develop sound codes that allow the watch to instantly understand a given situation. Artificers create watch whistles to further utilize this concept. These magic items resemble normal whistles but have several mouthpieces, each of which produces a different sound.

Some brave magewrights and low-level sorcerers, wizards, artificers, and bards make a living by hiring themselves out to adventurers to serve as minor magical support. They remain at the rear of an adventuring group, using their spells to light the way, check for traps, set up ambushes, and staunch bleeding, so that the adventuring spellcasters can focus on combat magic. These hirelings congregate in areas that draw adventurers—particularly Sharn, the settlements around the Mournland, and Stormreach. They make it part of their business to know about the dungeons to which adventurers are likely to journey

Source: Player's Guide to Eberron

Keith

http://keith-baker.com/common-magic/

http://keith-baker.com/ifaq-transportation/ 

http://keith-baker.com/dm-arcane-science/ 


Given the relevancy and increasing applicable uses for AI and machine learning in our world, what are some examples you can think of for AI in Eberron?

First, keep in mind that Eberron is largely modeling a late 19th century level of technology. There are crucial exceptions—teleportation, resurrection—but they aren't part of everyday life. Consider that in 998 YK we have Speaking Stones—which are basically telegraphs—but NOT personal sending devices, which would be more on par with cell phones. I think an AI equivalent would exist, for reasons I'm about to get to, but it's not something I'm make a major part of everyday life because that doesn't fit the overall tone of the world. It would be a rare tool you'd see used in places like Korranberg and Arcanix, where people are on the cutting edge of arcane science, but they wouldn't have one in the public library in Ardev. Give it 30 years, and things might be different...

Second, one of the basic principles of Eberron is that they use magic to solve problems we solve with technology—but that this might result in different tools to accomplish the same task. A key example of this are Crystal Theaters. Instead of BROADCASTING images through television, crystal theaters involve SCRYING—a well established form of magic. A Crystal Theater uses a very limited crystal ball to scry on a specific location—a Phiarlan stage. So the EFFECT is that you can watch a Phiarlan show from far away, but the METHOD is completely different than television. So given that, I'll point out a number of things that could serve the same role as AI.

  1. Sentient magic items, such as docents. Part of the point of a docent is to provide knowledge on a specific topic. In the Thorn novels, the sentient dagger Steel helps with his ability to detect and analyze magic and to read any language. So we already have the principle of an inanimate object imbued with a form of sentience in order to provide informational assistance.
  2. Necromantic Intelligence. The most concrete and widespread implentation of this is the spirit idols of Aerenal: mortal spirits bound to inanimate objects after death, who can be consulted on their specialties. We see this implemented in some Seeker communities as well. So the intelligence isn't ARTIFICIAL, but it is INANIMATE.
  3. Immortal Intelligence. In Eberron, it is possible to contact immortal entities that can process knowledge far more efficiently than humans. The obvious example of this is the spell Commune—as a 5th level spell it is KNOWN to the Five Nations and something you can find people using at the highest levels, but it's not part of everyday life. But that same principle could be applied to many things. Just as we can bind elemental spirits, I could imagine someone binding a minor spirit of Daanvi or Syrania—not a full-fledged angel, just the equivalent of an imp or quasit—to handle basic informational processing.

My point is that we think of creating artifical intelligence, and that's something that can be seen with some forms of sentient magic item. But in Eberron there is also the potential to harness immortal intelligence or to preserve the spirits of the dead. A key point is that these two techniques may actually be how many sentient magic items are created; they AREN'T entirely artificial sentience, they are the result of a mortal or immortal spirit being bound to an object. Keep in mind that this is one of the theories for the warforged themselves—that their souls may be "repurposed"—and that we have an example of an ancient proto-docent that contains a quori spirit.

Source: Keith Baker Discord Q&A

Telling Time: Chronal Cantrips

Source: Exploring Eberron

The people of Eberron don’t use mechanical clocks, and if you’re in a Mror mine or the heart of one of Sharn’s towers, you can’t see the sun. So how do you tell time?

The answer is simple: magic. There are a wide range of cantrips that tell time—some tied to an absolute time, some tied to the moons, some set to a local time. In Eberron, any character that has the skill to cast prestidigitation, thaumaturgy, or druidcraft can produce an additional effect allowing them to tell time. Clocks in Eberron are common magic items, and in most major cities, bells are rung to identify the hour; three bells means “three o’clock.” An orb of time is another common magic item—a small polished stone disk, often connected to a chain like a pocket watch—that tells time.