Source: Exploring Eberron
In Xoriat, there are masses of swirling colors, hues never seen on Eberron. There are ripples in space that disrupt time in their wake. There are bursts of powerful emotion that drift across layers. These may well be alive in some way—but there’s no way to communicate with them. This section discusses some of the creatures most relevant to adventurers. While the plane might hold other forces that could be considered alive, their thought processes would almost certainly be fundamentally inhuman, and they wouldn’t recognize organic beings as life.
The Daelkyr
The daelkyr came to Eberron to corrupt it and transform its people, and they crippled the Dhakaani Empire before being bound in Khyber. Six are known by name, but there are surely others. They remain trapped in Khyber to this day, waiting for the chance to rise and finish the work they began . . . and perhaps to pave the way for a new reality.
There are no known accounts of mortals traveling to Xoriat—at least, none who returned—so adventurers who do so are likely undertaking a historic journey. And in that journey, they may make a shocking discovery—though the daelkyr may be bound in Khyber, they are also still in Xoriat. Dyrrn the Corruptor, Valaara, Belashyrra—each dwells in a domain in Xoriat, attended by their servants and their armies. This ties to Xoriat’s uncanny relationship with time. The daelkyr may be in Xoriat because they haven’t left yet, or they might’ve already been released from their prisons and returned to Xoriat. Again, if time is a maze, the daelkyr stand above it looking down—but at the same time, they are also running in the maze. They can’t return to Eberron now, because they’re already there; but this may be why they seem unconcerned with their long imprisonment, because they’re also watching it all unfold from above. So adventurers could interact with any of the daelkyr in Xoriat, but fighting them there won’t impact their actions on Eberron. However, it could help adventurers learn about the weaknesses of the daelkyr, or perhaps obtain tools or weapons to use against them in the future.
Aberrations
The natural inhabitants of the plane are often so alien that mortals don’t even recognize them as living things. Most of the aberrations that people are familiar with on Eberron aren’t creations of Xoriat itself. Rather, the daelkyr, powers designed to interact with the Material Plane and its with mortals, created these aberrations as their servants, soldiers, and mementos of past conquests. In Eberron, most daelkyr have mixed forces; mind flayers could be found serving any of the great lords. In Xoriat, they’re more segregated; beholders dwell in the domain of Belashyrra, and mind flayers in the realm of Dyrrn.
What other terrors do the daelkyr have in Xoriat that they’ve never unleashed in Eberron? This depends in part on how many other realities the daelkyr have transformed; the mind flayers are relics of the destruction of the gith, just as the dolgrims and dolgaunts are souvenirs of the downfall of Dhakaan.
While aberrations created by the daelkyr are usually dangerous, there are also aberrations generated by the layers themselves. These planar creatures are alien and disturbing, but aren’t threatening unless provoked. The Native Aberrations table presents a few examples.
Native Aberrations
d6 | Aberration |
---|---|
1 | The Varr are kind, generous, telepathic halflings. But they’re not quite like their Eberron cousins—they have compound eyes, barbed tongues, and they spit acid on food to digest it. |
2 | The Craiss are tiny insectoid creatures that inherently know the language of creatures they speak to. They’ve always had a really bad day and they won’t stop complaining about it. |
3 | The [[scent of onions]] is a sentient ooze that can assume a humanoid shape. It can produce sounds, but communicates with its own kind using smell, touch, and taste. |
4 | The Cya are invisible, incorporeal beings who are only able to communicate by animating the reflections of other creatures. |
5 | The [[pleasure of seeing of a familiar friend]] are a race of empathic plants. They communicate not through speech, but through projecting emotions. |
6 | The Xaelin appear identical to humans, except for their smooth, featureless faces without eyes, ears, or nose. They possess truesight with a range of 60 feet, but can’t see, hear, or otherwise perceive anything beyond that range. The Xaelin claim to know nothing about Eberron—but despite this, their customs and fashions emulate cultures from throughout Eberron’s history. |
Powers of the Void
The daelkyr aren’t the most powerful forces in Xoriat. There are greater powers in the void, spirits so vast and alien that they can only be perceived by the ripples they create in reality. Both the Unseen Citadel and Belashyrra are ideas in the mind of something greater. Do these powers slumber? Do they consciously adjust the rules of their layers? Or are they simply ideas cast aside by the Progenitors, models of reality that were ultimately abandoned? If Xoriat is the realm of discarded concepts, this could be the drive behind the daelkyr’s endless quest to disfigure—or perfect—reality
Daelkyr*, mind flayer.
Manual of the Planes: Pseudonatural creatures.
Monster Manual II: Rukarazyll, wyste.
Fiend Folio: Kaorti.
Monster Manual III: Odopi, shrieking terror, voidmind creatures.
Odopi
In the EBERRON campaign setting, odopis are native to the plane of Xoriat, also known as the Realm of Madness. Powerful specimens brought to the world by fell wizardry lurk in the great caverns of Khyber, sometimes guarding extraplanar portals or fi endish redoubts. The Lords of Dust occasionally unleash odopis upon the blasted plains of the Demon Wastes, usually when they wish to dispose of a troublesome barbarian tribe.
Shrieking Terror
To create these unspeakable horrors, mind fl ayer wizards captured vargouilles and hydras from Eberron and warped them into a single species on their home plane of Xoriat. The shrieking terrors were then released back into Eberron’s ecology. Shrieking terrors are found in the dark caverns of Khyber, usually accompanied by mobs of sycophantic vargouilles eager to undergo similar transformation.
Grell
Grell are vicious predators driven by their disturbing appetites. Unlike many of Eberron's other aberrations, these natives of Xoriat were not introduced by the daelkyr. Rather, they drifted into the world through the soft spaces that existed between the planes in the time before the Gatekeepers raised their seals.
All of the material on grell in Lords of Madness can be used as is except one item: The grell of Eberron possesses damage reduction 5/byeshk.