The Eberron campaign setting is defined by its treatment of magic as technology — what if ordinary people could learn how to use prestidigitation to clean their own home? What would a D&D world look like if you broke away from divinely-mandated faux-medievalism?

Diving deeper into the setting, however, requires recognizing that those developments are not necessarily all on the same pattern or progression as the West in the real world. Socio-political developments, such as the transition away from feudalism (*a term I will continue to use here despite its disfavor amongst historians for more nuanced understandings of the rights and obligations of medieval persons), are way behind the setting’s use of magic as technology. Economic refinements, such as the use of paper money or the influence of a stock market, are disregarded in favor of classical D&D coinage-as-character-advancement. Cultural touchstones are on the early modern end, with Sharn frequently compared to the big cities of noir films set in the 1920s and the Last War mirroring World War 1 in some ways.

Importantly, these anachronisms (insofar as the term can apply to a fictional setting) are not a bad thing. This is not a takedown post; this is an examination of what each facet implies and how it can be fully embraced or tweaked to accomplish tone objectives. Throughout this post I will focus on comparisons to the western world, both due to my own familiarity as well as it being the clearer inspiration for Khorvaire — someone more versed than I in the development of the non-western world could certainly bringer fresher insights into historical events both myself and the authors of the Eberron setting are likely unfamiliar with.

Political

Focusing only on Khorvaire for simplicity’s sake, the setting prominently features two strict monarchies, a theocracy and a monarchy only somewhat constrained by a parliament. The other breakaway states hardly fair better for representative democracies, with only the secretive authoritarians of Zilargo organizing centrally but without a singular ruler.

The lone voice for democracy in the setting is the explicitly villainous Swords of Liberty, a group that canonically acts at the direction of an ancient fiend seeking to reignite the Last War. While perhaps useful for subverting player expectations — American players in particular seem to idealize violent revolutionary action to overthrow a government — it’s nevertheless shallow to only include a single explicitly anti-monarchist group that and cast them as unquestionably in the wrong. Nations such as Aundair and Karrnath canonically only have contests between the monarchy and the nobles, with no reference to the kind of democratic or populist movements that defined the politics of the 19th century, let alone the 20th century.

Another key feature of those movements was nationalism. Political science defines the concept of a nation as the junction of a people and a state, and that this construct really only rose to prominence in the 19th century. One key feature of the rise of nationalism in Europe is it was a response to rule by foreign monarchs; the Hapsburg rule over Hungary is a classic example of this. The best example of this in Khorvaire is not actually the core nations, but the breakaway states like Zilargo, the Mror Holds, the Eldeen Reaches, and even the Talenta Plains — each of these has a strong sense of being a distinct people with their non-human majorities, and the desire for a separate state is easily justified by the canonical exploitation of these territories during the Last War. The question in the context of the setting is to what degree did the core populace of each province of Galifar properly identify as a nation prior to the war, versus the outbreak of the war being purely driven by the ego of the renegade princes and princess? The Last War is plenty of justification for national identities in 998 YK, but that history of identity matters especially in the context of the longer lived ancestries who easily live over 100 years and remember before the war.

Beyond these high-level questions of fundamental political structure, there’s plenty of smaller scale political structures that are ignored in canon. Local election officials in Breland, tax collectors anywhere, and all other flavors of civil servant provide plenty of opportunities for adventure, whether it’s dealing with corruption or even legal intrigue and plots. In fairness these actors were likely ignored out of an interest in conservation of detail, but anyone trying to seriously reckon with the structure of society and government in the periods that Eberron draws from should be aware of the immense power that civil servants had prior to the bureaucratic expansions that accompanied the two world wars. Even in the context of feudal political structures, various adaptations of the story of Robin Hood provide plenty of examples of how local officials can serve as antagonists.

Economic

The second half of feudal monarchies is the feudalism part; land in Khorvaire is almost strictly owned by the nobility, with the Korth Edicts explicitly banning the other major economic player - the Dragonmarked Houses. By contrast, the western world moved from feudalism to mercantilism the same time it was moving through the pike and shot era — the 16th century. By the turn of the 20th century, mercantilism was fading and capitalism ran the economies of the west.

A fundamental component of that middle period in the real world was the massive colonial expansion into the “New World” as well as Africa, with the mercantilist economies of Europe structured around unrestrained looting of the natural resources of their foreign subjects. The canonical Kingdom of Galifar lacked that kind of relationship with foreign territories; the lore instead puts the dragonshard rush in Q’barra and the Shadow Marches as a recent development, while the continent of Xen’drik has only had mild attention from the nations of Khorvaire. This is not to say that these are not colonial relationships — the tropes of these regions are deeply colonial — but there isn’t the larger economic structure of mercantilism.

There’s a few directions to go from here. One option is to lean in, expanding upon these colonial ambitions and make them a centerpiece for a campaign. In Xen’drik, this might look like each of the nations commissioning large expeditions to chart and loot the continent. (Related: the Giant Guide to Xen’drik, recently released on the Dmsguild, would be an excellent resource for this sort of campaign). In Q’barra and the Shadow Marches, it would mean examining the dependency of the post-war nations on the dragonshard trade and it becoming a fundamental measure of a nation’s wealth.

Another option is to say that Khorvaire doesn’t experience mercantilism and instead is moves straight from feudalism to capitalism. This is the more kanonical approach, as embodied in the Arcane Industry article. Khorvaire has plunged straight into the economic tensions of the 19th century; individual tradespeople are competing with an industrializing world that is just beginning to explore mass production, but instead of fossil fuels like coal the resource of choice are dragonshards. One missing piece of this puzzle, however, is financialization; in the western world, mercantilism allowed for non-state actors to amass large amounts of wealth, most infamously the West and East India trading companies. The only comparable actors would be the Dragonmarked Houses, but the canon of their guilds focuses on direct services they can render rather than functioning as financial institutions. The only noted financial institution is House Kundarak’s Banking Guild:

Notably absent from this construction is the concept of stocks and other forms of mass-investment schemes that drove the financial success of Europe’s companies since the 17th century. One obvious place to include stocks in the setting is the city of Trolanport in Zilargo; as the primary hub of elemental vessel construction (including airships and elemental galleons), it’s where House Cannith, House Lyrandar, and private Zil alchemists and Khyber shard suppliers combine resources to produce outstanding elementally-powered inventions. This confluence of institutions is a great opportunity for financial innovation, such as a joint stock mining company that ships Khyber shards from Zolanberg to Trolanport.

On a related note, historically financial institutions were more rooted in being at a trading nexus (such as Medici-run Venice, the city Trolanport is based on) rather than access to large deposits of valuable natural resources. House Kundarak’s position as “the bankers” is odd from this perspective, as the Mror Holds are very out of the way. Cities such as Starilaskur, Metrol, or Vedykar all make more sense as financial hubs due to their more central locations. The simplest path here is to just accept that financial developments worked differently in Eberron and that’s why the offerings are much more medieval than the early-modern culture of the setting would suggest. Another option is that this represents House Kundarak being rapidly accepted throughout the Kingdom of Galifar after the annexation of the Mror Holds in the first century, with the dwarves establishing themselves in enough cities that as the Kingdom developed the Banking Guild was a natural outgrowth of the Warding Guild’s business. To connect this to the previous point about Zilargo, it’s possible this was facilitated by the gnomish emissaries to the Mror Holds and specifically the legal minds of House Sivis. One thing to watch for here is that “dwarves as bankers” is almost certainly rooted in “dwarves as a Jewish people” that dates back to Tolkien; by itself it’s inoffensive, but in conjunction with other tropes can slip into antisemitism.

Going in an entirely other direction with Eberron’s industrial capacity, one key missing crossover between economy and politics within the canon is labor movements. In the real world, modern unions trace their heritage to the late 19th century, perfect for Khorvaire. These were violent conflicts that make for great gameable material — the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain is the most dramatic example of these conflicts. Dungeon masters interested in pursuing these developments should look at Fired and Forgotten, an intro adventure that features a warforged strike in the Cogs of Sharn.

Technology

Tying into the economic questions, the technology of Khorvaire is sometimes ahead of the real world. Lightning Rails are practically maglev trains in a setting that hasn’t even developed cars as personal motorized transportation. By most measures the healing magic of D&D far outstrips modern medical capabilities, with House Jorasco having access to the raise dead spell.

Out of all of Eberron’s anachronisms, this is the most explicit and deliberate. The question the setting tries to answer is “What kind of society could you build with the normal spells of D&D”, not “How can we write spells that mimic the technological developments that came from advances in metallurgy and machinery”. What’s easy for a wizard isn’t necessarily easy for a mechanical engineer and visa versa.

The main focus here should be asking “What are ways to showcase this difference”, rather than flattening it. Exploring Eberron suggests that the prestidigitation cantrip is a little too broad for the average commoner to have access to and instead they would rely on common magic items; this still means that most commoners should probably have access to these effects. The implications of cleaning clothes at a touch with Verran’s textile restoration are enormous; the health and sanitation labor of doing laundry was historically an enormous tax on women’s time, and could be one way to frame the setting’s more equal treatment of the sexes.

On the industrial end of things, metallurgy is an incredibly important advancement track; evocation spells are largely only hot enough to injure tissue, not the several thousands of degrees necessary to melt metal. One interesting direction might be to double down on elemental binding and manifest zone manipulation, especially if Khorvaire is lacking in the coal reserves that powered England's industrial revolution. These choices would have large implications both for the history of the Last War as well as nation’s ability to prepare for the Next War.

Culture

Downstream of the prior three touchstones, Khorvaire’s cultural “progression” or “advancement” is far ahead of its politics and economy. This can raise some questions; the styles of the 1920s were only possible due to industrialized textile production. Landed nobles have far more power in Khorvaire than the decaying aristocracy of Europe by the 1920s; compare the state of the Crawleys in Downton Abbey with the portrayal of the nobility in chapter 3 of Chronicles of Eberron.

As with the prior “anachronisms”, there’s several paths to take. One is simply to accept that Khorvaire isn’t quite like the real world, and behind the scenes everything somehow works out to fit the canonical portrayal — D&D is a high adventure game that’s for fun, not for simulating a world, and anachronisms are a core part of the genre.

Another option is to color within the lines; if Sharn’s fashion mimics the 1920s, then that means Cannith has started to industrialize the local textile industry. What does that development imply for the powers of the city — is the factory space rented from the ir’Tains? Do the owners pay protection fees to the Boromars? Similarly, this might help draw contrast between regions; technological and magical developments aren’t distributed evenly, even in a connected world. In the real world, driverless cars are a rarity, except in San Francisco where they make a significant portion of rideshare app traffic. Newcomers to Sharn might be aghast or amazed at industrial clothing, while Sharn natives might find the continued reliance on individual artisans for clothing inefficient.

The third option is rewrite the lore, in either direction. Maybe the nobility of Khorvaire have already suffered a significant loss in status, and while wealthy, lack the political control of centuries prior. Alternatively, maybe the cultural norms are more pre-modern than early-modern, with the social structures more resembling the 17th century that core D&D more attaches itself to. This doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition; each of these three approaches can be applied to separate parts of the setting, based on your own preferences and predilections.

Conclusion

Eberron, as a setting, is a mishmash of various periods. This is an inevitable outcome of trying to use D&D as a base system, keeping not only its own anachronisms (Rapiers are a popular weapon but there’s no guns in the 2014 Player’s Handbook, despite the former developing far after the latter) while adding in trains and telegram stations. It’s always an option to just take the books as written, but there is a depth of worldbuilding that can come from asking questions about why and how certain things came to be.