Eberron and the Concept of the Nation
Diving Deeper than National Identity
Political science defines a nation as a people with a shared identity. This identity is a social construct; it exists as a manifestation of collective belief. Combined with a government, the nation becomes a nation-state. While there is scholarly debate about when the sense of shared identity central to nationhood emerged across the globe, it’s fundamentally a modern way of thinking about how people relate on a broad scale.
Eberron leans fully into this concept, literally calling the core political entities “nations”. In a break from D&D’s history, Eberron emphasizes these ties over the traditional fantasy ties of kin and race, positing that a Brelish dwarf has more in common with a Brelish human than a Mror dwarf. In the context of D&D in 2004, this was revolutionary — the rules of 3.5 enforced race as the primary mode of relations, with rules like “Gnomes have a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against kobolds and goblinoids.” This was by no means the only break from D&D tradition in the setting; alignment’s de-emphasis had implications for clerics, the planes, and dragons, amongst others, magic as technology reinforces the more modern aesthetic of the setting, and many individual changes to racial presentations tried to get away from the unfortunate stereotypes early D&D built its cultures on.
Unfortunately, Eberron’s emphasis on nationhood has its limits. Wikipedia highlights “language, history, ethnicity, culture, territory and/or society” as the building blocks of nationhood. Canonically, the Kingdom of Galifar stood for nearly 900 years, and before that the “five nations” existed as distinct entities for 1000 years. In the context of Eberron as a game world, five distinct nations with long-enough histories makes design sense; the setting is complex enough without overloading players with realistic-but-messy histories, especially given the material limits of page counts and the writing labor it would take to fill those pages.
However, for the purpose of discussion, I’m going ignore those limitations and break down each of these assumptions of national identity. Furthermore, while Galifar may refer to itself as a Kingdom because that fits the fantasy tradition, most definitions of scale would identify Galifar as an empire, and so I will refer to it as such throughout the rest of the post.
Language. For most games, common is enough. Rising from the Last War reinforces the unified identity of nations through its depiction of languages.
In Eberron, languages reflect culture and geography; a dwarf raised in Breland might not know Dwarvish, but a halfling raised in the Mror Holds might. The historical development of languages and cultures also explains the scripts used to write various languages. For example, the Orc language is written using the Goblin script (rather than Dwarvish, as stated in the Player’s Handbook), because the orcs of Khorvaire learned writing from the goblins.
Common is the language of the Five Nations and the language of trade in Khorvaire, known by most of its people. Goblin was the trade language of the goblin empire of Dhakaan and survives as the primary language in Darguun, Droaam, and the Shadow Marches. Goblin displaced the Orc language; the people of the Shadow Marches typically speak Goblin, and Orc is an exotic language (see the Exotic Languages of Eberron table). Members of all races in Xen’drik speak Giant and use it as their trade language. Infernal is the common tongue of all fiends. Infernal is sometimes called “Khyber’s Speech,” while Celestial is “the tongue of Siberys.”
The “Standard Languages of Eberron” table can roughly be divided up into three groups. Ignoring Common, Giant, and Riedran for the moment, these languages are the languages of Greater Khorvaire; Dwarvish for the Mror Holds, Elvish for Valenar, Gnomish for Zilargo, Goblin for Darguun/Droaam/the Shadow Marches, and Halfling for the Talenta Plains (The Demon Wastes are special but can be assumed to use Infernal). This only leaves the Eldeen Reaches and Q’barra, both of which have enough reason to use Common in the parts connected to the Five Nations, while the deep woods/jungle would instead use druidic/sylvan or draconic respectively. As far as justifications go for the independent identity and secessions, this use of language is a pretty good one and reinforces the gap between the empire’s core and its periphery; whatever once existed of distinct languages for the five nations of the pre-Galifaran period has been stamped out in favor of Common, leaving only the annexed non-human majority provinces. It’s possible to dive deeper, as Nausicaä Enriquez did in Languages of Eberron, but given the mechanical limitations of languages in D&D it’s a decent approximation.
Territory. An important piece of my latest release, Cultures of Karrnath, was bringing a refined sense of geography and territory to the Five Nations.
While canon, through Thaliost and Cyre, does reckon with the relationship between land and nation, it doesn’t ever explore regional identities. Breland is absolutely enormous, but all of the writing focuses on Sharn and very little addressed the enormous plains and forests of the northern and eastern parts of the nation. Chronicles of Eberron tries to fix this somewhat with chapter 3, introducing high-level divisions in the form of duchies and calling out a few independent Grand Duchies such as Atur.
Karrnath pulls on a mix of central and eastern European nations for inspiration, so to give them each a bit of room to themselves I emphasized the role of duchies in Cultures of Karrnath. Some are rooted firmly in fantasy — Atur’s legions of the dead — while others are modeled more after the real world, such Vasfold’s many failed independence movements mirroring Hungary’s historic struggles.
A secondary issue I’ve prioritized throughout my own writing is that Eberron canon frequently ignores the influence of climate. Tropical, near-equatorial cities like Sharn are treated like they’re New York rather than Rio; in Karrnath, the arid border with the Talenta Plains is de-emphasized in favor of the bitterly cold forests of Karrnath’s northwest. These geographic features can help define regional identities within the broader nation, both in terms of the experience of the people that live there as well as forming natural borders for political structures like duchies and counties.
History. Eberron’s history is intentionally open-ended; we have snippets of events, such as the Silver Crusade that occupied western Khorvaire for most of the 9th century, but certainly nothing robust and definitive. The one 3.5 sourcebook that could’ve provided a more thorough accounting of history during a critical period, The Forge of War, is controversial within the fandom due to the degree to which it ignores prior depictions of the various actors in favor of the authors’ vision. In combination with other factors (such as geography) it can be used to circumscribe national identities — Thrane’s Year of Blood and Fire is a good example of this — but prior to the war there’s not a ton of canon to define each nation’s history. On the other hand, the Last War is a great way to forge distinct national identities — mass conscription and the clash of armies cement distinct national identities above and beyond local identities while contrasting against rival states. From a ‘setting usability’ perspective limiting canonical history is probably good, but when making the setting your own and your table’s it’s a great place to expand upon.
Ethnicity. As previously discussed, canon does away with any connection between ‘race’, ‘ethnicity’, or ‘ancestry’ and nationality within Khorvaire’s core. There are certainly benefits to this approach while trying to get away from the vicious racism that has historically plagued D&D writing, but it also smooshes the very real differences that D&D insists exist between the ancestries. Keith Baker’s writing has somewhat addressed this, but it’s by no mean comprehensive; even if an elf and a human relate to their nationality above and beyond the differences in their ancestry, the sheer differences in lifespan make those relationships very different, especially since the ruling Wynarns are short-lived humans.
Other categories of differences are slightly more subject to edition variability — the 2014 PHB races are a mix of innate and cultural traits, while the UA for the 2024 PHB defines each species ability solely as an expression of innate capabilities. The worldbuilding implications are different between the History expertise from 2014 Stonecunning and the limited tremorsense from the 2024 Stonecunning, even if both are related to being good at rocks. Interpreting which abilities are culturally meaningful versus just for gameplay can be difficult; 4e dwarves could Second Wind as a bonus action, but does that mean anything outside of a tactical minis game? Some races naturally stand out — the exceptionally long-lived elves, the many-faced changelings — but game masters seeking to add depth to their campaign should ask how can I contextualize the national identity through the lens of fantasy ancestries. Some of this is through innate capabilities, but much of it will lean on the other pillars of nationhood; while Shifters have some “real” differences, the actually important relationship they have is the history of the Silver Crusade.
Culture. The 3.5-era sourcebook Five Nations focuses heavily on this pillar of national identity, and for good reason — it’s something easy and accessible to players. Architecture, food, the arts; all of these things play to the senses while defining the differences between nations. There’s plenty to critique in the specific implementations, but the overall idea that nationhood can be embodied through distinct cultures is a good one that the canon at least attempts to explore.
One particular nation I want to highlight is Thrane, which I covered in the appropriately named Cultures of Thrane. Religious affiliation can be an important element of both individual and national identity; in Khorvaire, people across the continent follow the Church of the Silver Flame but are confronted by the tension of the Church joining the state of Thrane to become a theocracy. Conversely, non-flamists within Thrane are challenged with the question of if they can truly count themselves as Thranish without following the national religion.
Society. For our purposes, I will focus on society as represented through social graphs — networks of who knows who. The social graph of pre-war Khorvaire has similarities to pre-WW1 Europe; the ruling class is all intimately related, but their individual desires to dominate and rule overcomes these ties to send the continent spiraling into a terrible war.
Beyond the ruling class, the introduction of the lightning rail in the 9th century YK would’ve helped integrate regions. Allowing people to easily and quickly travel beyond their immediate surroundings builds the necessary connections between urban centers and rural villages for a sense of nationhood to flourish without necessarily forming connections to a more universal community; the canon emphasizes that in the run-up to the war, citizens thought of themselves as Cyrans or Thranes, not Galifarans. Conversely, the invention of the Speaking Stone in the late 8th century YK could’ve pushed for a more international identity; however, canon emphasizes more limited news sources like regional papers, with the Korranberg Chronicle only gaining an international audience during the Last War.
Today’s issue of Analyzing Arcana is brought to you by my latest release, Cultures of Karrnath. Over 40 pages long, it’s my most comprehensive work yet; over half the book is devoted to exploring each of the eight duchies, detailing their unique history, governance, cultural hallmarks, and any notable locations within the duchy.
Conclusion
The modernity of Eberron provides a unique opportunity to enrich the setting with deeper understandings of identity. Of course, that can be an avenue to explore very personal identities such as sexual orientation and gender identity, but it can also be a vehicle to examine fundamentally social identities such as “what does it mean to have a nationality”. How do characters identify with the nations that dominate the settings? What does it mean for Dragonmarked characters to exist beyond those nations? Did the war strengthen or weaken that identity? Does your character feel an affinity to more than one nation for any number of reasons?