An idea for putting Warforged in Greyhawk. PEACH - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

An idea for putting Warforged in Greyhawk. PEACH

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
Jan 27, 2006 10:14:12 One of my players is really into Eberron, but I, on the other hand, am not. I asked him what he liked so much about Eberron, and he said, "Warforged." So, I'm looking for a way to integrate the Warforged (or just him) into Greyhawk. Here are my preliminary ideas:

1) During the Great War, the Suloise Mages of Power were working on a golem with the ability to think and take complex orders. The result was him. However, it was cut short by the Rain of Colorless Fire that destroyed the Suel. Nearly a thousand years later, a group of adventurers led by a very ambitious gnome wizard on a search for ancient artifacts comes across the body. They transport it back to the wizard's tower in Furyondy, and the wizard works furiously on finishing the work of the Suel.

2) During the Greyhawk Wars, Iuz was working on the warforged as a side project. Only a few were produced, and his character is one of these creations.

3) Warforged are a regular occurrence, having been around since the migration from the West into Oerth. Through war, their numbers have been thinned, but they have found their identity (for the most part) as normal members of society, functioning almost as humans do.

Any other ideas would be very helpful.
#2
ripvanwormer
Jan 27, 2006 10:28:47 Funnily enough, we just had a discussion on this topic last month. Unfortunately, most of that ended up turning into a debate on the merits of the idea rather than discussing how the idea could work.

Anyway, there were few other possibilities, some of them mentioned in the other thread:

1. Created by Aerdi mages during the Greyhawk Wars.
2. Sucked in through the Belching Vortex of Leuk-O.
3. Wandered in through a different interplanar portal.
4. Engineered by the Egg of Coot in the Archbarony of Blackmoor.
5. Created by Leuk-O or Lum the Mad during the Great Migrations.
6. Created by Kwalish.
7. Created by the automatons of the City of the Gods north of Blackmoor.
8. Created by Murlynd and/or Heward.
9. Discovered by Murlynd during one of his wanderings through alternate worlds.
#3
Mortepierre
Jan 27, 2006 10:32:29
1) During the Great War, the Suloise Mages of Power were working on a golem with the ability to think and take complex orders. The result was him. However, it was cut short by the Rain of Colorless Fire that destroyed the Suel. Nearly a thousand years later, a group of adventurers led by a very ambitious gnome wizard on a search for ancient artifacts comes across the body. They transport it back to the wizard's tower in Furyondy, and the wizard works furiously on finishing the work of the Suel.

Actually, few people use "Great War". Most refer to that event as the "Twin Cataclysms", but I digress..

Funny, this option reminds me of Data in ST-TNG :D

Could work. Primary programming: war, so I would force the player to take his 1st level in a martial class (Fighter probably). I would also give him an innate dislike of anything Baklunish in origin (akin to a Quest spell, but "hard-coded" by his creators). In order to get rid of it (assuming it brings him trouble), a trip to Blackmoor could be in order...

2) During the Greyhawk Wars, Iuz was working on the warforged as a side project. Only a few were produced, and his character is one of these creations.

No, I wouldn't go that way. Iuz's pet trick is evil magic and (lots of) demons. If you add new golems, it becomes a bit weird. I would expect that of the Great Kingdom but not of the Old One.

3) Warforged are a regular occurrence, having been around since the migration from the West into Oerth. Through war, their numbers have been thinned, but they have found their identity (for the most part) as normal members of society, functioning almost as humans do.

I am tempted to say "whatever works for you" but that would be one heck of a retcon. Personally, I wouldn't do it. But then again I wouldn't allow warforged in my campaign to begin with, so..
#4
ripvanwormer
Jan 27, 2006 10:50:16 The Warforged of Blackmoor thread on the Mystara boards might also be inspirational, since both Mystara and Oerth have versions of Blackmoor on them.
#5
Amaril
Jan 27, 2006 11:23:22 Another idea could be that the Warforged were created by the Guild of Wizardry/University of Magical Arts in the Free City of Greyhawk as warriors so that lives would not be wasted on war, similarly to how House Cannith manufactured 'forged for warfare. Only a relatively small number (hundreds or 1,000 perhaps) were created and used, many were destroyed in battle. Perhaps now warforged are created to serve as scouts who explore dangerous environments that most humans or demi-humans would not be able to servive well in, such as the Badlands in Almor, or the Sea of Dust. You might even be able to transplant the Lord of Blades and the Mournland into either of those two environments.
#6
scoti_garbidis
Jan 27, 2006 14:48:35 just an idea:

Maybe he is the token of his kind on Oerth. Brought by one of the most powerful mages from another plane, like mechanus, to see what affect his kind would have on Oerth and the Flanaess in general. While he was brought to the world for study, it was never implemented for some unknown reason and the warforged was placed in storage or just misplaced in a dark room below the mages home. Overtime he was forgotten and until recently lay dormant because the mage had passed on or just left him behind some books... who knows...

Could even have him remember being brought and told to stay put. So he did... for a very long time.

This idea kind of reminds of the movie "Return to Oz" where Tickety, the war-machine is left in a room behind a large stone door....
#7
kwint_pendick
Jan 27, 2006 16:33:01
2) During the Greyhawk Wars, Iuz was working on the warforged as a side project. Only a few were produced, and his character is one of these creations.

No, I wouldn't go that way. Iuz's pet trick is evil magic and (lots of) demons. If you add new golems, it becomes a bit weird. I would expect that of the Great Kingdom but not of the Old One.

Not to disagree to disagree, but Iuz, or at least the Boneheart, has created some creatures of awesome might...The Thassalos (sp?) from "From the Ashes" boxed set and the Blackroot Marauder and the Murdakus from Dragon #270 were pretty damn tough puppies...
Kwint
#8
Mortepierre
Jan 27, 2006 16:58:40
Not to disagree to disagree, but Iuz, or at least the Boneheart, has created some creatures of awesome might...The Thassalos (sp?) from "From the Ashes" boxed set and the Blackroot Marauder and the Murdakus from Dragon #270 were pretty damn tough puppies...
Kwint

Yes, but the Thassalos was essentially a necromantic creation. The other two are unknown to me but I doubt they are mechanical in nature. So, let me rephrase that: "If you add new mechanical golems, it becomes a bit weird."
#9
zombiegleemax
Jan 27, 2006 17:28:52 Why hasn't anyone suggested the rock bottom simplest method for doing this?

1: Wizard tries to create iron golem.

2: Something goes wrong.

3: Golem becomes sentient, free willed and in all other ways a warforged.

No big metaplot, no retcon needed, no all powerful being behind the curtains. Just your usual blown roll with some really neat flavor text. This method also allows for you to create 'other' warforged, say from clay or stone golems.

Or, if the above is too hard to swallow, use the construct rules from Savage Species.

Oggie
#10
Amaril
Jan 27, 2006 17:49:06 Because the idea is to have it such that the warforged PC isn't a singled out freak because 'forged are commonly known to exist.
#11
mortellan
Jan 27, 2006 18:27:05 Personally I think warforged are too powerful to be a PC race. There needs to be a Level Adjustment. I also find it humorous that the only thing required to steal someone away from Eberron to Greyhawk is implanting Warforged into Oerth. :P

As to warforged origins in GH I certainly favor the Blackmoor elements. Blackmoor is underused, it is remote enough as to not shake up local storylines and it DOES have that psuedo-technology mystery.
#12
OleOneEye
Jan 28, 2006 0:22:15 Just a few more random ideas:

My favorite is that the Hextorians of the North Kingdom created the warforged for their war machine. Their blood golems were powerful but had too many ticks to be fully effective. The knowledge they gained from creating the golems was the springboard for creating warforged, which they have been testing in the ongoing Civil War. Plans are such that a full legion should be ready within a year - perhaps sufficient to finally put an end to the Civil War and concentrate on the United Kingdom like North Kingdom wants.

Bled dry of manpower in the Wars, Nyrondese mages looked to find an alternative. They came up with the warforged. Once Aerdi crumbled from within, the king could no longer afford to support the enterprise. Thus only a handful were ever created.

Instead of ancient creations of the Suel, perhaps the sole remaining warforged could have been a project of the Spellweavers - long lost in the Amedio.

Mayhaps the warforged have something to do with the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks - its programming such that it reactivated when the spaceship was breached.

Perhaps the warforged is a time traveller from the grim Greyhawkian future whereby Terminator style warforged have devastated humanity, and he is looking to sacrifice himself to prevent them from ever being created.

Of course, a simple gate from Eberron to Greyhawk could result in any number of warforged coming through.
#13
max_writer
Jan 28, 2006 5:51:49 I like the Blackmoor/City of the Gods element myself. "The Clockwork Fortress" in Dungon #126 had some great stuff about the City of the Gods and clockwork men.
#14
zombiegleemax
Jan 28, 2006 13:30:16 I also like the idea of Warforged being mysterious beings from antiquity. They seem like just the sort of thing that all those eldritch civilizations like the Suel Imperium and the Isles of Woe would cook-up to fight their wars.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Jan 27, 2006 10:14:12	One of my players is really into Eberron, but I, on the other hand, am not. I asked him what he liked so much about Eberron, and he said, "Warforged." So, I'm looking for a way to integrate the Warforged (or just him) into Greyhawk. Here are my preliminary ideas: 1) During the Great War, the Suloise Mages of Power were working on a golem with the ability to think and take complex orders. The result was him. However, it was cut short by the Rain of Colorless Fire that destroyed the Suel. Nearly a thousand years later, a group of adventurers led by a very ambitious gnome wizard on a search for ancient artifacts comes across the body. They transport it back to the wizard's tower in Furyondy, and the wizard works furiously on finishing the work of the Suel. 2) During the Greyhawk Wars, Iuz was working on the warforged as a side project. Only a few were produced, and his character is one of these creations. 3) Warforged are a regular occurrence, having been around since the migration from the West into Oerth. Through war, their numbers have been thinned, but they have found their identity (for the most part) as normal members of society, functioning almost as humans do. Any other ideas would be very helpful.
#2 ripvanwormer Jan 27, 2006 10:28:47	Funnily enough, we just had a discussion on this topic last month. Unfortunately, most of that ended up turning into a debate on the merits of the idea rather than discussing how the idea could work. Anyway, there were few other possibilities, some of them mentioned in the other thread: 1. Created by Aerdi mages during the Greyhawk Wars. 2. Sucked in through the Belching Vortex of Leuk-O. 3. Wandered in through a different interplanar portal. 4. Engineered by the Egg of Coot in the Archbarony of Blackmoor. 5. Created by Leuk-O or Lum the Mad during the Great Migrations. 6. Created by Kwalish. 7. Created by the automatons of the City of the Gods north of Blackmoor. 8. Created by Murlynd and/or Heward. 9. Discovered by Murlynd during one of his wanderings through alternate worlds.
#3 Mortepierre Jan 27, 2006 10:32:29	1) During the Great War, the Suloise Mages of Power were working on a golem with the ability to think and take complex orders. The result was him. However, it was cut short by the Rain of Colorless Fire that destroyed the Suel. Nearly a thousand years later, a group of adventurers led by a very ambitious gnome wizard on a search for ancient artifacts comes across the body. They transport it back to the wizard's tower in Furyondy, and the wizard works furiously on finishing the work of the Suel. Actually, few people use "Great War". Most refer to that event as the "Twin Cataclysms", but I digress.. Funny, this option reminds me of Data in ST-TNG :D Could work. Primary programming: war, so I would force the player to take his 1st level in a martial class (Fighter probably). I would also give him an innate dislike of anything Baklunish in origin (akin to a Quest spell, but "hard-coded" by his creators). In order to get rid of it (assuming it brings him trouble), a trip to Blackmoor could be in order... 2) During the Greyhawk Wars, Iuz was working on the warforged as a side project. Only a few were produced, and his character is one of these creations. No, I wouldn't go that way. Iuz's pet trick is evil magic and (lots of) demons. If you add new golems, it becomes a bit weird. I would expect that of the Great Kingdom but not of the Old One. 3) Warforged are a regular occurrence, having been around since the migration from the West into Oerth. Through war, their numbers have been thinned, but they have found their identity (for the most part) as normal members of society, functioning almost as humans do. I am tempted to say "whatever works for you" but that would be one heck of a retcon. Personally, I wouldn't do it. But then again I wouldn't allow warforged in my campaign to begin with, so..
#4 ripvanwormer Jan 27, 2006 10:50:16	The Warforged of Blackmoor thread on the Mystara boards might also be inspirational, since both Mystara and Oerth have versions of Blackmoor on them.
#5 Amaril Jan 27, 2006 11:23:22	Another idea could be that the Warforged were created by the Guild of Wizardry/University of Magical Arts in the Free City of Greyhawk as warriors so that lives would not be wasted on war, similarly to how House Cannith manufactured 'forged for warfare. Only a relatively small number (hundreds or 1,000 perhaps) were created and used, many were destroyed in battle. Perhaps now warforged are created to serve as scouts who explore dangerous environments that most humans or demi-humans would not be able to servive well in, such as the Badlands in Almor, or the Sea of Dust. You might even be able to transplant the Lord of Blades and the Mournland into either of those two environments.
#6 scoti_garbidis Jan 27, 2006 14:48:35	just an idea: Maybe he is the token of his kind on Oerth. Brought by one of the most powerful mages from another plane, like mechanus, to see what affect his kind would have on Oerth and the Flanaess in general. While he was brought to the world for study, it was never implemented for some unknown reason and the warforged was placed in storage or just misplaced in a dark room below the mages home. Overtime he was forgotten and until recently lay dormant because the mage had passed on or just left him behind some books... who knows... Could even have him remember being brought and told to stay put. So he did... for a very long time. This idea kind of reminds of the movie "Return to Oz" where Tickety, the war-machine is left in a room behind a large stone door....
#7 kwint_pendick Jan 27, 2006 16:33:01	2) During the Greyhawk Wars, Iuz was working on the warforged as a side project. Only a few were produced, and his character is one of these creations. No, I wouldn't go that way. Iuz's pet trick is evil magic and (lots of) demons. If you add new golems, it becomes a bit weird. I would expect that of the Great Kingdom but not of the Old One. Not to disagree to disagree, but Iuz, or at least the Boneheart, has created some creatures of awesome might...The Thassalos (sp?) from "From the Ashes" boxed set and the Blackroot Marauder and the Murdakus from Dragon #270 were pretty damn tough puppies... Kwint
#8 Mortepierre Jan 27, 2006 16:58:40	Not to disagree to disagree, but Iuz, or at least the Boneheart, has created some creatures of awesome might...The Thassalos (sp?) from "From the Ashes" boxed set and the Blackroot Marauder and the Murdakus from Dragon #270 were pretty damn tough puppies... Kwint Yes, but the Thassalos was essentially a necromantic creation. The other two are unknown to me but I doubt they are mechanical in nature. So, let me rephrase that: "If you add new mechanical golems, it becomes a bit weird."
#9 zombiegleemax Jan 27, 2006 17:28:52	Why hasn't anyone suggested the rock bottom simplest method for doing this? 1: Wizard tries to create iron golem. 2: Something goes wrong. 3: Golem becomes sentient, free willed and in all other ways a warforged. No big metaplot, no retcon needed, no all powerful being behind the curtains. Just your usual blown roll with some really neat flavor text. This method also allows for you to create 'other' warforged, say from clay or stone golems. Or, if the above is too hard to swallow, use the construct rules from Savage Species. Oggie
#10 Amaril Jan 27, 2006 17:49:06	Because the idea is to have it such that the warforged PC isn't a singled out freak because 'forged are commonly known to exist.
#11 mortellan Jan 27, 2006 18:27:05	Personally I think warforged are too powerful to be a PC race. There needs to be a Level Adjustment. I also find it humorous that the only thing required to steal someone away from Eberron to Greyhawk is implanting Warforged into Oerth. :P As to warforged origins in GH I certainly favor the Blackmoor elements. Blackmoor is underused, it is remote enough as to not shake up local storylines and it DOES have that psuedo-technology mystery.
#12 OleOneEye Jan 28, 2006 0:22:15	Just a few more random ideas: My favorite is that the Hextorians of the North Kingdom created the warforged for their war machine. Their blood golems were powerful but had too many ticks to be fully effective. The knowledge they gained from creating the golems was the springboard for creating warforged, which they have been testing in the ongoing Civil War. Plans are such that a full legion should be ready within a year - perhaps sufficient to finally put an end to the Civil War and concentrate on the United Kingdom like North Kingdom wants. Bled dry of manpower in the Wars, Nyrondese mages looked to find an alternative. They came up with the warforged. Once Aerdi crumbled from within, the king could no longer afford to support the enterprise. Thus only a handful were ever created. Instead of ancient creations of the Suel, perhaps the sole remaining warforged could have been a project of the Spellweavers - long lost in the Amedio. Mayhaps the warforged have something to do with the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks - its programming such that it reactivated when the spaceship was breached. Perhaps the warforged is a time traveller from the grim Greyhawkian future whereby Terminator style warforged have devastated humanity, and he is looking to sacrifice himself to prevent them from ever being created. Of course, a simple gate from Eberron to Greyhawk could result in any number of warforged coming through.
#13 max_writer Jan 28, 2006 5:51:49	I like the Blackmoor/City of the Gods element myself. "The Clockwork Fortress" in Dungon #126 had some great stuff about the City of the Gods and clockwork men.
#14 zombiegleemax Jan 28, 2006 13:30:16	I also like the idea of Warforged being mysterious beings from antiquity. They seem like just the sort of thing that all those eldritch civilizations like the Suel Imperium and the Isles of Woe would cook-up to fight their wars.