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Khorvaire – An Overview
Six continents support the vast diversity of life on Eberron. One of these, Khorvaire, is the heart of the world, at least as far as humans are concerned. On this continent, the last and greatest of the human empires grew and thrived before the Last War tore it asunder. Most player characters are from Khorvaire, since members of most of the races of Eberron can be found there.
Humanity’s great nations were once one, then five, and now four: scholarly Aundair, militaristic Karrnath, theocratic Thrane, and cosmopolitan Breland. These four kingdoms, together with a dead nation once called Cyre, occupy central Khorvaire. In addition to being home to humans, the nations are melting pots of other cultures. Dwarves, elves, half-lings, dragonborn, half-elves, and less common races make their homes in the towns and cities of the central nations. Warforged are a particularly common sight—House Cannith’s humans fashioned this race in their arcane creation forges.
The doomed nation of Cyre is now the Mournland, a desolate, haunted realm where gray mists suck the life from travelers. Few can survive its hardships, but the treasures of a fallen nation tempt some to try their luck. The only creatures here are treasure hunters, travelers, and those beings that do not possess a life force on which the land can prey: warforged, undead, and stranger creatures.
Aundair, Breland, Cyre, Karrnath, and Thrane were called the Five Nations in the distant past, and the name is still used despite the loss of one of their number. These nations once formed the cornerstone of the great Kingdom of Galifar. Only a few human lands fall outside the Five Nations. These countries include the Lhazaar Principalities in the northeast, tropical Q’barra in the southeast, and the wild Eldeen Reaches in the west.
Homelands of other races are also found in Khorvaire. The dwarves’ ancestral home is the Mror Holds, near Karrnath in the northeast. Nomadic halflings travel across the Talenta Plains in the east. Elves from the island continent of Aerenal have established a land called Valenar in Khorvaire’s southeast. Communities of ores and half-ores are concentrated in the swampy Shadow Marches to the far west. Gnomes call southern Zilargo their home-land, and tieflings long ago found refuge in western Khorvaire when they fled the ruin of their ancient kingdom, Ohr Kaluun.
Shifters roam the wild forests across the continent. Dragonborn enclaves in the east recall the great empire of their ancient past. Eladrin have long visited Khorvaire from their homes in the Feywild, but many fey are now trapped in the world, and one of their cities has shared the devastating fate of the Mourn-land. Even the monstrous races – medusas, ogres, and the like – claim Droaam as their own nation in Khorvaire, although the continent’s other countries refuse to acknowledge its sovereignty.