/* À Compléter */
====== Dolurrh ======
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^ Alias | Le Royaume Des Morts |
^ Alignement | Non aligné |
^ Particularité | Intemporel \\ Forte Gravité |
^ Magie entravée | Toute forme de magie |
^ Limitrophe | 1 an tout les 100 ans |
^ Éloigné | 1 an tout les 100 ans |
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** Dolurrh le royaume des morts ** est une terre grise désolée où les âmes mortelles vont après la mort. Ce n'est pas une récompense, ni une punition, c'est tout simplement la réalité. Dolurrh est intemporel, et les personnes qui visitent Dolurrh sont lentement submergées par l'apathie et finissent par s'estomper, devenant une [[ombre]].
======Description======
Dolurrh est le royaume des morts d'[[Éberron]], où la plupart des mortels vont quand ils meurent. Pour ceux sur le plan de Dolurrh, les couleurs deviennent plus grises et moins vives, et les visiteurs ressentent un sentiment d'ennui. Ceux qui visitent l'avion se balancent sous son influence, perdent l'envie de partir et finissent par oublier leurs vies antérieures. Ces visiteurs finissent par devenir des nuances et originaires de Dolurrh. Pour les visiteurs pris au piège à Dolurrh, seule la magie la plus puissante peut les libérer.
Quand on meurt, son âme se rend à Dolurrh. Cependant, il est possible d'utiliser de puissantes magies de résurrection pour ramener une âme de Dolurrh au [[Le Plan Matériel|plan matériel]]. De plus, il est possible de ramener une âme via des portails fixes; bien que cela soit dangereux de visiter le royaume des morts. Il faut cependant noter que les [[Inévitables#Marut | Maruts]] découragent activement la résurrection de cette manière.
Bien que ce soit le royaume des morts, Dolurrh n'est pas la maison du [[Le Geôlier|Geôlier]], le dieu des morts des [[Les Sombres Six|Sombres Six]]. En fait, Le Geôlier tente d'arracher des âmes capricieuses sur le chemin de Dolurrh. Il garde ces âmes comme serviteurs.
Parce que les murs entre Éberron et Dolurrh sont plus minces que les autres avions, il est possible de puiser dans leurs énergies. Le dragon [[Arstyvrax]] utilise les énergies de Dolurrh pour alimenter ses recherches nécromantiques
Bien que la plupart des âmes se rendent dans le royaume des morts, certaines ne le font pas. Les âmes promis à la [[Flamme d'Argent]] la rejoindront à leur mort.
======Habitants======
* Les habitants les plus peuplés de Dolurrh sont les ** [[Démon]]s ** et les ** [[Diable]]s **, y compris les ** deathdrinker **, les ** lemure **, les ** nalfeshnee **, et les ** sorrowsworn **.
* Alors que la plupart des [[Inévitables]] viennent de [[Daanvi]], les ** [[Inévitables#Marut | Maruts]] ** proviennent de Dolurrh.
======Zone De Manifestations======
* Le ** [[Gouffre des échos oubliés]] ** dans la vallée des deux montagnes des [[Falaises des Ombres]] abrite une Zone De Manifestation de Dolurrh.
* La ** [[Récolte de la douleur]] **, une friche foudroyante sur le continent de [[Argonnessen]], est une Zone De Manifestation de Dolurrh.
* Dans [[Q'barra]], de nombreux animaux se rendent au ** [[Montagnes d'Ivoire]] ** pour mourir. Les chercheurs de l'[[Université Morgrave]] croient qu'il y a une zone de manifestation de Dolurrh près ou à l'intérieur de la montagne.
* ** [[l_antre_du_geolier]] ** dans [[Les Désolations Démoniaques]] est une puissante Zone De Manifestation de Dolurrh.
* Beaucoup pensent que les fantômes qui sortent des eaux noires du ** [[Lac Noir]] ** dans [[Karrnath]] le font à cause d'une Zone De Manifestation de Dolurrh.
======Effets sur le plan matériel======
=====Limitrophe=====
Lorsque Dolurrh devient limitrophe, les frontières entre les deux plans deviennent minces. Les fantômes et autres créations de Dolurrh passent facilement dans le Monde d'Eberron. Les sorts conçus pour ressusciter les gens deviennent plus puissants, ramenant souvent par inadvertance la mauvaise âme, d'autres fantômes ou des nuances, ou même un démon habitant Dolurrh. Dolurrh est Limitrophe pour une période d'un an chaque siècle.
=====Distant=====
Lorsque Dolurrh est éloigné, les sorts de résurrection ne fonctionnent plus. Dolurrh est éloigné pendant une période d'un an tous les siècles, précisément cinquante ans après chaque phase de Limitrophe.
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Endless caverns stretch throughout Dolurrh, bleak passages of gray stone. Wherever you go, shadowy figures reach towards you, imploring, but you feel only the faintest chill as their insubstantial fingers pass through you. Mist pools around your feet, and as you press forward you realize this swirling mist is moaning. This is no natural phenomenon; these are the remnants of souls who have forgotten their original form. This is Dolurrh, where mortal souls go after their bodies die, where memories fade and lives are forgotten.
Mortal spirits are drawn to Dolurrh within moments of death, and their memories begin to decay immediately. Within days, most spirits no longer have any desire to leave Dolurrh; within weeks, most only have the faintest memories of their previous lives. The faiths of Aerenal and the Blood of Vol assert that Dolurrh is the absolute end of existence, the last echoes of a life before it is gone completely. But when Dorius Alyre ir’Korran drew his classic planar map he used the octogram symbol of the Sovereign Host to represent Dolurrh, because he declared it to be the door through which all mortals must pass to join with the Sovereigns. This has come to be a common view: what appears to be memory fading is actually the soul slowly ascending to a higher form of existence, rising to a level of reality no mortal can experience. The vassals of the Sovereign Host say the faithful finally join the Sovereigns; followers of the Silver Flame say that noble souls strengthen the Flame. What is left behind is a husk—the cast-off remnants, like an abandoned snakeskin or the traces of memory that can be read using speak with dead. Thus, while Dolurrh has long been known as the Realm of the Dead, there are many who call it The Gateway. Ultimately, this is a matter of faith. Whether the other side of Dolurrh is oblivion or paradise, no one ever returns from it.
All living creatures will come to Dolurrh, sooner or later. Those that come here before death are almost always looking for something: a lost soul, a forgotten memory. But living or dead, any who come to Dolurrh can be trapped by its power.
Des cavernes sans fin s'étendent dans Dolurrh, des passages sombres de pierre grise. Partout où vous allez, des personnages ténébreux se rapprochent de vous, implorant, mais vous ne ressentez que le moindre frisson lorsque leurs doigts insignifiants vous traversent. De la brume s'accumule autour de vos pieds et, lorsque vous vous rapprochez, vous réalisez que cette brume tourbillonnante gémit. Ce n'est pas un phénomène naturel; ce sont les restes d'âmes qui ont oublié leur forme d'origine. C'est Dolurrh, où les âmes mortelles vont après la mort de leur corps, où les souvenirs s'estompent et la vie est oubliée.
Les esprits mortels sont attirés par Dolurrh dans les instants de la mort, et leurs souvenirs commencent à se décomposer immédiatement. En quelques jours, la plupart des esprits n'ont plus aucun désir de quitter Dolurrh; en quelques semaines, la plupart n'ont que les souvenirs les plus faibles de leurs vies antérieures. Les croyances d'Aerenal et du Blood of Vol affirment que Dolurrh est la fin absolue de l'existence, les derniers échos d'une vie avant qu'elle ne disparaisse complètement. Mais lorsque Dorius Alyre ir’Korran a dessiné sa carte planaire classique, il a utilisé le symbole de l’octogramme de l’hôte souverain pour représenter Dolurrh, car il a déclaré que c’était la porte par laquelle tous les mortels devaient passer pour se joindre aux souverains. Cela est devenu une vision commune: ce qui semble être une perte de mémoire est en fait l'âme qui monte lentement vers une forme d'existence supérieure, atteignant un niveau de réalité qu'aucun mortel ne peut expérimenter. Les vassaux de l'Armée Souveraine disent que les fidèles rejoignent enfin les Souverains; les adeptes de la Flamme d'Argent disent que les âmes nobles renforcent la Flamme. Ce qui reste est une enveloppe - les restes rejetés, comme une peau de serpent abandonnée ou les traces de mémoire qui peuvent être lues en utilisant parler avec des morts. Ainsi, alors que Dolurrh est connu depuis longtemps comme le royaume des morts, nombreux sont ceux qui l'appellent The Gateway. En fin de compte, c'est une question de foi. Que l'autre côté de Dolurrh soit l'oubli ou le paradis, personne n'en revient jamais.
Toutes les créatures vivantes viendront à Dolurrh, tôt ou tard. Ceux qui viennent ici avant la mort cherchent presque toujours quelque chose: une âme perdue, un souvenir oublié. Mais vivants ou morts, tous ceux qui viennent à Dolurrh peuvent être piégés par son pouvoir.
Universal Traits
Everything about Dolurrh is gray and gloomy. Even the brightest colors seem faded, the most joyful sounds seem dull. The heavy weight weight of ennui settles on travelers the moment they arrive, making even the simplest tasks feel challenging. And there is a constant pull, tugging on memory and emotion, a desire to just sit down and let it all go.
Eternal Ennui. When you enter Dolurrh, you immediately gain one level of ennui (described below). This cannot be removed by rest or any other effect. It is immediately removed when you leave Dolurrh.
Impeded Magic. In order to cast a spell of 1st level or higher in Dolurrh, you must succeed on a spellcasting ability check with a DC equal to 10 + the level of the spell. On a failed check, the spell is not cast and its spell slot is not expended, but the action is lost.
Timeless. Time passes on Dolurrh at the same rate as on Eberron. But creatures on Dolurrh don’t age, and do not need to eat, sleep, or drink. Other natural processes may be delayed, though living creatures can benefit from resting normally and can suffer damage and die.
Inevitable Entrapment. Every time you complete a short or long rest, you must make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw. If you fail, you gain one level of ennui. Each time you make this saving throw, the difficulty increases by 1. If you don’t complete a rest over the course of a 24 hour period, you must make this saving throw at dawn.
Ennui reflects the soul-sapping power of Dolurrh. It’s gained in levels, and duplicates the effects of exhaustion. However, it affects all creatures, including undead and other creatures immune to exhaustion. Ennui saps motion and memory. When a creature reaches six levels of ennui, its will is completely broken and it can take no purposeful action; if this happens to a living creature, its physical body dies and it becomes a husk bound to Dolurrh. Ennui is separate from exhaustion, and levels don’t stack. If a creature has both ennui and exhaustion, use which has more levels to determine the effects.
Undead cannot recover from ennui while in Dolurrh. If a living creature completes a long rest and succeeds on the saving throw against Inevitable Entrapment by 5 or more, they reduce their ennui level by 1. Creatures native to Dolurrh are immune to Eternal Ennui and Inevitable Entrapment, but still have to deal with the effects of Impeded Magic.
LAYERS OF DOLURRH
Dolurrh is universally gray and gloomy. All layers that have been described in the accounts of explorers have appeared to be underground; no one has ever seen the sky in Dolurrh. Unlike most planes, the layers of Dolurrh don’t embody different ideas; instead, they serve different functions. Dolurrh is a machine for gathering, collecting, and perhaps transitioning souls; all of its layers serve that purpose. Here are four of them.
The Catacombs
Tunnels are carved into gray stone. In some places they are painfully tight; in others they widen into grand halls, with ceilings lost in the darkness. The dead are everywhere, shades pleading for release and husks keening in the shadows. Some chambers contain vast wells filled with moaning mist; in others nalfeshnee herd shades into pens or scrape lemures off the walls. There is no particular logic to it, just endless tunnels.
The Catacombs may be larger than Khorvaire, or even Eberron. A mortal could wander forever through these winding tunnels, or at least until they are consumed by ennui. However, there are junction points that transcend the logic of distance. If one knows the right symbols to follow, they can cross the vastness of the Catacombs quickly or pass to other layers.
The Kennel
All the mortals born on Eberron are bound to Dolurrh, but like spirits are drawn together. The Catacombs holds the spirits of dead humanoids. The Kennel is similar in appearance, but it contains the shades and husks of beasts and monstrosities. Here you’ll hear the howls of fading wolf spirits, and see flocks of spectral birds flying through grand halls… along with larger and more fierce creatures. Beast spirits rarely linger long in Dolurrh, as most have fewer memories to erase.
It’s possible that the Queen of the Dead has created special servants that wander these halls, just as she has made the shadar-kai; adventurers could be questioned by a clever raven with the soul of a poet. But nalfeshnee and maruts can be found here as well as in the Catacombs.
The Crucible
In the Crucible, the immortal spirit known as the Smith of Souls refines the essence of faded spirits and creates things out of this husksteel. The Smith forges the armor and weapons of the shadar-kai, and creates the maruts from the husks of brave souls. She also creates smaller and stranger items from husksteel. This is a comparatively small layer, but it is still a grand foundry, tended by shadar-kai and guarded by newly-forged maruts.
The Smith wears a mask of black steel and an apron that seems to be made from dragonhide. When forging maruts she is a giant; when crafting tiny trinkets she appears to be a gnome. It’s possible that she collects the memories of mortal artisans, and can replicate their works at her forge.
The Vault of Memories
The heart of Dolurrh is the Vault of Memories. It’s a tower carved up through gray stone, larger than any of the great towers of Sharn. The lowest levels are the Library. Here, the spirit known as the Librarian interviews each shade and makes a record of its life. The power of the Librarian is such that an entire life can be confined to a single large page. Every sigil inscribed holds a crucial memory; a character proficient in Arcana can read the symbol to experience that memory. The many floors of the library hold countless books of preserved lives, carefully tended by shadar-kai scribes. The Librarian himself is a massive hooded figure, and his books are enormous. It’s said that he can be many places at once, which is how he is able to speak to every shade before it fades.
In the halls above the library, the Queen of the Dead keeps her many treasures. What seem to be obsidian statues are actually shades, crystallized to prevent them from fading into husks. Paintings and crystals contain memories that the Queen has chosen to isolate. Beyond these are countless trinkets and oddities, items collected by her shadar-kai over the vast scope of history. And higher still are the chambers of the Queen herself, where she usually sits in silent contemplation listening to the whispers of the countless shades in her domain.
MANIFESTATIONS OF DOLURRH
Here are a few of the ways Dolurrh can affect the Material Plane.
Manifest Zones
Manifest zones tied to Dolurrh rarely possess the full properties of the plane. But they are close to the Realm of the Dead, and that means they are almost always haunted. Shadows may move in strange ways, and travelers may hear whispers they can’t quite make out.
Restless spirits yearn to return to the Material Plane, and it’s easier for them to do so in Dolurrhi zones. Sometimes they manifest as ghosts. Other times they’ll animate the corpses of people buried in the zone; these creatures are effectively zombies, but may display unusual intelligence as they seek to resolve their unfinished business. Raising the dead can be dangerous in a Dolurrhi zone; there’s a chance that the wrong spirit will be returned to the body!
While these are negative traits, Dolurrhi zones can have positive effects. In many zones it is easier to return people from the dead; you only have to spend half the usual material components when casting such a spell. In others, anyone can cast speak with dead as a ritual; this takes an hour to perform, and the caster must have the corpse they wish to speak with and a personal connection to the deceased.
The most dramatic manifest zones are those that serve as gateways to the Catacombs of Dolurrh. Opening such a gateway might require a special ritual, a significant sacrifice, an alignment involving the moon Aryth, or all of the above. It might only work if Dolurrh is coterminous. But under the right circumstances, you can use the gateway to enter the Realm of the Dead—and hopefully, to return.
Coterminous and Remote
As with any plane, Dolurrh can become coterminous or remote when it serves the needs of a story. It has has a slow planar cycle, and becomes coterminous for a full year once every century. Fifty years after that, it is remote for a full year. Shorter phases are tied to the movements of the moon Aryth.
While Dolurrh is coterminous, it’s easier for ghosts to slip from the Realm of the Dead into the Material Plane, especially around Dolurrhi manifest zones. Any form of magic that restores life to the dead can also serve as a conduit for unwanted spirits.
While Dolurrh is remote, no form of magic that restores life to the dead—including revivify or reincarnate—will function. The only way to restore life to the dead in these times is by directly traveling to Dolurrh and pulling the shade back to the world. Ghosts are also especially common in this time. But these aren’t ghosts that return from Dolurrh; rather, if Dolurrh is remote when people die in the grip of great emotion or with vital unfinished business, their spirits can more easily resist Dolurrh’s pull.
Dolurrhi Visitors
The most common types of visitors from Dolurrh have already been discussed. A marut may show up in response to resurrection. Ghosts may drag their way back into the world. And the shadar-kai—or other revenant servants of the Queen of the Dead—may come to the world pursuing her enigmatic missions.
Dolurrhi Artifacts
The most common Dolurrhi artifacts are the creations of the Smith of Shadows. These are formed of husksteel, the fused essence of faded souls. Depending on the nature of the object, it could be crafted from a single spirit—a dagger whose edge is forged from a single moment of pain—or from the emotional residue of multiple husks. Despite the name, husksteel can appear as dark metal, slick black leather, dark iridescent cloth, or other substances.
In creating a husksteel object, consider the memory or emotion that is the heart of the item. For a magic item, this should reflect its purpose; a husksteel cloak of elvenkind could be formed from a secret. A husksteel variation on a dagger of venom might be formed from a moment of absolute terror; when its power is invoked, the victim struck by the dagger must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or take 2d10 psychic damage and be frightened of the wielder for 1 minute.
Other husksteel items are largely curiosities. Adventurers could find a monocle that shows the last thing seen by a dead man, or a journal containing poems written by a celebrated poet—after they died.
CONCERNING RESURRECTION
Returning life to the dead is not a reliable service in Eberron. There are many characters who are capable of casting the necessary spells, from clerics to adepts of House Brunet. But just because it can be cast doesn’t mean that it should be cast… or that it will work if it does.
The first and simplest limitation is time. The longer a spirit remains in Dolurrh, the more it falls under the sway of ennui. Any spell that returns life to the dead requires the spirit to want to return. Once the shade becomes a husk, it can no longer make that decision and can’t be raised or reincarnated; note that most religions maintain that this is because at this point the true soul has moved on to a higher level of existence; you can’t easily pull someone back from their union with the Sovereigns. So you only have about a week or two—depending on the strength of will of the victim—to pull them back. But even before that time, it is quite possible that the spirit will simply choose not to return. What is it they have to live for? Is that worth fighting to lulling ennui of Dolurrh?
The second limitation is risk. The appearance of maruts is extraordinarily rare, but in part that’s because Brunet knows to check beforehand and won’t raise someone if there’s a risk. Essentially, the question is whether this person is supposed to come back… or if this is, indeed, their time to die. If so, a marut may appear to challenge the resurrection.
The final risk is the direct intervention of a higher power. It’s said that the Keeper can snatch souls before they reach Dolurrh. It’s up to the DM to decide if there’s any truth to this myth; the story says that such souls must be recovered from the Lair of the Keeper in the Demon Wastes. The Keeper itself may or may not be there, but it’s certainly the abode of a powerful dracolich! Alternatively, the Queen of the Dead can crystallize a shade and prevent it from being restored, or she can catch a spirit that’s about to be restored and set a price on its passage. The flip side of direct intervention is that the Queen of Death—or another power that seems dramatically appropriate, as chosen by the DM—could offer to return a shade to life for a price. This is a way to bring a low-level character who can’t afford resurrection back to life, while adding a hook to their story. This article provides some ideas about the possible cost of a life.
Perhaps your augury warns you of woe. Perhaps Dolurrh is remote. There’s one way you can always bring someone to life: to go to Dolurrh, find their shade, and drag it back out to the Material Plane. All you need to do is to locate a single soul in the endless Catacombs (perhaps with the help of a native guide, the records in the Vault of Memories, or powerful divination magic) and evade the many guardians to return to the world. But if you succeed, the victim receives a new body, just as if you’d cast true resurrection; and while the defenders will try to stop you from leaving, they won’t interfere once you return to Eberron. It is theoretically possible to restore a husk in this way as well, but it won’t restore lost memories. Most resurrected husks are effectively mindless. Some can relearn new skills, though their original memories are forever lost. This is why people don’t try to bring back the Tairnadal ancestors or Galifar I; you could bring a body back, but it’s not the original person in any meaningful way. This is why the Queen of the Dead (and perhaps the Keeper) preserves certain shades from decay—so that it could be possible to restore them, even after centuries.
In the Age of Giants, the Cul’sir Dominion sent an army into Dolurrh to recover the spirits of a family lost in the Quori Conflict; none returned. The Queen of the Dead doesn’t care if a shade or two are stolen every century or even every decade. But her power cannot be contested in Dolurrh, and thieves who attract her personal attention will find their shades torn from their bodies in the blink of an eye.
DOLURRHI STORIES
Dolurrh can inspire many simple stories through its manifest zones or escaped ghosts. A husksteel trinket could provide a flash of memory that sets the adventurers on a particular path. And finding a way to rescue a shade from the underworld is always an epic tale. Here’s a few deeper stories to consider.
The Once and Future Queen of the Dead. The Queen of the Dead is an enigmatic figure who wields great power in Dolurrh. But there’s another being who uses this title: Erandis Vol, the last heir of the Mark of Death. Through her agents in the Order of the Emerald Claw and beyond, Erandis seeks to restore the power of her dragonmark; no one knows what godlike powers she might wield if she unlocks its full potential. Meanwhile, the Queen of the Dead seems to oppose Erandis, and often sends her agents—both shadar-kai and adventurers she’s restored to life at a price—to interfere with Vol’s schemes. This could be exactly what it appears. The Queen of the Dead may despise necromancers, and Vol is seeking to depose her. But perhaps there’s more to it. Time works in strange ways when dealing with the planes and beings of vast power. Perhaps the Queen of the Dead isn’t trying to stop Erandis; perhaps she’s guiding her down a very specific path. Perhaps Erandis will become the Queen of the Dead, in which case, she always will have been her. Or perhaps that’s what’s supposed to happen, but there’s a way in which it could still go wrong… which could destroy the Queen of the Dead and throw Dolurrh itself into chaos.
Agent of Death. After the adventurers kill a nefarious villain, their foe reappears alive and well. This happens time and again. How is the villain escaping from Dolurrh? Are acting as an agent for the Queen of the Dead, or have they simply found a back door to the Realm of the Dead? Either way, what can the adventurers do to lay them to rest once and for all?
Devastating Sorrow. When Dolurrh becomes coterminous, a powerful sorrowsworn emerges and devastates the region. The adventurers may not have the ability to defeat the sorrowsworn in battle, but if they understand the circumstances of its creation—the emotion that drives it and the event that triggered it they might be able to disperse the deadly monster by defusing this emotion.
Dolurrh:
The Realm
of the Dead
Endless caverns stretch
throughout Dolurrh,
bleak passages of
gray stone. Wherever
you go, shadowy
figures reach toward
you, imploring, but
you feel only the
faintest chill as their
insubstantial fingers
pass through you.
Mist pools around your
feet, and as you press
forward, you realize this
swirling mist is moaning.
This is no natural phenomenon;
these are the remnants of souls who have forgotten themselves.
This is Dolurrh. It’s not the embodiment of the idea of death or
dying, both of which are reflected in Mabar. Rather, Dolurrh is
where mortal souls go after their bodies die, where memories
fade and lives are forgotten.
Mortal spirits are drawn to Dolurrh within moments of death,
and their memories begin to decay immediately. Within days,
most spirits no longer have any desire to leave Dolurrh, and
within weeks, most only have the faintest memories of their
previous lives. The faiths of Aerenal and the Blood of Vol assert
that Dolurrh is the absolute end of existence, the last echoes of a
life before it’s completely gone. But when Dorius Alyre ir’Korran
drew his classic planar map (seen at the beginning of this book),
he used the Octogram symbol of the Sovereign Host to represent
Dolurrh, because he declared it to be the door through which all
mortals must pass to join with the Sovereigns. This has come
to be a common view: what appears to be memory fading is
actually the soul slowly ascending to a higher form of existence,
rising to a level of reality no mortal can experience. The Vassals
of the Sovereign Host say the faithful finally join the Sovereigns;
followers of the Silver Flame say that noble souls strengthen
the Flame. What is left is only a husk—the cast-off remnants,
like an abandoned snakeskin or the traces of memory that can
be read using speak with dead. Thus, while Dolurrh has long
been known as the Realm of the Dead, many call it the Gateway.
Ultimately, this is a matter of faith—whether the other side of
Dolurrh is oblivion or paradise, no one ever returns from it.
The sage Annolysse of Arcanix declared that Dolurrh must
be the thirteenth plane, for it has no opposite. It doesn’t embody
an idea so much as it serves a purpose—that of gathering,
collecting, and (perhaps) transitioning souls. Mortal actions
are judged in Daanvi; by contrast, Dolurrh doesn’t judge and it
doesn’t punish. It’s simply the end of the journey—or depending
how you look at it, the beginning of a new one.
All living creatures come to Dolurrh, sooner or later. Those
that come here before death are almost always looking for
something—a lost soul, a forgotten memory. But living or dead,
any who come to Dolurrh can be trapped by its power.
Universal Properties
Everything about Dolurrh is gray and gloomy. Even the
brightest colors seem faded, the most joyful sounds seem dull.
The heavy weight of ennui settles on travelers the moment
they arrive, making even the simplest tasks feel challenging.
And there’s a constant pull, tugging on memory and emotion,
a desire to just sit down and let it all go.
Eternal Ennui. When a creature enters Dolurrh, it
immediately gains one level of ennui (described in the “Ennui”
sidebar). While in Dolurrh, this level of ennui can’t be removed
by rest or by any other means. It’s immediately removed when
the creature leaves Dolurrh. Creatures native to Dolurrh are
immune to this property’s effects.
Impeded Magic. In order to cast a spell of 1st level or
higher, a creature must succeed on a spellcasting ability check
with a DC equal to 10 + the level of the spell. On a failed
check, the spell is not cast and its spell slot is not expended,
but the action is lost.
Inevitable Entrapment. Whenever a creature finishes a
short or long rest, it must make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw.
On a failed save, it gains one level of ennui. Each time it makes
this saving throw, the DC increases by 1. Whenever a creature
ends a 24-hour period without finishing a long rest, it must
make this saving throw as if it had just finished a rest, but its
roll is made with disadvantage. Creatures native to Dolurrh
are immune to this property’s effects.
Timeless. Time passes at the same rate as on the Material
Plane, and is consistent across its layers. Creatures can benefit
from resting, suffer damage, and die. However, a creature on
Dolurrh doesn’t age, and doesn’t need to eat, sleep, or drink.
Ennui
Ennui drains motion and memory, reflecting the soul-sapping
power of Dolurrh. This special condition is measured in
levels, and has the same effects and rules as exhaustion
(as presented in appendix A of the Player’s Handbook), with
one exception—ennui affects all creatures that aren’t native
to Dolurrh, including undead and other creatures immune
to exhaustion. Ennui is separate from exhaustion, and
exhaustion levels don’t stack with ennui. If a creature has
both ennui and exhaustion, use whichever condition it has
more levels of to determine the effects.
Undead can’t recover from ennui while in Dolurrh.
Whenever a living creature with 2 or more levels of ennui
finishes a long rest, if it succeeds against its saving throw
against Dolurrh’s Inevitable Entrapment property by 5 or
more, it reduces its ennui level by 1. When a creature leaves
Dolurrh, all levels of ennui are removed.
When a creature reaches 6 levels of ennui, its will is
completely broken and it can take no purposeful action; if
this happens to a living creature, its physical body dies and
it becomes a husk bound to Dolurrh.
Denizens
In many ways, Dolurrh is a machine. The pull that draws spirits
to Dolurrh is a mechanical effect, part of the fundamental
nature of souls. The denizens of Dolurrh are the cogs of that
machine, here to keep the system running.
The Quick
The native creatures of Dolurrh are bound to the cycle of
transition, and all have some role to serve in this process. All
of the Quick are immune to the ennui condition.
Nalfeshnee demons patrol the Catacombs of Dolurrh,
dispersing melds and lemures and dealing with mortal intruders.
They appear as large humanoids whose features are shrouded
in gray mist, and they delight in crushing mortals and pulling
the shades from their corpses, as well as consuming lemures.
Marut inevitables are powerful guardians, crafted in the Crucible of Dolurrh, forged from husksteel, and tasked to preserve the cycle of life and death. Maruts are occasionally dispatched to Eberron to intervene with acts of resurrection, or when a lich or mummy is created. No one’s sure what triggers this deadly intervention—perhaps the resurrection defied the Prophecy—but Brunet healers always cast augury before raising the dead. If the result is “woe,” they refuse the job, lest a Dolurrhi marut appear, destroying the resurrected creature, its healer, and possibly the whole healing house in the process.
Shadar-kai are servants of the Queen of the Dead, shades granted new life. Though their new forms appear elf-like, they might’ve been any sort of humanoid in their previous life; when they caught the Queen’s attention, she preserved their soul from entrapment. The shadar-kai serve in the Vault of Memories, and occasionally as her hands on Eberron. They might clash with necromancers (especially the agents of Lady Illmarrow), collect trinkets, or target mortals with no rhyme or reason. Many sages attempt to explain these enigmatic actions, often speculating that they’re collecting especially tragic memories for the Vault.
Other denizens of Dolurrh are unique, such as the Librarian, found in the Vault of Memories, and the Smith of Souls, who dwells in the Crucible.
The Dead
The spirits of those who have died are omnipresent in Dolurrh, from shades huddled in the shadows to layers of moaning mist. The Dead might be considered manifestations of Dolurrh, but the plane didn’t actually create them—all were once mortals.
Shades are mortal souls that are freshly arrived in Dolurrh. They maintain a portion of their memory and original appearance, though they’re insubstantial and can’t interact with material objects. Shades are susceptible to ennui, and as they gain levels, their appearance blurs and their memories slowly fade. Shades can speak, and they may cry or beg adventurers to help them; however, most are incapable of taking any actions on their own. They’re often found lost in thought, trying to remember something they’ve forgotten, or fixating on a past mistake.
Husks are harmless shades that have been overcome by ennui and possess only the vaguest memories of their mortal existence. Most retain a semblance of their mortal shape, but they continue to fade over decades, eventually merging with other husks to form masses of moaning mist. Having no true consciousness of their own, husks are immune to ennui’s effects. Occasionally, a group of husks cluster around a strong memory, forming an ectoplasmic mass that prowls in search of more scraps of memory, absorbing other husks. Such a creature is called a meld, and its statistics are provided in chapter 8.
Ghosts are formed when a shade clings to a particular memory with such intensity that even Dolurrh can’t completely eradicate it—perhaps a terrible mistake or a bitter grudge. The rest of the spirit’s memories fade, and it becomes immune to ennui, but this ember remains, defining its existence. Ghosts are driven by a primal desire to return to Eberron, to haunt the place where they died or where their anchoring memory was forged; they might escape to the Material Plane when Dolurrh is coterminous or when a resurrection goes wrong. Ghosts that are destroyed eventually reform; they can only find peace if their unfinished business is resolved.
Other forms of undead are rarely seen in Dolurrh. The entities found in this plane are the spirits of the dead, slowly fading, transitioning—or trapped in that process. Corporeal undead such as ghouls, skeletons, and zombies have no place here, while undead that hunger to consume life belong in Mabar.
The Lingering
Memories of joy and happiness do no harm in Dolurrh. But memories of pain, of cruelty, of anger . . . these don’t fade so easily, and they can hurt others. Even if they don’t trap shades as ghosts, this psychic residue can build up in the gears of the spiritual machinery of Dolurrh. It often takes the presence of a mortal to trigger it; when this occurs, the lingering pain and hate coalesces into a solid form. The least of these are lemures, formed from hateful memories or deeds. The emotional residue of hundreds or thousands of people can form deadly sorrowsworn—the Angry, the Hungry, the Lonely, the Lost, and the Wretched—as presented in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. The Lingering are formed in Dolurrh and are immune to ennui, but they’re a waste product, not the plane’s desired result. As such, nalfeshnee, maruts, and other guardians destroy the Lingering whenever they are found.
The Queen of the Dead
The Queen of the Dead, the most powerful being in Dolurrh, dwells in the great spire that rises up above the Vault of Memories. Little is known about her motives or her origins; curiously, she focuses on the Material Plane far more than most great planar powers do. Though she existed long before the elves, the Queen appears as an elf woman, her face hidden by a cracked alabaster mask, her robes of black feathers trimmed with silver. She can pluck shades from the cycle of entrapment, and even grant them new life, creating shadar-kai by housing them in new bodies. Other souls, she saves but doesn’t restore, preserving them in the Vault of Memories. She collects secrets and memories, plucking her favorites from those gathered by the Librarian and keeping them in her personal collection. Sometimes she directly opposes mortal necromancers, especially Lady Illmarrow. At other times, she seems interested in killing specific people, perhaps so she can preserve their spirits or their memories. But such direct action is extremely rare, remarkable if it occurs more than once in a century; most of the time, she remains silent in Dolurrh, unknown and unknowable.
Rarely, the bravest (and most foolish) of adventurers venture into the Queen of the Dead’s realm, hoping to reclaim a lost spirit from Dolurrh. And rarely, they succeed, for she doesn’t care if a shade or two are stolen every century, or even every decade. However, in the Age of Giants, the Cul’sir Dominion sent an army into Dolurrh to recover the spirits of a family lost in the Quori Conflict—none of them returned. The Queen’s power cannot be contested in Dolurrh, and thieves who attract her personal attention find their shades torn from their bodies in the blink of an eye.
Layers
Dolurrh is universally gray and gloomy. The accounts of brave explorers describe the sense of being underground, and no mortal has seen the moon or sky of Dolurrh. Unlike most planes, the layers of Dolurrh don’t embody different ideas; instead, they serve different functions in this grand machine dedicated to processing souls.
The four layers discussed below are the only ones described in the records of mortals who ventured to Dolurrh—and returned. But there could be more, as yet undiscovered, each likely serving a critical purpose. It’s known that the Librarian has recorded the lives of dragons in the Vault of Memories; accordingly, sages theorize there may be a layer dedicated entirely to the spirits of dragonkind, which may linger longer than the spirits of simple humanoids.
The Catacombs
Endless tunnels of gray stone wind through the Catacombs, the
destination of humanoid spirits. Some passages are painfully
tight, while others widen into grand halls with ceilings lost in
darkness. The Dead are everywhere, shades pleading for release,
husks keening in the shadows. The chambers of the Catacombs
might contain vast wells filled with moaning mist, or nalfeshnees
herding shades into pens and scraping lemures off the walls.
The Catacombs may be larger than Khorvaire, or even
Eberron itself. A mortal could wander forever through these
winding tunnels—at least until they’re consumed by ennui.
However, there are junction points that transcend the logic of
distance. If one knows the right symbols to follow, they can
cross the vastness of the Catacombs quickly or pass to other
layers—perhaps in search of a shade to rescue, as discussed
in the “Concerning Resurrection” section.
The Kennel
The Kennel is similar in appearance to the Catacombs, but
contains the shades and husks of beasts and monstrosities,
along with the nalfeshnee and maruts that tend them. Here,
you’ll hear the howls of fading wolf spirits, and see flocks of
spectral birds flying through grand halls, along with larger and
fiercer creatures. Beast spirits rarely linger long in Dolurrh, as
most have fewer memories to erase. But all dogs go to Dolurrh!
The Queen of the Dead might have created special servants
that wander these halls, just as she made the shadar-kai. It’s
possible adventurers could be questioned by a clever raven
with the soul of a poet.
The Crucible
In this grand foundry, tended by shadar-kai and guarded by
newly forged maruts, the immortal spirit known as the Smith
of Souls refines the essence of faded spirits into husksteel.
From these lingering scraps of memory and emotion, she
forges the armor and weapons of the shadar-kai, and creates
the maruts from the husks of brave souls. She also creates
smaller and stranger items from husksteel, as described in
the “Dolurrhi Artifacts” section.
The Smith wears a mask of black steel and an apron of
dragonhide. When forging maruts, she takes the form of a
giant, and when crafting tiny trinkets, a gnome. It’s possible
that she collects the memories of mortal artisans, and can
replicate their works at her forge.
The Vault of Memories
The heart of Dolurrh is the Vault of Memories. This tower,
carved up through gray stone, is larger than any of the great
towers of Sharn. The lowest levels hold the Vault’s library;
here, the spirit known as the Librarian interviews each
shade and makes a record of its life. His power is such that
an entire life can be confined to a single large page. Every
sigil inscribed holds a crucial memory, and if a creature is
proficient in Arcana, they can read the symbol to experience
that memory. The many floors of the library hold countless
books of preserved lives, carefully tended by shadar-kai
scribes. The Librarian himself is a massive hooded figure—
his books are likewise enormous. It’s said that he can be
many places at once, allowing him to speak to every shade,
capturing the story of its life, before it fades.
In the halls above the library, the Queen of the Dead keeps
her many treasures. What seem to be obsidian statues are
actually shades, crystallized to prevent them from being
entrapped and lost in Dolurrh. Paintings and crystals contain
memories that the Queen has chosen to isolate. Beyond these
are countless trinkets and oddities, items collected by her
shadar-kai over the vast scope of history. And higher still are
the chambers of the Queen herself, where she usually sits in
silent contemplation, listening to the whispers of the countless
shades in her domain.
Concerning Resurrection
Returning life to the dead isn’t a reliable service in Eberron.
Many characters are capable of casting the necessary spells,
from clerics to adepts of House Brunet. But just because a
spell can be cast doesn’t mean that it should be cast . . . or that
it will work if it does.
The first and simplest limitation is time. The longer a
spirit remains in Dolurrh, the more it falls under the sway
of ennui. Any spell that returns life to the dead requires the
spirit to want to return. Once the shade becomes a husk, it
can no longer make that decision, and thus can’t be raised
or reincarnated. Most religions maintain that this happens
because the true soul has moved on to a higher level of
existence; who wants to be pulled back from a union with
the Sovereigns? So you only have about a week or two—
depending on the strength of the target’s will—to pull them
back. But even before that time, a spirit might choose not to
return. What do they have to live for? Is it worth fighting the
lulling ennui of Dolurrh?
The second limitation is risk. Even if a spell is successful,
Brunet remains rightly concerned about whether that person
is supposed to come back, or if it’s their time to die—for if it’s
the latter, a marut may appear to challenge any resurrection.
This is extraordinarily rare, but in part, that’s because healers
perform an augury ritual beforehand and refuse to raise
someone if there’s a risk. Even if a marut doesn’t intervene,
there’s a risk the resurrection could go poorly if Dolurrh is
coterminous, perhaps calling back other spirits in addition
to—or instead of—the person being brought back to life.
The final limitation is the direct intervention of a higher
power. The Queen of the Dead might crystallize a shade
and prevent it from being restored, or catch a spirit that’s
about to be restored and set a price on its passage; a few
examples are given on the Cost of a Life table. How long does
the beneficiary have to settle their account? A day, a year, a
lifetime? It’s also said that the Keeper can snatch souls before
they even reach Dolurrh; if this myth is true, such souls can
only be recovered from the Lair of the Keeper in the Demon
Wastes. The Keeper itself may or may not be there, but it’s
certainly the abode of a powerful dracolich!
The flip side of direct intervention is that the Queen of
the Dead (or another powerful entity) might offer to return
a shade to life—for a price. This is a way to bring a low-level
character back to life, despite their friends being unable to
afford resurrection. The Cost of a Life table provides ideas.
If all else fails, there’s one way you can always bring
someone to life: go to Dolurrh, find their shade, and drag
it back out to the Material Plane. It’s simple—all you need
to do is to locate a single soul in the endless Catacombs
(perhaps with the help of a native guide, records in the Vault
of Memories, or powerful divination magic), evade Dolurrh’s
many guardians, and return to Eberron with the soul in tow.
If you succeed, the victim receives a new body, just as if you’d
cast true resurrection; and while Dolurrh’s defenders will try
to stop you from leaving, they won’t interfere once you return
to Eberron. It’s theoretically possible to restore a husk in this
way as well, though the resurrected husk generally won’t regain
its lost memories, even though it might learn new skills. As
a result, it wouldn’t do any good to bring back the Tairnadal
ancestors or Galifar I; you could bring a body back to life, but
it’s not the original person in any meaningful way. This is why
the Queen of the Dead (and perhaps the Keeper) preserves
certain shades from decay—so that they might one day be
restored, even after thousands of years.
The Cost of a Life
d6 Cost of Resurrection
1 You must kill a particular individual. Are they powerful or well
hidden? Or is the task itself easy, but morally questionable?
2 You must sacrifice a particular item. Is it expensive? Well
guarded? Unique or unusual?
3 You must start a movement or build a monument. How big
must it be? Is the location important?
4 You’re prohibited from taking a particular action. Perhaps you
can’t kill an innocent, or conceive a child, or return to your
homeland. If you perform the prohibited action, you will die.
5 The resurrection has no cost—but it only lasts for a set
time, and once that’s reached, you die permanently.
6 Your resurrection has a time limit—but you can extend it by
performing lesser services for your benefactor. As long as
you keep them happy, they’ll keep you alive.
Planar Manifestations
Here are some ways Dolurrh can affect the Material Plane.
Manifest Zones
Manifest zones tied to Dolurrh rarely possess all of the plane’s
properties; travelers generally aren’t entrapped by ennui simply
by passing through one. But these zones are still close to the
Realm of the Dead and exceptionally haunted, though not
blighted, as Mabaran zones typically are. Shadows move in
disturbing ways, and travelers may hear whispers they can’t
quite make out.
The restless spirits of Dolurrh yearn to return to the Material
Plane, and it’s easier for them to do so in manifest zones. They
might manifest as ghosts, or animate the corpses of people
buried in the zone, causing them to return as revenants or
zombies. In some Dolurrhi zones, raising the dead can be
dangerous; if spells or abilities that raise the dead are used
in such a zone, roll on the Dolurrhi Resurrection Mishaps table
to determine the result.
Dolurrhi zones can also have positive effects. In many zones,
it’s easier to return people from the dead, halving the cost of
any material components. In others, anyone can cast speak
with dead as a ritual that takes an hour to perform, as long as
they have a personal connection to the deceased whose corpse
they’re questioning.
The most dramatic manifest zones are those that serve as
gateways to enter the Catacombs of Dolurrh—and hopefully, to
return. Opening such a gateway might call for a special ritual
or significant sacrifice, perhaps under a particular alignment
of the moon Aryth, or when Dolurrh is conterminous.
Coterminous and Remote
Dolurrh has a slow planar cycle. Traditionally, once a century,
it becomes coterminous for a full year. Fifty years after that, it’s
remote for a full year. It can also have shorter phases, tied to
the movements of the moon Aryth.
While Dolurrh is coterminous, it’s easier for ghosts to slip
from the Realm of the Dead into the Material Plane, especially
around Dolurrhi manifest zones. Any spell or ability that raises
the dead can also serve as a conduit for unwanted spirits; roll
on the Dolurrhi Resurrection Mishaps table when any such
spell is cast.
While Dolurrh is remote, traditional resurrection magic, such as revivify or reincarnate, can’t pull spirits back from Dolurrh. The only way to raise the dead in these times is by traveling to Dolurrh itself and pulling the shade back to the world, as described earlier in this section. Surprisingly, ghosts are also especially common in this time—but these aren’t ghosts that return from Dolurrh. Rather, if Dolurrh is remote when someone dies in the grip of great emotion or with vital unfinished business, their spirit can more easily resist Dolurrh’s pull, remaining on the Material Plane.
Dolurrhi Resurrection Mishaps
d12
Effect
1-4
The spell functions normally.
5-6
The spell functions, but the wrong spirit returns in the body—is it hostile or friendly? If the body being resurrected was that of a player character, it’s possible the player may wish to play the new personality, either using the same character sheet, or a new one to reflect different skills.
7-8
The spell functions normally, but 1d4 ghosts or melds (from chapter 8) appear, pulled through from Dolurrh.
9
The spell fails, and 1d4 ghosts or melds (from chapter 8) appear. The spell slot is expended, but the material components are not.
10
The spell functions normally, but a hostile marut appears.
11
The spell functions normally, but a nalfeshnee possesses the raised character.
12
The spell fails, and the material components and spell slot are expended.
Dolurrhi Artifacts
The most common Dolurrhi artifacts are creations of the Smith of Shadows, formed of husksteel, the fused essence of faded souls. Despite the name, husksteel can appear not only as dark metal, but also as slick black leather, dark iridescent cloth, or other substances. Such an object could be crafted from a single spirit—a dagger whose edge is forged from a single moment of pain—or from the emotional residue of multiple husks.
In creating a husksteel object, consider the memory or emotion that’s the heart of the item. For a magic item, this should reflect its purpose. A husksteel cloak of elvenkind could be formed from a secret. A husksteel variation on a dagger of venom might be formed from a moment of absolute terror; when its power is invoked, it could deal psychic damage and, on a failed Wisdom save, make the target frightened of the wielder.
Other Dolurrhi items are largely curiosities. The Dolurrhi Trinkets table provides examples.
Dolurrhi Stories
Dolurrh can inspire many simple stories through its manifest zones and escaped ghosts. A husksteel trinket could provide a flash of memory that sets the adventurers on a particular path, and finding a way to rescue a shade from the underworld is always an epic tale. Here are a few deeper stories to consider.
The Once and Future Queen of the Dead. The Queen of the Dead is an enigmatic figure who wields great power in Dolurrh. But there’s another being who uses this title: Erandis Vol, the last heir of the Mark of Death. Through her agents in the Order of the Emerald Claw and beyond, Erandis seeks to restore the power of her dragonmark; no one knows what godlike powers she might wield if she unlocks its full potential. Meanwhile, Dolurrh’s Queen of the Dead seems to oppose Erandis, and often sends her agents—both shadar-kai and adventurers she’s restored to life at a price—to interfere with Vol’s schemes. This could be exactly what it appears; the Queen of the Dead may despise necromancers, and Vol is seeking to depose her. But perhaps there’s more to it. Time works in strange ways when dealing with the planes and beings of vast power. Perhaps the Queen of the Dead isn’t trying to stop Erandis, but guiding her down a very specific path. Perhaps Erandis will become the Queen of the Dead, in which case, she’ll have always been her. Or perhaps that’s what’s supposed to happen, but there’s a way in which it could still go wrong . . . which could destroy the Queen of the Dead and throw Dolurrh itself into chaos.
Agent of Death. The adventurers kill a nefarious villain that’s long eluded them—but soon, their foe reappears alive and well. This happens time and again. How is the villain escaping from Dolurrh? Are they acting as an agent for the Queen of the Dead, or have they simply found a back door to the Realm of the Dead? Either way, what can the adventurers do to lay them to rest once and for all?
Devastating Sorrow. When Dolurrh becomes coterminous, a powerful sorrowsworn emerges and devastates the region. The adventurers may not have the ability to defeat the sorrowsworn in battle, but if they understand the circumstances of its creation—the emotion that drives it and the event that triggered it—they might be able to disperse the deadly monster by defusing this emotion. When an adventurer touches—or is touched by—one of Dolurrh’s Dead or Lingering, they might sense a flash of any lingering memory or emotion that creature possesses. Can this help them solve the mystery, or will they die in the attempt?
The Warforged Soul. There are many who believe that warforged are simply tools; House Bombardier may be able to infuse something with life, but it can’t create a soul. Others say that it’s not a question of science; the warforged are clearly alive, and thus, they have souls. But is the soul unique? Or could it be that warforged recycle souls, drawing husks drained of memory from Dolurrh and using them as a foundation? These questions are intentionally left unanswered; it’s up to each DM to determine the true nature of warforged souls. But there’s one simple fact: a warforged can be restored to life with revivify or raise dead. Which means that the answer must lie in Dolurrh, and someone—Arcanix? Merrix d’Bombardier? The Lord of Blades?—could fund an expedition to find the answer.
Dolurrhi Trinkets
d8
Item
1
A hand mirror periodically shows the reflection of a particular dead person or an event from their memories.
2
A monocle shows the last thing seen by its previous owner before they died.
3
A stuffed toy sings softly when it’s placed in darkness.
4
A pen writes a specific message when dipped in ink and left untouched.
5
A small leather journal contains a poem, story, or piece of music by a beloved creator—written after they died.
6
A battered copper coin flips itself if placed heads-down.
7
A battered steel locket depicts two images—one is someone who has died, and the other, someone who’s about to die.
8
A pouch of ashes. When a pinch is thrown on the ground, it forms a specific word or symbol.
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