Lords of Dust

Source: Eberron Campaign GUide

The true powers behind the Lords of Dust are the thirty overlords of the Age of Demons. Every agent of the organization owes fealty to one of these fiends, although some mortals don’t realize the power they truly serve.

Although the overlords are the true powers behind the schemes of the Lords of Dust, most are trapped in mystic bonds. Each overlord has an exarch that serves as its eyes and voice, directing its followers. Each exarch can perform the Consult Oracle ritual to speak with its overlord and can move between its strongholds using magic similar to the Linked Portal ritual.

Each cell is controlled by a fiendish agent (typically a rakshasa) known as a Fang of Khyber. Each Fang oversees a network of mortal pawns. Thanks to their shapeshifting powers, rakshasas can temporarily assume the role of any Fang or pawn. So the bandit leader who is human one day could be a rakshasa the next—as long as the change in form serves the needs of the exarch and its dark master.

The Lords of Dust are not a monolithic organization. Rather, they are an alliance of cabals, with each member serving its personal overlord. The Bleak Congress seeks to prevent accidental conflict between the lords, but their goals don’t always intersect. A few exarchs have even turned against their overlords, seeking to claim the power of the demon princes for their own.

The fiendish members of the Lords of Dust trace their allegiance back to the dawn of time. For most, their loyalty is ingrained into their consciousness. Even though rakshasas and demons can be killed, they eventually reincarnate with most of their memories and personality intact. As such, most of the Lords of Dust have personal memories of the glorious days of the Age of Demons and wish to see their overlords returned to power.

The mortal pawns of the Lords of Dust serve for any number of reasons. Some have no idea of the true nature of the beings that they serve; they simply value the gold or the ancient lore promised by the demons. Others have served the Lords of Dust for generations, having been raised to worship an overlord as a deity. The rakshasas are master deceivers and have been planting seeds across the world since the Age of Demons; they have loyal pawns in places people would never expect.

Every follower of the Silver Flame has heard the tale of the Serpent and the Demon. In 299 YK, a terrible force was unleashed in Thrane, and all manner of fiends flocked from the shadows to venerate this dark lord. However, before the mighty demon could completely free itself from its bonds, the paladin Tira Miron appeared, accompanied by a feathered serpent with rainbow plumage. The mighty fiend, as it turned out, could not be slain. The best that could be hoped was to put it in secure bonds again, and this Tira did at the cost of her own life. Through her sacrifice, humanity learned of the Silver Flame—the force that has held the fiend lords at bay since the most ancient of days.

Few people know the full history of these demons, however. In the first age, Khyber gave birth to a host of fiends. The rakshasas were the least of these, while the mightiest were demon lords with unique powers and abilities that made them like gods. These archfiends ruled over the lesser spirits and became known as the rakshasa rajahs. In time, a combined force of dragons and couatls defeated these demons, with the mightiest among them bound by the Silver Flame. The weaker spirits slipped through the net, however. Immortal and cunning, they have had tens of thousands of years to plot and scheme. Some seek to free their ancient masters from imprisonment (this was how the fiend lord held beneath the Tamor Hills in Thrane escaped his bonds). Others seek to seize the power of the imprisoned rajahs for their own. Finally, some simply take pleasure in spreading chaos and pain, playing with mortal civilizations like a child plays with dolls. These are the Lords of Dust.

The Lords of Dust are cunning shapeshifters, and their plans (often unfolding over centuries) are difficult for mortals to fathom. The best advice one can take when dealing with the Lords of Dust is to be wary and trust nothing: These ancient fiends favor illusion and deception above all.

It is particularly difficult to determine whether the Lords of Dust are involved in a given intrigue or adventure, since their motivations are so obscure and their methods so subtle. However, if ancient and powerful magic is involved, if your enemies seem utterly ruthless or wildly chaotic, or if you find yourself lost in an endlessly tangled web of subterfuge, you might be dealing with the Lords of Dust.

Chapter 7 Demon Wastes

This cabal of rakshasas and other fiends originated in the Demon Wastes and secretly spreads its influence across the length and breadth of Khorvaire. In the Demon Wastes, however, the fiends don’t have to hide their true nature. For this reason, no matter how far they wander to manipulate the populace and hatch their complex plots, they return home at intervals to revel in their fiendish glory. The Lords of Dust are few in number, but their effective immortality makes them as powerful as it does unfathomable. These fiends serve the causes of chaos and destruction, seeking to set in motion slowly unfolding plans that will eventually lead to the collapse of order and virtue.

Some members of the Lords of Dust never venture beyond the Demon Wastes, content to play cruel games with the barbarian tribes who worship them. When not engaged in such sport, these rakshasas and other fiends seek to find ways to release their ancient demonic masters who were long ago trapped beneath the broken land. Others among the Lords of Dust look to the trapped fiends as sources of power, content to let their masters remain imprisoned as long as they can draw energy with which to make themselves more formidable.

A faction within this ancient order is made up of Lords of Dust who travel the world, opposing the dragons of the Chamber and working to promote chaos among the nations of the common races.

Chapter 8

The Lords of Dust, a chaotic evil cabal of rakshasas and other fiends, have been playing games with the common races for thousands of years. They hide in the shadows of Khorvaire, plotting to free their ancient masters from the depths of Khyber, scheming to use them to gain greater power, or spreading pain and suffering among the common races. The group has bases of operation in the Demon Wastes and Aundair, among other places. The cabal uses a stylized silhouette of a broken tower to identify its members.

The Lords of Dust have little interest in complex hierarchies. The most powerful fiends occasionally gather in the ancient capital of the rakshasas to discuss their current schemes and goals, but they have no leader. Membership is earned and kept through cunning and personal power. The organization also includes a host of weaker fiends, lesser rakshasas and other demons content to serve the scheming lords. The Lords of Dust are immortal, and their motivations are difficult for creatures of fl esh and blood to understand. Sometimes their actions serve a clear purpose; other times they seek to cause chaos for its own sake, toying with the common races like pawns on a chessboard. These games can continue for centuries. It is entirely possible that the destruction of Xen’drik and the collapse of Galifar were ultimately engineered by members of the Lords of Dust—fiends subtly unraveling the threads of civilization to watch the suffering and pain as societies collapse.

The most cunning and clever fiends always search for ways to increase their own power. Some seek to release the rajahs they once served. Others explore ways to drain power from their former masters to exploit as their own.

The Lords of Dust are masters of deception, and they rarely deal openly with mortals. Rakshasas can read the thoughts of others and shift their shape to mimic any humanoid form, and they have infiltrated many governments, guilds, and other organizations. Even other schemers, such as the Aurum or the Cults of the Dragon Below, have been compromised by the Lords of Dust. But the plans of the fiends can take decades or centuries to unfold, and a rakshasa infiltrator may spend an entire human lifetime waiting for the right moment to make its move. So, almost any organization can be tricked into serving the Lords of Dust, at least temporarily. The one force that knowingly serves the rakshasas is the barbarian tribes of the Demon Wastes.

Two powerful forces oppose the Lords of Dust: the dragons of Argonnessen and their agents in the Chamber, and the Church of the Silver Flame. The dragons helped to defeat the rajahs in the Age of Demons, and many among the Lords of Dust still yearn for vengeance. Whenever the Lords of Dust manage to identify one of the goals of the Chamber, they will seek to oppose it; in turn, the dragons do their best to expose or destroy rakshasa infiltrators and to prevent the release of their imprisoned masters.

The knights templar of the Silver Flame serve the same power that holds the rajahs beneath the earth, and they are relentless in their pursuit of this ancient evil. Mortal fl esh can be weak, however, and members of the Church of the Silver Flame can be fooled, bribed, or corrupted by the powerful fiends. The Lords of Dust are the purest manifestation of evil to be found on Eberron. There is no place within the cabal for mortals, except as tools, playthings, and servants. Most often, adventurers fight against the Lords of Dust, either directly or by exposing their schemes. It is possible for heroes to be tricked into serving the Lords of Dust; a rakshasa in the form of a trusted ally could send them on a quest that causes more harm than good.

The immortal Lords of Dust still remember the war between dragon and fiend. Many are willing to wait for their vengeance; once the Overlords of the Age of Demons are released, the dragons will suffer. But a few enjoy matching wits with the dragons, whether they target rogues, agents of the Chamber, or the draconic Prophecy itself. As immortals, the sages of the Lords of Dust have had tens of thousands of years to study the Prophecy. A few of the members of the Council of Ashtakala have been fighting a long shadow war with the dragons, using the Prophecy as a battleground. The rakshasas have won their share of victories, and some of the darker events in history could be a result of this manipulation. The rakshasas also enjoying using their knowledge of the Prophecy to set up situations in which the dragon prophets know that draconic interference would have disastrous results in the future; as such, the dragons must either use agents dictated by the Prophecy—adventurers, perhaps—or play into the rakshasas’ twisted hands.

Source: Dragons of Eberron

The PCs can come into conflict with the Lords of Dust in a couple of ways.

The Lesser of Two Evils: A rakshasa openly approaches the party, revealing its true nature. He asks for the PCs’ assistance in opposing the Chamber, saying that the dragons are interested only in what’s good for Argonnessen. Indeed, the mission he wants them to perform will save humanoid lives and help their homeland or house (in the short term, at least). Are the adventurers willing to work for a fiend?

Who to Trust?: A close ally of the PCs, who has aided them time and again, begs them to perform a task that could save her life. The ensuing adventure leads them into conflict with a Chamber dragon, who says that their friend is a servant of the Wyrmbreaker and that their mission will shift the Prophecy down a dark path. Do they trust their friend and fight the dragon, or abandon an ally on the word of Argonnessen?

Source: Rising from the Last War

The Lords of Dust Adventure Hooks table presents some ways to get the characters into a fiendish adventure.

http://keith-baker.com/eberron-flashback-the-lords-of-dust/

http://keith-baker.com/age-of-demons/

https://keith-baker.com/dm-overlords-2022/ 

Q: What are your thoughts on hellfire weapons, lemures, and the River Styx?

The principle of Hellfire Weapons is that they catch the souls of creatures killed by them and turn them into lemures on the River Styx, where they are recruited to fight in the Blood War. Eberron doesn’t have the River Styx or the Blood War. So what’s the point of Hellfire Weapons? Off the top of my head, I have three ideas.

One option is to tie them to Shavarath. Say that they’re tied to the Legion of Tyranny and that they catch souls and turn them into devils fighting for the Legion. There’s two aspects to this. Mortal souls ALREADY fight in Shavarath. Every mortal projects a conscript into Shavarath, the same way you project a dream self into Dal Quor when you dream. In this very moment, you ARE fighting in the Eternal Battleground. Which makes Hellfire Weapons slightly redundant. The catch is that your conscript-self is recruited by whichever Legion most closely matches your values and nature; the Hellfire weapon would catch your soul and force it into service for Tyranny. If I ran with this idea I’d make it an extremely new development likely initiated by a mortal: the immortals of Shavarath have been fighting their war since the dawn of creation and don’t do dramatic innovation. The idea would be that a mortal (Warlock? Artificer? Dragon? All of the above?) came up with this plan, theorizing that this would be a way to slowly but inexorably shift the balance of power in Shavarath.

Having said that, this isn’t an option I’d use. The whole point of Shavarath is that it’s AN ETERNAL BATTLE. Everyone comes back. It’s not really an interesting backdrop for a CAMPAIGN... and also, again, it's not really SUPPOSED to be a situation driven by dramatic shifts.

Which brings us to option two. What I’d do is to keep the core idea of the hellfire weapon—if it kills you, you are reborn as a devil in a hellscape, stripped of memory and forced to fight—and dump the part where the battle takes place in another plane. That’s right: I’d say that hellfire weapons are manufactured by the Lords of Dust, and you don’t return to the River Styx, you return in THE DEMON WASTES. I’d say that this was a recent breakthrough in Ashtakala—facilitated by Hektula and Sul Khatesh—and that Rak Tulkhesh and, say, Eldrantulku are recruiting forces into the Demon Wastes in this way. In theory they are going to raise a vast army of corrupted mortal souls and roll over the Ghaash’kala and into Western Khorvaire… but for now, they’re mainly fighting each other. So as a campaign, you get killed with a hellfire weapon and find yourself as a lemure in the Demon Wastes, assigned to fight alongside one of the Carrion Tribes against rival Carrions.

A third option, if you like that idea but want the battleground to be even MORE exotic than the Demon Wastes, would be to say that the weapons are forged by Mordakhesh and send your soul to the Bitter Shield, the heart demiplane of Rak Tulkhesh, which is another realm of endless war. In theory, again, Rak is building up a massive horde of soul-soldiers who will on day emerge to terrify Eberron, but in the meantime you are in a realm that is the heart of an overlord of war. There could be a river of blood there where you wash up that washes away memory, filling the Styx role.

Anyhow, there's things I might do with it! And in case it’s not obvious, in all of these cases the soul is being diverted from its proper path—Dolurrh and whatever lies beyond. So it's possible the Queen of the Dead might eventually take an interest once this hits a critical mass...

Q: If  most of the Overlords remain true to their Speakers, were Mordakesh, Durastoran, and company already in their post during the Age of Demons?  

The Prakhutu of the Lords of Dust are powerful beings that have a direct connection to an overlord. They didn't serve in these positions during the Age of Demons, for two reasons. First, the overlords didn't NEED Speakers during the Age of Demons, because they were FREE. They spoke with their own voices, and those voices could shake the world. "Prakhutu" wasn't a recognized voice. Every overlord had powerful fiends that were closely tied to it. Mordakhesh, for example, was always a commander of fiendish forces; he embodies the idea of the cruel general. But Rak Tulkhesh had OTHER mighty fiends in his service -- many of them more powerful than Mordakhesh. It was only after the overlords and their mightiest servants were bound that the overlords NEEDED someone to speak for them—only then that they establish that bond with the strongest of their unbound servants.

So: "Prakhutu" wasn't a role during the Age of Demons. The native fiends that are prakhutu today were all significant entities in the Age of Demons who served their warlords in some capacity, but they were neither their most powerful or most important servants. And should a prakhutu somehow be destroyed or just fall from favor, the overlord will form a bond with a new one -- as we've seen with Korliac of the Gray Flame.

In my conversion for the Savage Tide, I specifically suggest using Demogorgon as a great lieutenant of one of the overlords who's managed to break somewhat free of the Flame. The point being that Demogorgon is significantly more powerful than the typical prakhutu, but also significantly LESS powerful than one of the overlords, at least as they were defined in the 3.5 rules.

Source: June 2024 Q&A