Carrion Tribes

More than twenty Carrion Tribes dwell in the Demon Wastes, distinguished from each other by the fiendish power they revere. The Plaguebearers are among the most foul of the Carrion Tribes, serving an entity embodying filth and pestilence.

The greatest tribal warriors are the blessed champions. These select few channel demonic entities that reveal themselves in the thick of battle.

Most tieflings in Khorvaire are descended from the humans of Ohr Kaluun in Sarlona. However, the fiendish corruption of the Demon Wastes sometimes sees a tiefling child born to humans of the Carrion Tribes. Such a birth is said to herald a great boon for the family, and shamans call these tieflings the sakah, or “touched ones.”

Source: Eberron Campaign Guide

The people of the Demon Wastes serve evil spirits—corrupted entities spawned from the Churning Chaos and the Abyss far below. Each Carrion Tribe serves a particular spirit, and a tribe’s ceremonies and rituals celebrate this entity’s nature.

The entities worshiped by the Carrion Tribes are the overlords, ancient fiends that ruled these lands until their defeat at the end of the Age of Demons. Individual Lords of Dust command the tribes on behalf of their patron overlords, with each tribe emulating the worst aspects of its patron.

Source: Eberron Campaign Guide

The Carrion Tribes descend from explorers and refugees twisted by the evil in this realm. Explorers usually encounter these savage folk as enemies, but occasionally a hero emerges from the shadows. When creating a character from the Carrion Tribes, consider the following:

Sworn to an Overlord. Your tribe is devoted to an archfiend. This can serve as the roots of a warlock’s pact or the inspiration for a barbarian’s rage. Are you still loyal to your dark lord, or did you break free from its influence? Either way, work with the DM to develop the details of your overlord.

Child of a Savage Land. You were born into a lawless realm where violence was the only constant. How have you adapted to life on the other side of the Labyrinth? Are you superstitious, refusing to adapt to this new world, or are you doing your best to learn the ways of this strange realm?

Why Did You Leave? You began your life as a servant of darkness. Have you embraced the light? Are you fighting the servants of your former master? Or are you a pawn in a conflict between overlords? You might serve an evil force, but the cultists you fight serve even darker powers.

Source: Rising from the Last War

Survival in the Wastes is a constant trial; there are many ways to die, but old age is never one of them. Unlike the Ghaash’kala, the Carrion Tribes make no use of Khyber demiplanes for food and supplies. For better or (far) worse, their food and water comes directly from the Wastes. What sustenance there is, is tainted with all kinds of toxins, curses and magic. The result is generations of mutations that have made the Carrion Tribes unrecognizable from their ancestors who first landed on these shores or fell into disgrace. The environment and tribal conflict has long winnowed the weak from their ranks, leading to a physically intimidating people warped and molded by demonic reality.

The technology and craftwork of the tribes has regressed far from the magic of the humans’ ancient home in Ohr Kaluun. Clothing is made of simple hide and leather taken from animals or rivals, with weapons of flint, bone, demonglass, and narstone. The magic of the clans is derived from an opportunistic mix of sorcery, warlock pacts and vile faith; the arcane secrets of Ohr Kaluun have long been lost to the winds. The only exceptions are the Hexgeists of Sul Khatesh and the Deathbringers of Katashka, who scribe spells and rituals bestowed by fiends in service to their Overlords.

The clans of the fel’gha are easy enough to tell apart; not only do they dress themselves in crude mimicry of the fiends they serve, but also undergo ritual scarification and tattooing in a mirror to the Ghaash’kala. Dusk Vipers often bear intricate scaled patterns of ink on their faces, while the Moonreavers bear dark tattoos like crescent moons sweeping down from each eye.

Clan Politics

The shifting patterns of warfare and diplomacy between the tribes prevent them from forming a united front against the Ghaash’kala. Much like their Overlords before them, each Carrion Tribe is convinced of its own strength and superiority over their heretical neighbors. Despite this, the less temperamental tribes do conduct infrequent trade. This simple bartering is held for resources that cannot be found in their own domains.

Even rarer are tribes that have informal ceasefires with the Ghost Guardians; some, like the Deathbringers, only live to serve specific entities in the Wastes, rather than seeking to break out into the Reaches beyond. These ceasefires are typically brokered by the Moonreavers and a clan’s sar’malaan in tense conditions. The most important of these are temporary truces - and even alliances – are where a clan recognises that its neighbors have obtained a dangerous new surge of strength. Rather than become overwhelmed and swallowed, a clan may decide that the enemy of their enemy is their friend, and seek the Ghaash’kala in quelling their rivals. Such alliances are both incredibly rare and ‘alliances’ in the loosest sense of the word - but several fel’gha champions have been cut down in battle with the Ghaash’kala by a Carrion axe to the neck.

Source: Paladins of the Wastes

Unsurprisingly, many of the Lords of Dust have hands in the fates of the fel’gha. The Carrion Tribes themselves likely owe their continued survival to the fiends outright, and are cultivated like test subjects to suit the Lords’ needs. Powerful fiends such as the Shadowsword are known and venerated by the tribes of their Overlords, and walk undisguised among them as divinity.

The aims of the Lords of Dust are simply to have another tool in their arsenal for tinkering with the Prophecy. When the release of an Overlord requires a mortal champion to wield a specific weapon, or stand atop a fated battlefield, the fiends may raise such a person from among the Tribes; with unyielding obeisance and a penchant for bloodshed, the fel’gha are a perfect fit. Similarly, the tribes breaking through the Labyrinth might be used to stir up fear and bloodshed beyond the Wastes, trigger political decisions in the Five Nations …or even cause a fated champion to take up arms against them! Having completely servile mortals close at hand also provides another benefit. Namely, that sacrificing mortals in dark rituals is a lot easier when they see it as an honor…

Source: Paladins of the Wastes

The aberrant forces of the daelkyr can reach the Demon Wastes through the numerous entrances to Khyber in the region. Ironically, the Carrion Tribes see the Lords of Madness as heretical and corruptive - an opinion held by their fiendish masters. Notably, this may be the only thing that the Carrion Tribes and Ghaash’kala agree on. The servants of the Overlords fear the daelkyr on a fundamental level, for they have the power to twist the essence of immortals, altering them into something other. This means that the daelkyr alone have the power to ‘destroy’ immortal fiends. The result is that the Carrion Tribes have a holy mandate to crush any and all signs of the aberrant. Despite this, the Wastes are an irradiated magical wasteland, making it one of the few places on Eberron where daelkyrspawn can attempt to fit in.

The influence of the daelkyr typically begins with the subversion of a Carrion Tribesman in search of power or revenge. Convinced that a symbiont or aberration is a sign from their Overlord, they willingly accept its influence as a vector for an alien disease. The Plaguebearers are most at risk, with both Kyrzin’s diseases and Valaara’s vermin approaching the domain of their god. The results are disturbing, even for demonic standards. At times, entire tribes have merged into an oblex, moaning with prayers for their new lord. Other incursions have birthed the horrors known as ‘vespiaries’. These vast papery hives are filled with hellwasps - the result of Tribesmen inducted into Valaara’s Hive. Left unchecked, the hellwasps breed at a disturbing pace, and rapidly learn how to puppet corpses in a mockery of life.

A major daelkyr incursion is one of the few situations where the Ghaash’kala and the Carrion Tribes are willing to join forces. Neither can tolerate the corruption of Xoriat, and the impacts of the daelkyr are so foul that sometimes there’s simply no choice. Such alliances may only occur once a century (if at all), and are typically started by the Moonreavers, by order of their Hag patrons.

Source: Paladins of the Wastes