Freemarkers

The **Fraternal Order of Freemarkers** is a secret society of nobles and other individuals who bear dragonmarks. They have kept the secret of dragonmarks for hundreds of years since their discovery during the First Ligature in Ehram.

While there was much squabbling in the order's history, they came together in recent decades to form a secret pact and infuse the world with more dragonmark magic

Dragonmarked houses have not always remained the same. wars have been started over a house trying to basically integrate into another's dragonmark and steal them over generations. Some have remained since the discovery though.

Dragonmarked Houses

Inferny House Dominici Detection

Dustria House Websburg Shadow

Zwergandy House Hunzer Making

Leonia House Lancel Passage

Sylva House Guerarme Healing

Gargantua House Zorlo Scribing

Drakka House Dragunov Sentinel

Toroña House Arcadio Finding

Serpegal House Boaviva Storm

Odyssia House Nikeles Handling

Orkway House Jorborg Hospitality

Blitzenland House Fluger Warding

## LIMITATIONS AND INNOVATIONS

With that in mind, the next step is to understand the limitations of magic and a few of the key innovations that are driving the current arcane revolution. As the previous articles have established, arcane magic behaves in a scientific manner and it’s **more complicated than it appears to be**. It’s simplified in play because this is a game, and we don’t WANT it do be complicated for players to use. But player characters are remarkable. The fact that an artificer can potentially create ANY magic item they feel like is an expression of their remarkable talent, and also reflects unorthodox techniques; they’re the genius creating a prototype in their garage, but those same techniques don’t work on an industrial scale. Let’s quickly review some of the historic limitations on arcane magic.

* **Dragonmark Only.** Long ago there were many effects that could only be produced by dragonmarked individuals and then, only a few times per day.
* **Exotic Components**. Components are a limiting factor in both spellcasting and magic item creation, from the need to carry balls of sulphur and guano to cast *fireball* to the need to have the poison glands of a wyvern to create a *dagger of venom*. Looking to the latter example, a need for such exotic components made it unfeasible to produce such items on a large scale.
* **Narrow Skills**. Arcane workers specialize in particular materials (cloth, wood, metal, paper) and specific schools of magic (Illusion, evocation). Except for player characters, the person who makes a *hat of disguise* can’t also create a *wand of magic missiles*, just as a gunsmith can’t assemble a television; the two items require a completely different subset of Arcana specializations.

Meanwhile, here’s a host of developments which (over a significant period of time) helped to usher in the modern age.

**Spellcasting Focuses and V/S Components.** The ability to use a wand to focus your *fireball* instead of having to carry a supply of guano-balls was a key development for the widespread wandslinger, and streamlined spellcasting overall. Likewise, verbal and somatic components are a tool that have evolved over time and allowed a more efficient use of arcane energy.

**The Twelve and Dragonmark Focus Items**. The Twelve created a forum in which the Dragonmarked Houses could combine their talents and create tools and techniques no single house could create alone. This accelerated the development of dragonmark focus items, which amplify the powers of a mark and can be used repeatedly. A Sivis heir being able to cast *whispering wind* (a 3.5 spell) once per day is a novelty; the development of the *speaking stone* is what transformed the communications industry. However, the *cost* of creating focus items was an early limitation, something that would be offset by…

**Eberron Dragonshards**. The most common form of dragonshard, Eberron dragonshards were found to be a universal source of arcane power—allowing early artificers to bypass the traditional limitations of rare components. However, even after this discovery was made, Eberron dragonshards weren’t available in significant quantities. When the young House Tharashk realized it could use its mark for prospecting as well as bounty hunting, Eberron dragonshards became available in significant quantities.

Access to larger quantities of Eberron dragonshards was a general boon to the development of magic items. But the match that lit the fuse of the arcane revolution was the development in the mid-ninth century of the techniques for refining Eberron dragonshards into *residuum*, a powdered form of the shards that concentrates their power, dramatically increasing the amount of energy people could work with. You know how there’s a base cost to creating a magic item? A significant portion of that is residuum, which can be acquired from House Tharashk—and this takes the place of the exotic components (Manticore spines! Irian crystals! Dragon’s blood!) that had been required in the past. Most magic items still do require some exotic components—you can’t make an airship without soarwood—but refined dragonshards provided a universal base material and general source of fuel that dramatically increased the ability to produce magic items and dragonmark focus items on a larger scale. Which in turn led to the following developments…

* **Agriculture**. The widespread implementation of *storm spires* in agricultural regions allows House Lyrandar to ensure optimal weather, minimizing drought and other disasters. Cannith’s improved manufacturing allows the development and distribution of efficient tools, and they’re developing irrigation systems tied to the principles of *create water*. Combined with Vadalis’s enhanced livestock this created a surge in agricultural productivity in the late ninth century, contributing to the expansion of major cities and an increase in the industrial workforce.
* **Communication**. While the first *speaking stones* were developed at the end of the eighth century, it was only with the discovery of residuum that they could be deployed on a wide scale. Improved communication helps facilitate collaboration in both research and business. The Arcane Congress developed *sending stones* in the early days of the Last War and continues to improve the tools of arcane communication. In turn, Tasker’s Dream—a think tank in House Sivis—is working to improve Sivis capabilities and services.
* **Manufacturing**. House Cannith’s arcane forges (described in more detail below) allow more widespread production of mundane goods and tools. Combined with the development of the guild trade schools, this helped spread the used of both efficient techniques and tools that allow even independent artisans to produce goods more efficiently than in the past. These techniques include the *magecraft* cantrip, which allows arcane artisans work more efficiently than those using purely mundane techniques.
* **Transportation**. As noted above, there are more roads and rivers in Khorvaire than we see on our maps. The elemental galleons of House Lyrandar are important for sea travel, but elemental-bound barges play an important role in river transport—and the development of residuum and improved binding techniques accelerated the production of these vessels. Likewise, it was the development of residuum that allowed the lightning rail to spread. According to canon, by 869 YK there were rail lines connecting the Five Nations all the way out to the Ironroot Mountains and the Talenta Plains, and the scope of the rail network continued to expand over the decades leading to the Last War. All of this aided in the transportation of both food and raw materials, further driving all other levels of the economy.

So the century leading up to the war saw an increase in the available labor force, while the development of cantrips and ritual magic—disseminated through guild trade schools—enable the rise of the modern magewright. Increasingly efficient techniques for finding and refining Eberron dragonshards made it possible to produce magical items and effects in larger quantities. Most professional magewrights rely on residuum to perform their rituals; it’s not just that people didn’t have the training, it’s that in the past it wouldn’t have been possible to sustain the modern magewright economy.

The Last War diverted much of the labor force, but it also created a burning *need* that didn’t exist under the unity of Galifar—both to supply the armies of each nation and for constant innovation, each nation eager to find some sort of edge. A century of war strained both resources and infrastructure, which is one reason that the dragonshard deposits of Q’barra and Xen’drik are of such great interest to House Tharashk. Now, in the wake of the war, the systems that evolved to feed that appetite are being turned to civilian needs—both repairing the damage that was done and finding ways to improve everyday life.