Kalashtar of RL

[DeepShadow of FoS]

I've been looking for ways to involve dreamspawn in the ways of the living, and one of my players dropped the Kalashtar of Eberron in my lap. Rather than have another outlander PC, I suggested that the kalashtar race has appeared independently in RL through the interference of agents of the Nightmare Lands. Specifically, we decided that the PC's parents were inner-circle members of La Confrérie des Rêveurs, and hinted at some kind of diabolical intimacy with the creatures of the Nightmare World.

What do you think? Could the Kalashtar be adapted for RL as rogue dreamspawn, hiding from their masters in the bodies of men? How would this alter their powers?

[The Giamarga]

The other new race is the Kalashtar, who are basically the Scientologists of Eberron. Aliens from another plane merged themselves with humans and made a new race. Kalashtar are the good versions who are fighting the Inspired, which are the evil aliens who instead of merging with a human body simply possess them for their evil plans.

Aren't the Inspired more what you are describing? The Kalashtar are basically the good guys fighting the return of the Dreaming Dark. Of course you can simply reskin them. You might also want to check out the Eberron conversion for the Elan on this excellent site. Generally these races are all indian and psionic themed in Eberron coming from the faraway nation of Riedra. Maybe we could adapt them to fit into Sri Raji in RL which is already the source for many psionic classes. Check out the 2 Reach of Riedra articles and the one on psionics in the Eberron Dragonshard Archive

[Dion of the Fraternity]

In my vision of Ravenloft Kalashtar, I tired to "parallelize" their stories with what what already exists in Eberron; roughly speaking, in Ravenloft, the kalashtar are either refugees or explorers from the Nightmare Lands.

[Jester of the FoS]

I described Kalashtar in my 4e update as humans altered by the Dreamscape or the Nightmare Lands. This would include sharing a mind with a dream being, a human possessed by a dream being, or someone mentally altered.

I had alot of "humans altered by plane X" in that guide...

[DocBeard]

The whole "rogue dream spirits trying to fight the Nightmare Court." seems to be the easiest way to integrate them, yeah. Maybe have that Nova Vaasan alienist be their "discoverer" or one of the older members of the race. Heck, maybe that's how he got out of the Nightmare Lands the first time, and how they're spreading; he takes patients who have no hope of recovery and "cures" them with a dream spirit roommate.

[Isabella]

For that matter, you might re-imagine the Abber Nomads with the Kalashtar in mind.

[Deewun]

For that matter, you might re-imagine the Abber Nomads with the Kalashtar in mind.

I was thinking this as well. That would be an incredibly interesting, and simple way, to use the race in a 4e game. If we do a vote, mine is right here with Isabella's idea.

[Dion of the Fraternity]

The Kalashtar = Abber Nomads is what I've always thought of in my campaigns, too; but the Nightmare Lands have never come up as of yet.

[DocBeard]

Maybe have a group of non traditional Abber who made it to the Core like the Thaani did.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Okay, if my Kalashtar is a rogue dreamspawn hiding from the NC, what are the Inspired? Based on what I find in the Eberron wiki,one explanation is to say that the Kalashtar were sired accidentally, and that the Inspired are the deliberate possessions that follow this discovery. Another is to say that the PC's parents were actually Inspired, and that they didn't know their child would be born Kalashtar.

Both of these explanations assume that Inspired do not require centuries of careful breeding, of course.

[DocBeard]

The "Inspired" are a group of Star Cultists who have been bred by their Deepspawn parents to be the perfect receptacles of spirits loyal to the Nightmare Court. They intend to infiltrate Ravenloft's finer institutions, spreading their ill will through friendships, manipulation, and the twisted dreams their mere presence inspires.

They parallel the Kalashtar in that the Inspired have been raised their whole lives to serve the spirit possessing them, while the Kalashtar represent a sort of compromise between the beings of flesh and the beings of spirit; the Inspired don't have to work as hard as the Kalashtar to master themselves, but at the same time do not really enjoy the benefits of a mortal perspective.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

For that matter, you might re-imagine the Abber Nomads with the Kalashtar in mind.

I was thinking this as well. That would be an incredibly interesting, and simple way, to use the race in a 4e game. If we do a vote, mine is right here with Isabella's idea.

I don't see what the Abber have in common with the Kalashtar. Am I missing something?

[Bluebomber4evr]

For that matter, you might re-imagine the Abber Nomads with the Kalashtar in mind.

I was thinking this as well. That would be an incredibly interesting, and simple way, to use the race in a 4e game. If we do a vote, mine is right here with Isabella's idea.

I don't see what the Abber have in common with the Kalashtar. Am I missing something?

No, you're not missing something. They really don't have anything in common. IMO, combining the two ruins the uniqueness of both. I would prefer the "trapped by the Nightmare Court and escaped" scenario, personally.

[A G Thing]

To answer this to some degree of personal satisfaction because I have been developing the idea of Eberron themed domains on my own.

Kalashtar are Quori and so are Inspired. Kalashtar were persecuted and hunted for philosophical/religious reasons by the Inspired and fled to Eberron to escape them by bonding with human bodies permanently and no longer being able to enter into the realm of dreams. The Inspired while hunting them became interested in conquering the real world but did not want to give up their link back to the dream realms thus they manipulated the politics of a kingdom and set up a breeding program to create vessels that could not fight them and that they could abandon at any time. These bodies are blends of elf, fiend and human and the culture is a xenophobic dictatorship built around them as figures of power.

Basically the Inspired are the bad Goa'uld from Stargate and the Kalashtar are that rogue faction of Goa'uld from the T.V. series that fight them and try to survive. Just give them psionic powers and that is what they are for the most part.

In Ravenloft I imagine that Kalashtar and Inspired arise normally from dreamspawn of varing alignments and often possess travelers in the nightmare lands or targets of the Nightmare Court. As for outlander versions I see them as normal for their races except they now face additional attention from the Nightmare Court. Since Kalashtar normally cannot dream they can however now be severely affected by dream based spells and madness since it is now actively trying to force it's self on them and may hope to learn from the Abber how they do such. The Inspired being the stuff of Nightmares as well may be discouraged to discover that they are now lower on the food chain and now are being commanded and threatened by things even they do not understand.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

So...no one thinks they should be 2nd gen members of La Confrérie des Rêveurs?