tonal vibe/comparisons: baccano!, juno steel, the mummy, atlantis, treasure planet, pirates of the carribbean (just the first one), final fantasy 12

the baseline: there used to be a big unified kingdom that held most of the continent of khorvaire. then 100 years of a war of succession happened, culminating in a magical catastrophe that ate an entire nation and turned it into a magically irradiated wasteland. there's been a truce for 2 years. people hope it will stick, others... don't

eberron has everything you know from dnd but shuffled around in a fun and interesting way. morality is relative, and unless it's literally a demon from khyber, there's no way to tell if something is good/evil on sight.

also there's trains and airships (and regular ships) powered by elementals! and a sentient race of robot people who have only just achieved civil rights but uh. bc they were invented for the war it's... complicated

also there's some truly eldritch stuff lurking on the periphery, but we can get into that later. for now let's talk about the continent

there were 5 nations that used to be a part of the big unified kingdom that exploded into war.. there are also a bunch more nations that have emerged because of... Reasons

aundair: it's fantasy france. lots of agriculture, wine, cheese, and magic universities.

breland: culturally a lil bit like east coast usa in the 1910-1920s, but geographically more like mexico. it's home to sharn, which is fantasy new york but Taller. everyone's a little bit shady

cyre (aka the mournland): used to be the fanciest, most artistic/culturally rich nation but now it's an irradiated wasteland filled with weird shit.

karrnath: fantasy prussia, with a humanist blood-based religion and post-mortem military conscription. they used undead armies during the war which makes them.. scary to outsiders. not actually evil though!

thrane: fantasy holy rome/vatican. they share a border with fantasy france and a lot of people are still mad bc of the war

those are the ones that USED to be part of the big kingdom. i'll talk about the rest of the nations later bc there's a bunch

ziek, i am shaking you by the shoulders to read/listen to the joannes cabal series

but on topic: helllll yeah

i first read the breland section as "new yorkers but taller" instead of like. the buildings.

an eight foot guy who almost slams his shin into your face and yells at you that "eyy, i'm walkin' 'ere!"

i mean. that is ENTIRELY possible in sharn bc there are large robots and bugbears and such in the slums near the bottom of the towers so...

also i wANNA read johannes cabal i just gotta find a copy