The Lords of False Presage, Part 1

It was cold and the Towering Wood seemed abandoned this night, almost dead. Through the mighty treetops Thulin the paladin could see Eyre glow; it shined with unnatural strength.
“It seems the white-bearded man spoke the truth” he thought. The absence of wildlife made the paladin feel uneasy. He pulled himself together, and ventured farther into the Eldeen forest. An unusual noise made Thurin pause.
“Voices in the night, speaking in foul tongues,” the paladin whsipered to himself. He drew his sword and moved closer. It was windy still, but following the voices didn’t prove too difficult. He couldn’t understand the strange language, but he was certain that if he did, madness would follow.
Then he saw them, cultists standing in a circle surrounding a strange stone artifact, covered in a labyrinthine pattern of glowing runes and sigils. Their chanting grew stronger; they called upon the name of the Dragon Below. He could feel the presence of evil, sense it as if it had reached out and touched his skin. The cultists were in a trance, too concentrated on the ritual to notice him or anything else.
“Let the Flame guide my blade. This is my destiny, this is the prophecy fulfilled,” the paladin whispered. But before he could do anything, a voice dripping with hatred interrupted his actions.
“Not today, young champion of Silver. What you were prophesied to do shall not be accomplished.”
Thulin froze as a series of strange clicking noises came to his ear. Trembling, and almost hypnotized, he turned to face its source.
Before him stood a spider the size of a house, its large fangs hammering against each other, making the noise which held Thulin paralyzed in place. The strange being standing beside the spider seemed to understand the weird clicking of the beast, its foul tongue.
The figure’s red lips moved and its voice had a strong tone of sarcasm and dominance.
“My master greets you, Thulin, paladin of the Silver Flame, and wishes to tell you that we will only keep you as long as it takes for your part in the Prophecy to vanish.”
The eyes of the spider almost seemed to glow as its clicking became more rapid.
“Yes, master, the Chamber has failed, and yet another incidence foretold by the False Presage has been stopped. Soon freedom shall be ours; soon the foundation of the dragons shall crumble once again.”

The Lords of False Presage is one of Eberron’s oldest and most secretive organizations. The six spider lords that constitute the False Presage date back to the Age of Demons. Once mere giant spiders, the Spider Lords grew in power and eventually become equals of the fiends and the dragons. The reason why these spiders became so powerful and wise is a mystery that not even the spiders themselves know. The Spider Lords’ strongest force is their vast base of knowledge, wisdom and intelligence, easily matching that of the wisest of the wyrms.
During the war between demons and dragons, the spiders fought alongside the dragons and couatls.

The dragons had studied the Prophecy now for thousands upon thousands of years, and as the war reached its end a new and unusually clear fragment was revealed. It was foretold that the spiders would not survive the last clash of the war. Along with many couatls, the spiders’ lives would be taken in the greatest of battles.

However, this did not happen. Much confusion and revolt shook the foundation of the draconic population. The Prophecy, the base of all existence, had spoken false. The Spiders had fled and a great number of couatls died. Though the dragons were victorious, many considered it a dark day, filled with despair and recklessness. This is the dark secret of the dragons of old, kept hidden from the younger dragons and even within powerful groups like the Chamber.

The Spiders had turned their backs on the alliance, and they and their minions fled and went into hiding all across Eberron. The Spider Lords have no intention of letting the past grasp them, and are constantly fleeing from the Prophecy and their destiny. Their utlimate goal is to destroy the Prophecy for good. Feeling captured in this world by the Prophecy, they want to truly become liberated and gain the free will that the Prophecy has taken from them. They view the Prophecy as false and wicked, and that they are the only ones who understand this. Spread all across the world, from Xen’Drik to Aerenal, from Adar to Khovaire, they watch the stars, study the runes of old, and spy on the dragons.

Very few people know about the spiders, and even fewer know about their true nature. The most ancient wyrms might remember them, although most just push away any stories of the spiders as blasphemy and fools’ tales. Mothers tell their children stories about the Sharn Spider, coming to snatch them in their sleep if they don’t behave, but no one believes the stories to be true. Those who understand the true nature of the spider keep its secret.

It is important to understand that the spiders are not overtly evil beings plotting to kill all dragons and take over the world. While it is true that some of them use drastic methods and some truly are of evil alignment, they generally believe their cause to be rightful and for the greater good. They are beings that consider the Prophecy to be keeping every creature in the world a prisoner, that it only exists to enslave the creatures of Eberron. The Spider Lords work toward the demise of the Prophecy above all else. There is no reason to fear them …unless you stand in the way of their plans.

The spiders consider themselves above or outside the Prophecy, and indeed, it has not mentioned them in recent history. Of course, only small fragments of the Prophecy are known, so it is hard to say if the spiders truly have escaped the grasp of the Prophecy, or are still crawling within its net.

Thus, the spiders need to be at once swift and careful. They cultivate tremendous patience, striving to ensure that their actions will contradict the Prophecy rather than support it. Of course, it is a dangerous and difficult game to work against the maybe oldest force in the world of Eberron, but the spiders are well-equipped.

Continue to Part 2.

This article was written by Simon "Polt" Weil and edited by Peter “ieattrollsforbreakfast” Gingell. Eberron and all related copyrights are property of Wizards of the Coast.