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Ebberon and Westeros: The High and Low Magics of Deception and Trickery

Ebberon and Westeros seem like two sides of the same coin, with all of the deception and trickery underway to take the throne.  Oddly, though, even with the major differences in technology and magic, the two continents have decided to settle their disputes the same way, with armies.  Of course, in Ebberon, some of the armies were built rather than rallied.  And then there is Cyre.  What can I learn from GoT to use for my new character in Ebberon?

Do not continue farther unless you want to endure spoilers for the entirety of GoT through season 4.

So why do the ways of Westeros not result in the same blood spent throughout Ebberon?  Magical security is the answer.  Any King can have scrying and antiscrying, can have doubles and triples of himself in changlings, can have care watchers checking for trouble and poison.  In Westeros, the plots succeed, in Ebberon, they fail.

Armies still thrived in Ebberon, because armies are the way to change the will of the people as a whole.  Kill many of them, ransack their villages, destroy their crops, leave the survivors cold and starving without security, and then they will give up their king, their national identity, their loyalty.  These people that must be changed are not the peasants that have nothing, but the classes above up to nobility that have something to lose.  In both Ebberon and Westeros, this is the real fight -- for the will of the people that have.

So in playing through Ebberon now and having watched the entirety of Game of Thrones so far, I must ask myself as a player, what sort of character in these plots and schemes do I want to be.  The simplest answer is the character that grows.  Even as early as the first season, there are five growing characters in the plots of Westeros -- John Snow, Arya, Tyrion, Sansa, and Daenerus.  These five characters are learning to be what they will become, and that is the first of the qualifiers for a good character.  Arya is growing to be a weapon of vengeance, and my character has no fit for that.  Sansa doesn't seem to yet have found her power, and that has no makings for a hero to date.  The other three are learning to stand alone as leaders of people, although each of them stumbles at times.  That is the real power emerging, and that is what I want of my character.

Of the three, I dare say I find Tyrion most interesting, not because of what he has become, but because of his historical ability for always swirling the political players into a fury when he appears.  He stirs the plots of schemers and makes them lash out.  It is a worthy component for my character, the ability to stir up trouble by saying what he exactly means, without consideration of the bluntness he has in really speaking the truth.  The difference is, that my character will have this power no matter what he speaks, because he rarely speaks the truth.

As the plot folds forward, both in Ebberon game and Game of Thrones, it is clear that dragons and dragonmarks be the real source of power in what lies ahead.  This key to dragons makes it an interesting adventure indeed.

My prediction in Westeros is that three dragonriders with emerge.  John Snow, son of Ned Stark's sister and a Targaryon, Daenaerus Targaryon, and perhaps the missing Targaryon who is no son of Tywin Lannister, Tyrion, will take to their dragon steeds and save the kingdom from the white walkers.

My prediction in Ebberon is that the party will find a great dragon secret, and if Merek really has anything to do with the ending, the party will also find a way to receive great dragon power.  And in this, they will find the true power of Ebberon.

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