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In the Eberron source book, there is an entry for using prosthetics that are akin to adding a portion of a warforged to your body. Are there any groups that are similar to transhumanism in that they are seeking to become more like a warforged?

It feels like it might fit in an offshoot of House Cannith, but I didn't see anything of that nature mentioned in the book.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I saw that there are plenty of those groups but I'm looking for a counter group to some people who are magic alteration based so I wanted to contrast the magic users with the "engineers". Not quite the right terms but that's the gist. \$\endgroup\$
    – Grinton
    Jun 17, 2020 at 22:39

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Eberron debuted in D&D 3.5e, and the vast majority of content for Eberron is for that system (4e had two books and three adventures, 5e has just the one book so far; 3.5e had dozens, and they were usually much larger). In particular, the 3.5e Magic of Eberron supplement included a prestige class,1 the renegade mastermaker. Renegade mastermakers sought to replace most, if not all, of their biological body with robotic grafts, and the final level of the class made the renegade mastermaker count as a warforged on top of their original race.

As the name “renegade” suggests, this was not a process endorsed by any mainstream organizations in Eberron. Magic of Eberron devotes quite a lot of text to emphasizing that mastermakers are not well regarded, often run into trouble with the law, and shunned by most.

[A renegade mastermaker’s] craft does step over the line into a gray area of legality in most of the Five Nations, so most renegade mastermaker’s find comfort in a nomadic life, always on the lookout for opportunities to learn more secrets of warforged construction.

(Magic of Eberron pg. 81)

Playing a Renegade Mastermaker

Warforged are the next step in the evolution of humanity. They are the most magnificent creation to emerge from the forges, the perfection of Cannith craft, and you are actively attempting to become one. What better goal is there than the pursuit of perfection?

As a renegade mastermaker, you dabble in forbidden knowledge, using the secrets of the creation forges to slowly transform yourself into a warforged. Others, especially most members of House Cannith, frown upon your actions, but they simply don’t understand the enlightenment of the path you deign to follow. Some call you mad, crazed by too much machine and not enough soul, but you are mostly certain you are perfectly sane.

(Magic of Eberron pg. 82)

Renegade mastermakers come primarily from groups of disillusioned artificers and magewrights of House Cannith, who were promised the secrets of creation forges, but then forbidden to use that knowledge. [...]

Renegade mastermakers as a group are not particularly social, so you might find yourself traveling to forboding towers in distant lands to meet another mastermaker. [...]

(Magic of Eberron pg. 83)

Resources

With no organization willing to support them directly, most renegade mastermakers are forced to find their own workshops in which to perform their experiments. In many cases, such workspace is provided by benefactors as a reward for completing quests or missions. Even in those cases, a benefactor eventually becomes concerned about the dubious legality of a mastermaker’s work, and might be forced to close his doors.

(Magic of Eberron pg. 83)

Renegade Mastermakers in the World

[...] many members of House Cannith secretly admire the ingenuity of the mastermakers, and the house tries to keep tabs on any new technologies the mastermakers stumble into.

(Magic of Eberron pg. 83)

Organizations

Most renegade mastermakers find the constant persecution to be a detriment to research, and so move to remote or secluded locations where they can attempt to work in peace. They still occasionally deal with inquisitive neighbors and the threat of assassination by any number of private or government organizations, or even by other mastermakers seeking to add to their own libraries.

[...]

A dirty secret of House Cannith is that Morran d’Cannith, a prominent artisan within the ranks of the house, has started down the path of the renegade mastermaker. At first, his obsession with the warforged was praised as a demonstration of a healthy appetite and enthusiasm for his work in the great creation forge in the depths of Sharn. But his experiments grew beyond the boundaries of propriety, and the house began to question his sanity. After an incident involving the disassembly of some recently created warforged, Morran was banned from the House Cannith Forgehold in the depths of Sharn. However, Morran was a close friend of Merrix d’Cannith, who could not bring himself to issue an execution order, so he instead provided Morran with an underground laboratory deep within Undersharn, where he continues his experiments and adapts his body to his construct ideal.

Because many of the secrets used by the renegade mastermakers pertain to knowledge that House Cannith jealously guards, they have a certain interest in keeping track of these renegades to ensure that the knowledge remains secret. At the same time, members of the house recognize that the renegades provide a new avenue for research that isn’t available to the house through standard venues. Thus, the house is conflicted. The insular nature of the mastermakers protects them, in a way. In general, House Cannith turns a blind eye to the activities of renegade mastermakers as long as they remain isolated. But at the same time, the house is poised to deal swiftly with the mastermakers should they become a threat.

(Magic of Eberron pg. 84)

NPC Reactions

[...] Many common folk perceive mastermakers as abominations, [...]

[...] The members of House Cannith also afford the mastermakers a degree of respect, even while they attempt to silence those renegades who threaten the secrets of warforged creation. [...]

Many mastermakers find solace working under the auspices of the Lord of Blades in the Mournland, because that warforged scion and his followers are less likely to be hostile toward mastermakers simply because of their apparent mechanical nature.

(Magic of Eberron pg. 84)

  1. In 3.5e, “prestige classes” were special classes that you couldn’t start out in, and instead had to multiclass into. They also had special requirements you had to meet before you could start taking levels in them. Many sub-classes in 5e, like arcane trickster or eldritch knight, were prestige classes in 3.5e.
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