14 DAY TRIAL // James Jones, the executive producer of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, presumably claimed in an interview with MMORPG.COM that it was Turbine that "built" Eberron, introducing new elements to the campaign setting and modifying existing ones to make it meet their vision, with the approval of Wizards of the Coast. From the interview:
"I questioned James Jones also about the choice of Eberron and was told that it was recommended by Wizards of the Coast. The continent of Xen'drik had yet to have lore fleshed out and Turbine was basically given the ability to build their own world, including a new playable race - the Warforged. Currently, the world that Turbine has built has been integrated into existing lore by Wizards and the world of Stormreach has crossed over to the Pen & Paper Realm."
Facts however seem to contradict both the interviewer and the interviewee. A fellow journalist from dot-brain.com wrote a mail to Keith Baker, the very guy who created Eberron, asking where the truth lay, and the reply was edifying:
"I think it's just a poor choice of words. The warforged existed long before the MMO was even considered; they've always been part of the game world, and were included in the MMO as one of the clear connections TO the existing world, not as something new.
Xen'drik has always INTENTIONALLY been left undeveloped, so each DM can put what he wants there. So that part is correct. The reason the MMO was placed in Xen'drik was so they would have room to create their own material. However, the warforged as a concept were present in the story bible I submitted in the Fantasy Setting Search. Warforged game mechanics were worked out during the design phase by, among other people, James Wyatt. And the warforged were in the original Eberron sourcebook.
Incorporating warforged was one of the key ways to make DDO feel like Eberron. But the warforged were not created BY the DDO designers; they have always been part of the setting."
Disinformation or simply ignorance? I wouldn't want to draw any hasty conclusions, but I really hope it's the latter.