Mournland

The Mournland, once the vibrant nation of Cyre, stands as a chilling testament to a catastrophic event known as the Day of Mourning. Its geography is defined by the devastation that reshaped the land, leaving behind a landscape of ruin, mystery, and unnatural phenomena.

Cities

The cities of Cyre, once grand and beautiful, lie in ruins throughout the Mournland. Nothing lives within them except scavenging beasts and marauding monsters.

Metrol: This great city was once the capital of Cyre. Now it lies empty, waiting forlornly along the Cyre River for its people to return. Parts of Metrol have been shattered, its buildings crushed and tumbled by whatever force decimated the nation. Other portions of the city escaped with only superficial damage; aside from the absence of people and the dead-gray shroud of mist that hangs over the area, it looks much as it did before the nation fell. While the days in Metrol are quiet, the nights bring a cacophony of chaos and violence to the streets of the fallen metropolis—at night, the ghostbeasts prowl and howl and wail.

The scavengers who plunder Metrol for abandoned riches have described the ghostbeasts as vaguely humanoid in shape but with hairless, translucent skin that appears to glow with a pale inner light. Some of the scavengers believe that the ghostbeasts are guardian spirits left behind by the royal family of Cyre to protect the city. Others say that they are the ghosts of the city’s dead. Most, however, don’t care what they are. They either avoid the place or attempt to kill the creatures if they get in their way.

Structures still believed to be more or less intact in Metrol include the royal palaces of Vemishard; the great Cathedral on the Hill devoted to the Sovereign Host; the huge lightning rail station that once served as the gateway to the west; and the wondrous Metrol Arena, where great games, performances, celebrations, and competitions once enthralled the crowds.

Eston: This community, located on the western border of Cyre, used to serve as the base of operations for House Cannith. When Cyre was destroyed, Cannith’s patriarch and many of the house’s most prominent members were lost in the disaster. Since that time, the leadership of the house has been divided among three remaining high-ranking family members.

Eston suffered greater damage than Metrol, with shattered streets that swallowed whole neighborhoods and collapsed buildings on every corner. Scavengers and other fortune hunters nevertheless brave the dangers of the Mournland occasionally, striving to reach Eston to locate whatever Cannith wonders might have survived beneath the rubble and ruins.

The area around the ruined city has become the hunting ground for all manner of mutated monsters and free-floating living spells created in the aftermath of Cyre’s destruction. For this reason, reaching Eston is no simple task. Overland travel puts adventurers at risk from the monstrous inhabitants of the area. Approaching the wall of mist from Lake Arul isn’t a much better route, since mutated creatures have taken up residence in the water and patrol the coast for prey.

Locations

The Mournland is a realm of mystery and devastation. A few sites are described in the legends already gathering around lost Cyre, but much more lies hidden within the cloak of dead-gray mist that surrounds the land.

The Dead-Gray Mist

Whatever arcane event led to the destruction of Cyre, it created a wall of mist that spread out until it defined the Mournland’s borders in all directions. The shroud of mist hangs like a curtain, separating the Mournland from its neighbors. Thick and cloying at the borders, the mist rises some one hundred feet into the sky and forms a canopy that hides the ruined realm even from above. Strong winds occasionally part the mists in places, but these breaks don’t last long. Passing from outside the Mournland into the mist is like entering a shadowy, muffled region devoid of life and sun and sound. Eventually, the thick mist gives way to a less oppressive fog, but depending on the day and the location of entry, that borderland of mist can range in depth from a few hundred feet to as much as five miles. Travelers in the thick border of mist suffer from claustrophobia and often grow weary and depressed for no apparent reason. It’s easy to become turned around and lost in the mist, and those brave enough to venture into it often wind up going in circles until their food and water give out or they blunder into the path of some mutated terror prowling the borderland. (Those who fail a DC 20 Survival check become disoriented and travel in a random direction for 1d4 hours.)

The Glass Plateau

One result of the disaster that destroyed Cyre was the creation of a highland plateau made of sharp, glasslike formations. The overall appearance of the plateau is smooth and flat, though jagged spikes and spires jut up from the ground in apparently random places. The central portion of this highland plain is obsidian, and bursts of fiery light can sometimes be seen in its dark depths. Toward the edges of the plateau, the glass becomes lighter and more translucent, until it appears almost white along the jagged cliffs that separate the heights from the lowlands surrounding it.

Nothing grows on this plain of glass, and few creatures can be found among its jagged peaks and flat expanse. Living spells, on the other hand, seem drawn to the area; the greatest concentration of these strange entities can be found on and around the Glass Plateau. Rumors abound of caves within and beneath the plateau, where it is said that the truth behind the destruction of Cyre waits to be discovered by someone strong enough, brave enough, and foolish enough to venture so deep into the Mournland.

The Field of Ruins

The last battle of the Last War took place in Cyre southwest of what is now the Glass Plateau. Here, forces from Thrane, Cyre, Breland, and Darguun clashed in a chaotic epic battle. Those forces died on the Day of Mourning, caught in the backlash of the arcane effect that destroyed the entire nation. The remains of this battle can still be seen; the Field of Ruins is noteworthy among similar places throughout the Mournland primarily because of the sheer number of troops whose bodies litter this battlefield. These soldiers, who died four years ago, appear as they did the day life abandoned them. Not one has shown signs of rot or decay. Wounds gape wide, flesh refuses to fester and flake, armor and weapons remain untarnished and rust-free. Vast war machines, siege engines, and other devices of destruction brought by the opposing forces now stand in silent vigil over the bodies of the dead.

Most visitors to the Field of Ruins find themselves moved to follow the example of the explorer who discovered the place, offering prayers to all those who sprawl in this uncovered grave—Thrane knights lying beside Darguun warriors, Brelish archers piled among Cyran militia. They are not undead, but they are unnatural just the same, for some force keeps them preserved despite the passage of time. Even the scavenging beasts of the Mournland refuse to disturb these bodies.

The Glowing Chasm

North of the Glass Plateau, a great crack in the ground gives forth a cold purple light. This supernatural glow emanates from deep within the Glowing Chasm, so far down that its source can’t be identified from above (and to date no one who descended into the chasm has come out alive again). The mutated monsters that roam the Mournland seem drawn to this location, and some believe that the purple glow had a role in creating them. While the glow might not be related to the origin of the mutated monsters, it definitely has an effect on these creatures. Those that spend any significant time near the Glowing Chasm mutate further, becoming even more twisted and misshapen than they were prior to bathing in the cold purple light.

The Mournland is not merely a dead land; it is a land that is actively wrong, permeated by raw, unspent magical energy and the lingering echoes of its horrific demise. These phenomena make every step within its borders a gamble.

The Dead-Grey Mist

A perpetual, swirling, grey-white mist that hangs over much of the Mournland. It shifts and flows, sometimes thickening to an impenetrable fog, other times thinning to reveal the desolation beneath.

It is the most pervasive and iconic phenomenon. The mist is not just fog; it often carries a faint, acrid smell and dampens sound. It is believed to be the condensed essence of the magical energies unleashed during the Day of Mourning.

The mist severely limits visibility, making navigation treacherous. Additionally, it causes optical and auditory distortions, playing tricks on the mind. While not inherently harmful on its own, it is a precursor to areas where other, more dangerous magical effects might manifest.

Aberrant Weather Patterns

The Mournland experiences weather unlike anywhere else in Eberron, warped by the lingering magical energies. The sky above the Mournland is almost always a bruised, sickly grey, as if perpetually on the verge of a storm that never truly breaks. Sunlight struggles to penetrate, casting everything in a dull, oppressive gloom. Bolts of energy, often bright and multi-colored, will arc silently across the sky or strike the ground without a whisper of thunder. The sound is simply gone, leaving an unnerving visual spectacle.

Instead of rain, small, highly localized areas might experience:

• Crystal Shards: Fine, sharp crystalline fragments that fall like sleet, capable of cutting flesh.
• Ashfall: Not from a fire, but a fine, grey ash that sifts down, coating everything.
• Liquid Metal Drizzles: Extremely rare and dangerous, molten fragments or droplets of metal raining down in isolated pockets.
• Erratic Winds: Sudden, powerful gusts of wind can erupt from nowhere, swirling debris and the Mourning Mist, only to die down just as quickly.

Distorted Terrains & Environmental Hazards

The land itself bears the scars of the cataclysm, twisted and reshaped in bizarre ways.

• Warped Structures: Buildings are not merely ruined; they are often grotesquely stretched, compressed, or fused together, defying logic and physics. Floors might become walls, and ceilings contort into impossible angles.
• Living Metal & Crystal Growths: Patches of metal that seem to pulse faintly, or crystalline formations that grow like monstrous fungi from the ground, absorbing ambient magical energy. Stepping on or touching these can cause burns or strange mutations.
• Unstable Ground: Areas where the earth has been magically liquefied or turned into a quicksand-like substance, often with a faint shimmer, making movement perilous.
• Pockets of Extreme Temperature: Small, localized zones where the air is suddenly superheated to unbearable temperatures, or chillingly cold beyond natural explanation, often shifting without warning.

Supernatural Manifestations

The boundary between the living and dead, and between reality and magic, is thin and porous in the Mournland.

• Spectral Echoes: Not true ghosts, but lingering magical imprints of the screams, fears, and final moments of those who died during the Day of Mourning. These can manifest as phantom sounds, fleeting visions, or even faint, disembodied emotions that wash over observers.
• Animated Remnants: Everyday objects, from furniture to fallen weapons, can spontaneously animate for brief periods, often in a grotesque parody of their former function. Sometimes, pieces of warforged or other constructs might reanimate, lurching aimlessly.
• Primal Magic Zones: Patches of ground where the raw magical energy is particularly volatile. Spells cast here might backfire, fizzle, or produce entirely unintended and unpredictable effects (e.g., healing a target causes them to sprout feathers, a fireball turns into a shower of butterflies).
• Temporal Stutters: Extremely rare and disorienting, some areas might briefly loop moments in time, or cause individuals to experience phantom echoes of events that happened years ago, sometimes even seemingly interacting with them before vanishing.
• Shadowy Figures: Obscure, formless figures that flit through the edge of vision, often coalescing from the Mourning Mist before dissipating. Their nature is unknown, but they evoke intense fear and paranoia.