Editing Mournland

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[[File:Eberron map mournland.jpg|thumb|250px|The remains of Cyre.]]
The '''Mournland''' is a region in the [[Eberron]] setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. Once the kingdom of Cyre, it was annihilated by a magical blast of unknown origins and nature during the Last War; this fantasy nuke, known as the Mourning, ripped reality a couple of new assholes, and fucked over the entire country, leaving it a blasted wasteland filled with non-decaying corpses, mutant monsters, self-perpetuating spells, armies of renegade and hostile [[warforged]] led by the notorious [[Lord of Blades]], as well as hordes of the [[undead]]. It's generally completely unfit to live in, especially since neither magical healing nor the body's natural healing work here. The Mourning was such an unprecedented shock that it actually forced the nations of Khorvaire to declare a truce, and the Last War has ground to a stand-still... at least until they figure out if the Mourning could happen again and how it's triggered.

The Mourning didn't ''just'' kill everyone in the country. The entire landscape is full of bizarre magical terrain. The town of Making, one of the possible starting points for the event, is now an obsidian mountain that constantly oozes lava that cools and continually enlarges itself. A small spring is now a great lake-sized body of blood (or, at least, blood colored water). A giant, glowing chasm in the earth attracts strange mutants. Reports indicate buildings are found miles away from where they were built. Fourth Edition makes visiting the Mournlands supernaturally suck the hope out of people, persisting even after they've left, and has Insight checks reveal a "presence within the mist" that's '''hungry'''.

The Mournlands are home to all manner of technological artifact and everyday wealth that various players want recovered. Initially most scavengers skirted the edges so they could pop out and heal when needed, but overtime ways around the healing problem have been discovered. The goodberry spell works, though good luck getting the needed berries and it doesn't heal a lot anyways. A once obscure liquor made from Goodberries, Goodberry Wine, heals more damage and lasts a while, but only works once per day. Psionic healing works, but that tends to be shit (at least without [[Vitalist|third party content]]). Potions made inside work ''only'' inside but good luck finding a place to brew them and healing potions are considered inefficient anyways. The best method, albeit one that requires relatively high level adventurers, is to heal inside extra-dimensional space that isn't the Mournland. The ultimate way around this though is that Repair and Inflict spells work fine, which is why Warforged and Undead are the majority of the "life" in this wasteland. 5E changes this and now the Mournland is a quasi [[Wild Magic]] zone where healing spells failing is just its most infamous effect.

==Day of Mourning==
The Day of Mourning occurred on 20 Olarune 994. Every Cyrian knows where they were on this day. The dead-gray that is now known as the border of the Mournland began to spread from either the city of Making, and/or the royal palaces of Vermishard in the capital of Metrol, and seems to have begun in the morning while expansion lasted throughout the day. This spread lasted a while, long enough for some people to actually evacuate. Initially the mist was lethal, but had no effect (beyond being the Mournland) after the first day.

The most disturbing thing about the Day of Mourning is that it was clearly caused by an intelligent actor. Despite the tons of magic shit that happens on its own in Eberron, the Mournland matches Cyre's artificial and then frequently changing borders far too closely for it to not have been. It was exact to the point that artificial structures hanging over the border, like docks, were outside it. It may not necessarily have been on purpose though, as one of the more common theories is that some experiment by Cyre or Cannith backfired horribly. Other theories suggest any number of Eberron's various factions were behind it. 

One popular out-of-universe theory is that the entire country has become a [[Demiplane of Dread]]. The event checks all the relevant boxes:

* The political nation of Cyre, and ''only'' Cyre, was taken by some intelligent actor. The Dark Powers clearly count, and they have a habit of abducting countries from elsewhere to serve as Domains if the [[Darklord]] in question ruled that country beforehand. 
* Speaking of Darklords, the Forge of War states that Dannel ir'Wynarn's insistence that the crown of Galifar belonged to her was the only thing keeping the Last War going, which makes her a prime Darklord candidate.
* The border of the Mournland is a wall of mist. Portals to Ravenloft usually take the form of thick mists.
* The Mourning has multiple similarities to the destruction of Kalidnay, a city from [[Dark Sun|Athas]] known to have been brought to [[Ravenloft]]. [[Dark Sun]] materials describe Kalidnay as having been destroyed by an unknown disaster, leaving behind a jumble of ruins. Structures in the Mournland have been "moved", "rearranged", "turned 90 degrees", or found far from where they should be, which certainly counts as jumbled. And while the ruins of Kalidnay lack several of the Mournland's signature traits, they're also being described centuries after Kalidnay's destruction, while reports from the Mournland are from directly after the fact.

None of these theories will ever be confirmed or deconfirmed canonically, as the truth of the Day of Mourning is one of several mysteries left to DMs to establish the truth of on their own.

The theory received a bit of a nod in 5th edition with the reveal of a new Domain of Dread that is a fragment of Cyre that was taken by the mists on the Day of Mourning.
[[Category:Eberron]]