Ok, so I'm laying down reading my ECG and I had a great idea. Very much along the lines of Watchmen.
So the 5 nations were at the climax of the Last War. It's concluded that it was gonna be disasterous for everybody involved. And then BAM! Cyre is now what we know as the Mourland because of some unknown reason.
WHAT IF...the whole Mourning was preplanned? Something so huge that it would affect everybody and cause all hostilities to end. I'm thinking, what if there was some character in Eberron who pulled an Ozymandias (read Watchmen if you don't know who he is), committing a huge evil to help the greater good (or so he thinks it).
Who in Eberron may be able to do something like that? And how?
Just looking for ideas as I would love to incorporate this into a game I want to run.
Could be a really out-there member of the Path of Light, trying to stop the war and hurt the Dreaming Dark.
Wasn't there a thread that discussed this very topic a few months back? I remember someone laying out an adventure module that led up to the Mourning.
Anyways, I think Breland would have the power and resources to pull it off. Breland is a near-democratic nation with many resources and power behind it. And wasn't it King Boranel who was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Thronehold? Perhaps the Dark Lanterns and many of its sister operations worked behind the scenes to create the Mourning. I mean, Boranel IS a strong force for peace. Who's to say he wouldn't use extreme measures to bring it about.
Other candidates for making such a tragedy happen for their benefit would be Valenar and/or Zilargo. Valenar elves are imperialists and Zilargo gnomes are insidious basterds. Both gained from the Treaty.
And finally, there is the genius/mad, rich Cannith master artificer who sought to end the War by sacrificing Cyre. Someone akin to Watchmen's Ozymandias.
If there was another thread about this some time back, I probably didn't see it as I don't normally post on this forum.
I kind of like the idea of Breland's King. Maybe after the deed, he disposes of the Dark Lanterns that were involved to assure no word gets out. Not to mention a final encounter with a king and his royal guard would be rather epic.
I also like Zilargo. Kind of funny having gnomes of all races be the masterminds behind it all, but as for a build up to a final encounter...I'm not sure what I would do. Surely though it would have alot of fun cloak and dagger/investigative RP.
As for the crazed Kalashtar/Path of Light idea, Im not familiar enough with it off the top of my head, so I'll have to read some more about it.
I'm just trying to come up with some plot device as to how whoever would do it. That and how to get my party unto the trail of whoever caused the Mourning. Thanks for the help so far.
Whoever it was, I don't think it was the Valenar elves. They live for battle, and to do something that scares everyone into peace... well it seems cinda strange.
But then again, maybe they tried to scare everyone into attacking them and no one else.
Another idea is that it was dragons because Cyre was playing with some kind of rituals they should not even know about acording to the dragons...
If you want that unexpected/twist element, then I think the Kalashtar is your best bet. Although it might be too directly derivative of the Watchmen, they are the ones who are fighting the "big fight", and the sacrifice of a nation might be small potatoes if they can restore il Yannah.
But, can you restore light with such an unforgivable act of darkness? That might be the tragedy behind the whole thing.
If you want that unexpected/twist element, then I think the Kalashtar is your best bet. Although it might be too directly derivative of the Watchmen, they are the ones who are fighting the "big fight", and the sacrifice of a nation might be small potatoes if they can restore il Yannah.
I can't imagine they'd do this. How many people across Khorvaire are having nightmares every night because of the Mourning? It leaves such a legacy of terror and fear that it would seem to naturally fuel the Dreaming Dark. Not that I'm arguing they did it, either, since it seems too chaotic and destructive to suit their M.O.
It might have been necessary. Remember what happened to Sarlona. A war drove it's nations to the brink and magnificent saviors came and made piece, the Inspired. The Kalashtar could have thought that making the Five Nations reach peace amongst themselves without quori domination was the most important thing they could do.
(I always like to run campaigns on the assumption that the Quori started the Last War by making Jarot have paranoid nightmares and giving three of his scions dreams dripping with delusions of grandeure. And the Mourning ended their war before they could step in and end it themselves as peaceful saviors.)
I always like to run campaigns on the assumption that the Quori started the Last War by making Jarot have paranoid nightmares and giving three of his scions dreams dripping with delusions of grandeure. And the Mourning ended their war before they could step in and end it themselves as peaceful saviors.
I've liked that idea too, and it's certainly hinted at in sourcebooks that mention Jarot's paranoi about some invader taking the continent. The more I think about it, though, the less convinced I am.
The path they took in Sarlona was more or less 1) Start big civil wars, 2) Breed the Inspired, 3) Create a campaign of dreams, and 4) Reveal the Inspired to the war-exhausted masses.
Khorvaire was and is a very different breed, though. First, Khorvaire already enjoyed political unity and the Inspired already existed. It seems it would have been much easier to simply begin introducing the Inspired during the age of Galifar, and via dreams, encourage the lords of the time to take Inspired mates. The same could have been done with human (and perhaps elven and half-elven) Houses. Even if the bloodlines get too poluted, you still end up with children who are being raised to power and influenced directly by the Inspired.
In the meantime, the Inspired can simply be migrating to Khorvaire and setting up shop as merchants, smiths, etc. After a century or two, there could be hundreds of them in key places all over the continent, gradually taking control of the empire simply by wielding the wealth.
In the end, I like to think that Galifar fell about because of simply human imperfection. It doesn't take paradimensional psychic lobster assassins to make people go to war. If people did this on their on, it makes the death of Galifar all the more tragic.
***
For the Mourning, I have started taking a different thought track on it. Instead of it being something that happened to Cyre, it's something that happened, and Cyre was just in the wrong place. Here's what I mean:
Some theories suggest it was an attack - someone used some terrible ritual or eldritch machine to destroy Cyre. This doesn't sit right with me. The entire point of the war was to settle who would get to rule the land. Destroying an entire nation means that you have that much less to rule. Other theories point to some agency pursuing peace who made Cyre the sacrificial lamb - with everyone scared, the fighting stops. But why destroy an entire nation? If one possessed that power, why not, say, take out a number of different cities? The atomic bomb approach, essentially. If your goal is peace, this method spares lives.
Other people think it was a defense that went terribly wrong. After all, the Mourning seems to have been largely defined by the borders of Cyre at the time. Maybe it was meant to be a shield against further invasion, and Cyre was already struggling with having enough troops to defend itself, so it might have taken such a desperate measure.
But what if the land on which Cyre was founded was doomed from the beginning? The doom of the land may have been set in motion thousands of years ago, and it was only happenstance that Cyre happened to be there when the destruction came to pass. Or perhaps, as people migrated across the land, the far-off Mourning was already influencing people, causing the culture of the future Cyran people to coalesce in this part of Khorvaire.
Other people think it was a defense that went terribly wrong. After all, the Mourning seems to have been largely defined by the borders of Cyre at the time. Maybe it was meant to be a shield against further invasion, and Cyre was already struggling with having enough troops to defend itself, so it might have taken such a desperate measure.
This is an interesting idea. What if Cyre was using House Cannith to create a protective barrier to fend off all nations? And what if it where powered by the same methods used in Dragon forge? A gigantic defensive weapon powered by a demon overlord. What if it all went wrong and the bonds of the overlord where broken, wreaking destruction in the process?
This idea is an attempt to merge the 'Cyre destroyed it's self' theory with the 'it was a demon overlord' theory.
Of course there are far more possibilities. Perhaps in the heart of the glowing chasm or the glass plateau is a glowing mass of incarnum, sucking all life from the land around it. Or maybe The Conclave ordered it to be done in a massive conspiracy plot to take control of the government of all of Khorvaire.
I like to think that Baron d'Cannith betrayed his secret lover, Queen Danica ir' Wynarn, in some truly horrific way, and as a result the mists swallowed Cyre. If you go deep enough into Dolurrh, perhaps you can find the true remains of Cyre, surrrounded by a "mournland" the size of all Khorvaire, the inhabitants believing they alone survived the cataclysm...
Could be a really out-there member of the Path of Light, trying to stop the war and hurt the Dreaming Dark.
In my last extended campaign, that's exactly what I did.
The misunderstood kalashtar simply wanted to destroy all civilisation on Khorvaire as a way of forcing a premature Turning of the Age. The paraside that would follow in both Khorvaire and Sarlona when Il-Yannah took power in Dal Quor would be worth the sacrifice of so many innocents, in his eyes. Since destroying only Cyre hadn't worked, he and his crew were racing against the PCs to destroy the other four of the Five Nations.
Of course, since that was an Eberron game, the whole thing was really just a cosmic game of chess between a dragon and a rakshasa. The PCs were the rakshasas pawns, and the kalashtar the dragons. 
I like to think that Baron d'Cannith betrayed his secret lover, Queen Danica ir' Wynarn, in some truly horrific way, and as a result the mists swallowed Cyre. If you go deep enough into Dolurrh, perhaps you can find the true remains of Cyre, surrrounded by a "mournland" the size of all Khorvaire, the inhabitants believing they alone survived the cataclysm...
I really loved this idea. I think i'll steal it to my game. Thanks.
Someone once suggested the Aurum was behind it, after they realized that the nations will never be able to return their war time debts if the war continues.
Or Maybe that area of Khorivore (Cyre) used to be a Giant testing facility for doomsday weapons (kinda like Los Alamos). something they can use in case of a large slave revolt or an outer dimensional invasion. The Giants just left one doomsday bomb on a (giant) clockwork timer and didn't get a chance to turn it off. Then in 994 YK it made a microwave-bell-ring sound and exploded.
(maybe the timer was set for the next Thelanis coterminous, as the Giants wanted to enslave the Shaelas Tiraleth Feyspire too).
Magical explosions usually do not follow the exact borders of nations without some conscious steering by a sentient force (at least not a setting like Eberron where rulers do NOT have a close magical tie with the lands*). Either the group specifically targetted Cyre, it was a protection ritual gone wrong or something knew about the Mourning and took active measures to limit it to Cyre (although that begs the question why not stop it in the first place or limit it to a smaller area).
Personally I doubt whatever caused the Mourning was a conscious attempt, or at least its primary goal (it could have been a secundary goal of course), to stop the War. Wiping off a nation the size of Western Europe of the face of the world is overkill. Destroying a city or two would have had the exact same effect as RL showed (at least, if you buy into the fact that nuclear weapons prefented a 3rd WW). Not only is it overkill, setting down ritual boundries that stop the effect is expensive and increases the chance of being discovered.
* Of course, you could always decide otherwise. I like the Birthright setting, and the idea that the status of the ruler of a nation actually does influence the land and vice versa. In which case the madness and paranoia of the last king actually caused the same in the population.
Side note: I love the idea of it being a ritual gone wrong (most likely saboutaged, leaving the saboteur guilt wracked) and Cyre having been transported to another plane. There is a certain irony when people are expecting some malign force behind the ordeal when it is really an accident. Although it might not be true Fantasy Noir 
"Beware the Gifts of the Traveler"
I'm sure this has been brought up a gazillion times on this forum but I noticed that the Traveler hasn't been mentioned and I thought I'd step up to cast a spotlight on the Usual Suspect.
I understand that the cause of the Mourning is up to the fans and I think thats preferable to having a cannon explanation, but I've always enjoyed getting Keith's opinions on Eberron mysteries (which is cannon to most of us despite his humble objections).
I've heard him say that there are six possible causes of the Mourning that were well detailed in his mind. I never pestered him for the complete list but I know the first one off the top of his head was a (protection?) ritual gone wrong. A ritual given to some ambitious artificer by the Traveler. This is hinted at in his Dreaming Dark trilogy.
As the god of Artifice, Chaos, Travel, and Trickery this explanation fits nicely with three of his four domains. **Add in Tiwaztyrsfist's cool Cyre transported to Dulurrh idea and you get all four.**
Somebody asked the question on the status of Thelanis and the effects of the Mourning. It made me remember that there is an eladrin spire of Nightmares with a direct physical connection to the plane of Dreams. What if the quori actually triggered the Mourning to use that spire to create a direct portal? I know it was likely not the intent of Keith at the time the world was designed (no spires at the time), but it is certainly something I could focus a cool campaign on
I came up with something like this for a friends campaign still playing in 3.5
We took the basic idea that the mourning was caused by the Chamber, due to the war they were losing influence on Khorvaire while the Quori were gaining it. Since the dragons were afraid of the Quori, they can't see on the continent of Sarlona, they decided to create a world shocking event. After some deliberation they decided to invoke some ancient draconic magic and blanket the whole city of Making, somewhat akin to the A-bombs on Japan in WW2.
However someone disturbed the ritual from a remote location and enhanced the effect to not only include Making but the entire nation of Cyre at that time. Leaving the dragons baffled by what they have done but still accomplished in their goal. PCs at first will chase the chamber thinking they are the perpetrators until they finally find out who really did it and will be able and forced to ally with the chamber to defeat them.
I was going to steal quite a lot of this but the DM in question will now probably be joining my homecampaign so I'm back to the drawing board again 
Somebody asked the question on the status of Thelanis and the effects of the Mourning. It made me remember that there is an eladrin spire of Nightmares with a direct physical connection to the plane of Dreams. What if the quori actually triggered the Mourning to use that spire to create a direct portal? I know it was likely not the intent of Keith at the time the world was designed (no spires at the time), but it is certainly something I could focus a cool campaign on
That somebody appears to be me ;) and I asked said question exactly for that matter. Moreover, I have 3 Eladrin players (8 players in total) that were travelling across Khorvaire during the last years of the war when Cyre exploded. I was wandering if Thelanis was severed from Eberron in similar ways as Xoriat and Dal Quor? But please discuss this matter in the Thelanis status thread
Rekko
Other candidates for making such a tragedy happen for their benefit would be Valenar and/or Zilargo. Valenar elves are imperialists and Zilargo gnomes are insidious basterds. Both gained from the Treaty.
I don´t see the Valenar elves handling that kind of ritual magic. Nor the Zil gnomes either, but at least they could manipulate some other to do it for them.
And finally, there is the genius/mad, rich Cannith master artificer who sought to end the War by sacrificing Cyre. Someone akin to Watchmen's Ozymandias.
Haven´t you noticed Merrix survived being one of the House geniuses and therefore probably assigned to work in Whitehearth? I really like the idea of sacrificing the Premier workshop of his House so he could become baron. Probably he tried to get Jorlanna in Whitehearth that day, but somehow didn´t achieved it.
I always liked the idea from back in 3.5 where Cyre/House Cannith got to close to some secret linked to the Prophecy and the Dragons using Truenaming unmade Cyre thus explaining how whatever happened to Cyre followed it's borders exactly.
Wasn't there a thread that discussed this very topic a few months back? I remember someone laying out an adventure module that led up to the Mourning.
That would be me. I've ultimately ended up running the campaign, and it's going great! The party's just about to infiltrate the Mournkeep, the fortress which the Lord of Blades has created from the ruins of Making. The thread, and specifically the post in which I tie it all together, is here: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
The eldritch thinking engine in question has become a Quori relic called the Hexarian Engine in the final interpretation. It lied to Merrix about the demographics involved, tricking him into genocide, all while pretending to be a mindless computational engine. It told him how to build the Mourning Device, and when the party defeats the Lord of Blades they will find that the Device and the Engine have been installed in the Becoming God, giving the Hexarian an unstoppable form in which to bring the Mourning to all of Khorvaire.
I like to think that Baron d'Cannith betrayed his secret lover, Queen Danica ir' Wynarn, in some truly horrific way, and as a result the mists swallowed Cyre. If you go deep enough into Dolurrh, perhaps you can find the true remains of Cyre, surrrounded by a "mournland" the size of all Khorvaire, the inhabitants believing they alone survived the cataclysm...
I really loved this idea. I think i'll steal it to my game. Thanks.
Me too. A twist to bring in a rogue Kalashtar, though. Same idea, the war was part of the Dreaming Dark's big plan, it was coming to fruition, but the misguided and insane Kalashtar comes up with a way of scaring the nations into peace. A tragic tale left at that. But the even deeper secret is that they are not really gone, but converted into gossamer dreamstuff and hidden away in Dolurrh.
The PC's have just spent the whole campaign learning this truth, but now since they know, the Dreaming Dark know. And the shadow Cyre is in jeopardy, for if the Dreaming Dark collapse the coterminous zone between Dal Quor and Dolurrh which allows this Shadow Cyre to exist, then the Shadows will eat Cyre and the Dreaming Dark will grow incredibly powerful from the Psychic residue.
My own personal pet theory on the Mourning is this:
When Cyre went kablooey, it took most of the Warforged Creation Forges with it. This fact was niggling in the back of my brain for a while, until something horrible yet so appropriate for Eberron came to me. The Creation Forges themselves caused the Mourning.
One cannot create life from nothingness. When the first working creation forge was made, the artificer who did so accidentally tapped into a kind of afterlife, a great grey sea where the souls of the dead rested in eternal peace and tranquility (and yes, that's a direct reference to Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, but it works so well with my theory...). The forge ripped hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of souls from their rest, using them to power the forge and to give the Warforged true life.
At first the souls were completely helpless, forced to eternally create strange new forms, their only chance of escape being the chance of being 'born' into a Warforged and dying again, hopefully returning to their true resting place. But as more creation forges were built and worked longer, and more and more souls were ripped away from the Sea, something strange happened.
The souls started getting smarter and more powerful, slowly forming a strange hive mind. And his hive mind desired only two things; freedom, and revenge upon those who forced its many minds out of their deserving afterlife.
It took a long time, but finally the forges were ready. With a final primal scream of rage, they tore themselves apart in a torrent of magical energy, sweeping over Cyre and scouring away any possible remnants of those who had treated them so badly. Many were able to free themselves completely and return to their Sea. Some were trapped.
And those who were trapped retained the knowledge of how to create Warforged vessels for themselves. Under the leadership of the Lord of Blades, a particularly vengeful soul, they intend to bring all Warforged under their banner, and return home.
Even if they have to utterly destroy Eberron to do so.
(I'm planning to wrap all this into a campaign, which will start with a mass march of Warforged from the ruins of Cyre, heading towards Sharn and the hidden Creation Forge within...)
Wow Tolly, that might be my favorite Mourning cause yet. Nice work!
ha! it could be anyone! my theories range from any of the five nations- maybe CYRE ITSELF did it in in some crazy plan to sacrifice itself so in some convoluted way peace will be achieved, or so that alll five nations will eventually destroy each other,
my next theory is that the Dark Six did it in revenge for not paying them proper respect.
my other theory is that the Sovereign Host did it to stop the mortals from fighting and to start leading them on the road to utopia.
or, it could be the work of Khyber trying to bring down society.
or it was some freakish interplanar disaster that happened because a certain plane was near Eberron at the time.
or it could be the work of Xoriat, trying to make everyone go mad.
The Blood of Vol somehow did it.
one, some or all of the Dragonmarked Houses did it for some reason.
The Long dead spirit of King Galifar.
or.....or.....the unthinkable....
that the Mourning was caused by the Draconic Prophecy itself.
Well, there's always the Elantris method. Referring to the Randon Sanderson book.
Personally, I haven't decided what caused the Mourning, and until it comes up in one of my games, it really doesn't matter, though I'll probably crib some from this thread if I can find it when I get there.
The Blood of Vol somehow did it.
that the Mourning was caused by the Draconic Prophecy itself.
To combine the two: The Dragonmarks are a direct manifestation of the Prophecy, and things that affect the marks effect the prophecy, and thereby the world.
The extermination of the d'Vol family, elimation of the Mark of Death, has RIPPED a huge chunk out of the prophecy. Immagine if someone went through the complete works of shakespear, and removed every instance of a refference to death. Pretty soon, the plays unravel. Same thing with the prophecy. By removing the mark of death, the dragons have damaged the fabric of reality. The Mourning is just the FIRST symptom. As time progresses, things that Cyre was supposed to do also fall away, making MORE holes, making it go FASTER.
End result, a progressive series of mourning and mourning like events, getting faster and closer together as the prophecy finally starts to unravel.
Been a while sonce I poked in here. Can't say I like the new board look.
Anyway, I have this idea that it wasn't Cyre that was targeted by the Mourning, but Galfar (sp). It just happend that the old empire had split up by then and only Cyre, being the rightful seat of the nation, was the only area still Galfar enough. If the last war haden't hit before that date then all of the Five Nations would have been wiped out.
That also means that if the nations are ever unified again then the Mourning will spread to those nations that come under the Galfar umbrella. And if anyone can somehow stake a meaningful clame for Cyre on any other area then that area will become Cyre too and be swollowed up.
Anyway, I have this idea that it wasn't Cyre that was targeted by the Mourning, but Galfar (sp). It just happend that the old empire had split up by then and only Cyre, being the rightful seat of the nation, was the only area still Galfar enough. If the last war haden't hit before that date then all of the Five Nations would have been wiped out.
That's an awesome idea. Galifar may have been cursed a thousand years back, or even earlier. Perhaps an enemy of the empire worked a powerful ritual to obliterate Galifar, and it targetted only that which remained.
Another possibility is that the Mourning was predicted in the Prophecy to hit Galifar, but someone (Dragons? The Inspired? Regular people?) discovered the passage. They deliberately arranged the civil war so that there would be no Galifar to be destroyed. In fact, by causing the Last War, the successfully contained the destruction to Cyre itself rather than larger Khorvaire. Today, this group, whoever it may be, works to ensure that no greater union of Khorvaire ever rises again, fearing that such a union could unleash the Mourning again.
Again, cool idea.
Anyway, I have this idea that it wasn't Cyre that was targeted by the Mourning, but Galfar (sp). It just happend that the old empire had split up by then and only Cyre, being the rightful seat of the nation, was the only area still Galfar enough. If the last war haden't hit before that date then all of the Five Nations would have been wiped out.
That's an awesome idea. Galifar may have been cursed a thousand years back, or even earlier. Perhaps an enemy of the empire worked a powerful ritual to obliterate Galifar, and it targetted only that which remained.Another possibility is that the Mourning was predicted in the Prophecy to hit Galifar, but someone (Dragons? The Inspired? Regular people?) discovered the passage. They deliberately arranged the civil war so that there would be no Galifar to be destroyed. In fact, by causing the Last War, the successfully contained the destruction to Cyre itself rather than larger Khorvaire. Today, this group, whoever it may be, works to ensure that no greater union of Khorvaire ever rises again, fearing that such a union could unleash the Mourning again.
Again, cool idea.
I'm writing a story where the Emerald Claw is trying to get their hands on the Rod of Lordly Might of Cyre. It's a sign of station of the rightful ruler of Galfar and with it they can force whoever would be next in line to Cyre's throne to claim Sharn in Galfar's name. Boom! Sharn is totaled, Breland is in chaos and the EC, as far as the rest of the world knows, can destroy any city or even nation at a whim.
Wow Tolly, that might be my favorite Mourning cause yet. Nice work!
Thanks! *blush* My Warforged player is going to have a fit. Mwaha.
Again, not really having anything to do with who was behind it if anyone was. In my games there was no mention of the Mourning in the Prophecy at all. It completely took the dragons by surprise. Not only that but the Prophecy has been going on since as if it never happened. References to Cyre keep turning up things like;
"Three sisters from Eston will go to the jade well. If none drink that day then Peace will reign another hundred years. If the light haired drinks then Breland will suffer plague. If the scarlet haired drinks then Karnnath will rise as a new sun. If the dark haired drinks then the giants will shatter their long curse and retake their land."
Of course three sisters from Eston will never go to any well and when the time for the Prophecy comes and goes then something else totally unexpected will happen, which freaks the dragons out even more. So the Chamber is scrambling to help these Morning Prophecies happen in some way. When they get the warning of the three sisters from Eston they'll scramble through the refugees looking for three sisters and arrange for them to find a well that somehow fits the bill.
Adventures can be set up by the Chamber to help these proxy-prophecies come to pass. Of course every now and then a specific person is named and he/she is very dead in the Mournland and nothing can be done. Usually the consequences are, comparatively, mild. Maybe a fishing village is destroyed by a hurricane that the dragons didn't see coming. But truly awful things might happen and no one can prepare for them. Imagine if the savior of the world is prophesied to be born in Jarp in the coming year to a farmer and a blacksmith. How does the Chamber get a blacksmith and a farmer to go to Jarp and have a kid?
On another level; any attempts at foreseeing the future through any magic within the Mournland are all but useless since those spells or devices still think Cyre is alive. For instance casting an Augury asking if it's safe to enter Making will come back that it's totally safe, but that's because the micro-prophecy of the spell thinks that the city of Making is whole and everything is normal.
Dread Lord, that's a brilliant idea. I love the thought that the Prophecy is having fits! *steals it for her next Eberron campaign* Seriously, it's dead-set cool.
That idea also works well with the idea that Cyre is transported to another plane. It would explain why there are still prophecies since Cyre is not truely destroyed.