The capital of Cyre remains an enticing target for fortune seekers and explorers wishing to understand what has become of Cyre. While the deadly ghostbeasts continue to slaughter those who enter the city at night, intruders are beginning to be a more common sight during the day. King Kaius of Karrnath has recently proposed a joint effort with House Orien, House Ghallanda, and Prince Oargev to reopen the lighting rail line entering Metrol from the east. Together the four groups are offering bounties for information about the condition of the Metrol rail station and the Orien guildhall. Surprisingly, just finding the station has proven difficult. While many of Metrol’s buildings are fully intact, a number of them have seemingly moved or been rearranged. Whole city blocks are turned 90 degrees or found miles from where war-era maps say they should be. For many, this phenomenon has only increased the interest in learning what happened here.
Those who escaped Metrol on the Day of Mourning claim that the dead-gray mists first appeared boiling out of the royal palaces of Vermishard, spreading from there to cover the entire city and then all of Cyre. Certainly the city was struck without warning, and succumbed quickly, but others believe that the ruin known as the Glass Plateau was the epicenter of the arcane event.
Source: Five Nations
Once the capital of Galifar, Metrol was known as the Rising City, for many of its buildings stood atop soaring columns of rock that dared to scrape the heavens. The Cathedral of the Sovereign Host was the center for followers of that faith. The Vault served as the mint and treasury of Galifar, containing cultural treasures deemed too valuable to be displayed; salvagers dream of finding this “golden palace.” Floating gardens orbited the towering Royal Vermishard. Now lost, the beauty of Metrol lives only in Cyran memory.
Source: Rising from the Last War
The capital of Cyre, Metrol sprawls along the
banks of the Cyre River. Parts of the city remain
untouched while others are scrambled, buildings
rearranged and whole city sections askew from their
prewar locations. The royal palaces of Vermishard, as
well as the lightning rail station and the city arena,
are intact within Metrol. The Cathedral on the Hill,
dedicated to the Sovereign Host, also still stands.
Gray mist hangs in Metrol—a mist that survivors
from the city say first appeared within the royal palaces. The city is silent by day. Explorers who return
from the place tell tales of unquiet spirits and worse
emerging onto the streets at night, slaying any they
find. Despite Metrol’s proximity to the border of the
Mournland, only members of Ikar’s Salvage (see
below) have had any luck looting the place. They aren’t
talking about the hows and whys. The truth is that a
secret order of magebred humanoids controls Metrol
Source: Eberron Campaign Guide
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 superfi cial 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
Source: Eberron Campaign Setting
The capital of Cyre, Metrol suffered terribly through the war. Before the war, though, while Thronehold may have been the capitol of Galifar, the court of Metrol was in many ways its political center. The governorship of Metrol fell to the heir to Galifar’s throne. As such, those seeking to gain influence with the future ruler flocked to the city.
Unlike many other locations in Cyre, Metrol did not suffer structural damage from the earthquakes or other mundane disasters that took place on the Day of Mourning. Even though the city is intact, maps of Metrol from before the Day of Mourning are useless, as the city has been rearranged; A few of the Vermishards have been outright swapped, while the surrounding districts have seen blocks and buildings moved around without an apparent pattern.
Source: Politics of Cyre
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