Metrol

Once the capital of the Verdant Realm (and the original City of Verdun in the Third Age), Metrol was known as the Rising City, for many of its buildings stood atop soaring columns of rock that dared to scrape the heavens. It stood beside the Cyre River north of Eston, but is now little more than a ruined city nestled comfortably in the center of the Mournland.

The River Melandor and Starmantle Bay run right through the city.

The Cathedral of the Sovereign Host in the Holy Quarter was the center for followers of that faith.  The Vault served as the mint and treasury of the Verdant Realm, containing cultural treasures deemed to valuable to be displayed; salvagers dream of finding this "golden palace."  Floating gardens orbited the towering Royal Verishard.  Now lost, the beauty of Metrol lives only in Verdunian memory.

History

Long ago in the Third Age, Verdun was nothing more than a city (albeit a large one).  When Verdun as an entity spread across Argones, Verdun City (as it was known at the time - the capital of the Verdant Realm) was eventually renamed to Metrol in 4032 by its then ruler, Cyre ir'Wynarn, a scion of King Galifar ir'Wynarn I.

4733 Update - The knights of Dol Arrah tracked the fallen angel Kotharel the Harvester, leader of a murderous cult, to Metrol. In a battle that rocked the city, the knights defeated Kotharel and its cult, but could not kill the immortal, so they imprisoned it in Dreadhold.

A cabal of insane sorcerers who revered a group of gibbering mouthers was once based in Metrol itself. They were destroyed decades ago by Vashkal the Black, an orc mystagogue of the Gatekeepers.

4994 Update - Weeks before the Mourning, Metrol itself was threatened by Azinthian armies. At this time, the first warforged colossus was produced and swiftly sent north to reinforce the capital.

2/20/4994 Update (Day of Mourning) - According to eyewitness reports of those who got out of the city in time, the dead-gray mists of the Mournland billowed out of the royal palaces of Vermishard and blanketed the unprepared city of Metrol. During the calamity, citizens crowded aboard the lightning rails to evacuate the city, yet hundreds were forced off the last, Verdun 1313, to make way for an unknown VIP (Monreaux), causing a critical delay. Verdun 1313 was enveloped and lost to the mists. Metrol fell swiftly, and from there the mists engulfed the whole of Verdun, causing the annihilation of the realm. This seems to be the mists' first appearance, leading some to theorize Metrol was the source and center of the Mourning, yet others placed it in Maaking. Queen Dannel ir'Wynarn is presumed to have died in Metrol.

In the aftermath, magebred humanoids escaped from Clifftop arrived in Metrol and occupied the government buildings and other key areas, including the royal palaces of Vermishard. Over the next few years, they excavated tunnels linking Metrol and Clifftop and gave the ruins the appearance of being haunted.

4998 Update - It has been reported that powerful "restless spirits" (or living humanoids to a few witnesses) emerged from the Mournland near Metrol and raided camps and small settlements in the lands just outside, in Azinth and Brindinford, kidnapping folk and leaving few survivors.

Many buildings in Metrol sit upon towering, sky-scraping columns of stone, for which it was known as the Rising City. The city's beauty lives on only in the hearts and memories of the surviving Verdunians.

After the Mourning, some parts survived with just superficial damage, even seeming untouched, and look a lot like they did before the Mourning, bar the ever-present dead-gray mists and the emptiness. But many other wards are shattered, with buildings knocked over and crushed.

Notable locations in old Metrol include:

• The royal palaces of Vermishard, seven in number, including Royal Vermishard (also known as Castle Verdant), which was orbited by floating gardens
• The Cathedral on the Hill, also called the Cathedral of the Sovereign Host, dedicated to the Sovereign Host and the center of worship for its followers
• The Metrol Arena, a wondrous place where games, competitions, celebrations, and performances were held
• The Vault, nicknamed the "golden palace", both mint and treasury for the Verdant Realm, housing treasures of the realm too valuable to be put on display
• The Lightning Rail Station, once the gateway to the west

These are thought to remain wholly or mostly intact in the ruined city.

There was also a House Cannith workshop there and House Qosa's Demesne of Shadow was based in Metrol (but was reestablished in Sharn after the Mourning). A lot of valuable Qosan arts and crafts were lost here, and may yet survive.

Curiously, the Mourning seems to have wreaked geographical damage as well. A good number of Metrol's structures have apparently been relocated, rearranged, or even rotated, even while they remain intact. Entire city blocks have been found miles away or to have turned 90° from where they are on pre-war maps. The lightning rail station remains undiscovered. The three lines are presumably still joined here, but House Marquis has yet to check by sending a lightning rail through.

The streets are quiet and empty during the day, but are filled with violence and havoc at night when the ghostbeasts, misshapen monsters, and other creatures emerge, prowling and howling and killing those they catch.

The ruins of Metrol, with the warforged colossus Norr sitting in stasis.

The warforged colossus WX-5, "Norr", still operational, sits slumped amid the ruins of Metrol, near one of the towering stone pillars.

"Ghostbeasts" wander the city at nights. These ghostbeasts are described by scavengers as being vaguely humanoid, with hairless, translucent skin. They apparently glow, as with a pale, internal light. Some scavengers believed they are ghosts of slain citizens, others that they are guardian spirits placed by the Verdunian royal family to defend the city, and the rest didn't care, just trying to slay them if they crossed paths, for the ghostbeasts slaughtered those they caught out after dark.

In fact, unknown to most, the ruined city is inhabited by a secret order of magebred humanoids based in the royal places of Vermishard and perpetuating the myth of these spirits. The magebred are led by the self-proclaimed Empress Donata and have a small feudal society based on some notion of superiority.

The Mournland scavengers either stay well away from Metrol, or else venture in to loot it of lost wealth. They're increasingly common here, at least in daylight. It's an enticing place for adventurers, explorers, and fortune hunters alike, owing to its former status as capital of Verdun and a once great city of the Kingdom of the Verdant Realm, the bounty of riches once held there, and the chance to uncover the cause of the Mourning. In particular, the Ikar's Salvage band focus their attentions on Metrol's outskirts, and have been the only group to have any fortune here, but won't speak of how they've been so successful.

No other living creatures dare dwell here.

Even the powerful cannot resist the lure. Recently, as of 4998, King Kaius III of Azinth proposed to House Marquis, House Goodseller, and Prince Oargev ir'Wynarn of New Verdun a joint project to re-open the lightning rail running from the east into Metrol. After all, with three House Marquis lightning rail lines meeting in Metrol, the city was once the crossroads of Argones and the gateway to the west, so its loss was enormous just to House Marquis.  To this end, the four parties combined are offering bounties for information on the status of the lightning rail station and the Marquis guildhall; however, the station, if it still exists, seems to have been displaced from its original location, making it difficult for seekers to find. While House Marquis believes that the Verdun lines are still intact, they haven't dared try to run a commercial coach on them. Indeed, some explorers report that a lot of conductor stones have been stolen, leaving gaps so large that coaches will be derailed.

The twisted geography of the ruins has sparked increased interest in discovering the cause of the Mourning, or at least how it occurred in Metrol.