History of Myth Drannor

Apex of an Empire

No city could compare to Myth Drannor at its height. Magic flowed within the surrounding air, water, and land, and peace and prosperity second to none gave every citizen reason to be happy. For once in the history of Toril, elves, dwarves, humans, gnomes, and halflings (as well as other races more sylvan) all learned to live together in harmony. The races merged and formed many alliances amid the Akh'Faer and Akh'Velahr militaries, the guilds, and the armathors. At the Opening of the City and the rise of the mythal, only Myth Drannor was considered safe for the elves to live in harmony with others. By the Year of the Bloody Tusk (661 DR), more than a score of smaller tree villages and grounded settlements scattered all about Cormanthyr evidenced a growing unanimity among the elves and the N'Tel'Quess races.SORCERERS

The city and realm prospered for centuries under its protective mythal. To become a native of Cormanthyr was a matter of prestige, and a number of cooperative villages and smaller settlements of elves and N'Tel'Quess nestled about the trees around Myth Drannor. Even with these expansions and homesteading, the true mark of distinction was to live within the hallowed streets of the City of Song. Since the Year of the Empty Helm (462 DR), no new homes were constructed above, on, or below ground within Myth Drannor, as the elves panicked when two mere centuries of settlement by N'Tel'Quess nearly doubled the population and size of Myth Drannor. Therefore, one could move to Myth Drannor only if accepted into a guild or school, or granted the property via an inheritance (an unlikely proposition until closer to the Fall).

The Sister Cities

As the mythal-cloaked City of Song grew in prominence, many questioned how its wonders could be shared with others. As one eloquent young elf writer penned in Silverymoon, "The Coronal's dream is too great to be limited to one city and one realm. We must take this message of peace through unity and magic and found other, sister cities, to show all the Realms that the dream is worth dreaming." And so, beginning about two centuries after the Opening, colonies and connections were made all across the Realms.

In this 27-decade period of colonization, over 12 separate settlements became new homes of magic and learning across the Realms. Thus, in the city's golden era, sister settlements in the High Forest, the Yuirwood, Shilmista, the Moonwoods, and other forests farther south embraced the peace and magic of Myth Drannor's unity. Other previously established settlements such as Silverymoon also grabbed hold of the dream and linked their fates and magic to that of the City of Song in Cormanthyr.SORCERERS

Silverymoon, most of all, became a center of knowledge of things elven, though few elves of Myth Drannor and Cormanthyr migrated here until the Fall (and fewer still would mention the relatively close ruins of Aryvandaar and its satellite realms from the Crown Wars era).

Contact was even reestablished with long-isolated Evereska, though only among the High Mages and Court higher-ups; it was not deemed efficacious to allow even the most honorable of N'Tel'Quess to learn of this well-hidden and thriving elf-home, for fear it would fall after untold millennia.

Still, with all these colonies and allied settlements growing slowly and steadily across the centuries, the dream grew. By the early sixth century, the Coronal and the High Mages secretly (and later publicly) established gates to link these many places with their spiritual and magical home in Myth Drannor. Most were controlled gates, their use contingent on connections within both cities. Many others, including those to Silverymoon, the High Forest, Shilmista, and the Yuirwood, were relatively public gates and required small fees of users who would travel from one city of wonders to another. These gates served the Coronal's dream well, drawing the tribes of lands even farther afield together; unfortunately, they also helped bring down both Myth Drannor and the growing mythal city in the Yuirwood.

Any readers who might be interested in learning more about Myth Drannor's golden era are advised to read the second book in the Elminster trilogy, entitled Elminster in Myth Drannor. It is an excellent recount of the time before the mythal was laid over Cormanthor and of the events that led to Cormanthor's transformation into Myth Drannor. The timeline we provide below is a detailed chronological overview of the last years before the fall of City of Song until its eventual ruin at the claws of Army of Darkness.

Year (DR) - Year Name & Events

652 Year of the Viper
Zaor Moonflower becomes one of the youngest officers of the Akh'Velahr in Cormanthyr.

654 Year of the Coveted Briars
Many druids' enclaves, both human and elf, are established this year throughout Cormanthyr and the Realms at large.

655 Year of the Volanth

656 Year of Peaceful Seas
The Circle of Flames completes the Scrolls Ardentym this year. Akh'Faer scholars and strategists receive six incomplete fragments of the Scrolls, but only the Circle and the Srinshee have complete copies of them.

658 Year of the Dangerous Game
- Rathdaen, a Cormyrean mage and Realms-wide explorer of note, arrives in Myth Drannor after a decades-long absence. While never a native, he is close friends with many practitioners of the Art in the City of Song, and remains as a guest for years at a time.
-- A gate is secretly established between the Hall of the Naturalists and the Underhalls of Mount Melairbode.

659 Year of the Hunting Ghosts
- Known as the Year of Mage's Dawning in Silverymoon, 30 wizards from Myth Drannor and 20 wizards from elsewhere in the Realms migrate to the Gem of the North, and begin establishing its role as a sister city to Myth Drannor and a center of magical and mundane learning.
-- Tulrun, born Tallrunner Tigris of the Red Tiger tribe and later known as Tulrun of the Tent, is sent to Myth Drannor by Ecamane Truesilver to study magic under the tutelage of the Seven Wizards. SORCERERS

660 Year of the Morning Horn

661 Year of the Bloody Tusk
- Height of Myth Drannor's peace and prosperity.
-- Eltargrim's Passing: The Coronal Eltargrim, at dawn on the last day of Midsummer festivals, passes on to Arvandor, leaving only the Ar'Cor'Kerym, his Ruler's Elfblade, hovering in mid-air atop the Rule Tower. Aravae Irithyl, his niece and heir, proclaims a city-wide period of mourning for the next five years. Thus ends the Sixth Rysar of Cormanthyr after 866 years.

662 Year of the Peoples’ Mourning
Rathdaen dies peacefully in his sleep, to the sorrow of many of Myth Drannor's wizardly inhabitants. He leaves the Tome of Rathdaen to his apprentice, a foolish braggart by the name of Narsel, who fears attacks by jealous rivals trying to steal his master's legacy and immediately leaves for parts west.

663 Year of the Baleful Song
Pyraan the Grim and Peridar Snowbrows secede from the faculty of the Incanistaeum, reducing the "Seven Wizards of Myth Drannor" to five.

664 Year of the Falling Petals
The Heir's Passing: Aravae Irithyl, the heir of the Coronal, and all of her personal guard are found dead under mysterious circumstances the morning after Cinnaelos'Cor. The Srinshee and the High Court Mages insist on maintaining the Mourning Days and add the funeral of Aravae to the solemn times while staving off a succession war among the noble Houses.

665 Year of the Ashen Tears
Due to political pressure amid his family, Taeral Olortynaal discontinues his long association with the Incanistaeum.

666 Year of Stern Judgment
The Claiming Chaos: The end of the Mourning Days demands an immediate decision on the succession of the Coronal. A Claiming Ceremony is convened to determine the next Coronal of Myth Drannor and Corrnanthyr. After 40 elves and the Rule Tower itself are destroyed, the Srinshee steps in, easily swinging the elfblade free of its perch.
As it is brandished before her, the golden light of the blade crystallizes around her in a massive diamond-shaped energy field that engulfs and restores the Rule Tower. Finally, with a whirl of magic, she, the magical field, and the weapon disappear.SORCERERS

667 Year of Austere Ceremonies
By early summer, the Council of Twelve now rules over Myth Drannor, crafting a new form of representative government. The city is without a Coronal for the first time in its existence.

668 Year of the Telling Tome
Wizards begin mysteriously disappearing this year from Myth Drannor and all of Cormanthyr; the only clue is that all the visible gates throughout the city crackle ominously and flash blue lightning within their boundaries. (In truth, Halaster Blackcloak of Undermountain is abducting wizards at random and banishing them to the Underhalls.)

669 Year of the Brutal Beast
Abarat the Alabaster, an elf archmage with a reputation for plane-walking, resigns as the head of the Six Tyryl Towers wizards' school and announces plans to build a tower north of the city and Cormanthor in the western reaches of the Beast Marches.

670 Year of the Many Floods
Entering the Vault of Ages for the first time in years due to an outbreak of drow within the northwestern forest, the Spell-Major Paeris Haladar finds it empty, the greatest and oldest treasures of Cormanthyr all gone!
Drow infest the northern forests, seeking to build a stronghold over the ruins of Moander's temple. The Akh'Velahr clears all drow out within 20 months.

671 Year of the Shrouded Slayer
Twenty months after building an ivory tower north of Cormanthor, the moon elf wizard Abarat contacts former associates for aid against a besieging army of monsters.SORCERERS
Though some arrive within hours of receiving the magical message, they discover that both Abarat and the monsters are all missing, as are any external signs of anything amiss. Abarat was never found or heard from again, but his unfinished tower of pure ivory, thereafter known as Abarat's Folly, still stands as a monument of elf wizardry and as a beacon to adventurers seeking gates to the planes that many claim to have seen inside.

672 Year of the Angry Caverns
Many dwarf settlers of Myth Drannor, most of them refugee clans from the fallen Realm of Glittering Swords, leave the city and move north to the southern shore of the Dragon Sea (Moonsea). They reopen the westernmost mines of Sarphil, known as the Lost Ways, which honeycomb a lengthy escarpment (known as the Scarp) that looms over the eastern reaches of the Tailings Bay.

673 Year of the Covenant
The fledgling town of Hillsafar, named in honor of the dwarf clan of the same name, is founded by elves, half-elves, and humans on the western shore of Tailings Bay to trade with the dwarves of the Scarp. Some found this settlement to both keep drow out of the area and maintain some vigilance over Moander's Crypt. Within a few decades,
the town's name is corrupted and shortened to Hillsfar.
Many of Myth Drannor's less-established craftsmen migrate to this new city in search of new opportunities.

674 Year of the Nomad
Josidiah Starym returns to Myth Drannor to a hero's welcome as he brings not the expected Soldier's Blade but the Akh'Faer's Artblade, retrieved from a deep dragon's lair far beneath the Storm Horn Mountains. Unfortunately, his reward is personal heartbreak as he realizes all he worked for is gone with the passings of both the Coronal and Aravae. Josidiah does not take up his rightful place as Lord-Speaker of House Starym, but he does (by right of the elfblade he restores to Myth Drannor) take over the leadership of the Akh'Faer and thus rise to a seat on the Council of Twelve. Josidiah refuses to discuss it, but many notice that he no longer walks with his magnificent cat Guenhwyvar, and some whisper he had to trade the cat's figurine of power for the blade. Of his 12 original comrades, only one survived: Onas Ulondarr, an elf bladesinger of House Ulondarr. Returning to the city married to Maira Shieldark, a human wizardess from Arabel, they bring with them four adult half-elf children (three women, one man; all rangers): Alupiira, Vaeala, Shaeia, and Rahsil.

675 Year of the Bloodfeud
The scandalous House Ulondarr, by openly accepting half-elves among the direct succession, suffers censure and much grief (and not a few attacks by mercenaries and assassins) from the other Houses. The attacks and social intrigues last for the next 50 years.

676 Year of Gruesome Grimoires
Taeral Olortynaal returns to the Incanistaeum and to the "Seven Wizards," though they are still only five in number. Later that year, in a politically motivated spell battle among some noble elves and humans, gold elf students accidentally kill Taeral and two human students. These elves are never charged with the crimes, as they frame the only non-elf left, and the innocent Arlesn of Arabel is forever banished from Myth Drannor for a crime he didn't commit.

677 Year of Resonant Silence
Hym Kraaven, senior among the "Seven Wizards," uncovers the truth about Taeral's death, and is swiftly killed in "an out-of-control tavern brawl" by agents and friends of the now-rogue and obviously power-mad magelings of House Faerondarl.

678 Year of the Poignant Poniard
Lord Councilor Kharis Maerdrym and his hunting party, which included several humans of note, mysteriously disappear off the coast of Delthuntle during a Grand Hunt of a near-legendary greater quelzarn. Agents of Unther are suspected in the attack (as are some of Lord Maerdrym's usual political foes).

679 Year of the Scarlet Sash
- Hillsafar is nearly destroyed by an army of deepspawn-bred monsters emerging from the tangled, treacherous Beast Marches to the west. The Akh'Velahr reinforcements of Cormanthyr succeed in dispersing the beasts by the first snowfall of winter. A small garrison of troops remains stationed in Hillsafar for the protection of the northern forests and villages until Myth Drannor's Fall.
-- End of second Untheric Empire as Unther is forced to recognize the independence of the North Coast cities on the southern fringes of the Yuirwood.

680 Year of the Storm Skeleton
Many human and dwarf stonemasons migrate from Myth Drannor to Hillsafar to aid that fledgling city in constructing its first encircling defensive wall.
After more than a decade, wizards of the Guild of Naturalists piece together the clues and realize that Halaster Blackcloak has been abducting wizards all throughout Cormanthyr in retaliation for their plundering of his monsters in Undermountain. The guild mounts a rescue expedition into the dungeon, which never returns, and they quietly end their sorties to Undermountain. Attempts to dispel or destroy the gate connecting their hall with Undermountain meet with failure.

681 Year of the Zombie Lords
During the festival of Greengrass, Archveult Tattercloak, student of the Seven Wizards, and his consort, Tlanchass, depart from Sixstars intersection in a most spectacular fashion. The latter, who had long maintained the guise of a beautiful human female, revealed her true form by transforming into a gold dragon, and the pair then flew off to
the south and west.

682 Year of the Howling
The Masked and Mentor Wintercloak effectively disband the "Seven Wizards" by leaving Myth Drannor with their last four students, all gnomes. Their departure, when one of Mentor's properties (an old stone tower) abruptly uprooted itself and flew up into the sky, heading north by northwest, was surprisingly open. The Incanistaeum now lies solely in the hands of Sakaala of the Seven Rings.

683 Year of the Tainted Troll
The young but already learned mage Nezras arrives in Myth Drannor where he joins the Six Tyryl Towers to learn more of magic. The grand-nephew of Nezram the World-Walker, Nezras seeks knowledge that will restore his uncle's Unique Mageries tome to his keeping.

684 Year of the Sundered Crypt
Dwarves of the clan Tarynstone are found digging deep tunnels under the city despite the long-held prohibitions against such actions. Furthermore, some elf Houses are outraged that the dwarves' tunneling in restricted areas collapsed some nigh-forgotten deep crypts of the elder or long-gone Houses. Clan Tarynstone and its 350 dwarves, despite a cry within the Ruling Council for death sentences and an equally loud cry for acquittal, are exiled from Myth Drannor and Cormanthyr. The clan emigrates west into the Thunder Peaks.

685 Year of the Wraithwinds
Two among the eight senior officers and one junior officer split off from the other armathors to join the resigning High Court Mage and Councilor Shyael Ildacer to pursue a new course as the "followers of the Srinshee's dream," the Eternal Srinnala.

686 Year of the Unshriven
Nezras the Scholar weds the elf wizardess Raejiisa Sicafei after both graduate from their studies at the Six Tyryl Towers.

689 Year of the Eager Executioner
The displaced Archmage Paeris Haladar attempts to slay Josidiah Starym with spells, vowing vengeance for his loss of status. Josidiah survives four assassination attempts but is nearly slain in an Honor Duel called to settle the feud. When Paeris seizes the fallen Artblade, he is found unworthy of its power and responsibility; forever after, dead magic surrounds and permeates Paeris Haladar, making him a pariah to all within Cormanthyr. Josidiah reclaims the elfblade and returns to his post as Spell-Major with honor.SORCERERS

690 Year of the Clashing Blades
Sakaala of the Seven Rings disbands and dismantles the Incanistaeum, the school of wizardry run by the "Seven Wizards of Myth Drannor." She and her three remaining apprentice-students (two elves, one half-elf) leave for parts unknown after growing wings from their backs and taking flight. At last sighting, they headed to the northwest.

692 Year of the Crawling Crags
Tulrun of the Tent, a former apprentice of Mentor Wintercloak, journeys to Ysgard this year (and remains for over a century) after encountering a Shard of Selune in the long-forgotten ruins of the Abbey of the Moon.

694 Year of the Ominous Oracle
- The first divinations and portents of doom arrive via Darcassan, the diviner of Windsong Tower; he tells the Elders of Windsong Tower of the signs, but they keep the knowledge from the public to prevent a panic. Given the climate of distrust and factionalism, this news is also kept secret from the Council, as it is uncertain where the threat to Myth Drannor's security lies.
-- The Circle of Flames and the wizards of Windsong Tower begin spiriting magical items and tomes (including the Scrolls Ardentym and the Keryfaertel) to safety. Many end up in Ascalhorn and Silverymoon in the trusted hands of colleagues there (in the cases of wizards not moving there themselves), though some wizards take off with their secrets for parts unknown over the next twelve years.

695 Year of Fanciful Feasts

700 Year of the Slain Raven
The forests of Moondale, founded shortly after the raising of the Standing Stone, are completely cleared by this date even though no living tree was ever felled by its people.

704 Year of the Emerald Citadel
The Ildacer clan, due to the internal machinations of the Ruling Council and other factions (specifically Lord Venali Starym and the Guild of Wizards, Conjurers, and Enchanters), loses much of its holdings, monies, and social status. While the Ildacers lose all their estates, they move into and maintain four inns and taverns within Myth Drannor. With the loss of Riirose, the Eternal Srinnala moves their base of operations into some old abandoned mages' towers north of the city, which are owned by another member.

705 Year of Watchful Eyes

708 Year of Bound Evils
- High Mages and three battalions of Akh'Faer mages battle a resurgence of evil beasts and cultists of the fallen god Moander near the site of his fallen temple. While the cult is dispersed, numerous "lost spells" of Moander's clergy are recovered from the ruins by the elder priests and restored to use.SORCERERS
-- Three nycaloths escape their dimensional pocket prison that floated invisibly high above Cormanthyr. Their freedom depended on "a red dragon that never held malice or greed in its heart [flying] over the Coronal's throne." As Saeval Ammath and his adopted dragon-mount Garnet flew above Myth Drannor, they weakened the dimensional
prison enough for the nycaloths to escape.

709 Year of the Earnest Oaths
The three nycaloths and their summoned yugoloth allies spend 29 months drawing together their forces amid the mountains and hills north of the Dragon Sea. In all, their army consists of orcs, ogres, bugbears, hobgoblins, gnolls, flinds, trolls, and an ever-growing assortment of lesser yugoloths.

710 Year of the Toppled Throne
Drow attacks in Cormyr claim the lives of three noble families of the realm; while believed dead, most of the nobles survive as slaves in the Underdark.

711 Year of Despairing Elves
- Late in the autumn of this year, the Army of Darkness overruns the mining and trading encampments on the western Moonsea (the site that will become Zhentil Keep). By early winter, the first incursions into Cormanthor have begun.
-- The Weeping War begins on the Feast of the Moon with the Northern Massacres campaign as the Army of Darkness engages many elf patrols and destroys many elf villages and clan enclaves.

712 Year of the Lost Lance
- The Weeping War continues through the year, resulting in the deaths of many heroes and the collective Harpers at Twilight. There are four major campaigns this year, and Myth Drannor nearly falls prey to the Army of Darkness.
-- Battle of Garnet's Pyre: The red dragon Garnet rashly attacks the Army of Darkness, and he manages to at least split the main army, slow its advance, destroy its supply lines, and trap it amidst some forest fires. Garnet disappears in the midst of battle, not to be seen again for centuries.

713 Year of the Firedrake
- The war rages on, though the allies manage to eliminate Malimshaer and Gaulguth, two of the three nycaloths leading the Army of Darkness. While three major campaigns rocked the forest for much of the year, there is a tense peace from Greengrass to Midsummer's Night; during this time, many Myth Drannan natives emigrate either to sister cities outside of Cormanthor or to Semberholme and Tangled Vale settlements.SORCERERS
-- After more than 200 years, the Twisted Tower falls once again to the dark elves, marking the refounding of the Lands Under Shadow in western Cormanthor.

714 Year of Doom
- The final campaigns of the elves and allies against the Army of Darkness see the reestablishment of Elven Court as the seat of elf power in Cormanthyr while Myth Drannor falls under siege by the Army of Darkness. With the slaughter of the army and cavalry, little can be done against the Siege of Shadow, which descends on Myth Drannor on the 21st day of Kythorn.SORCERERS
-- The Banes' Duel: The climax of the war was the duel between the two final opposing army leaders. The Banes' Duel between the forces of Aulmpiter the nycaloth and Captain Fflar lasts for two whole days, and ends with the pair facing off in mortal combat on the 15th day of Flamerule; while neither body is ever identified, the magical blast that engulfed them robs both armies of their commanders.
--- The Siege lasts until the Final Flight in Flamerule, as the now-directionless hordes of the Army of Darkness simply swarm over Myth Drannor's last defenders by savagery and sheer weight of numbers. Only 200 elves and allies out of the 3,000 who remained to defend the City of Song escaped to tell of the city's passing.

715 Year of Hungry Jaws

720 Year of the Dawn Rose
The Gathering of the Gods at the Dancing Place signals the refounding of the Harpers at the request of some elves from Elven Court. In attendance are all 15 of the Harpers at Twilight who survived the previous decade, including Lady Alais Dree, Elminster Aumar, Khelben Arunsun (once the Nameless Chosen), and Meil "Darkhunter" Araeln.
The sylvan community of Elventree is founded as a site for the elves of Elven Court to continue interaction with their allied races (since Elven Court now is prohibited to the presence of non-elves) and as a trading site.