#hellgate keep

Mintiper Moonsilver is one of the legendary bards of the Forgotten Realms, and tales of his adventures have long been recounted around hearthfires across the North in musical, poetic, and narrative forms. Transcribed in Silverymoon's Vault of the Sages by the Keeper of the Vault, Mintiper's Chapbook is a compilation of the Lonely Harpist's ballads, poems, and tales.

Myth Glaurach

No more do lovers pledge their troth, Or gaze upon the stars. No more do children sing and dance, Or dream of lands afar.

(CHORUS) For all about are bloody bones, And shattered dreams now lost. A sea of orcs sought only death, Myth Glaurach was the cost.

No more do towers soar aloft, Or cast their shadows deep. No more are stones made into walls, To form a sturdy keep.

(CHORUS)

No more do fields turn gold with grain, Or wells yield water blue. No more do tomes hold cherished lore, Or teach old thoughts anew.

(CHORUS)

                                                                    ballad entitled "The Horde’s Wake"                                                                        attributed to Mintiper Moonsilver                                                                                Year of the Arch (1353 DR)

Keeper’s Annotations

Despite being commonly attributed to the Lonely Harpist, The Horde’s Wake is actually the work of an Eaerlanni spellsinger who died in the Year of the Broken Branch (864 DR) and whose name is lost to history. Mintiper rediscovered the ballad and popularized it in recent years, accounting for the confusion over the correct attribution and its inclusion in this chapbook. (It should be noted that, in lieu of "Myth Glaurach," most bards substitute the name of another city or realm that has fallen to a horde of orcs and is better known to their audience when performing this ballad. Of course, this practice only contributes to Myth Glaurach’s continuing obscurity.)

The Journal of Ilygaard Stormhawk, Druid of the Tall Trees Circle, which now lies in the Vault of Sages in Silverymoon, speaks of Mintiper’s first performance of The Horde’s Wake in the Year of the Arch (1353 DR). According to Ilygaard’s account, Mintiper introduced the ballad to the assembled audience of druids by explaining that it had come to him in vision several years before while in the throes of a terrifying nightmare during a night spent amidst some ruins that lay to the east of Hellgate Keep. The Lonely Harpist and his companion, the slave girl Noura, had sought refuge in a small chamber beneath some creeper-covered rubble as they made their way westward from the Far Forest to Tall Trees, attempting to skirt the demons and ghoul packs of Hellgate Keep. Although Noura’s dreams while amidst the ruins were untroubled, Mintiper spent the night vividly reliving the death of an elven spellsinger whose city was being overrun by an orc horde. During the course of the nightmare, Mintiper somehow learned the elf’s centuries-old final ballad, The Horde’s Wake, composed during the sacking of Myth Glaurach as the spellsinger’s lifeblood slowly drained away. [1]

It is my belief that Mintiper learned of this ballad while communing with the spirit of a long-dead inhabitant of Myth Glaurach, perhaps by way of a heretofore unknown property of the mythal said to still cloak the city’s ruins. The wizardly mythal that envelops Myth Glaurach is perhaps the youngest and least well known of these living fields of magic to be found in the Realms. [2] As Myth Glaurach had neither a long nor particularly illustrious history ere its destruction, few tales of fabulous treasure or magic are linked with its name. [3] Nevertheless, this little known site is a place of great magical power, and its ruins have long been a convenient staging ground for adventurers daring to explore the nearby citadel-town of Hellgate Keep. [4]

Myth Glaurach’s mythal was raised in the Year of the Turning Leaf (590 DR) over the Eaerlanni city of Glaurachyndaar, known in that era as the City of Scrolls. [5] Elven and human wizards from Ascalhorn, Eaerlann, Evereska, Silverymoon, and Myth Drannor participated in the casting, employing a variant of Mythanthar’s create mythal spell based in part on the earlier work of Mythanthar. [6] Major participants in the raising of the mythal were Ecamane Truesilver, Khelben Arunsun, Tisharu Craulnober, and Tellshyll the Aged. [7] Myth Glaurach was intended to be the first of three allied cities wrapped in myth, but planned wizardly mythals over Ascalhorn and Silverymoon were never raised. [8]

Myth Glaurach was overrun by the Nethertusk Horde in the Year of the Broken Branch (864 DR), just eighteen years after its defenders easily repulsed the much larger Bloodfang Horde. For generations, military historians have debated the factors behind this tragedy, but most scholars agree that King Malraug of the Nether Peaks, a venerable orc of tremendous cunning, simply outwitted the overconfident commanders of Myth Glaurach’s military on his second attempt to overrun its defenses.

A surprising explanation for the fall of Myth Glaurach is revealed in the journal of an orc shaman from that era, a little-known volume entitled Life with Tusks found in the Herald’s Holdfast. According to that account, Myth Glaurach was warded against any being that had consumed the flesh of men, a rite of passage to become a warrior in most orc tribes of the region. After the decimation of the Bloodfang Horde, the one-eyed god of the orcs revealed the cause of their failure to his surviving shamans in the region. After they informed their liege of their collective vision, Malraug then banned an entire generation of orcs from consuming the flesh of their hated foes. The orcs’ patience was rewarded nearly two decades later, when the Myth Glaurach’s mythal provided no impediment to the Nethertusk Horde.

If this account can be believed, it might well explain why several adventuring bands have found sanctuary among the ruins of Myth Glaurach from the demons of Hellgate Keep and their packs of ravenous ghouls. [9] Other properties of Myth Glaurach’s mythal have been lost, forgotten, or corrupted by decay, although those that survive have permitted the inhabitants of Hellgate Keep and certain daring adventurers to work powerful incantations and to replenish magic they carry.

Chronicler’s Footnotes

[1] Further discussion of the Journal of Ilygaard Stormhawk, the slave girl Noura, and Mintiper’s trek across the Upvale can be found in Mintiper’s Chapbook: Crypt of the Black Hand.

[2] There are believed to be four true wizardly mythals in Faerûn, including the one raised over the Imperial Mount of Shoonach in the Year of the Black Flame (229 DR), the one raised over Myth Drannor in the Year of Soaring Stars (261 DR), Myth Glaurach’s mythal, and one as yet unidentified.

[3] Although Myth Glaurach is largely forgotten except among the Fair Folk, its historical importance far exceeds that which the Keeper attributes to it, and the ruins of this ancient city still contain some of the greatest treasures of the elven realm of Eaerlann. Other treasures were plundered by the demons of Hellgate Keep and may yet lie within the ruins of neighbouring Ascalhorn. In those few tales that do speak of the City of Scrolls, mention is made of Delimbiyra’s Shining Bow, the Dragontear Crown of Sharrven, and the Shattered Staff of Starsongs, none of which have ever been recovered.

[4] See Mintiper’s Chapbook: Crypt of the Black Hand for further discussion of this fallen bastion of evil.

[5] Founded ere the rise of Netheril, Glaurachyndaar was a small city in eastern Eaerlann near the confluence of the River Aulantrar (Deepingstream) and the River Starsilver, well known for its school of elven wizardry. After the Fall of Netheril, the High Mages of Glaurachyndaar joined the ruling council of Ascalhorn in advocating the reeducation of Netheril’s surviving arcanists in the ways of elven magic. Over the course of the next eight centuries, the elven mages of Glaurachyndaar worked closely with the Netherese refugees who settled in Ascalhorn, making the City of Scrolls an ideal candidate to emulate the example of Myth Drannor.

[6] Mythanthar’s notes on mythal construction and his rudimentary notes on his create mythal spell were recorded in workbook known as Mythanthar’s Folio. During the raising of Myth Drannor’s mythal, thieves broke into Mythanthar’s ruined tower and stole his workbook, which has never been recovered. However, one of his collaborators, the Srinshee, kept a copy of Mythanthar’s notes and the sole complete copy of Mythanthar’s create mythal spell, but The Srinshee’s Specular vanished, along with its owner, in the Year of Stern Judgment (666 DR).

At least three wizards are known to have studied from The Srinshee’s Specular ere it disappeared: Elminster Aumar, the legendary Sage of Shadowdale, the Nameless Chosen, who later took the name of Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun the Elder, and Tisharu Craulnober, an Eaerlanni female moon elf of House Craulnober. (Tisharu was an elder sister of Elanjar Craulnober and great-aunt of Elaith Craulnober, as well as the last of her clan to dwell in Eaerlann.) The Craulibram contains the only known record of Lady Tisharu’s discoveries, said to advance the art of mythal construction beyond what Mythanthar achieved in one key aspect: Myth Glaurach’s mythal seems far more resistant than Myth Drannor’s mythal to the desecration of its natural environs and the proximity of lower planar creatures. These advances no doubt account for Myth Glaurach’s relative health despite the centuries-long presence of many demons in the Upvale region. The Craulibram vanished during the raising of Myth Glaurach’s mythal, just as Mythanthar’s Folio had several centuries before. It too has never been recovered, although persistent whispers suggest it is still hidden within the ruins of Myth Glaurach.

The only other known record of a wizard’s create mythal spell was penned by Qysar Shoon IV in the Year of Black Flame (229 DR). The Necroqysarus, as the necromancer’s twelve-volume set of spell librams is known, was never recovered, so the exact details of the only known true mythal to be created by a non-elven wizard have never been studied. However, a horrific legend survives from that era that suggests Shoon IV survived the casting, despite serving as the primary caster, by draining the life forces of the four secondary and the four tertiary casters instead of his own. The former group was composed of human courtiers the Necroqysar deceived into voluntarily collaborating in the raising of the mythal. The latter group consisted of four captive elven sorceresses, all of whom are said to still haunt the catacombs beneath the Imperial Mount as banshees.

[7] The mythal that envelops the ruined city of Myth Glaurach is a wizardly mythal that has lasted for over 700 years and should last for nearly 400 more, albeit in increasingly corrupted form. At the time of its creation, Myth Glaurach’s mythal was imbued with 5 major powers and 19 minor powers. Approximately 500 hit points were drained during the creation of Myth Glaurach’s mythal, so the mythal remained whole and healthy for over five centuries. In the past three centuries, the mythal has lost 1 major power and 7 minor powers. 2 of the remaining major powers have become corrupt, as have 7 of the minor powers.

As implied previously, the central caster of the variant of Mythanthar’s create mythalspell in this instance was Tisharu Craulnober. She imbued one major and one minor power into the mythal. Four secondary casters participated in the raising of Myth Glaurach’s mythal, including Aelynthi of the Eagles, a female moon elf of Eaerlanni ancestry and Clan Archmage of House Alenuath, Isinghar "Feyrune" Ironstar, a dwelf runecarver and archmage of Ammarindar, the Nameless Chosen (see above), and Tsaer "the Horned" Nyamtharsar, a male moon elf of Eaerlanni ancestry and Clan Archmage of House Nyamtharsar. Each added one major power to the mythal. Six tertiary casters also participated in the raising of Myth Glaurach’s mythal, including Caerthynna of the Swirling Stones, a female moon elf of Eaerlanni ancestry and noted creator of ioun stones, Durngrym, an itinerant human male incantatar, Ecamane Truesilver, a human male who later became the first High Mage of Silverymoon, Jaluster of Ascalhorn, a human male archmage whose orizon later survived the fall of Hellgate Keep, Nyaalsir the Stareye, a male moon elf of Eaerlanni ancestry, and Symrustar Auglamyr, a Cormanthan gold elf female and Chosen of Mystra. Each added three minor powers to the mythal. (The Keeper’s incomplete and somewhat incorrect list of participants reflects both the natural bias of scholars of the Vault of Sages towards major figures in Silverymoon’s history and the natural distortion of the historical record over time. As Khelben has taken great pains to keep his identity as the Nameless Chosen distinct from his current guise, the Keeper’s inclusion of him in the list of the creators of Myth Glaurach’s mythal is purely happenstance.)

[8] Although plans to create "Myth Ascal" were never realized, the fall of Ascalhorn in the Year of the Curse (882 DR) necessitated that something be done to contain the demons that seemed poised to conquer the North. On Midsummer’s day in the Year of the Fell Firebreak (886 DR), a number of Harpers and powerful wizards created a near-mythal around what had become known as Hellgate Keep, using knowledge gleaned from Mythanthar’s Folio (or rather, The Srinshee’s Specular) in conjunction with other sources of power hidden in Ascalhorn ere its fall by the elves. The primary power of this near-mythal trapped all greater or true demons within the walls of Hellgate Keep and prevented them from summoning others of their kind as reinforcements.

Similarly, no mythal was ever erected over Silverymoon, although many powerful wards have been woven around the Gem of the North since the Year of the Ominous Oracle (694 DR). The establishment of Luruar has led to a new spate of rumors that Alustriel seeks to raise a mythal over her realm’s capitol city, but for now plans for the creation of "Myth Lurue" are merely conjecture.