Silverymoon
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Silverymoon is a beautiful city that stands south of the ancient trees of the Moonwoods. Home to over 26,000 humans, dwarves, gnomes, elves, half-elves, and halflings, it is often called the Gem of the North. Silverymoon’s considered the North’s center of learning and culture, and its close ties with the Heralds and Harpers, as well as powerful local mages (such as the Mistmaster or the mysterious Shadowcloak), only aid in its reputation as the North’s major seat of knowledge. It’s a happy place where many races dwell together in peace. The city’s peace and civilized demeanor owes much to its kindly, diplomatic ruler, the High Lady Alustriel, a silver-haired sorceress known to be at least two hundred years old.
Silverymoon straddles the River Raurin at its bend westward toward the Evermoors. The heart of the city, including the palace and Silverymoon’s oldest buildings, lies located on the northern bank. Its half-circle shape is surrounded by defensive walls that have been breached only three times in the city’s history. The walls are pierced by three gates: Moorgate on the west, Hunter’s Gate to the north, and Sundabar Gate at the city’s eastem perimeter. A road surrounds the walls on the outside, and it connects with the three trade roads leading out the gates.
Across the Rauvin lies the newer sector of Silverymoon. This area contains many warehouses, paddocks, docks, and caravan businesses, but it also plays host to the city’s pride and joy - the Vault of the Sages. In addition, a number of magic schools are in residence, and there has been talk for years of unifying them into a mages’ university of sorts. The north bank links to the south by the Moonbridge, a construct of invisible magic that glows with a silver sheen in the moonlight. Silverymoon is, outside of Waterdeep, one of the few bright spots of civilization and learning in the North. Its fortunes are dictated less by trade and war and more by knowledge and magic. Waterdeep alone boasts a greater population of settled wizards on the Savage Frontier, but many Silverymoon rulers, including Alustriel, have always made the preservation of knowledge and the magical arts a priority for the city. Many say that Silverymoon’s values toward music, education, and the arts "echo that of lost Myth Drannor," though they are even more open to those of all races than the elves of Cormanthor ever were.
The seal of the city is a thin crescent moon that curves up and points to the right and down, sheltering a star under its uppermost horn. The silver moon and star are displayed on a royal blue field when worn as a badge by all Knights and members of the Spellguard, Alustriel’s elite wizard corps. The seal is also graven in stone markers to mark the boundaries of Silverymoon-claimed lands. Harpers in the North use the sigil and a number on small stone plinths across the North to represent how many days’ ride it is from that point to Silverymoon. Silverymoon mints a crescent-shaped, shining blue coin called an "electrum moon." These are worth 2 electrum pieces in Alustriel’s lands and 1 electrum piece elsewhere. The other major currency is a larger, round coin called the "eclipsed moon;" they stamp the shining blue crescent of an electrum moon together with a darker silver wedge to complete a round coin, and it is worth 5 electrum pieces in the city and 2 electrum pieces outside the city.
As should be expected of a city of high sorcery and culture, Silverymoon is enveloped by protective magical wards. The extent of the wards is not common knowledge, though it is assumed that there are wards on the gates around the city. There is also a permanent major ward centered on Alustriel’s palace similar to the mythal cloaking Myth Drannor. All of Silverymoon’s wards detect evil creatures, and they also alter magics cast within a certain distance of the gates. The gate wards contain spell-triggered alarms that summon the Knights or the Spellguard under certain conditions, and they also negate all invocation and summoning spells cast by those who do not carry a token against the wards’ effects. The wards surrounding the palace are stronger still, though no one has penetrated the defenses of the castle in over a century to test the wards’ abilities.
Rumors say that certain evil races cannot enter the palace grounds without a token to pass through the ward, and only Alustriel and her Spellguard are capable of casting spells within its walls. As with many things in the city, only the Bright Lady knows those answers.
History of Silverymoon
As this area is far more dangerous and orc infested than the lands around Waterdeep, Silverymoon’s history and heritage as a settlement is far shorter than the City of Splendors. Still, its growing status as a center of learning and up-and-coming trade and capital city have marked Silverymoon as an important site in the Savage Frontier for decades, if not centuries.
Like Waterdeep, Silverymoon was the site of tribal meetings for centuries before any structures ever graced the site at the river. For reasons long lost to time, the locale at the bend in the River Raurin is a holy site to both Lurue the Unicorn and Mielikki. Therefore, rather than trade, the Silverymoon site was used only as a place of religious pilgrimage from the tumultuous times after Netheril’s fall until roughly a millennia ago. Some parts of the city still retain small groves, despite the need for new buildings, as these are the few remnants that are still considered holy ground to these sylvan powers. Some unnamed human tribe built a small wood-and-rope bridge over the shallows of the Rauvin, after having used the area as a river ford for years. The bridge was replaced decades later by a stone bridge built by humans and dwarves together and called Silverymoon Ford, after an alternate name of Lurue the Unicorn. This stone bridge eventually gave way to the magical Moonbridge of today, but some of its carved stone unicorns still adorn the battlements of the High Palace of Silverymoon.
Within a century of establishing a bridge at Silverymoon Ford, the Moonsilver Inn was built nearby by Gareth Ammakyl, and this was the first permanent building on Lurue’s holy lands. It took another six decades for much of a lasting village to form around the inn, and yet another century or more before Silverymoon became a city even marked on maps of the Savage North.
Legend says that the Moonsilver Inn was once visited centuries ago by Mielikki and Lurue disguised as a female ranger and her steed. They fell in love with the inn and the people of Silverymoon Town, since they chose not to plunder the forests and destroy, but rather build in harmony with the site. Popular belief adds to the tale, saying that the goddesses blessed the inn with their power, promising safety to all who keep such goodness in their hearts. By the time of the Old City, the Moonsilver Inn had fallen, but its foundation stones were used as part of the city gates. In fact, some of those same stones are still in use as part of the outer walls of the city, and many natives believe that the goddesses’ blessings are still conferred to the city and its natives through the stones.
When the first set of city walls were constructed and completed in 637 DR, Silverymoon was officially a city and elected its first of 12 High Mages to rule the city. Previously, as a village and town, Silverymoon was ruled primarily by warriors who helped defend it from the monsters dwelling all around it. The arrival of the High Mage Ecamane Truesilver and his nine apprentices vastly improved Silverymoon’s standards of living and comfort. The ten wizards established a school and library and brought education to many of the illiterate loggers, trappers, and fishermen; helped repel two orc hordes from the wooden palisades surrounding the town; and aided the town’s defenders in clearing away a local orc tribe that had harassed Silverymoon for over two decades.
From Ecamane’s first days as High Mage, the Gem of the North has moved ever forward toward his goal of creating a sister city to Myth Drannor in the Savage Frontier. Silverymoon has been ruled by a mage for seven centuries, and the High Mages’ rule has been disrupted only twice. The symbol of rulership, the Staff of Silverymoon, was first adopted by High Mage Aglanthol the Red in the Year of the Lost Lance. A new Staff has been carved successively for each High Mage for more than six centuries.
In the Year of the Toothless Skulls, High Lady Mage Elué Dualen suddenly abandoned her post as ruler of the city and transported herself to the Outer Planes to deal with some unknown emergency. She left it to her council of advisors to choose a suitable ruler to replace her; instead, the councilors each squabbled and wrestled to gain power for himself. Treachery intruded when the commander of the army slew his fellow councilors and established military rule over Silverymoon. The iron-fisted rule of Warlord Lashtor lasted only for one year, but during that time, he slew nearly every known mage living within the city walls and burned the Silver Lady’s Library, the predecessor to the Vault of the Sages.
Luckily, many of the rare texts and tomes were saved and kept by the Harpers for posterity. Lashtor fell from his bloodied throne with the return to Silverymoon of Lady Elué’s greatest apprentice, Tanalanthara "She-Wolf" Mytersaal, whose brother Yril helped rally allies among the army. After deposing and publicly executing the warlord and his ranking accomplices with magical webs of liquid fire, she freed many of Lashtor’s prisoners and restored the rule of the High Mages to public acclaim. Tanalanthara became known as Lady Wolf the Protectress and ruled Silverymoon for five short years, during which she restored it to its former greatness but fell defending the walls from an orc horde in 882 DR.
The last disruption of the High Mages’ rule started in the Year of the Long Watch with the retirement of High Mage Orjalun the Wise. Leaving the staff of office and the city in the hands of his apprentice Sepur, Orjalun left the city almost as mysteriously as Elué Dualen had 200 years before. Sepur, after a cautious two-year wait, exposed his perfidy and simply abandoned Silverymoon to the fates while taking some of its items of power with him. Years later, his shattered staff was found atop a scorched tor in the Trollmoors, and Sepur is believed to have met a deserved traitor’s death. Still, his abandonment of Silverymoon with no successor left the city in turmoil. In what is now known as Spellsfall, 25 wizards of various and sundry power levels slew each other and destroyed large parts of the city in attempts to gain the Silver Throne of the High Mage. At the same time, both the army and the growing merchant class wanted their candidates to rule the city instead of a new High Mage. A power struggle ensued.
The five-month stretch of Spellsfall led to the election of Silvermayor Theomel Scalson, a politically savvy merchant with former military ties and children among the surviving wizard class of the city. The Silvermayor led the city well in mercantile terms and rebuilt much of the damage, even doubling the size of the southern sector of the city. However, when huge orc hosts threatened to overrun Silverymoon in the Year of the Black Horde, the Silvermayor found that he did not have the full support of the military, and he was virtually deposed in all but name by the petty, grasping Warlord Khallos Shieldsunder. Warlord Khallos was soon slain in battle against the orcs, whom he believed to be less of a threat than they actually were, and the army saw the first breach of Silverymoon’s walls in over 600 years by the orc hordes. Valiant support was given to the army by a fledgling Spellguard, an idea of the Silvermayor’s that proved fruitful. The walls held for another month while the city fell under siege, with 7,000 orcs encamped around the damaged walls. Eager to claim responsibility and power, the greedy Spellguard Captain Shaloss Ethenfrost claimed the title and power of the High Mage for himself, though the city under siege hardly noticed or cared in its despair.
Alustriel Silverhand and her sister Storm led an army of Harpers to relieve and free the besieged Silverymoon two months later. After breaking the siege and refortifying the city’s defenses and walls, Alustriel entered Silverymoon only to come under magical attack. High Mage Ethenfrost saw the people flocking to Alustriel’s side, and he wanted to rid himself of a potential rival for leadership. While Storm’s Harpers and the remaining defenders of Silverymoon fought orcs at the Battle of Tumbleskulls, Alustriel single-handedly destroyed the would-be-tyrant mage Shaloss Ethenfrost and his two apprentices in a magnificent spell battle. With the breaking of the orcs and the fall of Shaloss to her credit, Alustriel was unanimously elected High Mage by every native of the city. Since 1235 DR, Silverymoon has flourished under the kind rule of Lady Hope, Alustriel Silverhand of the Seven Sisters. 1367 In early Nightal, two nights of snow are strangely emerald green in hue. The snow evaporated quickly and spurred fantastic growth and fruit production from all plants within two day’s ride of Silverymoon and Everlund!
Places of Interest (MAP OF CITY)
Arken’s Invocatorium: This institute of magical learning was housed in an old garrison post for Silverymoon’s soldiers in times past. For the past 30 years, Arken the Icy made it his home and school for the special study of invocation magics. The building suffered extensive structural damage in recent months due to spectacular miscastings by two of Arken’s students who have since been expelled. At Alustriel’s behest, Arken is abandoning his old building and is purchasing property between the Lady’s College and Miresk’s magic school across the river. With his move and joining of the University, Arken has accepted the opening post of Magus Invoker, the head of the Invocation School.
The Bright
Blade Brandished:
This tavern is favored by adventurers because it's luxuriously furnished and
kept by folk who are friendly to everyone, no matter how uncouth, unwashed,
strange, dangerous-looking, or badly wounded they are. Service is attentive
without being intrusive. The serving maids know their regular clientele by name,
and steer rivals and enemies apart, introduce lonely newcomers to those with
similar interests, and even guide the drunken home. They are aided by resident
wizards, who use magical items with telekinesis abilities to whisk drinks to
and from the thirsty over the heads of folk - and to snatch away suddenly drawn
weapons or spoil spellcasting before trouble can get properly underway. Several
curtained alcoves and booths open off the main taproom.
Dawndancer House: This shrine to Sune is one of the smaller temples in the city, but it is noted for its beautiful glass work. Over half of the eastern wall behind the altar is an elaborate window of stained glass in the shape of Sune’s holy symbol, and it glows a delicate shade of rose when the congregation sings. Shandalara Sindertal is the human high priestess of Dawndancer House, though some mistake the small woman for a half-elf with her elegant features and slightly pointed ears.
Everdusk Hall: Everdusk Hall was once one of Silverymoon’s oldest and most revered temples. Since its burning 22 years ago, the elven shrine has been rebuilt to the same exact specifications as the previous temple, though the elves regard it as a lesser work compared to the original. The hall is shaped like a diamond with numerous marble statues of the elven gods along the walls of the ground floor. Upper floors contain a library (holding books and scrolls written only in elvish, all of which have been copied and translated in the Vault of Sages), individual chapels for private worship services, and the offices and living quarters of the clerics and sages that inhabit Everdusk Hall. It is said that if you want to learn of the elves from the elves, go to Everdusk Hall and find the friendships of lost Myth Drannor there still. The Loremaster of Everdusk Hall is the venerable 350-year-old elf Elaith Waterstill.
Foclucan: The legendary bard college of the North lies in the southern quadrant of the city across the river. Located immediately south of the Lady’s College, it stands abandoned as it has for over a century since it closed its doors during the orc siege in the Year of the Black Horde. Its exterior stonework is relatively intact, and the shell of the building is clean, but its tile roof is still shattered in some places and the interior was gutted by another fire decades ago.
Alustriel has not ordered the building destroyed in the hopes that the college might be restored one day. With the rise of the New Olamn bards’ college in Waterdeep, the bard and Harper Myrthos Shyllantham has petitioned the High Lady to devote the money to restoring Foclucan to its former glory. With the rumors about unifying the wizards’ schools in the air, it seems possible that the bards’ school might become part of the magical university if it is to be rejuvenated any day soon.
Fortune Hall: This minor temple to Tymora has seen tragedy in the recent death of Luckpriestess Shermata Chang. Shermata was with an adventuring party deep within the northern Moonwoods, investigating an old ruined temple and tomb complex, when she and two members of Kismet’s Champions fell in an ambush staged by the gnolls that live in the ruins. Her swiftly elected replacement, Luckpriestess Aratha Sul, ended the period of official mourning within a tenday, and some object to the abruptness of this temple business. Still, to those in the faith, they do not mourn when luck runs out, as they do not celebrate when destiny intervenes in their behalf. The temple itself is small but sponsors a parlor on the southern shore where the soldiers of the city play games of chance.
The Golden
Oak:
This excellent, expensive inn is also a temple to Shiallia, a local deity tied
to Silvanus and Mielikki. (Be careful not to wantonly destroy seedlings or harm
any animal babes while in Silverymoon or the High Forest lest you direly offend
her.) I was not allowed near the place. I was told itís very beautiful and has
a live oak tree growing upthrough the taproom, with little lanterns hanging
down from its boughs over every table. The rain comes in, so in stormy weather
the taproom empties quickly to cellars downstairs and meeting rooms that open
out from the taproom on all sides, a few steps up.
The Halls of Inspiration: This temple for Oghma and Milil is one of Silverymoon’s greatest prides. Its high towers are exceeded in height only by the monolithic Vault of the Sages and the High Palace itself. Songmaster Beldor Thrivvin and Chief Priest Irithym Winiter preside over the services of the two gods of knowledge and lore with the able help of First Singer Corbas Daerhjan of Oghma.
The four towers at the comers of this rectangular temple contain extensive libraries and prayer rooms. The spires atop the towers hold solid silver bells that chime the times for services. The main floor of the temple is a three-story open amphitheater and chapel with balconies lining the walls for choirs and listeners alike. The top floor of the Halls of Inspiration contains the living quarters and offices of the priests, while the four basements hold other libraries, quarters for visiting bards and indigent souls alike, and the vaults for church reliquaries.
Helmer's
Wall:
This tavern gets its name because much of it was once a gatehouse in the old
city wall (now torn down). It has become the favorite haunt of the many students
who come to Silverymoon to study at the colleges - and like all such places,
itís a bustling center of excited talk, constant toasts, pranks, romance, and
drunken folk getting up on tables to make speeches almost pompous and confused
enough (or poetry bad enough) to deserve all the small items thrown their way.
The ale is good, and the wine even better, but beware strangers snatching up
your flagon to toast someone or something.
The High Palace: Alustriel’s palace is placed just within the eastern arc of the city walls, east of the open market. Officially called the High Palace, it is now both the seat of power for Silverymoon as well as Alustriel’s governmental court for her fledgling country. At first sight, the impressive facade and its lofty towers and walls seem carved from one block of solid white marble. The merlons of the battlements are not blockshaped, but rather carved in the likeness of a rearing unicorn. Atop and inside these walls patrol numerous utterly loyal warriors, wizards, familiars, and a number of other magical safeguards that serve to make this one of the most impregnable fortresses of the North.
As is widely rumored, many areas within the High Palace have interior wards as powerful (if not more so) as the magical protections on the gates of the city. In fact, without a special ward token, many rooms and vaults in the upper castle and lower dungeons cannot even be entered! The most highly 51.shielded rooms are the Throne Room, the Great Hall, the Councilors’ Assembly, Alustriel’s Gallery, and the private chambers of High Lady Alustriel; in any of these rooms, no spells or magical items function without the correct ward token.
The High Palace’s two northern towers are primarily for the use of the High Guard, the palace’s independent guards. The High Guard is 150 warriors strong and is supplemented by the Spellguard, the battery of spellcasters whose main offices are in the central tower of the castle. The central building of the keep holds the majority of the official and personal chambers for servants and the High Lady. The fourth and southernmost tower was once Alustriel’s Tower and the location of her private library and laboratories. It has since become the temporary quarters and offices of the new High Mage, Taern Hornblade.
While none in the city know for certain, there are twelve dungeon levels beneath the High Palace, and only four have ever appeared on any plans drawn up of the palace. Only senior Spellguards and the High Lady’s councilors have tokens allowing them into the fifth and lower dungeon levels, while only the High Mage (by bearing the rod of office, the Staff of Silverymoon) can breach the lowest four. Among other things below are prisons, a library of history on Myth Drannor and early Silverymoon compiled by Consort Elénaril, additional food stores for the winter months, the greatest wine cellar north of Waterdeep, an armory filled with weapons of all sorts, and much more.
What most Palace folk believe to be the lowest level of the High Palace is the Crypt of the High Mages, the burial tombs of Ecmane Truesilver, Aglanthol the Red, Ederan i.Catseyela Nharimlur, Tanalanthara iaShe-Wolfla Mytersaal, Tanisell the Cloaked, and Nunivytt Threskaal. Entered through a mithral gate at the foot of the stairs, the Crypt is protected by wards equal to those in the Throne Room high above. There are seven biers for the resting places of the High Mages, though the last one is empty, a marble statue of Orjalun at its base. The other six High Mages rest as if sleeping atop stone biers, their bodies turned to stone and surrounded by webworks of magic to prevent their rest from being disturbed. Beautifully carved statues of their likenesses in their prime stand by their feet.
The statues each hold that High Mage’s staff of office in its marble grasp, though Ecmane Truesilver’s holds a staff of the magi. No sound may be uttered in this hall above a loud whisper, and rarely are any allowed into the Crypt beyond family members, the High Mage, or Lady Alustriel. The four lowest levels, open only to Alustriel and now Taern, contain treasure chambers filled with volumes of knowledge and magic of which the Keeper of the Vault of the Sages has only heard. Here lie the sanctums and the private magical libraries of all the previous High Mages save Shaloss Ethenfrost, who never knew of their existence. Aside from Khelben Arunsun’s collection in Blackstaff Tower of Waterdeep, the High Mage’s Vault contains the greatest assemblage of magical items and artifacts in the North. In fact, it holds more rare artifacts from Myth Drannor and Ascalhorn than Khelben’s hoard, though none of the High Mages since Ederan have brought these items from the palace depths.
Given the shift in Alustriel’s power, Silverymoon and the High Palace must adapt to their increased influence. Starting with the spring thaws of 1370, the eastern wall of the city, the Knights’ Garrison, and the High Palace will be expanded. The palace needs additional space for diplomats and a separate throne room for Alustriel in her new position over the nine settlements of the Interior North, since the Silver Throne is the seat of the city’s power. Draftsmen within the city are all feverishly working on plans for the expansions, hoping their designs will be chosen for work on any of the developments in the city. The work may take up to a year, and until then, Alustriel and Taern share the High Palace and the Star Courts for their rulerships.
The House Invincible: Vigilant Master Erssler Thamm leads the hearty and steadfast worshipers at the city’s major temple to Helm. Silverymoon is one of the few places in the Realms that Helm’s worship did not suffer after the Time of Troubles. Most of the Knights in Silver and some of the Spellguard are ardent worshipers of Helm, believing that devotion to their duty as protectors of the city allow it to survive. Over the past ten years, this temple has grown in the number of faithful attendants, as it welcomes Helm’s worshipers without judgment. Unlike other temples, the House Invincible has no lofty spires or delicate ornamentation. At first glance, it appears as a fortified garrison or stone keep, and it has served as such for troops during times the city walls have been breached.
In fact, the House Invincible has done the city and her Lady a great service. Before a request was even made, Master Erssler opened up a number of offices, quarters, and the lesser chapel as an assembly hall to Methrammar Aerasumé, the Shining Guard. Methrammar needs the space within the House Invincible as a temporary headquarters and recruiting post for the newly forming army of their fledgling country. Alustriel and her son are both grateful for the ready aid of the Brothers of Helm, and are glad their new country has some divine backing from the Protector.
The Inn of the Wayward Sages: This inn, near the center of the city was recently damaged in a fire and rebuilt. Its rooms are cozy, but the furnishings are on the shabby side. In winter, Iím told, the small fire grates do little to throw off the chill that pervades the place. The food - particularly the roast pheasant in cream sauce - is excellent. Several stories compete to tell how the inn got its name. The most popular seems to be that sages stayed here when they left their dusty library studies to taste the delights of the town. The one I like best is the persistent tale that the inn was built by the local evening escort Meereldil Shorncrown, famous in her day for her beauty, as an investment that could both house her and earn money for her in her declining years. Its building, the tale goes, was entirely financed by coins she made while entertaining the sages of the cityís colleges and libraries and visiting devotees of Oghma (thus, "wayward sages"). It is true that Meereldil did live out her last years as a resident.
The Lady’s College: Once the most popular academy of magic in Silverymoon, the Lady’s College taught all the schools of magic (and sought to teach music as well, once the doors of Foclucan closed). The school is famous for producing a number of the finest harpers in the North and all of Faerûn. In fact, a few students arrive every year wishing to become mages, turning to music and adapting their studies to bardcraft once they discover their true calling. This school, one of the rare few with the lore to teach the histories of Realmsian spellcrafting, teaches not only magecraft and bardcraft, but it imparts upon its students the chronology and history of what they learn. With the knowledge of the Vault of Sages at hand, students of the Lady’s College (and the up-and-coming University) learn of magic before the Time of Troubles, before Ascalhorn’s mutation into Hellgate Keep, and even before the fall of Myth Drannor. This information is purely academic now, but it serves to give the students a sense of where magic has come from and where they may take it in the future.
Open discussion of the changes in Mystra’s magic and how to change it further only angers old traditionalist teachers, such as Headmaster Vihuel and the honored Paol Tirin Sionaehr. Still, Alustriel herself (continuing Elué Dualen’s example from the founding of the school) insists that young magelings and old wizards alike learn the past as well as the present of magic.
While some are nervous about expanding the College’s work among more students and linking it with other schools into a university, few believe that this will change how the Lady’s College operates. One of its most successful practices was to allow students to study for free in exchange for equal time served as part of the Lady’s Spellguard. This and other practices are certainly upheld, and some of the changes serve to delight even the crustiest of old mage-teachers. For example, the burden of teaching specialist mages, for centuries a time-consuming task for independent studies with a tutor, are now distributed among the separate schools of learning for each particular brand of magic.
The Lady’s College enrolls up to 80 students at one time, roughly 20 at each stage of learning (apprentice to 3rd level) with four instructors for each class. New students often have to wait from three months to over two years for a vacancy to open up at the Lady’s College. Alustriel hopes that enrollment increases and becomes easier with the university system, since many students are now spreading out to specialist schools.
The Map House: The Map Keep might be a more appropriate title for this building, since its four-story-high stone walls seem far more than a "house." This is the original building that housed the Vault of the Sages, and it rests on the land that once quartered the Silver Lady’s Library. It’s also often called the Heralds’ House after its owners, the lorekeepers of the Realms. Maps and extensive genealogies are kept herein, many of which are copies from original documents kept at the Heralds’ Holdfast. Whenever a noble family or commoner needs to check their lineage, the Map House is the best arbiter for tracing the genealogies and witnessing a claim to titles.
Mielikki’s Glade: This holy site of Mielikki was her original worship site here at Silverymoon centuries ago as the land became important to her as well as Lurue the Unicorn. Ladyservant Tathshandra Tyrar leads the services in this open glade among the garrisons of the Knights in Silver. Tathshandra recently visited Everlund to meet and pray with Jeryth Phaulkon, a recent arrival who appears to have as close a connection to the Lady of the Forest as Alustriel has with Mystra. She returned to Silverymoon looking lighthearted, more entwined in her faith, and far younger than her 62 years.
Miresk’s School of Thaumaturgy: Miresk’s school still exists, but now it is a part of the University of Silverymoon. Miresk, by appointment of the High Lady, is the Magus Senior of the entire college, not just his single building school. Miresk has his faults of being haughty about his abilities, but he is a very capable instructor. His greatest asset is his beliefs in magical balance and the insistence on the importance of smaller magic, not world-shaking Art.
Rhyester’s Matins: This is a holy site of Lathander, the first temple founded by his prophet, the blind Rhyester of Silverymoon, in 717 Dalereckoning. While it started as a small log and mud building taking up only a quarter of the site, it’s now one of Silverymoon’s major temples. Its congregation hall is two stories tall and the temple and altar are breathtaking. The entire ceiling and eastern wall of the temple are made from glassteel and inset with small prisms to provide a wonderful array of rainbows when the dawn’s light strikes them during morning services.
Unfortunately, situations within the temple are not as beautiful as its ornaments. Mornmaster Onadar Ryl lies on his death bed after a long, arduous illness severely weakened his 92-year-old body. The temple elders are deadlocked on their decision between two candidates for the post of Mornmaster: Onadar’s son, Lavis Ryl and Kuth Charagon. Lavis was an assumed heir of his father’s, but he was never officially proclaimed such by Onadar and spent the last three years away from Silverymoon. Kuth is a lifelong native, a popular speaker, and acted as the Mornmaster’s second for the past two years. Both men are suited for the post, but if the succession isn’t secured by the time of Onadar’s death, the High Mage may have to intervene in temple business.
The Star Court: This is the city’s central building for courts and assemblies. Every citizen migrating to the city for study - or simply for the sake of living in a safe haven - must register their names, professions, and names of any family members with the Star Court before they are officially accepted as citizens. Citizens must also petition the Star Courts for land purchases, trade agreements with other cities, and the establishment of any magical fields within the city walls.
The Temple of Silver Stars: After a period of mourning for the passing of the elderly leader Shanathrera Moonsoul, this major shrine to Selûne has returned to its normal tasks. Recently, the clergy of the Temple of Silver Stars allied with the Vault of the Sages to aid local Heralds and Harpers in mapping the surrounding countryside. In fact, High Moonmistress Shalyssa Lurialar and High Lady Alustriel have urged some of the younger priests to travel with the Harpers and some clergy of Deneir to map and explore the lands around Silverymoon and the borders of its new country.
The Tower of Balance: Often mistaken for an overly large wizards’ tower, this minor temple to Mystra is located just north of the High Palace. It is often the site of many weird magical effects that seem to combine wizardly and priestly magic into unique new forms. The fact that this does not seem to disturb Alustriel is enough to give the local people peace about the work of these priests.
However, odd goings-on are commonplace here, such as the resignation four years ago of Magister Thukmuul Teleshann. With only the briefest of comments at the end of a religious service, he named his replacement as Eriladar Leafsigil and stalked out of the Tower. He quickly paced toward the Moonbridge and disappeared at its apogee in a flash of emerald light, an act disturbingly similar to the disappearance of High Mage Orjalun centuries before. Inquiries to Mystra have revealed nothing of Thukmuul’s intentions or mysterious actions in the interim.
Utrumm's
Music Conservatory:
This school of music has an excellent reputation in the North.
The Vault of the Sages: Lauded as the greatest collection of knowledge in Faerûn, the Vault of the Sages is a monolithic, horseshoe-shaped building five stories high and allegedly an equal number of levels deep. Folk are free to enter the Vault and visit the galleries and lounges on the ground floor and second floor above, where news of the Realms is posted on broad sheets for all to share.
The third through fifth floors are the studies and lesser libraries within the Vault of the Sages. Herein are offices of sages available for consultation (by appointment only, of course), studies for students and learned folk alike, and drafting rooms for the scribes, forgers, and illuminators employed by the Vault. The studies are organized by general topic (magic, history, ecology, zoology, alchemy, geography, and others), and each hall has a custodian who procures a requested book for the patron. The Vault, as most libraries in Faerûn, charges a reading fee for access to their books (5 gp per book), and the fees rise in accordance to the rarity of the requested texts (+1gp/25 years past). Books on magic are obviously considered rarer texts as well (10gp +2gp/25 years past), though no spell books are available from the Vault for perusal.
No personal copying of any manuscripts or maps is allowed, but copying services are 50 gp per map, or 2 gp per page of text. These costs increases if additional copies are needed. Scribes and cartographers transfer information in their own handwriting, while the forgers can produce an identical manuscript copy in its original form and writing style for 2 gold and four silver pieces per page. The Keeper of the Vault is also capable of purchasing original manuscripts and literary artifacts (like stone fragments of dwarvish runes from Delzoun) for up to 2,000 gold pieces per century of age. If a visitor is not willing to sell the original, he offers to pay up to half the quoted price for the opportunity to forge an exact manuscript copy for the Vault.
Only the attendants of the Vault (Deneir-worshipers all), the commander of the Spellguard, and the High Mage are allowed direct access to the library’s book stores, located below ground. It is said that any other less-focused or learned individuals would become lost in the infinite labyrinth of stacks and shelves of the Vault. In truth, the library is quite organized, but only those who have spent more than a decade learning the twists and turns of its passages have any chance of finding a specific work in less than a day of searching. The custodians of the study rooms have spells that summon many of the books to them, though they must be manually returned to their shelves by assistants.
The main Vault’s magical protections prevent any flame from staying lit while among the books, and they also prevent anyone from teleporting into or out of the Vault at any level. A special ward token (available only from the Keeper) must be carried by the knowledge-seeker or else the trespasser is immediately teleported to the Keeper for punishment. Rumors have always existed about the number of books in the Vault, ranging from 6,000 to a million, and the Keeper gives away little on the matter. He simply comments that the Vault holds either the original or a copy of nearly every famous tome, parchment scroll, or carved inscription of the Realms back to Netheril’s apex. The Vault is the only known location (other than the ruins in Cormanthor) for a number of tomes of or from lost Myth Drannor, including the personal account by Consort Elénaril on that fabled city’s fall (her second handcopied manuscript is in the High Palace). rna. The dwarven contingent proposed both the High Lands and New Delzoun, while Old Night suggested choosing a name touching on the lands’ matron powers of Lurue and Mielikki, such as Luruar. Alustriel promises that the nation shall have its name by Midsummer next year, whatever it may be.