| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| varyar |
Posted - 07 Aug 2024 : 14:19:02
Hey all,
My next work in progress for the DM's Guild is a sourcebook covering the city of Yűlash, which has been one of my favorite places in the realms ever since I played the Curse of the Azure Bonds CRPG many, many years ago. There isn't a huge amount of available material on the city - a few chapters set there in the Azure Bonds novel, a few entries in the Grand History, references here and there in the setting core books/boxes, and so on - so I had to make up a lot of the city's history within those vague boundaries. Here's what I've put together. If you see anything that contradicts the existing lore, or have any questions, please let me know!
HISTORY
The origins of Yűlash have long been a mystery to most of the folk of the Moonsea. The common perception is that long ago, it was a great city of strange and sometimes sinister magic, as well as strange and always sinister gods, before it was destroyed by the elves and eventually reborn as a colony of Zhentil Keep – the beginning of its recorded history.
This account is only partially true.
While Yűlash was once part of an ancient and magical realm, there was no city atop the Barrow until Zhentil Keep settled the then-empty mesa. In the beginning, the Barrow was a gathering place of the ancient green elves of what would later be known as Cormanthyr. Even the stones have forgotten the elves of the primeval forest. Something drove the green elves to abandon the northernmost woods and set strong guards around them.
Thousands of years later, the humbled survivors of the Crown Wars settled the empty forest. They built no cities atop the Barrow and seldom even came near it, sensing the presence of something ancient and evil there. In time, the pride of the elves of Cormanthyr led them to forsake their earlier caution. They raised strong towers to keep watch for the minotaurs and ogres of the northern lands. Eventually, the originally separated towers became a single fortress named Yűlashindaar. This fortress was abandoned and reclaimed repeatedly over the centuries before being abandoned for good around 3 DR. This decision would be one the elves would bitterly regret – at the time, it seemed like the humans slowly settling the southern and western shores of the Moonsea would be a strong enough barrier to the warlike folk of Thar.
In the elves’ absence, groups of humans trickled in, drawn by the ancient and evil presence lurking below the Barrow. They posed as followers of Silvanus, a human god not unfriendly to elves and their way of life, and built a huge temple in the shadows of the crumbling towers of Yűlashindaar. Eventually, the so-called followers of Silvanus were discovered to be worshipers of a different deity entirely – Moander the Darkbringer. Moander was an alien power of rot and decay, one hateful of all mortal life and especially the nature-revering elves. Somehow, his cultists managed to awaken a powerful avatar of the Darkbringer that had been slumbering beneath the Barrow for thousands of years. Bolstered by the avatar’s might and driven mad by his alien mind, the cultists made war on the elves of Cormanthyr. It took decades, but the elves eventually defeated the cultists, slew all the priests, and razed the great temple of Moander at Yűlashindaar. The Coronal of Cormanthyr and many High Mages performed a great working of magic that imprisoned the Darkbringer’s avatar deep beneath the ruins, sealing it away until a “non-born child” came to set it free. It was thought that keeping the avatar, an especially potent one, alive but trapped indefinitely would do more harm to the Jawed God than slaying the avatar and letting its divine essence return to the god in its lair in the Abyss. The Cormanthyrans intended to keep watch over the imprisoned god forever, but all too soon their empire fell at the hands of a huge army commanded by powerful fiends.
A century or so after the great city of Myth Drannor was destroyed, human settlers from Zhentil Keep established a trading post atop the Barrow. Its height and commanding view of the area between Zhentil Keep and Hillsfar made it a very valuable possession. Popular accounts in Hillsfar say ‘Yűlash’ was given that name because the Zhentish settlers didn’t realize the name carved into an elvish foundation stone had been partially destroyed by time and weather – local and Zhentish history insist it was chosen simply because it was easier to say. The market town grew as it began to dominate the roads that linked the Dalelands and Moonsea. By the end of the 10th century DR, it had grown to cover the entire top of the Barrow and the original wooden walls were replaced by stone ones. The Zhentish colony became ever more prosperous and Yűlashi merchants were found from Cormyr to Damara before too long. In the late 13th century, the city was formally granted independence by its father city, with a hereditary lord and a city charter, but it remained firmly under the control of Zhentil Keep and its lord Manshoon. A few decades later, in 1337 DR, the office of Lord of Yűlash was abolished and replaced by a council of nobles. This was the beginning of the end of the first era of Yűlash. The noble houses began to fight in secret, then openly, and the civil war would have destroyed the city if the dragons hadn’t come first. In 1356, a powerful Flight of Dragons (periodic rampages of dragons that took place from ancient times until the end of the 14th century DR) all but destroyed the city. Zhentil Keep and its rival Hillsfar both occupied part of what was left and two years later, the city was little more than rubble divided between the armies of the two cities. The war between the two city-states marked the end of Old Yűlash.
It seemed as if things couldn’t get worse for the City on the Barrow, but then Moander was awakened and set free. The “non-born child” of the High Magic binding had appeared in the form of an artificially created woman, the sellsword and adventurer Alias. Moander’s long-imprisoned avatar carved a path of destruction through the city and a broad swathe of Cormanthyr before being destroyed by Alias and her powerful allies after teleporting to its ancient temple near the city of Westgate. Ten years later, after Zhentil Keep was destroyed by a religious civil war, Hillsfar took advantage to dominate the region, including occupying the whole of Yűlash. For a few years, the city had something like peace and prosperity, but by 1374, Zhentil Keep had recovered and was back in control of the slowly recovering city.
(nb - events from here on are of my own devising.)
When the Spellplague struck Faerűn, Yűlash was just strong enough to not just claim its independence from all powers, but to preserve it by force of arms. Attempts by Hillsfar, Zhentil Keep, the Shadovar of Thultanthar and even the elves of the reborn realm of Cormanthyr to claim dominance were all rebuffed. Like much of the Realms, Yűlash barely survived the hard years between the Spellplague and the Second Sundering. A powerful merchant lord, Halshoon Urghun, became head of the council, abolished that body, and was ready to proclaim himself king of the city when he was defeated by a brave band of adventurers, the Lion’s Claws. The leader of the Lion’s Claws, a warrior named Menesa Bech or the Widow, was acclaimed the Lady of the City by the merchant lords and high priests of Yűlash (some with more enthusiasm than others), and has held that position for the last six years as she tries to transform the still fractious city into a stable ‘chartered monarchy’ where the Council has as much power as the Crown.
Yűlash today is as rich and powerful as it has ever been, but the City that Endures is not free of problems. Immigrants from the old father city Zhentil Keep have not done as well as other residents of Yűlash, while more recent refugees – non-humans from an increasingly hateful Hillsfar, elves from the ruins of Myth Drannor, a clan of duergar driven out of the Underdark, and orcs fleeing the endless strife in Thar – struggle to find a place. The Widow’s rule is not without opposition, either. The Black Network is said to seek to reclaim its old power over the city, Hillsfar’s ambitions are no less worrying, and the jealous heads of several old noble houses have backed the clever and ruthless Lady Gruna Cartethin’s bid for mastery of the city. Add a war between the city’s two thieves’ guilds, rumors of a new cult of Moander, and strife between the duergar and surface dwarves, and the future might not be as golden as the Yűlashi hope.
Timeline
c. -700 DR – Yűlashindaar is established as a Cormanthyrian border fort.
3 DR – The elves finally abandon Yűlashindaar for good.
171 DR – the great temple of Moander at Yűlashindaar is destroyed and Moander’s avatar is imprisoned beneath the ruins.
820 DR – Human settlers from Zhentil Keep establish a trading post atop the what they call the Barrow of Yűlash.
1275 DR – Yűlash is formally granted independence by Zhentil Keep.
1337 DR – The lordship of Yűlash is abolished and a ruling council is established.
1355 DR – The Yűlashi civil war begins between pro-Zhentarim and pro-Hillsfar factions.
1356 DR – A Flight of Dragons over the Moonsea, Dalelands and Cormyr destroys most of what’s left of the city.
1357 DR – The avatar of Moander is accidentally set free and carves a path of destruction out of Yűlash and through the nearby part of Cormanthyr.
1367 DR – Hillsfar occupies Yűlash during a period of Zhentarim weakness.
1374 DR – Zhentil Keep expels the last Hillsfarian forces from Yűlash.
1385 DR – In the wake of the Spellplague, Yűlash throws off Zhentil Keep and gains true independence under a council of lords.
1488 DR – Halshoon abolishes the council and becomes king in all but name.
1494 DR – Menesa Bech and the Yűlashi rebels overthrow Halshoon with the help of the Blue Brands.
1500 DR – The current year. |
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