Severed Hand The Severed Hand , formerly Hand of the Seldarine , is an elven fortress , located in a canyon at the base of The Spine of the World across from the Fields of Slaughter , built in the early 900s as a place from which they could rule the surrounding lands . It was originally known as the Hand of the Seldarine by the elves but the locals always knew it as the Severed Hand due to the five towers arranged like a humanoid hand reaching towards the sky . It was due in large part to the elves presence there that the local orc population was restrained from successfully forming a horde and sweeping into the lands south of the mountain range . The elves ' hippogriff riders plus excellent swordsmen , archers and mage s slaughtered the orcs whenever they massed . They also forged a close alliance with the Dwarves of Dorn ' s Deep and together , crafted some of the greatest magical arms , armour and other items of that age . For centuries , elves lived in peace in the fortress . After a while , it was discovered , to the astonishment of the elves , that several orc tribes were armed with those magical weapons forged by the elves and the dwarves . Larrel , the current archmage and ruler of the Hand immediately blamed the Dwarves for supplying the orcs and broke off all ties . Even while the hostilities between the erstwhile allies were escalating , an orc horde descended upon the Hand , all equipped with the alliances items . A battle took place first on the soon - to - be - named Fields of Slaughter ( named after the battle ) , then , finally , in the halls of the fortress itself . Larrel ' s daughter Evayne had fled the citadel to appeal to the dwarves after Larrel struck her in anger when she argued with his decision . She successfully lobbied the Dwarves to listen to an elven offer of peace but Dwarven scouts had already reported the horde had grown larger and was moving on Dorn ' s Deep . The Dwarves put up a valiant defence but Evayne and the dwarves were all killed . In the final moments of the Hand , when the horde already had seized the first three floors of the fortress , the elven archmage Larrel , founder and also inhabitant of the Hand , and his associate wizards attempted desperately to cast a mythal to save the Hand from the invasion but it went awry and transformed every living creature in the building , orc and elf alike , into undead beings , frozen in the final moment of battle , causing all but Larrel to haunt the place as ghosts , unaware that any time had passed since the spell was cast . Those who had already died in the battle also began to rise as hideous undead . Larrel himself was turned into a Baelnorn and soon went mad with only repetitive ghosts for company . In approximately 1281 DR , adventurers out of Easthaven on their travels to defeat Belhifet and Crenshinibon , seeking guidance from Larrel , entered the Severed Hand , revealing the citadel ' s history . The aforementioned adventurers aided Larrel , brought life back to parts of the citadel and freed the ghosts to the afterlife before moving on to complete their quest . They later discovered that the unscrupulous drow merchant Nym had stolen the alliance items from Dorn ' s Deep ' s treasury and sold them to the orcs and precipitated the fall of the elf & dwarf strongholds by himself . The Layout . The Hand is separated into four floors , and on the fourth floor , four towers and one " fake " tower that leads to nowhere , ( like five fingers ) branch out of it , each having four floors themselves . The four towers are the Wizard tower , the Cleric tower , the Officer tower , and the War tower . The first floor is the greeting hall , the second floor is the guild ( where the library , workhouses , etc . are ) floor , the third floor is the throne floor , and the fourth floor is where the lodging ( barracks , slave quarters , etc . ) floor , and the four towers branch out of this floor . The Legion of the Chimera ' s Occupation . Around 1306 DR , the cambion s Isair and Madae brought their army to the abandoned fortress to make it the base for their Legion of the Chimera and a sect of Xvimlar clergy . After enslaving hundereds of men and women , a huge restoration project commenced . Isair and Madae sent emissaries to the Ten - Towns to create some kind of a peace treaty for trading . The mayor of Bryn Shander thought sending his emissary with pastries filled with holy water to the twins , which burned them because of their demonic nature , which ignited a war . Soon , a band of adventurers that had sailed from Luskan to aid Targos made their way to the fortress . They found a huge slave population , which they freed by slaying the glabrezu guard . They met a mage named Orrick the Gray , who informed them the whole fortress was collapsing into limbo because of the intense changes the twins had been setting on the fortress . When the adventurers went to battle Isair and Madae , the twins began to be sucked into limbo themselves . As the Hand shifted into limbo , most of the fortress was destroyed .