Myth Quessir

Myth Quessir, translated from Elven as ‘The City of Elves’, was founded in the year –14,500 by the Elven Empire of Arorarûn. Initially at it’s founding, it was nothing more than a small border outpost located near Arorarûn’s westernmost borders near the Sea of Mists.
After the government of Arorarûn dissolved, the fortress grew into an independent city-state, in –7,700. This marked the beginning of the Second Age of the Elves, the second era in which Elves were the primary movers-and-shakers in the world. A year earlier, a mighty extraterrestrial entity known simple as The Ravager was defeated by Starbrow Elmhazel. His staff absorbed a great deal of the power from the creature, changing it from a slightly underwhelming magical weapon into a potent artifact, the Staff of the Coronal, as well as a symbol of power and authority. A spontaneous gathering of soldiers who had been at the battle, and civilians who had fled to the fortress looking to escape the wrath of the mighty creature, called for Elmhazel to be declared ‘Coronal’, or ‘ruler’, by popular consensus. Days after the event, after witnessing signs and portents of the approval of Corellon Larethian, and Sehanine Moonbow- shooting stars passing past the crescent moon- priests and priestesses of the two most powerful deities of the Seldarine imbued into Starbrow Elmhazel and his future successors the title of Coronal. Taking his staff, he planted it into the ground, and it sprout into a massive oak tree, said to have been hundreds of feet wide, and thousands of feet tall, that became the Palace of the Coronal.
With the dissolution of Arorarûn, numerous Elves immigrated to Myth Quessir, as the site had been renamed, to be within the city’s sphere of influence and protection. Throughout the Great Forest, the minions of the Ravager were still wrecking havoc. As the population and size of Myth Quessir began to grow, its political power began to grow as well. More and more independent Wood Elf clans within the Great Forest entered into diplomatic relations with the city-state, establishing a near forest-wide federation of sorts. In –7,595, to better connect the city with the Elven Enclave, Elendi Telshurr, a student of Aerith Cloudwalker, created a river connecting the nearby lake to the Sea of Mists. The newly formed river, and lake, were named after Telshurr. In –7,430, one of the Ravager Spawn were destroyed in the Great Forest itself.
The year -7,150 marked the death of Coronal Elmhazel, who had no children of his own, and therefore, did not have a successor. To govern the city, a council of elders known as the Council of the People was formed in –7,148, to lead Myth Quessir, until a new Coronal was discovered.
All would be well in Myth Quessir for more than an entire millennium. In –6,012, things would change, however. A caravan of affluent Elves from the city was heading to Ninthrill Forest, to meet with their Wood Elven cousins, to depart to the Elven Enclave. The Dwarves of Tanthulthud mistook the caravan passing through their mountains and invaders, and captured the Elves. Through a series of misunderstandings, the Dwaves executed all but one of their captives, a young child by the name of Anya Springleaf, who was able to escape captivity and flee back to Myth Quessir to tell her tale. After much debate, in –6,009, the Council of the People declared war upon the Dwarves of Tanthalthud, in a conflict that would be known as the Dwarven-Elven Conflict.
The standoff between the two sides was more of a cold war than an actual war. The largest loss of life in the war was, sadly, an accident, when a contingent of soldiers marching to Tanthulthud from Myth Quessir wiped out an entire village of innocent Human Druids living on the shores of the Sea of Mists. Twenty years after the conflict began, in –5,990, a peace treaty was signed by both sides, and the war officially ended. Asides for the massacre of the Druids, the death toll on both sides was minimal- the Elves of Myth Quessir lost 3,000 of their own, and the Dwarves of Tanthalthud lost 2,700 of their own.
The year –5,505 would mark the beginning of the end of the Elven city-state. An ambitious magician, Salil Blackwater, summoned the Demon Lord Tortarus, and with him, began scheming how to rule Myth Quessir himself. The plot the two schemed hatched in –5,500, when Tortatus disguised himself as an avatar of Corellon Larethian, and pronounced Alzhail Moonraven the Coronal of Myth Quessir, disassembling the Council of the People. Through the Demon Lord’s manipulations, Coronal Moonraven appointed Blackwater his vizier. Behind the back of his supposed ally, Tortarus began summoning Demons from the Abyss to form an army.
Coronal Alzhail Moonraven would rule Myth Quessir fairly and decently for nearly the next hundred years. By the turn of the century, strange happenings would begin that would be the harbinger of doom for the coronal, and the entire city-state. During the immediate years preceding the turn of the century, the presence of Goblins and other fell creatures within the Great Forest rose considerably. In 5,401, Nanaki Telshurr, the granddaughter of Elendi Telshurr and current High Mage of Myth Quessir, left the city to make a trip to Ninthrill Forest, but she never returned. Finally, in –5,400, all hell broke loose.
On the eve of the new year, Alusail Moonraven, the daughter of the Coronal, discovered the treachery of the her father’s advisor, and confronted him. Before she could alert anybody, however, she and her handmaidens were slain. Hours later, as the new year arrived and –5,399 began, Tortatus attacked Myth Quessir with his Demonic army, killing thousands. He began his attack by destroying the Palace of the Coronal in a massive explosion. Salil Blackwater would declare himself Coronal, but he would be betrayed by the Demon Lord he had initially schemed with, and killed himself before the night was over, leaving Tortarus as the sole power in the ruins of the city.
For the next three hundred years, Tortarus shored his power in the ruins of Myth Quessir, and slowly began corrupting the Great Forest. In –5,003, a large army of Elves set out from the Elven Enclave to reclaim Myth Quessir, and drive out the large Demonic presence in the city, and the forest. The army was bolstered by recruits from Ninthrill Forest, as well as indigenous Elves living in other parts of the Great Forest. By –4,999, the army of Elves and the Demons had did battle. Tortarus was slain, and banished back into the Abyss, along with many Demons, at the expense of thousands of Elven lives. When the fighting had all but ended, after much debate, the Elves of the mainland more or less abandon the ruins of the city. TheGisiae Tel’Quessir, or “Guardians of The People”- a small contingent of warriors, clerics and wizards- are established to protect the ruins of Myth Quessir from others, but, for all intents and purposes, Myth Quessir was no more.