Ruins of Eldergrin

The Ruins of Eldergrin are a series of unoccupied ruined buildings that used to belong to a city of the same name in Northeast Goneril to the northeast of Landinis and due north of Wilderfey Wild. They are collectively all that remains of the Discordian Civilization, which was destroyed by the Fates in the year 480 S.A.. According to the ancient historian Heckle, at the height of its power Eldergrin housed 16.4 million inhabitants in an area covering more than 500 square miles, making it a little more than twice the size and population of modern day Malvont City.
== Under the Discordians ==
See main article Discordians.
The grand city of Eldergrin was founded by God-King Erythnul in the year 1236 of the First Age. Rulership of the city was then passed to Jergal, an incredibly powerful mage, when Erythnul became a member of the major pantheon. Little is known about the early years of the society, other than that the Discordians developed an extremely advanced, magical society with several thousand mages and clerics reaching levels of power and influence that have never been achieved since. The architecture of the buildings that remain suggest a high level of technical advancement, as well as an extremely pious culture that worshiped a pantheon of extremely demanding and jealous gods. The Discordians built many temples, especially to the Dark Gods. According to myth, Jergal was then defeated by three challengers in fair combat, and split his divine portfolio between them. Halal took over the civilization, while Avimeus returned to the Harmonians, and Myrkul became a warrior of the Discordians and the god of lightning. The fall of these kings is documented in the secret Ille Draconum: Book Zero.
=== The Grand Arena ===
The Grand Arena was the location of advanced bloodsport sanctioned by Erythnul. The arena often housed one-on-one duels between political rivals, which allowed politicians to resolve disputes or eliminate opponents without resorting to assassination. Since Discordia was ruled by the strong, the arena was a common method of career advancement. Contrary to folklore, not all combatants died if defeated-- each combatant was allowed to surrender at any time at the cost of their political office and social standing. The arena was often home to recreated naval battles, air battles, and battles between captured beasts and enemy champions.
=== Temple Discordia ===
The Temple Discordia is the central temple at the very center of Eldergrin. It is protected by two invincible slabs of white marble and located directly under The Grand Arena. It is the location of the Throne of Discord, from which the God-King Jergal, and later his earthly retainers and avatars, originally presided. The temple is by far the largest man-made enclosed space in the Multiverse, and possesses the largest man-made dome in history. It is the location of the sacred reliquary. Some say it is extremely well-guarded.
== Downfall ==
The city of Eldergin was destroyed completely after the war with the Harmonians escalated to the use of Frozen Fates. Each city collected a silo of Fates in fear that the other city might use them first. The Discordian fates used Amulets of Necromantic Might to force open the fates, but made sure to divide each Amulet into three pieces so that it would take the consent of at least three of the high archmages to unleash their destructive force. The Harmonians were able to sneak a Fate into the city under the cover of nightfall on October 31st, 480 SA through a series of tricky counterspells and true teleportation spells and activate the fate before the Discordian archmages could stop them. The Fate killed almost fourteen million inhabitants instantly, effectively destroying the civilization and plunging northern Eon, especially the area now known as Goneril, into a cultural and ecological dark age from which it would not recover for almost 800 years. The Fate left the land cursed with elements of madness that made the city completely uninhabitable by normal living persons for periods of more than two weeks, and that fallout, experts say, will continue to poison the land for the next six million years.
== Under Xenteroth ==
After the fall of Eldergrin the high lich Xenteroth made several modifications to the ruins, in addition to proclaiming himself High Regent.
== In Eon ==
:See also: Eon: The Throne of Discord (Fall 2009)
The Company was forced to go to the Ruins in late 1442 SA by Tyro Avampour, who kidnapped Ming-ui and Prince Avimeus V, then sent a note demanding that Ethan of Malvont and his companions come to the Ruins to make a trade for their lives. With help, Ethan found the spot where the Fate was detonated, which manifested as a space of incredible negativity no summon would go near. The prince was nowhere to be seen and Ming-ui was killed in front of them, so they threw down outside. In the ensuing battle, Tyro was killed, Ashra learned he was "important to the fate of the world", and Ethan was eaten by a Fate, spat out alive, then returned to his deathlock state by means of a mysterious pebble.
With their opponents dead or missing for the time being, the company explored the Ruins over the course of the first half of Season Seven. They met Kruglor in the ruins when he appeared fleeing an ettin and a boneyard, and Fab Dick and Evil Baudin appeared shortly thereafter via Travel by Plants. Ethan talked to the wall a lot.
The party found their way into an underground part of the ruins via a chess puzzle in the arena. After some mishaps with the flooding mechanism, they found their way through a door marked with Olidammara's symbol to a death trap with an illithid despair stone, which they destroyed with a rainbow flask. On the other side was a tapestry which, with True Seeing, revealed different destinies to each party member. This in turn led to a mirror which could be used to focus moonlight and open another door back by the chess puzzle. Claire began to experience increasingly horrible nightmares involving green scales and sand.
An army of Queen Rebecc-is of Goneril appeared shortly thereafter, attempting to destroy the Ruins; the company defeated the nearby members before returning to the Ruins themselves. According to Grax's letter, this army was on a secret mission called "Operation Dark Nosrep". On this second excursion into the Ruins, the party encountered both Zororaster Jones and the beholder Herr Doctor. The former went off in search of adventure; the latter joined the party as Claire's mount. After defeating another beholder through means of an organ puzzle, the party found the Temple Discordia and defeated its red dragon guardian. They claimed treasure from the reliquary including The Dark Lantern, and Ethan took a staff from a statue of Xenteroth.
They next encountered a lich of Xenteroth with a symbol of Duplicitous. He claimed to be over 900 years old and stunned at the collapse of Eldergrin, but the party had reason to doubt these claims. He was insistent that they leave the ruins quickly due to the effect they can have on anyone who has been there too long; Claire's nightmares were a symptom of this. Meanwhile, some of the party was attacked by an invisible Tyro and Poetry outside a room containing three Frozen Fates. When the party regrouped and began to fight back, Tyro appeared disguised as Xenteroth, causing the lich to switch sides before Claire killed Tyro and Ethan revealed the deception. Kruglor raped Poetry, after which she escaped the party using invisibility. Brezcar, Marcus Fairlan, and Sadzuko Udina appeared with a hostage Prince Avimeus V and some more of Tyro's mooks. Claire used a Necklace of Time Stop to kill Brezcar and rescue the prince, while Ethan stopped Sadzuko. Marcus grabbed an unconscious Fauxdin and teleported away with him. When the battle was over, the lich used Lesser Wish to seal himself and the Fates away.
The party then got a call from Vishnu telling them that Malvont was free and he could rescue them if they could survive the next twelve hours. However, the Goneril forces they'd fought before were now tunneling into the Temple Discordia. They fought the Goneril forces and the guardian dragon while solving a tile puzzle to stop the statue of Xenteroth from casting Vengeful Eye of God. Vladomil Primakov fled the Goneril army to join the party on their way out. The Prince helped them by revealing the Number of God, and they input it in time to stop the statue and cause the Throne of Discord to ascend through the ceiling. They then resolved the chess puzzle so that they could hide out for the night until the Jade Kracken III arrived and they were able to flee.
The Company is not sure how long, exactly, they spent in the Ruins due to the lack of sunlight and the general level of mindfuckery going on within. In strict Prime Material Plane time, they reached the Ruins around the evening of October 29, 1442, and were rescued by Vishnu during the night of December 1, 1442. This roughly aligns with what the party experienced, but they're not entirely sure. 
Several members of the group were affected by the Entropic Reaper's Curse shortly thereafter, leaving them temporarily insane until fed holly and mistletoe and struck with an unholy symbol of Nerull. Besides that, however, long-term effects on the party are unclear: Ethan and Ashra appear no crazier than before; Evil Baudin attempted to detonate a Fate in Baldur and fled after Ashra threw him off a tower, leaving his current whereabouts unknown; Kruglor was timeshifted shortly thereafter but appears to have stayed sane over the intervening 56 years; Claire appeared fine for some time but was last seen insane in an institution from which the party intends to rescue her; Herr Doctor died and is content to remain dead; Fab Dick appears no crazier than normal but has some strange gaps in his memory from his time in the Ruins.
Category:Locations
Category:Dungeons
Category:Northern Continent
Category:Eon Mythos
Category:Goneril