Court of Ullusa

The **Court of Ullusa** was the first known political system the elves of Gwessar had before the Calamity.

## **Location**

The first elves lived in the south of the continent, near the Verdant Expanse, to where some would eventually move to found Syngorn, and the Rifenmist Jungle, where others took refuge during the Calamity.

## **Society**

### **Demographics**

The Court of Ullusa was formed and composed by elves, mainly the ones that are known today as wood elves: both the ancestors of the Orroyen tribes, who wondered the continent during the Calamity, and the elves who fled to the Feywild and would eventually return to the Material Plane. Due to their familiarity with the Fey Realm and its inhabitants, it is possible that some fey creatures lived with them as well.

#### **Notable people**

* **Yenlara Alderwreath**: Sorceress who guided the remnants of this fallen society back to Exandria to create a new home.

### **Culture and religion**

Little is known about the elves in times of the Court of Ullusa. It is known that they worshipped Corellon as their divine creator, and they had legends about how this elven deity first fashioned their children in the Fey Realm before bringing them to Exandria. It is possible that they worshipped Sehanine as well, since her cult survives in Syngorn to this day, and the goddess spends a lot of time in the Feywild.

While it is unknown how much of that influence was already present when the Court of Ullusa was at its apex, after its fall the elves were very inspired by the fey and their own society when building a new home in Gwessar.

## **History**

The elves of the Court of Ullusa lived in the south of Gwessar (now called Tal'Dorei) when the gods still walked among the mortal races. At the outset of the Calamity, however, their society fell. The remnants of it used a powerful and obscure ritual to transport many of them to the Feywild.

It is said that the elves lived peacefully among the fey and stayed in their realm for one generation, although the exact time is difficult to calculate in that plane. In any case, during that period the elves stayed together, creating a new society and rallying around Yenlara Alderwreath, a sorceress they admired for her strength and compassion. It was her who, when she deemed it appropriate, guided 400 elven survivors to Exandria, returning to a continent they found devoid of the civilization they once knew. Although the Court of Ullusa no longer existed, these survivors still had their culture, and they followed Yenlara's lead and created a new society for themselves, founding Syngorn and calling themselves the *syn'alfen*.

These wood elves have come into contact with the centaurs, descendants of the elves of Laphithas who died by the blood of Gruumsh and were resurrected by Corellon as a new race. Although some of the centaurs view the *syn'alfen* as distant cousins, others bear a grudge against them, recalling how the survivors of the Court of Ullusa fled to the Fey Realm rather than fight in the Calamity.

At some point after 736 PD the elves from Syngorn met again with their long lost relatives of the Orroyen tribes, and despite an initial suspicion, both societies have reestablished a cordial relationship between them; there was a break in their communications around 810 PD, during the Chroma Crisis, when Syngorn phased into the Feywild as a defensive response, but after their return they contacted the Orroyen elves again, hosting refugees fleeing conflicts caused by the Iron Authority in the Rifenmist Peninsula.

By 836 PD the elves of Syngorn still remember and give a great importance to their history, from the fall of the Court of Ullusa and escape to the Feywild to their return to the Material Plane; their obsession with elven culture and heritage, however, has produced in the past certain prejudices and xenophobic attitudes that only in recent years have started to change.

## **Trivia**

* The Court of Ullusa is chronologically the oldest fallen elven society in Exandria, being followed by the ones of Cael Morrow and Molaesmyr.
	+ The first and the third cases, however, led to the foundation of Syngorn and the new dual model of society in Uthodurn, while a new city, Ank'Harel, was built over the ruins of Cael Morrow.
* It is possible that the ancient elves that created the Court of Ullusa modeled its structure after that of the Feywild courts, due to their close relationship with the fey at that time.

## **References**

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 123.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 17.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 117.
4. ↑ See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 29.
5. ↑ See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 121.
6. ↑ See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 170.
7. ↑ See *Explorer's Guide to Wildemount*, p. 25.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 154.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 155.
10. ↑ See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 218.
11. ↑ See "Dangerous Dealings" (1x42) from 33:33 through 36:43.
12. ↑ See *Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn*, p. 46.

**Art:**

1. ↑ Fan art of elven survivors return to Exandria, by Adrián Ibarra Lugo (source). Used with permission.
2. ↑ Official art of Syngorn, the cultural heir of the Court of Ullusa, by Kent Davis (source). Used with permission.