Selûne's Eye

Selûne's Eye was an artifact associated with the goddess Selûne the Moonmaiden.

History
Selûne's Eye was a matter of legend, set down in the Song of Selûne. It began when the wayward young goddess Selûne traveled to another plane and was smitten by a mysterious and attractive warrior, a lord of his people. The stranger persuaded her to use her father's wand of power to transport him and his followers to Toril, where they planned to settle. However, once they landed, he revealed his true form and intentions—he was the monstrous Imgig Zu and he and his people were intent on conquest and ruin. He seized her father's wand of power and intended to kill the deceived goddess.

Fortunately, a brave young wizard named Ostus Agrivar who was riding by raced to her rescue. Although the wizard was not powerful enough to defeat the monsters, he was capable of causing enough confusion and chaos that Selûne could escape. The goddess, now freed from her subjugation, used the only thing she had left: her own life force. Draining her life force away, she imprisoned the monsters inside a pocket dimension within a gigantic moonstone, which should contain them for all time. She reduced the gem, now known as Selûne's Eye, in size and gave it to Ostus for safe keeping. Ostus Agrivar felt he had a holy trust as keeper and guardian of Selûne's Eye.

However, from inside the gem, Imgig Zu somehow managed to observe a shamanic rite in which the elves of Shadowdale extracted a dark spirit from the infant Cybriana, daughter of Ostus Agrivar. Imgig watched as the dark spirit transformed itself into a living being, an evil drow woman who took the name "Kilili". Imgig forged a magical link with Kilili, which allowed him to escape into the Realms. However, he needed Cybriana and Kilili together to release the rest of his people from Selûne's Eye. Kilili fell in with Imgig, and together they hatched their scheme.

In the Year of the Dragon, 1352 DR, Imgig Zu broke through the wall of Ostus's Hold and attacked Ostus Agrivar and his son Priam. Imgig Zu crippled Priam with the staff of withering and slew Ostus with a death spell. Imgig Zu seized the Selûne's Eye and left.

However, some six years later, Imgig Zu was yet unable to use the Eye. In one day in the Year of the Prince, 1357 DR, Imgig Zu erected a magical tower a day's ride north of Waterdeep, and had his yuan-ti and chasme minions find and kidnap female elven magic-users as he sought out Cybriana. Imgig Zu had determined that it was Kilili's own "sister", Cybriana, whose very presence could make Selûne's Eye glow like the moon.

Imgig later used magic to contact his kin, who longed for release from Selûne's Eye. Imgig promised that he was close to succeeding and that he would soon release them to overrun Toril, an event he called the Great Awakening.

Later, after the hunting chasme had been destroyed by Cybriana and her companions, Imgig Zu observed Selûne's Eye glow like the moon, meaning that Kilili's sister was near his tower and had been found by the chasme. Kilili visited Cybriana, and lured her toward Imgig's tower. Imgig's gargoyles snatched up Cybriana, and she was taken into their lair. Her companions, Priam Agrivar, Vajra Valmeyjar, Timoth Eyesbright, and Onyx the Invincible escaped the gargoyles and found other ways in. In the caverns beneath Imgig's tower, Cybriana was placed inside a forcecage as Kilili stood just outside. Their proximity, both to each other and to Selûne's Eye caused the gem to glow even more brightly and to swell in size. Proclaiming his triumphs before an audience of his ogre minions, Imgig Zu used the combined powers of the elven women and the stolen wand of power to open the Eye and released his long-imprisoned people into the world, to overrun and conquer the Realms. Meanwhile, Cybriana's companions battled through the ogres and into the cavern, but were ultimately subdued. But, just then, the roof of the cavern tore open and the brilliant light of the full moon—the workings of the goddess Selûne—shone through, blinding the ogres, and Priam slew Imgig Zu.

At Imgig's death, the forcecage faded, and Cybriana escaped. She grabbed Kilili, knowing that if they touched then they would merge, becoming one whole being, part good and part evil, and the living key to Selûne's Eye. The Cybriana-half gained dominance over the Kilili-half, and the merged being vanished inside the gem, drawing all of Imgig's people back within, saving the Realms from devastation at the cost of her unique identity. A merged being, Kyriani, levitated down, bearing the shrunken Selûne's Eye, which she passed to Priam Agrivar, her brother and son of Ostus.

Returning to the Selûne's Smile inn, Priam gave Selûne's Eye to Luna, the innkeeper, for safekeeping, on Vajra's recommendation. She placed it on the shelf over the bar. Luna was in truth an avatar of the goddess Selûne, the Moonmaiden, who dwelled among mortals occasionally.

After the Time of Troubles

After Luna was slain in a battle with Shar's avatar in 1358 DR, Selûne's Smile was inherited by Kyriani but Selûne's Eye was forgotten for decades. However, after the return of the shades in the Year of Wild Magic, 1372 DR, Kyriani received a vision from Selûne which urged her to seek out a band of adventurers to quest for the Moonmaiden. The vision instructed her to give them the artifact and take it to "Elah'zad, the House of the Moon" and "perform the Ritual of the Waxing from the center of the alabaster palace there."

With research it would have been discovered that Elah'zad lay in the Hills of Scent in the heart of the Sword of Anauroch, near the City of Shade. If the Ritual of the Waxing had been performed by a follower of Selûne on the night following the new moon, its portal-making abilities, normally used to open or close the pocket dimension contained within, would have opened a temporary portal to the Gates of the Moon...and the city of Selûnarra would have returned to Toril, there to do battle with the shades of Thultanthar. Why this event never occurred remains a mystery, other than a suitable adventuring company not being found or the proper research not being carried out.