Anchor of Chaos

The Anchor of Chaos was a large artifact permanently mounted within the Monument of the Ancients that kept the power of the Elemental Chaos from bleeding into Toril through the weak dimensional barriers in the local area.

Description
The Anchor was sealed within a pyramid within the antechamber of the Monument of the Ancients. The inner pyramid was approximately across at the base,  across at its flat top, and made of the same slick eldritch materials as the Monument. There was no known means to view the inner workings of this structure. Located from each side of the pyramid were four ornate circular structures, each roughly  in diameter, which contained the elemental essences of  Vines, Lava, Winds, and Ice.

Powers
The primary affect of the Anchor was to reinforce the local dimensional barriers that prevented the Elemental Chaos from remaking the local environs of Toril. Via magical manipulation, the Anchor was also known to allow passage of primordials from the Elemental Chaos (as well as to banish them back into the Chaos), and summon elemental protectors from the surrounding elemental structures. At least some of the artifact's power could be invoked using a Horreb Ritual Cube.

History
Both the Anchor and the surrounding Monument appear to be have been created by an advanced progenitor civilization during the First Flowering. They were set up in the place where elemental barriers between Toril and the Elemental Chaos were weakest, and had for the most part worked well.

Some time after the start of the Seven Sigils War in the, Netherese Wizards from Rdiuz deliberately compromised the Anchor to allow several ancient primordials to reenter Toril, to serve as their nominal allies.

After over a century of savage fighting, the war ended in ; all extraplanar participants were banished, save one: Maram of the Great Spear. In the confusion of the war's end, Maram fled from Netheril, returning to the Monument and the still-compromised Anchor, where it set itself up as a god-king among the primitive local human tribes.

In the, a great coalition of peoples from across north Faerûn came together under the leadership of the Dark Three to confront Maram. They were ultimately successful in forcing the primordial back into the Chaos and resealing the dimensional breach with the Anchor, but very few of the coalition survived both the battle and the journey home.

In the, the Herald of Maram, the primordial Prince Pyricus, managed to gain access to the Anchor and began to weaken the dimensional barriers again. This attempt to reintroduce Maram back into Toril was foiled thanks to a heroic band of adventurers.