Ordulin

Ordulin was the capital of Sembia, until it was destroyed in a planar rift summoned by Elyril Hraven, one of Shar's followers, in 1374 DR. There was a constant ominous cloud above the city, along with a lone earthmote with a Shadovar citadel resting atop it.

Government
Nominally, in the mid-to-late 1300s DR, Ordulin was governed by the Overmaster and the Council of Sembia, the democratically elected assembly of merchants who ruled over the entire nation. In practice, the city was ruled by the rest of the city's merchants, who were motivated entirely by profit.

Trade
As the capital of a merchant nation, Ordulin did a lot of trade. Around fift- thousand foreign and domestic merchants came to Ordulin during the summer trading season. Ordulin was also home to the Sembian mint.

Defenses
Ordulin's military was known simply as the Guard and, as their name suggests, they were guardsmen first and foremost. However, every one of the two thousand members of the Guard was a well-trained and well armed warrior equipped with plate mail, halberds, swords, maces and daggers and so were perfectly capable of defending the city from external threats.

The Guard were commanded by Captain Raithspur circa 1358 DR, who boasted a well-earned reputation for power and prowess. They were based out of a tower in the center of the city.

The Sembian mint was a fortress within the city, located next door to the Tower of the Guard, protected by powerful wards to prevent both unauthorised entry and scrying, as well as golems and patrols of particularly inventive abjurer craftsmen. It was said that no thief had ever penetrated the mint and lived to tell the tale.

History
The land that Ordulin later sat on was one of the first human settlements in the interior Heartlands. Then known as Moondale and considered part of the Dalelands, it was founded just after the raising of the Standing Stone. By 700 DR Moondale was a farming settlement of cleared land. In 913 DR, Rauthauvyr "the Raven" forced the Elven Court to allow him to build a road through their territory, with Moondale as it's southern terminus. As Rauthauvyr's nation of Sembia grew to the south, trade became more and more important. Many dalesmen of Moondale married into southern merchant families and they began earnestly logging southern Cormanthor. Around 1067 DR, the nation of Sembia peacefully annexed Moondale and renamed it Ordulin. Ordulin was chosen as Sembia's capital as it was free of the interference of the older Sembian cites.

On Nightal 1 1374 DR, a Sharran priestess named Elyril Hraven summoned a planar rift into the Plane of Shadow, and a nexus from that plane, called the Adumbral Calyx, poured out of the rift, completely annihilating the city. Kesson Rel then emerged from the nexus and proceeded to animate the dead, incorporating the resulting monsters into his army. All that was left of the city was a dangerous whirlpool of uncontrollable shadowstuff.

The goddess Shar had ordered this be done in order to allow her to destroy Toril but the god Mask had delayed her by trapping her within the 'Ordulin Maelstrom'. She raged against the prison that was the Maelstrom, slowly opening a hole into the void that would eventually destroy the planet, surrounded by ghostly undead and visited only by Rivalen Tanthul.

In 1484 DR, Vasen Cale, channeling the power of Amaunator and Lathander; and Drasek Riven, wielding the divinity of Mask, closed the hole at the centre of the Maelstrom. Then, the floating Netherese city of Sakkors was deliberately crashed into Ordulin by Magadon Kest in order to destroy the Maelstrom itself.

Relationships
Due to a treaty signed after a major military defeat, the city paid at least 300,000 gp worth of gems to Archendale every year.