Shell House

The Shell House was a temple to Umberlee, the Sea Queen, in the town of Ilyaport in Lapaliiya. It was managed by the Green Priests order.

Activities
The Green Priests possessed an obscure Umberlant holy relic called The Orglara. According to High Trident Arthaeuil Nrensam (an Umberlant priest of another temple), writing in Words on a Wave in 1016 DR, they thought it ancient and treated it as "a sacred mystery", using it in initiations and rites of passage to higher ranks in the priesthood, with clerical supplicants left alone with The Orglara in a walled "sacred cove" on moonlit nights. They believed a candidate favored by Umberlee would read it easily and learn one or more spells from it before sleep took her or him, but those who were false or detestable would be torn apart and half eaten by "horrors of the deeps" sent by the Bitch Queen before the sun rose.

History
The Shell House had stood as early as the 1 century DR. A community based around the temple grew into the town of Ilyaport, founded sometime around 100 DR, and flourished, becoming quite a grand town.

However, during the Rage of Wizards in the Year of the Sword's Oath, 1142 DR, when rival wizards and yuan-ti engaged in wildly destructive spell-battles up and down the Tashtan Coast, the Shell House was destroyed. Many of the Green Priests died in the collapse, but before it did, the temple was struck by a huge scouring wave that carried The Orglara away into the Shining Sea. The Umberlants believed this to be "by Arm of the Goddess", that is, sent by the Sea Queen to steal that which she desired, or perhaps wished to preserve.

Without the temple, Ilyaport's prosperity ebbed. It was just a simple fishing village by the mid–14 century DR, but remained ruled by the highest-ranked Umberlant priest who dwelled there.