Shandaular

Shandaular, later called the City of Weeping Ghosts, was a ruined city in Thesk, and once capital of the Nar realm of Ashanath. It later expanded through a permanent portal to a location that would take on the name of Southern Shandaular in the Council Hills in the Eastern Shaar, home to the Arkaiun people.

Geography
The original city stood on the western shore of Lake Ashane, approximately north of the town of Kront. The remnants of the southern portions of the city that spread beyond the gate formed buried ruins beneath the Council Hills.

History
A two-way gate was established between Shandaular and the Council Hills in, and thereafter the city expanded through the gate. Its name was shared with the southern portions of the city.

Shandaular of Ashanath was destroyed by the forces of the Nentyarch of Tharos in. The act would unify the petty Nar kingdoms into the Narfell empire. Refugees fled through the gate and settled in southern Shandaular and the surrounding Council Hills. They took the name Arkaiuns in honor of the heroic leader Arkaius who stayed behind to seal the gate against the Nentyarch's armies.

In the, an Illuskan tribe from Ruathym arrived in the area via a portal and proceeded to intermingle with the Arkaiuns.

Followers of Myrkul backed by the unleashed demon lord Eltab usurped power in Shandaular in the. They founded a theocracy they named Eltabranar, which reached across much of the Eastern Shaar.

In the, Eltabranar began a series of raids, skirmishes and campaigns against Mulhorand and Unther that would come to be known as the War of Claws. These ended in the, when Mulhorand defeated Eltabranar and Eltab and re-imprisoned the demon lord. But Mulhorand and Unther invaded the Council Hills in the, and the Arkaiun army held them off at Cullrin Fields so their fellow Arkauins had time to abandon their lands and flee their city for safety. They went south, settling the land that came to be Dambrath.

By the mid-to-late 14 century DR, the Shaaryan tribes of the Shaar used some of the more easily accessible tunnels of the ruins of southern Shandaular as burial grounds for their honored dead, but avoided disturbing the deeper areas beneath the hills.

Rumors & Legends
Some scholars of the Realms believed that the long-lost Sunphelm of Shandaular, part of the regalia of three lost kingdoms, could be found in the Underdark city of T'lindhet.

Inhabitants
Numerous undead along with at least one nightshade were known to linger within the ruins of Northern Shandaular.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Shield of Weeping Ghosts