Miyeritar

Miyeritar was an ancient elven empire in the northwestern parts of Faerûn.

History
The realm of Miyeritar was founded by green and dark elves around in the area later known as the High Moor and Misty Forest. In its heyday, the land was verdant and lush. The goddess Eilistraee had a strong follower base among the people of Miyeritar, to the point that near entirety of her faith was concentrated there.

The gold elven realm Aryvandaar became their greatest threat. In, the rulers of Aryvandaar started trying to annex Miyeritar, initially through peaceful and diplomatic means. Despite these troubles with their powerful neighbors, in, the realm of Miyeritar developed into a hub of arts and elven magic and High Magic. But Aryvandaar did not let up and in the two realms engaged in skirmishes and interference in each other's trade. It was only a question of time until a real war broke out between them. That happened in when the rulers of Aryvandaar lost their patience and attacked. This was the beginning of the First Crown War.

In, the Aryvandaarans seemed to have won: their forces occupied and formally annexed Miyeritar. However, a number of Miyeritari clans and strongholds held out and resisted them. They received help from the elves of Illefarn, who, although officially neutral, secretly provided sanctuaries to Miyeritari refugees.

Nevertheless, Miyeritar was considered fully conquered at the end of the First Crown War in.

Aryvandaar went on to conquer other realms. After the conquest of Shantel Othreier in, a guerrilla uprising and mage rebellion occurred in parts of Miyeritar and the newly conquered lands. This led to the Aryvandaarans using High Magic to cause a tremendous killing storm. The event became known as the Dark Disaster. It reduced the entire forest and realm of Miyeritar to barren wastelands within three months. The larger part of the followers of Eilistraee died in the cataclysm, a blow that drove the goddess and her church into a near-powerless state, from which they wouldn't recover for millennia. The peoples of Faer'tel'miir, one of the cities destroyed during the Dark Disaster, became the fhaorn'quessir&mdash;the first sharns.

Ruins of Miyeritar could still be discovered in later times (circa 1372 DR). One of them was the mysterious Kraanfhaor's Door, which was the entrance to a school of High Magic. The drow mage Q'arlynd Melarn found a way to open it and found an ancient Selu'Kiira of his Miyeritari ancestors. With the help of that he learned to use High Magic and helped in making nearly everyone on Toril forget Kiaransalee. Later, he helped to transform a few hundred among the few thousands followers of Eilistraee (those drow who were descendants of ancient Miyeritari clans) into dark elves, whose souls were then admitted into Arvandor by Corellon (even though they could already go there, in Eilistraee's own realm ).

In the, the Miyeritari city of Rhymanthiin was ressurected with the help of Khelben Arunsun. It remained an isolated "City of Hope" for over a century.

Notable Locations

 * Faer'tel'miir, a city destroyed in the Dark Disaster whose survivors became the first sharns.
 * Great Sapphire Wood, a forest that was destroyed in the Dark Disaster.
 * Myth Akherynnar, a city that outlived Faer'tel'miir but ultimately did not survive the Dark Disaster.
 * Tosofome Caldera, the intended site of a High Magic ritual to send the Dark Disaster back at its casters.

Notable Inhabitants

 * The Three Watchers (T'karon, Hamra, and Alunor) who conducted the ritual to transform the survivors of Faer'tel'miir into the fhaorn'quessir, which became the first sharns.
 * Lyrna Fathomlin, a high mage from Myth Akherynnar.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Blackstaff
 * Video Games
 * Baldur's Gate
 * Baldur's Gate
 * Baldur's Gate