Castle Cormanthor

The Castle Cormanthor was a once-great citadel located at the heart of Myth Drannor, with the city slowly built outward from the castle over the years. In 1369 DR Castle Cormanthor served as the base of operation for the Cult of the Dragon led by Kya Mordrayn.

Exterior
Castle Cormanthor was a stunning example of elven design and architecture. The body of the citadel was un-evenly shaped with seven spired towers of various sizes reaching out to the sky. The spires were interconnected with the main tower of the citadel and with each other via a series of walkways, all crumbles and became dangerously unusable following the Weeping War. The spires were enchanted with a delicate glow that lit up the castle at night and faerie fire danced around the main and the largest tower. This enchantment was still active by the 15th century DR.

The main body of the citadel was three floors tall, with its towers rising up 20-40 feet higher. The many arrow slits in the walls of the Castle were replaced with bigger more attractive windows during the glory days of Myth Drannor. One of the Castle's towers was topped with an aerie.

Veering pathways that surrounded Castle Cormanthor had two drawbridges connected to the Windrider Glade area of Cormanthyr. The castle's main gates were made out of old and tough-looking dark brown wood reinforced with silver-like metal.

Interior
A lot of doors inside the castle were crafted to blend in with the walls, making them very hard to spot for anyone but the elves of Myth Drannor, the rightful rulers of Castle Cormanthor. The interior of the main tower laid behind the castle's main gates. The Hall of Armanthors itself had a high dome, that took the first two floors of the tower, decorated with delicate carvings and beautiful enamel inlays. The windows of this tower had intricately-designed colored glass windows (the beauty of this room stayed mostly undamaged far into the 14th century DR long past Myth Drannor's prime). A thick carpet greeted the visitors of the castle and directed them towards two smaller doors opposite the main gate that led to the Castle Cormanthor's Main Hall. In the heyday of the city's glory, this entry dome was decorated with small ornate but unusually comfortable chairs that were used by the castle's guest while they waited to be announced.

The Main Hall was a large open area that took most of the first floor of the citadel. The door was adorned with elven carvings and the walls were decorated with luscious tapestries (that lasted into the 14th century mostly undamaged). From the main entryway, a large set of stairs in the center of the hall led up the second floor, and a smaller one - down, to the castle's first sub-level. Open smaller doorways led to the six towers of the castle.

The Main Hall served many purposes in the days of Myth Drannor's glory. It was a royal court, a ballroom, a meeting room, and a banquet hall. The Main Hall had well-disguised doors to smaller rooms, like a coat room for the castle's guests, a storage room that housed furniture that was not in use, a room that kept the castle's delicate glassware safe, etc. Three larger towers had a similar design to the one at the main entrance but with a large spiral staircase that veered upwards. These rooms at the base of the towers were used during social and diplomatic events that took place in Castle Cormanthor. The rooms gave the guests some privacy to discuss business and were domains of the castle's musicians. These satellite rooms provided excellent acoustics and enhanced any performer's natural musical abilities.

The Silverspear Armory was the area above the Main Hall. The chamber and halls of the armory were haunted by the should oof the countless civilians that died inside the castle during the Weeping war.

Sub-levels
The dungeon levels of Castle Cormanthor expanded into the Elven Catacombs that were used as barracks during the time of war, elven burial chambers, storage, dungeons, and prisons. In 1369 DR, the first level of the castle's dungeons was used to house most of the Cult of the Dragon's forces.

This level was partially constructed out of precisely mortared stones and partially carved out of the natural rocks the castle stood upon. The floors of the first sub-level were smooth and decorated with carvings of flattened glass and swirling patters reminiscent of various plants and forest beasts. The walls were carved as masterfully as the floors. They resembled decorative imagery of trees, forests, hills, and various scenes of nature. The open floor housed many smaller doors that led to small offices that circled the main area. The level had two sets of stairs, the bigger one went up, and another - down one level. The hall's ceiling was held up by several thick rock pillars.

One of the pillars was carved with beautiful elven figures. This column was the Pillar of Seldarine, and depicted about a dozen members of the Seldarinic pantheon. One of the figures stood tall holding a greatsword, another one was a slim winged woman with her legs dissolving into a cloud, an elf that resembled a tree, and an elf holding an hourglass. Another elven face repeated multiple times on the column (Erevan Ilesere). The column was enchanted, one of the elven figures had a stream of clean water trickling down her hands (Hanali Celanil), gathered in a pool at the column's base, moved around the column in a stream, and stopping at a depiction of a sea elf (Deep Sashelas). During the Cult of the Dragon's occupation, the pillar was ordered to remain un-vandalized by the leaders.

The room was lit by torches enchanted with the continual flame spell at night, and during the day the first sub-level was lit with the enchantment that duplicated the daylight outside of the castle.

The second sub-level of the Castle was connected to the Elven Catacombs, sprawling and twisting secret passages that led into Myth Drannor, and led into the chamber of the pool of radiance. This sub-level resembled more of a natural cave than the elf-made carved level above. The walls sprouted occasional glowing crystals that bathed the room with its 20 ft. ceilings in gentle green and white illumination. In 1369 DR, this level of the catacombs was the lair of the Cult's dragonkin allies, the dracolich himself, and his young red dragon daughter Palasiraks.

The pool of radiance chamber was hidden behind a secret door and other passages led through the catacombs towards many exits at the Shaundakul's Throne, lrithlium, Tyrimar's Hall, and other location in the ruined city.

History
During the Weeping War, countless refugees fled to the Castle for shelter, but that shelter was short-lived as the invading Army of Darkness breached the magical defenses of Castle Cormanthor slaughtering the defenseless civilians in the process.

By 1369 DR, Castle Cormanthor was over a thousand years old and remained almost completely untouched by the destruction of the Weeping War, and ravages of time. This was the year when one of the Cult of the Dragon's cells occupied the ruined Myth Drannor. The cultists' leader, Kya Mordrayn convinced the cult's red dragon ally Pelendralaar to become a dracolich and use his undead power to corrupt Myth Drannor's mythal via the pool of radiance under the Castle Cormanthor. The Castle itself became the Cult's stronghold until Kya was defeated, and Pelendralaar destroyed by joined forces of three adventuring groups working independently from each other to thwart the plan of the Moonsea region's domination.

The cult allowed their allied dragonkin take over the spacious aerie on the top of one of the spires, while they converted the second floor of the castle, the Silverspear Armory, to hold a massive soul vessel they deposited many souls of enslaved drow of the House Kilsek and orogs captured in the ruins.

Inhabitants
In 1369 DR, the Cult of the Dragon, led by Kya Mordrayn was occupying the Castle. Dracolich Pelendralaar was the part of the occupying force and generally could be found in the Castle's sub-levels or Elven Catacombs along with his daughter Palasiraks. The cult also kept a zombie dragon as the dracolich's second body in case of the ritual's failure. The total number of cultists exceeded a hundred making the Castle heavily populated during that time. With them, the Cult brought a small army of slaves and subservient undead into the Castle and its grounds. A group of dragonkin allied with the Cult of the Dragon could be found inside one of the Castle's levels.

Dragonkin's main habitat during that time was in the aerie on top of the Castle's spire, littered with looted magical items from around the ruins.

Other members of the Cult of the Dragon of note residing inside Castle Cormanthor were Ellis, Marjon, and Shamoor.

Some of the Castle Cormanthor's spires became a home for gargoyles and margoyles that had an uneasy truce with the Cult of the Dragon.

Appearances

 * Adventures:
 * Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor
 * Novels
 * Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
 * Video Games:
 * Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor