Ellyn'taal

Ellyn'taal was a city located in the Northdark.

Description
Ellyn'taal was an abandoned illithid city of the northern parts of the Underdark. The once-populated chambers of the city were carved with scriptures of the mind flayers. Staying in the empty halls of Ellyn'taal too long could cause one to become mad. Only undead servants and mind flayer ghosts inhabited the city, as well as the undead elder brain, Ioulaum.

Trade
Information about the ancient magocracy of Netheril could be found here, but only for a very steep price. In exchange for such knowledge, one would lose part of their sanity or their knowledge of an epic spell, which would be lost to them for eternity.

History
In -371 DR, the Netherese arcanist, Ioulaum, became a lich and established a base close to Ellyn'taal. In -339 DR, he foresaw that the fall of the Netherese empire was nigh. Thus, he abandoned his enclave permanently and laired in the base he had previously established. Ioulaum took apprentices from both the Netherese refugees, and also the mindflayers of Ellyn'taal. These illithids were known as the Alhoon and became the very first illithiliches (which would later generally become known as alhoons).

Ioulaum took the minds of his illithid students and created an undead elder brain; he then merged his own mind with it. Almost all of Ioulaum's students perished in the production of the elder brain, but some of them escaped. The escapee mind flayers told the story of the creation of an undead elder brain to those of the Underdark. One of Ioulaum's human students, Tabra, saw the production of the elder brain, and believed that the mind flayer students had destroyed her master. In response, she made her way to Ellyn'taal and cast Ioulaum's longevity on herself, destroying the city-dwelling illithids in the process. She was still alive as of the 15 century DR.

Tabra was not the only one to have survived to the 2 millennium DR, as Ioulaum too would survive as the undead elder brain he had created. He would become known as the Oracle of Ellyn'taal.

Rumors & Legends
In 329 DR, it was rumored that Ioulaum was actually killed by a faction of alhoons; in response Tabra butchered the mind flayer inhabitants of the city.

Notable Inhabitants

 * Ioulaum, an archmage who survived here as an undead elder brain
 * X'ss'a, a mind flayer who was once imprisoned by the ruler of Runlatha