Xorvintroth

Xorvintroth, nicknamed That Which Survives, was an ancient dragonborn city of Abeir, the sister-planet of Toril. The city had a tragic history, in which the brilliant scholars had made it such a singularly special place but ultimately set it on a path to destruction. Fearing their creations would be used for ill, city leaders began to pursue a utopian existence free of war, only to expose their city to horrors from beyond reality. Following the cataclysmic events that rebound Abeir and its sister planet, Xorvintroth was relocated on Toril for over a hundred years of the Faerûnian calendar.

The dragonborn city was named after xorvintaal, the ongoing and ever-present contests of will and power between the dragons and dragonborn of Abeir. Ironically it was the paranoia regarding this barbarous conflict that led to Xorvintroth's downfall.

"To deny the radiance of the stars is to walk forever in darkness."

- An inscription written in draconic, found within a shrine in Xorvintroth.

Description
The city of Xorvintroth was several miles wide in diameter. Its architecture comprised a network of viaducts and colonnades that wound around and connected its angular towers and domed structures. Xorvintrothian buildings were constructed from several green-hued minerals, including jade, and a translucent, glass-like stone that was alien to anything encountered on Toril. These buildings featured intricate and over-adorned designs; no right angles were utilized, rather arcing forms that crested over each other like static waves.

Tableaus and engraved murals of Xorvintrothian daily life could be found throughout the city. They often depicted noble-looking dragonborn scholars dressed in elaborate robes. Aspects of these murals flickered and shifted when seen peripherally, but looked entirely normal when viewed directly.

Culture
Xorvintroth was considered something of an enlightened utopia. It was the city where the brightest Abeiran scholars could advance their understanding of the known world and the multiverse beyond.

Technology
Xorvintrothian artificers developed many fantastic invetions that were nearly unconceivable by Torillian standards. They created devices to harness raw magic, a source of infinite arcane power that could be extracted from the Far Realm. This power was unaffected by the constraints of the Weave ―the mystic force that governed the use of magic on Toril―which did not manifest on Abeir. The power taken from the Far Realm was channeled through conduits throughout the city and subsequently stored in self-contained devices. These 'arcane storage batteries' were used to power the fantastic machinery and magnificent devices dreamt up by the Abeiran dragonborn artificers.

Their technological advancements in artificery utilized both arcane magic and psionics to create many marvelous and hazardous devices. Among their greatest creations were a teleportation ray, a gauntlet that channeled the energies of the natural world, stone pillars that could record and reproduce images of the past, clockwork beasts and metallic guardians that echoed the powers of the noble metallic dragons, and crystalline containers that were capable of harnessing various forms of energy, such as pure lightning and fire, as well as the dark forces that emanated from the Far Realm.

The most wise and learned of Xorvintroth's inventors utilized psionic abilities to shift the consciousnesses to the Astral Plane. Unshackled by the constrains of time and mortality, they could conceive of how to best improve the life of Xorvintroth's citizens. It was from within the Astral Plane that they gained the inspiration on how to harness harness the powers they had extracted from the remote Far Realm.

Atmosphere
"Those willing to deny themselves the radiance of the stars would be better to pluck out their eyes and cast them away."

- A more accurate translation of the aforementioned shrine's inscription.

Following a calamitous event in the city's history, Xorvintroth was permeated with residual extraplanar energy. This energy caused mild visual and auditory hallucinations to some that traveled within. Anyone walking throughout its streets may have encountered phantasmal darkness that passed over them, heard faint and indiscernible clicking sounds, or witnessed the twinkling of malicious stars across the ceiling. In the most severe cases, this alien energy could inspire delusions and paranoia in their minds.

The cumulative weight of these effects could be wholly exhaustive for anyone not resilient or immune to them.

Undercity
Beneath the streets of Xorvintroth was a vast network of dungeons and subterranean passageways. This undercity was referred to as Xorvintroth Below. The spiraling architecture found throughout Xorvintroth was found within the undercity, although twisted and warped by the dark energy that originated from beyond the Prime Material plane. This alien power also affected any healing magic that was cast within the Undercity; restorative spells caused unusual formations of green ice to grow out of flesh.

Geography
Following Xorvintroth's abrupt transportation to Toril, the city was situated beneath a large, crater-like valley in the Spine of the World mountains. It was located three days' travel east of Easthaven. Over the years it had become blanketed with so much snow and ice, that only its tallest structures could be seen from aboveground.

Geographical Features
A massive crevasse formed near the ruins of Xorvintroth, within which formed a 'spectral echo' of the engulfed city. While a thin layer of ice formed above the chasm, it could be broken through with enough pressure or weight.

Xorvintroth was accessible by means of long ice cave that opened out the side of a mountain, or by the series subterranean tunnels dug out by a group of aberrant arachnoids from within Realmspace. These tunnels were filled with clouds of poisonous gas and the corrupting energy that emanated from Xorvintroth Below.

Government
For the centuries Xorvintroth remained on Abeir, the city was governed by sect of elder dragonborn artificers known as the Inquest. The Inquest itself was led in turn by the city's four wisest elders. These elders attained a form of immortality when―after their bodies decayed―their living brains were enshrined at a sanctum near the city's Chamber of Stars, and 'spectral echoes' of consciousnesses were free to float infinite within the Astral Plane.

Defenses
The city of Xorvintroth was protected by a series of wards that prevented teleportation within or out of its borders.

Dragonborn artificers also built into the city a safeguard that would trigger in case the city ever faced true catastrophe. When triggered by a disaster of significant magnitude, Xorvintroth was encased in a massive dome of viridian, glass-like stone. This barrier had to subsequently be punctured before the city could once again be accessible from the outside.

Abeiran History
"Xorvintroth. That Which Survives. As the Great Mothers and Fathers wile away the eons playing their Great Game, our city proves to be the most valuable playing piece. Ne'er shall it be used. Ne'er shall it be lost."

- An inscription set at the base of a statue in the Chamber of Stars.

Xorvintroth was constructed millennium before the Era of Upheaval on Toril. This amazing feat required the labor of hundreds of dragonborn masons and laborers. The city rapidly became a destination for scholarly pursuits and arcane research, and enormous, grand telescopes were constructed upon its highest towers.

The Inquest's elders began to fear that their grand inventions would be used by Abeiran dragons for their eternal contest of battle known as xorvintaal. While in the Astral Plane, the elders contacted by a mysterious entity, and granted vision of a new green world on which they could settle. Inquest then began construction of a vast, 'extraplanar bridge' that would allow their people to flee the never-ending wars of Abeir and find a new home planet in the stars beyond.

Through their research, the Inquest broke through the barriers of reality itself and opened portals into the alien reality of the Far Realm. Once within, they were granted them access to a source of infinite arcane power: raw magic.

The Inquest went too far however and the dark forces of the Far Realm poured through the portals. The first being appeared innocuous enough however. He was elderly old man that offered the dragonborn scholars additional information about the world they sought. His contributions to the Xorvintrothian led to the completion of the 'extraplanar bridge' and the old man from beyond was celebrated throughout the city. A statue of him was built amidst the Xorvintroth's grand towers and places of learning. The moment the gate to the new world was activated however, Xorvintroth was doomed. Tentacled monstrosities, figures composed of worms, and other horrors poured through the portal and rapidly overran the city. Many of Xorvintroth's citizens attempted to flee the catastrophe, but their efforts were purposefully halted by the Inquest.

Torillian History
Xorvintroth lay dormant on Abeir until the Spellplague rejoined the planet with its sister-world Toril in the. The city was expelled from Abeir and transposed to Toril the depths beneath the Spine of the World mountains in coldest reaches of the North. The planar anomaly previously opened by the Inquest was transported to the rock beneath the mountains as well.

In the, a group of neogi aboard a deathspider touched down in the mountains near where Xorvintroth was buried, and abducted a group of goliath hunters as slaves. The neogi and their captured goliaths wandered into an area in Xorvintroth and were horrifically dismembered, and their remains strewn across the city's floor.

The Lost Goliaths
Evidence of the slaughter was found by the giff Lieutenant Prook and group of adventurers that went searching for the missing goliaths. They delved into one portion of the city near its prison, but were turned away by the horrors inside. Prook then began to assemble a series of bombs to completely demolish the ruins and destroy the extraplanar monstrosities that threatened Icewind Dale.

The adventurers planted Prook's explosives throughout the city and finally rescued Nararhak "Tree-Eye" and the other goliath hunters. After scrambling to a safe distance away, they detonated the bombs―believing they had buried the haunted ruins once and for all. Ironically, the explosives did not harm the city itself, instead triggering the magical failsafe that enveloped the collapsed city in a sphere of virescent stone.

Unfortunately for the goliaths of Wyrmdoom Crag, the returned goliath hunters brought with them some of the dark force of the Far Realm. Another hunter named Kaskur "Spearsong" led his own unsuccessful search party for his missing clansmen. Kaskur and his hunters inadvertently picked up some of the dark force of the Far Realm that lingered within Xorvintroth's ruins. Upon the hunters' return, Far Realm monstrosities like flying horrors and dolgaunts burst forth from their bodies.

The Red Wizards' Schemes
A short time after the goliaths were rescued from Xorvintroth, a group of Thayan operatives began excavations of the ruins. They operated under the direct orders of Thay's undead regent, Szass Tam. Szass Tam sought to take control of Xorvintroth's otherworldly technology for himself and bypass Mystra's laws of magic that limited the power he and all other mages of Toril possessed.

A band of Thayan warriors made the journey to Xorvintroth and soon recovered many strange and fascinating artifacts for their Red Wizard masters. They secreted in supplies to their excavation site by means of dogsled caravans that traveled across the snowscape and set up magical barriers that prevention intrusions by means of the ethereal plane.

An esoteric Sharran cult known as the Tenebrous Creed began poking around the ruins as well, in search of some long-lost entity sacred to them. A third group also ventured into Xorvintroth: a collective of adventurers and Harpers assembled by Lady Remallia Haventree of Waterdeep. After seeking out knowledge about the Red Wizards' schemes involving the Far Realm, they established a Harper safe house under the Hall of Arcanists, and established an arcane gate that allowed entrance in and out of the city.

While investigating the Red Wizards' plans for Xorvintroth, adventurers allied with th Harpers discovered that the Thayans utilized slave labor to excavate the subterranean city. They worked with the slaves' leader―a githyanki named Jaan'vald Llanou―to sabotage the Red Wizards' operations, allowing many of the slaves to escape to freedom. The adventurers then delved into Xorvintroth's Supreme Forge, and fought back the Tenebrous Creed destroying an aspect of an elder evil they had conjured. The heroes then put an end to the Thayans' efforts to harness the power of the Inquest's Far Realm batteries by closing the portals within the Supreme Forge's manufactory. Finally, the adventurers delved into Xorvintroth's undercity and prevented that same elder evil―the fell entity known as Father Llymic―from gaining admittance to the Prime Material plane himself.

Following the Red Wizards' defeat, the regent of Thay Szass Tam personally made the journey to Xorvintroth. Unfortunately, his singular rival for power Dar'lon Ma had a trap for the mighty lich laying in wait. Dar'lon Ma took control of the last remaining portal to the Far Realm in the northwest section city, and prepared a ritual that would sever the bond between Szass Tam and his phylactery. Forces loyal to each of the powerful wizards broke out throughout Xorvintroth, until the two Red Wizards engaged in a final confrontation in the Far Realm itself.

One More Journey to the Stars
Fortunately for the Harpers, their safe house within Xorvintroth remained intact and unaffected the Far Realm's malign influence. Remallia Haventree and her new allies in the Sha'sal Khou used the safehouse and the launching point for a campaign against the neogi slavers that first landed near the ruined city. A group of adventurers joined the expedition that set out from Xorvintroth to the asteroid of Journey's Legg, which had somehow been transposed to the Astral Plane.

Rumors & Legends
Former inhabitants of Xorvintroth were believed to haunt the city in perpetuity, continuously reliving the events of their day of destruction forever among horrors they released.

A tiny sculpture in the city portrayed the quirky traveler Fizban, an avatar of the platinum dragon Bahamut. He was depicted his trademark floppy hat and canary companions in tow.

Notable Locations

 * Arcanist's Worship, the tower on the southern area of Xorvintroth that housed a number of fantastic devices and inventions, including a lone crystal golem.
 * The Arena, a multi-level coliseum built with specific gravity-related enchantments that allowed for skyblades matches.
 * Chamber of Stars, a grand dome structure some tall structure decorated with friezes depicting Xorvintroth's history. A single starstone golem―crafted to resemble a dragonborn scholar―stood within its center.
 * College of medicinal sciences, a large triangular in which scholars could perform intricate dissections and biological studies of Far Realm creatures.
 * Hall of Arcanists, a network of circular dormitories that housed Xorvintroth's arcane academics.
 * Hospice, a house of healing that also served as a hatchery for dragonborn eggs.
 * Library, the enigmatic repository of draconic knowledge that became twisted strange, purple-hued miasma. It was haunted by the ghosts of many long-dead dragonborn scholars.
 * The Observatory, the domed structure that housed a grand mechanical telescope that allowed the Xorvintrothian dragonborn to peer into the Far Realm.
 * The Orrey, a -wide device featuring a series of interlocking rings that was used to observe celestial bodies. It was constructed within a spacious domed building about in diameter. The word iskirthos, meaning "secret star", was inscribed upon one arm of the device.
 * The Prison, a wide circular structure built from some unknown, green substance that resembled ice. Its surface was inscribed with several arcane runes and facet that allowed it to be unlocked. The prison's key comprised six smaller slivers that would join together when brought within close proximity.
 * Shrine to the True Father, an open courtyard with a -tall statue of anelderly man carrying a lantern out before him. The figure's visage had bulbous eyes and was adorned in a robe that hid five of his six arms.
 * Supreme Forge, the arcane worship of the Inquest that housed many of their most fantastic and devastating creations.

Inhabitants
After the portals to the Far Realm were opened, Xorvintroth became overrun with horrific, alien creatures, including gibbering mouthers, star spawn, kruthiks, elder oblexes, and a dragon that was taken over by an elder brain. The city also housed a particularly malevolent skittering horror that heralded the arrival of an elder evil and his plane-spanning horde of minions known as the Brood.

The Inquest that doomed Xorvintroth arose after their deaths as mindless ghosts from the Border Ethereal, with blazing stars in the place of their eyes. These ghosts haunted the halls of Xorvintroth, along with the adjoining chasm that manifested a spectral version of frozen necropolis. The innocents that were slaughtered during the city's downfall were in turn doomed to eternally reenact the moments in life when they fled from the the Inquest and the horrors from the Far Realm they let loose.

Notable Inhabitants

 * Airavat, a disfigured hydra whose form had been twisted by the energy of the Far Realm.
 * Cordarra, the northlander captain of the Ddraig Aur who was enslaved along with her crew by Thayans to dig out the ruins of the city.
 * Dal'Targe, the member of the Red Wizards that served as an overseer for the Thayans' slaving operations in the city.
 * Murbur, a flumph in Xorvintroth's undercity that was terrorized by the invading Thayan warriors.
 * The Painter, a dragonborn-like clockwork automaton that spent its years trying to solve an age-old puzzle.
 * Shadow in the Ice, a particularly menacing skittering horror that remained trapped but cognizant in Xorvintroth, encased within its icy prison.
 * Uresgol, the elder brain that took over the body of the amethyst dragon Amaranthraxine.

Appearances

 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * Plague of Ancients (Into Darkness • Volatile Thoughts • Burying the Past) • Dreams of the Red Wizards (The City That Should Not Be • Frozen Whispers • Uprising • Expedition to the Supreme Forge • Against the Machine • To Walk the Cold Dark • The Death of Szass Tam • Tears Among the Stars)
 * Recipe for Retribution • A Song of Spears • Unsafe Harborage • Night Thieves
 * Recipe for Retribution • A Song of Spears • Unsafe Harborage • Night Thieves