Oryndoll

Oryndoll was a city of mind flayers located in the Underdark beneath the Shining Plains. It lay ninety miles northwest of Ormath and 90 miles northeast of Lheshayl. Its mere name struck fear into Underdark-dwelling species of southwestern Faerûn. It was also called the City of Loretakers, which came from its inhabitants rampant collection of exclusive knowledge. It rivaled Candlekeep for its wealth of knowledge.

Geography
The city was difficult to reach from other places in the Underdark because if its depth, but since the Mindstalker Wars, many tunnels were made that breached into the tunnels of Old Shanatar. Many of these eventually served as slaving routes for the drow of Guallidurth. There were also tunnels that led to Barakuir, the Underspires, Undraeth, the Savage Frontier, Anauroch, Cairnheim, Guallidurth, and Tellectus.

History
Before -10600 DR, Oryndoll was founded by illithid refugees from the Realmspace planet of Glyth.

Around -8600 DR, the Mindstalker Wars began when Oryndoll's outlying holdings began to clash with the shield dwarves of Shanatar.

In -8100 DR, the mind flayers of Oryndoll successfully destroyed the subkingdom of Barakuir and enslaved the shield dwarves of Clan Duergar from Shanatar. These later became the duergar. By the end of the wars, the illithids had lost, but the dwarves of Shanatar never reached Oryndoll.

Between -8100 DR and -4000 DR, the illithids worked heavily on breeding Clan Duergar to make them psionic, loyal, and capable in preparation for another all-out war against Shanatar. They succeeded in everything but breeding in loyalty. Around -4000 DR, the duergar rose up against the mind flayers, plunging the city into chaos. Only the appearance of an avatar of Ilsensine was able to save the city.

In an unrecorded year, illithids from Oryndoll ventured out into the Underdark and established a colony at Tellectus.

During the Time of Troubles, Ilsensine adopted as its avatar the elder brain in Oryndoll, stimulating illithid society. The illithids created new technologies, new psionic items, and more psionic disciplines, as well as renewed their assaults on surface lore holdings.

Inhabitants
In 1370 DR, there were approximately six thousand mind flayers, including 5600 illithids, 400 ulitharids, and of course one elder brain. There were also eight thousand ceremorphs in the city of Oryndoll. Ninety-five percent of these ceremorphs were tzakandi and four percent were urophions. The city also had eleven thousand thralls, of which forty percent were lizardfolk, another twenty-five percent were troglodytes, fifteen percent were tren, twelve percent were duergar, and eight percent as assortment of other races. There were also around 200 golems, ninety-eight percent of which were nyraala golems, and only two percent were brain golems.

Trade
The currency of Oryndoll was priceless knowledge, lost lore, and exclusive information. Illithids bought and sold lore in several different ways, among them were rare tomes, crumbling scrolls, and feeblemind-spelled thralls with information placed into their minds. Lore was only sold to non-illithids at ten times the regular price and had to be approved by the Elder Conclave, though exclusive information was disallowed.

Internally, many illithids bought, bred, and sold thralls, as well as made ceremorphs. Fewer illithids traded externally compared to most other hives.

"Mindgates", which were jarred and jellied eyeballs, served as the currency of Oryndoll. The value of the jellied eyeballs was determined by the degree of sentience of the race it was taken from. Human eyes generally ranged from nine to twelve gold pieces, though some were known to reach eighteen gold pieces. The value of a mindgate was determined by psychic residues in the eyeball.

Government
Two bodies governed the city of Oryndoll. The Encephalithid was the elder brain of the city. There was a council called the Elder Concord, just beneath the Elder Brain, that consisted of the nine Creedmasters in the city. Every Creedmaster was an ulitharid and they were all equal on the council. This changed, however, with Ilsensine's return during the Time of Troubles. This new appearance in Oryndoll upset the balance of power that had been in place and gave the Creedmaster of the Venerators the most power in the Elder Concord. He was called Cephalossk, the spawn of Lugribossk.

Defenses
Oryndoll's military consisted mainly of thralls, led by vigileators. Officers were divided into military offense and defense, policing actions, and intelligence.

This city was a nigh-impenetrable fortress. Oryndoll was heavily defended with different traps, psionic wards, magical defenses, and fortifications, many of which were focused on other species.

They also had egg-shaped glass balls called resonance stones scattered throughout the Underdark for twenty miles around. When a humanoid walked within twenty feet of one, they would become terrified for a minute or more. They were able to be activated and deactivated by illithids.

One of the most important defenses was the Encephalithid itself. It was able to detect non-shielded minds for five miles in every direction and also speak directly to others through innate telepathy. It was also able to scry through dominated thralls.

The mind flayers also frequently patrolled their territory with squads commanded by vigileators, and they had urophions that were psionically protected by the Encephalithid as sentries in the tunnels just on the edge of its influence. The environs of the city also had at least twelve packs of gholbrorn psionically dominated by illithids and separated into four hunting schools controlled by the Nourisher Creed. They were used to chase down those who tried to enter the region uninvited. On top of the above, major tunnels were also defended by three vigileators, a dozen or more elite thralls, and two tzakandi.

The most important defense was the invisible bulwark. To put it into simple terms, it was a repository for psionic energy that mimicked a mythal. It was used by individual illithids with the Encephalithid's permission to augment their psionic powers, heal themselves, gain immunities to magical and nonmagical effects, and detect the presence of undead and other intruders.

Districts

 * Thrall Caverns: This was the upper level of Oryndoll, and was where all the thralls were kept.
 * Ring Caverns: This was the middle level, and was deep below the thrall caverns.
 * Undervaults of Ilsensine: This was the lowest level of Oryndoll.

Other

 * The Flowstone Tapestry: This was a natural rock formation of sparkling calcite. It was 50 feet high and 200 feet long. The Venerators believed that this was a manifestation of Ilsensine's thought process and believed that studying it would give insights into divinity. Many illithids spent countless hours studying the formation. Non-illithids were normally not allowed to gaze upon the splendor of the tapestry, but the few that had stated that the phenomena wasn't magical, just naturally hypnotizing.
 * The Amphitheater: This was located in the nexus tunnels, which connected five separate ring caverns in Oryndoll. This was the largest gladiatorial arena in the city, and had several features in it that other arenas in the hive normally did not possess. Illithids that pitted their thralls against one other would stand on opposing twin platforms, and entertained an audience of up to one thousand illithids at once. The arena also had crystals spread throughout the stands that were specially attuned to enable the audience to feel the sensations of the thralls channeled through the illithid competitors during combat.

Notable inhabitants

 * Encephalithid, the elder brain of Oryndoll.
 * Cephalossk, the most powerful ulitharid in the city, Creedmaster of the Venerator's Creed, high priest of Ilsensine.
 * Tharcereli, the second-most powerful ulitharid in the city, Creedmaster of the Loretaker's Creed.
 * Syrzan, led the slave revolt in Menzoberranzan during the War of the Spider Queen.
 * Cernd Shattermind, a failed dwarven ceremorph who lived in Iltkazar under heavy watch.
 * Ralayan, an alhoon member of the Twisted Rune.
 * Mullivan, an adventurer that tried to cleanse the mind flayers from Calimshan and Tethyr.

Appendix
=-=References===