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YthrynMythallar

The mythallar of Ythryn being protected by a tomb tapper.

A mythallar was a Netherese device that allowed access to vast amounts of raw magic.[citation needed]

Description[]

This magical device looked much like a crystal ball but was about 150 feet in diameter. The globe shed a very bright light—similar to the disc of the sun—with dimmer shadows and shapes moving across its surface. An ornate stand kept the perfectly spherical device in place.[citation needed]

History[]

Created in 845 NY (−3014 DR) by Ioulaum,[1] the mythallars allowed arcanists to create quasimagical items without draining their lifeforce. This allowed for a rising trade with the middle class.[2] The first large scale application, the floating city, appeared in the year 866 NY (−2954 DR), Ioulaum's Enclave, named Xinlenal. By −2811 DR (1048 NY), thirteen had been constructed. By −2207 DR (1652 NY), Netheril began lifting one enclave into the sky per year.[citation needed]

Sakkors' High Arcanist Xolund the Maker improved on mythallar design by infusing his enclave's mythallar with a rudimentary sentience, giving it self-awareness and also increasing the mythallar's powers. This breakthrough caused a great stir among the empire's arcanists, but the fall of the empire prevented any further effort of duplicating Xolund's feat, making Sakkors' mythallar one of a kind.[3]

Almost all mythallars in Faerûn were destroyed or rendered powerless as a result of Karsus's Folly, resulting in the fall of the Netheril Empire; the Shadow Enclave survived intact, by going into the Plane of Shadow. Selunarra, also known as Opus in Loross, was saved by Selune when she pulled it into the Gates of the Moon, where it still hangs in the sky to this day.[citation needed]

Use[]

Sakkor's mythallar was unique in that its sentience allowed it to direct, focus or withhold its magical powers as instructed.[citation needed]

Drawbacks[]

Touching a mythallar was a lethal decision. Anyone who touched the device was instantly slain. Any item that touched it, except the stand that contained it, was instantly disintegrated. Any undead that touched the mythallar were destroyed.[4]

A mythallar could be destroyed by a disintegrate spell[5] as happened to the enclave of Tanathras in −647 DR (3212 NY).[citation needed]

Appendix[]

References[]

  1. slade, Jim Butler (October 1996). “The Winds of Netheril”. In Jim Butler ed. Netheril: Empire of Magic (TSR, Inc.), p. 6. ISBN 0-7869-0437-2.
  2. slade, Jim Butler (October 1996). “The Winds of Netheril”. In Jim Butler ed. Netheril: Empire of Magic (TSR, Inc.), p. 8. ISBN 0-7869-0437-2.
  3. Paul S. Kemp (November 2006). Shadowbred. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0-7869-4077-8.
  4. slade, Jim Butler (October 1996). “Encyclopedia Arcana”. In Jim Butler ed. Netheril: Empire of Magic (TSR, Inc.), pp. 7–8. ISBN 0-7869-0437-2.
  5. slade, Jim Butler (October 1996). “The Winds of Netheril”. In Jim Butler ed. Netheril: Empire of Magic (TSR, Inc.), p. 70. ISBN 0-7869-0437-2.
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