Shas'Ellith
Shas'Ellith was the capital of the Dominions of the Leshay; founded around five to six thousand years before the emegence of the Empire of Kataris, it is said to have sunk beneath the waves following a terrible disaster.
The precise location of the city is unknown, though most historians agree that it was probably located in the Copper Isles; according to the traditions of the sea-elves, the ruins of Shas'Ellith now lie in a place they call the Cauldron of Rage, an unimaginably deep portion of the ocean where the Kraken Queen and the God of Sea and Sky are locked in battle with each other. This place is said to be five-thousand fathoms deep (equivalent to thirty-thousand feet, though nobody knows for certain), a depth at which the crushing pressure of the ocean would be inhospitable to all known forms of life. The Cauldron of Rage is some two-hundred and fifty miles northeast of the port of Portuseka, itself about three hundred miles northeast of the coast of the Hegemony of Ecumanalus.
The Glory of Shas'Ellith
Few contemporary records of Shas'Ellith are thought to survive outside of the Celestial Archive of the Lunar Council and the Birch Scrolls of Pryddcael; the former has never been made available to scholars outside of Terianis, and whilst portions of the latter have been circulated openly, their accuracy has been called into question on a number of occasions. By repute, Shas'Ellith was something of a utopia, in which its citizens prospered under the guidance of a council of eladrin magician-priests who served the Leshay. At its height, it is said to have been home to a million people - mostly eladrin and elves, with a few thousand individuals from certain other races including humans and halflings.The Doom of Shas'Ellith
The destruction of the city of Shas'Ellith is said to have occured around two thousand years before the rise of the Katari Empire. It is generally accepted that the city was destroyed by a great earthquake which caused the island to sink beneath the waves, though what precipitated this disaster is disputed. According to the account given by the Teriani, the city was destroyed as a result of a civil war that broke out between those loyal to the Eladrin Dominions, and the Drow who rebelled against the rulers of the Dominions; they allege that the drow made pacts with terrible forces from the deep and from beyond the stars, and that they used the power that they gained from these pacts to destroy the city when they realised that they were unable to take it. The version of this story as told by the drow is unclear - the Scrolls of Shas'Ellith claimed that the Solar Council sacrificed the city to the Four Hells in order to fuel their own apotheosis, though this has since been more-or-less definitively proven to be a baseless piece of political propaganda, and those scholars who have discussed the matter with any of the drow lodges have concluded that few, if any, drow actually believed it to be true in any case. The oral histories of the sea-elves likewise speak of a civil war between factions in the Eladrin Dominions which preceded the destruction of the city, of which the Solar Council and the groups who would go on to become the drow were the principle belligerents, though their tales are ambiguous as to who, if anyone, was to blame for the city's destruction. The truth of the matter may perhaps be found in the War of the Paragons - for a number of accounts have stated that the city was destroyed by Ceneric ap Rutcoddr in revenge for the sacking of Llyrgwael by the forces of Orobouranithos.
RUINED SETTLEMENT
approx. 2000 years pre-AK
Founding Date
6th millenium pre-AK
Type
City
Population
Approx. 1,000,000
Owning Organization
Comments