Lore:Sharandar

A Hole in the World
The Spellplague shook all of creation with such force that its reverberations were felt in other worlds, such as the Feywild. The long-lost land of the fey fell back into alignment with the mortal realm, causing the barriers between the two planes to weaken, and in some places to fail altogether.

In Neverwinter Wood there stands an enormous oak tree with a large hole in the base of its trunk, wide enough for a wagon to pass through. Any who step through this hole are transported from the mortal plane into the Feywild. Specifically, they are transported into the Iliyanbruen military outpost known as New Sharandar.

Cyclopses
Cyclopses are one-eyed giants born of the Feywild, coming into being as twisted echoes of the mortal realm's ogres. According to legend, the fomorians found these newly-born beings and saw great potential in them. They shaped and taught the cyclopses, turning them into the loyal and powerful subject thy are today.

The cyclopes willingly serve the fomorians, who the cyclopses view as the rightful lords of the Feywild. Strong warriors and master craftsmen, cyclopses are the fomorians' most valued subjects, serving in roles that the fomorians deem too important to trust to slaves and lover servants. To the surprise of many, cyclopses are in fact master craftspeople, forging implements of great power to lay at the feet of their fomorian masters.

Feydark Breach
The Feywild has its dark counterpart, muck like the Underdark echoes Toril. The Feydark undercuts the realm of the Feywild and in some places draw very near to the surface. Breaches can be created to allow access for the hordes below to boil and infect the land.

Fomorian Witches
Obsessed with beauty, fomorian witches use magic and their knowledge to alchemy to alter their deformed bodies into more lovely forms. Ironically, they cannon disguise their evil eye as this is the source of their magic power. Unable to perfect themselves, these witches are driven to find or create flaws in others.

Fomorians
Fomorians are an ancient and wicked race native to the darker side of the Feywild. Having come into being as perverse reflections of the mortal world's mighty titants, the fomorians consider themselves to be the most important beings in the universe. They hold esteem for no god, and seek to subjugate all that lives.

A fomorian's body is twisted with deformities, often including things such as humpback and crooked limbs, but always including an asymmetric face in which one eye is larger and viler than the other. This “evil eye” has catlike iris and unnatural coloration that varies from individual to individual.

This repulsiveness of appearance starkly contrasts with the beauty of the Feywild, but also in some ways mirrors it. As the land of the Feywild is enchanted with otherworldly beauty to a degree that cannot be found in the mortal world, so too are fomorians cursed with otherworldly ugliness to a degree that cannot be found there either. They stand as a reminder that the Feywild is a land as terrible as it is beautiful.

Gnarlroot Caves
To their effort to twist the nature of the Feywild to reflect their own dark desires, the Fomorians employ dark magic and an assortment of alchemic potions. To have the greatest affect, these potions must be applied directly to the deep roots of the great trees and other vegetation growing on the surface. The narrow twisting tunnels that five access to these roots are far too constricting for the gigantic Fomorians, therefore they employ Redcap Witherers to do the dirty work for them. Chief among these diminutive minions is Grimak the Nailbiter. Under the tutelage of power Fomorian Witches, Grimak has learned to control many of the twisted plants found growing beneath the enchanted soil of the Feywild.

Iliyanbruen Fey
Long ago, the great empire of Illefarn covered much of northwestern Faerun, including Neverwinter Wood. This empire divided when the last Coronal of the elves led the retreat to Evermeet, splitting into the three kingdoms of Ardeep, Tilitha, and Iliyanbruen.

But these three kingdoms, too, each fell in turn over the long centuries. Iliyanbruen, the great fey kingdom of the North whose lands included those which would later become Neverwinter, was abandoned. Many of tis people retreated back to the Feywild, and when that world slipped out of alignment with the mortal plane, so too did the Iliyanbruen fade into memory and myth.

Now, with the mortal plane and the Feywild back in alignment, the Iliyanbruen have begun to return to their old lands to see what has become of their once-mighty fey kingdom, and many of them are extremely displeased with what they have found. Tensions between Neverwinter and the Iliyanbruen now run high, with the ageless and proud fey viewing the city and its denizens as somewhere between squatters and outright thieves, but perhaps assisting in the defense of New Sharandar against the dark fey will allow cooler heads to prevail.

Malabog's Army
Malabog's army is divided into three tiers. Malabog and his fomorian brethren sit at the top, commanding and directing the rest of the army against the Iliyanbruen fey of New Sharandar. The fomorians' valued and favored subjects, the cyclopses, are the next tier, serving as elite warriors and craftsman to their fomorian masters.

All others, from the redcaps to the trolls, are merely servants, entirely subjugated by their fomorian masters. These serve as frontline fodder, giving built to the fomorians' army and infesting the areas under fomorian control.

Malabog's Castle
Inspired by the domain of the mightiest fomorian lord in the feydark, King Malabog and his cyclopes slaves created this epic castle, a titanic twisting maze of Stone, roots, crystals and magic.

Past the maze of courtyard walls and murder gates, the interior of Malabog's castle is a labyrinthine connection of chambers, great halls, twisting hallways and courtyards, lit by enormous gloving crystals, will-o'-wisps, luminous fungi, and rock formations that spit balls of blue flame.

Fomorian castles are as deadly as they are beautiful.

New Sharandar
When the mortal world and the Feywild fell back into alignment, portals linking to two planes began to appear. Many Iliyanbruen fey desired to explore the mortal world that they had lost, and they began to take control of the portals that they could find.

New Sharandar is a military outpost built around one such portals. When the Iliyanbruen fey first arrived at this portal, it was under the control of a large band of dark fey. Through force of arms and magic, the Iliyanbruen drove the dark fey off and claimed the portal for their own.

Wary not only of counterattacks from the dark fey but also of incursions from the mortal world on the other side of the portal, the Iliyanbruen designed new Sharandar to be fortified against attacks from either. The living abates that serves as the outpost's outer wall repels attacks from without, while the inner fort built around the portal repels attacks from within.

Predatory Vines
Living, walking, carnivorous vines infest vast wilderness areas in the Feywild, as deadly and dangerous as any predatory animal. These predatory vines come in varying shapes and sizes, from the cunning and voracious ambush vine that can burst out of the earth to ensnare its prey, to the deadly bloodthorn vine that impales creatures on hollow thorns and drains them of their life fluids, to the opportunistic greenvise vine that snaps creatures up in vise-like jaws and slowly digests them.

As dangerous are predatory vines are, some fey creatures found ways to cultivate them, using them as guardians near their homes. However, this practice has been known to backfire occasionally, spawning huge blights of predatory vines that devour almost everything in t heir forested domain.

Redcaps
Redcaps are gnomes that have been altered by Fomorian magic. Once, long ago, the gnomes toiled as slave to greedy and cruel fomorian masters. Those able to escape their bonds fled to the mortal world In order to elude their oppressors. Those who could not make their way to freedom became twisted over time by their masters' magic into redcaps.

Today, these perverse fey creature inhabit the vast wildernesses of the Feywild, delighting in the slaying of foes. The redcaps dip their hats and clothing into a slain enemy's blood, and it is for this habit that the name “redcap” comes from. They ally with any creature too strong to kill and perverse enough to tolerate their bloodthirsty ways. Often, this means that the redcaps end up serving fomorians, their keeps of old.

Songs of Corellon
This statue, now defiled by fomorians, was dedicated to the observance of Lateu'quor, the communion of the crescent moon.

Worshippers of Corellon known as feywardens would gather in this small yet majestic grove praising their diety with songs. The shape of the grove creates fantastic harmonics as well as allowing a spectacular view of the moon. If you listen closely you may still hear the songs within the rocks.

The Dragon Bones
When Malabog used the Orb of Dragonkind to bring the blue dragon, Fulminorax, under his control, it attracted unwanted attention. Perhaps seeking revenge on the Fomorian king for daring to ensorcel a member of its species, a second blue dragon swooped down out of the sky one day and attacked Malabog's forces. The Illiyanbruen fey in New Sharandar didn't know the dragon's name or its reasons for attacking, but their spirits raised as they saw what kind of ally they thought they had gained.

That was when Malabog unleashed Fulminorax. Controlled by the fomorian king's Orb of Dragonkind, Fulminorax swept out of Malabog's castle and tore into the attacking blue dragon. Aided by elite cyclops warriors and Fomorian magic, the battle was over quickly. Fulminorax flew off, leaving the nameless blue dragon's corpse to rot in the middle of the swamp.

The Fall of Celadaine
The greatest knight of the Illiyanbruan Fey was unquestionably Moon Elf, Celadaine. Unmatched in battle and master of strategy, Celadaine was largely responsible for driving back the forces of the Gloaming Court from the boundaries of the elven city. To guard against the return of their enemies, the Illiyanbruan build a great watch tower on the edge of their territory. Although it meant a life on constant vigilance and never ending conflict, Celadaine claimed the honor of being mane the master of this tower.

For centuries Celadaine remained a terror to the Illiyanbruan's enemies and his tower was an unbreakable bastion against the attacks of the Dark Fey. After repeated defeats the Gloaming Court shifted their tactics, focusing on breaking Celadaine's psyche rather than his body. Using powerful corrupting magic, Fomorian Witches began to attack the gallant elf's min, playing upon the idea that he had been abandoned by his kin and left to do their dirty work with little or no thanks.

It was a slow, insidious process but eventually the Dark Fey succeeded in controlling Celadaine's thoughts to such a degree that he now saw ugliness as beauty, lies as truth and evil as good. In one terrible night Celadaine turned on his faithful retainers and slew them all. The Gloaming Court quickly replaced the slain elves with Dark Fey, who Celadaine now views as his allies and kin. Celadaine has sworn fealty to Malabog as his lord and master and now fights tirelessly against those he once swore to protect.

The Feywild
The Feywild, also known as the plane of Faerie, is a world that exists as an echo of the mortal realm. It was created by the Primordials, as the god-like beings removed parts of the mortal world that they fancied too “bright”. These too-bright pieces of creation formed the parallel world that became the Feywild, and it was there that fey creatures such as elves first came into being.

Long ago, the Feywild existed in close proximity with the mortal world, and the inhabitants of both planes interacted regularly. Many elves of that time migrated to the mortal world and established the grand fey empire of Illefarn, whose elven and elf-blooded descendants still populate the mortal world to this day. Over time, the Feywild slipped further and further away, and eventually contact between the two planes became nearly impossible. The Spellplague's reverberations, however, shook Feywild back into alignment with the mortal world, once again allowing travel between the two planes.

The Feywild is alive with magic and beauty, and many mortals who travel to the realm of Faerie return with stories of its entrancing majesty. But there is more to this majesty than simply beauty -- it is often described as being as terrible and terrifying in its majesty as it is beautiful. As even the most beautiful rose has thorns, so too is there great and uncaring danger lurking among the wonders of the land of the fey.

Witches' Brew
Fomorian Witches are extremely adept at the art of alchemy, seeming to possess and inherent knowledge of the alchemic properties of even the most mundane items. What appears to most observers to be no more than a slimy collection of offal, herbs and animal parts can become a powerful potion, scrying mirror or summoning focus when brewed together by the skilled hands of a Witch.

It may be that the power of Fomorian alchemy is enhanced when several witches work together, for it is not uncommon to find them banding together in a coven to work their arts.

Covens jealously guard their secret knowledge, choosing only the most remote and inhospitable caverns and marshes for their lairs.