Eltheria
The Lost Kingdom of the Pale Moon
“We remember Eltheria not by what they left, but by what they became when silence swallowed their song.”
— High Archivist Taeril Wynestri, Library of Myr Vaelyss
Overview
Eltheria was an ancient Pallid Elf kingdom located in the plains and rolling hills of central Phaerumcor, flourishing in quiet grandeur until its mysterious collapse around 800 B.S. (Before Sundering). It is remembered by scholars and sages alike as a kingdom of moonlight and whispers, deeply spiritual and veiled in mystery, whose sudden disappearance left only ruins, strange phenomena, and scattered myths behind.
The Eltherians were known for their sylvan serenity, mastery of dream-magic and starlight sorcery, and an unusually tight bond with the veil between the living world and the dreaming realms. They built no great spires nor colossal cities—instead, their settlements blended into the land, grown rather than built, and shrouded from mundane perception.
After their fall, the few survivors—pale, haunted, and forever changed—were taken in by neighboring civilizations, especially the High Elves of the Iyymerion Empire, ruled at the time by Eletor Iyymerion, great-grandfather to Dras Iyymerion. These refugees, known thereafter as the Waned Ones, slowly integrated into other elven societies, but never spoke fully of their homeland’s fate.
Geography
Eltheria was nestled in what was once called Wanehallow, a region of haunted hills, wind-bent trees, and moon-silvered grasslands. This region of Phaerumcor is now known as Emythethias, named after the titular City of Gladiators. Ancient cartographers described the land as perpetually bathed in soft twilight, though this may be a metaphor for the heavy enchantments the Eltherians used to veil their realm from outside interference. Today, the region is considered by many to be cursed, plagued by strange mists, wild beasts, traumatic history, and flickers of ghostly cities glimpsed only at dusk.
Society and Culture
Eltherian culture was built around the reverence of memory, dreams, and lunar cycles. The Pallid Elves of Eltheria believed that dreams were not merely the mind’s wanderings, but windows into hidden truths, and that memory could be weaved into living magic. They were ruled not by monarchs or councils, but by the Moonwardens, a triad of seers who walked between dreams, interpreting the will of the stars.
Their magic, now nearly lost, focused on:
- Memorybinding – weaving recollections into physical objects or spells.
- Moondancing – a form of ritual movement said to realign fate itself.
- Dreamscrying – entering the dreams of others to heal, reveal, or sever ties.
The Eltherians left behind very little writing, choosing to sing their histories into stones, groves, and rivers. This oral tradition, infused with subtle enchantment, could be "heard" only by those attuned to the old magics—something few can replicate today.
The Collapse (c. 800 B.S.)
The fall of Eltheria is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the histories of Phaerumcor.
Known Facts:
- Around 800 B.S., all contact with Eltheria ceased in a span of months.
- Explorers sent by Iyymerion to investigate found empty settlements, withered glades, and hollowed ruins, but no bodies.
- Survivors emerged sporadically over the following decades—fewer than a thousand in total—and spoke little or nothing of the fall.
- Many were dreamstruck, barely lucid, whispering fragments of stars "falling upward" and “the moon turning its face.”
Myths and Theories of the Collapse
Multiple theories attempt to explain the fall of Eltheria, none confirmed. Each is preserved in the oral and arcane traditions of the survivors or the scholars who inherited their riddles.
✦ The Dreamblight
The most widely accepted theory among arcanists. Eltherian scholars were said to have pierced too deeply into the Dreaming Veil, the boundary between mortal thought and divine memory. Some say they reached a shared dream—a collective plane shaped by will—and tried to remake their world within it.
Something answered.
The Dreamblight refers to a possible entity or infection from beyond the Dreaming that erased Eltheria from within—not by killing, but by unmaking memory itself. It is said those who succumbed simply forgot how to live, how to move, how to be. And so they faded.
✦ The Pale God Beneath
Some mythic traditions, particularly those among the Underdark races, tell of a pale being of immense stillness slumbering beneath Phaerumcor. Eltheria’s rituals may have inadvertently stirred this being, whose dreams became the dreams of the Eltherians. This “Pale God”, perhaps an ancient fragment of the buried divine (or even tied to the Vein), devoured their minds in search of worshippers, feeding on their dreams until only hollow husks remained.
✦ The Lunar Reversal
Moon-priests of Caudiel interpret the fall of Eltheria as punishment for turning from the true light. Eltherians, they claim, sought to place the moon above the sun in divine hierarchy—causing a cosmic imbalance that triggered divine retribution. While largely dismissed by historians, it remains a powerful myth among religious circles.
✦ They Never Fell
A fringe theory among certain gnomish philosophers suggests Eltheria still exists, but in a shifted temporal state—a realm of "ongoing dusk". The survivors, they claim, are merely echoes, or travelers who fell out of sync with their homeland’s new cycle. In this view, the ruins of Eltheria are reflections, and the true kingdom remains hidden behind veils of starlight and unfulfilled dreams.
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