Netheril: The Empire That Fell Twice

In 1487 DR, a flying city of black spires falls out of the sky and crushes Myth Drannor. The city is Thultanthar, the Shade Enclave. Its ruler, Telamont Tanthul, is already dead. Elminster Aumar killed him in a fight over the elven city's mythal, and the lich Larloch was in that fight too, wanting the mythal for himself.

Thultanthar is also the one enclave of ancient Netheril still flying after the empire's fall in -339 DR. It slipped into the Plane of Shadow during an experiment a few days before that fall, then stayed there for about 1,700 years. That leaves one question: why does the city that survived the fall of Netheril end by repeating it?

Fishermen Who Learned the Art

Netheril starts on the coast of the Narrow Sea with seven villages, among them Fenwick, Gers and Gilan. Together they form the Alliance of Seventon. The Eaerlanni elves watch the young realm carefully, and in -3830 DR they begin teaching it the Art. The Forgotten Realms Wiki says the humans learned "with rapacious fervor." Nether the Elder renames the alliance Netheril, meaning Nether's Land. Every citizen learns basic spellcasting, so even maids use cantrips for housework. Those who excel become arcanists, a faction second only to the nobility.

The elven lessons do not last. In -3533 DR a man named Finder recovers the Nether Scrolls from the ruins of Aryvandaar, and the Netherese come to prefer them over elven teaching. Congenio Ioun makes the first ioun stone at the age of 33. The arcanists use their new power against their neighbors, attacking Thaeravel, the Land of Alabaster Towers, and stripping spells from the minds of its sorcerers. Cormanthyrian elves steal one of the two complete sets of scrolls with help from a rock gnome named Rilmohx Sha'Quessir. One glance at a scroll gives him the whole school of illusion, and that knowledge spreads among Faerûn's gnomes.

Mythallars and the Cities in the Sky

Ioulaum is born in -3315 DR. He fights off an orc horde from the Plain of Standing Stones and experiments on the captives. In -3014 DR he invents the mythallar, a device that draws its power from the Weave. A few years later he discovers quasi-magical items, which run on a mythallar instead of drawing on the Weave themselves. In -2954 DR he casts Proctiv's move mountain and raises Xinlenal, the first floating enclave. Many enclaves are mountain peaks cut off and turned upside down.

At its height the empire keeps 54 cities in the air. The nobles of High Netheril live in them and speak Loross, which uses the Draconic script. Below them, Low Netheril is made up of towns, barbarian tribes and demesnes ruled by lesser arcanists who can change the local weather and terrain whenever they like. The rulers treat the commoners as chattel: labor and test subjects. So the commoners pray to the Netherese pantheon for a better life.

In the Golden Age, which opens in -2207 DR, Netheril lifts one new enclave every year, Thultanthar among them. Three domed colonies called Deep Netheril are built under the Sea of Fallen Stars. They enslave the aquatic elves of Serôs. The high mages of Aryselmalyr answer with an explosion that destroys the colonies and creates Saerloon Bay and Selgaunt Bay.

Phaerimm Below

Magical residue leaks down from the enclaves into the earth and torments the phaerimm, an aberrant race living underground. In -461 DR they strike back by draining life and magic from the land and the cities. Fields turn to wasteland and wild magic spreads. Lhaoda and Tith Tilendrothael are destroyed. Arcanists flee to Illusk, the Tower of the Star and a Northdark settlement founded by Ioulaum, and Low Netheril falls into civil unrest. In -345 DR Arthindol the Terraseer appears in Eileanar and warns that Mystryl, goddess of magic, will soon face a challenge Netheril has never seen.

Karsus and the Momentary God

Karsus is born in -696 DR. He casts his first spell at two and creates his own floating city at 22, the youngest arcanist ever to do so. The sources disagree here. The wiki's Netheril page credits him with Eileanar. His own page lists his former realm as the Karsus Enclave and says he named the city after his father, Radman, because his mother asked him to. He invents heavy magic, which is magic gathered and stored as a physical substance. He also kills the rogue arcanist Wulgreth, which turns Wulgreth into a lich.

In -339 DR Karsus casts Karsus's avatar. It is a six-hour spell built to steal a deity's power, and he wears a crown made for the job. He picks Mystryl. He believes a god's power will let him destroy the phaerimm and unite his people. For a moment he holds power over all magic, but the god of magic has to regulate its flow to every spell and item, and Karsus cannot do it. Magic surges. Mystryl uses the last of her power to cut him off from the Weave. All magic fails, the mythallars go dark and nearly every enclave falls. Karsus turns to stone and comes down in the High Forest, in the area later called the Dire Wood.

The versions disagree on how this happened. The wiki's main account treats it as a spell that went wrong. The novelized account makes it a fight: Karsus throws attacking phaerimm aside and hauls his tilting city level for a moment. Accounts of the Folly also have a star-eyed young woman calling herself Mystra appear before it. His divine status shifts between sources too. In the second edition statistics, Karsus is a demigod of hubris. Elsewhere his soul is bound to the Material Plane as a vestige for pact magic.

Survivors Who Blamed the Wrong Enemy

Mystryl comes back almost at once as Mystra. She saves three falling enclaves, and their survivors found Anauria, Asram and Hlondath. None of them survives. Talona's plague kills almost all of Asram in -33 DR. An orc horde destroys Anauria in 450 DR. Hlondath rejects the news that Karsus caused the fall and blames Cormanthyr's elves instead. In 199 DR that grudge leads to the Crown Against Scepter Wars, and Myth Drannor beats Hlondath again and again. Other refugees get out by different routes: Raumark takes airships south to found Halruaa, and dwarves guide another group along the Lowroad to Delzoun.

The Enclave That Hid in Shadow

A few days before the Folly, Telamont Tanthul experiments with the Shadow Weave and moves Thultanthar into the Plane of Shadow. When he looks back at Toril, he blames the phaerimm for the ruin and decides to stay where he is. His clerics of Shar learn the truth through divination, but they tell only the nobles. Over the centuries the people of the city become the Shadovar.

On Hammer 1, 1372 DR, Thultanthar returns with help from Telamont's son Rivalen. In 1374 DR Rivalen and Brennus make Sembia a vassal, and the enclave Sakkors is raised again. In 1375 DR agents of Shar destroy Ordulin. Sembia becomes a protectorate in 1400 DR. The wiki puts the empire's population at about 25,500 in 1374 and 50,000 in 1479.

Netheril Falls Again

In 1484 DR Rivalen's plot to bring Shar's eternal night fails, and Sakkors's mythallar dies over Ordulin. Cormyr fights on two fronts, and the Bedine revolt in 1485. In 1487 DR Telamont flies the Shade Enclave to Myth Drannor to take its mythal, so that Shar can replace Mystra as goddess of magic.

That answers the opening question. Karsus tried to take the power of magic itself, and his cities fell. Telamont tries the same thing on Shar's behalf, and his city falls on Myth Drannor. The ending is ironic too. Telamont stayed in shadow because he blamed the phaerimm, and in 1488 DR the Bedine revolt culminates in the reawakening of the last phaerimm at the Memory Spire. Their draining turns the returned Netheril back into the desert of Anauroch.

Using Netheril at the Table

Sources