Lore

Anphillia Pre-History

Eons ago Lord Ao, god of gods created the universe and everything which lies within.

After a period of timeless nothingness two beings formed from the void. The twin goddesses of darkness and light, Shar and Selûne respectively, soon joined forces and fashioned a world from the ether. This material embodiment of the Earthmother was rocky and barren but contained great power.

Selûne, wishing to warm the planet and nurture life on its surface, summoned the Yellow God into being. Outraged at her sister’s affront, Shar summoned the Stormstar to destroy the sun god and keep Toril cold to fuel her own dark powers. As the two goddesses and their lieutenants battled across the cosmos, other powers formed from the void to aid one side or the other. Among the newcomers were the Rotting God, the Reaver, and Lady Doom.

The conflict came to an end when Selûne separated a chunk of divine essence from herself and hurled it at her dark sister. Upon striking Shar, the goddess Mystryl was formed composed of both light and dark magic. Mystryl forced an uneasy truce among the powers allowing life to quickly flourish on the Toril.

~ Source: A Grand History of the Forgotten Realms by Brian R. James

Anphillia Early History

During the tempest which created the world, great volcanoes erupted across the planet and numerous islands were formed as many of the volcanoes rose out of the ocean and spewed forth countless tonnes of lava. Several such volcano’s created an lonesome island in the great watery expanse which became known as the trackless sea. This island is today called Anphillia.

This island still bears the marks of its fiery creators, several weather smoothed mountains strike high into the sky and the largest of these mountains lays host to the island’s only Blue Dragon, Taluk. The Wyrm's name is elven in nature, tal = city and luk =to swallow.

c. -37000DR during Toril’s most recent ice age, much of the trackless sea was covered by an enormous glacier which stretched for thousands of miles and encompassed Anphillia. It was during this time that Anphillia received it’s first humanoid inhabitants in the form of giants, orcs, trolls and the like.

As this ice age came to an end, Anphillia once again found itself isolated in the ocean and the creatures that had taken residence on the isle dominated the landscape. The island was not found again by humanoids for several dozen millennia.

It was around -7600DR, following the fall of the Telantiwar Drow empire that Anphillia was discovered by its first civilised race through a connection to the underdark deep below Mount Tarnor. Drow scout parties visited Anphillia and documented the rich ore and mineral deposits, untouched since the formation of the island.

The Drow did not stay to take the resources or form a city however, considering the underdark area under the isle to be too readily accessible from the surface. Their expedition records thought lost to the ages, changed hands many times over the centuries for coin and eventually left forgotten in the royal library of Tethyr.

Anphillia Recent History

Our story beings in earnest with King Alemander Anphis IV of House Tethyr in 1330DR. His court wizard, the first in several millennia to successfully translate the ancient drow parchments, convinced Alemander to dispatch his own expedition to uncover the resource rich isle.

After many moons on the ocean, the scout ship found the island and weighed anchor in deep water upon the southern edge of the island. The initial exploration was difficult, with thick brush covering many parts and untamed monsters roaming free. However, even in their short trip they found many valuable ores and mineral deposits - which was duly reported back to the King.

In order to both tame the island and establish a mining operation, in the summer of the 1331 a trio of ships led by the Royal flagship 'Blue Dolphin' set sail from . Their primary cargo was an royal guard detachment under the command of guard Captain Gord MacCleaven along with a strong mining force of indentured servants.

This operation was successfully established on the isle from an inland fort they named Ramsallis

Since Anphillia is en route to Maztica, soon after traders from Amn and Waterdeep set up shop there as well, established by a wealthy captain Ranzing. Since Anphis treats the island as just a mining operation and takes all the resources back to the mainland, Ranzington grows much faster.