> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # Ithilmara > [![[Ithilmara_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Ithilmara.webp) > ###### Location Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | City | > Region | [[Erivan Island]] | > Defining Feature | The material-plane seat of elven civilisation — sealed, abandoned, and reclaimed by the wild | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Lost | Ithilmara was the crown city of the Valtorran Elves on the Material Plane — the great seat from which the [[Silmara Family]] royal line governed the elves' presence in the world of Elandis. It was never the true heart of elven civilisation: that was [[Sumara, The Shining City|Sumara]], hidden in the [[Faewild]]. Ithilmara was Sumara's extension — the face the elves turned toward the material world, and the door through which they passed when they finally left it behind. A century ago the elves withdrew through the [[World Gates|World Gate]] housed within its walls, sealing the city and the whole of [[Erivan Island]] against the rising [[Valtorran Empire]]. The city has stood empty since, its elegant white stone slowly swallowed by a hundred years of unchecked growth. ## Geography & Layout Ithilmara sits on the sheltered inner shores of a great natural inlet that cuts deep into the southern half of [[Erivan Island]], a substantial island off the southern coast of [[Valtorra]] across the Erivan Strait. The island's interior rises into forested hills and mountain ridges; elsewhere on the island stand [[Galathilion]] to the northwest and the [[Towers of Mithrondal]] at the island's southern tip, which guard the inlet's mouth — the only navigable sea approach to Ithilmara's docks. The island holds smaller settlements in its interior — Quelondor, Celembrindal, and Lorinath among them — but none of these ever held the weight or prominence of Ithilmara. The city itself is unmistakably elven in design — unlike anything raised by human hands. It was planned rather than grown: circular rings of broad avenues radiate outward from the city's centre with careful geometric precision, every road intentional, every sight line considered. The architecture is white stone, elegant and light, rising into sweeping spires and arched colonnades with a grace that makes human construction feel heavy by comparison. After a century of abandonment it is still beautiful — but altered. Trees have pushed through the cobblestones. Vines and creepers choke the facades of the lower buildings. The surrounding forests have pressed in at the city's edges, and the streets that once carried elven footsteps now carry only birdsong and the creak of wood working slowly through masonry. The circular geometry of the avenues remains visible beneath the growth; the spires still rise above it. The city is intact — just no longer tended. ## History Ithilmara was ancient long before the [[Valtorran Empire]] rose. As the material-plane seat of the [[Silmara Family]] royal line, it served as the face of elven civilisation in the world: the Silmara rulers kept residence in both cities, travelling between the planes to govern the elves' material affairs, while the deeper institutions of elven society — the Circles, the Royal Citadel, the Confluence — remained rooted in [[Sumara, The Shining City|Sumara]]. Within the Arcaneum lay the [[World Gates|World Gate]], a mechanism older than the Circles themselves and bound into the Silmara bloodline — the same mechanism that would carry the elven people to safety when the Exile came. ### The Exile When the [[Valtorran Empire]] began its rise across the continent roughly a century ago, the elven leadership chose not to resist by force. The Exile began in order: the Silmara rulers activated the World Gate, and the population of Ithilmara filed through into the [[Faewild]]. But as the Empire's advance drew closer and the window narrowed, the departure grew desperate. Elves still on the Valtorra mainland had not all reached the island in time, and the final crossings were hurried. When the last of those who could make it had passed through, the World Gate was sealed from the Faewild side. As a final act before the door closed, [[Ayana Syndrosa]] — then Meridian of the [[Circle of the Weave]] — directed the full Circle in casting an immense ward over the city and the whole of [[Erivan Island]]. It took enormous power from many members of the Circle, and has never needed renewal. Any non-elf who enters the city suffers mounting psychic agony; left long enough, it is lethal. The ward is precisely why the Empire, for all its reach, never occupied [[Erivan Island]]. The elves left intending to return. ## Landmarks ### The Arcaneum The Arcaneum is the city's principal arcane institution — a large structure of pale stone set apart from the main ring of avenues, recognisable from a distance by its elegant spires rising above the surrounding rooflines. It was the centre of magical learning and research for the elves of the Material Plane, and it houses the most consequential mechanism on the island: the World Gate. The World Gate sits at the Arcaneum's heart on a central dais. It is not a creation of the [[Circle of the Weave|Circles]] — it predates them, built into the [[Silmara Family]] bloodline itself. When a member of the Silmara line places their signet ring into the slot at the dais's centre, the dormant gateway to the [[Faewild]] activates. It was through this mechanism that the elves passed into the Faewild at the Exile, and through which any future return to the Material Plane must come. ## [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 44 - The Elven Archmage]] [[Ayana Syndrosa]] teleported the party across the continent to Ithilmara, desperate to confirm a theory about [[Ryordan Silmara|Ryo]]'s heritage. The party suffered psychic damage from the wards the moment they entered the city. Ayana rushed them to the Arcaneum and its central dais, where Ryo placed his signet ring into the waiting slot. The gateway activated — confirming him as a living descendant of the [[Silmara Family]] royal bloodline — and the party stepped through, leaving the Material Plane and entering the [[Faewild]]. When they had arrived, an old Imperial scouting vessel sat moored at the city's quay; inside the streets, the party found the bodies of Imperial soldiers, killed by the wards. The Empire had sent scouts into Ithilmara. None of them returned.