The Children of the Moon

The Children of the Moon—often identified as the Elves of the Hand, the Line of Larellion, or the Line of Lorelion—are a tragic, cursed lineage dating back to the ancient era of the Pact of Phandelver. Once inhabiting the Hand of Sehanine (also referred to as the Hand of Sehahine or simply “The Hand”), a luminous elven fortress and tower devoted to magic and prophecy, their society was brought to ruin by a historical catastrophe of jealousy, betrayal, war, and divine abandonment.

The Hand of Sehanine and the Line of Larellion

The Hand of Sehanine was the legendary seat of Archmage Larellion, a quiet seer, steward, and High Mage of the tower. Shaped like an outstretched, splayed hand, the fortress was located near a rocky mound on the outskirts of the ruined village of Leilon, between the Sword Mountains and the sea. During the Age of Arcanum, the tower’s astrological significance was so profound that a constellation depicting “a hand, with long, delicate fingers” was etched among the stars. Structurally, the Hand featured a central base known as The Wrist and five radiating Finger Towers, each serving a unique function:

Larellion had two daughters who possessed contrasting aspects of his nature:

The Sundering and the Curse

During the golden age of the Pact of Phandelver, the Elves of the Hand lived in harmony with the humans of Highthorn and the dwarves of Axeholm. Together, they helped construct the legendary Forge of Spells. However, rising mistrust eventually fractured the alliance from within. Consumed by jealousy and ambition, Vyldara sought to master the magical arts and claim Axeholm for the elves to prove her worth to her father.

Upon arriving at Axeholm, Vyldara was treated with kindness by the dwarven Queen Kima, but she repaid this kindness by poisoning the Queen with a slow, agonizing venom. When guards came to arrest her, she resisted, slaying six dwarves and staining the halls with their blood before being cut down. Angered by her malice, the goddess Sehanine left Vyldara to her fate, and Larellion failed to retrieve her body. Abandoned, Vyldara rose as a Banshee, turning the residents of Axeholm into undead.

In his grief, and under the false impression that his daughter had been kidnapped by the dwarves, Larellion fell into despair. As hordes of orcs and monsters descended upon the North during the Calamity, Larellion chose to abandon his allies. He cast the Mythal of Moonshadow (or Mythal of Moonbow) to shift the fortress into the Ethereal Plane. Angered by this betrayal, Sehanine Moonbow and Corellon twisted the mythal into a divine curse, binding the Hand to cycle into the Material Plane only under a full moon, while its residents were frozen in time as sorrowful, looping spirits. Larellion was punished by being transformed into a Baelnorn—a mad lich whose soul was bound to the tower as his phylactery. Agatha, lost to tragedy, vanished before the Hand fell silent and became a sorrowful banshee near the ruins of Conyberry.

Connection to the Moon and Selune

The legacy of the Children of the Moon remains deeply tied to ancient lunar magic from the Age of Arcanum, when Selune walked the earth. The blueprint of the Forge of Spells required the “Grace of the Elves” to activate Gond’s Smelter—which refers directly to the goddess Selune—and “Elvish Tears,” a translation of the lunar spell Moonbeam. Gond himself was not a deity, but a talented dwarven blacksmith of the era.

Redemption and Lifting the Curse

Centuries later, a band of adventurers—including the half-elf Erevyn Sehahine, who carried the bloodline of the Sehahine—guided by visions of Vyldara’s Heartstone, arrived at the Hand. By performing wordless, physical acts of compassion, such as helping Valestis’s gardens grow, returning a toy to a spectral child, and aiding the librarian Gelarith in resolving “The Unwritten Chapters,” they broke the loops of the trapped spirits.

Having previously put Vyldara’s spirit to rest in Axeholm and secured her forgiveness, the party confronted the mad Baelnorn Larellion in the Observatory. By presenting proof of his daughters’ peace, they helped him repent. Larellion broke the cycle of misery, lifting the millennium-old curse. The spirits faded into true rest, and the Astrolabe of Sehanine was permanently attuned to the party as the Hand grew warm and faded away.