The Hand of Sehanine

The Hand of Sehanine (frequently referred to in historical texts as The Hand of Sehahine, The Hand of Sehehine, The Tower of the Hand, The Hand of Selune, or simply The Hand) is an ancient, luminous, and mysterious elven fortress and tower shaped like an outstretched, splayed hand. Tied deeply to the history of the Sword Coast, high magic, and the region surrounding Phandalin, it was established in Neverwinter Wood on a rocky mound near the ruined elven foundations of Leilon, between the Sword Mountains and the sea. Historically, it served as a sacred temple to knowledge, prophecy, and elven magic, and was ruled as the magnificent seat of the quiet seer, Archmage Larellion the High Mage (also spelled Lorelion).

Today, the Hand of Sehanine is a haunted fortress that only fully phases into the Material Plane beneath a full moon, remaining half-phased and hostile to material life at all other times.

History and the Pact of Phandelver

Approximately 1,000 years ago, the Hand of Sehanine served as a cornerstone of the Pact of Phandelver. Alongside the dwarven fortress of Axeholm and the human settlement of Highthorn (known today as Cragmaw Castle), the Hand was bound to a golden alliance. This treaty was brokered by King Phandelver II (who led human settlers into Neverwinter Wood), Queen Kima of Axeholm, and Archmage Larellion, steward of the Hand of Sehanine. This accord was documented in Elminster Aumar’s historical record, The Rise and Fall of the Pact of Phandelver.

During this golden age of cooperation, the Hand flourished, contributing its starlit libraries to the cultural exchange of the Pact. Together with the gnomes of the vale (from Gnomengarde), the three allies constructed the legendary Forge of Spells at a nexus of leylines deep underground in Wave Echo Cave. The magic of this era mirrored the ancient power of the Age of Arcanum—the legendary epoch before the Calamity and the creation of the Divine Gate.

To power the Forge of Spells, the legendary craftsman Gond—who was not a deity, but a highly talented dwarven blacksmith of the Age of Arcanum—constructed Gond’s Smelter. Activating the smelter required three distinct elements: the mettle of the dwarves, the ingenuity of humans, and “The Grace of the Elves” (which required the invocation of the Moonbeam spell, historically mis-translated in some texts as “Elvish Tears”).

When the final seals of the Forge of Spells are breached, the ceiling projects the night sky exactly as it appeared 1,000 years ago during the Age of Arcanum, when Selûne herself walked the earth. The stars rearrange themselves into three great constellations symbolizing the Pact: a great castle with turrets and crenellations (Highthorn), a large bedecked hammer adorned with jewels (Axeholm), and a hand with long, delicate fingers representing the Hand of Sehanine.

Architecture and the Five Spires

Unlike the defensive fortress of Axeholm, the Hand of Sehanine was designed as a sacred temple of lore and cosmic alignment. It featured five distinct spires designed like five fingers of stone gesturing heavenward, each representing and aligned with a unique aspect of the Seldarine (the elven pantheon):

While most of the original bridges connecting the finger towers are broken, pathways can be restored by performing tasks in the active sections. Only a few spirits—such as the child Sehriya, Valestis, and Gelarith—retained their lucidity; the rest remained trapped in repeating memories.

The Betrayal of Vyldara and the Fall

The peace of the Pact began to unravel due to rising mistrust between the elves of the Hand and the dwarves of Axeholm. This collapse was catalyzed from within by Vyldara Sehahine, one of Larellion’s daughters. Desperate to prove herself and win the favor of her father—who openly favored her sister, Agatha, crowning her the “Moonlit Prodigy” with a thin silver circlet—Vyldara acted as an emissary to Axeholm. Her ambition curdled into spite; she fomented civil unrest among the dwarven clans and poisoned Queen Kima with a slow, agonizing venom.

When imprisoned, Vyldara attempted to escape, slaying six dwarven guards before she was cut down. Because her father failed to retrieve her body and Sehanine Moonbow did not claim her soul, she rose as a vengeful banshee, turning Axeholm into a haunted ruin and forcing the dwarves to flee. Caught in the middle, the humans of Highthorn were left vulnerable to sudden southern threats, including orcish hordes, goblin banners, and undead armies allied with the Betrayer Gods.

During this rapid collapse, Axeholm was abandoned, Highthorn was sacked, and the Hand of Sehanine fell silent, its brilliant guiding beacon extinguished. Its exact geographical location was lost to time and remains a mystery. Larellion’s gentler daughter, Agatha, vanished shortly before the tower fell silent and now lingers as a ghost near the ruins of Highthorn and Conyberry, singing the mournful elvish dirge Lament of the Sehahine.

The Mythal of Moonshadow and Divine Curse

In his grief, and under the false impression that his daughter Vyldara had been kidnapped by the dwarves of Axeholm, Larellion fell into deep despair. As hordes of orcs, rogue mages, and other monsters allied with the Betrayer Gods descended upon the Hand, Larellion chose to abandon his allies. He cast the Mythal of Moonshadow (also called the Mythal of Moonbow), aiming to shift the fortress into the Ethereal Plane as a last sanctuary for his people.

Angered by the elves’ betrayal and abandonment of their allies, Sehanine Moonbow (the Moonweaver) and Corellon (the Arch Heart) intervened. They twisted the mythal, turning it into a divine curse. The Hand would be bound to cycles of returning to the Material Plane only when it could aid the valley’s people, while its inhabitants were frozen in time as sorrowful, cursed spirits trapped in repeating loops. Larellion was punished with the most exquisite torture: he was transformed into a Baelnorn, a mad lich whose soul was bound to the tower as his phylactery. Believing themselves banished forever and cursed by their goddess, the Elves of the Hand haunted the phased tower.

Gelarith and “The Unwritten Chapters”

Gelarith, the spectral librarian within the Thumb tower, embodied the tragic theme of memory preserved by acts the dead can no longer perform. Because the incorporeal ghost-scribes could not physically organize the Scriptorium, the archives fell into total disarray. Gelarith requested that visitors help complete “The Unwritten Chapters” by executing physical tasks:

  1. Return six scattered, heavy tomes to their proper runic order.
  2. Finish a half-scripted historical tale titled “Sisters of the Moon: Agatha & Vyldara”.
  3. Recover the lost tale “Dawn Over the Hand” from behind a collapsed archway.

Successfully assisting Gelarith eased the spirits of the ghost-scribes, triggered a hidden bookcase to swing open (revealing a secret passage to the Index tower), and decreased Larellion’s madness. It also granted visitors a temporary attunement to cast Legend Lore or gain advantage on research-type checks within the tower.

Lifting the Curse and the Party’s Journey

To lift the curse of the Hand, visitors had to show deep compassion. By performing physical acts—such as returning a dropped toy to a spectral child, watering the gardens with pure water from the Moonwell, or sorting the Scriptorium—they helped “break the loops” of the trapped souls. These compassionate acts weakened Larellion’s madness, reducing the difficulty of the final confrontation in the crystal-and-adamant lattice of the Middle Finger’s Observatory.

Guided by Selune’s hand and visions granted by Vyldara’s Hearthstone (or Heartstone), the adventurers known as The Magnificent Five (also referred to as the Fantastic Five) arrived at the rocky mound on the outskirts of Leilon. Waiting until nightfall, they used the Hearthstone to part the clouds, allowing the full moon’s beams to phase the shimmering Hand of Sehanine into the Material Plane. Inside, the party cleared the Sentinel Floor, with Gilmore successfully convincing the spectral captain to yield. They proceeded to explore the towers, helping Valestis’s garden grow, solving training yard puzzles, and sorting the Scriptorium before entering the Observatory.

During the final multi-phase confrontation in the Observatory, a gravity reversal occurred. The elderly human wizard Farwald was slain by Larellion’s sickly green arrow. Nalini immediately rushed forward, using raw, forbidden magic to drain the life-essence of surrounding elements to anchor Farwald’s soul back to his body. Gilmore assisted by calling upon Elire—his deceased sister whose soul was trapped in a Soulstone—who agreed to aid the resurrection on the condition that Gilmore visit Dragon Barrow to seek revenge (unbeknownst to him, a trap).

Meanwhile, Erevyn used deep, heartfelt words to coax the remaining fragments of sanity from the mad Baelnorn. Presenting proof of Vyldara’s redemption and peaceful passing in Axeholm, the adventurers enabled Larellion to repent. The Baelnorn dissolved into dust, breaking the cycle of misery and lifting the millennium-old curse. The spirits faded into true rest, and the Astrolabe of Sehanine—a reusable divination engine offering spells like Scrying, Sending, Augury, Divination, and Commune—became permanently attuned to the party.

Following these events, Farwald was later healed of a powerful Modify Memory spell cast by Elminster Aumar, which revealed his true form as Hrothgar Hillsfar, a 300-year-old Firbolg who fought in the original dragon wars and hid his identity to protect the secret locations of the Dragon Masks.

Legacy and Bloodlines

Remarkably, the bloodline of Larellion survives. Erevyn Sehahine, an agile rogue of the Magnificent Five and a member of the secret society known as the Zhentarim, is “blood of the blood” of the Sehahine line. During his adventures, Erevyn experienced visions of Selune, Agatha, and Vyldara, pointing to his deep connection to the luminous tower’s tragic masters. A powerful relic of the High Mage also survived the fall: the Circlet of Larellion. Recovered from Wave Echo Cave after the Magnificent Five defeated the Guardian of the Forge, this simple, impossibly thin silver circlet enhances any spellcaster’s magical abilities, preserving the echoes of the Hand’s lost elven heights.