The Mythal of Moonshadow

The Mythal of Moonshadow, also known as the Mythal of Moonbow, is an ancient, grand elven spell of defense. Bound using the deep magics of the Elven courts, it was originally designed as a permanent shield to seal away the elven fortress known as the Hand of Sehanine from corruption and threat.

History and Purpose

During the twilight of the Pact of Phandelver, relations between the elves of the Hand of Sehanine and the dwarves of Axeholm crumbled into severe mistrust. Archmage Larellion, the High Mage of the Hand, fell into deep despair following the disappearance of his daughter Vyldara and under the false impression that she had been kidnapped by the dwarves. When hordes of orcs, rogue mages, and other monstrous forces descended upon the Hand, Larellion chose to abandon his allies in the Pact.

In his desperation and grief, Larellion enacted a final measure to save his people: he cast the Mythil of Moonshadow to shift the entire tower into the Ethereal Plane, intending to seal it away as an impenetrable sanctuary. He hoped to protect only his kin, abandoning the alliance and the world beyond.

The Divine Curse

The casting of the mythal did not go unnoticed. Sehanine Moonbow (the Moonweaver, also identified as Selûne) and Corellon (the Arch Heart) were angered by the elves’ cowardice and abandonment of their allies in their hour of need. In her divine wrath, Sehanine intervened and twisted the weave of the spell.

Instead of forming an impenetrable defensive shield, the mythal was transformed into a divine curse that bound the Hand of Sehanine in a frozen instant of time:

• Planar Phasing: The fortress was prevented from remaining permanently in the Ethereal Plane, instead only fully phasing into the Material Plane during the night of a full moon. At all other times, it remains half-phased and hostile to material life.
• Temporal Stasis of Spirits: The inhabitants of the Hand were frozen in the moments immediately preceding the spell’s completion, trapped as sorrowful, cursed spirits repeating their final memories in endless, tragic loops.
• Larellion’s Punishment: As the caster, Larellion was subjected to exquisite torture. He was transformed into a Baelnorn—a mad, undead lich whose soul was bound eternally to the tower, which served as his phylactery.

Lifting the Curse

The twisted mythal was decreed by Sehanine to remain in place until the Hand could return to aid the people of the valley, and until Larellion repented for his grief-driven selfishness. A millennium later, a band of adventurers broke the cycle of misery. By performing selfless physical acts of compassion to put the looping spirits to rest, and by presenting proof that Larellion’s daughters, Vyldara and Agatha, had been laid to rest, they enabled the mad Baelnorn to repent. With his reckoning, the millennium-old curse was finally lifted, allowing the spirits to fade into true rest and the Hand’s ancient magical astrolabe to be permanently secured.