Welcome to the first of a series of articles detailing the Lost City of Hope, my creation of the united city called Rhymanthiin! “What’s that?” you ask? For those who’ve not read much Forgotten Realms fiction or game material, Rhymanthiin is a… hang on, I’m getting ahead of myself.

If you haven’t read my BLACKSTAFF novel, know that book’s ending will be spoiled for you in any articles noted as Rhymanthiin Redux. Then again, that novel’s climax has been in print since 2006 and it’s also been spoiled by two separate editions of D&D rules and their detailing of the Forgotten Realms setting. Guess it’s really a non-issue, innit?

So, to define the parameters of this series, Rhymanthiin is a magical city of many origins, invisible to outsiders save under certain conditions. It rests on the High Moor and slowly heals the long-blasted and nigh-barren landscape with its presence and arcane energy. The ritual that raised and built the city has restored many things long lost to the Realms, whether it is knowledge or spells or simply random flora and fauna unseen for millennia. At its rising, only 80 folks of the Realms knew the city existed, and the city was home to under two thousand souls. In the century since, many learned folks have heard of the City of Pyreflies (among its other honorifics) but fewer than 400 outsiders have gained entry behind its fabled walls. Even so, its populace grows over time, and many of its natives now venture across the Realms to exchange their long-lost knowledge for newer secrets.

That enough to entice your interest?

What to Expect?

What may you find when I pop in here and drop some Realmslore beneath these taglines? Just about anything, honestly. Since 2004 when I started the BLACKSTAFF novel, I’ve been thinking off and on about this city, so I’ve nearly 20 years of thinking behind many things that didn’t make it into the narrative:

• its peoples (inhabitants and related lifeforms),
• its structures and strictures (the physical and social constructs of the city),
• its immediate environment and environs (and the effects the city & its magics has on them),
• its obscure and obvious presences in the northern High Moor (and how that affects local politics, trade, and travel),
• its secrets and lore (everything once lost to time and anything learned since their revival, and
• the broad ramifications for the Realms at this city’s restoration in 1379 DR (dawn of 4^th Edition D&D) and its present in 1495 DR (the present timeframe for 5^th Edition D&D works).

I’ll confess that initial articles and posts may appear to be scattershot, but that’s just me priming the pump on resurrected information that hasn’t seen the light of day in years. It’ll be incomplete, as these things never get truly finished; it won’t be laziness on my part, but the limits of what people will want to know. After all, this city has tons of information even without covering all that happens in the eleven decades since its rising. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot to discuss, divulge, discern, and discover. 

Where Do We Start?

Normally, the best place to start a narrative or exploration of a story would be a character. In this case, there are four score characters already named in the BLACKSTAFF novel that could be hooks upon which to develop the story of Rhymanthiin. I do plan to look at many of the characters involved in the raising of the city, but we need to build and set the stage for those characters and their offspring.

Should we start with history or arcane knowledge? Maybe investigate the city’s effects on the religions of the five gods present for its raising, the faiths of which dominate the City of Secrets? We could look at the unique geography around and beneath the city or investigate the new forms of buildings or weapons or mundane metalworking that are unique to this place alone (at least for now).

Anyhow, you get the idea that there’s a lot here and it’s up to me to get my mind to focus on one particular or other and write about each in its time. Trust that this will come together as a greater whole, but as I’m not limited by deadlines or word counts, I’ll be covering a lot more material than I might normally have done in the past.

In my ramblings above, I gave myself the first hook on which I’ll hang a tale or two—Rhymanthiin is a city of many separate origins, all lost or fallen societies given a second chance at life. Its immediate location once played host to Miyeritar’s greatest repository of lore arcane and mundane known among the elves, but it’s hardly just another elven city (special as those are). More than a handful of other races and lost nations birthed and filled the new city, so its amalgam of cultures and styles makes it something wholly new and unique rather than a mosaic of individual influences. So, next time, I think we’ll start with some elements and details of Rhymanthiin that make it a unique and wondrous place.

I’ll give you a hint—What the city’s denizens have to share with the modern Realms encompasses far more than just knowledge long lost to sages.