D&D Campaign
The Nameless City

The Nameless City: History and Lore

Welcome to the Underdark
​
The Nameless City was created generations ago by families who were fleeing the Calamity of the surface as the wars between the Prime Deities, and the Betrayer Gods rendered Exandria wrought with destruction. Seeking shelter beneath the surface world where they expected to find safety the refugees instead found horrors untold. Upon reaching the subterranean network of caves known collectively as the Underdark the fleeing families were met with creatures of immense strength, absence of compassion, and the terrifying ability to control the mind. The Illithids, Mind Flayers of the subterranean LowerDark quickly proved that none would be safe and with legions of mindless creatures under their control the Illithids marched upon the fleeing peoples from the surface, capturing or killing all they came across.
In order to combat this oncoming army five families came together to create a device to combat the Illithid powers.
Five members of the Crystalcathers, a family of Deep Gnomes, came together to construct the machine, five Duergar of the Silenthammer Family mined and offered a powerful dragonite crystal that would act as the machine’s arcane center. A third family, the Drow den of Telinna, created the magical circle that would be used to imbue the machine with its magical spell through five of their most talented spellcrafters. The fourth family, a clan of Vampires and their Dhampir kin, known as the Kell, called upon the power of the moon through the Moonweaver’s blessing and fueled the machine with the moon’s unwavering magic. The fifth and final family, tieflings known as the Nyekore made a different kind of contribution.
The magic of the Moonweaver gifted through Catha, the largest of the two moons, was too strong for the crystal to take on directly. The Nyekore gifted with mages of ancient power, were supposed to come together as five and act as the conduit from which the magic from the moon Catha would enter into the crystal powering the device. But before the transfer of power could be completed the Illithids broke past the defenses and attacked. Using their psionic abilities to overtake the minds of four of the Nyekore mages drug them out of the spell circle leaving only one mage who was strong enough to resist their psychic control. Running out of time the 5th family leader, and the only remaining mage within the circle, use themselves as the only magical conduit to finish powering the device, taking on the full force of the moon’s magic and sacrificing their own life in the process. But the sacrifice was not in vain, and the result was activation of the device and with it the creation of a magical barrier whose spell would force out and keep at bay all beings with psychic abilities, pushing back and ending the treat of the deepest, most dangerous of creatures the Underdark had to offer.
The barrier, producing a mind-numbing wavelength of sound that resonates with those with psychic abilities and makes it impossible for them to near the barrier’s influence. This barrier, to this day, prevents the Illithids’ or those under their control from being able approach the city itself and thus the five families and their creation were able to protect their new homeland. Over the generations these families rose to power as more refugees from the surface came to harbor within the barrier’s walls and eventually the Nameless City was created. Now these five original families rule over the city in the form of the Dragonite Syndicate, the leader of which has always been the acting head of the fifth family, in honor of the final mage’s sacrifice for the creation of the device and protection of the city.