Hillsfar

The walled city-state of Hillsfar is on the southern coast of the Moonsea, just north of the Forest of Cormanthor where three major roads meet. What began as a convenient trade stopover under the control of the Elven Court has become one of the major powers of the Moonsea, a power until recently based on free trade and brutal racism.   Hillsfar as it is known today began primarily in 1354 DR when the wizard Maalthiir, one of the city’s councilmen, rose to prominence as its First Lord. Over the next three years, Maalthiir would dissolve the council, cement his power by merging various mercenary companies into the Red Plumes, and begin a campaign to paint nonhumans as scapegoats for all of the city’s problems. At this time, Maalthiir also enacted the Two Great Laws which defined Hillsfar:
The Great Law of Trade. Do not interfere with any legitimate trade.
The Great Law of Humanity. Only humans are allowed within Hillsfar.
Hillsfar flourished under the Great Law of Trade, expanding greatly for two decades until 1372 DR when Shade Enclave reappeared and the Netherese began a series of attacks that would embroil much of Faerûn in war. Allying with Zhentil Keep and the sun elf House Dlardrageth of Cormanthor to fight in the Dalelands, Hillsfar raised an army and garrisoned the surrounding client villages. Two years later, Hillsfar reneged on its alliance with House Dlardrageth. The sun elves responded by attacking Hillsfar’s army encamped at Standing Stone, crushing the Red Plumes, moving onto Hillsfar to level the First Lord’s Tower, and forcing Maalthiir to flee into hiding. Taking advantage of Hillsfar’s weakness, Zhentil Keep in turn betrayed Hillsfar and crushed the garrison of disputed Yûlash and invaded Hillsfar’s western territories. Within a matter of months, the Zhentilar were at the gates of Hillsfar and Fzoul Chembryl issued terms of surrender by which Zhentil Keep gained control of the Moonsea Ride.   The supremacy of Zhentil Keep was short-lived. In 1383 DR, the Netherese overran the Zhents and razed Zhentil Keep and the Citadel of the Raven. The Zhent troops occupying Hillsfar territory lost support from their homeland and abandoned their posts. The city fell to chaos for three years until 1386 DR when Maalthiir reappeared with a new force of Red Plumes. Marching to Hillsfar, he reinstalled himself as First Lord. He blamed the fall of Hillsfar on fey’ri of House Dlardrageth, a demonic strain of elves, as well as on the freedoms the Zhents had offered to the nonhumans in their ranks. Maalthiir’s anti-nonhuman rhetoric played well among the general populace who had suffered in the absence of order. All nonhumans within the city were evicted, including half-humans such as halfelves and half-orcs, and all holdouts were sent to the Arena for a month-long series of celebratory games.   In 1394 DR, Maalthiir noted that the elves of Myth Drannor were a very real threat to Hillsfar without Hillsfar’s former alliances. To appease the Elven Court in Myth Drannor, he relaxed his policies related to The Great Law of Humanity as applied to the territories surrounding Hillsfar and formed a council made up of humans, half-elves, and elves willing to do business with Hillsfar’s neighbors on behalf of the First Lord. This puppet council was little more than a show, but it was enough to encourage renewed trade and a neutrality pact between Myth Drannor and Hillsfar, despite the city’s prevalent racist policies.   In 1460 DR, Maalthiir died in a failed attempt to achieve lichdom. In his stead, an ineffectual council of merchants and guildmasters assumed control of Hillsfar. Several members of both the council and the Red Plumes put themselves forward as the next First Lord, leading to fighting in the streets between their supporters. Torin  Nomerthal, a former commander among the Red Plumes, formed an alliance that became the Tower Guard; the alliance was made up of the Red Plumes, the city’s Mages’ Guild, various mercenary companies, and those pockets of Netherese soldiers whose allegiance could be bought. In 1487 DR, the flying Netherese city of Thultanthar fell upon Myth Drannor, destroying both cities. First Lord Torin Nomerthal, renamed the Tower Guard as the Red Plumes, executed the remaining Shadovar and, began a second purge of nonhumans from Hillsfar. He firmly reasserted the Great Laws within the walls of the city, cultivating a manic xenophobia among the human citizens. Although nonhumans were allowed to live and work outside the city, Torin implemented punitive laws and harsh taxes that have made all nonhumans little better than serfs. Once again, the only nonhumans within the city were found at the Arena, waiting for death or glory at the whim of the baying Hillsfarian crowds.   Unfortunately for Torin Nomenthal, the arrival of the demon prince Graz’zt during the Rage of Demons spread contagious hedonistic insanity throughout Hillsfar and its holdings that pushed the already excessively punitive regime to excesses of the extreme. Under the strain of crazed creatures streaming up from the Underdark through the ruins of Yûlash, as well as a newly formed sinkhole nicknamed the Waydown, Torin was forced to expand Red Plume patrols and seize supplies from surrounding communities to meet the demands of the self-indulgent populace. The government became so oppressive that a resistance movement was organizedby the Moonsilver Herald, Elanil Elassidil, in the community of Elventree, supported by an unlikely alliance of five factions: the Order of the Gauntlet, the Harpers, the Emerald Enclave, the Lords Alliance, and the Zhentarim.   This fractious group of allies found a uniting figurehead in Red Plume Guard Commandant Vuhm Yestral. One of the primary officers of the Hillsfarian military, Vuhm was loud and opinionated, but, also devoted to the citizens of Hillsfar. A sometime operative of the Lords’ Alliance, he strongly supported removing the Great Law of  Humanity and made public calls for its removal which got him sent to build a keep to control access to the Waydown. His success in its construction won him further exile from politics and he was sent to repeat his feat over the ruins of Yûlash. Further alienated by the xenophobic policies of the First Lord, Yestral continued to succeed and increase his ties to the military. Following the creation of a massive wall and guard towers surrounding the ruins of Yûlash, Torin Nomenthal himself came to inspect the construction, looking for some excuse to sanction the troublesome Guard Commandant.   Unfortunately for the First Lord, far from his seat of power, he was vulnerable. Adventurers fighting for the resistance snuck into the camp and with the tacit approval of the Guard Commandant, assassinated the First Lord and his entire Court. Yestral declared himself First Lord of Hillsfar and marched his army to the city where it was supported by the five factions and the resistance and assumed the throne with next to no bloodshed. His first action was to end the Great Law of Humanity and the enslavement of nonhumans in the arena. The great arena still sees the occasional game, but the bloody spectacle that it once was is finally no more.
Type
City