Eons ago when the lands around the Moonsea were unpopulated, and Men were still young in the world, Illithriel, a great elven sage was studying the works collected at Volyn. The elf, ancient himself, studied the works in the library of all eons about the Andarians, or the First. The First lived on Aeyn long, long ago, and perished before the elves, the Second, whom most humans think to have been on Aeyn forever, were born. There were few remnants of that great race, even then, for they had disappeared from the lands of Luna and left few traces of their passage. What few artifacts remain today are of great power and mystery. The passage, written in the High Andarian Tongue, read:

Illithriel was overjoyed, and with the blessing of the Moondaughter, he commenced to begin working to discover the Fate and the glory of the lost Andarian civilization. Great research was conducted to decipher what the lost verse meant. It was through such research that the Second discovered the last race, Men. Thus, the Second met the Third, and brought them to Volyn. There, the two races together worked, men learning the ways of magic and of civilization. Waxholm became a mighty human kingdom, and the Second increasingly journeyed there only for academic purposes. In theory, the lands of human's north of the Dry Desert were still part of the Lunar Empire, but they increasingly went their separate ways.

Finally, the prophecy was interpreted, and both Second and Third seemed eager and zealous to receive the legacy of the Andara. On a night when Sol, Aeyn, and the two moons: Lunaria and Phyrra were aligned, the seven prismatic crystals should be charged into Karmine-Alusan's Great Crystal. The great crystals, each sacred to the gods of Aeyn, commanded great power alone. No one could begin to guess the effects of all of them channeled through the Greatest. It was decided to build a haven for the construction, far from the lands of both Elf and Man. The location of the magical experiment almost one thousand miles down the coast of the Moonsea to the south of Volyn, on the southwest corner of the sea. Because this was the place that Aeyn would align with the other three major heavenly bodies, it was named Aeynton.

Several weeks into the construction of the magical chambers, barbarian hordes poured into the Moonshadow from the east. Selune was held under siege for three years. In case the hordes turned to the west, the laboratories of Aeynton were fortified and a castle was eventually constructed. Finally the elves, after the great wizards of Volyn launched a behind the lines attack, were able to free Selune from the invaders. What had been an invasion turned into a rout in favor of the civilized races of the Moonsea. The barbarians were repelled peace returned to the lands of Waxholm and Moonshadow.

The planets were scheduled to align about five years after the Civilized Alliance turned back the barbarians of the east at sunset on the night of the Winter Solstice. The laboratory in Aeynton castle stood with an open ceiling, to catch the light of Sol filtered through the two satellites of Aeyn. The light reached each crystal in turn, and more and more color was added to the Great Crystal. When each crystal given off its discharge, the colors mingled in the Crystal of White to create white light within the artifact of Karmine-Alusan. The light shone out of the crystal, coherent and exorbitantly visible with power. The light pierced the sky, and at the same time, something was coming down from Phyrra, the celestial orb nearest Aeyn.

It was like anti-light, pure darkness. The two met, and there was a great explosion. Where the two paths of light and darkness had been, there was a substance as smooth as marble. The debris from the explosion landed on both worlds, creating places of great magical power. One of these was the later site of the Moontower. In the laboratory, a miasmic red cloud touched with black around the edges began to revolve. Slowly, but with steady intensity, the cloud cleared and a large disc hung in the air, solid as marble but as permeable as water. The entire room around them had been fused into red marble, smooth like the passage between worlds, with only a tall red archway giving passage to the rest of Aeyn.

Through the Portal rested a room exactly like the one they resided in. A great archmage present at the ceremony, Halaster Blackcloak, the Bearer of the Orange Crystal, cast a spell of knowledge, and touched the Portal. The surface of the Portal rippled at his touch, like a tiny disturbance in a pool of water. At first the archmage's usually light face became very serious, and then convulsed as if in pain. Then he shrieked a demonic shriek. He tore his hand from the Portal, and then threw down the orange crystal from around his neck. He rushed from the room and was unknown for many generations, until the discovery of the secret drop into his subterranean kingdom of Undermountain many years later. The Black Crystal of Hislorken was taken at the same time, and it is believed Halaster took it with him deep into the earth below Castle Aeyn.

Thus did the Second and the First go to discover the legacy of the Andarians, and the reason for their disappearance. The events at Aeynton, eventually renamed Aeyn, led to the Lunar Wars, with the fiends of the moon of Phyrra.

 

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