Shard

Shard is the capital of Ilithi.

Its most noticeable feature is the Great Tower, in which the leader of Ilithi, titled the Ferdahl, rules and resides. The current Ferdahl is Aemmin. She was preceded by Kukalakai, who was permanently killed by Raenilar during the Outcast War and remains one of the most talked-about characters in Dragonrealms even years after her death.

Shard was ultimately the focal point of the Outcast War. It was learned during the course of the war that the attacks that had taken place farther north, in the earliest days of the conflict, were merely conducted to disrupt and preoccupy Elanthia's fighters so that the main attack on Shard could be commenced. Raenilar was successful in capturing Shard and occupied it for several real-life months before bizzarely changing his mind and deciding to withdraw to the desert without much of a fight. Many Gamemasters have hinted heavily that player outcry in the form of angry feedback and subscription cancellation forced them to restore the pre-war status quo, even though the actions that GMPCs had to take in order to do so made almost no sense.

Shard was "released" in 1996, with the repair of the gondola that to this day transfers characters to it from Zoluren. Game lore has it that Zoluren and Therengia were aware of Shard's existence, but had been cut off from it entirely for many years. At the time, the items and creatures in and around Shard were more powerful than anything else in the game. They were able to reward and challenge "high-end" characters in their Circle 20s and 30s. These same features today are not considered impressive, as many players have improved vastly beyond them. Releases of that very large magnitude are quite rare, and only the implementations of Qi'Reshalia and Forfedhdar are comparable in scale.

Many areas of Shard are not safe at night. If a player character stays still for too long while exposed in some areas of the street, unseen criminals will dump it into a classic-style text-maze beneath the city, in Undershard, which can be extremely difficult to solve without the help of a map.

Shard is dominated by Elotheans and also has a large population of Elves. The racial divides of the Elven-Human war are still manifest in the population dispersion of Elanthia, and Shard is overwhelmingly dominated by members of the defeated, Elf-aligned races.

Shard has a full assortment of Guildleaders and is considered, especially by older players, to be one of the three principal cities of the game along with The Crossing and Riverhaven.

The general roleplay climate around Shard is perhaps the darkest and most sinister to be found in Elanthia. Rumors of sorcery, conspiracy, necromancy, and all manners of treachery generally abound around Shard much more freely than they do in other areas. Many prominent "evil" player characters operate around Shard, both attracted by this climate and perpetuating it.