How old is Suldanessellar?
TethorilofLathander
Member Posts: 427
And who have been the previous kings/queens before Ellesime? On Forgotten Realms wiki it says the average lifespan of elves is up to 300 but can be 900, so it has to be a good hundred years old at least.
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Apparently the elves of the Wealdath are all rather young because of continual battles with goblins, dragons, etc... and that the royalty of Tethyr had massacred most of the elven population a century prior. Before Suldanessellar there was a government called the Council Glade that the royalty of Tethyr wipped out. Thus leaving two major clans left standing; the Suldusk and the Elmanesse. In comparison, there once was a clan within the Wealdath that had a population of 40,000 but that was 800 years prior to Shadows of Amn.
Now the leader of the Elmanesse is Treespeaker Rhothomir who acts as the elves' spiritual leader and is the closest living tie to the Council Glade. He however is only 300 years old and holds a deep distrust of the humans of the region. Rhothomir is a priest of Rillifane. Duke Mirthal Aendryr is the leader of the Suldusk clan, there is no mention of his age but he is described as a short elf with the role of the scoutlord.
It doesn't say how old Suldanessellar is but it gives the impression that the city was formed as a garrison against another elven massacre. Now there is absolutely no mention of it being ruled by Queen Ellesime or even having monarchy in the first place. Instead it is more of a democracy with the chief of the largest family of the largest clan being voted in as leader. This case it is Korrigash Oakstaff of the Elmanesse. However his responsibility is more related to keeping the garrison protected as apposed to ruling over the elves. It is described that the elves of the Wealdath are first loyal to the forest, then to their family and clan, and lastly to Suldanessellar.
The vast majority of elves within Suldanessellar are green elves, since they are what populates the Wealdath. However there are a handful of Moon Elves stationed at Suldanessellar at the behest of Evermeet. Just in the case Suldanessellar is ever breached.
It's important to note that there is a queen in the Tethyr region known as Queen Zaranda who rules over the humans from Darromar. She is a revolutionary of sorts who has reformed the royalty and constantly tries to reach out to the elves of Suldanessellar to no avail. So maybe Queen Ellesime is an elven interpretation of her?
TL;DR Queen Ellesime was made up for the game by developers who didn't look at the outline that already existed for Suldanessellar. She has since been retroactively added into the region's lore, despite the green elves not having a monarchy. The elven city is quite new, while the forest is quite old. Most of the surviving elves are quite young, with 300 years being the oldest age. This is because there was a giant act of genocide by the Tethyr royalty a century prior.