As its moods and attitudes are multitudinous, so are the buildings and physical aspects of the City of Song. It is unlike any other city of Faerûn due not only to its population but also its eclectic mix of architecture and culture. Myth Dran- nor is a marvelous melting pot that has brought together the best of all good races and created something new and unique for all to see.
Climate
Myth Drannor is a city blessed in many ways, the least of which is a pleasant, comfortable climate much of the year.
Late summer is by far the busiest season for Myth Drannor,
Geography & Architecture
as more elves and others arrive in the city for the early har-vests and the height of the trading season. Winter often sees fewer traders and NTelQuess arriving, though the elves flock to the city from lesser settlements among Cormanthor to winter in relative comfort at the City of Song.
Thanks to the mythal enveloping much of the city, Myth Drannors weather is rarely severe; few know if it is a de- signed property of the mythal to lessen the weathers fury or if it is bled off as a side-effect of nature powering the mythal. The city still sees all the standard seasons typical for the east- ern Heartlands, but blizzards and thunderstorms are unheard of within the mythal-cloaked metropolis. In fact, lightning strikes are instantly absorbed by the mythal in a crackle of purple magics, making lightning storms an event to watch for most city natives. An added bonus during the summer is that the worst of the heat and humidity is mitigated by the mythal as well as more violent weather. In fact, temperatures are far more stable in Myth Drannor than the rest of the Heartlands or even Cormanthor. In winter, temperatures rarely drop much below freezing (allowing snow and ice but never the bitter, numbing cold sometimes found in the barren Stone- lands) while in summer, the heat never grows warmer than is comfortable for a cooshee (85° Fahrenheit added as a bench- mark for familiarity).
The Towers of Song have a multitude of gates riddling the city proper and the woods surrounding it. Aside from a few long-standing private gates within noble villas and other lo- cales (around which the mythal bypassed during its creation but does not interrupt or interfere), all the gates in Myth Drannor are formed by High Magic (secretly at night, close to daybreak). As such, they are exempt from the dangers and drawbacks of the mythals defenses against magical move- ment and the gates unerringly link Myth Drannor with their attendant sites.
In the environs of Myth Drannor, one can easily find many public gates, since large arches enclose their areas and runes mark the destination of the gates. These public gates charge a toll of two silvers per entrant for their use, the monies going to the Coronals treasury to help with their and the citys upkeep. There are also the long-rumored Gate Halls within Castle Cormanthor, which link the Coronals keep with those of all the other elven realms across Faerûn; these are tightly controlled and require elaborate activators, thus protecting the realm. There are other hidden gates throughout Myth Drannor, some more easily found than others, and some so jealously guarded that only three elves might know of their existence. The only inner-city gates that are of major impor- tance and of common public knowledge are the Silversgate in Cormanthor (which leads to Silverymoon Pass between the sister cities of Ascalhorn & Silverymoon) and the Honorsgate in Kerradunath (to the Forest of Mir for hunting expeditions). There are gates either within the mythal or in the city proper that link Myth Drannor with all its sister cities across Faerûn.
There is no one simple form of architecture gracing the wide avenues of the City of Brotherhood, save that most are beau- tiful works of art in their own ways. Among the four quarters of Myth Drannor, only the easternmost neighborhood of Dlabraddath has nonelven architecture among its shaded glades, since this is the predominant home for the NTelQuess and the newest sector of the city. Buildings are finely worked towers of wood and stone, and while not of the most solid or exacting work, they are nothing if not elegant. Quite a few buildings, in fact, are products of elaorman rituals and were literally grown for the city; these, and a few others raised by wizards magic, defy conventional architec- ture and give the city one of its honorifics as the City of Magic. These magical buildings are shaped like cresting waves, crystal tornadoes, monolithic monsters and animals, or even towers that have solid stone levels alternating with invisible crystal walls, making a place seem like several float- ing floors with no ground level!
The streets, walkways, and byways within the city are equally ornate and magical. The major roads are paved with white marble and green marble curbs. Other lesser roads are paved with parquet-wood patterns or by gravel magically arranged (and permanently set) to show some soothing for-
mations. The walkways above the forest floor are almost all 5-foot-wide solid wood (or magic) ramps arcing from tree to tree; lesser areas have suspension bridges, and these (most often among the NTelQuess areas of Dlabraddath) have rails to hold, unlike the older elf-trod ramps which offer no sup- port or safety to those less sure-of-foot.
Mo ne y
Some nonelves erroneously believe that all elves do is frolic and dance and work magic, and thus they have no need of money. Myth Drannor and indeed many of the settlements of Cormanthyr are crossroads of trade, though mostly among themselves, with only a few inroads to external trade (mostly with either Cormyr, some settlements along the Dragon Sea, or other lesser settlements south of the forest).
Coins of the realm of Cormanthyr are a varied lot, depend- ing on the traders. Spelljamming elves of the Imperial Navy Above bring coin from many far-flung realms and worlds, though these coins are rare as collecting them is an idle habit of many a noble elf of Cormanthyr. The most common cur- rency found in the markets of Myth Drannor are its own coins, followed in frequency by those of Cormanthyr in gen- eral and those far-cruder blobs of hardened metal that pass for currency among the Forest Kingdom of Cormyr. All are the standard AD&D coinage of copper (cp), silver (sp), elec- trum (ep), gold (gp), and platinum (pp) pieces, but they set themselves apart by their shapes and designs.
Myth Drannors coins are newer than the others, only stamped and made since the raising of the mythal, and they tend to be oblong with a stamped design at their cen- ters. The majority of the money are standard weight, round coins stamped with a sling, an overflowing, tankard, or a halfling head in profile (cp); two crossed axes, a trio of gems, or a helmed dwarf in profile (sp); two clashing short swords, a smoking pipe, or a bespectacled gnome in profile (ep); two crossed spears, a pile of scrolls, or a human wizardess in profile (gp); and two clashing long swords, a star surmounted by a pair of clasped hands of friendship, or an elf female in profile (pp).
While there is no difference in stamped coin types in precious metals or their weight, there are social conno- tations that have grown and become involved in the use of particular coins. The first coins mentioned under each metal are weapons; used mostly by tradesmen and com- moners, these coins are symbols of the fight for peace (to those who like NTelQuess) or as a symbol of a threat of punishment the buyer makes against the seller (to those who dislike NTelQuess). The second coins are all what elves saw as representative boons of the race; used mostly among the nobility and the royals, they are neutral in meaning but have a prestige in their use, due to lesser mintings of this type of coin. The final coins are simply stamped with a member of each race in profile and these are extremely rare, as only 1,000 of each were made in the first years of Myth Drannor. They were dis- continued as the still-tentative races saw their value in
elves eyes stamped before them in the relative worth of the coins; their rarity makes their worth more than 100 times their trade weight, and moreso outside of Cor- manthyr.
Cormanthyrs coinage is the same trade weight as all other coins, though they are slightly thicker, in a square shape, and they have diamond-shaped holes in each coins center with points centering along the coins edges. Each is named specifically, and on the face of each coin are four identical moon elven runes to identify the coins name (allowing those robbed of sight the abil- ity to discern coins): thalvers (t; cp), bedoars (b; sp) thammarchs (th; ep), shilmaers (sh; gp), and ruendils (r; pp). These are common due to their widespread use as military script for all elven akhvelahrn and akhfaern, and they have become the common trade currency be- tween elven communities. Unnoticed by most nonelves, small dots and dashes can be scored into the center edges of the coins inner hole, and this tactile language communicates secrets between those who know how to read this elven code-dialect.
Cormyrs coins are of two different types, depending on how old the coins are. For the first three centuries of the realm, Cormyrs coins were merely trade-weight metal coins stamped with the seal and profile of the ruler of the time. Now and for the past few centuries, after the fash- ion of Cormanthyr and Myth Drannor, the Cormyrean coins exhibit stamps of different symbols, leading to new nicknames for the coins. Stamps include the hand of peace (thumbs; cp), two falcons volant (falcons; sp), a pair of open eyes (blue eyes; ep), a lion rampant (lions; gp), and three crowns (tricrowns; pp).
The strangest coins found in Myth Drannor are the yulthaari, 5-inch-long metal tubes of worked platinum (worth 3pp solely by their metal content). These are not actual coins so much as a promissory note of payment at a more convenient date. Smooth and unremarkable on the outside edge, the slim inside is marked with ridges, dots, and tactile patterns; the elf slips a yulthaar over a finger- tip, and these patterns tell an elf, by their fine sense of touch, the product the presenter of a yulthaar wishes to buy, the amount of payment and its form, and names of the buyer and seller. Yulthaari are used when making large purchases such as entire shipments of goods (or entire businesses), and their use is a binding agreement between the two parties. Bids by yulthaari are also common in silent auctions or among the nobility, where open compe- tition by wealth would be crass and the silent method of the yulthaari allows those who lose the bids to save face; of course, this rarely prevents the later rumor-mongering among the younger nobles, who disclose the alleged bids in gossip to either praise or doom an associate.