Coppermind:Welcome/Featured Article/Elantris (city)
Featured Article: Elantris[edit]
“Elantris was beautiful, once. It was called the city of the gods: a place of power, radiance, and magic. Visitors say that the very stones glowed with an inner light, and that the city contained wondrous arcane marvels. At night, Elantris shone like a great silvery fire, visible even from a great distance. ”
The City of Elantris is a city in Arelon on the continent of Opelon on Sel. Prior to the Reod and following the Invasion of Arelon, it served as the capital of Arelon. It is surrounded by four smaller cities in each of the cardinal directions, including Kae. It is accounted as one of the most beautiful cities on Sel, particularly by sculptors, who heaped countless praises on the city's sculptures. Its name incorporates Aon Ela, which means "center".
Construction[edit]
The actual origins of the city are unknown. It was constructed "hundreds of years if not over a thousand years" before the Reod, likely before the Splintering of Devotion and Dominion. The people who built it possessed a keen understanding of AonDor, as the Elantrian Metropolitan Area, comprising Elantris and its four outer cities, forms a massive Aon Rao, which acts as a power amplifier for the Elantrians. Its builders were themselves Elantrians, as only they would have been able to make the Aons formed by the city work.
Discovery[edit]
When the Aonic peoples migrated to Arelon, they found Elantris empty and abandoned. Initially, the city was viewed with superstition; people believed it was haunted. King Rhashm, who renamed himself Raoshem, strove to overcome the fears of his people and settled Elantris as the center of his kingdom. Several decades later, people started being taken by the Shaod, becoming Elantrians.
Capital of Arelon[edit]
It was during the Middle Era on Sel that Elantris's sphere of influence greatly expanded, coinciding with the development of Arelon as a nation-state.