Amon Lhost

Amon-lhost (Ah-mon-lost), in elvish "The Hollow Hill". This ancient elven stronghold is as old as the entire realm of Hitharda, though in ages past it held many times its current number of elves. Housed in the center of a rocky cleft, the only approaches to the hidden village are from the air and through the Esgal-tham, the Hiding Hall. A torturous series of caverns and switchbacks, the Hiding Hall is perpetually shrouded in the fog of the dozens of streams and falls that riddle the porous hill. Only those bearing the seal of the Amonhir or of the Mithheiryn may pass freely through the mist wraiths that guard the labyrinth. Any invader would also contend with the thousands of secret walks and dead looks from which the defenders of Amon-lhost could annihilate them.

Those that successfully negotiate the Esgal-tham will have fully entered the Amon-lhost. A high granite cleft of unworked stone, the central cleft is verdant with alpine trees and lush evergreens. At least six falls pour down from the upper cleft, forming Silmealin, the Moonstruck Lake, and at its center, the tol-namo, the Isle of Judgement. Dozens of stone walkways line the walls of the cleft leading to dozens of cliff homes secreted in the rock face. Visitors (what few there are), are held in the Ranamar, the Home of the Wanderers, a sturdy fieldstone and shaped wooden longhouse that also houses the Amonoatar, the Hill Warriors, as well as any visiting edhelmellon. Over all, on the north wall of the cavern, rises a massive stone statue, an ancient depiction of Sehanine Moonbow worn by countless centuries of water and wind.

Three worn stone bridges cross the Silmealin to the Tol-Namo, upon which stands a tree shrouded amphitheater of ancient, moss strewn white marble. At the center of this structure stands a massive, mostly skeletal oak. The bark has dried and withered, and only a few, snow shrouded leaves cling to life. This is the aldamar, the Hearth Tree, and the heart of all Amon-lhost. It is dying, and as it dies, so go the elves of this most ancient of elven strongholds.