| Category | Strongholds |
| Continent | Brucrumus |
| Region | Lands of Purity |
| Built | 27 Brighstar 115 |
| Map | Hadraniel |
This gargantuan tower is built among six ancient massive trunks. These trunks are petrified, said to be the first trees of the Elberiel Forest. Galadriël's elves built a 350' high tower of a cherry colored stone imported from the other side of the world. Galadriël went to the time and expense in making this place because a family of five phoenixes had come to live in the area. Legendary for their fires, uncontrolled at rest, Viressur was built as a place for them to sleep, and more importantly, keep the forest around them alive.
In the Black Tide War (1465 - 1504), Viressur became a place of refuge for Galadriël's people and nearly a thousand fey. Galadriël's citizens came here because of the fiery destruction being wrought by the dragon relic Zuwuth Uv Enkii.
Katrana, a Black Tide leader in charge of operations in the Hadraniel Sector, was not going to allow them to remain holed up in Viressur's magical environment. In 1486, a great battle was fought around Viressur, with phoenixes setting undead in the hundreds alight, below their great wings of fire, Sorimo soldiers, satyr, centaurs, and other fey battling Katrana's undead army. Unbeknown to most of the defenders, Viressur also served as a vault for two very dangerous artifacts. The sword Blizzard was brought out of temporal stasis, fearing what might happen if the place was taken, some say it was convinced, but no matter, the Witch artifact erecting a globe of ice around Viressur and put all its occupants under temporal stasis. They remained that way, nearly 20,000 souls, until 1533 when the heroes of Golden Elite broke into Viressur and ended Blizzard's spell.
After the Athenian Crusade (1539 - 1551), Viressur once again became home to only the phoenixes. Inside Viressur are hundreds of chambers, secret passages and ancient magical vaults. The latter are secure behind deadly mazes, and considered some of the most secure vaults in the realm. The vaults are made of three layers, naanabrak, saranite and blutium, and to reach them one must pass many traps, constructs, and magical guardians. One of the most well-known is the Vault of Blizzard and Firestorm. Even if someone got to this vault, it is unlikely they would survive the wrath of the two artifacts sequestered there. Blizzard and Firestorm have grown so reclusive that they rarely admit visitors. Some sages belief that though the items hold the sentience of the dragons, their spirits fly about the realm as if they were still living. An audience, or possession of the artifact is said to draw their spirit back into the weapons, to them, prisons.
Ancedote - Golden Elite
On reading a runic stone describing two powerful relics, one named Blizzard, the other Firestorm, we decided to investigate a colossal dome of ice the size of a hill.
Our stalwart band (c.f. Golden Elite) followed troll tracks leading deep into one of the hills on the rim of the ice dome. We came upon a vast cavern dotted with crystal stalagmites and stalactites. Evidence of a long-ago battled covered every corridor and chamber.
As we entered the treasury, we were faced with the frost linnorm Lantercold and his outlaw rider Silithev-Ite. I bade them farewell on their journey to Hade's gloomy kingdom.
- Galtrag, from his personal journals - "Journal - 5 Bloom 1533"
Deeper inside, in a crystalline cavern, we looked upon a shattered statue of a unicorn that once served as a fountain. The jade lined pool surrounding the statue was desecrated with bones and corroding armor and weaponry. Beyond the pool was a rocky outcropping with a rough 100' diameter base supporting a mound of statues, vases, paintings, coins, gems, jeweled weaponry and many other treasures. Two huge statues of bone had been laboriously erected from the remains of a dragon and a massive giant. These were two that had died in the Battle of Viressur, caught on the outside when Blizzard put up a globe of ice. after Later we found out that these bones belonged to the former guardians of this place, long since perished. told in the Year 1503, the Battle of Viressur was waged here. I was able to identify them as the titan Dranfulmus and the great silver dragon Tindarâpha. Both had fallen before the magic of Katrana, the chilling breath of Lantercold, and the bonebrack arrows of Silithev-Ite.
The fountain was cleaned and purified, and its waters became powerful healing agents - courtesy of Athena I presume. We gathered the riches of the place and hid what we could not carry. We had a mound of loot befitting an ancient dragon.
We left the underground cavern through one of many passages connecting to it. One led past the roots of a massive oak, easily 30' in diameter, and we passed thru this tree and were awe-struck at what lay before us.
Stepping through the ancient oak tree, we viewed a site which probably once mirrored the lands of the Sylvan Kingdoms, trimmed hedges and flowers, vineyards, grottos, rich forest odors, natural appearing trees, unlike the twisted and evil appearing trees on the other side, sun light caressing the forest floor. There stood a 300' high red stone tower holding five massive openings. The tree behind us was also very beautiful. It held a tree house with probably ten levels or more. Through-out the vast forested area of hills around, we could easily see hundreds, if not thousands, of woodland creatures - petty animals, sprites, unicorns, fairy dragons, and wood elf refugees in the thousands, all of the Galadriël Kingdom. There were centaurs and satyr in the hundreds, and even a small village of Gimrune and their mechanical-inspired homes.
Several hundred feet from where we stood, was a jade tiled square with four basalt obelisks at each corner. In the center of this square rested a malachite pedestal, and atop it was a large hourglass. Sand, ever so slow, trickled from the rune carved device. On approaching this spectacle, a massive feathered serpent, probably a coutl, emerges through a briar hedge. The creature hissed:
If thou art good, then ye can lift the time veil of Viressur. Smash the hourglass and the magic will be lifted but in so doing I will die as time catches up with me and I fade to dust. Hard decisions but do what is right. I can say no more.
- coutl's sacrifice
We listened and knew what must be done; the goodly being was to be sacrificed for the greater good, a most noble way to go.
The hourglass was broken and the creatures were released from temporal stasis. The most powerful creatures of good to join our cause were the phoenixes dwelling in Viressur and the druid protectorate of the Lands of Purity, Oakenbeard. The rest is history, with their aid, and the other denizens of the area, we crushed the armies of Katrana, driving her from the Sylvan Kingdoms.
This information is an excerpt from the Story of the Golden Elite. An epic true story penned by party member Quick.