This text is written in Elvish, and is entitled Discourse On the Origins of the Green Isle, written by Grand Master Laeroth Runemaster, dated the 1st Rysar of Evermeet, 83rd Aeloulaev of King Zaor Moonflower. The tome is a written version of a lecture that the author had delivered regarding the origins and nature of the isle of Evermeet and the theorized history and events surrounding the First Sundering. A key passage reads as follows:
We speak today of the greatest known example of the Arselu’Tel’Quess—the union of Art, Lore, and Song that led to the creation of the Green Isle. Our histories attest that nearly nineteen millennia ago, the greatest High Mages of the Tel’Quessir cast a ritual of the myriad known as the Ever’Sakkatien, sundering Faerûn and creating the Green Isle on which we now stand. According to the common human scholars, our ancestors tore off a great hunk of land, leaving in its wake the Sword Coast (or the Shining Sea), then caused this landmass to float westward into the heart of the Trackless Sea. But our investigations of the natural world suggest that our fair Evermeet is as old as the world itself, and that its forests and rock formations have stood here since before the Time of Flowers. So how do we reconcile the persistent legends about the creation of a new land with evidence that this place has always been?
I submit to you today my own interpretation of the nature of the Ever’Sakkatien, which differed in many ways from the rituals of Arselu’Tel’Quess that we practice today. Long before the Crown Wars that rent the Tel’Quessir and shattered our greatest kingdoms, our ancestors conceived of the need for a place of sanctuary—a place wholly of Faerûn and yet apart from it—a place that would serve as the heart and home of the Tel’Quessir. But the creation of this place did not involve rending the world, as the humans imagine. Instead, our ancestors created a concentration of the Weave so powerful that a piece of fair Arvandor became part of Toril, as if it had always been so. By thus altering the creation of the world, our ancestors also changed the history of the world as it had unfolded to that point. Granted, their action might not have altered history all that significantly, since they had simply created an island in the middle of an unexplored ocean—an island hidden from sight by the will of the Seldarine. But change history they did, and the true extent of that change is forever lost to those whofollowed them into this world.
We have spoken before of the unintended consequences that always accompany the practice of Arselu’Tel’Quess, and why we must guard against hubris in our attempts to remake Toril as we wish it to be. In this case, I submit that the consequences were both far-reaching and subtle. By invoking the Ever’Sakkatien to concentrate the Weave in a single location, our ancestors might inadvertently have lessened the strength of the Weave elsewhere in this world, producing consequences that continue to haunt us today. We know that the Weave’s strength is not uniform, and that this variance apparently produces nodes of power, faerzress, dead magic zones, and wild magic zones—all of which are curiously absent from our fair shores. Might this situation not be an unintended consequence of the Ever’Sakkatien? Those among us who have walked the forests of Faerûn have noticed the difference between the Green Isle and the far shores when attempting to employ the Arselu’Tel’Quess—or even simply enter reverie. Was it always so, or did our ancestors’ use of the Ever’Sakkatien produce this effect?
And so the question remains—by creating the perfect homeland to which they could retreat, did our ancestors in fact necessitate such a withdrawal? By concentrating the Weave on these fair shores, did they deprive themselves and their descendants of their natural connection to the Weave elsewhere on Faerûn? I submit that we must ponder these questions and consider the possible cost when we seek to erect new defenses for our beloved Evermeet.