In this series I will look at the history of the Forgotten Realms world and publish a series of maps depicting the continent of Faerûn and the wider world of Toril at various points in its past. Like my previous series, Nations of the Forgotten Realms, this series draws on The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas and other Dungeons & Dragons resources for the setting, particularly The Grand History of the Realms, Netheril: Empire of Magic, Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves and Lost Empires of Faerûn.
The work of Richard Baker, Ed Bonny, Eric L. Boyd, James Butler, Thomas Costa, Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, Dale “slade” Henson, Brian R. James, George Krashos, Steven Schend and Travis Stout was particularly useful in compiling this series, along, obviously, with the work of everyone who has ever put pen to paper for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (officially or unofficially).
The Rise of Imaskar
The first humans of Toril dwelt in the lands that eventually became the continent of Katashaka. They spread north and east, into what is now Maztica and Chult, and then, after the Sundering separated those lands, into what is now Tethyr. At some point, splinter tribes of humans wandered eastwards, avoiding the chaos of the Crown Wars, to settle the lands around the Golden Water, the immense bay at the far eastern end of the Great Sea.
These tribes are collectively referred to as Durpari, and it is from them that, many millennia removed, the modern nations of Durpar, Estagund, Var the Golden and Ulgarth descend. But some of these early Durpari grew restless in their lands along the Great Sea, hemmed in by vast jungles to the west (once the domain of Ilythiir, now starting to splinter and recede into the modern forests of the Shining South) and the towering mountains of the Yehimal to the east. Nemrut, a great warlord, led a pioneering expedition across the Gryphon Mountains, possibly via the Midwinter or Northknife pass, and found a vast, fertile basin. This basin was watered by the Jumpa River in the east and many smaller rivers in the west, with huge fields ripe for the planting between.
The settling of the Raurin Basin began circa 8350 BDR (Before Dalereckoning). Within two hundred and thirty years, the initial warrior aristocracy had been supplanted by powerful mages, wizards called Artificers specialising in teleportation magic. After 8130 BDR, large cities began to appear, the very first on Toril created solely by humans. Inupras, grandest of all the cities, was founded in 7975 BDR. Umyatin became the first Lord Artificer, unifying all of the lands of the basin together, which was now called Imaskar. Also in this period, the Imaskari began to experiment with the creation of Bukhara Spires, magical portal devices that allowed entire armies to be transported between them.
By 7891 BDR, Imaskar’s northern expansion brought it into conflict with the kobold kingdom of Zexthandrim, in the Mountains of Copper, which it defeated and then enslaved. By 7403 BDR, tiring of constant problems with the vassal kingdom, the Imaskari expelled the kobolds through portals to points unknown. They also annexed the dwarven kingdom under the peak of Shan Nala around this time, one of the last remnants of the vast holds under the neighbouring Yehimal.
By 7100 BDR, Imaskar had annexed the southern parts of Taanga (modern Taan, also called the Endless Waste) and forced many of the native Taangan (the remote ancestors of the modern Tuigan and other tribes) to pay them tribute. The modern territories of Durpar, Ulgarth and Ra-Khati were also annexed by this time, the former as buffer zones and the latter as a full province of the Empire. By 6788 BDR, Imaskar expanded to the Aerilpar Forest on its far south-western frontier, when it was forced to fend off an assault by forest landwyrms.
In 6422 BDR, Inupras was razed by rampaging krakentua, some believe released by the Cult of Demogorgon via the Temple of the Gaping Maw. Imaskar split into two distinct realms, Upper and Lower Imaskar. Lower Imaskar adopted the city of Solon in the shadow of the Raurin Alta as its capital, whilst Upper Imaskar’s capital became Thakos, later known as Saikhoi (now in Ra-Khati).
Around this time, and despite the partition, the Imaskar Empire reached its height. The Empire stretched almost from the Golden Water in the south to the Great Ice Sea in the north, and almost from the Alamber Sea in the west to the Katakoro Plateau in the east. The Empire straddled the continental divide between eastern Faerûn and western Kara-Tur and called all the human and many of the nonhuman inhabitants of these lands their vassals, if not subjects. The Empire’s power was formidable and, at this time at least, unchallengeable.
The Rise of Coramshan & Jhaamdath
As related previously, in 6060 BDR, Coram the Warrior led a slave uprising that overthrew the djinni-ruled Calim Caliphates and established the human realm of Coramshan, located where the Trackless Sea meets the Shining Sea. The realm was established with great promise, but this was dashed within decades. Coram was assassinated after just thirty-two years of rule and his seven sons died in the resulting scramble for the throne. Another two decades of civil war followed, and even after that stability was hard to find, with rulers lasting rarely more than a few years before facing deposing or civil war. The instability did not impress Coram’s allies, the dwarves of Shanatar, who had increasingly little to with the humans.
Coramshan was finally stabilised around 5790 BDR, when the high priests – or bakkals – of Shar and Bhaelros (Talos) slew the last of the warrior-kings and established direct theocratic rule over the kingdom. The dark rule of the bakkals endured for a startling four millennia, although not without significant challenges.
By 5960 BDR, Shanatar had established the surface realm of High Shanatar around the city of Iltakar to trade with the surrounding elven kingdoms of Tethir and Darthiir, and human Coramshan. However, the dark rule of the bakkals had soured the dwarves on their alliance, and although ostensibly good relations continued, the formal alliance between their realms was allowed to stagnate.
Cordial relations between High Shanatar and Coramshan declined within a few centuries. Four dwarf miners working the mines under Mount Kellarak (a peak near the western end of the Marching Mountains) stumbled across four Coramshites who were raiding the tomb of a simple dwarven merchant’s wife. The dwarves, angered beyond reason, slew the four intruders before returning home. Unfortunately, they had unwittingly killed the eldest son of the most senior bakkal in Coramshan. The bakkal was not amused and began a devastating war against the dwarves. This was initially nothing more than a series of raids and counter-raids, but would later become more serious.
Around 5800 BDR, the warrior-king Jhaam established a number of small cities along the south-western bay of the Inner Sea, north-west of the Satyrwood (itself now the home of Nikerymath, an elven kingdom and successor to the Kingdoms of the Three Leaves). These became the Twelve Cities of the Sword, of which the largest and greatest was Dhinnilith, also known as Naarkolyth. Jhaam and his followers were worshippers of the near-obscure god Auppenser, whose responsibilities included the psionic arts, the magic of the mind. Under Auppenser’s patronage, the kingdom of Jhaamdath became the first and only psiocracy in the history of Faerûn. By 5700 BDR, the ruling psionic class was firmly entrenched in power. Attempts to expand eastwards were thwarted by the powerful elves of Nikerymath, so Jhaamdath looked to the west and south for expansion opportunities.
Meanwhile, in 5330 BDR, the Murabir (high general) Mir of Coramshan launched a surprise attack on the dwarves of High Shanatar, citing the “murder” of the bakkal’s son as justification. The city of Iltakar was rapidly captured and the dwarves forced to retreat into the Underdark, to Deep Shanatar (as Shanatar itself was now known). Utilising Iltakar as a base of operations, Mir forged a significant kingdom out of the lands between the headwaters of the Wurlur and the northern eaves of Darthiir Wood. This became known as Monrativi Teshy Mir, the “First Kingdom of Mir.” In 5270 BDR Mir and Coramshan allied and launched an invasion of the lands to the east of Darthiir, eventually coming to the north-western shores of the Lake of Steam. By 5100 BDR, Mir stretched as far east as the Thornwash, and shortly afterwards the earliest cities on the sites of the modern metropolises of Saelmur, Saradush and Mintar had been founded.
Coramshan and Mir’s north-easterly expansion and Jhaamdath’s south-westerly expansion resulted in an inevitable confrontation. In 5032 BDR Jhaamdath’s forces approached the Lake of Steam, having moved westwards onto the Shining Plains and then south over the Deepwash to avoid the elves of Nikerymath. The Jhaamdath force was engaged by a Mir army out of Saelmur and Mintar, but the Jhaamdathans won the day thanks to their psionic powers, against which the Mirish had no defence. Mir’s reinforcements arrived within weeks and fierce battles expanded into a full-scale war. By 5007 BDR, Mir’s armies had been pushed back to Saradush and the Iltkazar Range.
Bakkal Ukhar IV, a notoriously ruthless bakkal even by their normal standards, arrived in Iltakar in response to entreaties from his Mirish allies and instantly slew the incompetent king. The armies of Coramshan then swept into Jhaamdathan territory from the north-west and south-west, pincering and crushing their forces. The Coramshites’ evil, divine magic proved more than a match for the psionic powers of the invaders. In less than eighteen months, the Jhaamdathan forces had retreated beyond Saelmur, with the sole settlement of Ankhapur left in their control.
In 5005 BDR, Coramshan and Jhaamdath negotiated a peace treaty that saw Jhaamdath abandon all claims to lands south or west of the Deepwash. Remarkably, this treaty held all the way until Jhaamdath’s eventual fall, some forty-seven centuries later. Jhaamdath withdrew as agreed.
To celebrate his formidable military and political victory, Bakkal Ukhar IV annexed both Mir and the reconquered lands along the Lake of Steam to Coramshan’s direct control. He then announced the founding of a new political entity: the Calimshan Empire.
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Atlas of Ice and Fire 