History of the Shaar

Voolad escapes from his magical prison which failed due to the chaos of the Spellplague. The druid conquers Thruldar and joins the Beastlands as a Beast Lord, controlling all that remains of the eastern Lluirwood, as well as the lands south of the Toadsquat foothills to the shore of the Gulf of Luiren. The ghost maintains an army of undead, foul plant creatures, weird beasts, giant insects, and ogres.

The Durpari city of Vaelan becomes known in greater Faerun for its exotic form of body art, which goes farther than mere tattooing or piercing. For a considerable fee, artisans in Vaelan offer to etch limbs of the well-to-do with 'living crystal' that enhances not only wearer's visage but, in some small way, the wearer's talents.

The first Durpari merchant ships return from Maztica with trade goods.

Durpar and Estagund make a second, joint attempt to clear Veldorn of monsters, but fail after three days.
The scribe Relldeveir Mraztar publishes The March into Monsters, an excerpt of which describes Durpar and Estagund's attempt to clear Veldorn of monsters.

The druid Voolad Espiral, with the help of dark trees and other monsters, sacks Thruldar, an Estagundan community on the edge of the Lluirwood. Marchwardens and local ghostwise hins slay Voolad and contain his spirit inside the ruins with magic.

Dambrath conducts a series of raids along the coast of the Great Sea, attacking and plundering the coastal cities of Estagund, Durpar, and Veldorn.

The armies of Durpar, Var, and Estagund defeat the demons of Ormpre and scatter them northwest into the wasteland there. Humans begin to resettle the vacated cities.

Combined forces from Durpar, Var, and Estagund drive the Beholders out of Vaelantar and Assur and send them fleeing west, toward the Toadsquat Mountains

The beast-chieftains of Veldorn are united under Saed, the vampire lord of Vaelan.

Saed (a psion), formerly a nawab on the Council of Terelve in Durpar, is transformed into a vampire and flees to the destroyed city of Vaelen (Old Vaelen), where he begins to assume control.

Mulhorand attacks Vaelen to destroy the wererat presence there. The city is reduced to rubble, but the werecreatures remain in force, mostly underground.

Second Coin War

The second Mulhorandi-Durpari Coin War erupts over tax rates. Wererats of Vaelen attack several military caravans from both sides during the fighting.

Jeradeem Seltarir, a member of the High Council of Durpar, negotiates the purchase of the throne of Estagund from financially strapped King Hedgita and places his oldest son Numambi on the throne as rajah.

Durpar and Ulgarth reach an armed peace settlement.

Centuries of long skirmishes between Durpar and Ulgarth come to an uneasy halt as the two nations reach a balance of power.

Ogres swarm down from the Toadsquat Mountains and rampage through the northern section of the Lluirwood for several years.

The city of Vaelen (Old Vaelen) is overwhelmed by werecreatures led by a wererat prince. Thousands of refugees continue to flee to Durpar to avoid the monster incursions.

Durpar makes a second attempt to free the coastal cities of Veldorn from monster influence and is again repulsed.

The four tribes of Arkaiun barbarians flee the Council Hills region ahead of invading Untheric and Mulhorandi armies and migrate southwest, They roam the grasslands along the southern coast of Faerun, eventually settling along the coast of the Bay of Dancing Dolphins in present-day Dambrath.

Assurian beholder princes conquer Vaelantar and Ormpe. Veldorn is referred to as the Land of Monsters by Maharajah Waileen I.

Durpar, Var, and Veldorn establish formal trade relations with Mulhorand.

An Illuskan tribe from the island of Ruathym (-3000, 1356) travels through a portal to the Council Hills in the Eastern Shaar. Over time, the Illuskans mingle and join with the Arkaiuns who fled the fall of fabled Shandaular, capital of Ashanath, in the lands west of Rashemen centuries before. In time, this mingling of people leads to the establishment of the realm of Dambrath in the Shining South.

A formal alliance between Gundavar, Durpar, and Veldorn is established.

The Veldorn tribe—the most prominent in the region between the Golden Water and the Curna Mountains, as well as along the Liontongue River—declares itself the Kingdom of Veldorn. Vaelan is designated as its capital.

The armies of the Nentyarch of Tharos destroy Shandaular, capital of Ashanath. All the petty Nar kingdoms are now united into the Empire of Narfell.

The people of Shandaular flee by means of the two-way portal around which their city is built, leaving their leader Archmage Arkaius behind to seal it. These people, now in the Council Hills area of the Shaar, name themselves the Arkaiuns in honor of their fallen ruler.

The Sunphelm of Shandaular, a jeweled crown that has at one point been the symbol for the rulership of the kingdoms of Ashanath, Eltabranar and Arkaia, was lost with Archmage Arkaius.

The Nentyarch of Tharos builds his capital at Dun-Tharos and forges the Crown of Narfell. He begins conquering the surrounding Nar kingdoms and uniting them under his rule.

Thargaun, son of Tharos, assumes rulership of the tribe with the death of his father and establishes the kingdom of Tharos with himself as its first ruler, or Nentyarch.

The High Council of Durpar votes to relocate the capital of Durpar to Vaelan.

A two-way portal between the Shandaular, capital of the kingdom of Ashanath and Council Hills, far to the south in the Eastern Shaar, is opened. Shaundaular expands to encompass the lands surrounding the portal’s southern terminus.

Untheric expansion results in the settlement of the Wizards’ Reach and much of the Eastern Shaar.

Vaelen (curently known as Old Vaelan) is founded as a trading center on the site of a natural spring.

The Crafthouse of Inspiration is finished with the assistance of the gold dwarves of Eartheart. During the following years it becomes the most important temple of Gond in the continent.

Construction of The Crafthouse of Inspiration, a temple of Gond located 20 miles east of Eartheart, begins.

War of Gold and Gloom

The war comes to an unexpected end in the caverns of long-abandoned Barakuir. During the course of a great battle between the Army of Gold and the Army of Steel, the crusaders of the Great Rift discover a collection of ancient runestones detailing the fate of Clan Duergar and the betrayal that led to the fall of their kingdom. This discovery, long forgotten, prompts the loretaker illithids of Oryndoll to unleash an army of thralls against both dwarven hosts, although the gray dwarves suffer most of the casualties. In the end, the dwarves lose more than half their number, but Oryndoll's thrall army is shattered. In an unexpected act of compassion, the commander of the Army of Gold offers the surviving duergar a place within his company. The united Stout Folk then march west into ruined Shanatar, in hopes of claiming a bastion suitable for repelling the inevitable illithid attack to come

War of Gold and Gloom

A large group of crusading gold dwarves leaves the Great Rift to reclaim the lost caverns of Deep Shanatar. The Duergar of Dunspeirrin march on Deep Shanatar as well, and war soon rages between the two armies of the Stout Folk.

The Dwarven Gods roam Citadel Adbar, Ironmaster, the Earthfast Mountains, and the Great Rift, slaying many orcs and other fell creatures during the Time of Troubles.

As a result of the Thunder Blessing, the gold dwarves burgeoning population forces them to seek out new caverns to claim and settle across the South, upsetting the long-held status quo of the southern Underdark

Moradin grants the gold dwarves the Thunder Blessing.

The Thunder Blessing: The great dwarf god Moradin bestows a new blessing upon his people. Miraculously, the birth rate of the dwarf race begins to soar. The new dwarf generation is commonly referred to as the thunder children. Nearly one-fifth of dwarf births after the Thunder Blessing result in identical or fraternal twins.

The sacred Mielikkian tome, Yornar's Trail Companion was said to have exchanged hands in Khôltar, being sold by the Talons of Timindar adventuring troupe to an unnamed dwarf for 90,000 gp. The Dwarf turned it over to Halatha and Murbreistra Stamar of Phelzel.

Durpar makes its first attempt to reopen the trade route with Mulhorand by sending an expeditionary force to clean out the monsters of Veldorn. The attack fails as every monster power comes to the aid of the others.

Over his lifetime, Tothur's displays of magical might managed to attract a sizeable body of followers from among the nomads of the Shaar and the smaller settlements of the Tashalar. In Kormul in 888 DR, however, Tothur's life and his movement was brought to an end in a final, cataclysmic conflict with the Talassan clergy. The battle, now known as the Struggle of Storms, resulted in the death of more than forty Talassan archpriests, a loss that greatly diminished the power of the Talassan church for centuries to follow. The conflict also rent the very earth beneath it, causing the Chanting Chain to plummet into the Underdark.

The first documented appearance of the Chanting Chain was in the western Shaar when the object was exhibited at the Great Bazaar of the Master of the Gargoyles by the self-described "Storm Prophet", Tothur. Regarded as a mad heretic by other Talassan clergy, Tothur clashed with his orthodox brethren on numerous occasions over the next two centuries, having used some unknown magical means to prolong his natural lifespan. Tothur used the Chanting Chain in these conflicts to augment his own spellcasting, apparently able to call forth spells from the object without the usual ritual process.

city of Khôltar is founded by the dwarves for humans to trade with them and each other.

Human nomads start to roam the Shaar in numbers. Trade with the gold dwarves of the Great Rift begins.

Unther battles Yuireshanyaar for control of the southern Aglarondan coast. The star elves are driven back into the woods. Further Untheric expansion near the Great Rift brings this nation into conflict with the gold dwarves of the Deep Realms.

The drow empire of Telantiwar falls with the collapse of the great cavern Bhaerynden. Drow refugees claim lesser caverns to the north, south, east and west of the newly formed Great Rift, establishing cities such as Llurth Dreier, the City of Ooze.

The dwarves return to their ancestral home, now the Great Rift, and establish the Deep Realm. In the millennia that follows, the Stout Folk of the Deep Realm become known as the Gold Dwarves. 

Dwarves migrate north from the Great Rift and enter the cavernous realms beneath the Sword Coast South.

Great Caverns of Bhaerynden collapse, creating the Great Rift.

The Drow of Telantiwar overwhelm the dwarves of Bhaerynden, (present-day Great Rift) and take their rift-city for their own. Surviving dwarves flee to other regions with one large group traveling to the Chultan penninsula before splintering into small tribal groupings, eventually becoming known as the wild dwarves.

As part of the great migration caused by the loss of Bhaerynden to Drow, one isolated branch of dwarves settles amid the isolated peaks of the Novularond, eventually becoming known as the Arctic Dwarves

Taark Shanat the Crusader and his eight sons, lead a great exodus of dwarves out of Bhaerynden to a new kingdom in the west. These emigrates eventually become known as shield dwarves and establish the great empire of Shanatar beneath the lands of Amn, Tethyr, Calimport, and the Lake of Steam.

The first great kingdom of the dwarves of Faerûn is centered in the great cavern of Bhaerynden, deep beneath the Shaar.

Parts of Abeir and Toril switch planes, swapping Maztica and the continent of Laerakond, which is now known as "Returned Abeir".

Mulhorand is completely destroyed, and the Mulhorandi pantheon disappears. The land is later settled by Deep Imaskari and becomes the empire of High Imaskar.

Unther is obliterated when a fragment of the dragonborn nation of Tymanchebar is transplanted from Abeir onto it, eventually becoming the realm of Tymanther.

Chult becomes a large island.

The Shaar becomes a wasteland called the Shaar Desolation.

The region surrounding the Great Rift collapses into the Underdark, creating an enormous cataract in the earth called the Underchasm.

The Hin realm of Luiren is completely submerged underwater, becoming the Gulf of Luiren.

Lantan is hit by massive waves and flooded, killing all of its inhabitants.

A storm begins over the Mhair Jungle in Halruaa and quickly grows to a large size, blue flames visible in the sky. It lays waste to Halruaa due to the heavy wild magic activity in the area.

Where once stood the realm of Sespech, the Golden Plains, and the Nagalands, the Spellplague reveals a surreal landscape breathtaking in its beauty, grandeur, and changeability. For the next century, active Spellplague cavorts on this territory called the Plaguewrought Lands, contorting terrain, natural law, and the flesh of any creature that dares enter.

Evermeet vanishes. While the island remains, all it’s people and buildings are gone, not even ruins are left. All of Evermeet’s closest allies, who have lost all contact assume that Evermeet has been destroyed. However, Evermeet survives in the Feywild, and the fey of the island nation can step back and forth between the Feywild and the ‘echo’ that is left on Toril.

Sildeyuir rejoins with the Feywild

 Three Swords was destroyed as a result of the Spellplague in the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR.

Three Swords was a fortified town on the upper side of the Landrise in the Eastern Shaar, circa the Year of Rogue Dragons, 1373 DR.

The Dance of the Shimmering Blades is a festival of psionics-users in the central plains of the Shaar.

It is signaled, attendees reported, by pulses of energy felt through the earth, as if the land called to them with a welcoming invitation to return to their roots. Most pass through the trade city of Shaarmid, swelling its transient population, before arriving at the festival site.

There are hundreds of people of many races, nearly all with some kind of psychic gift, whether a full power or a minor wild talent. Some never even knew they had psychic ability, but are called anyway. Wilders feel the call with the most passion, and form the majority of attendees.

Attendees dance, drink and feast, and party well into the night over the course of seven days. Although none talk of why they'd come, they all feel a common connection and bond, even members of races and cultures traditionally opposed to one another. Attendees make lasting friendships and contemplate their own paths through life.

Gargauth arises from a pit at Peleveran, which is later destroyed by a horde of dragons, dracoliches, and members of the Cult of the Dragon.

The wizard Omm Hlandrar of Halruaa engages a Red Wizard named Velsharoon in a spectacular magical battle in the skies over the Shaar. The contest ends in a draw.

Many lycanthropes leave Calimport after the full moons of Tarsakh and Mirtul to spread their lycanthropy to the Tashalar and the Shaar. To the present day, it is unknown what drew so many lycanthropes together into Calimport for these two summer months, though some remain below in Calimport Muzad.

Outbreak of internal strife among the Shaaran gnolls. Gnoll raids against the Lapal League [656, 1142] diminish significantly.

Gnoll tribes raze Lhesper. The survivors found Shaarmid.

Yeenoghu’s cult rises to prominence among the gnoll tribes of the Shaar, largely displacing the worship of Gorellik. The gnolls attack many towns in the region around Lake Lhespen, leaving Lhesper in ruins and seeing its surviving citizens migrate north to found Shaarmid.

The Slyth, shapechangers native to the Underdark, found the city of Fluvenilstra [1370], also known as Garden City of the Lowerdark, beneath the Shaar.

The remaining garrisons of the Shoon Imperium are forced out of the Chultan Peninsula and the Shaar.The remaining garrisons of the Shoon Imperium are forced out of the Chultan Peninsula and the Shaar.

Hakam yn Sarak el Sallah, the merciless general responsible for the series of battles known as the Seven Burnings, is ripped limb from limb by a mob of widows of those he and his troops slew.

The campaign kills many native Shaarans and brings the western portion of the Shaar back under Shoon control. Despite bloody reprisals, the Imperium was forced to begin withdrawing from the region, and the nomads quietly returned to their previous way of life.

Seven Burnings campaign kills many native Shaarans and brings the western portion of the Shaar back under Shoon control.

Qysar Amahl Shoon VII dispatches seventeen troop ships to quell an uprising in the Shaar river valley. Shoon imperial troops rampage through Sheirtalar, Sheirlantar, Kormul, Lhesper, Sebben, Rethmar, and Channathgate. The campaign kills many native Shaarans and brings the western portion of the Shaar back under Shoon control. Despite bloody reprisals, the Imperium was forced to begin withdrawing from the region, and the nomads quietly returned to their previous way of life.

Several towns along Lake Lhespen and the River Shaar rebel against their distant rulers, the Shoon.

Shoon Imperium is finally driven out of the Shaar.

By the death of Qysara Shoon V, Shoon satraps rule greater Thindol, the Tashalar, the cities of Lapaliiya, and all the major settlements of the Shaar as far east as the Landrise.

Forces of the Shoonach Imperium conquer and claim all the lands between the Shining Sea and the Landrise.

Plague wracks southern Faerûn, devaststing Chessenta, the Vilhon Reach, and the Shaar.

Calimshan, in its attempts to reconquer its old territories around the Lake of Steam and the Shaar, discovers that the old threat of the beholders has risen again. Beholders and their cultists control the majority of territory east of Ankhapur and are now pushing their forces west, (or immediately up and out of the Alimir Mountains) in retaliation against the Calishite invasions.

Yuan-ti slavers regularly raid the western end of the Shaar, taking newly captured slaves back to Serpentes.

The town of Lhesper is founded.

Second Crown War: Battle flares up yet again in answer to the aggressions of Aryvandaar. Ilythiir rises up and viciously strikes out at any that support the gold elves of the north. Its nearest neighbor Orishaar, a major trade partner with Aryvandaar, falls swiftly in a brutal surprise attack.

Orishaar and the southern dark elf nation of Ilythiir begin skirmishes that continue on and off for the next seven millennia.

Establishment of the moon elf settlements of Orishaar, (present-day Duskwood and the Shaar).

Ilythiir was an expansionist country, that started in the southern jungles and spread throughout southern Faerûn during the Dawn Age. It experienced another period of expansion during the First Flowering, during which it spread across the areas later known as the Shaar and Forest of Amtar.

In the wake of the Sundering, many humans of Azuposi descent find themselves on mainland Faerun or scattered on newly created islands of the Trackless Sea. By -3000 DR these humans would become known as the Illuskan people.

Other human tribes also find themselves abandoned on mainland Faerun cut off from their homeland on Katashaka. Concentrated primarily in the south along the shores of the Great Sea, these tribes are known as the Tashalan, Lapal, Shaaran, and the Durpari.