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A History of Calimshan

Book

This text is written in Common and is entitled A History of Calimshan, dated 1356 DR, written by Tethoril, First Reader of Candlekeep. It appears to contain a summary of Calimshan's known history throughout the various ages of Calimshan. A key passage reads as follows:

Calimshan is older than either of the other Empires of the Sands, first settled over nine thousand years ago by the Djen, a group of peoples, both elemental and humanoid, from the Elemental Plane of Air via a portal in an incident now known as the Great Arrival according to most accounts. Some scholars instead theorize that these peoples came from the Land of Fate, Zakhara, taking a temporal gate half a millenium into the future as some historical evidence suggests; others still yet opine that the Djen and their caliph hail from an entirely different crystal sphere entirely. 

These Djen were known to be very magical, consisting of djinni, jann, humans, halflings, as well as marid and dao allies. During the course of their rule they developed many new spells previously not available in the Plane of Air. The Djen were ruled by their Great Lord and Caliph, Calim, a powerful and noble djinni. 

The Djen prospered for over a thousand years in Calimshan, but their reign was ended by an invasion of creatures and minions from the Plane of Fire led by the noble efreeti Memnon. Some say this is where the bitter hatred between djinni and efreeti started, though others contend this was just a result of a hatred that was already there. Whatever the cause, the battle was long and bloody, and took over two hundred years to complete, and has since now been known as the Era of Skyfire.

The war was at last ended not by the forces of Calim or of Memnon, but instead when elven high mages of the surrounding lands sealed away the two great genies and their genie cohort into the Calimmemnon Crystal. The disembodied spirits of Calim and Memnon still struggle within it to this day, and it is in the aftermath of their great struggle before and now that the Calim Desert is as it is now. Of what remained of Memnonar or the Djen Empire slowly declined, and the last mention of the Djen is just under six thousand years old.

For the next few thousand years Calimshan was dominated by nomadic tribes of humans. Tribes from various places - Chult, the Shaar, The Shining Plains, Chondath, even Amn and Cormyr - took turns dominating, only to be conquered by the next, nearly identical tribe.

Slowly, the nomadic nature of Calimshan began to change. As explorers and traders from Amn, Waterdeep, and Cormyr discovered the wonders of the area, some tribes began to settle down and develop new means of support, like fishing, farming, or trading. These communities began to band together for mutual protection, and soon a civilization was born. It was only thirteen hundred years ago that the Shoon Empire  came into being.

The Shoon Imperium were a grand and glorious empire, and their excesses were the foundation of Calishite snobbery today. They grew wise and powerful in the ways of magic, and ships and caravans bearing the Shoon flag traveled across Toril. Shoon himself, a particularly powerful mage, created a book of great power during this time called the Tome of the Unicorn. The exact location of the Tome has been lost in time, but it thought likely to still be around... somewhere.

Nine hundred years ago the Shoon empire abruptly vanished. A great magical upheaval was suspected at first, but learned mages of other lands dispute the claim. A force that great, they say, would have disturbed magical powers and beings throughout the Realms, and that didn't happen. Sages who have studied the Shoon at great length have reached no definite conclusions, but the most popular theories today center around a plague or disease that decimated the population.

Today, the Shoon impact on Calimshan is still great. The grandeur of that empire is responsible, more than anything else, for the strong national character of Calimshan today. The ruins of the Shoon's greatest city, Shoonach, can still be found in the wilderness to the west of the edge of the Forest of Mir in region of Monrativi Teshy Mir.

Since the fall of Shoon, no force or people has risen to solely dominate the land. There are a half dozen or so major cities, each of which exerts its power over its own area. About 170 years ago, a man in Calimport amassed a large army and declared himself "Pasha" over the land. Before that army could march, however, the representatives of each major city met and agreed to recognize the Pasha's authority in limited areas, and to pay a small tribute to him; enough to pay for the works the Pasha was expected to do. The oldest son of each Pasha inherits the title; if there is no son, the mayors of each large city select a new one. The current Pasha, Rashid Djenispool, has ruled for over 18 years, and is the grandson of a pasha elected by the mayors of Calimshan 44 years ago.