History of Eltabbar
Before the City
Eltabbar began as a minor fishing village. In the early days of free Thay, after the success of the Red Wizard Rebellion of 922-1074 DR that saw Thay freed from Mulhorandi rule, the capital of the realm was Delhumide, and the tharch of Eltabbar was centered far northwest of the modern-day city. Its rule did not extend to the Kozan Delta, but rather terminated at the mouth of the River Thay.
The Red Wizard Rebellion did not see all of what is today part of Thay freed, only the northern tharchs, separated from Mulhorandi Thay by Lake Thaylambar, the Rivers Kozan and Umber (through High Thay), and the Thaymount itself. Successive wars would take southern Thay peacemeal.
The southern provinces of Lapendrar, Tyraturos, Thazalhar, and Pyarados had liberated themselves in the late 10th century, ruled by a council of Autarkia from their captial of Tyraturos. The Priador would later rebel successfully against the Pharaoh in the Alaor Wars of 1095-1100 DR.
Thay acquired the southern tharchs over the next two centuries, finally defeating warlord Jhor Thrulgar in 1319 DR, and installing Kreznic Agneh as tharchion. The tharchs of Thay would remain stable for another 58 years, until the loss of the Alaor to Mulhorand.
During the centuries under Pharaonic rule, trade between the two halves of the realm was mostly routed
from the provincial capital of Delhumide, along the east banks of Lake Thaylambar, across the Bridge of Surag, and ultimately to Tyraturos. When Delhumide was sacked in 922 DR, the capital of the north shifted to Keluthar.
During the Red Wizard Rebellion, the Zulkirs located the daemoncyst of Eltab, then in the depths below the Thaymount. They created the Great Seal of Eltabbar in its present location by routing the magic-infused waters of the Riven Kozan into the pattern of a colossal magic sigil of binding, and conducted a ritual of a magnitude unlike anything since ancient Narfell that would summon Eltab from his daemoncyst and bind him to the will of whoever controlled the Great Seal.
Eltab served the Red Wizards well during their rebellion, and when they had no further need of him, they simply left him to rot in his daemoncyst. In the mean time, the site of the seal had become something of a central base for the Red Wizards, bereft of their fortifications in Delhumide. Increasingly, trade caravans were routed around or over the lake to bring them slaves and supplies.
Eltabbar would not become a true city until 1250 DR, when the Zulkirs completed their new base of operations in the Thaymount, and accepted an offer of generous sums of gold, magic, and slaves from the tharchion of Eltabbar to purchase the land. There was a condition, that the Zulkirs would retain a greater-than-usual control over the city's doings, and its ruler, the better to maintain control of the Great Seal, should they have need of it.
