History of Impiltur

The broad coastal watershed that is defined in the modern day as the Impiltur has been inhabited by humans long before the advent of written or even unbroken oral traditions can tell. Examples of ancient Stone Age culture is indicated, and early human nomads mostly settled the area around the great rivers of the kingdom, including the River Wye, the Great Imphras River, the shores of the Bluefang Water, and the Straits of Sarshel, clearing forests for early farmland to take advantage of the rich topsoil of the fertile river valley. Here, they developed early technologies such as ceramics and textile production. These unnamed ancient humans are also thought to be responsible for the construction of ancient cromlechs such as Pentre Ifan, Bryn Celli Ddu, the Algol Plinth, and Parc Cwm long cairn approximately 1,500 years before the first stones were laid in the distant city of Skuld.

Darmonara

The great watershed on the eastern slopes of the Galenas mountains came to be called Darmonara, or the land of the Darmöneii people. These tribal humans were known to have a vital and vibrant culture, much of it based on trade between themselves and the early boat people of the Inner Sea. A documentation of these cultures begins to take shape in the second millennium before Dale Reckoning, starting with the first notations of contact between the Darmöneii and the far ranging explorers of ancient Chessenta. It was these southern explorers that began to add the land of the Darmöneii to their nascent maps of the Sea of Fallen Stars, and gave the land it's name. The exotic and ornate ceramic and bronzework of the Darmöneii tribes became prized among the wealthy exarchs and merchant princes of ancient Chessenta, Unther, and Mulhorand.

This time of trading and expansion also brought several Chessentan colonies along the southern coast of Darmonara, including at Diluphilos (Dilpur), Procampolis (Procampur), and Helamaxos (Hlammach). These colonies brought both trade and conflict with the outside world to the native Darmöneii tribes, with some groups growing rich through trade with the educated visitors from across the sea and some tribes being harvested for slaves and servants to be shipped back to the southern coast, where they were regarded as both strong and handsomely built but also surly and difficult to train.

In common with humans living all over the central Heartlands, over the following centuries the people living in what was to become known as Impiltur assimilated immigrants and exchanged ideas of the Stone and Bronze Age cultures from now vanished tribes and kingdoms along the length of the Easting Reach and into modern day Thesk and Aglarond. These people, part of the greater Darmöneii culture that inhabited ancient Impiltur formed themselves into clans and early nations, conducting trade and warfare both amongst themselves and amongst their neighbors. By the time of the invasion of the Nar, the area of modern Impiltur had been divided among the tribes of the Gorodoin, Ordovices, Tepestani, Demetae, Trinvellauni, Catovantes, Silures, and many others for centuries.

Of their neighbors, something here must be said. It is known to modern historians that the part of the Earthspur Mountains, and indeed the greater Galenas chain itself, was the site of a succession of nearly unfathomably large dwarven kingdoms, including Dareth, Earthfast, Roldilar, and the semi-mythical realm of the Empire of Sarphil, suspected by some dwarven scholars to be the very origin of their race. The ancient Darmöneii tribes of Cirdan, for example, both traded and warred with the dwarven thains and emperors across the broad sweep of history, faring far better in the first instance than in the latter. Dwarves had long ago mastered the art of iron working, and indeed had begun forging far more exotic metals before the first stone was raised at Pentre Ifan. A matter of great contention amongst scholars is why the secrets of the Iron Age seemed to elude the Darmöneii for so many years. Some scholars theorize that the ancient dwarves were too proud and isolationist to trade the secrets of iron work with their rivals in the eastern forests, but other counter that indeed dwarves were never shy about trading in the fruits of their labor, and yet very little iron is to be found in any settlement or site dating to the time of the Darmöneii. It is to this fact that other scholars will point when they reference the religion of the Darmöneii, and to their elven neighbors.

Of the elven settlements of ancient Cirdan very little is known by modern scholars. Since the drawing down of the Shroud across the far northern Weald trade, research, and conversation with the fay folk has become non-existent. Still, some conclusions about the relationship between the early Darmöneii and the elven kingdom of the Weald can be discerned. From the intricate design work to be discovered upon Darmöneii bronze weapons, armor, and even simple tools, it is apparent that to the early humans of Impiltur, the elven folk were objects of veneration, fear, and respect. Visages of strange, fey creatures can be seen in most of the oldest cairns of clan chieftains, while the little understood religion of the Darmöneii seemed to feature the spirits of the surrounding, ever-present woodlands quite prominently. It is believed by many scholars, therefore, that the inhibitor for the human use of iron was not lack of skill, but a taboo placed upon it by the druid-priestesses of the ancient pagan beliefs.

The invasion and eventual conquest of Darmonara by the Empire of Narfell was a sudden and dramatic awakening to the dangers of the lands beyond the forests of proto-Impiltur. While other tribes of the Darmöneii conducted intermittent trade with the rising petty nations of Narfell across the Easting Reach, the sudden expansion of the Kingdom of Tharos after the collapse of the distant kingdom of Ashanath and the unification of all of the Nar kingdoms beneath their banner soon spelled the end of peaceful trade and cooperation between the two human cultures. The brief upheaval of war between the Trinvellauni and Catovantes tribes in the coastal regions near the mouth of the Great Imphras River (then known as by its older name of the River Vuchar) provided all the excuse needed for the great Nentyarch Thargaun to place his adolescent eldest son Derevan in overall command of over 20,000 Nar veterans of the Unification Campaigns and double that number of capture hath-kul (or blood slaves). The first legions of the Nar made landfall at what would be called the Bloody Beach in -948 DR. Ostensibly, the invasion was to reinstall the puppet ruler of the Catovantes after the victory of the Trinvellauni, but even after easy victories against the local Darmöneii, the eastern empire had no intention of returning home. For the next 798 years the once fertile lands of the Darmöneii would become first an experimental battleground for untested Nar commanders and later a breadbasket of the Nar war effort against the Raumathari.

Though the lush, lowland river valleys fell relatively swiftly to the Nar generals over the course of three successive campaigns, the broad highland belt arranged at the foothills of the Earthspur and Galenas mountains proved to be a far more difficult battlefield. The initial disorganized and isolated responses to Nar incursions into the eastern borders of the Weald proved to be utterly disastrous to Darmöneii cause of resistance, as did the initial haphazard and independent forays out into the field of battle against the eastern aggressors. Likewise, the first forays of the overconfident and, until now, completely victorious Nar armies into the Weald turned into an utter and complete rout of the vanguard forces, thanks in no small part to the magic inherent in the elven defense of their human "children". The long borderland between the frozen northern reaches along the Great Glacier to the now open moorland of the Duchy of Borca became a continuous front of battle, and over the next three hundred years would alternatively switch from cold to hot warfare.

It was only in -623 DR, with the Nar defeat at the Gorge of Gauros thousands of leagues away in the Battle of Clipped Wings that the situation changed for the Darmöneii front lines. The first true military failure of the main legion army of the Empire of Narfell against the combined forces of Mulhorand, Unther, and Raumathar resulted in the death of Nentyarch Ulthas Orgolath and the ascension of his priestly twin brother Nentyarch Ulthar Orgolath, but more importantly it spurred the overextended Nar to integrate their foul demon priests into their armies like never before. Even along the relatively domestic front with the Drithharl (meaning Demon Wood in the Nar tongue), the war for the survival of the Empire reignited, and the newly empowered priests began to hurl a near limitless supply of bound and trapped demonic creatures at the elven, faerie, and Darmöneii defenders of the long line of the eastern Weald. The Nar generals and their infernal advisors began to burn the very forest down around the beleaguered defenders. As the Empire of the Nar returned resurgent along their distant fronts, so did they beat back their long time enemies among the Weald's defenders. Decades of warfare saw the Nar cross the River Vascha for the first time, and burn the Gorodain settlements along the River Wye. Nar hortha led the vicious and half feral orcs of the northern wastes against the snow clad northern front. Each year that passed saw more and more of the sacred woodlands of the elves and the Darmöneii burned and despoiled by the increasingly debased and vicious Nar. Even the legendary Witch Queen of the elves was said to be powerless to stop the resurgent Nar, for in their bid for power the dark cabals of the Nar and their twisted Nentyarch had gained power enough to bind and dominate even her should she venture from her seat of power at Caer Caradul. In the great battles at the end of what the elves called the Second Age, millions of humans, fey, and orcs are killed in a period of constant warfare that would last for over two hundred years. In the carnage of the great Nar war, cities were engulfed in fell flame, great swaths of the once unified Weald were burned to ash, and even the Great Glacier itself was forced back from the battle lines by the twisted magic of the ur-hortha Kostchtchie.

In the year -181 DR, the war for the heart of the Weald had reached a fever pitch. Humanity had long since united under a single High King, the Ard Ri, annointed and ordained by the Witch Queen of the elves on the island of Caernarfon, and the dwarven thanes under the mountain drew more and more of the abyssal soldiers of the Nar into ignominious death under the rock, but the enemy seemed limitless and the defenders, for all their might and resolve, and in some cases their immortal strength, were tired and spent in their mad resistance to the shadow of Narfell. In that year, all seemed lost, for from the northern glaciers flew dragons under the control of the Nentyarch and the shadow which he served. And in that year, the Nentyarch arrived himself from his hidden fortress at Dun Tharos, casting aside the elven defenses at the heart of the Weald like twigs and kindling. Just when the battle seemed to have tipped, and the defenders of the Weald were being thrown into darkness and disarray, the battle changed. A vast host of new dragons appeared across the many fronts, and plunged into battle against their treacherous kin. The legends claim that the Witch Queen herself led them, bound into the form of a golden dragon of enormous size and power. On the slopes of the Cyroaereth, the Nentyarch himself was checked by the arrival of the elven Queen of Death and Winter, and their battle shook the foundations of the forest itself. The physical and magical destruction the dragons wrought as they attacked and counterattacked, and the madness of the battle on the slopes of the Cyroaereth was almost as great as that from the rest of the war combined. Death was everywhere, and chaos was absolute.

When it was over, both sides were broken. The orc hordes and the lesser daemons had scattered to the northern wastes. Legends say the Queen of Winter perished that day, and in her death she wailed a cry of boundless rage and sorrow, a paean of grief that raised a Shroud of non-existance around the heart of the Weald from which no mortal may emerge, but in her passing she broke the power of the Nentyarchs, now and forever, driving the spirit of fire and corruption from his black soul and leaving only Ilithkar, a broken, powerless man to be held before the war councils of the Darmöneii. The only dragons to be found across the length and breadth of the Weald were the broken and bleeding bodies of the dead, and of the Witch Queen no more was seen in this world.

Over the next several years, the Ard Ri and the Darmöneii survivors of the cataclysm together with their dwarven allies marched against those Nar Renyarch that still held the humans of the lowland in base captivity. Within ten years, what remained of the Darmöneii tribal lands from the northern wastes to the Citadel of Conjurers was returned to the banner of the Ard Ri and the battered and broken alliance. Across the Easting Reach, a new Nentyarch, Rheligaun "the Horned", offered terms of piece to the unified armies of the Witch Queen's Alliance, but the offer was refused. The Ard Ri and the human, elven, and dwarven soldiers made ready to invade the Empire of Narfell itself. Their efforts were to be in vain. In -160 DR, the Empires of Narfell and Raumathar unleashed the Great Conflagration upon each other, a cataclysm that would blacken the skies from horizon to horizon for nearly a decade. When finally the clouds across the Easting Reach cleared enough for soldiers of the weary Alliance to cross, the Empire of Narfell was no more.

Peace and Colonization

In lands south of the Citadel of Conjurers and the Weirdingflow River, a second front against the Empire of Narfell was opened in -270 DR. An expeditionary force was launched against the Narfelli colonies by Emperor Dharien I of Jhaamdath, and under the leadership of General Sullus Varius Mirandor. Over 600 ships unloaded 120,000 Jhaamdathan legionaries into the ancient harbor laid down and later abandoned by dwarven settlers from Earthfast. For the next 15 years, Mirandor's legions would scourge the southern Narfelli Renyarchs before they received word of the Nikerymath Disaster that obliterated the Twelve Cities of the Sword in -255 DR. Mirandor's Legions had no home to return to and no emperor to whom they could report success. Stranded on a hostile front, Sullus Varius Mirandor resolved to make a home for his soldiers in the former colonies of the Nar, and to continue pushing the Nar ever northward. Over the next several years, massive refugee flotillas would arrive along the southern coast to settle in the ever widening front against the Nar. They would bring with them the last relics of the now sunken civilization of Jhaamdath, and their safety only hardened the old general's resolve. Eventually, the general and his soldiers began taking wives and concubines from among the liberated Darmöneii slaves women, and over the next 100 years, the soldiers, their children, and their children's children would continue to push the Nar Renyarchs back until they were forced to abandon even their Citadel of Conjurers.

In -181 DR, when the Dragon Cataclysm was claiming the great front of the Weald, the battle hardened armies of now General Impil Sullus Mirandor were rolling back the reserve forces of the softer, southern underbelly of the Nar colony states. Even they, however, trembled before the might unleashed in the northern skies. In -180 DR, the legions of Mirandor met the armies of the Ard Ri for the first time, at the ancient Darmöneii cromlech called Argol Plinth. There, the two battle scarred veteran armies hammered out an alliance over the course of three days, pledging to stand united until the last Nar bled dry upon the point of a sword. Together, the two breeds of men, the dwarves of Earthfast and Dareth, and the few elves the remained outside the Shroud scoured the length and breadth of the land purging it of every last Nar invader before turning their sights upon the greater empire beyond the Easting Reach. The Great Conflagration would finish off the dying, demon-maddened empire.

A Divided Impiltur

In -135 DR, General Mirandor returned south, where he was acclaimed the Dictator of the Nova Jhaamdathan colonists and soldiers from his seat at Impil's Tor above an ancient dwarven harborage they once called Lyrabar. The southern cities, always more civilized by the presence of the Chessentan and now the Jhaamdathan colonists were also spared the catastrophic magical destruction of the northern realms, and the Jhaamdathan settlers and veterans set about the construction of an orderly and organized society that emulated in many ways the "Republic of Reason" that they had left behind several centuries ago. Roads and bathhouses were constructed, and the conventions of a senate are soon called at Impil's Tor. As was proper in the traditions of ancient Jhaamdath, with the rise in power of the senate, the Dictatus withdrew their involvement in the governance of the nascent realm.

In the north, however, the Ard Ri Cullen Bry myr Fwyr is faced with ruin and destruction on nearly every side. The land oppressed under the Nar Renyarchs is bled dry of healthy men and women, and the land itself seems poisoned and dying. Twisted legacies of the Nar stalk the night, and without the power and the influence of the elven host, many of the hidden dangers of the deepest wood begin to stalk the world openly, hunting and killing the famine and disease riddled northmen. To compound his problems, the High King is faced with a fractious and war maddened convocation of kings, many of whom are anxious to settle scores and grudges with their tribe's ancient enemies. Many of the kings began to question the authority of the High King himself, since his blade and crown were forged by the imprimatur of the now vanished Witch Queen Aradil.

In the south, in -118 DR, the Year of Elven Delights, the thriving settlement of Impil’s Tor is renamed Lyrabar by Dictatus Ornrath Mirandor, hearkening back to its dwarf roots and cementing the first trade ties with dwarves of the surrounding mountains. It is in this year also that a minor cult among the soldiers and commoners of Nova Jhaamdath finds a powerful new voice in the government of the Dictatus, when the younger brother of the Dictatus, Gnaius Mirandor, begins to openly preach the "many that are one" theory of the religion of Auppenser. By the end of his life, Gnaius Mirandor would be acclaimed the first Pontifrex of the new state relgion with the conversion of his brother to the nascent faith, and the great Church of the Lords Assembled would be born.

In the first treaties accorded after the victory over the Nar between the two powers of Darmonara, the border was set at the Weirdingflow which emerged from the Vale of Horrors surrounding the Citadel of Conjurers. In this way, it was believed, that both nations could station troops to watch for any threat emerging from the shadowed valley and respond with speed and force. It wasn't long, however, before the two border forces began to come into low intensity skirmishing over the increasingly desperate resources in the north. In -101 DR, Ard Ri Bry myr Fwyr was assassinated, and with his death, and the old alliances between the disparate tribes of the Darmöneii died with him. By -90, the first forays by the northern Darmöneii against their prosperous southern neighbors is recorded in the annals of the Abbot Vicorius of Songhal.

The first violations of the Treaty of the Vale sent shockwaves through the society of Nova Jhaamdath. in the years since the cessation of hostilities with the Nar, the southern cities had grown prosperous and weary of war, and the prospect of conflict with the "barbarians" in the north fired furious debate in the halls of the senate in Lyrabar. As the society of law and order dissolved in the northern marches, commensurately the raiding of the southern villages and cities intensified. Separate incursion by both land and sea revealed the weakness of the northern garrisons and set up a howling by the border lords and their senatorial representatives. It was finally decided to allow the young and ambitious Dictatus Inrath Mirandor to command an army that would cross the Weirdingflow into Darmonara and punish the upstart raiders for their plundering. The records of that first expedition were recorded by and compiled by Dictatus Inrath himself in the seminal war treatise "Against the Darmöneii". The expedition would last from -88 to -75, and in that time it was more wildly successful than anyone would have imagined.

The Darmöneii nearest the border with Nova Jhaamdath were poor and starved. Compared to their southern neighbors, the brutality of the Nar and the collapse of any central authority in the teeth of the feuding warlords of the Darmöneii tribes had regressed the once prosperous people into barbarism. The ambitious Dictatus Inrath quickly and efficiently subdued the neighboring tribes, sending gifts of art, gold, silver, and slaves home to his most loyal supporters and those who may be turned to favoring him in the senate. Faced with such easy victories, the Dictatus decided to exceed his mandate by the senate and continue his march upland, demanding fealty and gifts of tribute and respect from the local chieftains and Rhi (kings) of the Darmöneii wherever he found them. Where they resisted, they were crushed by the legions of the south.

In the south, the senate was divided by the actions of their Dictatus. To some, he was a would be tyrant, exceeding their authority was tantamount to treason. To others, he was a hero, and a powerful benefactor at that, with wealth and riches flowing from the northern campaigns into the already bulging coffers of the wealthiest senators. So it was that there was no real organized resistance when the Dictatus Inrath returned home in -75 after 13 years in the northern lands, crossing the Weirdingflow with his legions in direct violation of the laws of Nova Jhaamdath and the commandments of the senate. With his veteran legions encamped outside the city of Lyrabar, there was very little resistance when, in -74 DR, the Year of Splendor, General Dictatus Inrathus Gaius Marius Sullus Mirandor triumphed through the streets of the capitol bearing the chieftains of the northern valleys in chains behind him to ascend the steps of the Temple of Auppenser and declare himself King of the new realm of Impiltur, crowning himself with the ancient crown of of the Sword-Lord of sunken Dhinnilith.

With the ascension to power of King Inrath Mirandor, the first dynasty of the kingdom of Impiltur was born. Impiltur under the Mirandor dynasty was exceptionally centralized around the Mirandors and their retainers. The kings of Mirandor for the most part attempted to govern their nascent realm as generals. Many found great success leading raids of conquest or plunder against the northern Darmöneii tribes. The new kingdom found itself beset upon all sides by threats. The barbarian tribes of the northeast would be a constant threat and source of new expansion land, whereas the orcish threat of the mountains of the Vast would prove a deadly killing ground for the best and the brightest of the Mirandor nobility.

Beginning in 2 DR, the first of several great convulsions would shake Impilturan society would come about due to a societal and religious schism centering around the concept of slavery. In the ancient texts of Auppenser, the practice of slavery, whether against one's own people or against conquered vassals was strictly forbidden, but in recent centuries the strictures against slavery had been relaxed by legal and ethical loopholes involving terms of surrender, mercy, and indentured debt. The end result of these loopholes was a condition for almost all northern barbarians and citizens of Nar stock tantamount to slavery itself. House servants tended the estates of the wealthy citizens of Impiltur, while barbarians and beasts fought for the amusement of the public in fatal gladiatorial games. It was from the these games that the first threat would arise in the form of a northern barbarian that called himself the Ard Ri. Evoking the name of the High King of the north, this gladiator would incite a rampage beginning in the city of Dilpur that rallied more and more of the oppressed slave class to his cause.

If the threat was just incarnated in the form of an unlettered barbarian gladiator and his band of citizen soldiers, the convulsion would probably have passed swiftly with eventual military victories, but his cause was inflamed by the writings of Sentire Locarvo of Lyrabar, himself long an opponent of the "abomination of forced servitude" and a champion of the causes of the under class. The writings of the Sentire spread like wildfire, and the ineffective King Belrath Mirandor was powerless to reverse the course of the chaos. By 5 DR, the kingdom was plunged into revolution and civil war, with the lower classes rallying around the Ard Ri and the king and his councilors fleeing the fortress at Impil's Tor, abandoning it to being burned by the advancement of the wave of discontent. Soon, noble battled noble, and many decided to flee the madness engulfing the kingdom rather than be forced to stand and fight their own servants. One such nobleman, Ondeth Obarskyr, fled with a group of like minded families, setting a return course for Chondath. A storm upon the Sea of Fallen Stars would blow the refugees off course, eventually settling them in the Dragon's Reach where they founded the first human settlements in the Forest Kingdom of Cormyr.

Eventually, the Ard Ri was betrayed from within the Great Slave Revolt, murdered by a comrade in exchange for leniency. Without their figurehead, the revolt quickly lost steam, but the election to the position of Pontifrex of Locarvo of Lyrabar resulted in the Pontal Bull "Super Vox Inherent ut Animus of Vir" (Concering the Rights Inherent to the Soul of Man). The bull impressed upon the newly crowned King Fendarn (who slew his younger brother Belrath to right the ship of state) to manumit the slaves across the country.

The Mirandor dynasty, though the longest lived of any later dynasty of Impiltur would be rife with internecine bickering, assassination, and regicides. Multiple civil wars across the history of the Mirandors resulted in one or another branch of the family seizing control of the reigns of state and with every succession crisis the kingdom grew less centralized and stable even as it continued to expand, seizing control of the port of Procampur in 122 DR, and settling Altumbel in 163 DR.

The final crisis of the Mirandors would come in 512 DR DR. The orc chieftain Ulbror led a horde out of Vastar and into the uplands of Impiltur by means of countless small mountain trails over the Earthspurs in this year. King Sharaun Mirandor and his three sons led an army northward but they were defeated at the modern site of the village of Kingsfall. The fate of the entire kingdom wavered on the edge of a knife until the king's son-in-law, Duke Harandil Durlaven rallied the remaining forces of the kingdom around his banner and routed the orcs at the Battle of Bloody Reeds. In the aftermath of the conflict, Duke Harandil is crowned king of Impiltur by the hand of the Pontifrex Lucullus III upon the victorious battlefield, beginning the Durlaven Dynasty.

626 DR Year of the Eagle and Falcon

— Nobles of House Orbil attempt to seize the throne of Impiltur after assassinating

King Bellodar I. Their rebellion is savagely put down, and they are

declared outlaw and consigned to exile. King Bellodar II is crowned king of

Impiltur.

729: The Triad Crusade

The following excerpt was taken from the memoirs of Relgorn Hawkwinter, the self-styled “Paladin of Scrolls,” who penned it

in the Year of the Cowl (765 DR), the first year in the reign of King Erynd I of Impiltur.

I remember the first golden rays of the sun chasing away the

darkness on the day we made landfall on the southwestern coast

of Impiltur. After we had debarked, Lord Elethlim gathered us

into a great conclave, in which all men and women could speak

as equals. It was on that bright morn that we decided to burn our

ships. We of the Triad had sworn to cleanse Impiltur and bring the

light back to its people, and we would do so or die in the attempt.

Within days, we saw for ourselves the depredations that the

Scaled Horde had wrought. Most villages lay empty except

for corpses, and the few humans we did encounter sought our

blood and souls for sacrifice to the demonic masters they worshiped.

Our arrival had roused the dark ones to a frenzy, but

our bright blades swiftly sent the host of fiends that assailed

us back to the Abyss. We accounted for scores of rutterkins

and dretches, as well as even viler creatures—including the

nalfeshnee Drallith “the Poxed,” who rode a golden chariot

pulled by chained chasme, and the half-fiend Berdrinnar with

his troop of armanites. Those first few battles hardened our

resolve and strengthened our faith. So dire was the suffering

of this land that the Broken God had wept for its people, and

we prayed to the Triad that our strength would prove sufficient

for this holy task.

726 DR Year of the Dowager Lady

Impiltur is overrun by the Scaled Horde, an army of demons, from the western

fringes of the Rawlinswood and the Forest of Lethyr. King Forvar II of

Impiltur is slain in the fighting, bringing an end to the Durlarven Dynasty

of Old Impiltur. King Agrosh the Scaled seizes the throne.

729 DR to 732 DR

The Triad Crusade: An army dedicated to Tyr, Torm, and Ilmater led by the

paladin Sarshel Elethlim travels by sea to ravaged Impiltur and begins the

Fiend Wars against the Scaled Horde.

729 DR Year of the Twisted Horn

The paladin Belthar Garshin slays Agrosh the Scaled, the self-styled king of

Impiltur, at the Battle of Horned Heads, leaving the throne of this kingdom

vacant once more.

732 DR Year of the Proud Father

Sarshel Elethlim is crowned king of Impiltur with the newly reformed and

consecrated Crown of Narfell. He establishes the Elethlim Dynasty of that

realm.

788 DR to 806 DR

Harrowing of Nord: Nord is crowned king of Impiltur and begins a campaign

to ferret out and hunt down all fiends and fiend-worshipers throughout the

kingdom.

800 DR to 850 DR

Homesteaders from Impiltur settle the eastern shores of the Easting Reach

and push inland south of the Forest of Lethyr.

850 DR Year of the Empty Throne

King Beldred of Impiltur leads the Scouring, a year-long campaign into the

western parts of the Rawlinswood that slays and drives forth pockets of demons

that survived the Fiend Wars and the Battle of Moaning Gorge.

893 DR Year of the Raised Sword

An army of Nar horsemen led by the chieftain Galush attacks northeastern

Impiltur but is defeated at the Battle of Twelvepikes on the banks of the

Soleine River by an army led by Duke Lantigar Deepstar.

917 DR Year of the Winding Road

Windyn Balindre, an Impilturan merchant, pioneers the route of the Golden

Way 937 to Kara-Tur.

924 DR Year of the Cracked Turtle

Plague causes the death of King Peverel of Old Impiltur and his two male

heirs. His sole remaining descendant, Princess Aliia, is deemed too young to

rule by the senior nobles at court, and a new king is sought by way of royal

marriage.

926 DR to 1097 DR

The Kingless Years: After Princess Aliia of Old Impiltur dies at sea while en

route to wed her betrothed, Prince Rhiigard of Cormyr, the Elethlim Dynasty

comes to an end. Impiltur remains leaderless, and the realm fractures into

a seething cauldron of rival city-states as powerful nobles attempt to gain

the vacant throne.

1038 DR Year of Spreading Spring

The Great Glacier retreats from the lands of Damara, Vaasa, and upper

Narfell. Many folk from Impiltur and Thesk migrate north to the newly

uncovered lands.

1097 DR Year of the Gleaming Crown

Imphras the Great is crowned king of refounded Impiltur and establishes

the Heltharn Dynasty.

1110 DR Year of the Bloody Fields

Thay marches on Phsent, but the combined forces of Impiltur and the Theskian

cities defeat the army of the Red Wizards 1157.

1122 DR Year of the Rose Pearls

Princess Ilmara of Impiltur founds the fortress-city of Ilmwatch to guard

against the return of the hobgoblins.

— Queen Sambral dies, and after grieving for her, Imphras I soon passes as

well. Their son and eldest child Imbrar takes the Crown of Narfell as the

ruler of Impiltur.

1127 DR Year of the Luminar Procession

King Imbrar marches into the mountains, accompanied by his Royal

Guard—and Imbrar and his men are never seen again. King Imbrar’s

younger sister Ilmara takes the Crown of Narfell and begins her reign as

Impiltur’s queen.

1167 DR Year of the Parchment

Heretical

Queen Ilmara of Impiltur takes a husband

half her age, one Rilaun of Sarshel.

1169 DR Year of the Earth

Shaking

Imphras II is declared king of Impiltur

at birth, and his father Rilaun takes up

arms to seize the throne. He is defeated,

and Ilmara rules as Queen-Regent.

1177 DR Year of the Majesty

Princess Delile Balindre renounces her loyalty to the throne of Impiltur and

declares Telflamm an independent city-state.

1185 DR Year of the Immoral Imp

Imphras II, upon reaching age sixteen, is crowned

king by Impilturan law.

1208 DR Year of the Gamine

Crown Prince Talryn of Impiltur attempts to have his father declared unfit

to rule, but his brother Prince Lashilmbrar betrays the crown prince, forcing

Talryn into exile.

1209 DR Year of the Blazing Banners

Rebaera Osterhown, second wife of King Imphras II, dies giving birth to

their fourth son Fylraun.

— Impiltur and Aglarond contribute warships to an allied fleet that defeats a

great pirate flotilla led by Urdogen the Red 1204 near the Dragonisle.

1212 DR Year of the Blazing Banners

Crown Prince Talryn returns to Impiltur upon hearing the news of the death

of his father, Imphras II. The king’s death, however, is a ruse engineered by

Prince Lashilmbrar, who succeeds Talryn as crown prince when his brother is

executed for treason and has Talryn’s name stricken from the royal records.

1225 DR Year of the Winged Worm

— King Imphras II of Impiltur dies, and the Crown of Narfell passes to

Crown Prince Lashilmbrar.

1244 DR Year of the Defi ant Keep

Prince Elphras of Impiltur raises a castle near the

Great Barrow; the castle is mysteriously abandoned soon thereafter, and he

is not heard of again.

1276 DR Year of the Crumbling Keep

Imphras III, elder son of King Lashilmbrar and Thelmara Rorntarn, is

born in Impiltur.

1280 DR Year of the Manticore

Rilimbrar, younger son of King Lashilmbrar and Thelmara Rorntarn, is

born in Impiltur.

The Rebellion of Thaum

1294 DR Year of the Deep Moon

In Impiltur, King Lashilmbrar, Queen Thelmara, and Crown Prince Imphras

III are assassinated. Prince Kuskur, elder son of Imphras II, is named regent

until King Rilimbrar comes of age. Prince Thaum, only child of Regent Kuskur

and Elthinda Balindre of Telflamm, was behind the assassinations.

1295 DR Year of the Ormserpent

Prince Thaum gathers a mercenary army and sacks the city of Sarshel. He

then marches on the Tower of Filur and seizes the throne of Impiltur. Regent

Kuskur and King Rilimbrar flee into exile. Kuskur requests aid from Queen

Ilione of Aglarond, who sends her mysterious apprentice, known only as the

Simbul 1320, to dispatch Thaum. With Thaum dead, his son Imphras

(later Imphras IV) attempts to hold the throne.

1296 DR Year of the

Black Hound

King Rilimbrar is restored to

the throne of Impiltur. Kuskur

never returns to Impiltur,

choosing instead to live out

his remaining years in selfimposed

exile in Velprintalar.

His grandson Imphras is

placed under house arrest in

the royal tower of Filur

1297 DR Year of the

Singing Skull

— King Rilimbrar of Impiltur

marries Ilbritha Eirlthaun.

1299 DR Year of the Claw

Princess Sambryl 1336, eldest daughter of King Rilimbrar of Impiltur, is

born.

1317: Great Plague of the Inner Sea

The following is the high guardian’s account of the Wandering Wyrm. This text is kept in the ecclesiastic archives of the Tower

of the Eye in Procampur.

For many a tenday, we have watched the wyrm wander westward

along the coast, toward our fair city in the misty waters

of the Eye. The cities of Impiltur are beset by plague, and a

quarantine has been declared

in neighboring Tsurlagol.

We are next, I fear,

and the thultyrl

has wisely activated the temple corps to help defend the city.

I hear that King Rilimbrar dispatched a legion of knights

mounted on pegasi to kill the wyrm, but before they could

even close with the beast, the skins of the attackers erupted

with maggots. More than half the knights returned to Lyrabar

as maggot-ridden undead horrors, stalking the citizenry they

had set out to defend. Reports from Aglarond suggest that an

entirely different plague has spread there since the wandering

wyrm visited those shores, and a third

scourge has been unleashed along the

northern coast of Chessenta.

Some blame the Red Wizards of

Thay for these disasters, but I stand

with those who believe that the Mother

of All Plagues is feeling scorned anew.

Throughout the Inner Sea region,

new adherents are flocking to the

Church of Talona in the desperate

hope they will be spared.

But the Mistress of Disease is

notoriously ill-tempered and

fickle, and she is unlikely to

protect those who join her

faith in desperation.

So today we watch and

wait, in the desperate

hope that the wyrm

will bypass fair Procampur

and afflict

our neighbors instead.

Tomorrow we gird for battle, having

pledged our lives in defense of the

elderly, the infirm, and the young—

those most likely to succumb to Talona’s

disease-ridden touch

1338 DR Year of the Wanderer

The Windblown Goat is built near the old stone markers at Bezentil. Other

folk follow, giving rise to a small town at the site.

In Impiltur, King Rilimbrar, Queen Ilbritha, Prince Verimlaun, and Crown

Prince Imphras IV die in a mysterious fire at Filur. The infant Prince Soarimbrar

the Younger, a descendant of Velimbrar, is crowned king but Imphras’s

wife Sambryl 1351 takes the throne as Queen-Regent, moving the

royal court to Lyrabar.

The Regency of the Barren Queen

1351 DR Year of the Crown

— King Soarimbrar the Younger of Impiltur and his entire retinue are slain

at the hands of unknown assassins while riding through farmlands outside

Lyrabar. He is succeeded by his infant nephew Imphras V, and Sambryl [1338,

1363] remains Queen-Regent.

The vast forested territory between the Easting Reach and Lake Ashane are the traditional tribal lands of the Nars. First encountered by Mulhorandi scouts during that empire’s northward expansion nearly 1,500 years before the beginning of Dalereckoning, the Nars did not rise to prominence until after the Orcgate Wars of –1075 DR to –1069 DR. Like other tribal peoples to the east, the Nars were hired to fight in Mulhorand’s northern armies during the Orcgate Wars, and they returned home intent on building an empire of their own. Over the course of the next two centuries, the Nars established a series of petty kingdoms, the most prominent of which were Ashanath (along the western shore of Lake Ashane) and Tharos (at the head of the Easting Reach).

In –970 DR, the reigning Nentyarch (king) of Tharos constructed the great tree-lined fortress of Dun-Tharos in the heart of the Rawlinswood. Some claim he forged a pact with a powerful demon lord, possibly Orcus, in exchange for a fell artifact that came to be known as the Crown of Narfell, while others attribute his rise to a combination of fortuitous events and personal charisma. In any event, after donning the Crown of Narfell, the Nentyarch proceeded to conquer one petty kingdom of the Nars after another, the last of which was the kingdom of Ashanath. The Nentyarch’s army literally wiped out Ashanath’s capital city of Shandaular, reducing it to little more than myth and scattered piles of rubble along the western shore of Lake Ashane. By –900 DR, the empire of Narfell stretched from the uplands of Impiltur to Ashanath, and from the eastern slopes of the Giantspire Mountains to the northern bank of the River Umber.

In the centuries that followed, Narfell’s rulers set their sights on the Priador Plateau (now the Plateau of Thay), home only to nomadic tribes of centaurs and gnolls following the retreat of Mulhorand. The centuries-long struggle for control of the Priador Plateau between Narfell and Raumathar is recounted in greater detail in the history of the Rashemi. In brief, early successes by Narfell were reversed after –623 DR because of an ill-conceived invasion of Mulhorand and a surprise attack by Raumathar’s army. In order to reverse their empire’s decline, the rulers of Narfell turned to demonic aid to learn the art of sorcery, prompted by fell whisperings of the Crown of Narfell. In –150 DR, centuries of warfare culminated in a great conflagration that consumed both empires and left all manner of summoned beings to stalk the lands the empires once ruled. In the aftermath of Narfell’s collapse, the Nars retreated into tiny enclaves, sorely beset by the demons they had unleashed.

The reestablishment of civilization along the shores of the Easting Reach had its roots in the destruction of Jhaamdath in –255 DR (further detailed in the history of the Chondathans). A vast tide of Chondathan settlers sailed across the Sea of Fallen Stars to settle the lands that lay between the Dragon Reach and the Easting Reach. These early settlers founded such cities as Proeskampalar (later Procampur) in –153 DR, Lyrabar in –118 DR, and Chessagol (later Tsurlagol) in –72 DR. From Lyrabar, settlers advanced up the western coast of the Easting Reach into the uplands of Impiltur. Within fifty years of the settlement of Lyrabar, the first king of Impiltur had been crowned. Impiltur, led by the aggressive and newly enthroned Mirandor Dynasty, moved quickly to claim the vacant territory of fallen Narfell.

As Impiltur’s population continued to expand, scattered tribes of Nars and migrant Sossrims from the southern tip of the Great Glacier were either assimilated into the settler population or driven north into the lands they hold today. With the backing of Impiltur’s royal family, lesser nobles not in line to inherit land of their own were encouraged to settle new lands. Successive waves of Impilturan emigration led directly or indirectly to the settlement of the Forest Kingdom of Cormyr in 1 DR, Altumbel in 163 DR, the city of Milvarune in 535 DR, and the Vast (after the fall of Rodilar, the dwarven Realm of Glimmering Swords) in 649 DR. Impiltur’s eastward expansion was not without cost, for the settlers who blazed a trail through the Great Dale inadvertently awakened a host of slumbering evils. Long-buried demons, half-fiends, and tieflings began to stalk the borderlands of Impiltur, and in 726 DR unleashed their waiting armies in a campaign that brought proud Impiltur to its knees. Many citizens of Impiltur fled the region, taking with them stories of horror and terror that moved many to action.

Over the next few years, noble knights from as far away as Amn and Calimshan heeded the call of the Triad Crusade proclaimed by the churches of Tyr, Torm, and Ilmater. The Crusade lasted two years before the last demon army, led by the balor Ndulu, was overwhelmed in a great battle at a site known as the Citadel of Conjurers. The battle turned in favor of the Triad’s followers after the paladin Sarshel entered the Citadel and shattered the Crown of Narfell within. Once Orcus’ power over the artifact was broken, the demon-led army was forced to retreat and the number of demons in the region finally began to decline. The heroic Sarshel was crowned king of Impiltur. In the centuries that followed, Impiltur grew wealthy, ruled by a series of benevolent kings and protected from the buried horrors of the Demonlands by orders of fearless paladins. Settlement of the surrounding regions continued, and Impilturan settlers played a role in the founding of Aglarond in 756 DR and Telflamm in 926 DR (followed by the other cities of the Golden Way).

Impiltur’s golden age came to an end after a plague decimated the royal house in 924 DR. The ensuing struggle between the various noble houses of Impiltur plunged the kingdom into civil war and eventually reduced the once-great land to a handful of squabbling city-states. The Year of Spreading Spring (1038 DR) brought great changes to the Easting Reach. The Great Glacier began to retreat, uncovering the lands of what is today Vaasa, Damara, and northern Narfell. The glacier’s retreat prompted a vast northward migration from Impiltur, the Great Dale, Thesk, and Aglarond into the promised land of Damara (“Earth Under Ice” in the local dialect). It is from the time of this migration that scholars began to view the humans of the Easting Reach as a distinct ethnic group. Damara became a kingdom in 1075 DR, with the founding of Heliogabulus by a Sembian noble named Feldrin Bloodfeathers.

In the Year of the Dawndance (1095 DR), Imphras Heltharn, War-Captain of Lyrabar, united the city-states of Lyrabar, Hlammach, Dilpur, and Sarshel, the wood elves of the Grey Forest, and the shield dwarves of the Earthfast Mountains to face the menace of the hobgoblin hordes advancing from the Giantspire Mountains, from where they had only raided sporadically before. After a terrible struggle, the combined host of Imphras was driven back to the shores of Bluefang Water. There, with the aid of Soargar, Mage Royal of Old Impiltur and Archmage of Lyrabar; his apprentice, the young sorceress Sambral; and the visiting archmage, Velgarbrin of Baldur’s Gate, the folk of Impiltur routed the hobgoblin horde. Soargar then breathed his last, but only after telling Imphras of the lost Crown of Narfell and the cache of magic blades contained within his tower. In the Year of the Gleaming Crown (1097 DR), after two years of diplomacy between the cities, the people of now-reunited Impiltur crowned Imphras as king, ending the era known as the Kingless Years (926–1097 DR). King Imphras I raised a small tower at Filur, from which he ruled, and, in time, he wed Sambral and had two children.

Queen Sambral died in the Year of the Rose Pearls (1122 DR), and, after grieving for her, Imphras I soon passed as well. Their son and eldest child Imbrar took the crown. King Imbrar’s younger sister Ilmara became a sorceress under Mhilra of Milvarune and found the Scrying Stones of Myth Drannor. Princess Ilmara then founded Ilmwatch, to guard against the return of the hobgoblins. In the Year of the Luminar Procession (1127 DR), Ilmara saw the hobgoblins stirring in one of the Scrying Stones, so King Imbrar marched into the mountains, accompanied by his Royal Guard, who bore the blades that were collectively known as Soargar’s Legacy. Imbrar and his men were never seen again, but neither were the hobgoblins—so Ilmara sorrowfully took up the Crown of Narfell and reigned as Impiltur’s queen.

In the Year of the Parchment Heretical (1167 DR), Ilmara finally took a husband half her age, one Rilaun of Sarshel. Rilaun became sorely wroth when Ilmara named their first son, Imphras II, king upon his birth in the Year of the Earth Shaking (1169 DR), as was the law. Rilaun took up arms to seize the crown, but he was murdered before he could do so. Queen Ilmara continued to rule as regent until the Year of the Immoral Imp (1185 DR), when Imphras II was crowned king after he reached sixteen years of age, again according to Impilturan law. In time, King Imphras II wed Lasheela of Dilpur, and they had two sons: Talryn (born in 1188 DR) and Lashilmbrar (born in 1190 DR). After years of illness, Lasheela died of a wasting disease in the Year of Private Tears (1204 DR), and Imphras II married his longtime mistress Rebaera Osterhown within months of his first wife’s death. She bore him three sons—Kuskur (born in 1205 DR), Velimbrar and Elphras (identical twins born in 1207 DR)—before dying giving birth to a fourth son, Fylraun (born in 1209).

In the months following his marriage to Rebaera, Imphras II became a wanderwit, leaving the day-to-day rule of Impiltur to his unscrupulous court advisors. In the Year of the Gamine (1208 DR), Crown Prince Talryn attempted to have his father declared unfit to rule, but his brother, Prince Lashilmbrar, who had allied himself with key members of the royal court, secretly betrayed him. Although forced to flee into exile, Talryn retained the title of Crown Prince, in accordance with Impilturan law. The next year, Lashilmbrar and his allies orchestrated Impiltur’s involvement in the destruction of Urdogen’s pirates, nominally to eliminate the threat to Impiltur’s merchant fleet. Once again Talryn escaped his brother’s treacherous hand through chance, when his ship was blown off course before its expected rendezvous with Urdogen’s fleet. Three years later, Talryn learned of his father’s death from a captured Impilturan merchant and returned to Impiltur in expected triumph. In truth, the death of Imphras II was a ruse secretly engineered by Lashilmbrar and his allies, and the “Pirate Prince” was executed by his father’s royal guard within moments of disembarking at Lyrabar’s docks and proclaiming himself king. Lashilmbrar then had his father strike Talryn’s name from the royal records and had himself named crown prince.

King Imphras II died in the Year of the Winged Worm (1225 DR), and the Crown of Narfell passed to his eldest living son, Crown Prince Lashilmbrar. As king, Lashilmbrar long resisted fathering rivals to his rule, but he eventually married Thelmara Rorntarn, who bore him two sons, Imphras III (born in 1276 DR) and Rilimbrar (1280 DR). Prince Kuskur married Elthinda Balindre of Telflamm, daughter of that city-state’s merchant prince (equivalent to a hierarch or grand prince), and she bore him one son, Thaum. Prince Velimbrar married Almarean Dintersan, and she bore him four daughters and then a son named Soarimbrar. His twin, Prince Elphras, never married, and vanished in the Year of the Defiant Keep (1244 DR) after raising a castle near the Great Barrow. Prince Fylraun, the youngest son of King Imphras II, married Marea Forgecrown, who gave him two daughters and a son, also named Elphras.

In the Year of the Deep Moon (1294 DR), the adventurer-prince Thaum plotted to advance his claim on Impiltur’s crown. He secretly plotted to have King Lashilmbrar, Queen Thelmara, and Crown Prince Imphras III assassinated. Although Prince Rilimbrar was also a target, he was the only one to escape his cousin’s trap. Rilimbrar’s survival foiled Thaum’s plot to place his father, Prince Kuskur, on the throne, but it did have the effect of elevating Rilimbrar to the title of king and Kuskur to the title of crown prince (at least temporarily). As unaware of his son’s involvement as everyone else was, Crown Prince Kuskur agreed to return to Impiltur and serve as regent until Prince Rilimbrar came of age. Since Rilimbrar was likely to have sons of his own, there was little chance that Thaum would ever inherit the crown.

With his father away and his doddering maternal grandfather on the throne of Telflamm, it was a simple matter for Prince Thaum to empty much of Telflamm’s treasury to hire an army of mercenaries. With his army and his only child, Imphras, in tow, Thaum sailed across the Easting Reach and sacked the city of Sarshel with complete surprise. Thaum and his mercenaries then marched on the Tower of Filur and seized the throne of Impiltur. Regent Kuskur and King Rilimbrar fled into hasty exile, but without access to Impiltur’s treasury, they were unable to muster much of a fighting force to reclaim the throne. Instead, Kuskur turned to Queen Ilione of Aglarond and requested her aid. Ilione sent her mysterious apprentice, known only as the Simbul, to dispatch Thaum with magic, a mission she accomplished in short order.

With Thaum dead, his army of mercenaries melted away. Efforts by Thaum’s son Imphras (later Imphras IV) to hold the throne himself came to naught, and King Rilimbrar was restored to the throne in the Year of the Black Hound (1296 DR). Crown Prince Kuskur never returned to Impiltur, choosing instead to live out his remaining few years in self-imposed exile in Velprintalar. His grandson Imphras was placed under house arrest in the royal tower at Filur, remaining there even after he became Crown Prince Imphras IV.

King Rilimbrar wed Ilbritha Eirlthaun in the Year of the Singing Skull (1297 DR), but she bore him only daughters, who could not legally inherit the crown. The eldest of the daughters, Princess Sambryl (born in 1299 DR), grew into a skilled wizard like her great-great-great-grandmother and near-namesake, the wife of King Imphras I. As King Rilimbrar grew old in the late 1330s DR, the members of his court grew nervous. The honorable king seemed unlikely to have a male heir, and the traitorous Imphras IV, great-great-grandson of Imphras I, stood next in line for the throne, despite pleas to have him summarily executed; according to Impilturan law, unless no male heirs exist, a woman is not allowed to rule except as regent, and then only if she is the reigning queen. In order to remedy this situation, King Rilimbrar had his daughter, Princess Sambryl, wed her second cousin, the crown prince, in the Year of the Highmantle (1336 DR), although the marriage was never consummated. He then appointed the twelve living male heirs of the fourth and sixth sons of Imphras II as a ruling council, effective upon his death and revocable only after Sambryl was no longer queen, and invested the Lords of Imphras II with the collective authority to oversee the realm in the name of the crown. The aging king then decreed that the Lords could select replacements from the citizenry of Impiltur with the approval of the monarch (a process that has occurred four times since the founding of the Lords).

In the Year of the Wanderer (1338 DR), King Rilimbrar passed away, but not in the fashion long expected. A mysterious fire destroyed the royal tower at Filur, killing the king, the queen, Prince Verimlaun (the son of Soarimbrar the Elder), and then-Crown Prince Imphras IV. When it was determined that the crown prince died after the king, Sambryl became queen of Impiltur and moved the royal court to Lyrabar. However, since Imphras IV was never crowned, he is considered to have never ruled. As queen, Sambryl could not rule, but she could serve as regent for the next living male in line for the throne, if he were not of age. Because the next in line was the infant Prince Soarimbrar the Younger, the eldest child of the late Prince Verimlaun, Sambryl became the reluctant regent.

Under the regency of Queen Sambryl, King Soarimbrar the Younger never formally acceded to the throne, for he was murdered just days short of his coronation at the hands of unknown assassins in the Year of the Bow (1354 DR). Next in line is his infant nephew, current King Imphras V.

As a result of all this royal turmoil, Impiltur has rarely acted outside its borders in the last century. The ever-present threats posed by the legacies of Narfell, coupled with the nigh-constant intrigue surrounding the throne, have nearly paralyzed the realm. Only the end of the regency and the commencement of a new reign promises to restore Impiltur to its full potential—a prospect that might well inspire thoughts of another regicide in some quarters (within and beyond the borders of the realm).