History of Turmish

The history of Turmish dated back thousands of years before the Era of Upheaval, from the fall of ancient Imaskar, to the great Jhaamdath empire,^[1] to the formation of the far-reaching Emerald Enclave.^[2] The region endured great plagues,^[3] many years of war,^[4][5] and even a supernatural disaster that saw many of its cities fall to near-ruin,^[6] before its revival.^[7]

Prehistory[]

The Turami people hailed from far to the east of their future homeland, having their ancestral lands around the Alamber Sea^[8] and in the foothills of the Akanal.^[9][1] Their tribes subsisted by hunting and gathering^[1] and their pantheon of gods, if any, is unknown.^[8]

Eventually, the Turami tribes of the Akanal were incorporated into the empire of Jhaamdath during its eastward expansion after −5005 DR,^[1] when it began to settle colonies all around the Vilhon Reach and beyond.^[10] The Akanal Turami tribes were absorbed as an underclass of field hands and manual laborers; slavery was forbidden in the empire, at least.^[1] They dwelled within the Eastern Province of Thirty Anvils, while the land that would become Turmish was the Northern Province of Granite Grates circa −4000 DR.^[9]

Then, after the fall of Imaskar in −2488 DR, their former slaves the Mulan pushed westward, settling around the Alamber Sea and establishing the nation of Unther, and displaced the native Turami there. Some of these Turami migrated westward along the southern coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars and settled in the fertile coastal basin^[11][8][1] of the Granite Grates.^[9]

Jhaamdath was ultimately destroyed by the elves of Nikerymath in the Year of Furious Waves, −255 DR,^[12]

In the Year of the Striking Lance, −247 DR, Tyr, god of justice and war, emerged from a portal at Beansidhe Hill near what would later be Alaghôn in Turmish. He was in command of an army of two hundred celestial archons. In a highly targeted campaign known as the Procession of Justice, Tyr's host crossed the Vilhon Reach to pacify the remnants of Jhaamdath.^[13][14]

The northern coast of what became Turmish was once home to Scarbarla, a separate country of fisherfolk and pirates. They expanded their borders only slowly, preferring to focus on the sea and its bounties. When Scarbarla tried to expand inland, it was met with raids from angry satyrs that erupted into full-scale war, with concurrent attacks from vengeful victims of their piracy and several years of harsh winters, which together destroyed the nation. The last settlement was abandoned in the mid–9^th century DR.^[15]

Founding[]

First recorded in a trader's journal,^[16] the earliest known settlement in the Vilhon Reach, the port city of Alaghôn was founded in Year of Patriots, −37 DR. By that time, it was a flourishing port and became a major trading hub of the Sea of Fallen Stars.^{[16][17][5][18][19][6][note 1]} Seafarers on their way to southern lands, nomadic tribes from the Shining Plains, and dwarven gold from the Orsraun Mountains converged upon the young city to exchange wares.^[16][20] The population grew along these inland trade routes, with many villages forming in the land that would later become Turmish. The success of Alaghôn inspired other trade centers to be established within the Vilhon Reach, first Iljak and then Hlondeth in the Year of Patriots, −37 DR, and others, thus opening trade with the Chondalwood elves and later south Faerûn. The Turmway was built to link Alaghôn and Hlondeth,^[16][21] which traded goods to and from southern Turmish.^[22]

But the burgeoning population in the Reach became a problem. In the Year of Clinging Death, 75 DR, the first great plague struck Turmish, along with the wider Vilhon Reach, Westgate, Calimshan, Chessenta, the cities on the Lake of Steam, and the Shaar.^{[16][23][24][25]} The origins of the plague were unknown, but everyone had a theory—priests called it divine retribution for people's love of gold, fisherman thought the water was bad, and sages theorized that vermin such as rats carried disease.^[16] Over the following decade, more than half the population of the Vilhon Reach and Westgate, including Westgate's king Kergaard Twinblade, perished.^[24][16] In Alaghôn, the number of dead was so great that many were buried in mass graves.^[20] In order for humanity to survive in the Reach, changes in practice were demanded, and instituted. Rubbish and waste were removed from the cities. Druids of Eldath played an important role in reducing the severity of the "clinging death" by cleaning the water supply in cities in the Vilhon,^[16] and in Westgate a priest of Ilmater led efforts to combat the plague and was made king in gratitude.^[24] After the plague subsided, the peoples of the Reach happily returned to trade as usual,^[16] but many wars followed shortly thereafter, both among nations and with pirates.^[20]

Dempster Turmish and the War with Hlondeth[]

By 125 DR, with the founding of Ormath in the Shining Plains, Hlondeth grew to rival Alaghôn, which had once helped to create it.^[26]

In the Year of Thirteen Prides Lost, 132 DR, a young nobleman of Alaghôn and mercenary commander named Dempster Turmish declared himself mayor of Alaghôn. This precipitated a brief but bloody civil war between himself and two other Alaghôn nobles that Dempster's mercenaries swiftly won for him. Now the undisputed ruler, Dempster officially declared the nation of Turmish and expanded the lands that he controlled, conquering all of the towns and villages that surrounded his city for thirteen years, forging a strong confederation of militant and mercantile city-states and claiming the territory of latter-day Turmish. Eventually, Turmish's aggressive expansion had brought it to the lowlands outside of Hlondeth and brought the two nations to war.^{[26][27][17][18][28]} Dempster drove his army down the Turmway, and laid siege to Hlondeth in the Year of the Pirates' Port, 145 DR.^{[29][17][21][28]} He also sent a small force up Lilit Pass to seize the village of Daroush without a fight. But Gestin, warlord of Hlondeth, was prepared. Confident of surviving a siege if Churning Bay could be kept open, and unwilling to lose lives in a pointless battle, Gestin had contacted many of the pirate captains of the Inner Sea, telling them the Alaghôn navy was sailing for Hlondeth and offering safe harbor if they came to his aid. They did, with over sixty pirate ships showing up. The allied pirates and Hlondeth ships attacked Alaghôn's navy in the narrow Farshore Strait, and won, but at the cost of the fleet itself. Historians theorized Gestin expected to lose his fleet in any engagement with Dempster's, and so secured the pirates' aid in order to sacrifice it.^[29][21] Yet the action gave Hlondeth a chance to smuggle in supplies and withstand the siege.^[29][21][28] After over a month, having been unable to block the port and neglected to bring his siege engines, Dempster gave up and took his army back to Alaghôn, while Gestin's star rose higher. It was rumored that one of Dempster's ships, The Starcross, had carried gold to establish a treasury in conquered Hlondeth; many would try to recover it in the years after.^[29]

The following year, Dempster once again besieged Hlondeth. This time, the city's walls proved too high and the invoker Riliton Mandleweave unleashed a barrage of devastating magic on the Turmishan forces. The mercenary Company of the Howling Harpoon then struck their flank, destroying siege engines, supplies, and food. This broke the siege and defeated Dempster's army.^{[30][17][21][28]}

Planning a third assault on Hlondeth, Dempster Turmish rebuilt his navy. However, just as the army mustered and readied to match, Dempster died peacefully in his sleep in the Year of the Lost Library, 150 DR and his wife Florentine took over from him. Florentine was far more interested in mercantile ventures than continued expansion and ordered a halt to the wars of conquest and sued for peace.^{[30][17][18][21][31]} In time, future rulers of Turmish would lose interest in Hlondeth, at least militarily, as they found their nation stronger with the other city as a trading partner, friend, and ally, allowing them to focus on issues of raiders and pirates.^[22]

But Florentine Turmish was assassinated after only four years in power, leading to a leadership contest between the merchant houses and the noble families that lasted 116 years.^[30][17][18] There were no strong leaders in this time, and political power flowed from one contender to the next, with none able to establish effective control. Regardless, they never let this interfere with business, and Turmish stayed a prosperous commercial power. The villages flourished and continued to pay their taxes to whoever was in power at the time.^[30][18][21] This was part of a period known as the Calmwaters in Vilhon Reach history.^[30][21]

The humans of Turmish only became aware of the dwarves in the neighboring Alaoreum Mountains after their great battle against the red dragon named Stormcrossing in the Year of the Raised Banner, 227 DR,^[30][32] when the smoke of the burning dwarven city of Deepgate was sighted from Swordslake Creek.^[30]

War with Chondath[]

The eruption of Mount Ugruth in the Year of the Speaking Mountain, 257 DR led Hlondeth to decline and be seized, not by Turmish but by a resurgent nation of Chondath from across the Reach, ruled by the Illistine family.^[33]

When Laviar Illistine of Chondath started assembling forces in Hlondeth in the Year of the Unheeded Warning, 270 DR, as a prelude to conquering Turmish, it united the country's merchant houses behind Alesam Mischwin. As the Chondathan forces marched north, the Turmishan forces were waiting. They moved back to Xorhun, where they stood between the Chondathans and the Turmishan fields. The conflict became a war of attrition, with both sides spending big to maintain their armies, though Chondathan flinched first, owing to its earlier loss of woodcutting in the Chondalwood. The war, known as the Stalemate, ended in one as a result of changing alliances and internecine fighting and both sides being unable to get an advantage.^{[4][17][22][5][32]} Circa 278 DR, population pressures and food shortages prompted both Chondath and Turmish to export their armies to other lands, thus beginning the mercenary trade.^[4]

Chondath would try to take Turmish on twice more over the next few decades, failing both times. Seeing it was futile, Alexander Illistine instead proposed a mock war at Southsands every Shieldmeet between Turmish and Chondath, the winner of which would gain a reward of slaves, resources, and trading privileges, while ensuring that the two nations would remain at peace and minimize losses.^[34] The first of these was fought in the Year of the Late Sun, 300 DR, and would continue into at least the mid-to-late 1300s DR. That same year, the Academia Vilhonus in Arrabar, Chondath, was founded and invented the custom of marking dots on one's forehead to indicate learning, which Turmish would adopt.^[34][35] The Free Cities of Amah, Nleeth, and Reth were established as training centers for the mock wars in the Year of the Bright Plumage, 320 DR; Nleeth was the home base for Turmish.^[34][36]

Disasters & Druids[]

Some time in the early 4^th century DR, a raiding dragon obliterated a grand temple to Selûne that stood in the woods between the Alaoreum and Aphrunn Mountains, and slew the priesthood with it. Nevertheless, the magical Ghost Swords the priests had created to protect Turmish remained, whether through their magical might, the work of surviving priests through the ages, or the will of the Moonmother herself. These Ghost Swords would give aid to Turmishans and inspire the creation of the Ghost Swords band of defenders for over a thousand years or more.^[37]

In the Year of the Dancing Piper, 352 DR, a fire swept through Alaghôn's shipyards and granaries, thus crippling Turmish's navy and destroying its food stores, causing a rise in piracy and widespread famine. Turmish's noble houses, rather than working to help solve the issue, bickered with each other over who was liable for the damage. It therefore took over a decade to repair the damage.^[34][17] The Year of the Thoughtful Man, 374 DR saw the establishment of the House of Silvanus on the Isle of Ilighôn where powerful druids kept close watch on the ships traveling off the coast of Turmish.^[34]

Circa 400 DR, small bands of goblins and orcs were making incursions into Turmish and establishing territories; Turmish was kept so busy fighting it was unable to send aid to the cities of Chondathian and Chauncelgaunt in later Sembia when they called.^[3][17] This culminated in the War of 512 when the Candlekairn orc clan of the Orsraun Mountains destroyed three Turmishan cities—Dauntshield, Marikor, and Shaus—and carried off all of their accumulated wealth before they were routed in late summer of the Year of the Wyvernfall, 512 DR while trying to fortify Dauntshield.^[17][3][38] When Mount Andrus erupted five years later, the Candlekairn orcs were devastated and all hope of recovering their stolen wealth was lost, with it buried beneath ash. ^[3][17]

In the Year of the Unmasked Traitor, 522 DR, a delegation of druids from Gulthmere Forest and thirty elves from Xorhun appealed to Arton Githsberry, the then ruler of Turmish, to stop logging in the forest in order to let the trees grow back. Arton appeased them with a show of consideration in an open forum, but had no intention to stop collecting timber and made no promises and the debate went on for more than five years.^[3] But the druids, now a formal organization known as the Emerald Enclave, continued to pressure Turmish, becoming quite the thorn in Turmish's side by the Year of the Dead, 552 DR.^[17]

Wizards & Warlords[]

In the Year of the Druid's Wrath, 717 DR, the Emerald Enclave set their sights on Turmish, then the most powerful realm in the Reach. With surgical strikes, they attacked logging camps, cities that dumped refuse in rivers, and mages that polluted the waterways with their magical byproducts.^[39] The rulers of Turmish, now a governing conclave of wizards calling themselves the Windlass, decided that they had enough of the druids and launched an attack^[2][17][40] on their sanctuary in Cedarsproke. But as they crossed the Orsraun Mountains, they were counter-attacked and routed by the druids and their giant allies. When they sent ships to Ilighôn, water elementals rammed them into the reef. Afterward, most of the wizards responsible were executed. The Windlass tried again in the Year of the Prisoner Unfettered, 724 DR, with the last two wizards leading an attack on Ilighôn. With over 500 soldiers, they outnumbered the druids 25-to-1. But to their dismay, they found their magic did not work there, while the druids remained as mighty as ever and the last of the Windlass were slain. They were replaced by Alaghôn's merchant houses. The Emerald Enclave had established itself as a force to be reckoned with.^{[2][39][17][40]}

The Year of the Watching Helm, 992 DR, saw the merchant houses of Turmish lose power to a series of warlords, after the military commander Lord Saros got the army on his side. He was a strongman who argued Turmish needed to be ruled by a man who "knows what this country needs", which, naturally, was him. Lord Saros went to work rebuilding Turmish's navy, establishing the nation as among the strongest in the Reach and defender of the waterways, but also opening ports in Hlath and Reth and reopening relations with Hlondeth.^[41][42][43] Their naval strength saw them through the Rage of Dragons in the Year of the Dracorage, 1018 DR, quite safely, as goods could be easily transported over sea without running into dragons.^[41][42]

With this security, Turmish flourished and the population swelled, having grown over 200% by the mid–12^th century DR.^[44][42] Its rulers negotiated firmly with the Emerald Enclave but avoided conflict, and so secured the druid's magical aid in protecting their cities from outbreaks of disease.^[44] The mage Tauthryn the Mad gained notoriety breeding monsters in Turmish until adventurers killed him for it. The creatures remained and many more druids came to Turmish to deal with them.^[15] Circa 1150 DR, the Harpers uncovered a secret slave-trafficking operation passing along the coast of Turmish. To smash it, they and a mercenary army fought with the drow forces of Queen Nathglaryst of Undraeth and the Magelords of Mintar, but the spell-battle left the Turmishan coast devastated.^[45][46]

The peace ended in the Year of the Toppled Tree, 1220 DR, when the warlord Sjorn Sendreth initiated a war against the dwarves of Alaoreum at Ironfang Deep. He coveted the dwarves' gold and weapons, but it was to be a protracted, two-decade-long war that diminished Turmish's wealth to an unexpected level.^{[44][47][42][48]} Ultimately, the dwarves themselves dropped the mountain on Ironfang Deep, cutting themselves off and effectively ending the war.^[44][49]

The Time of the Wyrm[]

Since the late 1230s DR, Sendreth dispatched "treasure parties" to bring back fortunes that could replenish the country's coffers. Ostensibly, they were to recover the loot taken by the Candlekairn orcs and lost in the Orsraun Mountains centuries earlier. Although these expeditions each year were costly, they usually brought back a profit.^[50][42]

But the last group brought back far more, and cost far more, than they could ever have predicted. One such group of treasure hunters, the Company of the Sabred Tooth stumbled noisily into the lair of the ancient blue dragon Anaglathos in the Year of the Yellow Rose, 1242 DR. Rather than blast them, Anaglathos chose to stay concealed and even let them steal his hoard. The adventurers, led by the ranger Forier with his wolf Emerald at his side, returned through Turmish and to Alaghôn with undreamt-of riches. Lord Sendreth instantly granted them an audience and wanted a full accounting of the treasure. Instead, the wolf Emerald transformed into Anaglathos, who had waited in disguise the entire time. He swiftly slew Sendreth and charmed the Sabred Tooth adventurers into serving him. At his bidding, they led him around the cities and towns of Turmish to charm or intimidate local leaders into obeying the dragon. Thus, Anaglathos claimed Turmish for himself in a coup, and charmed or, more often, killed all who opposed him.^{[51][50][42][52][18][53][49][note 2]}

The next five years were known as the Time of the Wyrm in Turmishan histories,^[51][50][42] a period of terrible decline that almost ruined the realm.^[18] While Anaglathos made a new lair in Alaghôn and gathered his hoard there, trade deteriorated drastically. And with the people treated as not much more than toys or food by the dragon, the Turmishans suffered terribly and were soon ready to revolt.^[50]

Finally, the people rose in rebellion on the so-called Night of Redemption in Year of the Purple Basilisk, 1247 DR. While they could not slay the dragon, they caught its collaborators and burned them at the stake. Finally, on a hot summer's day, a young paladin by the name of Corwin Freas led a group of adventurers in a desperate battle against Anaglathos himself. Corwin slew the dragon by his own hand. He was then acclaimed Turmish's king by a grateful populace.^{[51][50][42][52][18][49]}

However, Corwin was not comfortable with ruling and, after a reign of only one year, Lord Freas dissolved his own monarchy and established a council of free citizens called the Assembly of Stars to rule Turmish instead in Year of the Cockatrice, 1248 DR.^{[50][42][18][49]}

While still considered a national hero, Corwin lived a quiet and sheltered life in retirement in Alaghôn for six years.^[50][42] In the Year of Silent Steel, 1254 DR there was a coup attempt in Turmish, and as part of the coup, Corwin was assassinated.^{[50][42][18][49]} The assassins were suspected to be members of the Cult of the Dragon.^[49] Regardless, the coup was unsuccessful and the republic endured.^[18]

Modern History[]

14^th Century[]

When the Plague of Dragons emerged in the Year of the Wandering Wyrm, 1317 DR, it arrived first at Alaghôn. However, rather than reacting with fear and shunning, authorities and priests responded with reasoned research to limit its spread and develop a cure. They stopped it quickly and with relatively few deaths, until it was eradicated within the Vilhon Reach by 1323 DR.^[54][42] This victory was seen as proof that Turmish had grown to become a mature democratic nation that was peaceful, safe, and content.^[42]

Circa 1353 DR, the then Marcrown of Turmish hired bounty hunters to find the notorious thief Tasso. Although he disappeared, again, the bounty hunters gave his spellbook, Tasso's Arcanabula, to the Marcrowne. It was stolen from the palace vaults shortly after, but not before the Court Wizard Sleem recorded its contents.^{[55][56][note 3]}

In the 1350s DR, the arcanadaemon Yrkhetep sought to claim souls to serve him and power his Infinity Train, and induced evil creatures to go to war all around the world, especially in Turmish and Chondath.^[57][58][59] This caused chaos and several significant battles.^[59] Early in the conflict, a band of adventurers attacked the nest of the kobold Scything Claw tribe, killing many and looting their treasures and a religious idol, unwittingly breaking a long-standing truce between the Scything Claw and the town of Gildenglade. Outraged, the gnome townsfolk ordered them to return the treasures in hopes of salvaging the peace. It was too little, too late, and Greshlyrr, chief of the Scything Claw, led the remaining kobolds in an attack on Gildenglade that the townsfolk and adventurers were forced to repel.^[60] Meanwhile, for three years, the self-styled King Hetep of Muktar waged war in the southern hills of Turmish, and attacked the petty kingdom of Golconda, who employed adventurers in its defense.^[61] Eventually, leaders of Turmish and Chondath learned of Yrkhetep's involvement and sent adventurers to destroy the infinity train. Without the fiend's malign influence, peace returned to both lands.^[58] Turmish, being so spread out, suffered few losses, yet was too distracted to act against emboldened pirates in the years after.^[62]

During the Time of Troubles in the Year of Shadows, 1358 DR, a significant temple to Loviatar in Turmish was destroyed.^[63]

In the 1360s DR, the so-called Cinnamon Dragon was sighted in various places around Turmish. Meanwhile, the Turmishan mage Darbrent Amclara was hunted by Red Wizards after destroying one of their number and destroying their citadel with a novel new spell. Some Red Wizards appeared deep in Turmish to attack mages they mistook for Darbrent. Via a message on a swift merchant caravel to Thay, the Assembly of Stars issued a rebuke to the Red Wizards, both disavowing Darbrent and warning against any further attacks, declaring they would be met with, in their words, "might of magic that is certain to surprise even the most arrogant Red Wizard." Though the Thayans did not (publicly) reply, observers were stunned by the Turmishans' temerity and feared the Red Wizards would ruin the country, but others supposed the Turmishans had some plan or trap in mind. In other news, there were stories in Sembia of a Turmishan merchant selling a perfume that was actually a deadly poison, killing soon after contact with the skin, though others claimed it turned the skin tough enough to deflect blades. Groups working on behalf of curious Sembian mages hired adventurers to find and acquire this a load of perfume, or even kidnap the merchant behind it.^[64]

In the Year of the Tankard, 1370 DR, during the Twelfth Serôs War, the coast of Turmish was also subject to increased attacks from koalinth and ixitxachitls. Despite this, groups in Turmish hurried to seize land in the Whamite Isles, but monsters and rocks destroyed their ships and crews, so they abandoned the effort and avoided the islands entirely.^[65] Later, the terrible mohrg Borran Klosk escaped his centuries-long captivity beneath the Temple of the Trembling Flower in Alaghôn, having been released by unwitting street urchin at the direction of Malar. Borran Klosk set about trying to activate an artifact known as Taraketh's Hive to devastate Turmish's ecology for centuries to come, and summoned an army of drowned ones from the Whamite Isles to overrun Alaghôn. Borran Klosk was defeated by Haarn Brightoak of the Emerald Enclave.^[66][67]

15^th Century[]

The Spellplague of the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR, changed Turmish's fortunes for the worse, as the Sea of Fallen Stars drained away, leaving Alaghôn's port miles from the new shoreline. The merchant fleet deteriorated and even a century later had not recovered and the once trade-reliant nation struggled. Turmishans became increasingly xenophobic^[6] as bandit raids from Erlkazar terrorized them and they were cut off from their neighbors.^[68] What's more, the island of Ilighôn became part of the mainland, putting the Emerald Enclave on Turmish's doorstep. Nonthal overtook Alaghôn as Turmish's most prosperous city as the capital became increasingly dilapidated, while Sapra became the nation's only port. To make matters worse, in the Year of Thundering Hosts, 1423 DR, the city of Gildenglade was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Kolimnis, killing almost all its 50,000 inhabitants.^[6]

After the Second Sundering in the 1480s DR and the concurrent Great Rain, many crops failed in Turmish and famine was widely felt. The Emerald Enclave and chosen of Lathander, Stedd Whitehorn, performed a great ritual that hastened the rains, until the Sea of Fallen Stars rose to water levels not seen since before the Spellplague, and magically restored the farmlands and crops of the country. Turmish's great cities were once again connected to the Inner Sea and its trading opportunities. This, along with a great agricultural boom aided by the Emerald Enclave, brought an upturn in the country's fortunes by 1489 DR.^[69][7]

Appendix[]

Notes[]

References[]