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Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Looks like i shall be reading Star of Cursrah then.

I keep noting that in the alqadim sourcebooks it refers to things a millennia ago, ie the time of giants, and when the haunted lands were a lush jungle. However, i'm going to treat that kind of statement as a "before recorded history", otherwise Zakhara would appear to spring up out of thin air 1000 years ago.

I'm not thinking of any large scale migration. I have noted that the far east of the ruined kingdoms has a significant foreign minority, so i'm wondering if people get to Zakhara overland through that tiny gap by heading east around the land of the Yak men and so skirt the far eastern coastline of Zakhara, coming in through the RUined Kingdoms. That would be where Untherites met Zakharans.

Lots of ancient stories in Al Qadim sourcebooks which i like, just came across a bit about the first Sha'ir in the Book of Artifacts. I could probably date that to around the time Calim and Memnon fled to Calimshan.

THen we have a time of necromancers in the RUined Kingdoms.

There is a locathah civilisation that was raised by an air focused civilisation.

I even read about the Jacinth Sea which was desertified by the impact of a falling star. Now if i remember correctly there is a myth about the Titans all leaving Faerun when they followed a falling star. Most assume that refers to the Sea of Fallen Stars, but what if its a Zakharan myth and explains the fall of the giant civilisations long ago

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Originally posted by sleyvas

On the giants, if you look at the giants of Zakhara.... they're VERY different. I wouldn't relate them to Annam at all. Many of them might be offspring by another Othea like being. It might even be interesting if some of them are the result of hag and giant breeding from giants and hags that come here from faerie.

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Originally posted by Gary Dallison

I
I'm noticing a few hints at creator races influences in Zakhara. We have Ophidia who might as well put a sarrukh or yuanti sign above her head. The locathah civilisation off the south coast of the ruined kingdoms screams batrachi. Not seeing any aearee yet though.

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Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Randomly looking at this again, i have found no less than 3 passages hinting that a meteor struck Zakhara long ago.

One of them even says an arrogant giant was punished by the gods who sent a moon sized boulder into the High Desert (then an ocean) and created the Pit of Ghuls (and presumably the High Desert).

There is another passage about gods and genies fighting over something until the sky filled with fire.

Then there is a gigantic magnetic lodestone at the bottom of the Crowded Sea.


Thats good enough for me to conclude that long, long ago a meteor struck Zakhara. I'm going to tie it into the Titans of Toril and use that as the explanation for why they are no longer around (rather than that event playing out in Faerun). If the Winter Palace of Ostoria is in Hartsvale, why not have the Summer Palace in Zakhara. The giants of Ostoria had Qorrashi genies serving them up north so why not a connection with Zakhara.

The titans ruled over the genies and other giants. At some point the genies rebel. A big meteor strikes Zakhara and creates the High Desert and the Crowded Sea (i'm willing to bet it shattered the tectonic plate Zakhara sits on and caused the High Desert part to rise above the water level, while the Crowded Sea part sinks below it.

The titan and giant empire is ended and the titans all perish (perhaps their palace was directly in the Crowded Sea). In fact the Summer Palace of Uruk is very aptly named and sits in the Crowded Sea.

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Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Well at the moment i'm more interested in mapping the timeline of Zakhara, but it would help to know when the asteroid strikes occurred.

I'm not sure i would say the meteor strikes occurred without any of the expected after effects.

The Tearfall had its effect largely muted by magic so as to keep Toril in existence (presumably twinning the planet halved the energy of the strike), and i'm sure i read that the climate was changed sufficiently enough to effectively wipe out the batrachi.

The strike in Zakhara ended the empire of the giants in Zakhara and drove the humans into the hills (mountains). I think its feasible to expect an alteration of the climate locally if not elsewhere. The sudden sinking of the southern half of Zakhara (which looking at the number of islands in the crowded sea could have been quite mountainous) which might have acted as a wind break of sorts.

In south america there is a dry highland desert created by mountains on either side which block the winds. So if we imagine the wind from Faerun sweeping down (which will be hot after passing over Calimshan and the Lake of Steam), and a cold wind from the south sweeping up, it is possible that the mountains blocked the two weather fronts from meeting. With those mountains now gone, the newly exposed west half bears the brunt of this hot air and it meets the cold air over the east half which leads to lots of rains and jungles in the east.

Of course Ur the Kraken then dries out the jungles in the east and it becomes a desert which causes the weather fronts to move and now meet further east over the oceans.

Just a thought

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Originally posted by Gary Dallison

So, randomly started looking at the Al-Qadim books and i'm musing over a few issues.
So in the Ruined Kingdoms, over 1000 years ago, a nation known as Kadar was founded. Ruled by a council of Geomancers (specialists in earth magic who marry wizard and priestly magic).

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Could be a total coincidence but we already know of a connection between the lands of Netheril and the lands of Zakhara. The Bedine came to Anauroch from Zakhara, clearly a desert tribe, and the desert tribes of Zakhara come from the High Desert, or the Haunted Lands (which is adjacent to the RUined Kingdoms. If i recall correctly, the Bedine arrived somewhere near the Saiyaddar, which is around the region of Rasilith / Kismet.

So what if the Bedine arrived through a portal of some kind and that portal was two way and had been activated at least once before.

The enclave of Synod was a specialist in wizard and priest magic i believe and it fell over the Stonelands, but was at a low altitude so was not destroyed. Could its arcanist rulers have triggered magic that whirled them to Zakhara.

Could Kadar be a successor state of Netheril. It would also explain how the worship of Selan (clearly Selune) exists in Zakhara and is not considered an interloper god (unlike that of Helm).

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Originally posted by TomCosta

Can't look now, but didnt' Grand History attempt to date some of the Al-Qadim material?

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