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As part of my preparation for my LoF/City of Brass/Arabian Nights campaign, I've been filling in some blanks in my background timeline of events around the south end of the Inner Sea.
Here are my best estimates:
c. -1500 – The archmage-kings Nex and Geb rise to power in southeastern Garund.
c. -1000 – The archmage Nex creates the Scroll of Kakishon.
c. -100 – The archmage Nex creates the demiplane called the Crux of Nex.
c. 4300 – The efreeti pasha Jhavhul al-Bazan and his followers are imprisoned in Kakishon by the Templars of the Five Winds. The Scroll of Kakishon is hidden in the depths of the House of the Beast.
c. 4350 – The Grand Vizier of the City of Brass magically seals the Bayt al-Bazan, trapping its residents and any who enter it.
Interesting! How did you arrive at these dates?
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Interesting! How did you arrive at these dates?
Guesses based on the wording of the text. The Scroll is supposed to have been lost for "untold centuries" in HotB. Nex clearly created the Crux after the Scroll but before he attempted to seize Absalom; the description of the creation of the Scroll suggests that it was created before he started warring with Geb.
Nice reasoning! I wish I'd had this before I set my own timeline in stone. I like yours better. :)
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I've done some more work filling in the deep backstory for my campaign.
Story time!
The origins of geniekind are lost in the mists of ancient history; even the eldest sages among the genies themselves disagree whether the first genies were created by the gods, were mortals who magically ascended to immortality as elemental outsiders, or emerged spontaneously from the fabric of the elemental planes themselves.
What is known is that, eons ago, the efreet were not as they are today. They were as beautiful to behold as the other tribes of genies, and were enlightened, civilized, and compassionate.
Then, a being known as Iblis came among them. At first he appeared as one of the efreet. He spoke honeyed words in long speeches and sermons, and gathered throngs of devoted disciples to hear him. He spoke to the efreet of their greatness, their power, and their superiority to all other beings; and these words resonated among the efreet. He fed their vanities and encouraged their darkest temptations, until many were utterly corrupted.
Soon the tribe of the efreet named him their sultan, and he gladly accepted the office. A few efreet spoke out against his words and policies, but these few were quickly silenced or slain by his devoted followers. In time, when all of the efreet paid him homage, Iblis revealed his true form: that of an Arch-Devil of Hell, one of Asmodeus' high commanders. He ordered his efreeti subjects to share his infernal blood in a ritual of dark communion that transformed them into the fierce, horned creatures that we know today.
Iblis ordered that a great new city be constructed upon the Plane of Fire, to become his imperial capitol. To acquire the slaves needed to build the city, he created an army of devoted efreeti mamelukes that came to be known as the Brass Legion. To reinforce the Legion, Iblis called forth an army of devils. The Brass Legion and their devilish allies traveled to Golarion and began capturing and enslaving mortal humanoids, shipping them back to the Plane of Fire.
Iblis' tyranny alarmed the other tribes of geniekind, but it was the djinn that took action. Under the leadership of Sultan Zafar XI, a grand army of djinn, air elementals, and a host of azata champions became the first Templars of the Five Winds, and assaulted the partially constructed City of Brass.
The battle was a catastrophe for the djinn. Zafar and the azatas were single-handedly defeated and slain by Iblis personally; except for a handful of djinni knights, the entire army was slain or captured by the efreet and the infernal host. Afterwards, the Brass Legion seized control of the undefended djinni city Armun Kelisk; the heir, Zafar XII, barely escaped capture, fleeing with the surviving Templars to hide among the mortals on Golarion.
From that point on, the efreet were on a permanent crusade to unite all of the genies on the elemental planes under the power of the Sultan Iblis. The City of Brass was completed, constructed from magical brass forged from the eternally tormented souls of mortal slaves. The Templars of the Five Winds became an underground resistance, fighting the influence of Iblis and his empire throughout the planes.
So the situation may have remained even to the current age; however, Iblis' efreeti pashas had learned his teachings too well. Unchallenged from outside his empire, Iblis found himself beset with court intrigues, plots, and repeated coup attempts by the efreeti nobility. As the situation escalated, Iblis became increasingly furious and paranoid. Eventually he made his greatest, and last mistake as Sultan; he began to represent himself as a living deity, the equal of the Prince of Hell, Asmodeus.
Soon Iblis discovered that the patronage of Asmodeus had been withdrawn, his infernal legions had decamped back to Hell, the efreet were fighting a fierce civil war amongst themselves for control of the City of Brass, and the Templars of the Five Winds had successfully reclaimed Armun Kelisk for their Sultan Zafar XII. When his last loyal mameluke had fallen, Iblis suffered the ultimate humiliation—being magically banished from the City of Brass, and the entire Plane of Fire—by Pasha Hakim Khalid Suleiman III, who claimed Iblis' throne for himself. No longer able to enter the Inner Planes, and unwelcome among his peers in Hell, Iblis disappeared into the depths of the Great Beyond, swearing vengeance upon all of geniekind.
Comments/criticisms?
I've done some more work filling in the deep backstory for my campaign.
Story time!
** spoiler omitted **...
Very cool! Would you give Efreet the evil subtype based on this?
Very cool! Would you give Efreet the evil subtype based on this?*strokes beard, thinks*
Nooo...I think they would have to originate on an inherently evil outer plane for that.
For example, tieflings do not have the evil subtype.
Good point. I'm trying to think of a reason for one of my players to be a paladin.. :-)
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Slight threadjack...but on the original subject...does anyone know what year LoF is starts in??
You can start it anytime after 4700...the first book came out in 2008, though, so it (sort-of) starts in 4708. It doesn't really matter too much, so long as you backdate Xulthos imprisonment to around 20 years before.
Jhavul and his entourage were banished to Kakishon probably more than two hundred years ago, and probably less than a thousand; I placed it around 400 years ago in my timeline, but that was just a dartboard shot.