So, the age of expansion is recorded as 2925-4605 AR. For record, Cheliax was founded in 3007 AR as part of the western edge of Taldor's empire, which was founded in -1281 AR by Taldaris, The Only Guy Who Gives Aroden A Run For His Money.
The Absalom book has this to say:
Absalom: City of Lost Omens wrote:
Having re-entered the world stage, Absalom began founding new settlements—some on its own shores and an increasing number of colonies opportunistically claimed in under-defended realms.
...If Iomedae’s apotheosis helped sweep away Absalom’s perceived decline and restore its old grandeur, Cheliax’s aggression under the leadership of the “Mad King” Haliad I gave the world a new bogeyman. Absalom passed the Edrentar Doctrine in response, justifying preemptive maneuvers to defend the Inner Sea from Cheliax.
...However, the Edrentar Doctrine eventually spawned Absalom’s Virtue Corps, formal aid expeditions sent abroad to promote freedom and justice.
These expeditions were a public relations disaster. Faulty intelligence and cultural misunderstandings led to Virtue Corps trying to end problems that didn’t truly exist or antagonizing locals through opportunistic vigilantism. Each expedition increasingly served economic and political interests over ethical ones, and Absalom exploited these initiatives to take control of foreign ports. For the first few decades, the Virtue Corps were popular and fed Absalom’s belief that it so overflowed with virtue that the city must export its philosophies. Within a century, the world retaliated. Over two years, Absalom sustained two sieges. First, Rahadoum invaded in the Red Siege, infuriated at Absalom’s waves of Arodenite missionaries who undermined Rahadoum’s anti-divine codes. As the dust from that conflict settled, Vudran ships assaulted the shores in the Siege of the Ravenous Raja, incited by a large Virtue Corps’s misguided attempts to free Vudrani “slaves” following a gross misinterpretation of the region’s merit-based caste system.
The city itself expanded a bit during this time period. In 3005 the city renovated, expanded, and raised its city walls.
So, I'm going to guess that most of those expeditions were out of the inner sea region, seeing as it somehow irked Rahadoum enough to get them to attack someone over their usual isolationist stance.
And, shocker, Absalom's back and forth over slavery was getting them in trouble again. It was legalized in Absalom in 2972 AR, outlawed in 4142 AR and legalized again 4635. The Virtue Corps was first dispatched in 4414 to Katapesh, and in 4499 Rahadoum was attacking, and in 4500 Vudra sieged Absalom. in 4503 the last of the Virtue Corp was recalled. I don't think slavery was outlawed in Absalom again until 4717.
Otherwise the book doesn't detail a lot of the foreign colonies, because its a book about the city.
