A Brief History of Impiltur

With extra information about areas in the module.
User avatar
Kilaana
Administrator, Builder, DM
Posts: 733
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:26 am
Location: GMT+8 / EST+12

A Brief History of Impiltur

Postby Kilaana » Mon Nov 16, 2015 9:08 pm

The oldest records tell that this region was once a province of the Narfell Empire, a domineering magocracy filled with those whose lust for power is said to have led to its ultimate destruction. The Narfelli withdrew during their long decline in a vain attempt to preserve their collapsing Empire. Their ruins and a provincial people whose interests were too entwined with this land are the relics of their withdrawal. Those people – the Turmrar – are those who claim descent from provincial Narfelli families or those uplifted by the customs of those people. They maintained a grip on the organs of power when the Empire disappeared from these lands over a thousand years ago, and it was from their stock that the first King of Impiltur emerged.

Following the traditions of their once-benefactors, the monarchs of the First Kingdom were greedy and cruel. Founded in the Year of Seven Loves Lost (-166 DR) this Kingdom was wracked by plague, famine and war. The native peoples – the Turami and the Vilhonese – fled westward in droves, settling in the lands that would become Sembia and the Dales. This Kingdom persisted until The Year of the Cracked Turtle (924 DR) when the last in a string of feckless dynasties came to an end with no credible heir. Centuries of poor and exploitative administration had so weakened the feudal bonds which held the Kingdom together that no single claimant could gather the support necessary to legitimize a new line. The First Kingdom had come to an end.

With the monarchy gone, Impiltur’s interior fell to local magnates and became a land of independent counts, barons, and dukes ruling petty estates and principalities from hilltop forts, many involving themselves in banditry as much as adminstration. The four cities of the coast (Lyrabar, Hlammach, Dilpur, and Sarshel) battled for commercial supremacy, at times warring over land and trade. The instability of this period of lawlessness, known to later generations as the Interregnum, led to further migrations on a scale not seen since the withdrawal of the Narfell Empire. Impiltur’s once cultivated interior reverted to an undeveloped, depopulated wilderness. Beginning in the Year of the Fearless Peasant (926 DR) local revolts of the native peoples against oppressive Turmrar lords eroded what little remained of the region’s social order and left the northern borders unprotected, encouraging goblinoid raids. This threat was fully realized in the middle of the 11th century when a hobgoblin army issued from the Giantspires to conquer and raid the divided country.

Hope for the nation came from the small castle city of Filur, ancestral home of the Imbrar family. Connected by tradition with the Church of Ilmater, the Imbrar family was led by the paladin Imphras, a man who had opened the gates of his family’s city to many peasants during the lawless Interregnum. Cleverly winning the support of the coastal cities, Imphras led a coalition against the hobgoblin army and crushed it outside the gates of Sarshel. Following the victory he was crowned King of Impiltur in the Year of the Gleaming Crown (1097 DR) in recognition of his martial prowess and persuasive agenda of promoting stability. The early monarchs of the Imbrar dynasty concerned themselves principally with good administration, and it was Imphras II, the grandson of the first king, who announced the formation of a council of 12 men – all paladins of the Triad – with whom to share power. The Lords of Imphras II, as this body is still called today, wield enormous power in the name of the crown. Individually given jurisdiction over newly devised provinces within the Kingdom, the position of these men represented a structural shift in power away from the feudal magnates and to the crown itself.

The Second Kingdom has persisted to the current date (1363) for roughly three hundred years, but there is cause for concern over the strength of the dynasty. Approximately seventy years ago the pretender Prince Thaum invaded with an army of mercenaries, intending to take the crown for himself. Sacking the city of Sarshel and moving against the capital at Filur, Thaum’s advance forced the child-king Rilimbrar to flee to neighboring Aglarond with his regent. Returning the following year with the backing of the Aglarondan crown, Rilimbrar’s forces defeated Prince Thaum, but Rilimbrar was to die without heir forty years later. The throne passed to an infant cousin, Prince Soarimbrar, in the year 1338 DR. Soarimbrar was never to rule, however, as he was murdered with his entire retinue before the ending of his regency in 1351 DR. His successor, a young cousin named Imphras V, would die of disease before succeeding to the throne. His younger brother was crowned Imbrar II under the regency of Queen-Regent Sambryl, the daughter of Rilimbrar, the last King to rule in his own right. Sambryl remains Queen-Regent of the kingdom to this date.
“Violence is the mark of the amateur.” ― Garrett, Thief: The Dark Project

Kallian | Delorwyn Lle'quellas | Wilhemina Alencar | Zalika Maszim Zartusht
Cedric Lesàre


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests