Salamander War

The Salamander War, sometimes called the Salamander Wars, was a disasterous yearlong conflict waged by Thay in the , first alongside and then against an army of salamanders that they themselves had summoned.
==Location==
The war took place along the North Coast of the Wizards' Reach and in the south of Thay across what would become the Tharch of the Priador.
==History==
===Causes===
The Salamander War began as one of a long line of ambitious schemes by the Red Wizards and the rulers of Thay to conquer neighboring lands. In this case, a triumvirate consisting of Tharchion Hargrid Tenslayer of Lapendrar and the Zulkirs of Evocation and of Conjuration plotted to conquer the cities of the North Coast of the Wizards' Reach. To achieve this, the Zulkir of Conjuration obtained an alliance with Fyzzar, the Lord of Salamanders, and Marrake, the Sultan of the Efreet, to lend their elemental forces to an invasion of the region. The initial agreement was for the salamanders and efreet to eliminate all of Thay's competitors along the North Coast, and in exchange, the Zulkir would establish a permanent gate to the Plane of Fire and the area would be set eternally ablaze so as to establish a foothold for the elementals on Toril.
 Critically, the agreement was made without the involvement or knowledge of Kossuth, the god of elemental fire and the superior of both Fyzzar and Marrake. It was speculated that these lesser lords hoped to increase their standing at Kossuth's expense with this endeavor. The other major issue with this arrangement was that neither side intended to honor it: the Thayans intended to banish the elementals once their war goals were achieved while the Fire Lords intended to continue expanding their influence across Faerûn.
In 1357 DR, the invasion began with the Zulkir of Conjuration opening a temporary gate in the village of First Falls to allow the salamanders and efreet onto the Material Plane. The invading army comprised two or three Thayan legions supporting about 100 salamanders—led by their own commanders—and 100 efreet—who had been pledged to follow the Zulkir himself. Perhaps intentionally, the invasion was launched during one of the Simbul's absences from Aglarond.
===Battles===
The salamanders and efreet achieved their war goals with startling speed, razing the cities of Lasdur, Taskaunt, Murbant, and
Thasselen before forcing the immediate surrender of Hilbrand, capturing Laothkund, and laying siege to Escalant. This quickly led to conflict with their Thayvian allies, who had not expected such quick results and were unprepared to renege on the alliance, which they had planned to make look like an accidental failure to uphold their end of the bargain. When the elementals demanded that they be provided with the promised permanent gate, the Red Wizards instead attempted to banish them from the Material Plane. The Zulkir of Conjuration's gate in First Falls had been designed such that destroying or dispelling it would draw the salamanders and efreet back into their home plane as their ability to persist on the Material Plane was tied to its magic. However, while the Thayans succeeded in sending the efreet away, they were unable to banish the salamanders, who turned their full fury against their former allies. Faced with certain defeat, the Thayan triumvirate called for aid from their fellow tharchions and zulkirs. The threat posed by the rampaging salamanders forced the mightiest of the zulkirs, Szass Tam, to pull back from his invasion of Rashemen and send his undead forces southward.
For over a year, Thayvian undead, human, gnoll, and goblin forces battled the salamanders, who burned everything in their path. Hargrid Tenslayer was killed in the fighting, and the Thayans were forced to abandoned their new holdings in Lasdur, Taskaunt, and (to a lesser extent) Hilbrand. The Thayan naval facilities on Alaor were heavily damaged, and much of the island's vegetation and farmland were destroyed. The forces of Thay were soon worn down.
The tide only began to turn in Thay's favor when an up-and-coming Red Wizard named Aznar Thrul pleaded for aid from Kossuth, and with the help of the Kossuthan clergy, ultimately convinced the god to help. Kossuth saw his underlings' scheme as a power play against him and feared that it could spark conflict with other elemental gods, and so he sent his own army of fire elementals to combat the salamanders. This army wrecked havoc on the land, burning parts of the Yuirwood and killing many seelie sprites, but it successfully drove back the salamanders. In conjunction with the Kossuthan priests at the Temple of Kossuth in Escalant, Thrul arranged to create a one-way portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire through which many of the salamanders were made to flee. Thus, Thrul ironically defeated the salamanders by creating a permanent connection to their home plane—the very thing that the triumvirate had indented to avoid—and great pains were taken to keep the existence of this portal a secret in the following decades.
The war ended in the .
===Aftermath===
The war was considered a disaster for Thay despite their newly acquired territory. To make matters worse, the nation had to deal with the arrival of the Grand Army of the Tuigan almost immediately after the resolution of the war.
The territories gained by Thay during the war—notably the cities of Escalant, Laothkund, and Thasselen—were at first nominally considered to be part of the Tharch of Lapendrar, but they were instead merged with the Tharch of Bezantur to form a new tharch, the Priador. Aznar Thrul quickly eliminated the Tharchioness of Bezantur, Mari Agneh, to become the Tharchion of this new tharch. Meanwhile, the Tharch of Lapendrar expanded only slightly to control the territory west of the River Lapendrar and to nominally rule over Tilbrand.
During or shortly after the war, the Zulkir of Conjuration who had triggered the whole affair was slain.While his death is not stated explicitly, Zulkirs are only replaced once they have been killed. He was replaced by Sabass, a Red Wizard who had opposed the plan from the very beginning and had even been willing to hire foreign adventurers to stop the initial plot. Meanwhile, Aznar Thrul would end up becoming the Zulkir of Evocation.
Kossuth's intervention in the war skyrocketed his already high popularity within Thay, and his faith was elevated to the status of the official religion of the Priador. The Red Wizards also worked to maintain a close relationship with the god and his clergy in hopes that he would support their future military endeavors, which led the Kossuthans to begin making demands, such as when high priest Mythalanir bid Aznar Thrul to acquire Yrix's ring of fire for him.
In the wake of the war, salamanders were despised all across Thay. This led them to be expelled from the Flaming Brazier, the grandest Thayan temple of Kossuth. The salamanders who actually participated in the war remained bitter, and some would watch the exit of Thrul's Ecalant portal and attempt to slay any mortals who dared cross its threshold. Others were punished by Kossuth for daring to rebel against him, with some being sentenced to serve the Red Wizards for a thousand years, such as by acting as guardians within the Citadel. 
A tshala known as Flamedancer swore revenge on both the Thayans and Kossuthans in the wake of the war, during which Kossuth's fire elementals destroyed its home.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Wars
Category:Events in Escalant
Category:Events in Laothkund
Category:Events in Lasdur
Category:Events in Murbant
Category:Events in Taskaunt
Category:Events in Tilbrand
Category:Events in the Priador
Category:Events on Alaor
Category:Events in Thay
Category:Events on the Wizard's Reach
Category:Events on the Sea of Fallen Stars
Category:Events in the Unapproachable East
Category:Events in East Faerûn
Category:Events in Faerûn
Category:Events on Toril