History of Amn

The history of Amn dates back to its independence from the Shoon Imperium, following that realm's collapse in 450 DR.
==Pre-history==
Human habitation of the lands that would become Amn dated all the way back to the emigration of elves from Faerie. Primitive human tribes were native to the region and lived under the boughs of the elven realm of Keltormir. Dragon fires eventually burned down the forests and the humans (as well as some wemics) settled the cleared plains.
During the Third Age of Calimshan, these plains were alternately known as the Lake Lands among the Mountains, or, more commonly, the Calishar Emirates, and were home to a rare few villages, hunting lodges and Calishite garrisons, populated by both native humans and immigrants from Calimshan.
During the time of the Shoon Imperium, three cities were founded in what was, at the time, called the Emirate of Amin between the and the . The founding of Athkatla, Crimmor, and Murann prompted a huge emigration of Calishites to the region. Over a century after the founding of Athkatla, halflings, forced from their homes in the Purple Hills by the Imperium, founded the nation of Meiritin in the in and around the Tejarn Hills. Another small nation, this one a theocracy named Minsorran, was founded on the shores of Lake Weng in the . A vassal state of the Imperium, the kingdom of Valashar, was founded in the , encompassing the lands west and north of Meiritin, but it only lasted fifteen years until an ill-advised war with Cormyr resulted in the displeasure of Qysara Shaani's court, who had King Ashar Tornamn of Valashar executed and his kingdom dissolved, absorbing the remains of the kingdom into the Empire. The city-state of Myth Lharast was then founded southeast of Minsorran in the after its founders decided that they'd had enough of the orthodoxy of the pantheists of that realm, and desired a "purer", monotheistic home dedicated solely to Selûne.
After the Imperium fell following its war with Tethyr, the Emirate of Amin stood as a region full of small independent countries and city-states. Those still loyal to the Imperium migrated north and struggled amongst themselves and the already-established Shoonite garrisons in the region to try and carve out a new empire for themselves over the next decade. Despite the chaos resulting from the fall of the Imperium within its own borders, Calimshan still managed to exert enough control over the Emirate to maintain it as a center of Calishite commerce.
==Founding Time==
The Shoon Imperium only had one general at the time of it's fall who was native to the Emirate of Amin and not a Calishite. This general was named Esmel Torlath. His was the most successful campaign of all the former Shoonites to rule over the region. Though General Torlath only managed to exert his rule over the western half of the Emirate, this meant that he controlled the biggest, and most well-established cities in the region - Athkatla, Crimmor, and Murann (though land trade between Crimmor and Murann was blocked by ogres in the Small Teeth Mountains). Setting himself up as King Esmel I, he named his kingdom Amn.
A noble family from Calimshan, looking to restore the Imperium to it's former glory, successfully took over the eastern Emirate of Amin, pushing out the majority of Meiritin's halflings and abusing those who remained. The rivalry between Amn and this eastern realm named Cortryn would last well over two centuries, resulting in the death of King Esmel's grandson and heir, as well as the complete dissolution of Meiritin. Otherwise, the next century was a period of great construction for Amn, seeing the establishment of Citadel Amnur, Esmeltaran, Keczulla, and Purskul.
The 7th century Dalereckoning saw the destruction of Minsorran, yet more conflicts with the ogres of the Small Teeth, and the expansion of Amn's borders. King Brinnaq I established Amn as a nation of powerful merchants and absorbed a lot of territory, including the purchase of a large swathe of Tethyr's northern lands. Unfortunately, after King Brinnaq died, his son-in-law Arbas murdered every male relative of Brinnaq who was present in the nation at the time. Brinnaq's sixth son, Jhanos, who was a wizard, returned home and slew the usurper within twelve months. This began the rule of Amn's six Wizard-Kings. It was during the reign of Wizard-King Imnel III that Cortryn was destroyed, but it's destroyers, the Ring of Eyes - a beholder cult - prevented Amn from absorbing Cortryn's territories for the next twenty nine years until Amn finally took those lands as it's own in the .
It was during the reign of the last Wizard-King, Imnel IV, that a financially-struggling and monster-beset Amn had to return the majority of the lands that it had previously bought from Tethyr back to their original owners. Amn did however, manage to maintain control of the trading post of Riatavin, which had been built ninety years before and stood right on the border of the lands that the Imnel Concession ceded back to Tethyr. After Imnel IV's death four years later, Amn descended into strife as no less than three kings rose to and lost the throne over the course of 1094 and 1095 DR due to the deadly machinations of thieves guilds and merchant families.
A new dynasty of monarchs, descended from a different branch of Imnel I's line were installed to bring stability back to Amn. The Wavegold dynasty's legacy was the construction of the Trade Way between Tethyr and Waterdeep via Amn, Baldur's Gate, and Dragonspear Castle which was finished in the . The last of the Wavegold kings, Belhinn II, was killed in battle with the Black Horde in the .
King Belhinn's son-in-law, Malek Parhek, founded Amn's third and final royal dynasty. Plagued by poor leadership, a trade war, and multiple assassinations sponsored by Amnian merchant families, the Parhek dynasty failed to last even four decades. For the ensuing fifty seven years after the last Parhek king died in 1276 DR the merchants of Amn tried to install the scions of that dynasty as puppet kings, but none of them were successful. This culminated in the Great Amnian Trade War of 1333 DR, which resulted in the dissolution of Amn's monarchy and Thayze Selemchant establishing the Council of Six (with himself at it's head).
==Modern Amn==
The first of the early challenges facing the new Council of Six was the Murann Spice War in the between the bitter rival families of Ophal and Ulvax, but the conflict was successfully suppressed. Worse came seven years later when the Coast Plague killed a full 20% of those living in Amn's greatest cities. Amn then sent troops to secure Greenfields during the First Dragonspear War and was successful in routing the enemy. A couple of years later, the disappearance of Waukeen during the Time of Troubles of 1358 DR shook the faith of the Amnian people, who had tended to revere the Merchant's Friend over other deities. A more difficult challenge arose with the discovery of Maztica and the establishment of the colony of New Amn in the . Seven lords of high-ranking merchant houses were killed by rivals looking to prevent them from launching expeditions to the new world. This had a knock-on effect of endangering lucrative trade deals with Baldur's Gate and Cormyr. Though initially slow to react, the Council then moved to force all traders looking to deal overseas to apply for a license from them to do so.
While this did put a stop to the slayings, it brought to light a conspiracy over the next several months wherein the Council's Pommarch, Wulver Xornnag, was revealed to have broken the council's new law by organizing his own personal expedition, the wealth and prestige of which would allow him to install himself as governor of New Amn and destroy the Council. By Marpenoth of the , the Pommarch, Namarch, and Meisarch had all killed each other in an event historians would refer to as the Council Schism. Before the surviving three Council members could pick replacements for those they had lost, they were approached by the Grandmaster of the Shadow Thieves who informed them that he knew exactly who they were, how to hurt them the most, and that it was his guild who had engineered the Council Schism. In exchange for a seat on the Council, he would keep those details a secret. They agreed, and Rhinnom Dannihyr was given the position of Iltarch. A few years later, in the , the Iron Crisis almost started a war between Amn and Baldur's Gate.
The colonization of Maztica enriched Amn with plundered gold, as well as all the trade goods from the new continent that flooded the nation. This influx of money caused economic strife. The price of a bushel of maize skyrocketed to fifty gold coins. The inflation was caused by more money in circulation than actual goods that the money was supposed to represent. This conclusion was confirmed by some sages who formulated the economic theory explaining the inflation.
In the , following the end of the Tethyrian Interregnum and Reclamation Wars, Amn saw large numbers of Tethyrian exiles and expatriate Amnian families arriving in Hammer of that year. Two months later, the towns of Riatavin and Trailstone defected to Tethyr, to the surprise of all of Amn's intelligence assets. The two towns had not seen a share of any of the profits from Maztica and additionally claimed to have been suffering poor treatment socially. Diplomacy between Amn and Tethyr failed spectacularly over the following month, resulting in Queen Zaranda accepting Riatavin and Trailstone's petitions to become Tethyrian and additionally, demanding the lands north of Trailstone. In retaliation, Amn ceased all overland and sea trade with Tethyr. Some merchant families even demanded that Amn go to war with Riatavin after they bought out all of the trade caravans from the Sea of Fallen Stars and Vilhon Reach. Over the following month, the Council hired a 10,000-strong army of mercenaries to march there and Shadow Thief assassins made several failed attempts on Riatavin's leadership. However, while the mercenaries and Amnian army were marching, word reached them that several Amnian forts and towns had fallen to monstrous invaders under the command of an ogre mage named Sothillis. Thus began the Sothillisian War. Further complicating things was a government conspiracy launched between Iltarch Dannihyr, Pommarch Q'Helvor and Lord Pehllus Tanislove of the Knights of the Shield to restore Amn's monarchy.
Immediately following the Trade Way Truce in Eleint of the , which marked the end of the Sothillisian War and recognition of Kingdom of Muranndin, the Stinger War began, pitting the now-allied forces of both Amn and Muranndin against the tlincallis of Oaxaptupa.
When the Spellplague hit in the , Amn lost all of it's Maztican colonies as Maztica was swapped with its Abeiran counterpart, Laerakond. The Council of Six reconstituted into a Council of Five, dropping the seat of the Dahaunarch, which was the lowest seat, and purely a military role, to concentrate on mercantile affairs.
At the turn of the 15 century DR, Amn worked to undermine House Kendrick, the rulers of the human realms of the Moonshae Isles. They actively courted and worked to subvert the realm of Westphal while stoking civil war across the isles, and in , they annexed the island of Snowdown and rebuffed the Kendricks' efforts to dislodge them. They retained ownership over the island, stripping it of its resources, through the end of the century.
Amn grew to be a much disliked nation, where everything could be bought. The truce between Amn and Muranndin soon fell apart as well. Throughout the Spellplague era, and even after the Second Sundering, Amn remained a realm dominated by the five merchant houses whose lords sat on the Council of Five, but beyond trade, had very little influence on foreign nations due to disunity among the councillors.
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Category:History