Continuity/Gharu'ndim History

Early Game

From various older sources of lore, mostly those released during Beta and the first year or so of Release, we know that the basic history of Gharu'n is as follows:

• The Gharu'ndim, led by the Malik Rakhil al-Khur and the warrior-poet Yasif ibn Salayyar, head north out of the Naqut Desert and begin to conquer Roulean territory.
• The Gharu'ndim army siege the Roulean capital of Tirethas. Rakhil threatens to burn the books of the city, and Yasif slays the Malik.
• Rather than succeeding the dead Malik, Yasif becomes adviser to Rakhil's son, Amul ibn Rakhil.
• Yasif becomes the Emissary of Gharu'n, and travels to the other nations of Ispar to get them to recognize Gharu'n as a sovereign nation.
• Mansur al-Rajan, the author of the text To Be A Shadow, is 14 when Yasif is kidnapped while on a mission to Milantos. The events of To Be A Shadow occur. The Zharalim is formed.
• Yasif returns to Gharu'n 5 years later. At this time it is mentioned that Amul is not yet 40 years old.
• Eventually, Yasif dies.
• Soon after, Amul dies.
• With the death of the Malik, Gharu'n falls into chaos, and a period known as the Century of Storms begins, a hundred year time period where Gharu'n has no fewer than 25 rulers.
• Approximately 15 years after the Century of Storms begins, Ladriya bint Daum leaves Tirethas and journeys to her home in Taban.
• 20 years after the death of Yasif, Mansur writes the text To Be A Shadow.
• Ladriya bint Daum arrives in Taban in the year 1018.
• Viamont invades, installs a puppet king Zahir ibn Ma'mun. Jawhar al-Shamshir unites his people, defeats Zahir, and drives the Viamontians out of Gharu'n.
• Jawhar becomes the Malik and Century of Storms ends.
• In the present, Malika Qadira bint Balj is the ruler of Gharu'n.

History of Auberean

When Turbine released the lore articles The History of Auberean, they redid the timeline. For more information see Continuity - Roulean Calendar and Portal Years and Continuity - Aluvian History. One piece of information revealed in this article is that the siege of Tirethas occurred in the year 924 RC.

Throne of Destiny

With the Throne of Destiny expansion, some of the present day Isparian history is revised to fit the new Viamontian invasions in. While the Gharu'ndim Heritage page from Beta states that the threat of war from Viamont (and Milantos) is present, it has not occurred. During the newly revised Gharun'dim history, an unnamed Malika is the ruler of Gharu'n during the Viamontian invasion, described in the lore article The Malika and the Individual.

Retcon of the Founding

Prior to the release of The History Of Auberean, our best guess for when Gharu'n was founded came from the text The Silifi of the Crimson Stars. This text states that one of the crimson stars, al-Ghul, was renamed al-Kuhr some 300 years ago in honor of Rakhil al-Khur after a victory at the salt mines east of Tirethas. If we assume that some 300 years ago could be, perhaps, 300 to 350 years, that would place the renaming of the star at around 941 RC to 991 RC, using our conclusions from Continuity - Roulean Calendar and Portal Years.

Since Rakhil was killed by Yasif at the founding of the nation, this event had to occur prior to the founding. And since the event is a victory near Tirethas, it seems likely that this event occurred during Rakhil's campaign against Roulea, and likely not to long before the siege of Tirethas. The victory at the salt mines may have occurred 0 to 5 years prior to the siege. This would place the founding of the nation anywhere between 936 RC and 991 RC.

Our earlier estimate for when Gharu'n was founding would likely have placed it closer to 991 RC, since we know from the text The Silifi of the Crimson Stars that Amul died around 15 years prior to 1018 RC, and the Gharu'ndim beta information page states that Amul was poisoned at his own birthday celebration, and died without an heir. It would make more sense for someone to poison the Malik if he were, say, 40 to 50 years old, with plenty of life left, rather than if he were 80 to 90 years old. If Amul was young when he became the Malik (say, 20 years old) and the founding took place in approximately 970 RC, he would have been 53 when he died.

Of course, The History Of Auberean rendered any such estimates obsolete, as it states that the nation was founded in 924 RC.

Timeline of To Be A Shadow

The text To Be A Shadow lays out a rough timeline of events that occur after the founding on Gharu'n. Although it doesn't use many exact figures, we can estimate some of the timespans of the events.

Gharu'n was a young nation while Yasif traveled to the other nations of Ispar. It is safe to assume that Yasif did not begin to travel to other nations immediately after the founding of Gharu'n. The passage of 6 months to 1 year seems reasonable.

The text explicitly states that Yasif traveled to Aluvia, Viamont, Roulea, and Silvera. It also says that one by one he won the respect of all the neighboring rulers, except for Milantos. Let us assume that the only remaining neighboring nation is Sho, since the Souia-Vey do not seem to have a single ruling government or ruler. Later in the text, it states the that mission to Milantos was expected to take 4 months. Since Milantos is one of Gharu'n's closest neighbors, we can assume that the missions to Aluvia, Silvera, and Sho took at least 4 months each, and increasing that estimate to 6 months to account for extra travel time is not unreasonable. Additionally, we can probably assume that Yasif returned to Gharu'n between each of these trips, and did not set out immediately to the next country. So an additional 6 months between each mission is reasonable. Lastly, the text states that Yasif stayed in Viamont half a year longer than what was proper.

With all of that in mind, our timeline is looking something like this: 0.5 - 1 years pass after Gharu'n is founded before Yasif's missions begin. The missions to Aluvia, Silvera, and Sho, including times spent back in Gharu'n afterwards, each take 1 year. The mission to Roulea is explicitly stated to have taken a year, and an additional 6 months back in Gharu'n could also be added, for a total of 1.5 years. The mission to Viamont also could have taken 1.5 years. So, when all is tallied up, the timespan from Gharu'n being founded to Yasif making peace with all but Milantos could be approximately 6.5 to 7 years.