Hey, Realms folks… is there any in-universe limk between Calimshan and Zakhara? Any explanation why two very similar countries (culturally) are so distant from each other? Any reason to pick one over the other to visit? @Dan_Dillon_1 thoughts? #dnd
— NewbieDM (@newbiedm) June 26, 2020
Calimshan was colonized in deep antiquity by pre-enlightenment Djinn and their Zakharan human and halfling slaves, where they conquered and enslaved the local human population. Calimshan, and to a lesser degree, Tethyr, are cultural descendents of pre-enlightenment Zakhara.
— PanzerLion in a Summer of Discontent🇨🇦 (@POCGamer) June 26, 2020
This lore was added in post development after AQ was released, likely because someone realized that they had three “Arab”/”Middle East” areas and wanted to try for an in game fixit. Post-enlightenment Zakhara is the source of the “Bedine” in Anauroch via magic portal mishap. The world building around Calimshan, Tethyr, and Anauroch is super dodgy though, mostly because only Calimshan had any firm direction/conceptualization and the other two were at the whim of writers without that. Calimshan is heavily downplayed despite its literally epic history.
— PanzerLion in a Summer of Discontent🇨🇦 (@POCGamer) June 26, 2020
For perspective, on Faerûn, Calimsham and its precursors are only predated by the people who would become known as Imaskar for foundation date (-8350 DR vs -7800 DR), were powerful enough that Netheril didn’t try to expand into their lands, and had the 2nd largest land empire. Thanks for dropping some knowledge! Do you have an article on your blog for this one, for future reference?
— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) June 26, 2020