Calimport

Calimport is the sprawling capital city of the country of Calimshan. It is on both the water and the desert, so it can be reached either way. Memnon and Manshaka are close trading partners; Manshaka by sea and Memnon by caravan. Sometimes the local traders make runs that go as far as Luskan.

Sultan Vezhera is the nominal leader of the city, but the Crime Guilds run the streets. It is all well organized so an outsider wouldn't know the difference.

Calimport also is the home of the assassin Artemis Entreri, known for his longstanding feud with Drizzt Do'Urden.

History
Calimshan is an ancient empire with a history that spans more than nine millenia and is categorized by sages in 15 periods.

The First Era of Skyfire
In -7800 DR, the noble Djinn Lord, Calim, and his human and halfling slaves arrived in Calimshan, in the area where Calimport would later be founded, and formed the Calim Empire. The slaves built Calimport and were the first inhabitants of the city, forming the culture of Lord Calim. After a flight of dragons leveled Calimport for the first time in its history, Calim went to war by sending them north of the Marching Mountains. After rebuilding Calimport, Calim began a second war against the Marid rogues who had entered the Calim Empire. Calim ultimately sank the Marid city of Ajhuu into the sea. After claiming the land south of the River Agis, Calim negotiated the borders of his kingdom with elves and dwarves.

Calim led the Calim Empire into conflict once again upon the arrival of Lord Memnon, an Efreeti who founded Memnonnar north of the River Agis. This era was known as the First Era of Skyfire, beginning in -6500 DR, as Calim represented the sky and Lord Memnon represented fire. During this time, various cities were formed in the Calim Empire and decimated, though many survived the war. The magic of the elves living in Calimshan brought the First Era to an end by using their magic to disembody Calim and Lord Memnon and have their elemental essences bonded to air and earth. It was at this time that the essences of both Calim and Memnon formed the Calim Desert.

Hostile Takeovers
With Calim gone, the humans and the dwarves rebeled against the last of the Djinn in Calimshan and in -6060 DR ousted the last of the Djinn from Calim's realm. While the dwarves founded High Shantaar, the humans once again rebuilt Calimport. In -1839 DR, the Red Dragon Ylveraasahilisar conquered the human Calim Empire, and the dwarven presence was later wiped out by Duergar. The humans rebeled once again by slaying the dragon in -1726 DR. Human nobles then began hunting elves 26 years later. Relative peace lasted for about three hundred years when another hostile takeover of Calimshan was staged by Beholder kin, who went on to successfully conquer it. By -1050 DR, the Beholder troubled the Calim Empire no longer, but Drow from the Underdark invaded, resulting in The Night Wars. The drow battled against the human clerics ruling the city until the ruler of Calimport, the Syl-Pasha, signed a truce with a Matron Mother following the destruction of the Caliph's Palace. This led to Calimport being known as the City of Rogues during the following Imperial Plague. The Shoon Empire saw the peak of Calishite civilization, more than a thousand years ago. The capital was moved to Shoonach, and Calimport became an almost-deserted city. The undercity (nicknamed Muzad) generated by dozens of fires and collapses, became more powerful than ever during this time. After three centuries, the Qysar burned most of the Muzad before moving back to Calimport.

During this time, the Syl-Pashas of Calimport were the Shoon family. The Shoons were cruel Pashas who cared little for the people and were far worse than the Djinn led by Calim. The Murabirs led a revolution against the Shoon Family, abolished slavery and changed the capitol of the Calim Empire to Manshaka. Various tragedies happened following the Murabirs' takeover, including the Moon Plague, which in turn allowed for a group of liches who founded the Twisted Rune to manipulate the Murabirs.

Pre-Spellplague
Following the various hostile takeovers by dragons, beholders and liches, a larger threat presented itself, the Black Horde. In 1018 DR, Calimport was weakened by Sapphiraktar the Blue who weakened the Calim Army, allowing it to succumb to the invasion of the Black Horde in 1235 DR. The Black Horde conquered Calimshan, as well as most of the western realms, before the combined forces of Waterdeep, Silverymoon and Baldur's Gate drove off the horde. This event was responsible for the disintegration of the Calim Empire, as Calimport, Memnon and Almraiven became independent city-states. Although Calimport encountered one last goblin war, the time of hostile take-overs was over, and the only threats to the city were invading drow from the Forest of Mir. In the time leading up to the Spellplague, Calimport was ruled by various Thieves' Guilds, the two most prominent being those of Pasha Pook and Pasha Basadoni, both of whom had employed Artemis Entreri.

Second Era of Skyfire
When Calim was freed from his imprisonment, so too was Lord Memnon. This led to Calim retaking Calimport, while Lord Memnon would take the self-titled Memnon. In Calimport, the Windsouled Genasi took over and made all other races--including humans--slaves, forcing them to participate in gladiatorial games. Led by Marod el Arahapan, the Windsouled Genasi pledged themselves to the Djinn. This led the Djinn to view the Genasi as children; the Earthsouled Genasi formed the low caste of the Genasi hierarchy, and the Firesouled Genasi became outlaws for pledging themselves to Lord Memnon.

Rise of the Genasi
In 1450 DR the Second Era of Skyfire came to a close with both Calim and Lord Memnon disappearing, but the Djinn of Calimport wished to bring Calim back to Calimport in order to invade both Memnon and Almraiven. The Djinn Shahrokh took over as the vizier to Pasha Marod el Araphan. Marod began looking for his son, Cephas, in a plan hatched by Shahrokh to bring Calim back to the Prime Material Plane to start the Third Era of Skyfire. Cephas killed Marod, bringing an end to Shahrokh's plans. Shahrokh, however, began looking for a book that would free Calim. Sharokh's search for the book is currently ongoing, and it is unclear as of now if he has succeeded, failed or is still looking.

Organization
Calimport was built using the drudach system, an interlocking series of small brick-walled neighborhoods. All drudachs are organized into groups of two to five, called sabbans, which in turn are grouped into wards. The metropolis is a huge place, measuring almost 6 miles from east to west and 3 miles from the coastline to the northern drudachs, and it is subdivided into 17 wards, 53 sabbans and 166 drudachs.

Daunting as it may seem for a foreigner, most locals rarely abandon their home sabbans. Each sabban is a walled zone averaging 215 acres and 3600 inhabitants, and works as an auto sufficient town - it has its own water supplies, guards, markets, residences, and so on.

Government
Calimshan is ruled by Syl-Pasha Ralan el Pesarkhal, who resides in Calimport. The Syl-Pasha responds to no religion or council, he is the supreme ruler. Immediately below the Syl-Pasha we can find the Sultans, the princes who rule over the wards. The ruler of a sabban is called a Sabbalad, and each drudach is directed by a Druzir - the bottom of Calimport's pyramidal administration.

Calimport's domestic security forces are the amlakkars, the city watch, who are entitled to arrest any individual who breaks the law or interrogate suspects. A typical amlakkar carries a scimitar and a buckler, wearing studded leather armor. Given the rich local tradition in arcane magic, it is not surprising to find wizards among the ranks of the amlakkars. Most wield scimitars as well as standard guards, and use scrolls of dispel magic and web, sleep bolts, and even wands of ray of enfeeblement.

Justice
The city owes its legal system to the church of Tyr and its judges. There are two levels in the legal system: Viziers, whose jurisdictions cover entire wards, and the Magistrates, who work inside the sabbans. Tyr's influence is obvious, given the presence of at least one acolyte of the Just God in each courthouse.

Society
Nine out of ten inhabitants of the capital are humans. Other common races are halflings and half-orcs. The remaining 2% of the populace is a mixture of dwarves, elves, gnomes and exotic races.

Most humans have calishite blood, descendants of the slaves brought from another realm by the Djinni Lord Calim during the foundation of the empire. A typical calishite human is shorter and slimmer than northern humans, with darker skin, hair and eyes. Corrupt and lazy to the eyes of northern people, the calishites only strive for a luxurious life. Other ethnicities include tethyrian and chultan humans. The tethyrians are more open to other groups than calishites. Regrettably, most chultans are cheap slaves kidnapped from the jungles of the south.

Local halflings are worldly and prone to laziness, gathering in like-minded groups and absorbing some of the local calishite values. The highest concentration of halflings can be found in the Dock Ward, surrounding the Copper Ante - a gaming house/inn.

Half-orcs enjoy a better treatment here than in other realms - they are considered low class, nothing more, nothing less. Few half-orcs have adopted the calishite way of life, instead focusing on physical jobs or criminal activities.

Religion
Calimport is truly a polytheistic society. There are temples to gods of light and darkness, life and murder, freedom and tyranny, magic and war - just ask directions from the right people. The most prominent religions are those of Azuth, Bhaelros (Talos), Ilmater, Savras, Shar, Sharess, Siamorphe, Tyr, Umberlee and Waukeen.

Notable Places
Bead stands, harems and taverns line the streets, but as usual there is always a top provider of both.

Taverns and Inns

 * Mystic Tavern: This establishment has an opium den in the back.
 * Glistening Harem: The place has a wondrous bath house.
 * Coiled Snake : This inexpensive inn's rooms were tiny, hot, and noisy, and guests shared them with a variety of insects and rodents&mdash;a pretty typical establishment for most of Calimport.
 * Spitting Camel : This safe and reasonably priced inn was just off Rogue's Circle run by a nervous man who didn't do much to make his guests feel at home.