Eye Tyrant Wars

The Eye Tyrant Wars, known as the Orb Marches in Calimshan and the Deathsphere Battles by the dwarves, were a series of constant battles in the east of the Lands of Intrigue  during the Fifth Age of Calimshan, in which the humans of Tethyr and Calimshan allied with the dwarves and humans of Iltkazar against the beholders of the Alimir Mountains and their armies.

Location
The battles were fought north of the Forest of Mir in Iltkazar, in eastern Calimshan, and around the city-states of the Lake of Steam.

History
The Eye Tyrant Wars began in the fittingly named and lasted for about four years to end in.

Causes
The beholders of the Alimir Mountains first arrived some two millennia prior in the year, when three of their colony ships —spelljammers from another world  —crash-landed in the mountains. For the next two thousand years, the beholders and the Calishites had conflicts with each other. In fact, all of the members of the so-called Alimir Hive were descendants of a single hive mother from one of those three crashed spelljammers.

Battles with the beholders of the Alimir Hive continued in the Third Age of Calimshan,  and there was even a short period from  to  where beholders ruled all of Calimshan, until they were removed from power by warrior-priests of various Faerûnian powers known as the Drakhons. However, while the Drakhons took back Calimshan proper, the beholders instead turned their attention to the Arnaden region and the Lake of Steam.

War with the beholders erupted again from to. Calishite forces, having developed the technologies of shortbows and chariots, were able to reduce the population of Alimir beholders to half of what it was and clear the region around Almraiven of the monsters.

However, by the time of the Empire Plague of −375 to, Calimshan had fully lost control over the Arnaden region farther east to the tyrants again,  and by −170 DR, a number of trusted nazirs had even revealed themselves to be secret members of beholder cults, sworn to obedience to the Alimir Hive. The Arnadar and the eye tyrants now set their many eyes on areas such as the Omlarandin Mountains, the Kuldin Peaks, and the Forest of Mir as places where they could entrench themselves for future incursions into civilized lands. In this year, they advanced with their troops north of the Forest of Mir into the dwarven kingdom of Iltkazar and west deeper into Calishite lands. The city of Almraiven fell before the month of Tarsakh and Suldolphor fell before Greengrass.

In the dwarf-built city of Iltakar, (later the city of Shoonach), the Garrison Meetings were held, in which King Silvam Ithal of Tethyr served as an intermediary between Calimshan and Iltkazar, which, like Tethyr, had previously been under Calishite control. The meetings were a success, and the three loosely allied nations joined forces in battle against the eye tyrants. For its part, Calimshan agreed to the alliance primarily out of dire need. Additionally, it hoped to find a weakness in Tethyr's army that would allow it to retake its former "rebellious" territories at a later date.

Before leaving with his troops for war, King Silvam's vizera, Zahyra Ithal, gifted him with a powerful magic artifact that she and her mentor had created, the Shield of Silvam. Besides the power to reflect the eyebeams of beholders, the shield allowed Vizera Zahyra to observe and participate in the battle with her crystal ball known as the Eye of Zahyra. Not only could she monitor the status of the king and his troops, she could support them with her own spells and with the healing spells of clerics in the court, who all remained safely back in Tethyr. (Visera Zahyra recorded the battles in her Annals of First Vizera Zahyra. )

Battles
The Calishite generals proposed many strategies designed for the Tethyrian and Iltkazaran armies to take the most casualties, and the beholders took advantage of these dis-unified battle plans to earn the majority of the early victories in the war. Early in the first year of conflict, before the month of Kythorn, the beholders had conquered nearly all of southern Itlkazar and half of Calimshan, pushing west past Almraiven into the Spider Swamp and the Forest of Mir. The cities of Almraiven and Suldolphor, as already noted, had fallen to the beholder onslaught, as did the southern half of the Forest of Mir. This positioning by the beholder forces effectively cut off western reinforcements from reaching the eastern parts of Calimshan from the west.

The Forest Fronts
Over the last three years of the war, the beholders tried to expand into the north of the Forest of Mir on three separate occasions and failed on each attempt. During the first attempt, the humans were saved by the secret involvement of Myth Dyraalis in the northeast of the forest. The elven wizards used their magic to teleport the beholders into the Underdark, to be devoured by a powerful shadow dragon whom they knew to be lairing in Shanatar's ruins.

During the second failed attempt, the army of Calimshan was surprisingly joined by drow forces from the enclave of Dallnothax! However, once the beholder forces were forced back, the human and drow warriors turned on each other.

Similarly, aranea joined the fight on the beholder's third push north, yet only until the eye tyrants were removed from their woods, at which point, like the drow, they took up their arms against the humans instead.

Storming of the Qatarn Hills
In the second-last year of the war, the,  in the first five days of Uktar,  a major battle known as the Storming of the Qatarn Hills occurred. Nine beholders  and their 3,000 enslaved soldiers surrounded the Fourth Army of the allies among the Qatarn Hills near Kzelter. King Silvam and Calishite general Revaod el Simaal  were remembered for their bravery and valiance in leading their own troops against overwhelming odds of three to one. Some 400 humans died that day, but the allies were victorious.

The victory was not the end of the war, however. Before the end of the year, the city of Volothamp fell, as did Schamedar, but the humans did gain another victory by retaking Ankhapur in the far east from the eye tyrants, because the beholders had begun to spread their forces too thin.

Battle of Eyesvale
The final battle of the war occurred in −166    and was known as the Battle of Eyesvale, in which the allied forces were victorious. The battle took place in a tiny glen between Ithal Pass and Kzelter. There, standing atop Uller's Hill at the southern end of the field, King Silvam slew the last of the beholders.

The hill was "lopsided" because of how many petrified beholder corpses and humanoid skeletons were buried adjacent to the original hill.

Aftermath
While the war ultimately ended in victory for the humans and dwarves, it was at great cost. The fallen Calishite cities were retaken, and Calimshan began the process of rebuilding them after all the destruction. The alliance remained intact for a few years to continue pursuing renegade beholders scattered about their lands.

Within five years, however, the nations only remained allies in trade. Many among the Tethyrian clans did not believe the war had been of any benefit to Tethyr; they had sacrificed greatly with little thanks from the two other countries involved.

It was not until the that the then syl-pasha of Calimport,   Kamus el Tarshaj,  ceded the lands of Monrativi Teshy Mir—what would later become Ankaram—to Tethyr. In truth, this was more to protect Syl-Pasha el Tarshaj. Rumors had reached the syl-pasha that some of the clans of Tethyr were talking of beginning a war to take more land from Calimshan while it was weak. He had also heard rumors that other Calishite nobles in that area were also seeking to overturn his rule. King Silvam Ithal was named raj of Ankaram, removing the former raj of Mir from power and effectively ending both threats to the syl-pasha's rule simultaneously.

In Iltkazar, the dwarves found themselves severely weakened by the war, and this led to the loss of territory against other evils—drow from Guallidurth, mind flayers from Oryndoll, and clans of duergar.

Combatants
Calishite records suggest that beholder abominations such as directors, examiners, lensmen, overseers, and watchers may have been among the eye tyrants' forces.

The allied forces included humans from Calimshan and Tethyr, including 10,000 warriors from the Tethyrian clans. The heir of Clan Bormul, Lord Pyrus, was among the combatants. Iltkazar sent both dwarves and humans. The Calishite forces were as large as the Tethyrian and Iltkazar contingents combined.

Numbered among the allied warriors was a legendary order of dwarves and humans called the Axe-Brothers, or the Knights of the Crescent Moon. This order had been formed thirty years prior in response to a divine vision from both Selûne and Clangeddin Silverbeard warning of a growing threat on the western shores of the Lake of Steam. The Axe-Brothers, whose numbers exceeded 1,000 warriors, included members both from Tethyr and Iltkazar, and most were clerics who either followed the Moonmaiden or the Father of Battle. The Knights of the Crescent Moon were specifically trained in combat against the beholders and possessed an assortment of weapons designed against them. Without their presence in the war, it's not likely that the allies would have won.

While the Axe-Brothers were at first regarded as heroes in the war, it only took a few decades before they were regarded with suspicion among both nobles and clergy, because it was hard for many to believe how a group could simultaneously follow both a human and a dwarven deity.

Also supporting the allies were the Knights of the Shield. This pseudo-religious organization was created at the start of the war to serve as spies and scouts for Tethyr. Their symbol was King Silvam's shield.

Casualties
Tethyr lost half of its troops to the war. Clan Bormul was hit particularly hard, loosing half of its noble sons, including the famous paladin Alonso Bormul, who was Lord Pyrus's younger brother.

Rumors & Legends
Some believed that Lord Pyrus had caused the death of his younger brother by leading him into an ambush, being jealous of the latter for his many acts of valor. Such rumors were never proven.

In the city of Volothamp, one probably untrue legend told of the beholder Wythal the Vile who ruled the city during its occupation during the war. Wythal was said to enjoy petrifying and then shattering anyone who opposed him. However, he kept as statues the victims whom he had managed to capture in "humorous poses". One of his statues, a former askar, came to life one night, though his body remained in the form of stone. The lowly soldier ended the dreadful reign of Wythal by shoving one stone hand and a stone arm stump into Wythal's central eye and then ripping the beholder wide open. Upon killing the monster, the askar of stone then crumbled to dust with a deafening cry of joy that echoed throughout the entire city.

The Eye Tyrant Wars were one of the major conflicts thought to have been cryptically predicted by the famed Abbalayar seer el Nar'ysr in his Eclipse Prophecies.