Lapaliiya

Lapaliiya, also known as the Lapal League, was a confederation of city-states lying on the southeastern shore of the Shining Sea. The term "The Cities of the Seabreeze" was sometimes misunderstood to describe Lapaliiya, but this phrase also included other, independent cities, such as Narubel, Tashluta, Ormpur, and Procalith. By 1479 DR, the confederacy of Lapaliiya had crumbled during the Spellplague due to spellfire spreading through a newly formed gap in Halruaa's North Wall. The remnants were occupied by wild elf tribes and the region was known as Elfharrow. The city of Ormpur survived, however.

Geography
It lay roughly between the Shining Sea, the plains of the Shaar, the jungles of the Chultan Peninsula, and the verdant lands of the Lake of Steam. It consisted of the land between the Delphin Mountains in the west and the Sheir Peninsula in the east, and bounded inland in the south by the Mhair Jungles, the North Wall of Halruaa, the Bandit Wastes, and the Dun Hills.

Prehistory
In prehistoric times, the Lapal people were human tribes dwelling in the eastern jungles of the Chultan Peninsula, with villages around the inland Lapal Sea. However, for a long age, they were also a slave people, kept under the yoke of the reigning yuan-ti. Then, in −2809 DR, several new human tribes—the Eshowe, Tabaxi, and Thinguth, led by couatls to the faith of Ubtao—arrived in the western jungles of Chult, peoples who had always been free and unoppressed. Indirectly, they inspired the Lapal tribes to begin revolting against their yuan-ti masters. But winning freedom would be hard and a long time coming.

Finally, after centuries of sporadic clashes and uprisings against the yuan-ti, in −1732 DR, the Lapal abandoned their homes and escaped to the east and north. They came into the lands later known as Halruaa (where they settled in the Lake Halruaa basin ), and on the southeastern shores of the Shining Sea. Thus the Lapal tribes spread had far, from the southern coast of the Chultan Peninsula to the western edge of the Shaar.

Early History
However, the yuan-ti continued to terrorize the Lapal. Facing fresh attacks, in the aptly named Year of Fragile Beginnings, −690 DR, the Lapal tribes living along the coast came together in common cause and united in the nation of Lapaliiya. They adopted the settlement of Sheirtalar as their capital, and the Fortress of Lapalgard as a symbol of their unity. Nevertheless, the fledgling nation remained threatened by the yuan-ti and was dwarfed by the great northern empires of Calimshan and Jhaamdath. It continued to be regarded as a barbaric and bellicose backwater. Lapaliiyan tribesmen had long raided the eastern colonies of Calimshan through the first half of the empire's Third Age, from around −900 DR to around −550 DR.

Then, Calishite trade ships docked at Sheirtalar for the first time in the Year of Silken Sabers, −569 DR, carrying exotic new luxury goods and opening trade with the settlements on the southern shores of the Shining Sea. The Calishites had a civilizing influence on the northern Lapal tribes, triggering a golden age of prosperity, and the tribal villages grew into cities. Away to the west, Lapal fieldhands and Calishite merchants settled the new realm of the Tashalar and founded Tashluta in the Year of Plentiful Wine, −553 DR.

The golden age came to a bitter end when the Empire Plague—carried by the rats on the Calishite ships—struck the southern Shining Sea coastlands in the Year of Clutching Dusk, −375 DR. In mere months, nearly 30% of Lapaliiya's population had died and the Lapal confederation was all but broken. The plague dragged on for five horrible years, leaving the city-states. Fleeing the plague, some Lapal refugees journeyed deep into the Shaar, founding Lhesper in the Year of Whispering Stones, −373 DR.

Imperial Possession
The resurgent yuan-ti founded the empire of Serpentes in the Year of Erupting Crypts, −304 DR. When they and their lizardfolk armies invaded, the debilitated Lapal states could offer no strong or organized resistance. By the Year of Sunned Serpents, −189 DR, Serpentes had conquered all Lapaliiya, the Tashalar, and the surrounding lands, with Ormpur alone remaining free. The struggling Lapaliiyan defenders fought a great battle against the armies of Serpentes near Abreon.

Lapaliiya remained a subject of Serpentes, but the empire fell into decline and infighting when its emperor Sseth vanished in the Year of Dreams, 10 DR. After a successful revolt, the humans of the Tashalar marched east, liberating the Cities of the Seabreeze one by one and driving out the yuan-ti. In the Year of Purloined Power, 34 DR, the new Confederation of Tashtan claimed all the southern Shining Sea coastlands, including Lapaliiya, and all the various humans living there came to be called Tashalans (an admixture of Lapaliiyans, Calishites, Chultans, and Tashtan-dwelling Shaarans). This was another time of prosperity for the Tashtan cities.

The slayings of a dozen Tashalaran merchant lords in the late 270s DR left Tashtan in a leadership crisis and ill-equipped to resist the demands of Qysara Shoon V (281–300 DR) of the Shoon Imperium that the Cities of the Seabreeze host garrisons of imperial soldiers. In the Year of Wasteful Pride, 285 DR, the Shoon Imperium snatched control of Lapaliiya, but its cities remained effectively independent. The Lapaliiyan city of Untisczer rebelled and, though it was quashed, Shoon V had cause to launch the Tashalar Campaigns. Untisczer was obliterated as a show of force and the remaining Tashtan cities captured and installed with military governors, all possessions of the Shoon Imperium.

However, under the weak reign of Qysara Shaani (367 DR–427 DR), the Shoon satraps of Lapaliiya were left practically independent. Perhaps seeing the inevitable, the satraps allied themselves more closely to the local peoples rather than to distant Shoonach. Although trade continued, the Shoon Imperium grew steadily more unstable.

Finally, in the Year of Willing Sacrifice, 435 DR, the easternmost fringes of the Shoon Imperium in the Shaar revolted against their puppet rulers and imperial garrisons, the first in the empire to defy it. The revolts quickly spread to Lapaliiya; Sheirtalar was free of Shoon rule for a brief period over 436/437 DR. It would not last: Qysar Amahl Shoon VII dispatched seventeen ships of troops to crush the rebellion. In the Seven Burnings campaign of 438–440 DR, they wreaked havoc in Sheirtalar and Sheirlantar in Lapaliiya, as well as in other cities. Though they retook the Lapaliiyan and Shaaran lands, the troops were forced to withdraw again.

Regardless, the Shoon Imperium finally fell in the Year of the Corrie Fist, 450 DR, when Amahl Shoon VII was killed by Tethyrian rebels. The imperial garrisons were driven out of Lapaliiya and all the holdings in the Shaar and the Chultan Peninsula by the close of the Year of Unleashed Fears, 451 DR. However, the canny satraps of Lapaliiya kept their positions, and Lapaliiya became an independent state once more.

The Lapal League
Over the next two centuries, the Lapaliiyan city-states enjoyed prosperity and peace, a so-called "silver age". Its merchants traded around the Shining Sea, while the other former lands of the Shoon Imperium strained to rebuild.

Meanwhile, from the Year of the Fanged Beast, 640 DR onward, the gnoll tribes of the Shaar turned to the worship of Yeenoghu and grew in might, raiding the towns around Lake Lhespen and destroying Lhesper. In fear of such attacks, the city-states of Lapaliiya elected to unite in another confederation: they established the Lapal League in the Year of Peaceful Seas, 656 DR, with Sheirtalar again its capital. The expected raids came and, even after the gnolls fell into intertribal strife and their attacks dwindled in the Year of the Shrouded Slayer, 671 DR, the Lapal League stayed together. Nonetheless, it was only nominally a nation; the satraps of the five most powerful city-states made up the Grand Council, but it had little actual power.

Over the next several centuries, every few decades, a Shaaran nomad tribe would arise and invade Lapaliiya. However, they would usually overrun a coastal city or two, then be assimilated as new citizens while the merchants continued business as usual. With such influxes, Shaarans became the majority human ethnicity in Lapaliiya, while the existing Tashalans became a dominant minority and rule stayed with the satraps descended from the Imperium governors.

In the Year of the Sword's Oath, 1142 DR, the Coiled Cabal, a group of yuan-ti pureblood mages, awoke from centuries of somnolence and attempted to reconquer the Cities of the Seabreeze. They were opposed by over two dozen archmages of Lapaliiya and Tashluta, who fought first the yuan-ti, then each other as they vied for their own power. For a full season, in a conflict called the Rage of Wizards, they waged wild spell battles up and down the Tashtan Coast. By its end, the cities of Lapaliiya and the Tashalar had suffered gratuitous destruction, but not one wizard or yuan-ti had won a single crown. Disgusted, for centuries after the Lapaliiyans would see wizards with suspicion and instead treat the clergies with much greater respect, leading to the establishment of the civic faiths, as well as the faith-based relations between the cities.

In the aftermath, the ruling houses of Sheirtalar and Lushpool formed a union in the Year of Glad Tidings, 1147 DR, and installed a ruler: the first Overking of Lapaliiya.

Religion
Every town and city in Lapaliiya had its own civic deity, a god adopted as the patron of the community and whose faith was glorified there. In a particular settlement with a civic deity, all other faiths were actively discouraged. Some settlements were outright theocracies. The civic deities of Lapaliiya and their respective settlements were Bhaelros (Ithmong), Deneir (Mierskar), Chauntea (Dungar), Eldath (Lushpool), Garl Glittergold (Zashuma), Gond (Lhazantal), Ilmater (Uzurr), Kelemvor (previously Myrkul; Sheirlantar), Lliira (Abreon), Selûne (Sammaresh), Silvanus (Malaxer), Tempus (Lapalgard), Tiamat (Ormpur), Umberlee (Ilyaport), and Waukeen (Sheirtalar). In Lapaliiyan mythology, Amphisbaena the World Serpent was a dark god who'd wrapped its coils around the world. As he devoured himself, so he slowly crushed the world into pulp.

Government & Relations
The nation of Lapaliiya was a fractious confederation or league of various city-states,  loosely ruled over by a council or monarchy of only limited power and influence. In past centuries, Lapaliiya was no more than a collection of independent city-states, a nation in name only governed by a Grand Council comprised by the satraps of the five most powerful, but with practically no real power. Since the union of the rulers of Sheirtalar and Lushpool in 1147 DR, it was ruled by the Overking of Lapaliiya, from the capitol of Sheirtalar. The reign was complex. The Overking ruled directly over Sheirtalar, and through their heir, Lushpool. With the consent of the Grand Council, the Overking also officially governed the remaining city-states of Lapaliiya; the Grand Council could vote on the Overking's decrees, but make its own. However, in practice, to enact a new policy, an Overking needed the unanimous support of the representatives of Sammaresh, Ithmong, Lushpool, Sheirtalar, and Uzurr, and typically had to negotiate with the satraps of Lushpool and Shoonsar of Ithmong. Circa 1372 DR, the nation was ruled by Overking Shaliim Wyrmslayer.

Owing to the tradition of civic deities, the relationships between the towns and cities tended to reflect those between their respective gods, with both alliances and rivalries. The league was highly fractious; conflicts occurred more between the city-states than with other countries. These were generally open political disputes or underhanded scheming.

However, Lapaliiya did have some quarrels with neighboring Halruaa via the Talath Pass. At times, the city-states raided Halruaa, most likely for its great magic, but the invaders were soundly defeated by such magic. Otherwise, they were content to trade peaceable in both directions, provided the Lapaliiyans stayed behind the border.

Economy & Trade
Lapaliiya and Halruaa had healthy trade back and forth through Talath Pass.

Population
Around 1372 DR, Lapaliiya was recorded as having a population of 1,217,642 people, comprising 95% humans, 2% rock gnomes, 2% yuan-ti, and 1% wild dwarves. Of the human population, 50% were Shaaran, 35% or 36% were Calishite, and 12% were Tashalan, with 1% Chultan and 1% Halruaan. Although they were a minority compared to the Shaarans and Calishites, the Tashalans filled most positions of authority in the nation.

Languages
The majority Shaaran population spoke the Lapaliiyan dialect of the Shaaran language, which used the Dethek alphabet. The dominant language, however, was the Tashalan language. Those who knew multiple languages would speak the tongues of their neighbors: Alzhedo, Chultan, Halruaan; or those of their enemies, Gnoll and Yuan-ti.

Culture
Whatever their ethnicity, however, Lapaliiyans had a uniform character. They tended be hardworking merchants and zealous warriors. They greatly valued personal honor and propriety, and would regularly wage feuds and fight duels over even minor offenses that outsiders would quickly dismiss or barely notice. Religious careers, such as clerics and monks were highly respected and had much authority, while those who used arcane magic were treated with suspicion, ever since the Rage of Wizards of 1142 DR.

Ophiophobia, the fear of snakes, was commonplace. Humans saw serpentfolk like the yuan-ti as the major menace to both their lives and their property, and would kill them on sight if ever they appeared in the open. Even dealing openly with serpentfolk was a crime carrying the death penalty. Despite this, the yuan-ti maintained a significant but secret influence over Lapaliiya, and officials had a habit of not noticing questionable dealings between them and people of substantial political clout. Ironically, some Lapaliiyan humans had yuan-ti ancestry, enjoying enhanced reflexes and resistance to poison, while being slightly inhuman and counted as serpentfolk themselves.

Through long exposure, some Lapaliiyans could be highly resistant to poisons, able to shrug off even lethal venoms. Other Lapaliiyans were adept sailors and well balanced on a rolling deck.

Lapaliiyan warriors were commonly equipped with well-made javelins, scimitars, and studded leather armors. Potions of invisibility were readily available.

Geography

 * Bandit Wastes
 * Dolphingulf
 * Dun Hills
 * Sheir Peninsula
 * River Talar
 * Serpent Deeps

Settlements

 * Abreon
 * Dungar
 * Ilyaport
 * Ithmong
 * Lapalgard
 * Lhazantal
 * Lushpool
 * Malaxer
 * Mierskar
 * Sammaresh
 * Sheirlantar
 * Sheirtalar
 * Untisczer
 * Uzurr
 * Zashuma