Tashalar

Tashalar, also referred to as the Tashalar, was a small, self-contained country located on a strip of coast along the southern Shining Sea. It lay just east of the Chult peninsula, and west of the magic realm of Halruaa. It was famous for beautiful weather, beautiful people, excellent crossbows, and the richest wine-producing region in the world.

Description
The country was a lush and bountiful land of great natural wealth and goods that were considered exotic to many northern realms. It comprised a number of small city-states, scattered rural villages and vast jungle wilderness.

Geography
While "the Tashalar" was the name commonly used to refer to the entirety of the Tashtan Coast, the country itself comprised the Tashalar Basin set within the Hazur Mountains.

Jungles

 * Black Jungles, home to many yuan-ti tribes, at least one of which was allied with the Rundeen consortium.
 * Mhair Jungles, also home to scattered yuan-ti as well as some tribes of wild dwarves.

Mountains

 * Hazur Mountains, a range rich in natural resources such as gold and iron, that were home to stone giants and one particular Beshaban cult.
 * Delphin Mountains, the eastern arm of the Hazurs, separated from the other peaks by the Tashan Gap.

Regions

 * Cape Talath, the rocky outcropping that bordered Thindol to the west.
 * Labrand's Folly, a magically created tunnel that wound beneath Cape Talath under the Hazur Mountains.


 * Tashalar Basin, the natural depression formed within the Hazuk Mountains that encompassed the nation of Tashalar.

Flora & Fauna
The rare bloodflower could be found and harvested in the jungles of Tashalar to be used in the production of healing salves.

Life and Society
"Magic used is magic abused."

- A common saying in Tashalar.

The small city-states in Tashalar were home to various wealthy mercantile families who lived quite lavishly. In essence, they ruled the country through various merchant consortia. Commoners of the region typically made their living working in the fields, groves, or vineyards of these merchants' estates. Failing this, they could commonly find work as sailors, shipwrights, sail makers, and provisioners, all contributing to the trade of the region's goods.

Tashalarans obsessed over the future; nearly every adult owned a deck of cards or plaques that they could be found poring over for personal divinations, often calling to the deity Savras. Most decks were made of wood or vellum. Wealthier people may have had decks carved from ivory or other exotic materials.

The other unifying factor was a general distrust of arcane magic users. A long, costly feud between several wizards attempting to dominate the region remained fresh in the minds of the people who had to rebuild their spell-ravaged cities. It should be noted that this attitude did not apply to divine magic. Despite its taboo, servants of the church of Mystra taught magic to willing students in secret.

Practitioners of psionics were more commonly encountered in Tashalar than many other regions of Faerûn.

Culture
Hunting was a popular sport in Tashalar, as there were many deadly creatures to be found in the jungles.

The indigenous spicy foods were quite popular, as were strong wines kaeth, roasted pumpkin and loalurr seeds, and fruits such as dates and dried apricots and the rather tart yhaumarind. The distinct licorice-flavored drink of rollrum originated from locales in Tashalar.

Government
The Tashalar was part of the Lapal League. The major city centers to the south and east of the Shining Sea shared a common history dating back to the time of the sarrukh empires of old. Today, the Lapal League shared little more than a non-aggression pact and an interest in trade.

Trade
Influential Tashalaran merchants earned their great wealth from rich vineyards and olive groves within their estates. The country was also renowned for its beaches' sand, considered among the finest for use in making glass, as well as beautiful purple-and-green fabrics that were more beauteous than the highest-quality silk made in Calimshan. Taahalaran coffee was renowned for its strength and exported as far as the city of Arrabar in the Vilhon Reach.

Its cities enjoyed long-standing trade relationships with the nation of Calimshan, dating back thousands of years before the Era of Upheaval, having been historically dominated by the mercantile consortium known as the Rundeen. Smaller groups like the yuan-ti of House Se'Sehen and the dwarves of Delzimmer held sizable financial interests in the region.

Currency
The cities and settlements of Tashalar utilized authokh and bebolts, coins that were minted in the eastern realm of Chessenta. Calishite trade bars were also a widely-accepted form of currency.

Defenses
Tashalar was defended by a navy commanded by the mercantile consortium known as the Rundeen, operating out of the capital city of Tashluta.

History
Along with other settlements on the coast of the Shining Sea, the cities of Tashalar were devastated by the Temples Plague that broke out in the.

Settlers from Calimshan arrived in Tashalar in the, but only remained in the region in power for a few centuries. The Tashalaran people barely survived the Empire plague that struck in the, before the invading serpentfolk of Serpentes drove out the Calishites in the , forcing them to flee across the Shining Sea. The lizardfolk and other scaly kind were then overthrown themselves in the early 1 century DR following a ten-year war.

The Confederation of Tashtan was formed in the, claiming much of the coastland along the Shining Sea as its own. It would endure for over a quarter century before the Shoon Imperium launched the Tashalar Campaign of conquest over the region, supplanting local city leaders with loyal straps of Calimshan, and forcing the collective nation to disband into a number of smaller powers.

Disease once again spread throughout the region in the. Many Tashalans were inflicted by lycanthropy via the Moon Plague that originated in the northern metropolis of Calimport.

During the 12 century DR, in the, the Rage of Wizards erupted between the yuan-ti mages of the Coiled Cabal and a score of archmages that lived throughout Tashalar and Lapaliiya. Terrible destruction was brought down upon many of their cities. While the controlling Rundeen endured the devastation, along with Harper-led assaults against their trade monopoly in other lands, they remained in control of Tashluta nd sought to expand their influence in the surrounding lands with help of their allies in the Knights of the Shield and secretly, the yuan-ti of House Se'Sehen.

Following the cataclysmic event of the Spellplague, and throughout much of the 15 century, a vast stretch of Tashalar remained submerged beneath the joining of the Great and Shining Seas.

Rumors & Legends
Circa the, successive assassinations and blackmail attempts targeting Tashalar's nobility led many to believe that some power-hungry group such as the Rundeen or yuan-ti cabal were attempting to elevate a single ruler over the region.

Notable Locations
Some of the more prominent settlements of Tashalar were included among the Cities of the Seabreeze.

Landmarks

 * Abbey of Tharynd, an underground temple to Selûne that house the magical Moonshaft Pool.
 * Crypt of Anthilar, the resting place of the infamous lich Anthilar, rumored to house the spellskins of Mhairshaulk.

Settlements & Ruins

 * Procalith, a ruined city that dated back to the Shoon Imperium, having been destroyed during the Rage of Wizards in the 12 century.
 * Tashluta, the capital of Tashalar and the main point of arrival of nearly all outsiders to the realm.

Inhabitants
Tashalar was home to the Tashalan ethnic group of humans, wild dwarves that referred to themselves as "the Authalar", and myriad yuan-ti, including the human-like tainted ones, and the purebloods that served as covert agents within cities, whose hatred of snakes led their to be killed on sight.

Many of the region's lizardfolk along with its Chultan and Shaaran populations were slaves brought in from foreign lands.

Notable Inhabitants

 * Balagos, the self-styled King of the Dragons dwelled throughout Tashalar for at least a decade during the mid–14 century.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Candlekeep Mysteries: "The Canopic Being''
 * Novels
 * The Sapphire Crescent
 * The Sapphire Crescent