Kadash the False (1057-1061 ST)
An usurper from Ssar on Gror, or Charg, or somewhere. With Dara Happan support, he treacherously kills his benefactor, Massandar, then brings in a load of his uncouth relatives from Charg to run the show. He doesn't last long, of course, but the resulting distrust between Carmania and Charg derails a potentially useful bond (natural enough: after all, they have to kill enough of the "barbarians" to get rid of him).
Massantar (1062-1081 ST)
The Mountain War. All over Arir, states fight for the right to provide the priests for a sacred mountain in the northern Yolp Mts.
Use that line about the Eurotas & Cephissos from Plutarch's Sayings of the Spartans: very sarcastic! Perhaps create a brief diplomatic source so I can describe and mock Dara Happan court procedure of the time: never turn your back on the Emperor "because nobody trusts him", etc. Borrow from Liutprand's Embassy to Constantinople.
Killed in battle against Dara Happans (part of the Darjiin war, which has rumbled on all this time?)
Haran the Great (1082-1120 ST)
Shah Haran, the greatest Padishah-Emperor, and his war with Alkoth. This is the Carmanian heroic epic: loads of single combat against magical foes, tragedy, dynastic goings-on, and the like. The final History will allude to these as well-known stories (just as Greek historians treated the Tale of Troy).
He founds Harandash, the new capital of Carmania: a city noted for the precision and austerity of its crag-top architecture. The story behind this is based on the Cyrus bit from Herodotus (the mountains or the lowlands: which should we live in? The mountains breed hard men, the lowlands soft men. If we descend, we are conquered).
The Alkothiad
The Alkoth war, in brief. Begins with Haran determined to avenge his father and take this Dara Happan metropolis. Marches his army to the plains of Darjiin for a ten-year war against Alkoth. The Carmanian army is based in Haranshold, which is founded at this date and has some of the finest fortifications in Peloria. (Tho' men of Alkoth boast that their shields are the finest wall any city could desire, as we know!).
A theme of the Alkothiad: Shah Haran is fated to ride in triumph through the gates of any city he attacks, but Alkoth is fated never to fall to a hostile army. (NB: I don't believe they ever have, in known history!). IMPASSE. A ten-year siege, with battles between heroes fought over the plains of Darjiin and Henjarl.
At the end, they unite against a common "foe" - the remnants of the EWF. The armies of Carmania and Dara Happa march together to Dragon Pass. None return. Shah Haran dies with his men - after slaying the biggest Dragon you ever saw, natch!
"Call For Heroes"
Careshtan (1121-1138 ST)
Not a Padishah any longer...
Decline and decadence. Mention Shardash (aka "Dolebury" = "Burntwall"), the ruined city at the mouth of the Oronin River (where it flows into the Poralistor): reminiscent of *Persepolis and *Seleucia as the fallen capital of a mighty empire. This is the "soft life" Haran warned against (description from *Epic of the Kings?) Now, courtyards of blackened, broken columns, a place of ghosts and hollow dreams.
"It was such a dwelling as a man's heart would covet at sight... It suffered neither torrid July nor chill December; its air was perfumed with amber and its rain was wine. The whole year round it enjoyed the climate of Spring and its flowers had the tints of rosy-cheeked girls. In that spot the minds of men were remote from distress, grief and vexation, and if there was pain it was suffered by the bodies of Divs. Each day laid its head down in slumber in contentment and spread the lesson of justice done." (Epic of the Kings, p.58). If I steal this as the basis for a description, the fact that the seasons are even and not extreme should be subtly twisted into a curse: neither Light nor Dark was strong in Shardash. Note good hunting just north of the Poralistor in the glades of Erigia?
