Shelzar

Shelzar is a wild, sprawling city of passion and commerce dedicated to the Trickster Goddess Enkili, who frequently comes to the city himself to walk among their faithful and indulge her appetites. It's a city of contradictions: a place fed by chaos, but one that has its own intricate customs and mores with strict punishments. It is a city given over to pleasure where there is still misery. It is a city of merchants that is threaded through with desperate poverty and squalor. While other places on Ghelspad have such dichotomies, Shelzar embraces and uplifts them.

History
(From Shelzar: City of Sins, except where otherwise noted)
 * 1) Asaatthi Empire falls; Empire of Flame arises on the Sweltering Plains, spanning from Kan Thet to the Broadreach River
 * 2) Intermittent settlement in and around site of modern Shelzar
 * 3) Empire of Flame falls
 * 4) Slarecian Empire rises; indirect cultural influence on Shelzar region
 * 5) A mortal sect, the Nasirsa, joins the slarecians as servants
 * 6) Empire of Lede rises in eastern Ghelspad
 * 7) Titans and gods unite to drive out the slarecians; Nasirsa who evade capture go into hiding
 * 8) With no sign of the slarecians, the Nasirsa fragment
 * 9) Ledean Empire slowly spreads from Aurimar across Ghelspad
 * 10) One offshoot, the Hazari people, settle along the Blossoming Sea coast
 * 11) Hazari teaching changes its emphasis from anti-divine/titan to pro-hedonism
 * 12) Hakhiya Aboussa guides the Hazari to the site of modern Shelzar to build a new "Fortress of the Hazari," or Shai al Hazari
 * 13) An army of titan-followers assaults the city
 * 14) A Ledean army sweeps in and eradicates the attacking army
 * 15) General Cunion Duathai of Lede meets with Sultan Akooro Ta'andi and incorporates the city into the Ledean Empire under generous terms
 * 16) In return, Shai al Hazari agrees to open its gates to followers of the gods and titans
 * 17) Lede funnels funds into the city, turning it into a mercantile jewel for the empire
 * 18) Ledeans, in their tongue, begin calling the city "Shelzar"
 * 19) The city becomes one of the centerpoints of the new Zakithskite Province, though not its capital
 * 20) Traditional Hazari followers splinter, some welcoming the influx of god-worshippers, some clinging to the old ways
 * 21) Ledeans place a hand-picked sultan on the city's throne
 * 22) Sultan Zaa'awa Eloud guides his people, now calling themselves the Elzan instead of the Hazari, further into hedonism
 * 23) The enthusiastic Elzan are now model imperial citizens the empire grants Shelzar leadership of Zathiskite Province and moves most forces from its garrison in Quelsk into Shelzar
 * 24) Shelzar celebrates with a spontaneous festival, the Day of Illumination; Sultan Jamadir Baghali tours local Ledean temples as an act of unity
 * 25) Hazari traditionalists following Ma'ed Al-Yaqa, enraged by the changes, decapitate the city government on the Night of Majeel
 * 26) Troops from Quelsk quickly restore order
 * 27) The Ledean emperor rescinds Shelzar's status as capital and imposes martial law and wipes out most Hazari
 * 28) The Ledean emperor commissions a new, fully Ledean city to lead the province: the city of Elz
 * 29) With Imperial interest elsewhere, the city's mercantile sector flourishes, but the city and its people have lost their spirit
 * 30) Ghurika appears in Shelzar in the latter part of the Vhaerith Dynasty and begins preaching Enkili's word to the city
 * 31) Note: Confusion on this point; if Ghurika popularized Enkili at the end of the dynasty, but the faith took 200 years to fully bloom, and (as stated later in Shelzar: City of Sins) maturing in the Empire's 500th year, then Ghurika must have arrived at the dawn of the dynasty, which lasted from OC 312-507. This page proceeds on that assumption.
 * 32) Elzan folk in the city become drawn to her beauty, as well as the way she throws herself on the mercy of chance and fortune
 * 33) Ghurika vanishes, but over the next ten years Enkili becomes the leading deity in Shelzar, especially among the Elzan
 * 34) Over two centuries, the Elzan (and even other residents of the city) come to call themselves the Shelzari, and Enkili's (and Idra's) teachings become the cornerstone of the city's culture
 * 35) Tourism becomes a major Shelzari industry, especially around debauchery and gambling
 * 36) In its fifth century, the Ledean Empire is now stagnant, corrupt, and fragile
 * 37) Vhaerith Dynasty outlaws all god worship within the Ledean Empire, inciting broad discontent
 * 38) Venirian Province rebels against the empire
 * 39) Angry about the ban and comfortable with risks, The Shelzari secede from the tottering empire along with Shelzar's Ledean governor and military officers
 * 40) Shelzar spreads a cover story about a fresh coup by Hazari remnants, going so far as to rename the city Shai al Hazari and installing a false Sultan
 * 41) Shelzar's gamble pays off; the Vhaerith Dynasty quickly falls
 * 42) The incoming Morian Dynasty rescinds the edicts against divine worship immediately
 * 43) Shelzar returns to the empire, but only after the emperor concedes further power and influence to the city and Zakithskite Province
 * 44) The imperial government in Aurimar relies heavily on Shelzar to support its shaky claim to the throne
 * 45) To shore up popularity, the Morians elevate various provincial families to the nobility, including the Sam'Marith of Shelzar
 * 46) A Sam'Marith becomes satrap of Zakithskite and its Master of Arms
 * 47) The Morians quickly prove to be corrupt and even more unstable than their predecessors
 * 48) The Sam'Marith, using their many sorcerers and genie allies, depose the Morians and seize the throne
 * 49) The new emperor, Sayyad Sam'Marith, sidesteps the empire's plotting nobles by moving the court out of Aurimar to Elz
 * 50) The Sam'Marith's armies of bodyguards and troops keep them safe, but being in Elz isolates them from Aurimar's intrigues and also the influence of the Enkilite faith in Shelzar
 * 51) The Sam'Marith Dynasty embraces decadence, widespread slavery, and personal vendettas or acquisitions with alarming speed
 * 52) The empire invades the Southern Kingdoms east of the Broadreach River, former Shelzari trading rivals
 * 53) The newly formed Calas Province is unstable, and rebels there plague Shelzari trade colonies and travelers
 * 54) Shelzar's economy stagnates, and a lasting rivalry smolders between Zakithskite and Calas Provinces
 * 55) The Sam'Marith Dynasty keeps power mainly through its sorcerers and genie-binders
 * 56) Calas rebels assassinate Emperor Jaajeem II in OC 601
 * 57) Jaajeem's successor Omadil invades Calas and replaces the Calasite puppet-king with Omadil's own brother
 * 58) Calasites seethe under Sam'Marith rulership until almost the fall of the Ledean Empire over a millenium later
 * 59) The empire stagnates until OC 732
 * 60) Baricca Takhuul of Aurimar uses her influence to collect dissatisfied elements of the military to attack Elz
 * 61) Note: Conflict here between Shelzar: City of Sins and Player's Guide to Rangers and Rogues, which specifies that Liam Takhuul instead becomes emperor and First Lord of the Takhuul Dynasty
 * 62) Zakiyad, the last Sam'Marith emperor, is captured hiding in his harem in OC 732
 * 63) Empress Baricca moves the Takuul throne home to Aurimar and the provincial administration from Elz to Quelsk
 * 64) Shelzar, its reputation deeply tarnished in the empire by association with the Sam'Marith, falls into disfavor
 * 65) The Shelzari remain important to trade, but culturally they turn inward, away from the greater empire, for the next 150 years
 * 66) The Takhuul Dynasty promotes worship of the gods over the titans
 * 67) Shelzar's Brotherhood of the Lamp, powerful genie-summoners, become a powerful force within the Coventacle of the Ancients, specifically the Seat of Thulkas, though the Coventacle itself steadily loses influence within the empire under the new Takhuul edicts
 * 68) During the next 1500 years pass of relative stability, Shelzar remains at the heart of the Ledean economy
 * 69) During the Second Takhuul Dynasty, frequent visits by various emperors cement Shelzar as Lede's City of Pleasures
 * 70) Around 2272 OC, Shelzar and Zathiskite Province in general are deeply dissatisfied with the empire's vacillation and poor protection
 * 71) Leaders among Shelzar's merchants, military, and religions meet in the city of Elz and quickly decide they have no reason to remain in the Ledean Empire
 * 72) The Zakithskite satrap stops responding to orders from Aurimar and uses tax money to hire mercenaries to defend provincial borders and trade
 * 73) A council of merchants and priests of Enkili wield power; the satrap is crowned Sultan as a figurehead
 * 74) The Empire of Elz is born
 * 75) For three years, the dysfunctional Ledean Empire does not realize Zathiskite Province has seceded
 * 76) The Argent Dynasty of the Ledean Empire falls in 2275 OC, severely disrupting all its functions
 * 77) The Thael Dynasty demands Elz's aid against an onslaught of Albadian raiders in Lede's northern provinces, threatening severe reprisals if the Sultan doesn't bow to Aurimar
 * 78) By 2300 OC, there's no longer any doubt that the Ledeans have no power over the Empire of Elz