Continuity/Gharu'ndim History

Early Game

From various older sources of lore, mostly those released during Beta and the first year or so of Release, we know that the basic history of Gharu'n is as follows:

• The Gharu'ndim, led by the Malik Rakhil al-Khur and the warrior-poet Yasif ibn Salayyar, head north out of the Naqut desert and begin to conquer Roulean territory.
• The Gharu'ndim army siege the Roulean capital of Tirethas. Rakhil threatens to burn the books of the city, and Yasif slays the Malik.
• Rather than succeeding the dead Malik, Yasif becomes adviser to Rakhil's son, Amul ibn Rakhil.
• Yasif becomes the Emissary of Gharu'n, and travels to the other nations of Ispar to get them to recognize Gharu'n as a sovereign nation.
• Mansur al-Rajan, the author of the text To Be A Shadow, is 14 when Yasif is kidnapped while on a mission to Milantos. The events of To Be A Shadow occur. The Zharalim is formed.
• Yasif returns to Gharu'n 5 years later. At this time it is mentioned that Amul is not yet 40 years old.
• Eventually, Yasif dies.
• Soon after, Amul dies.
• With the death of the Malik, Gharu'n falls into chaos, and a period knowns as the Century of Storms begins, a hundred year time period where Gharu'n has no fewer than 25 rulers.
• Approximately 15 years after the Century of Storms begins, Ladriya bint Daum leaves Tirethas and journeys to her home in Taban.
• 20 years after the death of Yasif, Mansur writes the text To Be A Shadow.
• Ladriya bint Daum arrives in Taban in the year 1018.
• Viamont invades, installs a puppet king Zahir ibn Ma'mun. Jawhar al-Shamshir unites his people, defeats Zahir, and drives the Viamontians out of Gharu'n.
• Jawhar becomes the Malik and Century of Storms ends.
• In more recent times, Malika Qadira bint Balj is the ruler of Gharu'n.

Throne of Destiny

With the Throne of Destiny expansion, some of the present day Isparian history is revised to fit the new Viamontian invasions in. While the Gharu'ndim Heritage page from Beta states that the threat of war from Viamont (and Milantos) is present, it has not occurred. Much like with the Aluvian History, we'll have to conclude that Qadira bint Balj is the Malika at the time just prior to the new Viamontian invasion.

History of Auberean

When Turbine released the lore articles The History of Auberean, they redid the timeline. For more information see Continuity - Roulean Calendar and Portal Years and Continuity - Aluvian History. One piece of information revealed in this article is that the siege of Tirethas occurred in the year 924 RC.

Conflicting dates

It is mentioned in the text The Silifi of the Crimson Stars that one of the crimson stars, al-Ghul, was renamed al-Kuhr some 300 years ago in honor of Rakhil al-Khur after a victory at the salt mines eat of Tirethas. Using our conclusions from Continuity - Roulean Calendar and Portal Years, that would place this at around 991 if we subtract 300 from the current day when the text was written.

Obviously, Rakhil could not have had a victory around 991 if he was killed in 924. However, if the victory occurred just prior to 924, say in the year 923, the victory would have occurred 368 years prior to the writing of the text The Silifi of the Crimson Stars, which roughly fits the description of some three hundred years ago.

Ages

Working back from 1018, we know then that Amul died in 1003, and Yasif died shortly before that. We also know that Rakhil was killed by Yasif in 924, and Amul became the Malik then. That puts Amul's reign from 924 to 1003, a span of 79 years.

We also know that the kidnapping of Yasif took place shortly after Gharu'n was founded. While we don't have an exact date, an approximation of 930 (6 years later) is not unreasonable. Five years later, at approximately 935, Amul is said to not year be 40.

If Amul is not yet 40 around year 935, we could approximate his birth to be around the year 900. that means that when he died in 1003 he was, perhaps, 103 years old.

The Author of To Be A Shadow, Mansur al-Rajan, is 14 when Yasif was kidnapped. Again, if we use an approximate date of 930, that means Mansur was born around the year 916, and was alive 20 years after the death of Yasif, which occurred just shortly before 1003. This would mean that in 1003, Mansur would be approximately 87 years old. In 1023, when he would have written To Be A Shadow, he would be approximately 107 years old.

Lastly, we have Yasif himself. He was alive in 924, serving with Rakhil. While we do not know his age at that point, A guess of 20 to 40 years old is not unreasonable. This puts the year of his birth approximately between 884 and 904. That means that when he died just before 1003, he was perhaps 99 to 119 years old.

Conclusion

Prior to the rediscovery of the lore article The History of Auberean, our best estimate for the siege of Tirethas was much closer to the year of 1018 stated in the text The Silifi of the Crimson Stars. placing the siege at 924 increases the ages of some known characters quite a bit. Amul, for example, was perhaps around 100 years old when he died. His cause of death was not old age though; he was poisoned at his own birthday celebration. This poisoning made a bit more since if Amul was still a young man, and someone else wanted to seize power.

That being said, Jojii is mentioned to have died at the age of 108, so the ages of these Gharu'ndim characters is not outside the realm of possibility for Isparians, especially Isparians of great power and importance.

Unlike the conclusions we drew for the history of the Aluvian rulers, we also have no basis from which to alter the date of 1018. Any changes to it would merely be guesses. Since we cannot alter that date, both dates of 924 and 1018 should be considered valid.