#Calimshan

[princefleabitten]

First official Sima (@ritelli-main ) + Sasira post! Go girls, go!

[uselessbard1031]

Untitled Poem (From My BG3 Fanfiction -- Link At Bottom of Post)

"Wot with woe be but fair truth?

Than love from you a fairer truth?

Wot pain does sting with a slap.

Yet kindness rings with this truth.

A caress can lie, true love dost hurt.

In this solemnly, I find truth.

And in thine eyes wot glazed with tears,

I find again proof of that truth."

~ Sudiman Yn Asforda, A Calishite Poet I Made Up, Forgotten Realms

[artemis-entreri]

Artemis Entreri is not a white guy... but not for the reason you might believe

[[ Foreword: As a BIPOC, I care a lot about proper ethnic and racial representation. During my early days in this fandom, I’ve encountered people who felt that properly representing a character’s skin color was unimportant, and these people attempted to silence my views on the matter. Nonetheless, I’m the one responsible for specifying Artemis Entreri’s skin color as dusky brown in the FR Wiki (my attempted edits of his article on Wikipedia.org to include his skin color have been repeatedly deleted). I’ve written numerous posts regarding Artemis’ status as a fantasy POC, even when his own creator seems to have forgotten the fact (i.e. as seen here). I’ve worked on my art skill for the sole purpose of depicting Artemis better, and in the process of doing so I’ve studied the theory behind depicting different skin colors accurately. I still have a long way to go, but what I’ve learned has helped me to see and understand much differently from before.

Recently, I saw a forum post about fan castings for a hypothetical live-action Drizzt show/movie. This kind of thing is pretty common, but I’m always perturbed when I see that most commenters suggest white actors for Artemis. Thankfully, more people these days understand the importance of proper representation and diversity in media and their suggestions come from a place of ignorance rather than bigotry. I couldn’t stop thinking about my most recent experience though, so I decided to re-check my sources and reassess everything that I thought I knew.

There’s a widespread belief that the Realms’ Calimshan is the equivalent of the real world Middle East. I subscribed to this belief until recently, and used it as a basis for arguing why Artemis is a POC. However, as it turns out, Calimshan is not the equivalent of real world Middle East. Ed Greenwood doesn’t draw direct parallels between Realmsian locations and real world locations, but Calimshan’s closest analogue is Al-Andalus: the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. Due to its geographical location, that would mean that the people of Al-Andalus would look similar to modern-day Spanish and Portugese people, in other words, mostly white.

That being said, it does NOT mean that Artemis and native Calishites are not people of color. They still would be, but not because Calimshan is the equivalent of the Middle East. Calishites are brown-skinned because they descend from a line of people adapted to living in a desert environment. 

So then, where does the belief that Artemis is white come from? Unfortunately, it’s due to some of Todd Lockwood’s illustrations, or rather, untrained and/or unthinking examination of his illustrations. One of the few things that I agree with Salvatore about is with regards to Todd Lockwood’s illustrations as the go-to visualization of Artemis. However, it is also these depictions that seem to throw a lot of people off about Artemis’ intended skin color. 

Why is it that other people see differently? I think the first reason is that in most cases, people see what they want to see, they see an affirmation of what they’ve assumed to be the case. Historically, the bulk of Salvatore’s readers have been white. However, for those readers who aren’t white, who also aren’t of a similar ethnicity to Artemis, might look at those covers and assume he’s white because they live in the US, or because they assume that he’s the same ethnicity as his creator. Most of Lockwood’s covers are on a varied palette that makes it difficult to isolate the exact skin color of the characters. A lot of people don’t know color theory, and they don’t think about skin colors from the perspective of how to illustrate it accurately. They’d look at Artemis from the cover of Servant of the Shard:

And perhaps they’d think, oh, his face is in the shadow of his hood, and he’s in a cave, so dark on top of dark would mean that his actual skin color is very light. However, this line of thought is faulty, because if the above illustration was made to be accurate to the situation, then all we’d see of Artemis’ face would be a few highlights from Crenshinibon’s glow. Furthermore, the fiery breath in the throat of Hephaestus, the dragon in the background, should be so bright that it’d create a backlight so strong that Artemis’s features would be even more strongly hidden in shadow, causing an effect like this:

Crenshinibon could very well illuminate his face, but it would do so by splashing it with its own greenish hue. Here’s a very rough illustration of what I mean:

As you can see, that isn’t depicted in Lockwood’s painting, which leads me to believe that Lockwood’s chose to basically install an artificial white light source so that we can see Artemis’ face clearly. It looks very much like he intended it so that he could paint Artemis as though he were in natural light. 

What people often don’t think about is that what sets different skin colors apart is how they react to light. Painting a very tan white person might start with the usage of the same palette as for painting a naturally brown-skinned person, but assuming proper application of the undertones, shadows and highlights, the difference becomes clear. The dusky brown skin of a desert native would be layered with a mix of darker reds and yellows, compared to the pink/lighter reds and yellows for white skin. This is the case with Artemis’ face on the cover of Servant of the Shard. Furthermore, the shadows on his face are dark, desaturated browns, flirting with gray but not quite there. If Lockwood were depicting a white character, he’d sooner use shades of blue and even orange than gray, as it is a lot easier to play with the versatility of depicting white skin. Any artist worth their salt would know that using grays to shade a color painting is very bad as it muddies the colors, so even approaching gray is to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. It isn’t necessary to tread that dangerous line to depict white skin.

It is most clear on the cover of Promise of the Witch-King that Artemis is not white. In this rendition of that cover art, while the background is lightened more than the foreground, the foreground is nonetheless lightened. As such, we are basically looking at Artemis in bright light:

Even here, in my opinion, he is clearly not white. A white man in bright light would not have shadows in shades of dark desaturated browns. His highlights are also more yellowish than pinkish, which is what is done for depicting dusky brown skin:

Although what has been discussed holds true to Entreri’s depiction on the cover of Road of the Patriarch, yet again it’s something that can fall to the misconception of, “Oh, it’s sunset, which means it’s dark, and he looks dark, so he would not look dark if it weren’t sunset.” 

WRONG. Consider this video of an actual brown-skinned man at sunset, and note how the shadows on his face are unsaturated dark browns, and the highlights yellowish (the picture is a preview if you don’t want to look at the video):

What I’ve covered also applies to Artemis’ depiction on the cover of Starless Night, so I won’t repeat it again. 

Some might believe that Artemis is painted with desaturated shadows (grays) because of the absorption of the shade turning him grayish. However, I don’t believe Lockwood chose to depict that, as Artemis’ skin is too vivid even with the grayish-brown shadows. Salvatore specifically wrote:

Lockwood was at that time no stranger to illustrating supernatural skin types, he certainly could’ve made Artemis’ skin look like that of a corpse’s if he wanted to. It looks very likely however that there was a conscious decision was made not to. 

What I haven’t discussed is that some will pick up what looks like a very dark red on Artemis’ cheeks and nose on the Servant of the Shard cover. He could be flushed from exertion, anger, heat from the breath of Hephaestus, or perhaps it’s just a color choice to make his features pop more. However, even there, he’s no white guy with his face flushed, which if we look closely, would actually be more of a pink despite the phrase, “red-faced with anger”:

Meanwhile, Artemis’ “red” is more of a brown:

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. ]]

[pinkmeanieofficial]

Alma of Keltar + Cleric of Ilmater

Alma is an orphaned child of a couple of refugees, little is known about her family’s past, except they were former members of a noble court (alleged) and sacrificed themselves in order to give their child a chance of survival.

She was found as a newborn by the steps of the House of The Broken God, wrapped in bloodied rags in the arms of her corpse mother, who was apparently murdered by an unknown creature, and the baby was in dire condition. She was quickly taken in and cared for by Brother Servan, who served as her tutor and caregiver.

There were many attempts to get Alma adopted by local families, but the child’s bond to Brother Servan somehow prevented that from happening. In the end, it was decided that Alma would grow under the church’s tutelage, but would be given a choice to live however she wanted when she’d reach the right age. Eventually came the day that the young girl would decide to return to society as a civilian or become a sister among the others, she picked the clergy. Alma was then appointed to perform her initiation rite, and passed without any issues, becoming an official “Adorned”.

 (It is believed that Alma was the youngest to ever go through the “Wine Initiation” in her temple).

Alma completed her basic training by the age of 17, receiving a new title as Sister Alma and picking a path for the next steps within the Ilmatari clergy. At first Sister Alma looked forward to enhancing her healing and medicine skills, a choice that was heavily influenced by Brother Servan; she then moved to Cloister of St. Ramedar, in Starspire Peninsula. In there she joined the local temple and began her years of learning and helping the locals, the years of study and practice lead her to join The Followers of the Unhindered Path, becoming a nomad agent of Ilmater.

Through her travels, Alma gained the nickname “Sister Alma The Kind” due to her humbleness and merciful attitude even towards her foes.

[twistedapple]

With my post sharing a part of the WIP for the introduction of my BG3 fanfic, I've had a lot of consideration regarding the depiction of Calimshan and how Raphael fits into it.

Having been an art student, I received a bit of education regarding orientalism, and digging into Calimshan's lore made me take that into consideration, because the place is clearly inspired by the Ottoman empire with more Middle-Eastern traits blended into it, but I didn't want to run into the pitfall of antiquated stereotypes.

I decided to separate the Ottoman inspiration from the Middle-Eastern one (which is given to the Peninsula of Zakhara instead), and run with a more Ottoman setting as a consequence. It means a (fake) historical and social context befitting of the Land of Intrigues, as one of the hallmarks of the Ottoman empire IRL was power reach and political intrigues, all well-hidden under the veneer of elegant luxury. I am going for a cloak and dagger type of story, if you will.

Now, you may think it's dangerous to throw devils into the mix, when I pretend to walk around stereotypes. I've decided to justify their presence not because "urrdurr middle-eastern weird with djinns and all", but by pulling directly from the recent history of Calimshan, how its inhabitants tend to behave, and how devils could be very interested in meddling with mortal affairs as a consequence. The state of Calimshan, and more specifically Calimport, by 1479DR, is pretty fucking dreadful. My story starts a bit later, in 1482DR. With the murder of Pasha Marod el Arhapan (by his own estranged son, no less) and the fall of his floating Palace on a very packed arena, I do imagine that things are quite wild in the region afterwards. There's a power vacuum waiting to be filled with a new dynasty of Syl-Pasha, a plot to get the djinn Calim out of his banishment to the Elemental Chaos, the Sharran Church is active, there's also an active cell of the Night Parade (who're basically the local boogeymen - quite literally, since they kidnap children to transform them into monstrous creatures and help the Night Parade invade the Mortal Plane to flee the demiplane of Nightmares. Of course, they used to be Netherese lol) despite it being severely damaged by the Harpers, slavery of anybody not Genasi is still very much a thing (except Genasi are losing their hold on the whole situation and slave revolts are brewing, led by the city of Almraiven)...

I do think there's a lot of reasons for devils to prey on locals, in Calimshan. In Calimport especially, things were pretty damn shite under Marod's rule. The man had a taste for blood and focused on brutal gladiatorial fights as entertainment. Meanwhile, his Vizar had his own agenda to fill, and now he has to deal with the consequences of Marod's rule and murder while still having to handle his own plans. I think it makes a neat parallel with Raphael, who dips his toes in many-a-plot to use them as propelling boards for his own agenda. As for Nuria, she's a pawn in all of that - but a valuable one, with her own agenda as well.

Ngl it's quite exciting to work on that, because the whole setting fits exactly into the type of story I like best (cool stuff like The Lies of Locke Lamora or To the Victors go the Spoils). I hope my own work will be of interest, especially since I have a free pass on the context between 1482DR and 1492DR as fsr as Calimshan lore is concerned - the last we know of it stops at 1479DR (Sandstorm novel), and 5e doesn't exactly delve into the Land of Intrigues the way 4e did.

[bg3screenshotdump]

She's a pirate~

[rukafais]

you ever think about how artemis went from tracking someone up to icewind dale with a brief stop back to calimport and then back to icewind dale again because drizzt's sister rolled up, and then down into the underdark

Food he's going to have a reaction to like he's been shot for the rest of his life because there's so many negative associations with it: Knucklehead trout, mushrooms, probably deep rothe

[timothylawrence]

sorry still not over Wyll being more comfortable with his horns… I doubt he’ll be fully okay with them any time soon but 🥺

[ranger-crisis]

I like that many people in the sword coast don’t even treat Neverwinter as a real place. They just don’t know if it is real. “Oh yeah I’ve heard of that place is it real?”

[wyrmsgatebait]

Barbie's Gate 3 is an amazing dress-up simulator but they dropped the ball not giving me any fur cloaks The drama of my paladin showing up to Cazador's palace or the temple of Bhaal dripped out like this

[waterdeep-weavemoss]

Gortash leaned back in his chair, listening to her pretty little speech about love and connection. How sweet, to cling so desperately to such sweet ideals, when in reality the world was all about hunger and desperation, what a person needed vs what someone else needed. He did not particularly care for love or the schmaltzy rubbish she was spouting.

'No, my dear, I do not care or want for love or connection, real or otherwise. Now, I'll not ask you again, go and choose the fabric or I shall just have Yenna choose it for you.'

'I can pick!' Yenna said excitedly. 'My friend, Helga, her mother is a seamstress and she showed us all the beautiful fabric she works with and she said she would teach me to sew and-'

'Yes, yes, enough Yenna. What did I say about speaking when spoken to?'

'Oh, yes, sorry Lord Gortash,' Yenna said and scurried back to the bathroom.

He smiled mockingly at Doe. 'She certainly learns faster than you do. Perhaps, when she is older, I should take her for a wife. But there's no real saying whether she'll turn into a beauty or not. And of course, she has nothing else to recommend her.'

'Don't you fucking touch her,' she snapped. Consequences be damned. I have fought so much worse, she thought. And then she thought... you stole me out of the House of Hope. Raphael, if you can hear me at all- at all- give me your strength. Tell my friends where I am. Help me. Somehow.

And then she grabbed his hand, snarled savagely and bent back his fingers in one swift motion, the snap reverberating through the room.

'Check,' she growled.

[princefleabitten]

Wow new DnD Character dropped 👀

She’s a Calimshan Halfling and (Ex-)Shepherd. Her pet Hawk’s name is Yul.

Her story is highly inspired by The Alchemist by Coelho and came to me in a sleepless night. I’m still in the concept phase but I already love her. I wanted to play a wind based character, a halfling and a ranger for a while now and she’s all three😂

Anyway does anyone know a DnD Campaign (official or unofficial) in Calimshan or Damara? I don’t want to make up everything by myself 🥲

[enbyartist]

I will forever and always be pissed at WOTC for just…only allowing D&D 5e to exist on the Sword Coast.

Toril?? Faerûn?? Nope. Only Sword Coast. Only Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter, and Icewind Dale.

[athalantan]

I'm fighting the urge to fancast El's entire family (I enjoy fancasting too much), but the timeline of their uncle's births is wild. Queen Syndrel had to have been having at least one baby per year — and still found time to lead King Uthgrael's stag hunts??? Anyway she and Uthgrael were probably in their fifties when they died. That family bit the dust young.

Our reference point is that Belaur, the oldest of their 7 sons, was 29 in 224 DR. The birth order of the princes is: Belaur, Elthaun, Cauln, Elthryn, Othglas, Felodar, and Nrymm. We don't know when Syndrel died, but it was shortly after Nrymm was born; he was raised by the women of the court and likely hadn't set foot outside Athalgard by the time Uthgrael died. Speaking of which, Uthgrael died battling orcs in 216. So the timeline is like —

195 — Belaur born

196 — Elthaun born

197 — Cauln born

198 — Elthryn born (this would make him 14 when Elminster was born)

199 — Othglas born

200 — Felodar born [date of death unknown; left Athalantar "years" before Uthgrael's death; thought to be in Calimshin in 224]

201 — Nrymm born; Syndrel dies shortly thereafter

216 — Uthgrael dies; the Warring Princes of Athalantar begin their fight for the throne

[Cauln killed in a spellduel sometime in this period]

218 — Belaur officially lays claim to the throne; Elthaun hunted down in Calimshan later that year; Othglas likely slain in Dalniir (it was at least after this point)

220 — Nrymm disappears, presumed a hostage of the mage-lords or dead

224 — Elthryn slain in the attack on Heldon

240 — Belaur slain by Elminster

[pinkmeanieofficial]

New Alma of Keltar Design! I think I'm finally getting where I wanted with this character ;.;

[twistedapple]

I have decided to share the beginning of my BG3 fic! Keep in mind it'll be subjected to an editing process so it's not necessarily matching what you'll see in the final product (especially since I'm still working on getting Raphael's tone right).

A BGM for the vibe, as well as a sneaky peek into the WIP playlist I have for Nuria, my OC. After that post, get ready for Part 3 of my Perfume Rant, which will be about Nuria and give us more insight into the type of character she is.

@kiss-inferna since you requested a ping for the Nuria content :)

* * *

Something was brewing, the echoes of change running through the Planes as a great change was starting to unfold. The Mortal Plane needed to be mended, and superior forces were hard at work to put some order back into the giant mess caused by the Spellplague and the death of too many Gods. While mortals would be able to find relief in this resolution, in the years to come, this entire process was not exactly to everybody's taste, and agitation could be felt in the Nine Hells. With Gods dead and their portfolio rearranged, devils had notoriously benefitted for the straying of souls to strike many a valuable deal, however it seemed that Ao's intervention was going to slow things down a bit.

Not all of them worried, though. For all of his dislike of chaos, Raphael still had hope that mortals would behave as they usually did. It was a matter of waiting, observing, and striking at the right time to obtain worthy deals and snatch valuable souls. Besides, certain lands on the Mortal Plane were a proof that no matter how much higher divinities could intervene, chaos would always find a way.

The cambion was standing in front of a tall mirror, one among the many in his Chamber of Egress, that facilitated his travels around the Mortal Plane. Through it, a warm wind could be felt, sand rustling under a burning sun. Calim Desert displayed its expense through the mirror, its quietness a complete lie. While many a land had been ravaged through the various catastrophes that had erupted in the wake of the Spellplague, Calimshan had been embroiled in a chaos of its very own making, old history rearing its violence-inclined head to take hold of the country again. In the years following the Spellplague, the Calimemnon Crystal holding genies Memnon and Calim sealed in the desert shattered, resulting in the genies coming back to fight for control of the then wealthy mercantile nation. In the process, genasi of various elements, having lived hidden for generations and passing as humans, had revealed themselves and picked a side, Air against Fire, Djinn against Efreet, once again for the Second Era of Skyfire. The devastation that followed had been a real feast, feeding opportunistic devils for decades in a process eased by the notorious absorption of Azuth, the God of Magic revered in Calimshan, by Asmodeus himself. Anybody wishing for more magical power became an easy target. This decades-long conflict kept going even after Memnon and Calim's banishment to the Elemental Chaos, the once prosperous kingdom being turned into slavers' land as numerous genasi proclaimed themselves rulers and maintained the fights, while the human stronghold of Almraiven felt like the last place of decency in a sea of unabashed decadence. The latest event in a long series of miseries had been the murder of Pasha Marod el Arhapan by his own son, leading not only to the destruction of the fighting arena of Calimport by way of floating palace that had fallen on it following the aforementioned murder, but also the political fall of the city in the hands of Marod's Vizar, the scheming genie Shahrokh.

The place was a vile and incredibly lucrative nest of vipers, that was for certain. However, Raphael had been focusing on a highly specific type of soul - one directly associated with the noble djinns from the Elemental Plane of Air. One that could be in the best position to provide him with a mighty tool if mentored in the right direction. Before Calim's banishment, some of his retainers had joined him to support his efforts against Memnon. Noble djinn Kacem was one of them, and he had graciously left something behind with his departure. His half-elemental progeny, Isham, had then mingled with an air genasi sorceress working for Shahrokh, a spymaster named Ashemmi who in turn blessedly provided Raphael with what he had been hoping for, without even needing his nudge. He allowed 20 more years to pass before aiming for the soul he was seeking to obtain.

Now, the 20 years had just passed, and it was time for him to make his move. He had made this precious soul wait long enough, after all.

* * *

After the murder of Marod and the subsequent chaos caused by the fall of his floating palace over the arena, Shahrokh found his duties doubled. As a vizar, he had to keep the city reined in in the wake of the brutal destruction, however he also had to keep an eye on both allies and foes, the whole lot of them vultures ready to scavenge what had been left after Marod's brutal rule, ready to take over and use the opportunity to frame themselves as saviour of the city. The genie would not allow such a thing to happen, and strenghtened his own political position by increased use of spies and assassins to keep everybody in check.

What he had not seen coming - although, in hindsight, he should have anticipated it - was to see one of his advisors entangled with a devil to support his cause - not just the political one, but also the more personal goal of figuring out how to release the mighty djinn Calim from the Elemental Chaos so he could restore his righteous rule over Calimshan.

That was how he found himself indirectly involved in the diabolical deal as well, as the devil in question, Raphael, had requested a meeting to clarify certain points.

Shahrokh floated through the old Palace, shunned by the late Marod but so much more appropriate for ruling. He had a devil to meet.

* * *

The circular room was ample and pleasantly cross by a breeze. In classic Calimshite fashion, it was covered in ornate tiles and elaborate carpets, its arched ceiling shining with golden mozaics. Raphael did have a soft spot for lavish displays of wealth, and Calimshan never failed him in that regard. He was seating in one of the richly carved chairs surrounding a round table and settling the negotiations with the genie Vizar and his genasi advisors. No matter the state of this country, one couldn't remove the mercantile part of these Calimshites, who were definitely set on getting the best out of this bargain. Raphael did enjoy it when his potential clients were playing hard to get and entertained himself in the process, keeping his own personal goal well under wraps.

-Thirty souls in exchange for the Ritual of Return? Considering the importance of that book, I am afraid you are being a low bidder right now. Surely, you have souls more valuable than those of thirty slaves...

-Add the soul of whoever is holding one of the books on top, in that case. If it is hidden even from my sight, it must be kept by someone who can at least be considered competent.

-Hm... And what about the security, then? Who among you will sign this deal?

As the negotiations were taking place, polite but sharp exchanges over the conditions of the contract, a small and slender figure was moving around the table and serving the men. Dressed in twilight, she moved silently, each one of her gestures poised and elegant. Raphael occasionally set his eyes on her, drinking in the sight of her golden earring dangling softly, hands covered in tinted patterns skillfully serving hot tea in the theatrical fashion of the country. Her clothes would rustle softly, the light and high-waisted trousers providing a subtle view of her shapely legs, the golden embroideries of her short, purple jacket catching the sun. She kept her hair up and under an elaborately tied scarf, strands of dark air still coiling around her heart-shaped face. Their eyes met at some point, and she was quick to lower her own dark doe eyes, prettily lined with khôl, with the deference of a servant.

When she approached to serve him, however, he noticed a very different story. As she leaned right next to him, he breathed in a metallic rose, damp from a storm and something else. When she left, the ghost of her perfume lingered, turning into an enticing pepper-and-incense, along with the slight feeling of a fresh breeze.

The negotiations kept going until a common agreement had been reached. Whatever Raphael would get from this contract, he considered a gratifying bonus to his own plans. What he hadn't been expecting, however, was the way the meeting concluded. Suddenly, Shahrokh turned to the serving woman, and all eyes turned on her.

-What do you think of that, Nuria?

Maintaining her elegant composure, a faint and polite smile lighting up her face, Nuria took a second to choose her words before replying in a soft, breathy voice that effortlessly carried through the room.

-I'm afraid the clause regarding assistance in the various tasks hasn't been clarified, oh my Vizar.

Her smile never fully reached her eyes, which suddenly went from quiet deference to alert calculation. She had the look of someone who already knew the reply to her own comment. Shahrokh turned to Raphael, crossing his fingers before speaking.

-With our current occupations, you may understand that not all hands can be on deck. Nuria yr Ashemmi el Kacem will remain available for you as a consequence. Anything relating to this contract will pass through her - I personally vouch for her trustworthiness and discretion.

With that, Nuria bowed respectfully in agreement to the task. When their eyes met again, all trace of the quiet servant had disappeared. Raphael had to contain his own exultation. The first step of his plan was well underway and served to him on a silver platter.