Jak obiecalem, wklejam historie Arabii sciagnieta z sieci (modemowcow takich jak ja z gory przepraszam za jej dlugosc):
The people of Araby have dwelt in the peninsula of Araby since men first arrived in the world and have founded perhaps the most ancient cities of human civilisation. They were at that time much like the tribes which still dwell in the deep deserts, a proud nomadic people with a strong sense of honour and loyalty. The history of these people is a turbulent one. Much of their past has been filled with war. The most important of these wars came long ago and has it's own causes which stretch back even further.
The ancient nation of Nehekharan lay to the east of the area which now contains the Shahate of Araby. This ancient civilisation fell many years ago to evil forces of it's own creation. The undead that filled this ancient land and killed all living there were simply puppets to be controlled by their master, the necromancer Nagash. The terror of this new force was first felt in Araby over a thousand years after the birth of Nagash, the attacks precipitated by Arkhan the Black. Under this powerful leader the eastern cities of the old Arabian Empire were destroyed quickly. The empire was strong, however, and held off the undead tide with the first victories against the undead the Emperor considered them to have been destroyed and there were many celebrations. He had not counted on the undying patience and tenacity of his foe. Arkhan continued to raid Araby for a thousand years, wearing down the people and the power of the empire.
Eventually the empire could no longer hold together and fractured into a divided group of city states, each with no loyalty to another. Constant skirmishes between cities further weakened them. Arkhan's defeat finally came not from the people of Araby, but from some mysterious source they could not explain. The Wars of Death ended suddenly, the undead hordes which lurked within the deserts surrounding Araby suddenly disappearing over days. The actual death of Arkhan was not witnessed, but no other explanation could be found for the sudden cessation of hostilities, a war that had become the only way of life to the people of Araby.
The sudden peace was a shock to the people of Araby. They could not believe what had happened, and still they looked toward the desert with fearful eyes for another two hundred years. During this time the power of the individual cities grew and trade opened up between them, many cities combining into groups and forming nations. The political climate swung back and forth between various cities and the people became even stronger as they battled constantly. These wars were nothing compared to those fought against the undead and so the people began to prosper. As time passed, new cities were built on the ruins of the old ones and eventually the terror of the undead became distant and mythical. The people became confident in their new strength and the inter city conflicts diminished until the cohesion of the previous empire began to be rebuilt.
The years of peace stretched past a millennium and so the people became secure in their position and began to dismiss the ancient 'myths' of the walking dead. Only the priests were to hold true to the old knowledge. They kept the old thoughts alive for 800 years but then even they began to discount the words of their predecessors and to rewrite the accounts of old historians without reference to the undead. Only one person in the peaceful years seemed to have some inkling of the truth, the Mad Prince, Abdul Ben Raschid, the author of the blasphemous Book of the Dead. This tome is an account of his journey to the Land of the Dead. It was discounted and reviled by the people of Araby and the caliph of the strongest city, Ka-Sabar, ordered all copies destroyed. Ben Raschid himself died under mysterious circumstances, and his blasphemies were forgotten.
An invasion by the armies of the Empire in 1450 was the beginning of a series of wars which would last for a hundred years. These were called the Crusades by the invaders, but to the people of Araby they were wars for which their was no provocation. They fought against the crusaders, reviling them as honourless and deceitful. The warriors of the Empire fought strongly and several cities fell to the invader. The city of Ka-Sabar eventually united a coalition of it's neighbours and halted the advance of the invader. This sent the power of Ka-Sabar higher and when the last of the Empire ships fled from the shores of Araby after the third and least successful crusade, never to return, this city was by far the most powerful and respected. This series of wars had academics looking once again at the histories and the accepted theory was that the undead spoken of by the ancient chroniclers was a metaphor for some northern army, with their unnaturally pale flesh making them appear dead. Thus was the mystery solved and the histories rewritten to show this 'truthful' account.
The new histories would not hold credence for long. A mere 130 years after the crusades the master of the undead rose from death and in one night the thousands upon thousands of bodies within the desert that had been the core of Arkhan's army rose again and began to assemble for battle against the cities of Araby. As the army gathered and began to march it passed through the mountains of Garalt, in the central desert. Here dwelt the remnants of the dwarves that had fled first from the armies of Nagash, and then from the tomb kings. Their journey had taken them from their holds in the south of the World's Edge Mountains, through ancient Nehekharan and the great desert until they reached these mountains and hid deep, building new holds and regaining lost glory during the intervening millennia, never forgetting. These dwarves fled before the new army, which was powerful with the might of the newly revitalised Nagash. Their warnings were ignored by all but the Caliph of Ka-Sabar, the greatest of the city states. The Caliph, whose name has been forgotten, used the time bought by those brave dwarves who refused to leave their holds and mines to mould the cities of Arabia into a nation under his command. He took the title of Shah and stopped using his old name, removing it from the records and having replaced with simply Shah abd-Araby, this last meaning "slave of Araby". The Shah then began to form alliances to aid him in defeating the hordes of undead which now shambled through the dust bearing weapons and finery stolen from the defeated dwarven holds. All of the cities were under his command by the time the undead began to sack the eastern cities. Many towns and cities fell, their dead swelling the army now numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
The dwarves were great allies to the new Shah abd-Araby as he fought against the ever increasing numbers of undead. They slowed the tide with their strength and provided the men with the benefits of their runic magic. This was not sufficient to prevent the undead creatures from slowly pushing their way into the realm, ravaging towns and enlisting the dead of Araby to their ranks. The mages of Araby sought help from the elf folk across the water in Ulthuan. Here the elven wizards taught the greatest of the Arabian mages the magic of their forbears, High magic. These mages, bursting with new knowledge, returned to the land of Araby, and finally the people of Araby were able to halt the tide of undeath that flowed toward them. Stop, but not destroy. The undead horde continued to fight relentlessly, it's masters always unseen. Soon the forces of the Shahate began to fade as had that of the empire millennia past. The Shah was desperate: all his strength was committed, he had nothing left in reserve and knew that he and his people faced ultimate destruction.
The Shah looked to both his allies, the staunch dwarves and the arcane elves for further help, but the dwarves had lost much in their journey from the Garalt Mountains and could offer no more than they had already. The elves were busy with battles against invading Dark Elves to the west, and with the ravaging hordes of Chaos in the north. They could spare none of their master wizards or their warriors. The Shah thanked his allies for the help they had already offered then went into the Central Desert of Araby. Here he wandered for three months, only the strength of his will keeping him alive. When he returned he brought with him a man of huge proportions, as tall as a giant but without the ugliness and bad manners of that race. The people of Araby who saw the giant were astonished, for this was a genie, one of the magical creatures of their legends. The genie saw the plight of the country and the need of the people and went back into the desert with the Shah. For three more months there was no word and the people believed the genie to have killed the Shah and they began to lose hope against the undead. Three more Eastern cities fell and then, at the siege of another, a whirling storm sped from the desert.
This great sandstorm engulfed the undead armies and when the dust cleared the undead army was destroyed and there the people saw a hundred genies and the Shah. Since that day the genies have been a strong ally to the nation of Araby. it is not known what deals were made between the genies and the Shah. It is known that the genies have never betrayed the people of Araby and have always supported them since that day. The genies have now become relatively common in Araby
This war, which lasted for forty years, caused the people of Araby, the historians in particular, to look back on those few remaining original copies of the chronicles about the Wars of the Dead. In doing so they have identified the undead as the cause of the fall of the great and rich empire which was once theirs. They have taken upon themselves to see that empire reborn. The Shahate of Araby is now moving toward that path. The nation has grown stronger since the defeat of the undead and has maintained strong ties with it's allies. The dwarves have made new homes with the people of Araby or returned to the holds in Garalt to rebuild and restore their fortresses, with the desire to return to their ancestral homes in the World's Edge Mountains beyond the feared Land of the Dead. The elves have continued to teach those Arabian mages who show the strength in the High Magic, and the genies have remained as the strongest supporters of the throne of Araby, though their motivations are not as well known as that of the other allies to the Shahate.
The people of Araby are strong, the millennia of war, separated only with a few short centuries of peace have moulded them into a strong and warlike people, though now their anger is turned more outward than inward. There are those, like nomads of the central and northern desert, who do not swear loyalty to the Shah and live by their own codes. The people are characterised by being quick to anger, with a strong sense of honour and loyalty. The current Shah, in the time of Karl Franz, is Kasin abd-Araby. He is the ruler but he is expected to serve well and incompetence is not tolerated. The position is for life but is not hereditary, the Shah being chosen upon the death of his predecessor from the current emirs and caliphs of the cities of Araby. All of the Shahs have been male except one, the Shah Jasmia abd-Araby, who was First Wife of the First Shah.
No, to tyle
