After losing a religious/civil war in Loskalm to the heretical supporters of the Middle Sea Empire, Syranthir Forefront, Duke of Jorri and a General of the Royal Army of Akem, led his force of ten thousand men into the Fronelan hinterland. They escorted the head of the Malkioni Church, the Ecclesiarch of Southpoint, on whose behalf Syranthir had fought and lost his war. The march of the Ten Thousand essentially followed the line of the beautiful blue Janube, with occasional tactical hikes up out of the valley, until they reached the Sweet Sea. [OCH]

Syranthir Forefront led his men into the lands around Lake Oronin, where he found a pitiful people ruled by the Spolite Empire of Gloom.  Syranthir decided to aid the oppressed Pelandan people, rightly thinking that the existing rulers would be less generous to his army of western refugees than rescued Pelandans.  King Aegrastus of Spol was killed by Syranthir in 729 ST while besieging the city of Brinnus. The grateful populace accepted Syranthir as their protector.  In 733 ST Syranthir journeyed to the mysterious Castle Blue in Lake Oronin and was never seen again.

In 750 ST Carmanos the Prophet, son of Syranthir and the goddess Charmain, returned from Castle Blue bearing the legendary Tablets of Stone.  At the city of Brinnus he taught a new insight that combined the Jernotian Way of Pelanda with the wizard Estrekor's Romanakrin Wisdom.  He exalted  Idovanus as Romanakirn - the Highest God, God of Law, and the God of Good.  In this he revealed the error which had been perpetuated by the Pelandan people, who saw Idovanus as merely one of several High Gods.  His new Romanakirn Way clearly described the role of the Invisible God's two prime emanations - Idovanus and Gansatarus.  Carmanos established the Order of Magi to divine the Will of Idovanus and expose the Lie of Gansatarus. He also restricted the veneration of Idovanus to that select group of Wise Men.  The rest of the population were allowed the worship of the Good Gods, as determined by the Magi, or practice the Good Sorcery of Malakinus.

Carmanos continued the liberation of the cities around Lake Oronin, and was declared the first Shah of "Carmania".  By his apotheosis at Castle Blue in 787 ST, the Spolite Empire was in serious decline.  His son Surandar completed the job, and conquered his Pelandan allies as well.  Surandar's reign was harsh, and established the role of the Pelandans as serfs with the Carmanians as feudal overlords.  In 812 ST Surandar was horribly slain by a Pelandan curse. He was succeeded by his much more amiable son, Carshandar, who forged alliances with Carmania's neighbors after the conquest of Arrir.  This established the borders of Carmania and allowed time for the Shahs to organize and consolidate their holdings before making further conquests.  All was not well, however.  The Logicians, ancient atheistic sorcerers from before the dawn, challenged the Carmanian wizards to a magical challenge - which they failed.  After looking deeply into the practice, and their own hearts, sorcery was restricted to those few capable of handling its temptations - the Visir caste.

The next wave of expansion came during the reigns of the Dark and Light Shahs (847-879 ST) - A period of rivalry between two branches of the royal line.  The Light Shahs championed honor above all else, while the Dark Shahs advocated victory by the most expedient means available.  Finally, some degree of balance was achieved and Carmania rose to glory under the reign of the Lion Shahs (880-955 ST).  An expedition was even mounted back to the ancient homeland (now called Loskalm) to exact revenge for Syranthir's exile.  The rulers of Dara Happa also married into the line of the Carmanian Shahs, who's aid the Dara Happans needed in their increasingly bitter struggle with the Empire of Wyrms Friends from Dragon Pass.

In 961 ST Shah Nadar died without an heir.  He was succeeded by Sassacar, son of the Dara Happan Emperor Sarenesh and a Carmanian heiress.  This began the period known as Three Brothers Divide the World - Carmania, Dara Happa, Saird.  Each ruler was a son of Sarenesh, and their cooperation produced three generations of peace - and three of war.  For almost a century the Brothers and their descendants pushed the foul Empire of Wyrms Friends completely out of Peloria.  Sadly, with their common enemy defeated peace evaporated like a summer rain.

Revolts occurred throughout Peloria, with Carmania's war against the Dara Happan city of Alkoth defining the times.  This bitter struggle between two great military powers ended only when both sides agreed to cooperate in the invasion of Dragon Pass.  The common goal was to put a final end to the Empire of Wyrms Friends.  The campaign ended very badly.  In 1120 ST The Dragonkill War was a complete disaster, and left Carmania (and all Peloria) severely depleted.  Into this vacuum stepped the Bull Shahs.

In 1139 ST A Sirdar-general named Nekmad, from Vangstal, marched on Shardash and demanded the abdication of feeble Shah Careshtan.  He named himself Shahtavar, the Bull-King, and founded a dynasty that lasted until the coming of the Lunar Empire.  The Bull Shahs were brutal and determined to forge an empire like no other in Pelorian history.  Over the next four decades, the Kingdom of Bindle was coerced to join the Carmanian Empire, Yuthuppa and Raibanth surrendered, and Bisoshan passed the Ten Tests to become Emperor of Dara Happa.  He was enthroned as Padishah of Carmania becoming the Great Shah in 1193 ST.  By 1200 ST The Empire had conquered Rinliddi, and ruled virtually the entire Pelorian basin.  They had accumulated not a few enemies in the process - a fact which would prove to be their downfall.

In 1220 ST a band of conspirators succeeded in incarnating Sedenya, the Red Goddess, at the town of Torang in Rinliddi.  The "Seven Mothers" managed to keep the young goddess alive, and attracted hordes of followers in Rinliddi eager to throw off the Yoke of the Bulls.  A series of victories followed, but the Goddess knew that she would need to fully awaken her powers if they were to stand against the Bull Shahs.  To that end, the Goddess set off on a Journey into the lands of myth in 1230 ST.  Her quest was difficult, and she nearly failed.  Yanafal Tarnilis, one of the Seven Mothers, embarked on a mythic Journey to save the Goddess while her remaining followers fought a loosing battle against the invading Carmanians.  She returned two years later to find the Carmanian army laying siege to her home city of Torrang.  This was the First Battle of Chaos, where the army of the Bull Shahs was crushed by  the Red Goddess riding on the back of the Crimson Bat.

The next eighty years were marked by the rapid expansion of the Lunar Empire, and the fall of the Bull Shahs.  The Goddess slew the last sitting Shah, Yanistar, at the Battle of the Four Arrows of Light in 1241 ST.  She won the final (if reluctant) acceptance by the Gods of Glorantha at the Battle of Castle Blue in 1245 ST.  Two years later the Goddess ascended into the sky, leaving her son to rule in her place.  The newly enthroned Emperor Moonson gave the task of bringing the the Lunar Way to the Carmanians to one of his sons, Vakthan, who pursued this goal from his capitol at Carantes.  Believing the Empire would be weak without its divine Queen, the Carmanians attempted an invasion in 1250 ST.  The war ended 63 years later when the prince of Worian, last heir of the Bull Shahs, threw his children into the Esel River and beheaded himself.

In 1326 ST The newly independent Kingdom of Bindle, aided by others on the Sweet Sea and the Char-un tribes, invaded the Lunar Empire attempting to seize the Western Reaches. Spol quickly fell and the Brass Mountain Forts were besieged by Kingdom forces.  The Char-un tribes betrayed the Kingdom of Bindle in 1331 ST, and attempts to repay their treachery only served to anger them.  In 1335 ST a famous Lunar knight named Aronius Jaranthir came to the aid of Bindle, which had surrendered to the Lunar Empire after loosing two successive battles.  After driving off the Char-un, he engaged in a program of rebuilding and resettlement that eventually resulted in the conversion of the Western Reaches to the Lunar Way.

The Western Reaches had only about forty years to recover and rebuild before the next disaster fell.  In 1375 ST Pentian horse nomads invaded the Lunar Empire, led by the demi-god Sheng Seleris.  This initiated 85 years of blood and death for the Empire and her subject provinces.  Carmania was spared the worst of the depredations of Sheng's horde, but was inundated with refugees fleeing the Lunar Heartlands.  In recognition of the vital role played by the Western Reaches in that desperate hour,  in 1385 ST the people of Carmania were made Citizen-foreigners of the Lunar Empire.

Seventy five years later, the rising tide of Pentian nomads finally crested in Carmania.  In 1460 ST the new Mask of Moonson, Emperor Magnificus, overcame Sheng Seleris in the Battle of Kitor and condemned him to eternal torture.  In exchange for their stalwart aid against the implacable foe, the reborn hero Aronius Jaranthir won special privileges for the citizens of the Western Reaches. With the Carmanian army solidly behind him, Magnificus drove the nomads from Pelanda.  Inspired by the defeat of Sheng Seleris, Imperial forces goaded the nomads to fight again in 1461 ST near the city of Carantes. Lunar magic again destroyed the morale of the barbarians and they were forced to accept insulting and degrading terms of peace.

Although peace reigned for the next forty five years, the final price had not yet been paid.   In 1506 ST the Pentians gathered every resource at their disposal and attacked the Empire once more.  The magical power unleashed on both sides was such that only a tiny fraction of the combatants survived.  The battle is now known as the Nights of Horror, and was a route on the same scale as the Dragonkill.  An exhausted Empire mourned its dead and resumed its long and difficult recovery from that dark century of war.

Carmenia has since enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity.  There has been no conflict within its borders in 160 years.  Since the Nights of Horror, the Lunar Empire has faced no serious threat.  A constant series of wars in the distant south provide the Imperial Army a proving ground as well as an outlet for criminals and adventurers.  Meanwhile, trade with the West has begun to bring great wealth to the Carmanian Houses (especially in Bindle).  Pessimistic conservative Carmanians claim that the once great Carmanian people have grown as soft as the people they rule, indulging in every form of vice and political corruption.

Sources:
Most of this information was swiped directly from Peter Metcalfe's excellent Timeline of Oronin.  I have added information gathered mostly from The Redline History on the Issaries website and Nick Brooke's An Outline of Carmanian History .

Issaries' The Fortunate Succession.
Issaries' Lunar Wane Chronicles
Peter Metcalfe's Timeline of Oronin
Nick Brooke's Carmanian Timeline
Nick Brooke's An Outline of Carmanian History (OCH)
Avalon Hill's The Genertela Book from Glorantha, Crucible of the Hero Wars boxed set.

Note: Glorantha is the Trademark of Issaries, Inc., and is used with their permission. Issaries, Inc. is the Trademark of Issaries, Inc. Likewise, all material swiped from Nick, Peter, and my invisible friend is all copywrited to its respective author.