The Chaeldain Diaspora of the Grey Realms
In the "Grey Realms" (my emerging home-brew mixed with published settings campaign world) there is one group of humans that have been what could only be called "the most successful" in the world: the Chaeldain Peoples.
In the modern world, they are known by many different names across many continents, and many know nothing of their true origins or the greatness from which they come. Originally the Chaeldain were powerful workers of magic that were considered one of the Creator Races of the Realms. Even before the coming of the Elves to the world, the Chaeldain already had an advanced magical civilization centered around the working of elemental magics which had allowed them to harness the powers residing within the Inner Planes of existence. Primarily centered around what could be called "Genie Magic" by some, the Chaeldain were at the height of their emerging power when the elves caused The Sundering.
Prior to The Sundering, the Chaeldain had already began to colonize islands around their home continent, had quite a trading empire and their ships were beginning to explore far lands. When The Sundering occurred their native continent (called Chaeldia by them) was ripped apart and their coastal cities decimated. Only their far flung colonies in lands now called Zhakara, Djapar and Nimbral were able to survive, and even here many fell back into barbarism as a result.
The few Chaeldain who remained upon the ruined lands of Chaeldia, to a people, fell to barbarity as they fought for survival among the creatures that had been created by them or summoned by them to the Realms. The colonies of Djapar faired little better, but at least here there were far fewer monsters that preyed upon the people and it was in Djapar that true Chaeldain culture began to rise again; though the people referred to themselves as Djapari ever after.
In Zhakara, the people struggled continually, and many began to migrate further and further inland; eventually leaving the land all together and entering the lands now known as Faerûn. Nearly impassable mountains forced them north, though some few travelled south and east along the coasts into what is today the jungle lands of Djambu Dweepam; though their people stayed in groups all along this path.
Those that had entered Faerûn broke into numerous groups as well. Some became legendary such as the Imaskari, while others became subjugated by their own kin and seen as lesser people. Those not wishing to remain as subjects to the Imaskari pushed on further still and eventually, after crossing the vast steppes and plains of northeast Faerûn became what are today called the Baklunish people who founded their own empire based on many of the earlier elemental magics of their earliest ancestors the Chaeldain.
The Imaskari were eventually destroyed, and the Bakluni nearly so; by having fought wars against a sorcerous race called the Suel (the Imaskari bringing their doom by kidnapping the wrong people to replenish their slaves after so many lost to the magic of the Suel). However, a minor group grown strong after the fall of the Imaskari called the Paynim have brought new vigor to the Baklunish branch of the Chaeldain Peoples.
Much further away, the mostly peaceful civilization of the Djapari explored beyond their new continent home and eventually from them were born the Khinasi people of modern Cerilia. The deep-seeded roots of their ancestral memory being strongly bound to the origins of their people; the modern Khinasi and Bakluni people are very similar even though they worship gods that would be alien to the other and thousands of years separate their origins.
During the time of the ancient Baklunish Empire, another branch of the ancient Chaeldain explored from the shores of Djambu Dweepam finding the continent of Haevish. They too founded a strong civilization called Indristan that warred against a civilization of near humans called the Aerkay before both became weakened and the Indristani civilization collapsed into barbarity again. The descendants of the Indristani are today known as the barbaric Tegwiz and Jundak, as well as the civilized Rhakani and Khalshan peoples.
Though the original homeland of the Chaeldain people have been utterly lost to the coming of later races, today the Chaeldain Peoples inhabit a broader range of land than any other human group within The Realms.
