Serkland Caliphates

The Serkland Caliphates are a powerful alliance of separate Serkish dynasties that extend over much of Midway and islands along the Acean and North Seas.
The Serks were originally a desert people called the D'shar from the fringes of the Acean Sea. Various Tremalker and Reikish sources refer to the Serkish ancestors as cunning and audacious raiders, the target of several different campaigns and punitive expeditions.
In his monumental The Annals of Middos, Capaia describes them as "courtly savages, at once disarmingly gracious and murderous in the extreme". Despite their reputation and apparent numbers, the D'shar spent most of their time battle amongst themselves over scarce desert resources. The coming of the Elves would change this, and with drastic consequences.
The Elves first came to Azure by landing on Middos, the previous name for Midway. First contact was established between the Elves and the nomadic peoples of the desert. In awe of these strange visitors, D'shar and by extension Serkish culture changed to imitate Elven aesthetics ever since. The Elves taught them much about mathematics, agriculture, and language, which helped unite the various tribes into the first Caliphate, called the Hammad al Wal Caliphate.
Following the unification of the D'shar tribes under the Caliphate, Al Cid Makmed I, the first of Hammad al Wal's Sultans, led his countrymen in the so-called Great Jihad, winning a series of spectacular victories over the Hegemon Imperial Army. By the time of his death, Al Cid Makmed I had conquered all of the D'shar Desert, the fertile hills of Southmont, and made inroads into Zulucan. He had also founded his capital, Ebsolem, on the banks of the River Juut.
Successive Jihads would see Eskar, Al Serai, Kyaz and Hasen Falqi , then finally Ginba and Sana all fall to the Caliphate. Though Tremalking would successfully thwart several different D'shar invasions into their continent, Caliphate missionaries would continue to plague the Tremalker and Reikish empires. By the end of The Fourth Age, the Caliphate was easily the preeminent military and commercial power of Midway, and a source of endless consternation not only for the much-diminished kingdoms of Midway but for rulers in Tremalking as well.
At the time of The Second Fall, the Sultans of the Caliphates believed that they could withstand any enemy, so was their arrogance. This proved to be false, and the cities of the D'shar darkened under the Sunderedtide. A few D'shar managed to make their way to Refuge, however it was a large diplomatic envoy sent to northern Melentine, lead by the crown Prince Akmed VII, that saw the continuation of the D'shar.
He and his seven thousand army of servants, guards, and slaves (He wished to not offend his hosts with TOO large a procession), were caught in Balthasar Gelt's mass transmutation, and were persevered in brass, which allowed them to survive the Second Fall.
When they revived, they found a much changed world, and immediately set sail back to Midway. All modern day Serks are descended from this ambassadorial retinue. Unfortunately for Akmed VII, he was quickly assassinated by one of his concubines, and thus the D'shar Desert has been ruled by many new Caliphates, collectively called the Serks, the Reiklander word for "Sand".
The Caliphates
Though separate kingdoms, each shares with the other a long line of culture and ethnical history. They tend to ally with each other more often then not, though it is not uncommon for one Caliphate to go to war with another.

• Prashyydun Caliphate
• Omayyad Caliphate
• Al Basid Caliphate
• Al Andal Caliphate
• Mohad Caliphate
• Guntany Caliphate
• Natalan Caliphate
• Fatyyma Caliphate
• Khylefyt Caliphate
• Ettemon Caliphate

- By far the largest and most powerful.

Type

Political, Confederation

Capital

Dominscis

Power Structure

Confederation

Location

D'shar Desert

Official Languages

• D'shar

Neighboring Nations

• Königreich of Reikland
• Saamraaj of Indus
• The Petty Midway Princedoms