Little Calimshan
The people of Little Calimshan stand out amid other Baldurians because most continue to wear the fashions of the south regardless of the local weather. Speaking their own breathy tongue, Alzhedo, is a point of pride, although nearly all of them can communicate in Common and Chondathan well enough to be understood. These little acts of rebellion against local custom speak both to the continuing friction between their settlement and the rest of Baldur’s Gate, and to the desire of many to return to lives in the south.
The Calishites’ desire for the goods of their homeland has prompted overland traders from the south to deliver cargo directly to Little Calimshan. This commercial route started with the fortuitous sale of a few things the traders just happened to have, but now caravans are bringing such goods in as much bulk as they can manage. Baldurians who are interested in purchasing silks, Golden Sands beer, items made of Calishite steel, and other esoterica now regularly exit the city to buy from Little Calimshan’s bazaars, which open to outsiders for a few hours around midday each day. This turn of events caused some consternation in the Parliament of Peers due to lost revenue from taxes at Baldur’s Gate and port fees, but the Council of Four has eased those concerns by instituting a special tax on business conducted in a “fortification within the lands of entitlement.”
Architecture
In the Outer City, determining exactly where neighboring districts, such as Whitkeep and Sow’s Foot, begin and end is a matter of much debate. Little Calimshan is an exception. Its brick-and-plaster, minaret-topped walls, measuring 15 feet high and 3 to 5 feet thick at the ridge, clearly mark its extent. People move along the wall tops as though they were streets, which they effectively have become.
Little Calimshan is built in the Calishite style, meaning it is organized as a sabban (district), composed of multiple drudachs (neighborhoods). Each drudach is walled off, creating compartmentalized hamlets within the district. Typically, a drudach’s inhabitants belong to the same extended family or tribe. The tops of the drudachs’ walls are paved so locals can travel easily from drudach to drudach without stopping at gates. From atop the walls, it is relatively easy to spot an intended destination and choose a path to reach it.
A drudach’s buildings cluster, as much as possible, along the hamlet’s thick walls. Calishite buildings and drudach walls are typically composed of plastercovered brick. Calimshan’s traditional bright tiles and decorative brickwork are less common in Baldur’s Gate, since those who build and live in Little Calimshan lack a pasha’s resources. Someone familiar with drudach architectural styles would know that Little Calimshan looks ramshackle when compared to Calimshan proper.
Individual drudachs are fairly uniform in their contents, if not their layouts. Most contain at least one religious area, such as a shrine, temple, or other holy site; a place for refreshment, usually a well or fountain but sometimes a tavern, inn, or festhall; a bazaar or a tent market; a handful of service buildings, (smithy, armory, tannery, mill family living quarters; and an amlakkhan, to house the amlakkar, a group of a dozen or more young bachelors who police the drudach. Spending time as an amlakkhan has become a de facto path to Guild membership.
The center of a drudach is either its most affluent site or an open courtyard featuring a well or temporary market. Finally, a drudach always contains the abode of its druzir, or leader.
History
Most Baldurians view the walls of Little Calimshan from the outside and imagine soft-handed Calishite merchants lounging on silk pillows and being fed delicacies while they complain about the cold and rain. After all, the walls arose in what seemed like the blink of an eye, with much gold flowing from Calishite coffers to the local builders’ guilds. And the Calishites keep to themselves, treating their domain like a fortress and rarely entering the city proper.
Less ignorant people remember the ships that arrived by night. They recall the children’s frightened faces and the adults’ exhausted resolution. They can still hear themselves saying the inn was full, or claiming not to understand what was being asked for, even though the Calishite’s expressions and desperate gestures spoke clearly in every language.
Hustled through the city and taxed for the privilege of being kicked out in the middle of the night, the refugees found their way to the only place that welcomed them: a long-standing Calishite caravanserai on the outskirts of the city. The owner was overwhelmed, but once he heard his compatriots’ description of the wars that had consumed the south, his home became theirs. With every last copper of the wealth the travelers had brought, they paid the inflated prices of the guilds to construct their homes, building up from the caravanserai as has been Calishite custom for generations. Until they could return to Calimshan, they would live behind the walls, being as hospitable to the Baldurians as the Baldurians are to them. They reside behind the walls still, and few non-Calishites are welcome.
Tourism
When visiting Little Calimshan, it is best to enter during the day through one of the district’s arched gateways. After dark, most of the doors to the outside and many within the district are closed and barred to impede the neighborhood’s plague of burglars. Thieves still move around after dark, prowling above the streets along the district’s thick walls and crowded rooftops, but at least their paths are made more difficult and visible.
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