Campaign Setting

After the death of Emperor Aurangzeb and the subsequent decline of the Mughal Empire, the small coastal Sultanate of Pashmar was established. A tiny principality, it lies along the coast of the Indian Ocean, just to the south and west of the great Indus River delta. The country is known throughout the Indies for its fertile coastal plains and river basins, from which cash crops and grain abound. A series of highlands marks Pashmar's northern border, while lush rain forrests and swampland lie to the south and vast plains stretch to the east. Artisans and other craftsmen are known for their intricate works forged from the copper, iron, gold and silver that is painstakingly mined from the Sultanate's highlands. Upon Pashmar's declaration of independence from the Mughals in 1707 and Mahumd I, Sultan of Pashmar's rise to power, the peaceful and bountiful country began seeking to expand its markets for its wealth. Enter the Honourable Pashmaristan Company.

Mahmud I, Sultan of Pashmar

Pashmaristan (as the Sultanate was known to the Europeans) would normally have fallen under the ever-watchful eye of the venerable East India Company, and would have had it not been for the efforts of Horatio Dalrymple, an English merchant whose trading partnership Dalrymple, Johns and Cox had established trading posts in Pashmaristan as early was 1704. Dogged in his efforts to hold back the EIC's attempts to exploit the region and calling on familial ties in Parliament, Dalrymple applied for and was granted a Royal Charter from Her Majesty Queen Anne in 1709, thus establishing the Honourable Pashmaristan Company. This charter gave the HPC exclusive trading rights to Pashmaristan as well as the right to raise troops to protect the Company's interests.

Dalrymple left England for Pashmaristan in 1714 (having been delayed by the events of the War of the Spanish Succession) with his staff and the first company of European soldiers in the HPC's employ, consisting primarily of former members of the Duke of Marlborogh's army; Dalrymple insisted that his wife, of fragile consitiution, and young daughter Elizabeth remain in England. When he arrived at the Pashmari port of Katagut in the spring of 1715, Dalrymple and the HPC found itself in the midst of a country close to boiling over.

The citadel overlooking the port of Katagut

In the eight years since Mahmud I's ascension to the Sultanate, political and social upheavals outside of the control of the HPC's trading factors seemed to be pushing Pashmar towards a breaking point. Though relatively peaceful in and of itself, a country as prosperous as the Sultanate of Pashmar soon found enemies both within and without. Pashmari bandits proweled the northern hills, attacking caravans hauling precious metals to the coast. Dutch pirates attacked harrasses shippping and raided up and down the coast from bases deep within Pashmar's southern swamps. And finally, the entirety to the Sultanate was threatened by Pashmaristan's eastern neighbor, the bellicose State of Balalagar, led by the Nizam Sikander Quli.

Sikander Quli, Nizam of Balalagar

Quli had also forge his kingdom out of the chaos surrounding the death of Aurangzeb, but instead of using trade and negotiation like Mahmud I of Pashmar, Quli turned to outright conquest. In eight years Quli had doubled the size of Balalagar by swallowing up other small offshoots of the Mughals. As his borders stretched towards the coast in 1715, Quli and his army of veterans had their eyes fixed on the rich and fertile Sultanate of Pashmar.

Upon recieving Dalrymple at the city of Pashmar, Mahmud's capital, the Sultan was desperate for any military assistance his European trading partner could provide against Quli's forces gathering at the eastern border. Though Dalrymple made it plain to the Sultan that he and his company were solely in the business of trade--and therefore would be unable to meddle in the affairs of other nations by committing the Company's soldiers in battle--he did agree to let his HPC veterans train some of the Sultan's few firearm-equipped levies in European drill. These men, numberin fewer than two battalions, were less than half trained in August when Quli's forces came streaming across the border, and despite the HPC's protestations that they were not ready these battalions were sent with the rest of the Sultan's fledgling forces to intercept the invaders.

HPC trained troops of the Sultan's army mustering in Pashmar

The resulting Battle of Mahakala on August 15, 1715 was an utter disaster for the Sultan of Pashmar's forces. Undisciplined soldiers trained to fire by volleys by the HPC regulars discharged their pieces far too early, and the two battalions were caught in the open, reloading, by a well-timed elephant and cavalry charge led by Quli himself. The resulting rout turned into a slaughter, and Dalrymple and the rest of the HPC soon began to wonder if their entire enterprise was about to literally go up in smoke. As Quli approached the gates of Pashmar itself, Dalrymple began to quietly prepare to leave the Sultanate altogether with the rest of the Company, but these preparations proved to be unnescessary; Mahmud had struck a deal with Quli.

The Battle of Mahakala

In exchange for leaving Pashmar, Mahmud offered to pay Balalagar an annual duty, as well as betrothe his daughter, Princess Rashi, to Quli when she reached the proper age, and upon Mahmud's death the Sultanate of Pashmar and the State of Balalagar would be united under one rule. Until that time, however, Pashmar would remain an independant nation. Quli accepted the terms and promised he would return on Princess Rashi's eighteenth birthday on October 3rd, 1725. The Princess, who was only eight years old (the same age as Dalrymple's own daughter Elizabeth) would remain in Pashmar with her family until Quli returned.

The crisis averted, an uneasy truce befell the region and the relations between the Sultan and the Nizam. As the decade wore on, the HPC prospered, growing richer and richer as it expanded its trade and grew its army. Under the watchful eye of Colonel Augustus Pfeifer (a Prussian heavily influenced by his leige, the 'Soldier-King' Frederick William I) and his Scottish aide-de-camp Alexander Bell, the HPC army began to establish control over some of the region's wilder parts, though bandits like the half-English, half-Pashmari Mohommad Kalakani Rogers still plagued the Company's northern-most districts, and pirates such as the Dutchman Jan Van Voort evaded both the HPC and the Royal Navy under Admiral Stalwart Benbow. Also increasing tensions was the ever-growing influence of the French on the Nizam of Balalagar. The French, whose competition with the HPC further stretched the limits of the very fragile truce between the two nations, only exasperated matters far removed from the simple business of trade. Despite these problems, however, the region was nonetheless stable enough that Horatio Dalrymple thought it safe to send for his daughter. Elizabeth's mother had died of consumption in 1720, and Elizabeth had been staying with relations as she attended school. Thrilled to finally see her Papa again, Elizabeth excitedly sailed for Pashmaristan in December of 1724.

HMS Sprite, sloop of Admiral Benbow's squadron, off Pashmaristan's coast

Which brings us up to date. With bandits in the hills, pirates off the coast, an uneasy peace between two former enemies, the emminent perparations for Princess Rashi's birthday next year and Elizabeth Dalrymple due to arrive, Pashmaristan, the Sultanate of Pashmar, is both an exotic land ripe for adventure, intrigue and wealth as well as a powder keg only awaiting a spark to explode the region in turmoil.