The Telmarines that conquered Narnia were actually humans from Earth. On Earth, a group of pirates who intermarried with women from islands in the Pacific found an island with a cave that had an entrance to Narnian world. The pirates found the land of Telmar uninhabited, the original colony of Calormenes having been turned into dumb beasts by Aslan for their behaviour and destroyed each other. The Telmarines prospered for years until a famine struck their land.