Sarkoris

Where myth and history meet, there stands Sarkoris.
The Draconic Sagas told in the North claim that life began in Sarkoris, and that it was there that the first dragons and coatl hatched. They tell tales of the adventures of Aroden and Bahamut throughout the world battling demons and other monstrosities to make the world safe for the mortal races that were to come.
Legend says that in the north, Bahamut himself oversaw the education of the mortals born in that realm, while Aroden returned south to care for the mortals born there. In the north were found the Dragonborn, and with Bahamut's guidance they created a mighty empire spreading across the north, and centered on the realm of Sarkoris where they and the dragons had first seen the sun. The empire was a marvel of technology and art and culture of all sorts, and the Sarkorian Emperors played host to human kings, Elven lords, and Cyclopean potentates.
Sarkoris was a land of legends. Not only did dragonborn live there, but the residual magic of creation meant Sarkoris was much less separate from the other plains. A greater number of aasimar, genasi, and tieflings were born in Sarkoris than anywhere else on Golarion, and many that live today can trace their ancestry back to the ancient empire. There was friendship between the dragonborn and the 'godborn' as they called the Aasimar and Tieflings, and they did not see them as things of wonder or fear as many do today. Rather, they saw them as being to the gods what the dragonborn were to the dragons, mortals in the image of something greater.
The Earthfall brought an end to all of this. The catastrophic impact destroyed the western provinces of the Empire, and the ash and dust thrown into the atmosphere ruined crops for years after. Only in Sarkoris itself did the dragonborn endure, guided and protected by the grace of the Platinum dragon Bahamut, who took up the kingship of Sarkoris when the Empire collapsed. Like most mortal races, the dragonborn emerged from the darkness weakened, but alive, and through the millennia that followed they grew prosperous again, until disaster struck.
Aroden had long since departed into the heavens with the other gods, and the dragons had scattered across the world, but Bahamut had remained. Dragonborn today still revere Bahamut, but they do not worship him as a god. He was a hero, and a king, but he was not himself divine, but the Sarkorians had grown reliant on him, and so it was that his death was so terrible.
Scholars now believe that in 4606, the god Aroden died suddenly. None know why or how, but his clerics went mad and all contact with him was lost. Scholars also believe that his death knocked the planet off of its metaphysical axis, so to speak, for the event was attended by numerous planar gates opening. The most terrible of these was in Sarkoris, where a vast chasm opened suddenly, swallowing the great city of Iz, and from the chasm poured an endless wave of fiends in service to Deskari the Locust Lord. His horde swept over Sarkoris until they were checked. For Bahamut came, leading the legions of Sarkoris and their allies from the lands around: barbarian tribes from Numeria, swordlords from Brevoy, and a great host of Paladins of Aroden - desperate and hopeless, but no less heroic for that. They smashed the demon horde and drove it back, but in the midst of battle, Bahamut fell as the demon lord Deskari himself came forth to grapple with him, and had the mastery. Panic and fear scattered the army of Sarkoris and the dark wave of fiends spread across the land.
The end came in fire and glory. As is told in the Song of Sarkoris, the Sarkorians made their last stand at Stroasta on the banks of the Sellen. Dragonborn, Tiefling, Aasimar and their allies endured years of siege and a months long battle for the city before they were overrun and slain to the last. Their sacrifice bought time, and even as the walls fell, the Wardstones erected by Iomedae - ascended champion of Aroden - were activated, creating a vast magical barrier to contain the demon host.
Where Sarkoris had been, The Worldwound is now, and the dragonborn are scattered and few, but they remember.

The Age of Legend - 4606

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Alternative Names

The Worldwound

Demonym

Sarkorian