Karrakos

The Lua’tesha - The outer Kapaerian isles are home to oceanic lizardfolk who swim through the mangrove forests. The Lua’tesha have crocodilian features, with powerful tails that propel them through the tropical waters. Living as they are in close proximity to the haunted city of Karrakos, the lizardfolk give their dead to the ocean, believing that their spirits return to the cycle of nature rather than remaining stranded as ghosts. They can call on these spirits to protect them or offer guidance, merging hydromantic and necromantic spells.

The Legacy of Karrakos

In contrast, Cassandra the Soul-Seer is a much more ancient relic. The titan was exiled to Sarlona over 60,000 years ago in relation to the fall of Shae Tirias Tolai, and has spent much of her solitude in the mountains of Adar. Her lifespan is a result of an ancient fey curse, and she spends much of her time speaking to the spirits of the dead that gather around her - an atonement for her part in the fall of the feyspire. Some stone giants were willingly taken to Argonnessen by the dragons, becoming their servants and the guardians of Io’lokar.

These giants originate from the city-state of Karrakos - the priests of the giant gods who held a pact with the Queen of the Dead. The reasons for their protection are an ancient secret. Perhaps the dragons hesitated to slaughter a city of peaceful sovereign priests. Perhaps the giants foresaw the Shattering, and helped the dragons to destroy the Cul’sir Empire as revenge for Shae Tirias Tolei. Maybe the most outlandish option is that the dragons had no desire to enrage Dolurrh’s Queen of the Dead by annihilating her mortal servants, and thus formed a pact with them to leave Xen’drik behind.

Land of the Mind

After the Shattering, left in the ashes of their utopia, some giants forsook their arcane power and fled from the devastation as goliaths. These refugees fled to Sarlona and western Khorvaire, becoming the psionic Pathadrik of Adar, Syrkarn, and Tashana, and the goliaths of Khorvaire’s Shadowcrags. These half-giants gave up nearly all ties to their history in Xen’drik, and have created cultures independent of arcane magic. The goliaths of Sarlona are psionic nomads, and place great importance in their family clans.

Many serve as merchants and shepherds, but also mediums - a callback to the ancient city-state of Karrakos. Notably, the goliaths still venerate the old gods of the giants, and have spread the worship of Karrak, Banor, and Rowa to other Sarlonan peoples such as the eneko. They see Cassandra with a mix of pity and sympathy - a blessed avatar of Karrak, but one forever lost out of time.