An intro to the Shartha

An introduction to the Shartha, one of the playable races in Entyl: Chaos Prophecies, the MMORPG that I'm helping to develop.

We once had homes beneath the stars, dwelling upon the surface like the other races. Our cities had spiraled into the air, towering monoliths of stone and metal. Even back then we were in touch with the earth, with the stone, with all that hid beneath the surface. At times we could shape it, though that is an ability long lost. Once, we walked tall, enjoying the day breeze upon our flesh.

The Sundering changed all of that for us. Our cities came crashing down upon us, the very valleys in which we had lived closing in and burying us in what could have been a tomb. Our mages banded together and reshaped us, allowing us to survive in the world in which we found each other. They took away the power to shape the world around us and used it to shape ourselves.

We learned to survive beneath the earth and for a few generations that is where we stayed, buried within the ruins of our once towering spires. By the time we broke to the surface again, we had change, losing a part of ourselves in the process. The process had nearly broken us as a people and only by growing harder were we able to survive. Growing harder in spirit and in body.

Our once soft flesh grew plates to protect us from the hard earth. Our muscles shortened and strengthened, allowing us to tear through the earth to build our new homes. Our mandibles crew wider to protect our mouths from the dirt as we burrowed. Our tails grew longer to let us navigate the darkness and protect ourselves from the new threats that were continuously unearthed.

Those of us on Ryode lost contact with the rest of the world as we returned to the valleys, a reminder of the places we had lost in ages past. No longer did our homes spiral into the air. Instead they squatted upon the earth, guarding the entrances to our new homes beneath the surface. We shaped stone and earth with our hands and our knowledge rather than with magic.

Then came the Empire.

They didn’t call themselves that at first. They were simply the Forces of Man and they drove us from the valleys, shattered our homes, and rent the earth asunder once again. We fled further from the encroaching cities and farms as mankind continued to spread.

One day the humans went too far and destroyed the once fertile lands of Shartha Plains. Gone were the rolling hills of waving grass, gone in an instance of fire and magic. In its place remained the Shartha Desert.

There we moved and there we made our homes, safe in the knowledge that no more would the humans follow us. They could not live in the sands. They could not live In the dunes, or endure the rolling sand storms that were still conjured by the magic that lingered in the air from that long lost devastation.

We had endured much. Driven from one home after another. Now we were settled and could become a people once again. We took upon ourselves the name of our new home, calling ourselves the Shartha.

We are the people of the desert. We will not be moved again.