The Vah Shir & Shar Vahl

The Prophecy

Their story begins before kerran civilisation, with four elders climbing the highest peak of the Stonebrunt Mountains in search of more land: Kajek, the giant Shir, and the sisters Karani and Shahar. Shir wanted to fight for it. Kajek asked the spirits instead, and by firelight the image of Shir appeared upon the moon. “Up there lies land,” Kajek said. The spirits declared that the land must be shared “until the journey to the farthest land of the night’s sky can be made by the children of the beast,” and that on that land the chosen ones would become warriors of the great spirit. So begins The Prophecy, later reprinted as A History of the Vah Shir, Vol. I.

The Splintered Age

Then came an age of splintered tribes. Mortally wounded and full of remorse for the bloodshed he had caused, Partha tore the fangs from his own mouth and gave them to Ratha Shir, the wisest of his sons: “You are not my heir, but you are the wisest of your kin.” In time a great leader, Kejaan Kerrath, united the divided kerrans into one nation.

Kerran nobles

By the time of the war between Erudin and the heretics, the Vah Shir were the nobility of kerran society. In that war they were caught in a blast of experimental magic, the same one that made what is now called the Hole. Their spiritual nature gave them some protection, and their shamans were quick to raise magical defences for themselves and their warrior companions. The final battle of the Erudite civil war tore the city of Shar Vahl off Norrath altogether, and left behind the crater that leads into the depths of Odus.

So the prophecy came true in a way no elder had imagined: the children of the beast made the journey to the farthest land of the night’s sky.

A city of acrylia

Shar Vahl came to rest at the centre of a great crater made where the Shard of Norrath struck Luclin. It is a beautiful walled city built of acrylia, a marble-like stone with glowing veins, ringed by a canyon and strengthened by kerran fortifications. The Vah Shir are not hostile to strangers, but anyone who earns their anger meets a Vah Shir warrior’s blade.

No books

They do not keep written works. The impure magic behind the cataclysm, they hold, came from Erudite research that twisted pure spiritual magic into something unnatural, and so their lore passes from generation to generation in stories and songs, kept by the bards and the shamans.

Castes of Shar Vahl

They serve King Raja Kerrath in castes. The Khala Dun are the warriors and the Taruun the rogues, who served as scouts when the city landed and later on Norrath. The Dar Khura shamans and the Khati Sha beastlords look after the people’s spiritual life, and the Jharin bards are the lorekeepers. Despite their exile the Vah Shir did not grow bitter. Survival bound them tightly together, and it is rare for one of them to put self before community.

A hero lost

Their greatest beastlord, Khati Sha, set out to explore the moon after the city arrived and never came back. The beastlord guild still bears his name, and few in Shar Vahl know what he became.