Kaarthik was once the largest and most storied settlement of the Kroot, a cursed people descended from the ancient Solir—sun elves who once ruled The Sun Realm of Osira (see: Itela). Situated on the northwestern fringe of The Sands of Serrakhan, Kaarthik stood as a defiant citadel of ancestral memory, constructed from bleached beastbone, sun-dried hides, and sandstone etched with solar runes long forgotten.
But in the early years of the Fifth Age, the Conjunction of the Realms devastated the meager settlement.. And Kaarthik was no more.
Origins & Founding
Following the fall of Itela and the betrayal of Avatar Lumina at the hands of Malekith, the Solir were sundered—cursed and driven into exile. Their golden skin blackened, their radiant eyes hollowed by ash. Those who survived became the Kroot, a reclusive, semi-nomadic culture who refused to kneel to the new sun tyrant.
They wandered for generations across the dune sea, scorched and bitter, until they found high ridges flanked by shade-canyons and wind-carved stone. There they built Kaarthik, not in defiance, but in remembrance. It was their last bastion of continuity. Their last attempt to forge identity from ruin.. And most importantly, to survive.
Though the Serrakhan Sultanate and common travelers often spoke of Kroot raids and savage rituals, these tales were rarely firsthand. Kroot society remained insular. Kaarthik’s rituals were solar in origin, but their worship held no god—only memory, rage, and dust.
Destruction in the Conjunction
During the Conjunction of the Realms, the Prometheus attempted to forcibly merge the Faewyld with the Prime Plane, rupturing planar boundaries across Osira. Kaarthik, sitting at the edge of the western dune sea, lay directly in the path of the merging energies.
What was once sunburnt rock and sand was overgrown in a matter of hours. Vines of silver leaf and amber thorns burst from the dunes. Trees rooted in nothing stretched toward a verdant sky that had no right to exist in the desert. The Conjunction terraformed the region into what is now called the Faewylds—a chaotic, overgrown wilderness of tangled magic and warped memory.
The Kroot, exposed to Faewyld saturation and solar corruption both, were transformed. Those who resisted became fragmented and mad. Those who survived the inner storm emerged… altered.
The Sandshifter Sanctum
In the ruins of Kaarthik now stands the Sandshifter Sanctum, a shrine-fort and communal refuge raised by the survivors of the Kroot civil fracturing. These survivors—now called Sandshifters—possess the ability to manipulate and shape sand as if it were an extension of their will, an unstable gift born from their exposure to both solar elementalism and Faewyld resonance.
The Sanctum is built into the bone-ribs of old Kaarthik, partially swallowed by the creeping Faewyld overgrowth and half-buried in sandstorms. Within its halls, echoes of Kroot ancestor-worship endure, but twisted into new rites—part conjuration, part geomancy.
Few outsiders are permitted entry. Those who come with reverence may witness sand-callers practicing their rites: shaping themselves into the dunes, breathing life into sand sculptures, and calling wind from their palms. But beneath it all lingers a weight—of loss, and of memory fractured beyond repair.
Present Status
The Sandshifter Sanctum now serves as both refuge and exile. The Sandshifters are no longer truly Kroot, nor are they welcome among the Sultanate or the Faewylds themselves. Their sanctuary exists in silence—haunted by the city that came before, shaped by the disaster that rewrote their future.
They do not seek vengeance. Nor do they offer forgiveness.
They simply endure.