Serpent’s Shrine, once little more than a desolate ruin scattered with wind-worn stones, concealed a deeper truth beneath the westernmost windswept dunes of The Sands of Serrakhan. In the early Fifth Age, it appeared as a long forgotten village—its sun-scorched remnants crumbling before the desert winds. Yet hidden beneath its surface lay a forgotten temple, long buried by time, constructed in reverence to The Great Serpent, a primordial beast venerated by the Snake Cult as a god.
Following the fall of the cult and the death of its final prophet, the site was believed dormant. But after the Conjunction of the Realms, the land itself split open, revealing what lay below: a vast ossuary valley, coiled with ancient remains, haunted by those the serpent had consumed. Now known as the Unknown, the shrine is no longer a secret—but a scar upon the land.
Origins & Occult History
The shrine was founded in the early ages by Yuan-ti Pureblood and serpentfolk of The Sun Realm whom traced their lineage to the Great Serpent and deeply despised the Solir of Itela. They were the accursed descendants of the Revenant Titan they worshipped, twisted by fire and blood into scaled aberrants who fled into the deep desert.
The Serpent Cult believed the Great Serpent was a manifestation of divine hunger—an elemental expression of predation, rebirth, and cyclical death. They built their temple beneath the dunes to protect its remains.
The upper ruins served as decoy. Below, rituals were conducted in silence. Sacrifices were drained beneath obsidian fang-altars, and incantations in Sibilant Primordial echoed down stone corridors. Their second prophet, "Kassim the Eye", succeeded the slain "Zoltan the Fang" and offered his own soul to revive the serpent in the final days of the cult.
His sacrifice worked. Briefly.
Resurrection and Return
The Sunsations, long embroiled with the cult, descended upon the shrine during its most dire hour. Kassim completed the ritual just as they arrived, raising the Great Serpent from its ossified state for one final hunt under the light of Rozan's Eye. A titanic battle followed, as the serpent tore through sand and stone, swallowing many, its scales glowing with necrotic light (see: Serpents Showdown).
Guy the Grateful severed its neck with a strike, the serpent collapsing into a shattered spiral of bones that shook the earth. With its fall, the shrine collapsed and was declared sealed.
The Valley of the Sundered Serpent
Years later, in the wake of the Conjunction of the Realms, the terrain fractured once more. A massive subterranean cavern caved in beneath the shrine’s ruins, exposing a forgotten underworld.
Here, in the Valley of the Sundered Serpent, lie the remains of countless beings—Solir, Yuan-ti, humans, and beasts devoured by the serpent across ages past. Their bones stretch across the cracked valley floor, some fossilized into the rock itself. The serpent’s skeleton lies coiled at the valley’s center, hollow-eyed and jaw agape, its teeth forming a broken cathedral of bone.
Spirits drift across the valley, unable to find rest. Some cry out in forgotten languages. Others attack the living. The entire site pulses with residual magic—Rift Energy fused with necrotic corruption.
Current Status
The site is forbidden under the authority of the Serrakhan Sultanate. Only sanctioned exorcists or Rift Scholars may enter the valley, and even then, none are permitted beyond the third descent.
It is said the serpent still dreams.
And beneath the coiled ribs, the serpent yet seethes.