Khati Sha

We murmur of our beginnings. We tell children bright tales. But we preach forgetfulness. And this is good, for the truth is heresy. To remember what our god does not is folly. To remind him of his days as an explorer, his fame and place amongst the Vah Shir will only kindle his rage. To show him the secret ledgers and testaments we have recovered from the Shissar would surely call his wrath. To tell him of his torture and rebirth through death at the hands of the Shissar must bring our destruction. And so we must conceal the truth.

Our legends must be lies.

Long in the distant past, civil war erupted between the erudites of Erudin. The conflict was swift and savage, and the erudites unleashed terrible magics against one another, often with devestating results. The peaceful kerrans, native to the continent of Odus, were caught up in the brutal conflict, in spite of their efforts to stay out of the line of fire.

The greatest loss, however, came when the armies of Paineel unleashed a powerful spell designed to completely wipe their enemies from Norrath. As a test, the erudites targeted a large kerran village on the southern end of Toxxulia Forest. In one terrifying flash, the village completely vanished (along with the mountain on which it once rested), and the Hole was formed.

The spell was based on teleportation magic, and rather than destroying the village and its inhabitants, it actually sent the entire mountainside through the Combine network, and onto the moon of Luclin. The survivors of the spell were shocked at their new surroundings, but since they were unable to reverse their situation, they soon began to rebuild on their new home.

Khati Sha, a general and advisor to the tribe elder, Kejaan Kerrath, was also one of the first explorers on the moon of Luclin. Among his discoveries were the Acrylia Mines, which gave the kerrans the material they would use to build their new city, and the glade of spiritual animals, which lead to the rediscovery of the beastlord path. The house of beastlords became known as Khati Sha after the one who discovered them.

When adventurers came to Luclin, they met with Khati Sha, and began to learn the secrets of spiritual bonding. Thus, the teaching of the beastlords reached out beyond hte city of Shar Vhal, and back to the denizens of Norrath. Beastlords had again returned to Norrath.

Prior to the age of Cataclysms, the gods departed Norrath. Those attuned to the spiritual world began to feel the mighty spiritual guides who once spoke to them also began to retreat, although unlike the divine gods, the spiritual retreat was far more gradual. Rituals to bond spirit animals to their beastlords began to fail, and the spirits did not respond when questioned why. As a group, beastlords were becoming extinct on Norrath.

The Truespirit, who were responsible for the spirit guides, had sensed impending cataclysms and chose to retreat. Since the spirit guides themselves were tied to the essence of mortals, the disasters could threaten to destroy the Truespirit as well. Thus, they elected to retreat back to the spirit world, and await the time when they could emerge again.

Master Tashakhi

Once, ages ago, a mighty kerran beastlord named Khati Sha served his King Vah Kerrath faithfully. When the city of Shar Vahl was transported to the Moon of Luclin, Khati Sha immediately set out to explore this new world. As always, he served with honor and distinction, expanding his people’s knowledge of the moon and its strange inhabitants. After a time, Khati Sha heard tales of a strange place on the light side of Luclin where the evil shissar snake-folk purportedly held sway.

Fearful of the threat that the shissar represented, and perhaps just slightly too curious for his own good, Khati Sha ventured into the blazing eternal day of the light side and sought out the region known as the Grey. He never returned, and soon the Vah Shir mourned the loss of their greatest beastlord. Today, the Shar Vahl guild of beastlords bears the name of their greatest hero. Most believe that the legendary Khati Sha perished, while others believe that he lives on still, watching over his people from the wilds of Luclin.

The Shar Vahl and their king would be horrified if they knew the truth. In the Grey, Khati Sha was captured by the shissar and taken to their temple, where he was subjected to unbelievable torments. Curious about the world’s newest inhabitants, the snake-folk twisted Khati Sha’s body and mind, transforming him into a cruel and terribly powerful creature of evil. Infected by the shissars’ xenophobia and lust for further power, Khati Sha escaped from the Grey and wandered Luclin’s moon for a time, a twisted parody of the noble creature he had once been.

At length, he found his way back to the Mushroom Forest, where his people managed the thriving Acrylia Mines. In the depths of the mines, Khati Sha encountered a primitive race of bestial humanoids, which he dubbed grimlings. Handling the grimlings as cruelly as he himself had been manipulated by the shissar, Khati Sha transformed them into a cruel, sadistic race bent on spreading death and suffering. By the thousands, the grimlings burst from the Acrylia Mines, slaying countless Vah Shir and driving the kerrans from the forest. Renamed the Grimling

Forest, this realm is today a bloody battleground.

For their part, the grimlings worshipped their new leader as a god, who now called himself “Tashakhi,” a twisted version of his old name. Few if any have realized the similarities, though some newer grimling architecture is said to mirror the Vah Shir style of design — a fading remnant of Khati Sha’s old existence.