Tarkath
A protectorate of ArnesseHouse Aragon
Tarkath is a wasteland of ash in the far south of Arnesse, where the soil itself is poison. House Aragon and its vassals have held an empire there for over a thousand years.
The Land and Its People
Tarkath stretches between the Vokun Mountains and the Espar Mountains. South of the pass called Snake's Neck, the green of the Midlands gives way to withered brush and then to nothing but fine, dead soil.
This page describes the protectorate as it stood in 763, when the Annwyn appeared. The last section follows what became of its people there.
Few places in Arnesse are as hostile. The ground is laden with very fine ash that holds a poison called scrith, which kills when breathed over time. In the Deep Wastes it is said that no one can survive outside for more than a day. Travelers must hire Dustrunners, guides who wear filtering suits and masks and charge dearly for their services.
People survive in the Tors, ancient fortified cities, and in smaller sanctuaries called sirats. The technology that sustains them is failing, and the knowledge to repair it has been lost. In 763 many Tarkathi faced the prospect that their people would one day have to leave the wastes.
The Tarkathi are hardy, passionate, and fond of freedom, and they live as though each day might be the last. Some of the finest minds in Arnesse live among them, and the Apotheca keeps the Ashen Tower there, with the largest library on the continent. The south has more markets than anywhere else in the kingdom. Few goods come from the land itself, so Tarkath deals in quality: perfumes, unusual liquors, and whatever lore and treasure can be carried out of the tombs.
The Dragon Throne
Dragons once fought for House Aragon, until the siege engines of Bannon and Castellan decimated them at Redwick in the Great War. The magic that protected the Tors vanished in the Eldritch Cataclysm. Queen Valena, the last of the ancient dragon lords, led her people through what followed and is remembered as the Mother of Tarkath.
In the seventh century Hector Aragon marched north in alliance with the Corveaux, and his son Roland took the throne of Arnesse. The Tarkathi revere Roland I as the last God King. He reversed the ban on worship and founded Taliesin, but his son Doran was murdered at his own wedding, and the crown returned to the Bannons.
The Aragons came close again. Queen Eleanor married Lord Astor Aragon after the death of King Miles, and he ruled wisely beside her as King Regent. House Aragon sent troops to the losing side at Lanton in 751. Before that, Lord Paragon Vaeros Aragon had come under such pressure from his own nobles that he avoided civil war only by wedding his daughter Lyra to Nebzer Durant and abdicating in her favor.
By 763 King Giles II trusted no Tarkathi noble, and calls for his removal were spreading. A vocal minority claimed that the Aurorym prophecy of Magnus Blayne had been stolen from a Tarkathi source. Lady Paragon Lyra ruled as a moderate, trying to hold back a war from which recovery could take a generation.
The High Houses
House Aragon of Dragonspire
The seat of Tarkath is a gleaming white spike, the tallest structure in Arnesse. Sixty thousand people live in the city, and much of the upper tower stands empty. Legend says that the hero Arric the Argent founded the city through a pact with the dragon Menat.
House Aragon of Taliesin
The Golden City is the second largest trade city in Arnesse. Lord Rylen Aragon and his Corveaux wife, Lady Emmeline, have reopened its gates to foreign traders. Stone hovels and tents sprawl out from the fortress called the Jackal's Tooth.
House Aragon of Tor Sirat
Lady Nessa Aragon, the Serene Lady of the Heavens, keeps the necropolis of Karna, the final destination of those judged worthy by the scales of the Kephrix.
House Aragon of Tor Obolus
This Tor is a network of tunnels and caverns at the end of the River Tethys. Lord Ormund Aragon is vicious and petty, and his nobles keep basilisks as pets.
House Durant of Tor Amnon
Lady Mylena Durant, the Black Asp, rules the so-called Gateway to Tarkath. Her house never forgave the fall of its allies.
House Albarn of Tor Oman
The City of the Dead stands at the western end of the Valley of Vapors. Lord Oberan Albarn is old and failing.
House Vorel of Tor Emon
Great works of engineering split the River Emon here and made arable land out of the waste. The Vorels can also close the river with dams against an invader.
House Vaith of Tyranthis
This house was born of a truce between Rourke and Aragon and holds a deep-water port on the Emon delta. Lord Damon Vaith earned the name the Butcher at sea.
Traditions and Legends
The Rites of the Living
Tarkath was far enough from the north to keep its rites and festivals. In the Khomdal, a young person of eighteen walked into the wastes with few supplies for eighteen days. Some couples married by the Amshere, the blood union, spoken in High Tarkan. A person unable to pay a debt in coin could swear a Shere instead, and blood debts bound people across all stations.
The Festivals
The Festival of Djet opens the year with blessings for the twelve lunar phases. Duat, the Day of the Dragons, is a day of grief for the fallen. The Festival of Shabati marks the founding of the Tors with a feast after long fasting. Hekat is a celebration of life in the fourth moon. The weeklong Festival of Udjat, in the tenth moon, sends families to the tombs of their dead, and on the day of Gebal that follows, the veil between the living and the dead is held to be at its thinnest.
The Cult of Heset and Ammet
When the gods were slain, the Tarkathi turned to the only higher power that remained, which was Death. The north calls her Lirit. Mourners carry their dead to Nekros, the City of Tombs, where Nekrite priests weigh the organs on the great scale known as the Kephrix. Those judged worthy go to Karna or Abydos, and silent, dark-robed Tombkeepers receive them there.
Legends and Beasts
Tarkath is said to have been green once, the home of the golden city of Nefras. Tales warn of the Shaitan, which offers bargains from a smoking mist, and of the Six Eternals, once the greatest warriors of the land. The wastes hold the flesh-stripping Nasnas, the corpse-eating Qutrub, the ghostly Quareen that foretells a death, the voices called the Hatif, and packs of werejackals. Few who enter the Dead Kingdom east of Tor Emon come back, and those who do are changed.
Attire
Tarkathi clothing is long and billowing, in light fabrics that can be layered and wrapped against the wastes. Sashes and belts are prominent, men's tunics run longer than in the north, and both men and women wear loose head coverings.
In the Annwyn
Rumor held from the beginning that the Aragons had a hidden settlement in the Annwyn called Moonfall and that they were working against the King's expedition. Neither that settlement nor their purpose was found for a long time, and many suspected them of backing the Obans. When the Twilight Empire reached Arnesse and the King refused to deal with its envoys, House Aragon agreed to host them.
After the King's death the Aragons stood with Charles Bannon, the Dragon King. At the crossings of the Dread Run in the spring of 767, they turned on him in the middle of the battle and cast their lot with the Innis. Their manors near Mystvale had lain in ruin since the fall of 766, and in the last year Moonfall fell. Lady Obara Aragon and Ser Sarrac Vorel, who spoke for the house, were among the dead of that summer.
The Chronicle tells of the betrayal under Event VIII.