History in Antiquity: 700 to 200 years ago
Sometime around the fall of the Kadelans, the Sabiri arrived on scene. They may have been conquerors or opportunists, but it is certain that they were migratory folk even then, and may have come from a region near the Everdread Desert. It is possible that the Everdread may have been somewhat inhabitable at some time in the past, but that as the climate changed the natives were forced to move on, and they migrated northward until they came to a vast region freshly vacated by the Kadelans. The Huron minotaurs just north of the Everdread have stories of chalk-skinned folk in some of their old folklore, which suggest that this may be true. There are also splinter populations, such as the sedentary folk in the remote city of Eredar along the Jagged Coast who are clearly related to the Sabiri.
Sabiri do not write, except on rare occasion to commemorate a great event or victory. The learned men and women of their tribes keep language a carefully guarded secret, so few outsiders can learn it first-hand, and even fewer commoners in the tribes can understand it. To the Sabiri language is a powerful device for magic, not unlike their unique magic tattoos.
Because of their habit of making monuments to commemorate victories, scholars have noted that there appear to be no such monuments declaring a victory of the Sabiri over the Kadelans, nor do the Sabiri themselves tell any stories about such an event. It seems that when they arrived in the land, the Kadelans had been gone for decades.
Until about four centuries ago the Sabiri did have to contend with the Auman minotaurs. The minotaurs roved the land in small, militant bands, sometimes squatting in old ruins and occupying them, and at other times roving about looking for conflict with nomads, orcs, or anything else they could find.
Kobal was already present when the Sabiri arrived on-scene. This enigmatic demiurge was already quite powerful, but appeared to be utterly disconnected from reality. It is believed that his body and some primal level of consciousness wandered the land, radiating so much power that he generated a perpetual storm wherever he traveled. His consciousness, meanwhile, roamed the astral realms of the planes seeking cosmic truths.
The minotaurs revered Kobal as their own god, and made sacrifices, including virginal females, to appease him and keep his wrath from their own communities. The Sabiri picked up this same practice of worship soon after occupying the land, realizing it was the only way to keep Kobal at bay. In time the warrior caste of the Sabiri adopted similar teachings to the Auman, including a reverence for martial prowess and strict codes of honor. Such beliefs stemmed from the cultists of Kobal, who said these beliefs were dictated in dreams and visions sent to them by the demiurge himself.
Around four hundred years ago the Sabiri believe the Auman minotaurs met their final fate. The nomads have a number of folktales which revolve around the Auman, who they claim revolted against Kobal, and attempted to overthrow the demiurge before he grew too powerful. Some of the stories suggest that this was hubris on the part of the Auman, but the most commonly known tale speaks of an Auman prince named Holorash, who grew discontent with Kobal’s dominance after the demiurge chose Holorash’s wife as his own consort. Holorash rose up and seized control of the Auman tribes, and set out to destroy Kobal and claim the demiurge’s Zodiac Stone for himself. The story, of course, ends with the massacre of the Auman at the hands of Kobal, who after all was clearly powerful enough to have taken down the Old Empire, if some accounts are believed to be true. In turn, Kobal spent several decades eradicating the Auman. In the end, as all Sabiri tales say, Kobal came to the Sabiri and declared them his flock. A flock which would behave, and offer supplication and sacrifice, lest it fall like the Auman did. Kobal had truly become the last of his kind.
The cult of Amorgas began sometime after this event, possibly around 300 years ago. Amorgas was a strong woman, and she was chosen for sacrifice to Kobal, to be taken as one of his many short-lived wives. The story tells of how Amorgas was so captivating that Kobal let her live, and she grew close enough to him that she was able to steal a shard of his divine Zodiac Stone. In turn Amorgas fled, and survived in the northlands of Sabiri, evading Kobal in his wrath. She was at last found by the demigod, who locked her away in his subterranean realm, so that she could not flee again. He let her keep the shard of stone that in turn granted her the power of an Avatar. From this spark of the divine did her cult begin, and it grew to be a strong secret society to which only Sabiri women may belong.
Sabiri life continued from this time, an uneventful period until about two centuries ago, with the arrival of the Espaneans.
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