The Zaharan are an ancient lineage that passes for human but is “not entirely human”: once overseers of the Serpent Men, later rebels, now guardians of ruins (Ruinlords). They created the beastmen and are the foremost authority on resurrection and mortality.
| Type | People / lineage |
| Language | ”Ancient” |
| Spanish entry | Zaharan |
Description
They are “the humans, above all those who later turned out not to be entirely human”. A Zaharan “moves with the sand and with the animal”. “They are not common; they generally hide it.” Today “perhaps they managed to step into the background, and that does not mean they disappeared”.
History
They are “the ancient lineage that supposedly dominated all the others before”, “as a race, the overseers” of the Serpent Men, “until we freed ourselves”, in a Zaharan’s words. The Zaharan Rebellion “was long and costly”. The Serpent Men’s order fell, and the Zaharan became “guards of the ruins. Ruinlords”.
They “enslaved and even created new beasts. The beastmen”: “the horrendous genetic things produced by the Zaharans themselves”, bred as battle soldiers and military slaves. “They use them in battles, but they know how to withdraw in time.”
Death lore
On resurrection and the manipulation of mortality, “the Zaharans know a great deal”. Their structures are the Zaharan tumuli; before moving earth in open country a surveyor must “check that they are not Saharan tumuli”.
Language and customs
- They speak “ancient” among themselves. “The Zaharan is of violence” (language, lineage or character: unclear).
- They practice something close to slavery; other peoples “are not so far from the Zaharans and their practices”.
- Peace formula: “they have to bury the hatchet, as is said among the safaranos”.
- Two Zaharan, Alirón and Marduk, “know each other from our roots”.
Where to find them
They have no territory, capital or known number. In the underworld of Adwen there is “a Zaharan for hire”, and “there were problems with a Zaharan” there. Otherwise, in the ruins and the tumuli.
Conflicting accounts
- One voice makes them “the ancient element of this half-Celtic culture”; another ties them to “the sand” and rules out an Arab origin.
Open questions
- How their non-human nature shows and what they hide.
- When the Rebellion took place and what it cost.
- What the tumuli are and hold, and why they must be checked.
- The price of hiring one; whether slavery is general or limited to the beastmen; whether “burying the hatchet” is a rite.
- Whether beastmen are still being made.