Piasa

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Piasa was an ancient, powerful dragon that was born moments after the Shattering.

History

Thanks to an abundance of ekati at the time, he grew to over 3 kilometers in length, his tail making up most of that. He became a god to the ancestors of the Taulan Tribe of the Amacata Desert. Piasa’s golden scales were said to have glittered in the sun as a shining beacon for the people.

A volcanic eruption threatened to destroy the Taulan people. To protect them, he sacrificed himself by wrapping his body around the volcano to absorb the eruption into his body. The lava melted his skin away leaving behind his bones mixed with unique rock formations. The Taulan people protected the corpse for generations and overtime, nature reclaimed the area, burying Piasa deep underground and leaving no trace of his existence on the surface.

By the end of the Tribal Era, the Taulan people had forgotten that Piasa’s corpse was physically in the area they had been protecting. He faded into legend, and Mt. Piasa - the volcano now named after Piasa himself - became a holy site that was strictly forbidden to outsiders.

Thousands of years later, a rogue Aetherian named Murni threatened the continent by calling for his ancient floating city of Segara to fall to the ground. While he was stopped by another Aetherian named Bara as well as a group of intrepid adventurers, falling debris struck the ground in a radius hundreds of miles from the city’s location over the Gulf of Segara to the south.

One large piece of debris struck an area in the Amacata Desert which uncovered a cave that would lead to a portion of the fossilized remains of Piasa - a mere fragment of what was once a gargantuan, titanic being. This proved to the Taulan Tribe that Piasa was real, but word spread out to other nations in the vicinity of a being of archeological and economical interest. Even after many thousands of years, Piasa’s bones still contained numerous magical properties. Some of Piasa’s golden scales still survived as well.

The sudden discovery of a wealth of resources drew the attention of many prospectors who wished to mine the area. The Taulan Tribe were divided on the matter. Those who wanted to keep to the old traditions did not want them to trespass while newer generations saw it as an opportunity to build relations with outsiders by allowing archeologists to study the area. Needless to say, it became a major area of conflict in Khyorgan during the Steampunk Era.