Lhazaar Begins the Human Migration to Khorvaire

Population Migration / Travel

Humans begin the migration to Khorvaire

The great Sarlonan maritime explorer(and some say pirate) Lhazaar lead a migration of several thousand humans in a ragtag flotilla of ships across the Sea of Rage from Sarlona to the eastern shores of Khorvaire almost three thousand years ago, marking the start of a mass migration of Sarlonan humans to the new continent over the next few centuries. Lhazaar’s expedition reached the easternmost territories of Khorvaire that would later be named for her, the Lhazaar Principalities. Lhazaar and most of the other settlers who sailed with her were natives of the western Sarlonan nation of Rhiavhaar. Current archeological findings indicate that Lhazaar’s expedition left from what is now a ruined, pre-Sundering Rhiavhaaran port city called White Water Harbor. The sailors of Rhiavhaar often took to slaving and piracy, and Rhiavhaarian ships—as well as Lhazaar herself—were feared on both sides of the Sea of Rage. Lhazaar’s flotilla was secretly accompanied by the black dragon Vyssilthar in her half-elven form, who left her mate behind in Sarlona because she had foreseen the momentous role Lhazaar’s expedition would play in the draconic Prophecy and the future of the world.

The Lhazaar Principalities region draws its name from this Sarlonan explorer and pirate whose flotilla directly colonized the islands of Greentarn, Orgalos, and Cape Far. Despite her fame, Lhazaar was neither the first nor last pioneer to settle along the eastern coast of Khorvaire. Over two dozen large islands are in the Principalities, and a remarkable range of people have found their way to the eastern shore. Gnome explorers from their homeland of Zilargo claimed the isle of Lorghalen long before Lhazaar made her crossing with the Sarlonan humans. Elf refugees from the Aereni civil war and the destruction of House Vol found solace in the icy solitude of Farlnen. Dwarves and orcs from the Ironroot Mountains migrated to the eastern shore, laying the foundations of Tantamar and Cliffscrape. And dozens of human expeditions followed in the wake of Lhazaar, with most being led by Sarlonan explorers, refugees, and fugitives from nations on that continent since destroyed and assimilated by the Riedran Empire and its Inspired lords. The islanders came together over the centuries, forming cosmopolitan communities and common traditions, ultimately building the common culture of the Lhazaar Principalities.

Despite the blend of races and cultures that have come together to form the Principalities, Lhazaar’s influence can still be felt. It was Lhazaar who organized the first raider fleets, leading expeditions against Zil merchants and the ships of the dying Dhakaani Empire. Lhazaar granted her best captains the rank of praelas—a Sarlonan rank in Old Common translated as “prince” in the present-day Common tongue—and proclaimed herself to be the prince among princes. She established the few laws that are now universal throughout the realm that bears her name, notably the fact that the title of "prince" is not hereditary. By the edicts, a Lhazaar noble holds his post through the power of his fleet and ability to command. Should he slip on either count, a more capable leader can lay claim to his title and his lands. Over the centuries, a number of non-human principalities have adapted this custom to their own traditions; the gnomes of Lorghalen allow would-be princes to challenge a ruler to games of wit and tests of strategy, while the Farlnen elves expect a prince to possess arcane skill in addition to naval skill and maritime power.

Though many Khorvairan humans are unaware that Lhazaar’s expedition was the beginning of human settlement and society on Khorvaire, all know her name. Recently, a controversial theory has been gaining favor in academic circles, seeking to explain why the tale of Lhazaar’s expedition has always been an obscure part of Khorvarien history. Ellias Onsten, a little-known Korranberg Library researcher whose reputation faded even further after his death in 980 AC, was responsible for a revisionist look at Lhazaar’s expedition. Even prior to the end of the Last War, Onsten had studied the fragmentary histories of the sorcerer-kings of ancient Sarlona who had preceded the establishment of Riedra. To him, it had always seemed odd that the first waves of humans to reach Khorvaire had brought precious little in the way of magical knowledge with them. Onsten observed that migrant populations typically hold on to their former cultures and traditions at any cost—building a new culture on a rigid foundation of the customs and traditions of their ancestors. However, almost from the first, the early humans of Khorvaire seemed intent on turning their back on the traditions and history of their former homeland. This led Onsten to conjecture that the first humans to settle Khorvaire might well have been a population that Sarlona did not want.

Today, those Khorvariens who know Lhazaar’s story think of themselves as the descendants of brave explorers and seekers after glory. Onsten’s less attractive notion is that it is the descendants of Sarlonan untouchables, criminals, deserters, and slaves who instead peopled Khorvaire. The notion of a slave culture was of particular interest to the scholar (and of particular abhorrence to his critics), suggesting as it did a reason why the early Khorvariens were so quick to enslave the goblins of the fallen Dhakaan Empire. In Onsten’s view, the strong controlling the weak was the only world these human immigrants knew. Onsten’s hypothesis has recently gained ground among Khorvarien scholars. To them, a culture built entirely by people who have a vested interest in forgetting who they had once been might look very much like that of the Five Nations of Khorvaire today. At the same time that Captain Lhazaar and the first humans arrived on Khorvaire's shores, the mark of Healing first gifted among the halfling tribes of the Talenta Plains who would form most of House Jorasco. Like its sibling House Ghallanda, House Jorasco was born on the Talenta Plains of eastern Khorvaire. House Jorasco was originally the Jorasco tribe, a collection of related halfling family lines. Eschewing the battle-hardened traditions of the Talenta nomads, Jorasco halfling earned their keep through skills at healing: from midwifery to patching up wounded warriors, to helping ease the dying along their way to the Shadowfell. Their skill would be paid for by the recovering individual’s family or tribe, an exchange of gifts and services that was the expected convention of Talenta culture. The Sarlonan humans who came with Lhazaar slowly began to spread across the continent of Khorvaire, interacting at first with the few remnants of Dhakaani civilization that remained and sometimes overwhelming them, forcing the goblins to become slaves and servants in their new settlements. Central Khorvaire had once been the heart of the Dhakaan Empire for the same reason that it now appealed to the human immigrants—it possessed the mildest climate and the most fertile lands on the continent. These same qualities now drew thousands of human settlers over the next several centuries to the region, who founded dozens of new villages and towns. These human settlers spoke a common language, shared common customs and social mores, and also shared a common religion brought from Sarlona—a faith in the Sovereign Host.