Sarrukh

Sarrukh are the progenitor race of all serpents and most nondraconic reptilian creatures on Toril. They view those not of such a glorious heritage as weaklings suitable only as slaves.
Each sarrukh is a distinct elite monster, usually of epic tier, with its own powers and goals. It can have any role but favors artillery, controller, or soldier, often with the leader subrole. Some sarrukh use magic items to supplement their own formidable abilities.

In the Realms

The sarrukh were the overlords of the first civilizations ever to rise in Toril. In cities both above- and belowground, they altered the lesser scaled races via breeding and magic to create numerous servitor races.
The many experiments that the sarrukh performed upon their finest creations, the yuan-ti, resulted in the wildly divergent forms of that race. The lizardfolk and the other lesser races were rarely the subjects of magical experimentation, though they performed the bulk of the hard labor.   Today, thousands of years after the fall of their mighty civilizations, the sarrukh are all but extinct. The few that remain spend much of their time in hibernation, but when they do interact with the outside world, they usually work to advance the welfare of the creatures they created, which now thrive in their stead.
All creatures have an innate fear of sarrukh that can be quelled only by seeing one near defeat. The sarrukh’s primeval splendor allows them to warp an enemy’s perception with a look. A sarrukh can take one of two forms: a humanoid body that tapers to a serpentine tail or a bipedal humanlike form, either form topped by a snakelike head. Their dual nature inspired the sarrukh to create such a diversity of creatures.
Supernaturally able to avoid danger, sarrukh seem to bend around some attacks. Although they use rituals to do careful shaping, they all have the ability to quickly seal eyes, bend bones, and inflict great pain.
Like their creations, especially the yuanti, sarrukh once lived in clans or noble houses. Now their numbers are so few that they are unified, with their eyes toward the Imperator of Okoth. Sterile and outnumbered, they move slowly and subtly to reclaim their former glory and birth new generations.

Civilization and Culture

History

The sarrukh constitute one of the five original progenitor races of Faerûn. In their three great empires, the sarrukh created a plethora of scaly races, including the nagas, the yuan-ti, and the lizardfolk.
An individual sarrukh’s body may be either bipedal or snakelike. A snakelike sarrukh has a serpentine body and head, plus two powerful arms that end in vicious claws. A bipedal sarrukh has a humanoid upper torso, head, arms, and legs with a snakelike lower torso. The gleaming red eyes of a sarrukh strike fear into the hearts of all other Scaled Ones. Both variants share the same statistics.
Sarrukh speak their own language, called Sarrukhar, which bears some similarities to Draconic. Any creature that speaks Draconic can make a DC 15 Intelligence check to communicate with a sarrukh. Failure indicates only partial understanding.
The sarrukh built the first significant civilizations of Toril, their empires rising and falling between −35,000 DR and −33,500 DR. This race of intelligent scaled creatures first appeared in the area known as Okoth, which is south of Mulhorand. The development of the sarrukh was relatively uncontested, and thus, their population quickly surpassed the level sustainable by the local resources. The sarrukh then spread rapidly throughout much of Faerûn, conquering other lands and starting new civilizations as they went. They met short-lived and disorganized resistance from the savages that inhabited the lands; furthermore, the sarrukh had already learned to smelt iron for steel weapons and armor, which made them virtually invincible. Within a hundred years, they had conquered most of Faerûn.
The Mhairshaulk Empire arose around −34,800 DR on the Chultan peninsula, and the Isstosseffifil empire followed in −34,500 DR, based in what is now the Great Desert of Anauroch. Okoth, the first of the sarrukh empires, still encompassed the sarrukhs' homeland. Lesser realms, which included the city of Ss'thar'tiss'ssun (located in what is now the Forest of Wyrms) and the city of Ilimar (which is now split between the Great Swamp of Rethild and the Gulthmere Forest), sprang up outside of the two great empires of Mhairshaulk and Isstosseffifil. These regions constituted the major hubs of sarrukh civilization, and the first stable portals in all of Faerûn were created to connect them.
As the sarrukh civilization expanded, they discovered that the shamans of the primitive races living in certain wilderness areas held magical lore that they had not yet encountered. The sarrukh studied these primitive forms of magic and consolidated their discoveries into a series of tomes. Upon completion, these books, which contained both easily researched magical knowledge and obscure information, were brought to Oreme, the capital of Isstosseffifil, for study, where the most magically gifted among the sarrukh and their servitor races pored over them. The sarrukh empires did not last long enough to gather the full fruits of their work, but this collection of minds grew into its own secret organization – the Ba'etith. This group's members consolidated and extrapolated the bounds of their newly found knowledge, penning the Golden Skins of the World Serpent (discovered by the Netherese centuries later and renamed the Nether Scrolls) many thousands of years after the fall of their empires.
The empires of the sarrukh continued to grow until the sarrukh eventually became the minority in their own empire (much like the Romans). Thousands of other races tended to them, fulfilling their needs and desires. The sarrukh savored the finest meats, surrounded themselves with gold, jewels, and other finery, and enjoyed all the luxuries of a civilization at its zenith. As with so many empires since, however, the sarrukhs' increasing dependence on other races would lead them in a spiral ever downward.

Downfall

The first of their empires to fall was Okoth, collapsing circa −34,100 DR after a century of civil strife that caused many sarrukh to emigrate to different planes of existence. Isstosseffifil followed suit around −33,800 DR during a war with the mysterious magical creatures known as phaerimms. During this war, the leaders of Isstosseffifil rerouted the Narrow Sea, causing it to flood the Underdark (where the phaerimms resided) but also precipitating major climatological changes that doomed their own realm. Mhairshaulk was the last of the sarrukh empires to fall, its inhabitants sliding into deep hibernations circa −33,500 DR.
Many sarrukh died in the collapses of their great empires, but likewise, many also survived. The sarrukh of Isstosseffifil retreated into lichdom in the depths of Oreme, where they were protected by the asabis that they had once created and where they still sleep to this day. The sarrukh of Mhairshaulk were faced with starvation, so they began a cycle in which thousand-year hibernations alternated with brief periods of activity, during which food gathering and procreation could take place. The mighty clans of Okoth, however, wandered the planes of existence for millennia, but never did they find a plane where they wished to remain for more than a generation. This nomadic existence across foreign planes hardened them and turned them inexorably toward evil.

Split

With the sarrukh of Okoth gradually turning to darker ways, a few dissenters emerged. They turned to a fragment of the World Serpent known as Jazirian. Jazirian transformed them into couatls. A war then took place between the couatls and the far more numerous Okoth sarrukh. The couatls managed to hold their own in the war until a darker fragment of the World Serpent known as Merrshaulk slew Jazirian, forcing the couatls to flee back to Abeir-Toril, where they came to settle in the continent of Maztica. There, the god Qotal embraced them as his divine minions, and the couatls considered him as a reincarnated Jazirian. A few couatls broke away from this group and returned to Faerûn in order to deal with the sarrukh residing in the Jungles of Chult. This splinter group looked to Ubtao as its patron deity.
The Okothian sarrukh began to explore the Barrens of Doom and Despair after the war with the couatls. There, they discovered a reptilian race known as the khaastas. The sarrukh believed the khaastas to be inferior and weak, so they attempted to enslave them. The khaastas resisted the sarrukh and declared war on them. Allied with demons, the khaastas ultimately won the centuries-long war. The few remaining Okothian sarrukh retreated to Faerûn, where they went into hiding in the crypt of Sar'Rukoth near the shore of Azulduth.

Deity switch

The Okothian sarrukh soon realized that Sseth had sunk into a sort of hibernation and was barely answering their prayers. During the Time of Troubles, Sseth stopped answering prayers altogether. Faced with the threat of the khaastas, the Okothian clerics turned to Set, the god of evil in the Mulhorandi pantheon. In their bargain, Set agreed to answer their prayers if they helped him in binding Sseth to eternal slumber. Thus, at the end of the Time of Troubles, Set absorbed Sseth's portfolio. About eleven years after the Avatar Crisis, Set began answering the prayers of his new worshipers. This included the yuan-ti, who still believed their prayers were being answered by Sseth.

Consequences

The betrayal of Sseth had caused some undesirable consequences for the Okothians. Sseth was then beset by nightmares and thrashes against his bonds, awakening the hibernating serpentfolk elsewhere in Faerûn. The sarrukh of Mhairshaulk emerged from their hibernation. They sought to liberate Sseth and oppose the sarrukh of Okoth. The Mhairshaulk sarrukh worked to re-awaken the ancient yuan-ti empire of Serpentes, which was loyal to them.

Before the Spellplague

Pil'it'ith, the legendary albino sarrukh leader, was leading the Cult of Set in Okoth. Under him, the cult grew in strength. The cult's members were primarily Scaled Ones, but others had also joined its ranks. The khaastas had recently been appearing in the region of the Lakes of Salt, resulting in battles between them and the cult.
The sarrukh remembered distinctly the heights to which their race once climbed, and the fall to where it lies now. They were individually powerful, but their low numbers forced them to rely on the races that they created. During the height of their empires, the sarrukh became lazy and domineering. Instead of directly involving themselves with the rest of the world, they delegated their building and fighting to the lizardfolk, with the yuan-ti supervising those activities and acting as the sarrukhs' personal servants. The nagas were entrusted with the tasks of magical research, exploration, and guarding important individuals and places. Withdrawing into their palaces, the sarrukh never emerged without heavy protection. Despite the fall of their mighty and grand civilizations, the sarrukhs' attitude has changed little. They were interested in the goings-on of the world but chose to remain apart from it. They instead sent out their yuan-ti servants or small groups of nagas to learn what could be learned and report back to them. The most important consideration for the sarrukh is now preserving each and every member of their race.

Genetic Descendants

• Lizardfolk
• Yuan-ti

Lifespan

Up to 1,000 years or more

Conservation Status

Almost extinct