Lore · Ages & Empires
Chardok & the Sarnak
Anyone who ran Chardok remembers the bridges and the Royal Guard. The sarnak behind those walls were never meant to be free.
Atrebe’s experiments
In the official account of the iksar empire, Atrebe became king after the dragons sank his father Rile’s warship with a storm. He was reclusive and devoted to the dark arts, and everyone feared his use of the Shissar’s magic and his grandfather Venril Sathir’s. His experiments joined a dragon with an iksar to make the sarnak, a race of intelligent dragon-men. He also joined a dragon with a froglok to make the sokokar, flying mounts that made his armies deadly.
Sources: EverQuest.com: From the Library of Norrath: Ruins of Kunark (2007)
A war in the air
For half a century, dragonkind fought the iksar’s airborne armies. Atrebe’s son Ganak, a gifted warrior, ended it in an aerial duel over the Field of Bone with Jaled-Dar, then leader of the Ring of Scale. Both died, burned by magic and fire. The dragons retreated, but first they destroyed the imperial palace and every one of Ganak’s hatchlings.
Sources: EverQuest.com: From the Library of Norrath: Ruins of Kunark (2007)
The bastard race
When the empire collapsed, the sarnak survived it. The iksar guide Vanusk, in the same account, calls them a “foul bastard race” and warns travellers away from the Frontier Mountains, where they keep outposts for breeding goblin and froglok slaves.
Sources: EverQuest.com: From the Library of Norrath: Ruins of Kunark (2007)
Queen Velazul
By the time of Empires of Kunark (2016), the sarnak were stronger than ever. The King had left Chardok, and Queen Velazul Di’Zok had united every sarnak under her rule, ending their internal feuds. They rallied around Atrebe Sathir himself. A master of elder magic, he had vanished after an explosion destroyed his laboratory in the days of the Sebilisan Empire, and many had taken him for dead.
Sources: EverQuest.com: Empires of Kunark Preview, Lore (2016)
The imperial city
The Maps of Myrist place Chardok deep inside a mountain of the same name in the Burning Wood, hidden in an endless haze of ash, smoke and fog. It is the imperial city of the sarnak, ruled by the Di’zok family under Overking Bathezid, and it runs on slave labour. Homes range from fine stone to simple burrows, and much of the city is built from petrified wood brought in from outside the gates. The Palace of Di’zok is decorated with plunder, and its library, Bathezid’s Archive, is a cluttered mess of tomes on Kunark lore. Slaves work the mines beneath the city, and the sarnak draw water from the underground waterfall and lake called Nak’azar’s Falls.
Sources: Library of Erudin: Chardok (The Maps of Myrist — Chardok)
The Sarnak Collective
The RPG bestiary Monsters of Norrath describes the sarnak as seven to eight feet tall and around 500 pounds, with curling horns and tails up to six feet long. When the iksar empire fell, they fled to the Burning Woods and built a nation the iksar thought had died out: the Sarnak Collective, which means to conquer the iksar, the dragons and eventually all of Norrath. It is run by proven warlords, oracles and spellcasters, though some rebel bands have left Kunark to seek weaker rivals. Chardok’s own records show intrigue at court, where Prince Selrach warns his father about the inquisitor Korucust’s “terror and false accusations.”
Sources: Library of Erudin: Chardok (Monsters of Norrath — Sarnak; Note from Prince Selrach)
Where the sources disagree
- The 2007 account treats Atrebe as a king of the past; Empires of Kunark says his disappearance was only mistaken for death. Neither explains how he survived.
- Empires of Kunark says only that “the King” left Chardok, without naming him.
Keep reading
Retold in our own words from the sources linked under each chapter; short quotes are marked and sourced. The illustration is an original AI-generated painting made for this page alone, not from the game.