SHARA

They say that time is a wheel and it grinds ceaselessly through the ages weaving the Pattern of Life. They say the Pattern is always changing, making room for new threads as old ones break only to be respun at another time. The Pattern may change, but my land, [which those living beyond the Great Sands call Shara] does not. For a short time after the Great War there was a shred of hope...the Dragon Reborn altered our home for a time. Slavery was outlawed and the Ayyad and those in the Twin Towers opened lines of communication, but then the Dragon Reborn died. Many in my homeland had hidden their true feelings underneath a façade that somehow even the renowned Dragon Reborn could not see through. After only two years things began to change--back to the way they were before.

Relations with the Towers were abruptly cut off as those in Shara once again turned inward. The Sh'boan abruptly fell ill like many of those before her. She died and her mate was given the throne. The mate was forced to find another mate and seven years to the day he took the throne the Sh'botay was found dead in his bed. His mate took the throne and she died--it was obvious that the seven-year curse had once more found its way back into action. The women who could channel who were formerly free to roam were captured, many of their mates killed and their children also killed unless they had the Talent--a few escaped and took refuge on the far western border of Shara, near the Great Sands. To this day the Ayyad still mercilessly hunt these "deserters" with a ferocious tenacity--but they have become well versed in the art of camouflage and for the most part stay out of reach.

Those who were unlucky enough to be captured were taken to villages and tattooed as the Ayyad of old, except for those destined to become Infiltrators. Men who could channel suddenly found themselves confined again to communal halls and forbidden to read, write or do any number of tasks they had been imminently suitable for before the death of the Dragon. Now the men who are Ayyad are slaughtered before their twenty-first birthday just as if the Taint and Madness could still overtake them.

As time passed Shara continued to degenerate back into the secretive, barbaric society that they had risen above for such a short time. Now it is very difficult to distinguish the modern day Shara from the Shara that existed before the Great Battle.