The shaman gives them a flat stare. 

"We believed him to have died eighteen centuries ago. Starwind k'Treva has just told me that this is not the case." The man seems quietly horrified about it. 

"He's immortal. He proved that to me early on in our, er, acquaintance. I don't know if he's the same now as he was then, but - it could give us some insight into his present, knowing his past." 

"I see." The shaman turns to Karna. "Our memory tapestries can only be viewed under the full moon, so that will needs wait for tonight, but in the meantime, I suppose she can tell you some of our oral histories." 

Starwind nods solemnly. "We deeply appreciate your time and your aid." 

He pulls out a pad of paper and a pencil. 

Urtho was a powerful and brilliant Adept mage, a scholar and teacher, who became Archmage to the kingdom of Tantara, a large and prosperous country before the Cataclysm. He built his Tower there, and made it one of the foremost mage-academies in the world, and the kingdom flourished with him. Young mages came from all over the known world to study with him. 

One of these young men was Ma'ar, from the neighbouring kingdom of Predain. He studied with Urtho, and was known for his sharp mind and also his ruthlessness and ambition. He went back to Predain and rose rapidly in the ranks of the kingdom's government, ending up advisor to their King at a very young age and enacting many reforms. Predain was expanding, not trying to conquer Tantara yet but absorbing territories on its other borders. Urtho was concerned. 

Urtho and Ma'ar ended up at war. Urtho had his gryphons, but Ma'ar had created his own species, the makaar. The war was bloody and Ma'ar waged it brutally. He used an evil artifact called a dyrstaff to spread fear and panic in the Palace, so that everyone fled overnight and he could take over from the inside without even having to fight.

Urtho's armies fought valiantly, but they were losing ground, and then there was a terrible betrayal from one of the generals who Ma'ar had suborned, and Ma'ar's armies were rapidly approaching Urtho's Tower. 

Urtho ordered his people to evacuate. He said he would make a last stand. He told Ravenwing, one of the first historians of the Kaled'a'in tribes who remained in the Plains where Urtho's Tower once was and became the Shin'a'in, that he had a plan and all might not be lost. 

Urtho called a Final Strike down on his own tower and set off magical safeguards, to destroy it entirely and prevent any of his possessions from falling into Ma'ar's hands.

And then - something else happened. The Cataclysm. Their histories aren't clear on it, but the land was devastated. Many of their people died. It took them years to walk, on foot, back to where Urtho's Tower had once been, and to find only a vast crater. 

Wow.

It would be really nice to guess how the Cataclysm happened. He has a hard time believing it was intentional. 

The Swordsworn who reads as chaotic evil returns and cheerfully offers them lunch. 

They will gratefully accept lunch! (He'll cast Purify Food and Drink on it just to be safe.)

They have lunch and then the afternoon is spent with Karna recounting some of the history after the Mage Wars and ensuing Cataclysm.

After reaching the crater left of their homeland, there are arguments between the remaining clans. Five of them end up leaving, seeking better lands (these are the ones that became the Tayledras). The remaining clans are the ones who, in the days of arguments, advocated foreswearing magic forever, since magic was the cause of all the destruction.

The remaining clans perform a ritual to summon their Goddess; the ritual includes the blood-sacrifice of a senior shaman from each remaining clan. The Star-Eyed personally manifests. She tells them a little more of the Cataclysm, claiming three things were involved - a weapon of Urtho's design, his Final Strike, and the self-destruction of the Gate they fled through, one node in a vast network of interconnected permanent Gates that Urtho had built. Also, She warns them of some poorly-specified danger, buried deep beneath the Plains; this was interpreted to mean further magic of Urtho's, sealed into the earth forever but not entirely destroyed. 

She agrees to make their former homeland habitable again, in what must have been a very costly miracle, in exchange for a pact binding them and all of their descendants to remain here and guard what will now be called the Dhorisha Plains, the Plains of Sacrifice. They must not let outsiders enter the Plains except with Her blessing. 

They nod respectfully; they can speculate later.

(Golarion gods cannot bind a people forever to remain somewhere and serve a specific god. At least, he doesn't think so. But it's possible that Velgarth gods are different or that the Star-Eyed misrepresented to the people what she was capable of or that they induct all their children into the pact, which probably would work.)

Midway through the afternoon, more tea is delivered and then they're left alone and can speculate if they want. 

(Vanyel can give them a privacy-barrier just in case.) 

"So the Cataclysm was at least directly caused by - Urtho's weapon, Urtho's Gate network, and Urtho's Final Strike?"

"Sounds like a genius wizard to me. Just a little world-destroying collateral damage, why not -"

"Honestly I have trouble seeing which part if any was Ma'ar's fault. Fighting a war with the most powerful mage in the world and cornering him, I guess." 

Moondance does not say anything. He looks pensive. A little uneasy. 

"Wars between wizards are usually that destructive and it was stupid to start one, if that's what Ma'ar did. Of course, they didn't actually say that, just that they ended up at war..."

"The war that started Earthfall wasn't Aroden's fault. The emperor was dissatisfied with his successors, and told Aroden to pick, and he picked himself, and people say that might've been what provoked the alghollthus. But they started it. I don't know how far we can reason from that."

"They started it and they finished it, Earthfall was their doing too, though worse than they predicted because they'd miscalculated. ...it's some information, at least, I think."

Starwind is not saying anything either. He seems maybe a little shaken. 

"It must've been worse than Urtho predicted - surely no one would use a weapon or blow up their own fortress if they knew that would happen..." 

"I think perhaps there is a way to learn more," Moondance says, distantly. "I - do not see it, yet, but there is something..." 

"The danger remaining beneath the earth sounds like a hook. A hook for a stupid adventure that might get us killed, though."

"When you say you get a feeling is that your god, usually -"