"We have an urgent request that we be allowed to see your people's histories," Starwind says. "Of the time before the Cataclysm, specifically." Then his expression flattens in the characteristic way that suggests he's Mindspeaking to the shaman. 

"...I see. Well, come on this way and we can talk." The shaman beckons for them to follow him into the cluster of stone buildings. 

:Huh. Pretty cooperative of them so far: 

Fazil will pass along a translation and everybody's alignments to Hagan and Mahdi and Vanyel through Yfandes.

Vanyel is so startled by the Swordsworn's alignment! He looks so friendly. Then again, the entire definition of someone being a Shin'a'in Swordsworn is that they swore an oath to serve the Goddess so that they could be permitted to go on blood feud; this seems like maybe-useful cultural context so he passes it on. 

They're led into a cozy stone room in one of the very ancient-looking stone buildings, and offered tea, and then left alone. For quite a while. The low voices of a discussion are not-quite-distinguishable in the distance. 

Given the oath of vengeance thing it's maybe actually weirder that he's Chaotic than that he's Evil! Fazil is still a bit on edge and trying to be in range to grab everyone if they're lit on fire suddenly but mostly they can wait patiently.

Finally the shaman returns. This time he has a different person with him - a woman, short and slim, dressed in blue robes. She also reads as True Neutral. 

- and, to Vanyel's Sight, is noticeable a weak mage. So is the shaman, actually. 

"This is Karna shena Tale'sedrin," the shaman introduces her. "She is Scrollsworn - a priestess-historian of our people. You wish to learn of the mage who killed our forefather Urtho." 

Urtho. 

:He mentioned the name to me once, in one of our dreams: Vanyel tells the others. :It was on Sovvan - our harvest festival, also the day of remembrance for the dead. Leareth burned a candle for Urtho to remember him. I didn't know who he was at the time: 

:Huh.:

"He wants to lead a war in our world. The enemy he would fight is very horrifying, but we want to know - whether it would be a mistake all the same, to let him fight for us."

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 -"