Scorpus

This article is a work of fiction related to Istaria. It is part of the background Istarian story.

Goddess of the Sun and of Wrath, Scorpus was forgotten millennia ago. She has long harbored an ancient hatred for the deities of the Pantheon. Scraps of legend are all that remain to remind scholars of her existence, but in recent months she has since begun to reassert herself in the deserts southwest of Tazoon.

Legends speak of a malevolent deity, one who took the shape of a Scorpion in order to inspire fear in her followers. It is said that they lived within the deserts of Western Aradoth and that they constructed great pyramids in her name. Atop these structures legends claim that they offered sacrifices of animal, human and even other living races in her name.

The deities of the Pantheon found the practice of sacrifice distasteful and openly shunned her and her followers. Enraged, she gathered her priests and began attacking settlements to the east of her lands; the lands claimed by the Dwarves, Gnomes and even the Elves. Emboldened by success and by the lack of intervention from the other deities, she sent her priests north to capture and sacrifice dragons.

She miscalculated, for the Dragons responded to the sacrifice of one of their elders with a terrible ferocity. An army of flying Dragons bore down upon the pyramids of Scorpus, engulfing them in flame. The Dragons, however, did not stop at the pyramids. They continued on, attacking larger settlements of humans throughout the deserts and lands to the south, burning many, and eventually conquering and subjugating the rest.

With her followers scattered or dead, her places of worship destroyed, Scorpus fled the lands of the living races and was soon forgotten. Somewhere, deep beneath the earth, perhaps even beneath her ancient temples, she lay asleep for millennia, waiting for the Day of Return when she could once again come to the surface, gather her priests, and collect sacrificial bounties.