Qualla

The Qualla, a race of merfolk, are one of the many sapient races found in Solthris, created from humans and orcs of Xaxalin by the dragon Njardr amidst the sinking of Arteanu. They live mostly beneath the seas, and are centered beneath the Drowned Reach.

Subspecies
The magic of Njardr transformed the humans and orcs of Arteanu into different breeds of Qualla, though they have both remained bipedal and humanoid in form.

Naquassi
The Naquassi Qualla are the merfolk created from humans. Their skin color ranges from green to blue, and might be speckled with corals and shells in some individuals, or soft akin to that of humans or elves. They possess fish-like appendages along their bodies, growing mainly from their arms and legs, but often from the back of their heads as well. The Naquassi often wear impermeable cloths adorned with shells and various minerals, such as gold and silver.

The Naquassi rule the greatest realms of the merfolk, centered around the Drowned Reach, which was once the land of Arteanu. The greatest of these, the Qyani Empire, stretches across the Gulf of King's Folly, and contains the island-mountain of Njardheim, around which the glittering Qyani capital of Zyvhess stands. To the west, the three frontier kingdoms of Miqen, Merjan and Neghan defend the Drowned Reach from the horrors of the seas beyond, in a military alliance called the Slesvesh League. The realms of Nevsan and Dryani lie to the east, with the latter growing around the Dragonroost Raitho.

At the Jazyrh Archipelago, a number of city-states rise above the ruins of Old Arteanu, with its inhabitants preferring to live above the waves. These Naquassi are often referred to as the island-folk of Jazyrh, and are renowned for their hydromancer magi.

The Naquassi society is varied, based around a number of classes, with members of noble families usually choosing the path of the coral-knights or storm priests, while the commonfolk are commonly soldiers, merchants, craftsmen and beast-herders. It is the duty of the Naquassi clerics to enforce the Edict of Storms. It is with the Naquassi that most land-dwellers engage in trade and commerce.

Laquari
The Laquari Naquassi Qualla are often referred to as river-folk for their preference to live within and beneath the grand rivers of the  in central Xaxalin. Indeed, that realm is based on both the Laquari and elves, who together hold dominion over land and water. Although he Laquari prefer to live wihin the rivers, they are a great asset for controlling the Inland Sea of Xaxalin. Having grown distant from the preoccupations of the other Qualla over the Edict of Storms, the river-folk of Xaxalin care more for the politics of central Xaxalin, and are often seen in markets across the land.

Ashaqua
The Ashaqua Naquassi Qualla are widely considered to be the most mysterious and cryptic of the merfolk. Not long after the birth of the Qualla race, some clans were drawn away from Njardr and towards the powers hidden beneath the depths. Although warned by the Nvordrak not to seek unholy power in the abyss, these merfolk found them nonetheless, and were cast out and transformed by Njardr in punishment. If they held such love for the lightless depths, he would grant them the means to live there, growing bioluminescent appendages from their bodies. However, they were cursed to be unable to breathe air, being forced to remain the rest of their existence beneath the waves.

The Ashaqua do not live amongst the other merfolk, making their homes instead the deep trenches of the ocean, where they build their temple-cities. They conduct research into the creatures of the deep, and are said to commune with dark forces in the abyss. They are not hostile to the rest of the Naquassi as a rule, and some seek repentance from Njardr. None has yet been given.

Zathani
The Zathani Qualla were once the orcish slaves of Arteanu. As such, they harbor little love for the descendants of their ancestral captors. Their body is scaley and strong, varying from green to black. Their faces have large apendages similar to tentacles or horns.

Though at first they lived and fought with the rest of the Qualla under the Edict of Storms in the Drowned Reach, over time they drifted apart from their centers of civilization and into the frozen waters of the Glacial Ocean. There they tame or hunt the great leviathans of the north, and have adopted a nomadic lifestyle. Considered by the Naquassi Qualla to be barbarians, the Zathani have shifted their view on the Edict. They have come to believe that they are the chosen people of Hafrjal and the true heirs of Njardr. As such, thy conduct regular raids upon their settlements, especially against the Naquassi frontier states, often seen riding all kinds of great levithans.

Njardr and the Seals
For centuries after the Godspact, the last living Nvordrak dragon, Njardr, kept watch over the magical seals holding the great serpent Jardyr, ensuring no mortal would break them and unleash the terror upon Solthris. However, as time passed, Njardr watched the mortal civilizations and came to loath the state of the world; its lack of true magic and knowledge. He came to believe that none would ever possess the power to unleash the seals even if they so desired, and so Njardr returned to the plane of his master, Hafrjal, placing a spell to warn him if the seals were ever in danger.

The Sinking of Arteanu
Millennia later, in the growing civilization of Xaxalin, the humans of the land of Arteanu built their capital atop the central seal of the serpent, noticing the nexus of ley-lines in the region. During the war that fell Xaxalin twelve hundred years ago, the human king of Arteanu sought to gather energy from the seals of Jardyr, causing damage to the nexus of protection. Njardr, realizing his misjudgement of mortal magic, recognized the danger to the seals and sought to reach them in time. His efforts were in vain, he arrived too late to stop the humans' foolishness. The human king unwittingly unleashed the power within the seals in a destructive blast that turned Arteanu to dust and sent the sea rushing in to fill the void.

In that Cataclysm, Njardr expended his considerable power by placing a great spell upon the mortal inhabitants of the land that would soon be drowned. Their form was changed, their physiology adapted to allow for life beneath the water. They grew gills and other appendages, and were permitted to breathe both water and air. Njardr did not do this out of mercy; he did it because he would need servants to repair the seals and guard them, for the world now had the potential to unleash the serpent. These merfolk would call themselves the Qualla, and their mission of repairing and guarding the seals would become known as the Edict of Storms.

As the dust of the Cataclysm faded, Njardr came to the locations of the five outer seals. There he rose mountains and called forth storm and sea dragons from around the world to worship him and his god, Hafrjal. They would act as his most elite servants and guardians, and he in turn would grant them vast lairs and protection. These places would become the Dragonroosts, and in the central Seal, where once the capital of Arteanu stood, the Nvordrak's own lair would rise, Njardheim.

Fracturing of the Qualla
When Njardr transformed the sinking mortals of Arteanu into merfolk, not only humans were affected. A large number of orcs were also given his gift, and for a time they all followed the Edict and their new master. One century after the sinking, however, conflict began between the Zathani and the Naquassi. The latter had once been humans, and had owned the orcs as slaves, a fact that was not easily forgotten. The Zathani demanded that they be given full control of all Qualla affairs, and when the Naquassi refused, civil war broke out. Before the merfolk's budding civilization could be severely damaged, however, Njardr intervened. He would not allow such infighting amongst his subjects, not while the Seals were still so fragile.

Thus the Zathani decided to depart the Drowned Reaches, and the Nvordrak gave them leave. In the cold waters of the north, he reasoned, the Zathani would learn a great variety of new skills and magic, which they could then put to use when he called upon them. And in the cold northern waters of the Glacial Ocean, they did. The Zathani learned to tame great leviathans, and they grew ever more ferocious and warlike.

More than a century later, as the Naquassi civilization expanded, yet another issue arose. A group of the merfolk explorers were delving ever deeper into the Xaxalic Ocean, and there found dark powers that had remained hidden for millennia. Njardr himself set out to investigate this source, and was horrified at what he discovered - this was the consciousness of the mythical Drowned One, a primordial god of eons past, a force that could threaten not only the merfolk but Njardr himself. Immediately, he forbade the Qualla from getting near it, and sought to ward against its influence. And yet, many of the Naquassi lingered. They wished to draw on this power of the depths, seeking either knowledge of the world that had passed or power to topple their political enemies.

Then, however, Njardr made a discovery - this essence in the depths was long dead. It had no real influence, it was no real threat. He could use the insubordination of these heretics as a show of power so that no other Qualla sect would dare oppose his will. If they so wished to consult the fathoms, he would grant them biolumiscent appendages, so they could more easily navigate the lightless depths. And then he removed their ability to breathe air, so that they could never again venture into the surface.

The transformed Naquassi became known as the Ashaqua, the deep folk, and they built their first city-temple in the trench beneath the Xaxalic Ocean where the primordial essence resided. To their dismay, they too found it held little real power, and soon some of their numbers sought to return to Naquassi civilization, seeking Njardr's forgiveness. They would get none. Nevertheless, some Ashaqua would forever remain allies to their Naquassi cousins, while others would seek out isolation in the deep trenches of the world, building temple-cities to research into powers lost to time.

The Might of the Qualla
In the centuries following the Cataclysm, a coalition of humans and dwarves from southern Xaxin conquered a number of tribes descended from old Arteanu and established a kingdom in a mountain range known as Vyrandh on the shores of the Gulf of Ruin. Soon, however, this budding realm came into conflict with their neighbors; tribes of orcini raiders from Magrok in the east, and dragons from Dragonroost Thurisaz in the west. Although a dragon was a more formidable foe than an orc or a goblin alone, the Vyrandhi sought out ways to subjugate the dragons, in hopes of using them against the vast numbers of orcini on their borders. About eight hundred years ago, the dwarves began using powerful geomancy to trap dragons as they took flight, and invaded the Dragonroost itself. Within, they discovered the magical seal of Jardyr, though they did not comprehend its importance. All they knew was that it held tremendous magical power, and they sought to channel it for themselves. With this kind of magic, they would put a stop to the orcini raids, and perhaps conquer all of Xaxin itself.

When from the sea, armies of Qualla arrived to bring war towards Vyrandh, the humans and dwarves were prepared - with the power if Thurisaz at their disposal, they brought the merfolk low. Yet the Qualla would not stand for this violation of the dragons and the seals. The Edict of Storms demanded they protect them. At this time, all Naquassi lived united under the guidance of Njardr in a budding realm they named Qyan, and together their priests came before the Nvordrak himself to ask for power to destroy the blasphemous land-dwellers. And the dragon obliged. With magic flowing through their priests and magi, they called forth gigantic tidal waves that broke through the armies of Vyrandh and swept through their cities. Coastal towns were obliterated, and cities in the interior were turned to ruin by the sheer force of the waters. In a single day, Vyrandh was destroyed, with only ruins and salt water lakes in the wake of the Qualla's fury.

For the centuries to come, the land-dwellers of Xaxalin would remember the Qualla's fury, and no disturbance would come to the Dragonroosts or the deep seas.

Recent History
Until recently, Njardr lived amongst dragons and merfolk in his lair, overseeing the repair of the seals and blessing the worthiest of his servants with power. However, only a century ago, the Nvordrak himself went on an expedition with an objective known only to himself and his closest advisors to the land of Rakshar, where he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. None know where Njardr has gone, or if he will ever return. In the wake of his disappearance, the Zathani Qualla have launched ever-bolder raids upon the kingdoms of the Naquassi, and the Dragonroosts fall into desrepair...