Sotus

One of the least visited nations in Erzara, Sotus is referred to often as the Wild Lands, and its residents want to keep it that way. Established by Elromeer Dionaea after fleeing from Sedania when his people, a small secluded land of druids, were slaughtered and his homeland completely destroyed. Elromeer and a handful of refugees sought sanctuary with the Kisz Empire, Sedania's greatest enemy. At first, Kisz seemed welcoming to the displaced people. Unfortunately, this sanctuary did not last long, and the refugees learned they had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. They had been at a town where the leader, Lady Alasia Sotus, chose to help the refugees against the emperor's wishes. Kisz's emperor, Achernar Velsry, declared that, since they are not God touched Aasimar like the rest of Kisz, they were a scourge on their lands and it can be seen by Alasia's turn against her own kind.

Achernar sent a battalion of soldiers to wipe out the town and the refugees. They were not expecting the resistance that met them. The town had rallied under their Lady, and refused to stand aside when ordered to. Lady Alasia stood at the front of her people, undaunted in the face of the army standing before her. She told them that she will not turn away people in need, no matter where they came from. The guard captain, furious at this insolence from his own people, ordered his men to attack. The fight was bloody and horrible as the soldiers killed everyone who stood in their path. The refugees fought to protect their saviors, but the situation looked grim. Almost no one in the town had any sort of battle training, except for Lady Alasia. The battle captain raised his sword to her, demanding she relent and maybe that can atone for her sins, but she merely spat in his face. So he ran his sword through her, a cruel grin spreading across his face. He chided her for her foolhardiness and asked if it was worth her life, her villagers' lives for a group of worthless outsiders. Looking up at him, breath ragged but a sly smile forming on her lips. She whispered that it was he that was foolhardy. She was a retired general after all. Gripping on to him and beginning her chant, it was said great wings of brilliant starlight burst from her and as the air cracked around them with heavy power, she spoke her last words. "You are a traitor to the gods, not me. Now you will help them survive."

It was said the mixture of Aasimar blood, the battle captain's stolen power, and Lady Alasia's incredible magic tore a hole into the very earth of Kisz and sent it flying thousands of miles away. In its place now lies a huge, lifeless crater. The town, on the other hand, became an island, off the coast of Tamia, teeming with life as the refugees found a place to call home and they named it Sotus in the honor of a great sacrifice.

Kisz tried for years to retake Sotus, but Lady Alasia was smart. From her time in the army, she knew that traversing Tamia was a death sentence for large armies and the waters around the Tamian coast are so treacherous that any boat larger than a fishing vessel would find it nigh impossible to sail through it safely. Even if they could make landfall, Lady Alasia worked with Elromeer. She knew her sacrifice would be all but certain and she asked for any citizen who wanted to stay behind to help. All others would be able to make it out, especially children. With their combined help, and by sapping the rest of the energy they needed out of the battle commander, they were able to enrich the land to be the perfect environment for these masters of nature. It is said that anyone with ill intent will find the very land with reach out to destroy them.

Elromeer kept Sotus as a sanctuary, only allowing very select people to live on the island. He soon started to populate the environment with various, rare creatures, manipulating the island to mimic their ecosystems, allowing creatures on the edge of extinction to thrive. This was nearly 300 years ago and population of Sotus still upholds the same ideals as their founder. Only a few hundred people live on the island, while the rest of the large island is dedicated to specialized magical biomes for the thousands of species that now call the island home. It is a fantastical place to behold, allowing a person to visit a desert, a swamp, a rainforest, and a tundra in only a couple mile trip. Specific druidic groups take care of each biome, allowing them to morph the lands into the perfect habitats for the creatures they have within them. This is another reason this island nation is so fiercely protected. Many of the creatures on the island have been hunted to extinction every where else in Erzara and prize hunters would love to have claim to the last few.

As such, visitors are very restricted, usually limited to only a few select groups who rescue endangered animals. The only exception for this is the once per year festival in celebration of Lady Alasia's great sacrifice, known as the Dance of the Stars. It is a welcoming and exceptional night, and visitors who have attended say the feeling is uniquely magical. It is a way for Sotus to give thanks and show others how to reconnect to a universe they feel is being drowned out with modern progress.

In recent years, strange shifts in the biomes has started to cause some unnatural problems for the people of Sotus. Animals have started to act out in ways that confuse the druids, even attacking druids they have known for their entire lives. The druids are unsure of how to help, as some of the more dangerous animals have stopped responding entirely to any sort of druidic magic. Druids have now started to quarantine areas with more dangerous animals until they can find a way to fix this.