Thousands of years before the Doom of Valyria, during the Dawn Age that predated written
records, legends claim the Fisher Queens ruled a mighty realm in central essos, from a floating
palace in the Silver Sea.
These rulers were wise and benevolent, often approached by kings and princes seeking their
council.
The last of these fabled queens was said to have birthed a mighty hero named Huzhor Amai,
who was the forefather of the Tall Men, founding the Kingdom of Sarnor along the river Sarne
and its tributaries, flowing west from the great Silver Sea which over time transformed
into three small lakes.
Huzhor Amai was said to wear a great cloak made from the pelt of a king of the Hairy
Men, and took to wife the daughters of great lords and rulers, with a wife from Zoqora
driving his chariot, while a wife from Cymmeri crafted his armor.
The people of Sarnor had dark skin, with eyes and hair of black.
Wearing steel and spider silk, their greatest warriors rode into battle on scythed chariots,
often driven by their wives or daughters.
The cities were known to have traded with the Valyrian Freehold, Yi Ti, Leng and other
far eastern powers, while also exploring the Shivering Sea by ship, reaching the Thousand
Islands and Mossovy.
Yet they were also known to war with other powers, having fought against the Qaathi people,
and involving themselves in the Ghiscari Wars, as some Sarnori factions allied with the Valyrians
while others allied with the Old Empire.
Ruled by a High King from the Palace with a thousand rooms in the city of Sarnath, the
Kingdom developed into an alliance of city states which grew more independent over the
years.
Eventually each city came to be ruled by its own monarch, rarely unifying under a traditional
High King, instead competing with each other for control and access to resources.
It would be these internal wars and conflicts which ultimately doomed the kingdom, as it
left them weak and divided after the fall of the Valyrian Freehold.
In 114 BC, a terrible disaster struck the Valyrian Penninsula, destroying the homeland
of the Dragonlords who oversaw the larger territory.
Following the doom came a century of chaos and war fought between the remaining powers
of Essos, including the mounted warriors of the Dothraki, who united under the powerful
warchief Khal Mengo, counciled by his mother the witch queen Doshi.
Following Khal Mengo they went on a brutal campaign west, destroying a number of ancient
kingdoms and cultures, including the city states of Sarnor.
The kings of the territory did not fear the horselords, and proving unwilling to unify
against them, with some instead taking advantage of the impending threat to allying with the
Dothraki, in order to defeat and destroy their Sarnori rivals.
As a result they were left vulnerable and over the years lost a number of cities, including
the fabled waterfall city of Sathar, which fell to Khal Mengo’s son Khal Moro who renamed
the area Yalli Qamayi, meaning Wailing Children.
The Sarnori king of Gornath then married Moro’s daughter, allying together to destroy his
rivals in the city of Kasath.
Years later, Khal Moro was killed and replaced by Khal Horro, and so Moro’s daughter murdered
her husband the king and became a wife to the new khal who sacked and burned the city
of Gornath.
After falling to the Dothraki, Kasath became known as the Broken Gods, while Gornath was
renamed City of Rats.
Sometime later, Khal Horro was also killed, and upon his death the great dothraki khalasar
splintered into smaller factions, as they continued to devastate the area.
Sallosh, the city of Scholars was next to fall, with their great library burned, it’s
ruins renamed by the horselords as the city of sickness.
The Dothraki next conquered Kyth, Rathylar and Hornoth, before turning their attention
to Mardosh, the city of soldiers, which resisted them for six years.
After holding out to the point of starvation, the Tall Men of the city killed their wives
and children, before making a final charge through the gates, fighting until the last
man.
As a result the ruined remains of the settlement came to be known as the City of the Blood
Charge.
Finally, after losing so many of their holdings, the Sarnori at last were prepared to unite
under the last High King Mazor Alexi.
Gathering at the Field of Crows, the Dothraki Khals Haro, Qano, Loso the Lame, and Zhako,
led a combined army of 80 000 horsemen against Sarnori forces made up of six thousand scythed
chariots with ten thousand armored riders behind them, as well as ten thousand light
horsemen and a hundred thousand spearmen and slingers.
Despite the Sarnori advantage in numbers, they overcommitted after a feigned retreat
by the warriors of Khal Haro, who died on the battlefield.
Too late did the Sarnori realize it was a trap, as the other Khals led their cavalry
to surround the enemy, crushing their forces and killing Mazor Alexi, six lesser kings,
and more than threescore lords and heroes.
After their victory, Khal Loso went on to sack the city of Sarnath, seat of Sarnori
high kings, leaving it’s ruins to be named the City of Worms.
Finally, Sarys was left as the final Sarnori city to be conquered, however most of it’s
population fled before the arrival of Khal Zeggo, who burned the area and renamed it
the “City of Filth.”
When the Dothraki completing their conquest of the lands of Sarnor, they moved on to attack
other areas of central essos.
Eager for more plunder and conquest, the Horselords attacked the Kingdom of Ifequevron where the
people of Ib held colonies, the Qaathi city states of the red waste, and even attempted
to attack the free cities, though they were stopped at the battle of Qohor and prevented
from journeying further west.
Yet one small Sarnori settlement, did survive the devastation of the century of blood, as
the port city of Saath was protected from conquest through the support of nearby powers
like the Ibben and Lorath.
It was in this land alone that the Tall Men continued on, with less than twenty thousand
when they once numbered millions.