Sargon

**Sargon**, formally known as the **Sargon Empire**, is a Terran country located on its southernmost part bordering Minos, Siesta, Columbia, and Bolívar. It is a vast, diverse country comprising of both arid deserts and lush tropical jungles with various races inhabiting those harsh environments.

Much of Sargon, especially the desert part, is divided among the various clans led by a Lord Ameer who answers to the Padishahs of Sargon. Both the Ameers and the Padishahs maintain an unstable balance of power through annual tributes and skirmishes or wars against each other, where they often employ Columbian and Kazdelian mercenaries. Even though the nation has a king living inside the legendary "Golden City," he is a powerless nominal leader who could not stop the tribal conflicts.

The jungle of eastern Sargon is mainly inhabited by primitive tribes composing of its native Archosaurian and Pythian races. Although the tribes maintain some degree of contact with the outside world, they still retain a unique tradition and culture that are totally different from the desert clans in the heartland of Sargon.

The Sargonian military, despite the country's disunity and backwardness, is quite formidable. Sargon also holds several ancient technologies that are lost to the modern world.

## Background

A thousand years ago at the dawn of the new era, the king of Sargon formed a military alliance with the Nightzmoran Khagan. Together, the Sargonian troops and the Khesigs initiated a conquest of the Foehn Hotlands to the south of Sargon, driving away monsters inhabiting the area from ever threatening Sargon again. Since then, generations of Sargonian lords have been trying to explore and conquer that region. But to their dismay, they never successfully set their feet beyond their southernmost border. So far, only the Nightzmoran Padishah of Reefsteep had almost fulfilled such mission, successfully constructing a mobile city only to have it struck down by a Catastrophe soon after.

The richness of Sargon is far from imagination. Legend says that a Sargonian queen once embarked on a journey with her gold. Along the way, she vitalized the trading route in the west before mysteriously vanishing in history. Many tales about Sargon's wealth, including its fabled "Golden City," are still circulating among its people.

Sargon also invaded Minos centuries ago and turned it into its colony. Due to its harsh policy of forced assimilation, the Minoans, under the leadership of the Twelve Heroes, rose up against their colonizers and eventually drove them away. Despite the restoration, Sargon continues to launch border skirmishes against Minoan villages until present day.

## Notable people

* **Padishah Murad**: The Padishah of the Ibut Region twenty-two years ago. He deployed his mercenary forces to annihilate the "Sand Soldiers" in order to rob the secret weapon blueprint on Elliot's professor.
* **Padishah Luca-Sargus:** The great Aslan Padishah in history who fought alongside Gawain and the Nightmoran Khagan in the conquest campaign of the Foehn Hotland. He is said to be the owner of the magical "Sighs of Kings" who used it to slay the "Poltergeist King."

## Places

### Districts

* Acahualla
* **Bayalir**: A district in Sargon where the Tulla clan lives; the setting where Operation Originium Dust happened.
* **Ibut**: A district in central Sargon. Twenty-two years ago, a Padishah employed his mercenary forces to annihilate the Columbian "Sand Soldiers." Since the murder of the local Ameer, his sons took the opportunity and aroused a tribal conflict there.
* **"The Golden City"**: The mysterious, legendary capital of Sargon. According to Kal'tsit, the city remains sedentary despite Sargon's advanced technology and frequent Catastrophes. It is said that only the most beloved Padishahs and Ameers are given the privilege to enter there.

### Settlements

* Long Spring
* **Reefsteep**: A major city in the Ibut region where Old Isin once served for. 150 years ago, the city was a nomadic city founded by a Kuranta Padishah who had the blood of the Nightzmoran Kheshigs. Despite its past glory, a Catastrophe destroyed it and it was buried beneath the sand. Since then, the site where it stood is nothing more than a black market town.
* **Redhorn**: A town in the Ibut Region. Twenty-two years ago, this was the place where the "Sand Soldiers" were annihilated. It is now destroyed by a fire set by Elliot.

## References

2. ↑ OD-3 After
3. ↑ WD-8 Before
4. ↑ Pure Gold Expedition description
5. ↑ Pallas' Archive Files
6. ↑ WD-7 Before
7. ↑ Siege's SOL-Y Operator Module description
8. ↑ 11-12 After
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 WD-5 Before