Sethrak

The sethrak are a race of serpent people living in Vol'dun on Zandalar. The sethrak are an empire on the rise and throwing a wrench in everyone's plans. Wherever the sethrak go sand begins to spread as they magically change the environment into what they are comfortable with.

Background
The sethrak once lived together as one as their loa Sethraliss would have wanted. Thousands of years ago, they and Zandalari trolls lived in harmony in Vol'dun and worshiped Sethraliss together.

During the war between the trolls and the aqir roughly 16,000 years ago, the C'Thrax Mythrax the Unraveler descended upon Vol'dun. He slaughtered troll and sethrak alike. Sethraliss sacrificed herself to save them, but though she struck Mythrax down Mythrax was still able to destroy the disc at the heart of Atul'Aman. After witnessing the destruction firsthand, the sethrak knew that something had to be done to prevent anyone from raising Mythrax again. Sulthis, Vorrik, and Korthek worked together to seal Mythrax within the great pyramid. Following Sethraliss' death, the jungles of Vol'dun transformed into a vast desert, causing most of the trolls to abandon the region. This left only the sethrak, who continued to survive and thrive in Vol'dun, which they considered the holiest of holy grounds.

Millennia later, Korthek grew power-hungry and sought to free Mythrax to conquer Zuldazar. He gathered like-minded sethrak that became known as the Faithless and declared himself emperor. The sethrak who follow Vorrik and still worship Sethraliss, known as the Devoted, have been fighting the Faithless ever since.

There is a sethrak incursion into the neighboring Nazmir, looking for shadow magic to power their Skycaller Gem. They have also destroyed the village of Dol'watha in Zuldazar.

Culture
The sethrak worship the loa Sethraliss and wield lightning magic. There is an ancient sethrak belief that loa can be reborn.

The sethrak skycallers, gifted with the power to command the storm, use their magic to summon great spires that turn the earth into sand. Lightning strikes that hit sethrak spires are used to send messages across large distances in a manner similar to smoke signals.

Korthek's empire has slave markets comprised mostly of Vulpera. They even sell children.

Sethrak weapons are crafted from glass and other materials that can only be found in Vol'dun.

Notes and trivia

 * Due to the many similarities between sethrak and trolls, some players previously speculated that the sethrak used to be trolls at some point. However, Alex Afrasiabi confirmed in a BlizzCon 2018 interview that this is not the case.
 * The sethrak are partly inspired by the s of North Africa and the Middle East.
 * The sethrak make for the third humanoid snake model in Warcraft, after the naga and the slith.
 * Considering that both Vorrik and Korthek were present for the defeat and sealing of Mythrax roughly 16,000 years ago, and were still active as of Battle for Azeroth, the Sethrak might be the most long-lived biological species native to the planet. Vorrik and Korthek (and possibly others) are even older than the night elves as a race.
 * Tortollans are stated to still be young at 2,372-years old, but specific events that could be matched up to known eras of measured history are currently elusive.