The Protected Lands of Sagozia, lying to the south-east of Anarkand, are spoken of less as a nation and more as a promise. A promise made late, kept imperfectly, and guarded fiercely ever since. To understand Sagozia is to understand why Anarkand, for all its ambition and conflict, sometimes chooses restraint.


BEFORE PROTECTION:

In the early eras, Sagozia was not protected at all. It was open, abundant, and astonishingly alive. Vast rolling plains gave way to layered forests, crystalline wetlands, and living highlands where creatures evolved along strange but elegant paths. Life in Sagozia followed no single dominant species. Instead, dozens of sentient and semi-sentient races coexisted alongside megafauna and micro-ecologies found nowhere else on the planet.


This abundance became its curse.


As surrounding nations expanded, Sagozia was viewed as untouched potential. Its land was fertile. Its creatures were valuable. Its people, diverse and decentralised, had no singular military or political structure to deter aggression. This led to the atrocities of the early middle eras. The darkest chapters of Sagozia’s history came not from conquest, but from harvesting.


Most infamously, Kharkouri expansionist forces crossed into Sagozian territory under the pretext of “containment” and “civil order”. What followed was systematic slaughter. Entire communities were wiped out. Native species were culled for biological resources. Millions died, not in battle, but as targets.


These acts sent shockwaves across Anarkand. For the first time, the global community was forced to confront the cost of unchecked ambition. Sagozia became a symbol of what happened when power was left unchallenged.


THE TEMPLE OF ANARK:

The turning point came when the Temple of Anark intervened directly.


In an unprecedented move, the Temple issued a planetary decree declaring Sagozia a protected region, its borders inviolable. No nation was permitted to annex its lands, extract its resources, or interfere with its inhabitants. Enforcement was not left to diplomacy alone. Surveillance, sanctions, and Red Hex governance mechanisms were activated to ensure compliance. This decree marked the first true act of global unification based on preservation.


What truly sets Sagozia apart is its life.

The region is home to some of the most unique creatures on Anarkand: bioluminescent migrators that move like constellations across the plains, amphibious leviathans that shape river systems as they travel, and smaller symbiotic beings that bond with the land itself. Many species exist in ecological relationships so delicate that outside interference could collapse entire regions.


Even the flora resists categorisation. Some forests respond to sound. Others grow in rhythmic cycles tied to celestial movements. Scholars believe Sagozia may represent a glimpse of Anarkand as it once was, before large-scale Red Hex manipulation reshaped the planet.


If Sagozia were ever to fall again, Anarkand itself would lose something irreplaceable. Not just land or life, but the idea that the planet is capable of learning from its past.