Thri-Kreen

THEY WERE UPON ALTHEA GALANODEL BEFORE SHE realized it. The sand dunes she had thought concealed her work revealed themselves to be the very prying eyes she had been so worried about. More of them came, jumping so high and so quickly that she first thought them to be flying. This was not the swarm Althea had been afraid of. This was a hunting pack.

She ran and they herded her along the path, straight into the waiting mandibles of yet more creatures. One of them took a bite out of her arm and Althea could feel the venom rush into her veins. Her vision blurred as they closed in, mandibles clicking and antennae waving.

She should not have tried to twist the desert to her own ends. She should have known the thri-kreen would come for her.

--Malark Greycastle, The Specter's Crystal

The thri-kreen thrive in the hot deserts and savannas of the world, inhospitable places where most creatures only barely manage to survive. It is here that these deadly hunters make their home.

Desert Wanderers

The thri-kreen have adapted to wander the desert in search of nourishment. They look like giant mantises at first glance, though they lack the large abdomen common in many insects. Four of their limbs are used as arms while the other two are legs. When standing upright on these legs, thri-kreen males average a height of 6 feet while the larger females can be up to 8 feet tall. Due to their size and carapaces, most thri-kreen can weigh over 300 pounds.

Blending in with the desert can be vital to survival, so thri-kreen carapaces are usually colored a sandy orange or brown. Some dark green thri-kreen have been seen from time to time, but these mutants are usually the first to fall in a skirmish due to the ease at which they are spotted. The thri-kreen generally wear ragged loincloths and little else, though some have been known to adorn their carapaces with painted symbols or jewelry.

Packs and Clutches

A thri-kreen is loyal to three things: its clutch, its pack, and itself. It is through these cultural lenses that the thri-kreen interact with the world. Anything else is probably irrelevant or food.

A thri-kreen's clutch is the group of thri-kreen it was born in to, similar to a tribe. Some clutches are larger than others, some interbreed, and some skirmish with each other occasionally.

Packs are the social groups of the thri-kreen, but they also serve an important purpose in organizing the different thri-kreen in a clutch into different jobs. Most often, a thri-kreen is a member of either a hunting or raiding pack. A thri-kreen can belong to more than one pack and there are also packs of scholars, builders, and nature-loving priests. Thri-kreen adventurers tend to view their adventuring party as a pack.

Variant: Communication Difficulties Traditionally, thri-kreen simply do not have the mouth parts necessary to speak most languages. To allow players to work together and not disadvantage socially focused thri-kreen players, it is normally assumed that thri-kreen characters are able to speak in the same way that most humanoids can.

However, a player may choose to roleplay this communication barrier by using an alternate form of communication, such as having the thri-kreen character scratch pictures in the dirt, instead of speaking directly.

Brutal Efficiency

The desert is an unforgiving environment, so the thri-kreen must make the most of what they have. Any biological matter that is not useful for something else is considered food. Usually this applies to other races, especially those delicious, juicy elves, but thri-kreen have been known to eat each other.

If a thri-kreen eats another of its kind, it is generally because the one being eaten is either dead or defective in some way. A defect could be anything from a leg that will never heal correctly to hatching malformed. The calories and protein of the defective thri-kreen need to be reclaimed for the good of the clutch.

Thri-Kreen Names

The thri-kreen language is better at showing emotions and reactions than it is with proper nouns like names, so very few thri-kreen use a real name when talking about each other. When referring to a specific person, it is usually someone within the same pack that is associated with a particular emotion or other concept that can be easily communicated with the thri-kreen language. Other thri-kreen in the same pack understand this as well as humans do unique names. Because a thri-kreen's identifier is based on the context of a pack, the same thri-kreen may be identified in different ways depending on who is talking about it.

Within some clutches, high-ranking leaders are given unique identifiers. These are usually concepts like "awe", "loyalty", or "respect". While the same identifier may be used for thri-kreen in different packs, no other thri-kreen shares the same identifier as one of the high-ranking ones.

When interacting with races that use a more conventional language, thri-kreen initially have difficulty picking out a name. The concept of a stable identifier that they give instead of someone else referring to their personality in different contexts is a completely alien concept. Those that do manage to integrate with other races tend to pick names like "friend" or are simply referred to by their profession, like "fighter".

Thri-Kreen Weapons The thri-kreen are able to craft unique martial weapons using their saliva and special plant extracts. All thri-kreen are trained in the use of these weapons and it is rare to see them in the hands of another race. Chatkcha: 1d6 slashing, 1 lb., Finesse, Light, Thrown (range 30/120) Gythka: 1d8 slashing, 4 lb., Versatile (1d10)