The primary thing I am debating is if I want to have Drow as the primary antagonists or Yuan-ti. Due to such a wonderful decision by Wizards that the ECG should come out later than the EPG (
) I have no information on Xen'drik or the particular Drow or Yuan-ti who are there (and won't until the end of August sadly, it takes an additional 2 weeks for books to come out here). I have a particular theme in mind for these guys as well, but I am unsure what they are like to see who could match it better. If someone could describe to me the groups of Drow and Yuan-ti on Xen'drik I would most appreciate it. Online has not been at all useful.
I do not recall much about the Xen'drik yuan-ti. Unlike their Sarlona kin and the Shulassakar they are mostly the standard vile MM Yuan-Ti. They especially hate dragons since their slaughter and exile from Argonessen(where many had fled).
From the Shulassakar Dragonshard:
Despite their physical similarities, shulassakar and yuan-ti cultures have little in common. The shulassakar claim that the ancestors of the yuan-ti were chosen of the couatl who broke their vows to the flame and who have since slipped into decadence. As a result, the shulassakar despise the yuan-ti. If the yuan-ti shared these legends, they abandoned them long ago, and they have no interest in the shulassakar. Driven from Sarlona by the Inspired, the yuan-ti lurk in the shadows of Xen'drik and the shores of Argonnessen, plotting vengeance against the Lords of Riedra and searching for ways to use the Draconic Prophecy to gain power.
The key thing here is that even though they might worship the same religion as good guys, they can be particularly ruthless to outsiders. The Yuan-ti there could be charged with guarding an ancient fiend, maybe even an Overlord, from being freed and any "weak beings" stand a chance of being corrupted and coming under it's influence. So the Yuan-ti will attempt to kill your hapless PCs even though they've done nothing wrong. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
You could even have an actual Couatl from the MM2 running the show. Some couatl become unaligned rather than good because they will go to any means necessary to do what is ultimately right and just (keeping a powerful fiend at bay).
These yuan-ti would actually be the Shulassakar mentioned above. But their stats are mostly identical. Probably should just change their Alignments from Evil to Unaligned. (Also, the Abomination, that thing that's just make up of a ton of snakes, should probably not be in a Shulassakar clan.)
On Drow
The drow article there didn't really help me at all. I still don't really know what those individual drow are like very much. But I see two groups mentioned there (the non-nomadic group) and I still have little idea what they are like; except one binds fire elementals and the other spends a lot of their time fighting horrors from Khyber.They get mentioned but I still don't know that much about their particular motivations or how they interact with others. If there just isn't anything on them in this regards in the book then that's fine, I'll happily just write it in myself.
You could do something really interesting with Yuan-ti and Serpent Cults. Serpent Cults in Xen'drik aren't actually evil, they're worshipers of an ancient form of the Silver Flame and the Couatl that sacrificed themselves to make it. Have Yuan-ti with an archery theme, and a few Avengers throwing out radiant powers and such. You can take basic Yuan-ti statblocks and apply Ranger and Avenger class templates to them.
This is a completely fantastic idea. If I can't get anywhere with the Drow I'll definitely be using this.
The drow article there didn't really help me at all. I still don't really know what those individual drow are like very much. But I see two groups mentioned there (the non-nomadic group) and I still have little idea what they are like; except one binds fire elementals and the other spends a lot of their time fighting horrors from Khyber.They get mentioned but I still don't know that much about their particular motivations or how they interact with others. If there just isn't anything on them in this regards in the book then that's fine, I'll happily just write it in myself.
Really? Ok, let's expand this a bit.
Concerning the Sulatar: They were the faithful slaves and consider themseleves the Giant's heirs and succesors. As you can imagine, they're hostile to strangers and especially hostile to elves, other drow tribes(those who didn't remain faithful) and Dragons&their servants(for shattering the ancient Xen'drik civilisations). The "promised land of fire", the reward for their steadfast service is the key factor of their civilisation-they believe that the time will come when they will be rewarded with flame powers unimagined and burn all opposition. What the reward's exact nature will be is not fully clear, yet many believe that it revolves around the plane of Fernia. Their allegiance was to the great ancient Sul'at giants-they couldn't care less about the barbaric giants of the present.
The Umbragen are a desperate people. Being threatened has always been a defining factor for them:They fled the dragonic devastations to Khyber,a monstrous place. And desperate people are led to desperate measures:they unearthed and used ancient Qabalrin*(elven necromancers, vampires, liches etc) and discovered the Umbra. This mysterious force of shadows they have bound themselves to,has a powerful effect on them, both physically(their skin is darkest than other drow and their eyes pitch black) and emotionally(often making them cold, grim and somewhat inhuman), yet it offers them great power. The path of the warlock is common among the Umbragen. For centuries they have been locked in a losing sruggle against a daelkyr and its hideous forces(Belashyrra, I think.I credit him with creating the first driders, but that's another issue). The surface has always been a place of destruction and despair in their stories-still, Umbragen agents are recently sent to the surface looking for anything that could tip the scales:artifacts, allies(a House?The gatekeepers? The hags? Mordaine? Your call). They remain extremely insular though and mostly hostile to strangers to their realm. They always considered themselves as a lone people against a hostile world.
Hope that helped.
*I'm not sure to what extent.Personally I have them use the occasional necromantic tritual.They're not Karrnath but they'll use what's at their disposal.
Concerning the Sulatar: They were the faithful slaves and consider themseleves the Giant's heirs and succesors.
Absolutely beautiful. With one sentence you have sparked my plot writing mode from completely confused and tentative into completely perfect. That fits PERFECTLY with the role I wanted them to play in mind.
Edit: Yep, plot is in full swing now. These guys are exactly what I wanted to hear about to be perfectly honest. They fit the exact concept of antagonists I was hoping to implement and they will really fit. As I said, the game has a very Indiana Jones feel to it and so these guys will fit with how I've developed the antagonists in my head well
Absolutely beautiful. With one sentence you have sparked my plot writing mode from completely confused and tentative into completely perfect. That fits PERFECTLY with the role I wanted them to play in mind.
Edit: Yep, plot is in full swing now. These guys are exactly what I wanted to hear about to be perfectly honest. They fit the exact concept of antagonists I was hoping to implement and they will really fit. As I said, the game has a very Indiana Jones feel to it and so these guys will fit with how I've developed the antagonists in my head well
In case any additional imagery would be of use, the Sulatar we've actually seen so far (those found in Keith's Dreaming Dark Trilogy) dwelt in the semi-ruined Obsidian City. The wore conical helms and chain, and wielded spears, swords and the like-- all made of an off-color form of mithral. Important figures are more likely to wield items with bound fire-elementals or the like. Aesthetically speaking, they had much more a greco-roman warrior feel than the primal warrior feel of the Vulkoori.
They weren't very wood-crafty at all, sticking mostly to their city's immediate area. This was partly because of fear of the Vulkoori Scorpion Wraiths (elite warriors), and partly because the jungle had little to draw them beyond their walls. The Sulatar warriors were very much geared toward fighting in formation with the implied battlefield tactics, whereas the Vulkoori are guerilla wilderness fighters. The two groups had an ongoing millenia long war. The Vulkoori drow consider the continued devotion of the Sulatar to the giant ideals dangerous folly.
These guys definitely make for cool antagonists.
**As a somewhat off-topic aside, the differences in these three drow cultures led us to give each different primary ability boosts. This was something we'd done in 3E, and something we talked about almost immediately when 4E launched. We had thought we'd be running a Xen'drik campaign, but instead played SW and FR, for a time.
Anyway, we give the Vulkoori +2 Dex/Wis, the Sulatar +2 Int/Cha, and the Umbragen (who have never come close to an actual appearance in our games) a tentative +2 Dex/Cha of the standard drow. The Umbragen will likely feature a few individuals with the Shade template (FRCG) if they ever do appear in our games.
While different Ability boost certainly aren't necessary, we unanimously agreed they were appropriate and balanced.