Originally posted by Brian R. James
Aearee, Sarrukh, LeShay, Batrachi, Human.
Dragons are not a creator race. Eric Boyd admitted he added that one by mistake.
Got it from here: forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=...
after all dragons gave birt h to dracotaurs and dracolisks, and half dragons, and Bahamut knows what else
If you would like to read some lore about the Aearee, not official but compiling what we know and interpolating some facts about them, check out this article by me in the Candlekeep Compendium called Mysteries of the Creator Races: The Aearee at this link here: www.candlekeep.com/compendium/Candlekeep...
And for some lore about the Batrachi, check out Mysteries of the Creator Races: The Batrachi at this link: www.candlekeep.com/compendium/Candlekeep...
Copies of all the Candlekeep Compendiums (Compendia?) are available for free download here: www.candlekeep.com/compendium/
And if it ever is confirmed that the Spell Weavers went on to form the Thri-Kreen race I think they could be counted as a creator race as well. Regardless, I think there should be some sort of insectoid creator race.
“Creator race" is a title assigned by elven scholars. Iqua Tel'Quessir is the elven term. There were only 5 so named. The qualifications would appear that they had to be a native-born race, and they had to be magically mighty. Creating other races was not a requirement, only creating great works. In fact, the Aearee did not really create any new races as such, though several offshoot races have descended from them. Same with the Batrachi.
Humans are included because of Netheril, Imaskar, Jhaamdath, and countless other great magical empires.
Other races may have come close, but fell short of the bar. For instance, Giants were an impressive race, but not mighty enough I suppose. Dragons might have qualified on the mighty score (and actually do count by some reckonings) but they were interlopers, and so are not numbered among the creator races. Same with the elves, dwarves and other immigrant races; interloper races that are not native to Toril are not eligible for the list.
The Fey creator race was the LeShay, which was unnamed in lore for many years. The LeShay were introduced in the epic handbook, which gave them the Fey type, and mentioned that they were a mere remnant of a once great race whose origins were lost to history. It also stated enigmatically that the LeShay claim to predate the current multiverse and refer darkly to some catastrophe that not only wiped out most of their people but changed time so that their era never existed, even in the remote past. Later revelations about the nature of the Sundering and some of its peculiar time-altering effects (which extended backwards through time), led Brian James to make the connection that the LeShay were probably the errant Fey creator race, and he revealed this in his writings. Turns out the LeShay were, apparently, a native race of Toril with links to Faerie whose civilization and timeline were (mostly) erased by the Sundering. How they were related to the Eladrin, or the other sylvan races of Toril has yet to be revealed, but certain hints may be gleaned from Brian's articles in Dragon Magazine on the main website.
The "Creator Races," however, is an elite fraternity that is closed to additional membership. There were only five. No more will be discovered or named, though new facts about them may still be uncovered. That's not to say that mighty, hidden races may not yet be discovered from Toril's distant past, but you would have to convince the elven scholars that they should be added to the list of the Iqua Tel'Quessir, and that seems unlikely.
Didn't the Batrachi become the Slaad race?
ummm there is no say one way or the other that I've heard.
but all signs state " Maybe"
Slaadi are Chaotic Neutral Exemplars spawned from the essence of Limbo so all sense points to 'Of course not what the hell'.
Of course these are the 4E FR, no other prime material planes or the proper outer planes have existed for two editions and sense has gone out the window so the answer by now is probably 'Probably'.
Didn't the Batrachi become the Slaad race?
Actually, if I recall correctly, I think that Brian James intended the Batrachi to be the forerunners of the Neraphim, a planar race introduced in the Planar Handbook see this web article here: www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/200...
The Neraphim look a lot like slaadi, but are a distinct race, and are often confused with slaadi. Read the sidebar on p.5 of the Grand History of the Realms. It establishes that after the Batrachi war with the Titans/Jotunbrud of Annam, the surviving Batrachi fled to a plane in the Realms cosmology, which used to be called Limbo, but which is now called The Supreme Throne. Once ensconced there, Ramenos, the patron god of the Batrachi, transformed them a second time, presumably to conform better to the environment of the plane, where I assume they became the race now known as Neraphim, which again, look an awful lot like the slaadi, which also live on the plane of the Supreme Throne, formerly known as Limbo. The sidebar stresses that the slaadi do also live on the plane, and that the two races are often confused.
It reveals that Bazim-Gorag, the Firebringer, though confused with a slaad lord, is actually a remnant of the Batrachi empire, and considers himself a "Batrachi lord", which he claims is far more powerful than any common fiend, though that could be mere hyperbole, but at least know his stats from Champions of Ruin, if not also that issue of Dungeon he was introduced in.
Ed Greenwood revealed in a post on-line that slaadi colonized the Realms cosmology from the Great Wheel, which has lots of links to the FR cosmology. In fact, he says that the Great Wheel plane of Limbo has lots of planar rifts and soft borders that leak into other cosmologies and universes, due to the chaotic nature of that plane. Presumably when the slaadi settled in the FR cosmology, they named their new plane Limbo after their home plane, which remained the name of the plane until Cyric adopted it as his "Supreme Throne" circa 1371 DR (or thereabouts, I can't recall the exact date) when he fled there after getting chased out of the Fugue Plane.
Doesn't the FRCG call Bazim a Primordial?
So could the Batrachi really be Primordials?
I am not sure if he achieved his "Batrachi Lord" status by earning it, or getting transformed by Ramenos, or what all that entailed. I don't have a definitive answer for you, but I can see several different possible explanations as to how Bazim-Gorag could have started out as a mortal Batrachi in -31,000 DR and yet still qualify as a Primordial in 1400 DR.
This thread is quite an interesting read. Gray Richardson really knows his ancient Faerunian history! I'm a little surprised that dragons and giants are not among the Creator Races myself. It was my understanding that they had the first true empires in Abeir-Toril.