The Sllithàna Swamplands

## Description

Located to the south of the Queendom of Thale and westwards from the Harrogath Mountains are the expansive reaches of verdant jungles, soggy marches and blue lakes of the Sllithàna Swamplands. Despite its great natural beauty, it is an inhospitable place, partly because the dangerous local fauna and flora, but mostly because the native Saa'ur are pretty damn hostile to any non-reptilian race trespassing on their territory.

Despite this, many green-eyed adventurers risk the sweltering heat, diseases and parasites, and a sudden crudely made, but horrendously effective axe to the cranium in search of looting the Saa'ur Temple Cities and their vast wealth of precious metals and gems, in particular the fabled submerged capital of Tlax, which is rumored to be built entirely out of gold.

## Demographics & Government

The dominant people of the Swamplands are the Saa'ur, an alliance of various mixed tribes of reptilian races such as Lizardfolk, Troglodytes and Yuan-Ti. While tensions between the tribes are often heated and they often war among each other, they are united in their hatred of the scaleless thieves from the north seeking to plunder the valuable holy relics of their underwater cities. Most of the Saa'Ur tribes are led by the toad-like Slaad, who rule the Temple Cities as despotic God-Kings through a combination of old-fashioned fear-mongering and cult of personality. A smaller number of tribes have an Evil Dragon, usually a Black or Green Dragon, as its leader.

The western coasts of the Swamplands are inhabited by Kobolds. They have an uneasy truce with the Saa'ur, although small skirmishes are not uncommon. The Kobolds of the Swamplands, while not especially friendly towards outsiders, are more tolerant and willing to trade with other races, unlike their less civilized distant cousins, the Saa’ur. Since Kobolds are fairly short-lived, they are a gerontocracy where each village is led by a council of the eldest, most experienced citizens.

## Culture & Religion

As a theocratic dictatorship, Saa'ur society does not have much in the way of culture beyond their fervent loyalty and servitude towards their Slaadi or Dragons masters, and building and maintaining the places of woship to their deities. The harsh struggle for survival in the predator-ridden jungles and pestilent swamps leaves little room for the pursuit of leisure or artistry that is not purely religious in nature. The Saa'ur are also highly stratified and the races are divided into castes. The Slaadi/Dragons stand at the top. Below them are the intelligent Yuan-Ti, who serve as an elite. Then come the Lizardfolk as the warrior caste. The troglodytes are the lowest rank, doomed to a life of unending menial labor.

The Saa'ur ruled by Slaad generally worship Semuanya, a reptilian deity whose main agenda is the reproduction and survival of their species. They believe the Slaad are his avatars and that their every word is a divine command. They spend a great amount of effort in creating mighty pyramids and other holy objects in honor of their masters and deity, and usually use many precious metals and minerals in their construction, even though they attribute no value to gold or diamond. But since the Slaad insists Semuanya demands their use, they use them nonetheless and will happily and furiously fight to the death to defend them. Tribes led by Dragons always worship Tiamat, but this makes little difference in terms of culture.

The Kobolds of the coasts are more cultured, partly because the bountiful ocean makes their lives somewhat easier. They are known to sometimes put up great inter-village contests where the strongest en quickest compete in trials of bravery. Rival villages often make large wagers between them, ranging from resources and territory to sometimes the losing tribe being absorbed by the winner. Notably, no violence ever breaks out over the outcome of these contests. New additions to a village are treated no different from older inhabitants and resources are freely shared among the entire people. To Kobolds, 'ownership' simply means they have first duty to protect it from non-Kobolds and having much to defend is considered a great source of honor and pride.

The Kobolds worship Kurtulmak. In fact, they split of from the Saa'ur over theological differences, chief among them being allowed to worship their own deity.

Both the Saa'ur races and the Kobolds spreak Draconic.

## Military

Made up of warlike races, the Saa'ur maintain sizeable armed forces, mostly composed of the tough and ferocious Lizardfolk. Troglodytes usually serve as scouts, or in some cases, cannon fodder. The Yuan-Ti provide the middle-rank leaders and elite troops of specialist spellcasters and psionics. The Slaad and Dragon rulers are the supreme generals, but rarely ever take to the field themselves. Saa'ur weapons are mostly primitive, but cruelly effective axes, spears and blowpipes made of wood, bone and stone. They also use non-intelligent reptilian and draconic species as warbeasts, notably Dinosaurs, Wyverns and Drakes.

The Saa'ur are not inherently aggressive conquerors, but the may appear to be, since their longlived leadership often sends their troops on raids to the north in retaliation for some slight, sometimes from centuries ago. Regardless, the Saa'ur will attack and kill any non-reptilian trespasser on their lands, tirelessly and mercilessly hunting any that do.

The Kobolds, who are generally content to live and let live so long as they are left alone, are more peaceful and only raise a militia if they feel their lands are threatened. Some of the less scrupulous villages have taken to piracy, and prey on trading ships from Thale or Duskmoor.

## Settlements & Other Locations

* The Temple City of Tlax
* Torvus Temple
* Agon Temple