Batrachi

The Batrachi, also called Amphibioids, were an ancient amphibious race that was counted as one of the creator races native to Abeir-Toril, who dominated the supercontinent of Merrouroboros during the Days of Thunder. Eventually, migrating to the plane of Limbo during the fall of their Empire.

Basic Information

Anatomy

They were thought to be an aquatic and amphibious race and were capable of shapeshifting. They had slimy wet skin. Artwork in the Hall of Mists suggested they were huge frog-like creatures.

Ecology and Habitats

At their height, the Batrachi Empires spread across the whole of the supercontinent of Merrouroboros and included the realms of Kolophoon, Boitumelo, Nadezhda, and Zhoukoudien, neighboring the Black Sea, the sea of Pourounkorokale, and the Great Blue. Bazim-Gorag described his domain as "stretching from the depths of the Black Sea in the north to the fiery peaks of Lopango in the south". Much later, the Sea of Fallen Stars lay over the flooded lands of the lost Batrachi realm of Kolophoon. They built proud cities on the land.

“Understand, Meat, that I am quite familiar with your feeble kind. My people ruled the whole of Merrouroboros while your ancestors cowered in caves and banged rocks together to create fire.” — Bazim-Gorag, on humans.

Civilization and Culture

Culture and Cultural Heritage

The transformed Batrachi lived on in Limbo but were often confused with the similarly amphibious Slaadi who also dwelt there. A few Faerûnian sages correctly theorized the batrachi had escaped to Limbo, and believed they had become the Slaadi. Some thought the Pandemonium Stone in the Elemental Chaos was a Batrachi artifact and somehow caused their mutation. Furthermore, they believed that examining it would reveal the truth of whether the Slaadi had descended from the Batrachi. Bazim-Gorag was Lord of the Pandemonium Stone and an ascended batrachian invoked by gamblers and those desperate for luck. In the Year of Craven Words, −350 DR, Haask, priest-king of Grong-Haap, reigning from Ironfang Keep, was revealed to be not a Greathorn minotaur but a batrachi-doppelganger hybrid, when attacked and mortally wounded.
The debased descendants of the remaining batrachi lived on in the deepest, darkest swamps of Faerûn, but were presumed long extinct by the 14th century DR.
However, the Batrachi created or were the ancestors of a number of the amphibious, piscine, and shapeshifting races of the Realms, including the Bullywugs, doppelgangers, and kuo-toa.
An intricate runic design theorized to have originated among the Batrachi and was used by the Imaskari in the construction of their Bukhara Spires, during their Early Dynastic Period (−7975 DR to −6422 DR). Employing transdimensional magic, these were permanent two-way portals that allowed the Imaskari to cross the continent in moments.
A memory of a conversation between Bazim-Gorag the Firebringer and a human member of the Order of the Black Flame, in which he spoke of the batrachi, found its way into the God-Brain of Oryndoll when that member was captured and mind-read by the illithids in the Year of the Tankard, 1370 DR.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

Like the Sarrukh before them and the Aearee after them, the Batrachi once dominated the group known as the Ba'etith during the Days of Thunder. Its purpose was to record and study the primitive magic practiced by the races of Faerûn. Over millennia, the Ba'etith codified this knowledge in the Golden Skins of the World Serpent, later called the Nether Scrolls.
The batrachi of the Ba'etith at the Hall of Mists and those who later lived on the Supreme Throne worshiped a deity called Ramenos. At least twice he had changed the batrachi to serve his goals.

History

-Bazim-Gorag, the Firebringer, a much-mutated Batrachi lord, turned Slaad.
This amphibious race evolved in the seas, their growth mirroring the dinosaurs on land. When they became amphibious, they moved onto the land and supplanted the dinosaurs. The batrachi came to prominence during the Days of Thunder (−35,000 DR to −30,000 DR), following the time of the Sarrukh. The Batrachi Empires rose to power circa −33,500 DR. They out-competed the rising power of the Yuan-ti of Mhairshaulk, ensuring they would never achieve the heights of their creators, the Sarrukh.
The Batrachi grew to the height of their power under the wise leadership of Zhoukoudien, the High One. However, their golden age ended abruptly when the High One was killed in battle by Omo, a titan thane of the Jotunbrud Tribes, around −31,500 DR. The Batrachian lord Bazim-Gorag later called Zhoukoudien a fool who unwisely made war against the Jotunbrud and lost the empire.
Around −31,000 DR,[2][10] the Batrachi were losing a war against the Titans. In their desperation, the batrachi enacted a great summoning ritual that unleashed several once-imprisoned primordials. The gods swiftly opposed the primordials. The primordial Asgorath, the World Shaper, even hurled an ice moon or comet at the planet, to destroy what she could not have, in an event called the Tearfall. Disastrous earthquakes, fires, and windstorms swept across all of Abeir-Toril, erasing whole continents and rearranging the seas. Ancient Sarrukh legends made cryptic mention of the "changing of the stars. But, before the world was destroyed, Ao split it into two twin worlds: Abeir for the primordials and Toril for the gods.
Extreme climate change swiftly led to the end of the Batrachi civilization. After a cold period called the seven-turn winter, many Batrachi—among them Bazim-Gorag—left Toril for the plane of Limbo. There, the batrachi were changed, for at least the second time in their history, by their god Ramenos to serve his agenda. They created what became known as the Supreme Throne as their kingdom.
Meanwhile, in the seas, the amphibioids appear to have faced pressure from merfolk, Sahuagin, and tritons. Their society degenerated and collapsed back into barbarism.

Historical Figures

• The High One Zhoukoudien
• Bazim-Gorag, the Firebringer

Common Myths and Legends

The fate of the Batrachi is unknown, however, many scholars have come to the theory of their evolution into the Native race of Slaads. It appears that the presence of Batrachi in Limbo has been eliminated entirely. While remnants still survive in the oceans and bogs of Faerun, Limbo has seemingly experienced the silent death of the race. The Pandemonium Stone holds great chaotic energy that manipulates the environment and likely those that surround themselves with it into an eternal state of chaos. Whether this stone was gifted by Ramenos, possibly his way of adapting the Batrachi to the plane, or a construct of the elemental chaos itself. One thing is for certain, the Batrachi numbers have dwindled into ash since they sported their Supreme Throne within proximity of the Pandemonium Stone. Among these facts, scholars believe that the Slaadi attraction to the stone and the Elemental Chaos is far more than a simple attraction to chaotic energy.

EXTINCT

Genetic Descendants

• Slaad

Scientific Name

Amphibious

Geographic Distribution

• Limbo

Related Ethnicities

• Slaad

Discovered by

Menyar-Ag

Related Technologies

• Pandemonium Stone