The Family of the Avatar
The Family of the Avatar is the title of a cult of dragon worshippers. Related in more than blood to Leviathan, the cult is found in deep hiding, deep in society, and deep in the Underdark. Led by the most powerful egg-spawn of the Avatar of Leviathan, they view the Order of the Gash as upstarts for their 'true' father's heritage.
Showing their leader's draconic heritage, time has little meaning to them cpnsidering the cult has existed in secret as long a sthe First Men walked the Earth. Experimentation and power of the reptilian lineages are all that they seek. A hatred of the Giant-kin & Star Gods (the ancient enemies of the dragons) are everpresent. They constantly plot & scheme sending their agents to other Underdark species & the surface world to corrupt, demoralise or destroy all other life.
Structure
The Avatar of Leviathan is the de facto figurehead of the organization and many of the chosen leaders are chosen for their strength, age, intelligence and more importantly, their lineage to the Avatar. Since the Avatar has Leviathan's blood in itself, then these followers do too. A lower caste of powerful leaders made up of Lizardmen, Draconians, and Dragonborn make up a layer below acting as advisors, war leaders and enforcers. Each of these are generally powerful heads of tribes, clans and armies in their own right, having their own inner circles.
The overall leader is known as the Great Wyrm, and those below are named as Wyrmlings. Most of those with dragonblood are usually descended of Black Dragons, though a few are made up of other colours. There is meant to be no distinction though the Black-kin, as they are referred to by their black scales, are usually given preferencial treatment. They do not bar any colour from advancing knowing that it is sometimes good to have a different characteristic lead them, especially when particular circumstances arise and they need a fresh outlook.
The only beings they refuse t odeal with due to their human lineage is the Yuan-Ti. They look with revulsion & disgust upon these abominations, and view these as an example of when disorder is placed on flesh.
Culture
The Family worship Leviathan as the only true god, and believe that the flesh of other creatures is to be fashioned and ordered in such a way as to please Leviathan. That is their primary goal and many will mutilate themselves into forms they believe will draw his attention. Nearly all also follow a strict chain of commnd believing the elders and most powerful out of each speices is worthy to lead.
Magic is prized above treasure though this is still evident in many of the Dragon-kin. Magic items are sought after or created and the breeding of any reptile is important. Most of the followers will breed different reptiles when not carrying out the Family's duties. This always comes first.
Secure study spaces, military gear & training, and breeding grounds are essential to their communities. Time and effort is taken to gain these along with necessary resources such as food and materiel for producing goods. They will always try to bargain with a dragon to be close on these individuals territories.
Though saying this, the elder the dragon the more it is left alone. One too many Family settlements have tried to convert an adult or older dragon to their cause for it to be smart enough (or it could be said, enraged enough) to avoid being converted to Leviathan's cause. Quite a few settlements have been obliterated for such an action.
The Family in general tries to base it's settlelemnts deep in the Underdark away from others so they can't be spied upon. Sometimes if fortune is on their side, they manage to wipe out a good swathe of a region's inhabitants leaving behind everything needed, whether Black Elf, Deep Gnome or Dwarf and even Illithid settlements. These they will repurpose the remains of the settlements, maybe to a central heavily defended spot so no retailation can ever truly be worth it.
They do have an intolerance of any creature of avian and mammalian descent, viewing many of these are usurpers along with the Giant-kin. In every case they will look to massacre every such creature in a given area, and storing the bodes for food for later no matter the age or species. Many raids are taken on other Underdark settlements for this, and a number on the surface too. They also take a perverse delight doing this on Yuan-Ti settlements.
When they find unaligned members of their respective species, or even those whose rel;igious beliefs are the polar opposites, they will try to convert them to the best of their abilities. If constantly refused then they will massacre them with little regard referring to them as traitors.
Public Agenda
Due to their nature, nonmembers have very little idea that the Family exists and those that do have even less insight to their motives. All th they do is seem to destroy and cause as much havoc on others, as well as making sure the reptilian sentient species thrive.
Assets
Spread throughout the world, the Family has a hidden network of tunnels stretcging for thousands of miles. These are deliberately broken up so that only a small portion can be found & utilised by their enemies at any one time. At the centre of each portion there is a huge settlement with smaller satellite settlements spread around them. Specific tribes or clans usually will control specific settlements and only the highest ranking members would have a hope of knowing the majority of them if not all.
Mining operations and raids both underground & aboveground are carried out for fresh foodstuffs and plunder. Everything that can be brought back can & will be. It is usually a sign by these bythose in the know, of such a raid taking place, and everything except the bare buildings are the only things left.
Their settlements generally have training facilities for military units, with the Draconians making up the core troops and the Lizardmen making up skirmishers, scouts and spies. The Dragonborn will regularly make up elite units in their warmachine, and officers where needed. They will have ample stocks of supplies, weapons and armour to equip all of them. Elements like carpenters, wheelwrights, leatherworkers, and black//weapon/armour smiths are also present. Cavalry is also present where strange reptilian beasts are used for mounts and for beasts of burden. These are bred by specialist animal wranglers who choose the largest, fiercest, fastest, most venomous and/or strongest from the reptilians bred by the locals.
Some of these are truly ancient resembling the remains of long extinct gigantic monstrosities, others are bizarre looking like something out of a nightmare.
They always look for large sources of water and feed for themselves and their animals. This in part necessitates the raids on the surface world. Water they will divert down specific channels in caves and sinkholes so they always have a source from soewhere.
One city is rumoured t obe under the city of Alxandria on the north African coast in Egypt. One text only mentions it and it's name is a corruption of of Alexandria, the dreaded Zandriaz. It is meant to be linked to a hughe cave somewhere about the same spot, and was closed off after a war between the Family, the Yuan-Ti, and the Order of the Gash.
Only one entrance & exit is meant to remain and close to the main entrance / exit of the cavern. It is secretly warded so only a few can make it through to the cavern.
History
Millions of years ago Leviathan gave birth to the Avatar of Leviathan by purely magical means by giving up a piece of his flesh to one of the first mythic black dragons. The Avatar in time, like many reptilans to come later, self-fertilised & laid eggs itself in a corner in the Cavern of the Black Pyramid. This in turn displeased Leviathan, who gave the Avatar a choice, either create the Family or wipe out the young. Using further magic, the Avatar brought order to it's young by creating the first Draconians. Over the centures if not millennia, these grew in number and bolstered the Dragon Kind in general when they learned of the techniques to do so.
Many also learned and modified it so the first Dragonborn were created. And further down the line the Lizardmen were created, as well as wyverns. Many escaped or their masters died in the wars against others of their kin, and wars against the Giants, the Star Gods, the Yuna-Ti, First men, and others. Eventually over the span of aeons the wars settled down until the Yuan-Ti, during the age of Pangaea tried to seize control of a part of the Cavern for themselves.
Sensing this could unbalace everything the Family attacked causing massive damage to both sides. What didn't help was Leviathan had started trucking with others, such as the ancestors of the Children of the Nazarene, the Necrocult, and creating his own new order, the Order of the Gash. Many in the family saw this as their god turning their backs on them for the £hairy little tree climbers" of the surface world. They struck down a couple of buildings containing ancient irreplaceable Hellish items that was gifted to Leviathan fro ma much more powerful denizen of Hell. Thus Leviathan struck them a blow reducing their numbers to about a quarter of them. Since then they have been slowly rebuilding knowing that they cannot afford to enrage Leviathan ever again. Now they toe the line working towards their masters plans for the world.
As part of this, they have been led for the past 200 years by an ancient Black Dragonborn called Astaorth. A powerful fighter & tactician it is spoken i nhushed tones that know of him that he has elements of the Draconian AND Lizardfolk in him besides being Dragonborn. It is speculated the greatest of the Family leaders are all like this arising only once every few centuries when the stars align.
It is also said that he has persuaded the Avatar to aid him working with a Night Hag & her coven to cause untold damage on the surface worlld. All of this done so the Hag can gain more powerr for herself too while Astaroth helps to rebuild his peoples position in the heirarchy of Leviathan's realm.
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