Spawn
A race of sentient, humanoid frogs, living in the highlands of central Terranova, and fanatically loyal to their God who is yellow, known to others as Apollyon.
Sketch by early Destinian Explorer
The Spawn are believed to be the result of Warpstone effects on local fauna; their ancestors presumably non-sentient giant frogs that dwelt around the lake where Apollyon's tomb was located.
The Spawn are divided into castes, which show considerable diversity in size, appearance, colour, attributes and abilities. This variety appears to be created by the continued use of warpstone: eggs are laid in spawning ponds -- areas of the lake put aside for this purpose -- and warpstone and other additives in the pond determine the caste of the Spawn who emerge. Spawn mature quickly, taking 4-5 years to reach full size and having a lifespan of some 40-45 years. It is not known exactly how many Spawn there are, but estimates run to several millions.
Spawn life and culture is strictly regimented with each individual having a very specific role and place in society. There is no differentiation between sexes (indeed, to non-Spawn the genders appear identical). Amongst themselve the Spawn speak an odd dialect related to ancient Elven (this can been called Frog-Elven by Alusians), and they use specialist translators who understand the Drow trading tongue for contact with other races.
There are a large number of known castes, including Workers, Artisans, Entertainers, Merchants, Messengers & Couriers, along with Bureaucrats, Diplomats, a magic using Priestly caste and quite a few Warrior castes. Spawn mages appear to be Elementalists, Necromancers and Wicca, and follow the standard Colleges with a notable exception; in place of Celestials the Spawn have Solar mages, these having only slight similarity to the Solar branch of Celestial. Spawn Solar mages are known to be able to combine their Solar Flare abilities to create flares of immense power, capable of melting cities and creating large areas of glassy ground. This ability must come at considerable cost as they use it very seldom, but the effects are nothing short of catastrophic, and the fate of the city of Ssasanarras is still recalled in Saurian legend.
The Spawn military is organized along regimental and caste lines, with many of the elite units specially bred for their roles. Known elite groups, by their regiment names are:
- Jaguar (Hug-war)
- Sleathy and hard to see, camouflage pattern skins, specialists in close combat and commando style tactics
- Often equipped with short bows, strangling nooses and other weapons that can be used from ambush
- Eagle
- Skin stretching between arms and legs gives limited gliding ability
- Regiment retains Air mages specialising in cloud flying to deliver squads of troops into battle
- Often equipped with flying magics, spears and nets
- Many flying scouts
- Dragon
- Exhibit gigantism, being some 9-12 feet high and possessing Ogre-like strength and resilience but lacking in intelligence
- Usually equipped with giant-sized clubs, mattocks and other weapons, armoured in various scaled animal skins
- Axolotl
- Specialists in aquatic / amphibious attacks; unlike most Spawn the Axolotl caste retain the ability to breath underwater
- Regiment maintains a number of Water mages for flooding dry areas
- Crocodile
- Heavy troops with scaled armour from various Terranovan beasts, large shields, heavy weapons (mostly tooth-edged swords)
- Serpent
- Heavy shock troops, well equipped and well trained
- Known to be venomous
- Termite
- Tunnelling troops for seige warfare
- Regiment maintains a number of Earth mages for tunneling and elementals
- Mantis
- Seige specialists; assemble rams, catapults, and other machinery
- Use many enormous reptilian beasts (elephant sized and larger)
- Chameleon (rare)
- Natural invisibility
- Poisonous skins -- use blowpipes with the darts dipped in their natural venom
In the thousands of years since their arising the Spawn subjugated the Saurian cities of the highlands and came to dominate the central plateau. They showed little interest in traditional empire building, but rather demanded tribute of sacrifices from their vassals; these being ritually slain on the temple of their Yellow god.
Since the release of Apollyon the Spawn have been his active and willing servants, and with their god amongst them they have become truly fanatical. Apollyon used a large army of Spawn (numbering some 70,000) to force passage to the eastern coast and then to build a city / boat for the ritual to wake Leviathan, and another larger army to fight north into the Drow lands against Ahriman's opposition. The northern army was largely destroyed in the final battle for Kadath, and it appears that, for the moment at least, Apollyon's plans have been curtailed.
