Hutaakans on the Savage Coast
by Átila Pires dos SantosI'd say Hutaakans are definitely present on the Savage Coast, though they are usually mistaken for Gnolls.
The are present, or they were present?
Either way, we do know that hutaakan blood had been related with royalty conception among the primitive lupin tribes of the region, one of the reasons for the Pflarr heresy and Nouvelle Renardie existence, in the first place. I think it's a strong clue about hutaakan presence at the region, but we still need to know where, exactly...
One thing we know is that hutaakans and Nithians are culturally related, and they generally live close to each other (the hutaakans at the mountains while the Nithians in fertile valleys; as Håvard pointed, the Karameikan Altan Tepes, quite close to Ylaruam, is a very good (and remote) place to have a second hutaakan lost valley ;) ). And we had Nithian colonies at the Savage Coast as well...
The main problem about these lost colonies is to know where they were, exactly. Christian Constantin's articles for Hule included the Great Waste region (that, BTW, he pictures it also as a fertile region, centred around it's rivers, much like old Nithia), which I assumed as accurate, since it's a good route to the Western Sea (where we should have more colonies) and the Plains of Fire/Graakhalia is just north, a good place for escaped gnoll slaves. I'm not so sure about the baronial region, however, since the Otzil (native Oltec) perspective was, unfortunately, not included at his writings... I like to think that what his maps shown as Hulean territories down the Great Escarpment is, in fact, only a way to show that the local goblinoid tribes are allied with the Hulean emperor, while the baronial territories "Conquered by Nithia BC 725-706" as natives (Otzil, elves and lupins) allying with Nithian forces to expel those goblinoids. Still, we have two famous ruins at that region, and also some gnolls (perhaps part of the Nithian troops that eventually became independent tribes, perhaps escaped slaves from some Nithian colony close to it), even if Nithia doesn't dominated directly the whole region (something it did at the KW as well, dominating the Traldar/Doulakki peoples by other means, perhaps as overlords):
1st theory - Antro do Dragão: I guess this one is the only Nithian ruin described at the canon, but Christian Constantin's map doesn't show it. Still, I guess canon weighs more, even because it's placed where we have the largest known cinnabryl deposit, Terra Vermelha.
2nd theory - Buenos Vientos: We have a desert region (Nithians just love that, lol), with gnolls and a cinnabryl mine more or less close to it. I like to think that Buenos Vientos was originally a LB outpost that later received Traladaran colonists (perhaps wanting to fight the gnolls because of their religious background?), but it could had been built over a Nithian ruin. Or perhaps those ruins were, in fact, below Smokestone City, which is closer to the sea and along a river, something they just love ;) the gnolls then simply escaped, entering the first empty region they found (El Grande Carrascal).
I'd say that both were, indeed, Nithian colonies at the region, experimenting with Cinnabryl, and we may had hutaakans living close to them or the Great Waste colonies (either way, the best place for them would be the Black Mountains, then). But that's quite far from most lupins and Renardy...
3rd theory - Monoliths of Zul: It's possible that Zul was once the last remain of a larger Nithian complex that partially sunk (and the tortle slaves living at Zul simply kept doing what they were told to do and eventually became the only known tortle civilization... Actually, I think that tortles were brought were and west Cimarron by Nithians). The idea came while working on Protectorado da Presa, making it the Mystaran version of the Portuguese islands (Madeira, Açores, Cabo Verde and also the Spanish Canárias), and IIRC, there are some legends saying that they could be the last remains of a sunken continent. At first I ignored it, but Nithians fit nicely with Zul (even if Otzil Oltecs would be a better option, unfortunately some goblinoids destroyed that civilization some time ago...). Also, it's the best explanation for Claw's Tiger Island and gives us an interesting underwater extra cinnabryl reserve (perhaps even larger than Terra Vermlha's).
The best part of it is that we can have hutaakans quite close to Renardy, living or at the hills that separate Tortle Tribeland from Renardy (and they eventually left their lives and intermingled with the lupins) and/or Niedegard Mountains, still isolated and hidden within another lost valley.
Ok, assuming that we indeed had hutaakans at the SC during the Nithian era, why would they be there? Well, Pflarr was (and is) one of the main Nithian patrons, perhaps he was interested on its destiny during its final moments, sending some of his faithful servants to keep an eye at the Nithian colonies at the SC (and thus, we could, but not necessarily have, one lost valley at the Niedegard Mountains, and perhaps also at the Black Mountains).
Part of the hutaakans eventually even joined the rebellious Nithian groups, planning to restore Nithia as it was by force (and, why not, getting involved with the creation of Cinnabryl and the Legacies), while others kept their old reclusive ways. And the same was happening at old Nithia (with an quite known reclusive colony being that one in Karameikos), with the addition of a third group, corrupted hutaakans that got involved with Thanatos, Ranivorus and his "children", the Spotted Gnolls.
When the Immortals decided that there was no hope for Nithia and sent it to the HW, Pflarr sent most of his hutaakans to there as well, except for a very small number of colonies. He completely withdrew his blessing from those hutaakans with spotted gnoll blood, that became the Ramblers; and only made it weaker for other hutaakan descendent groups, that were more involved with other races and the rebellion against the corrupted Nithian culture, the Fennec (hutaakans + Aardovai) in Nithia/Ylaruam and Foxfolk (red ones close to the Niedegard Mountains; and white ones at the black mountains, from where they migrated to northern regions, such as Norwold).
Losing part of their Bloodline power and memories about Nithia, the Foxfolk group split again, between those who would rather return to their old, reclusive ways (that didn't changed much and are the modern Foxfolk) and those who would rather keep fighting against another enemy of the "lupin-kind", the goblinoids. With the help of their wisdom and mode advanced culture, they soon became leaders of their more barbaric cousins at the Yazak Steppes, that would eventually become the modern breeds of Renardy.