) will be involving the Kreen invasion of the Tyr region.I'm working on "Mega Kreen"ATM a CR 20 kreen designed to take on Sorceror Kings- or cities. Has there ever been stats however for Zik-Chil the Priests of Change printed anywhere. I've been looking in relevent 2nd ed source material and can't find them anywhere.
Might have to stat them out myself and post them here. I'm also thinking up some Kreen racial feats and converting the other subraces from the crimson Savannah to 3.5 or at least making them varients of the normal kreen.
Any interest in this anyway? Might also post an adventure or 2 and if anyone want to expand them maybe we could cobble togather an adventure path of sorts. Might also have to include faction in the Kreen Empire and perhaps a new Kreen Emperor.
Zik-Chil are presented in the new Lifeshaped Items Handbook at Athas.org. I like the way they have been written up but I don't really like the fact they were once Rhulisti. To me that kind of takes away their uniqueness.
AZAZEL
I like the way they have been written up but I don't really like the fact they were once Rhulisti. To me that kind of takes away their uniqueness but it's something I can live with.
I spin it that the nature-benders created the first Zik'Chil from primitive kreen at some point during the Blue Age.
More or less how I would have done them in the Lifeshaping hand book but I would change their favoured class from Cleric to Psion (psychometabolism) as they're not really true follows of the elements and since they're kinda weak for a CR 8 encounter let them use Psionics as a level 7 Psion.
I don't think the idea of them being Rhulisti makes any sense. Rajaat was associated with Rhulisti descendants who retained the bulk of their ancestor's knowledge, and would have known if the Zik'Chil were mutant halflings. The Kreen wouldn't have been ignored in his Cleansing Wars if they were being led by the descendants of Nature Benders. Rajaat would probably have considered them to be worse abominations than the rest of the New Races.
You bring up a convincing argument! However, would Rajaat really consider them abominations since they were not creatures of the Re-birth?
AZAZEL
I spin it that the nature-benders created the first Zik'Chil from primative kreen during some point in the Blue Age.
This sounds more reasonable. Is it a stretch to believe that perhaps the "primitive" Kreen could have LEARNED the skills of the Nature Benders?
AZAZEL
This sounds more reasonable. Is it a stretch to believe that perhaps the "primitive" Kreen could have LEARNED the skills of the Nature Benders?
No, I feel that the nature-benders may have imparted a fragment of their knowledge to the Zik'Chil with the purpose of using them to assist the rhulisti in their life-shaping experiments.
I think treating them "Wanderers Journal" style and having their origins shrouded in mystery is the best thing to do.
AZAZEL
I will say, however, that the very thing that the Nature Benders were branded criminals and heretics for (manipulating the physical structure of already existing creatures, rather than shaping lifeshaped tools from Pith and other substances) is exactly what the Zik-Chil do. Perhaps things make more sense if looked at from a different perspective. Maybe it was the Zik-Chil who inspired the nature-benders to their deeds, and not the other way around.
Also, it is heavily implied that the Zik-Chil are not native to Athas, and are in fact descendants of Xixchil (From the spelljammer setting), who are exactly the same in all regards. Perhaps a Zik-Chil vessel crashed on Athas, and their manipulations are what raised the Kreen from being nothing more than giant-sized, somewhat more intelligent Praying Mantises. It is canon(though some do not like it), established in the original materials, that extra-planer, alien creatures have had significant impacts on the development of Athas (the Githyanki Psionic Devstator incident being the most well known). The prevailing pattern seems to be that otherworldy creatures can, with great difficulty, find their way to Athas, but have a heck of a time trying to leave.
This explanation also helps explain how the Zik'Chil, being smaller and weaker than other Kreen, managed to get themseves into such a postion of power in the Kreen Empire. Simply put, they founded it, and are doing a great job of masking their existence from the rest of Athas. The SKs don't know the Zik'Chil exist. Zik'Trin scouts basically self-destruct if questioned too heavily about their masters. It could be implied that the Zik'Chil are hiding from something, and found Athas to be a very suitable spot to do so.
I just don't really like the notion that the Zik-chil are connected with the Rhulisti and the Nature-Benders. I feel they should be something separate and unique not "Rhulisti Knockoffs" for lack of a better term.
I think treating them "Wanderers Journal" style and having their origins shrouded in mystery is the best thing to do.
I view it that the nature-benders created the Zik-Chil for the express purpose of piecing together and altering other kreen. It would be similar to an automotive assembly line in the real world. Zik-Chil were the rhulisti’s answer to automating the life-shaping/bending process. It wouldn’t be till decades later that the Zik-Chil would rise up against their rhulisti masters in an effort to assert kreen independence and freedom.
As for Xixchil/Zik-Chil connect. Perhaps it was the other way around. Maybe the three rhulisti aboard the Messenger brought along a few Zik-Chil who later escaped the comet-ship and became Xixchil. That is, if you use the Great Wheel/Wild Space Cosmology.
(Frankly, nothing the Templarate can do can screw up Athas worse than what some of the canonical writers for the setting did to screw it up. Quitcher*****in.)
Might have to stat them out myself and post them here. I'm also thinking up some Kreen racial feats and converting the other subraces from the crimson Savannah to 3.5 or at least making them varients of the normal kreen.
Any interest in this anyway? Might also post an adventure or 2 and if anyone want to expand them maybe we could cobble togather an adventure path of sorts. Might also have to include faction in the Kreen Empire and perhaps a new Kreen Emperor.
The various subraces of kreen certainly deserve some differentiation from each other.
In the description of the Zik-Chil in the Thri-Kreen of Athas is says:
"In many ways, the zik-chil are throwbacks to ancient kreen. They retain the ability (through their racial memory) to manipulate their own enzymes, and the ability to rebuild and augment living beings."
To me this implies that this ability used to be one common to all kreen.
The various subraces of kreen certainly deserve some differentiation from each other.
In the description of the Zik-Chil in the Thri-Kreen of Athas is says:
"In many ways, the zik-chil are throwbacks to ancient kreen. They retain the ability (through their racial memory) to manipulate their own enzymes, and the ability to rebuild and augment living beings."
To me this implies that this ability used to be one common to all kreen.
That's exactly what I was referencing earlier. To me, that says that Zik'Chil augmenting has absolutely no relation to Lifeshaping techniques. One is a manipulation of the internal chemistry and physical structure of living beings, and one is the act of creating living tools from the basic building blocks of life.
I also don't at all like the retcon of the Brown Tide's origin and purpose.
I do enjoy and appreciate the hard work you guys at Athas.org put into these projects, but at the same time, I wish you wouldn't make such large retcons. Whle the ideas may seem cool for something in one's own personal campaign, since the releases from Athas.org are official campaign material, I think it would be good for the community as a whole if there wasn't such blatant contradictions of established material. I really enjoy it when you all make expanded ideas come to life, or fill in gaps that aren't explained by the old material (Like Faces of the Forgotten Notrh. 99% great stuff, especially the original Butcher of Dwarves). That stuff is great. But when you essentially say "The original material said this, now ignore that, cuz this is the new story", it brings with it a kind of disillusionment. Again, I like most of your work, but the whole NatureBender-Zik'Chil, Brown-Tide Bioweapon thing reminds me a lot of when DC Comics did that huge retcon to their continuity back in the day. Excellent, established stories and histories were wrecked, and a lot of people lost interest.
i know that the brown tide needs to remain untouched. the brown tide was caused by what it was caused by and that needs to remain the same.
bio weaponry is a very cool idea and should be expanded on and fleshed out, but not if you have to change the old offical canon. i mean if you change the history. then why not change everything else. which would turn Darksun into a completely differant world. some things Must stay the same.
i also support athas.orgs quality work and thank them often for their effort. i would encourage others to find a constructive way to post their opinions as hostility will get you absolutely no where. and i am not a fanboy. lol.
A few of the hangovers from old Darksun need to be aborted. Anyone going to do a spacehalfing nature bending invasion of Athas?
Been there, with lots of Yuuzhan Vong goodness! That arc was never fleshed out beyond speculation, officially, but properly done, was and is LOTS of fun!
Been there, with lots of Yuuzhan Vong goodness! That arc was never fleshed out beyond speculation, officially, but properly done, was and is LOTS of fun!
Well most of the New Jedi order books klinda sucked although there were a few good ones in it. Alot of those authors were quite good on other Star Wars books. See stupid idea:P What do you think of this.
Chiton Rot
Any Kreen in a particuly humid climate (Forest Ridge, Jagged Cliffs) must make a DC 15 fortitude save once per day. For each additional day in a humid enviromentbeyond the first the DC increases by one. On a failed save the Kreen suffers 1 point of constitution damage and green rot starts growing on their chiton. For every 2 constitution points lost a kreen loses 1 point of its natural armor bonus. Once the Kreen leaves the enviroment for at least a day the DC reverts to 15 and a successful save indicates the rot dies and the Kreen is no longer affected and lost constitution returns at the normal rate. Lost natural armor points return at the same rate they were lost.
Probably needs titdied up and certain Kreen would be immune to it.
(Frankly, nothing the Templarate can do can screw up Athas worse than what some of the canonical writers for the setting did to screw it up.)
I don't know about this.....
In the description of the Zik-Chil in the Thri-Kreen of Athas is says:
"In many ways, the zik-chil are throwbacks to ancient kreen. They retain the ability (through their racial memory) to manipulate their own enzymes, and the ability to rebuild and augment living beings."
To me this implies that this ability used to be one common to all kreen.
What page is this description on?
I have to agree with RedKank on a couple of points. I think it is kind of ridiculous to say that the Zik'Chil are halflings mutated into that form as punishment. There's not a single thing in the original material to support the premise, and in fact, lots of clues in to the contrary.
I also don't at all like the retcon of the Brown Tide's origin and purpose.
Agreed!
Anyone going to do a spacehalfing nature bending invasion of Athas?
No!
I think the general consensus is that the Zik-chil should be seperate and distinct from the Nature-Benders.
AZAZEL
That's exactly what I was referencing earlier. To me, that says that Zik'Chil augmenting has absolutely no relation to Lifeshaping techniques. One is a manipulation of the internal chemistry and physical structure of living beings, and one is the act of creating living tools from the basic building blocks of life.
I personally feel that the rhulisti/nature-benders would have created/altered the kreen to be able use their own enzymes to alter themselves.
I don't know about this.....
I do!
Surfing druids? Killed half the Sorcerer Kings? Defilers defile when they memorize? Invasion of the Space Halflings? Age of Heroes? etc. Really, there's a whole bunch of things the official writers came up with that are pretty bad in either concept or execution, that scream "we forgot what Athas is about/what makes it cool".Now, I don't really fault them, because you can't love everything, but there are at least a few pretty big blunders created by the writers that surpass anything the Athas.org team could surpass (outside of the Templarate going insane as a body).
Eberron has a good system. Theres virtually no metaplot.
I do!
Surfing Druids I can live with. Defile while memorizing - maybe with the uses of a feat. Halflings IN Space... umm... thank you but I don't watch the Muppet Show anymore
. Now about killing off half the SK's - You act as if they didn't have a contingency set up (Hee hee). I read a short bit called "How to get the baddest bad-guy back in your campaign". Where the author talked about a part in “The Crimson Legion” where it mentioned Borys had a type of palactery within his Tomb in the Tower of Ebe (I haven't found the line yet in the book) that would preserve his soul or something. The short story that accompanied it was what I would do. If Borys had this what makes you think, with the possible exception of Kalak, the other SK's didn't. This would go quite a ways into explaining why Sacha and Wyan were keapt alive as talking heads. Hamanu may have done something special to Sielba to keep her from returning (magic jar?) and outside of DS canon Kalid-Ma went to Ravenloft or some such. The only SK I see, after Kalak, actually being gone is Andropinis and as I said Kalak is only a possible loss.
As for the minor insurestion so called "The Age of Hero's" - a short lived setback at most
:evillaugh1.) To make the threat of Dregoth carry more weight. If all the SKs were still alive, Dregoth would probably remain in hiding, knowing that they banded together to kill him once, and could do so again.
2.) To make the Deadlands threat that much more ominous. Again, less numerous SKs = less viable defense
3.) To make the threat of the Halfling return more dangerous.
On a different topic, has anyone ever thought of the possibility that Dregoth is probably strong enough in magic and psionics to perform the binding ritual on Rajaat's prison? The only difference in power between him and Borys is that Borys had the ability to carry his Obsidian Orbs internally.
Also, I think another reason the SKs being killed off is OK is because places like Kurn and the Deadlands hold a LOT of very powerful beings to fill their niche, albeit in different locations.
That arc was never fleshed out beyond speculation, officially, but properly done, was and is LOTS of fun!
Would appreciate if you'd drop me a note, brax at Athas dot org, give me details. I'm curious how you played it out, but not curious in the least about what hecklers present would say about it. And what the heck is Yuuzhan Vong?
A few of the hangovers from old Darksun need to be aborted.
While RedKank and I don't see eye to eye on much, I strongly agree with the principle that RedKank laid out on Retcons, and would quote it if that thread had not been deleted
A retcon should be a designer's last resort when development of a new project requires us to address a contradiction in previous official materials, or (even more rarely) to reconcile previous campaign materials with new WotC rules.Anyone going to do a spacehalfing nature bending invasion of Athas?
Not to my knowledge, nor is anyone to my knowledge planning to do a return of life-shaping halflings from space, which is what Lynn Abbey told us was in the original works.
The fact that the idea sounds absurd when taken out of context, doesn't mean that they might not execute it in a compelling way. 15 years ago, I remember scanning through Dragon Kings in a game bookstore and thinking that it looked melodramatic, cartoonish, and dorky. It wasn't until 2 years later that my last college roommate introduced me to Dark Sun gaming. Once I understood the concepts, Dragon Kings seemed like a really cool book. It's now been 11 years since I've had any interest to GM or play any RPG world other than Dark Sun.
So if Kevin Melka (who appear to have been referring to the space halfling attack after the Kreen invasion, if I correctly read between the lines of what he said in Dragon Magazine about the future of Dark Sun), or Denning himself (who appears to have first conceived the space halfling idea) were to take that project up, I'd be delighted to see what they come up with.
I loved that exchange with Lynn Abbey and I wish I was still in contact with her; I consider her one of the greatest contributors to Dark Sun. But I wish that she had not released that information in public. It poisons the idea to release it out of context like that. The fact that I can't think of how to carry it out in a believable compelling way, doesn't mean that the original authors might not have made something cool out of it.
But the space halfling thing isn't in previous official game materials, so "aborting" or "retconning" isn't even an issue. We aren't writing anything to rule it out, but AFAIK we're not writing it up, either.
As for surfing druids in the lost sea, I'm not sure why we'd need to do anything to suppress that idea. Surfing Druids may seem anachronistic from our perspective, but surfing is not exactly high-tech. Additionally,surfing appears to be a fairly ancient practice on Earth:
Origin:By 1779, riding waves lying down or standing on long, hardwood surfboards was an integral part of Hawaiian culture. Surfboard riding was as layered into the society, religion and myth of the islands as baseball is to the modern United States. Chiefs demonstrated their mastery by their skill in the surf, and commoners made themselves famous (and infamous) by the way they handled themselves in the ocean. Anthropologists can only guess at the origin and evolution of wave-riding and surfboard construction in Polynesian culture...
So much for reasonableness, but what about believability, the strangeness of it? Well, the Lost Sea is supposed to be a strange and alien place from the rest of Athas. It's not a practice that's likely to spread to the rest of Athas. And Marnita is such a fragile place -- could dissapear at a moment's notice -- even the adventure in the MLotLS creates a scenario that could conceivably result in the end of the Lost Sea.
After some hard thought, I decided to include slight references to Saragar in Trade Lords and FFN, mostly related to a cloth that Ssurran traders carry from the Saragar area to the rest of Athas. There's an obvious adventure hook there -- Puddingfish cloth, called "shimmercloth" in the rest of Athas, is valuable stuff. A merchant house might pay the PCs to trace the source of shimmercloth. Enterprising PCs could stalk the link of Ssuran traders back to Tradenest, and then from Tradenest back to the periodic trade fairs described in Mind Lords, just south of Marnita IIRC. But with that said, I'd personally recommend against Athas.org spending resources to flesh out the Lost Sea area, and I'd certainly vote against having references to surfing druids in any of our projects, let alone [horror of horrors] a surfing druid PrC. Oracle IIRC feels even more strongly about the matter, IIRC. :D
We've got better things to do with our time & resources than develop or "abort" surfing druids. I think we should just leave them alone and if DMs like them, they can use them.
The Yuuzhan Vong are a race of sentient beings from the fictional Star Wars Expanded Universe that rise as a threat to the New Republic in the New Jedi Order series of novels.
The Yuuzhan Vong and their Chazrach slaves are one of the few known alien species in the Star Wars universe to have originated outside the Star Wars galaxy. They are a race of religious zealot masochists. They genetically engineer and grow all of their technology organically and view mechanical technology as blasphemy. The Yuuzhan Vong endeavor to improve their physical capabilities through organ grafting. Notably, the Yuuzhan Vong are not able to touch the Force or seemingly be felt through it, something the Jedi find very mysterious, since all living things are supposed to have, in some way or another, a unique Force energy signature distinct from other species. Later it is discovered they were stripped from the Force upon separation from their symbiosis with the sentient planet Yuuzhan'tar.
Yuuzhan Vong come from Star Wars. They're an alien race who are immune to the force and trashed the Star Wars universe. They reject technology as we know it and use bio shaped armor, tools, weapoins, symbiots, and creatures in their war machine and Troy Denning was involved in that plotline.
I've read the series (all 20+ books) and they are very similar to nature masters (or benders probably) in terms of technology. Culture wise who knows?
I use the Vong in my campaign as the returning Rhulisti. It works out excellently. I had them engineer themselves to be of human height so the images of combat in my players' minds didn't come out like a particularly brutal game of whack-a-mole. And my players SWEAR by Vonduun Crab Armor, IMC it inherently has the properties of a coolcloak. It's the only way to comfortably wear heavy armor on Athas without resorting to magic or psionics.
peel a Vong out of his armor, IMC, and he's 3' tall. I was going to keep that one under my hat, in case one of my players happen to look at these boards, but what the heck, it's not too big a deal.See, none of my players have actually bothered to peel them out of their armor to see how big they actually are
Sounds like the aliens from Independence Day.
Sounds like the aliens from Independence Day.
"Look at you, with your Dreadlocks all hanging out of my parachute. AND WHAT THE H*LL IS THAT SMELL?!?!?!?"
I actually hadn't considered that. I just made the leap of logic that organic armor could respond to mental commands, or at least the motions of the wearer, and needed an excuse for the halflings not to represent a kind of dumb mental picture of the battles. Fighting regular size halflings, I imagine, would be much like playing golf with a warhammer.
i'd go for a predator look myself. then again i really like the predorians (predator race or w/e they are called):Di also think that a lifeshaper/psionicist opens up the possibilities of a new and very cool type of Advanced Being.
i need to get a bit more into the powers of lifeshaping before i can write anything up but i'v got a few ideas rattling around in my head, after i finish my MudPalace write up i may try my hand at a new AB.
i also like the idea that more than just the rhulisti can use lifeshaping. I'v been thinking of a subclass of lifeshaper with minor powers and lots of flavor that other races can access without stealing the spotlight away from the jagged cliffers.
This is a picture of Darth Krayt wearing custom Vonduun Crab Armor
This is one example of a Yuuzhan Vong wearing Vonduun Crab Armor, weilding an Amphistaff
This last one is among my favorites.
The armor is fully alive, and feeds by intermingling with the user in a parasitic fashion. The Amphistaff weapon is a serpentine creature that can become rigid as steel, with a monomolecular edge. It can spit poison, and function as a whip as well.
The Kreen Empire
Far to the west of the Tyr region, beyond the Jagged Cliffs lies the realm of the Kreen Empire. Heres my take (for what its worth) on the state of the empire, its history and factions of the Kreen Imperium.
History.
The savage Kreen of the Tyr region keep no written record and their racial memory is imprecise on the origins of their race. Thousands of years ago in The Blue Times a near mythical period of Kreen history the Kreen were a barely sentient species who were essentially ignored by the Halflings of the Blue age. The Kreen of this era were smaller than modern Kreen and had wings and flew over the vast oceans of the blue age. The Halfings assumed they were animals and payed little attention to them. When the blue age grew to a close the rebirth also changed the Kreen. Perhaps several flew to close to the Pristine Tower or they were modifed by remnant Halfing Nature Benders/Masters. Physically the Kreen grew larger and lost their wings although its possible some ancient Kreen survive in some remote part of Athas. In any event the Kreen as we know it today settled in what is now the Crimson Savanna although back then it was a vast grassland stretching across the land.
Several subspecies of Kreen exist and the Zik-Chil are a distant kin who followed a different evolutionary path. Thousands of years passed and Kreen refugees began the great migration to the Tyr region around 10 000 years ago . Back in the Green Age it was a lot easier to travel between the Savanna and the Tablelands via tunnels and psionically empowered elevators. It is unclear what these Kreen were fleeing as their racial memory is unreliable going back that far.
It is unknown when the Kreen Imperium was established but sometime after the Cleansing Wars started non Kreen refugees started fleeing the Savanna region due to enviromental concerns and aggressive Kreen raiders. All access points to table lands above the jagged cliffs were destroyed- tunnels collapsed, elevators destroyed, primitive airships disabled. By the end of the Cleansing Wars the Kreen Empire had reached the natural barrier of the Jagged Cliffs.
Conditions Within the Empire
The Empire is currently overpopulated creating stress for its infrastructure. The average Kreen citizen is reasonably well fed by Athasian standards and water is plentiful. To the dismay of the Xik-Chil however their control via their puppet Emperor isn't quite as total as they would like. Any Kreen dissenter can usually “go feral” in the wilds of the empire and avoid any Zik-Chil oversight. Several generations of Kreen however have become “Tohr” a little to much and their racial memory seems to be “forgetting” basic Kreen concepts of the hunt. Such Kreen have had all their food provided for them for generations and are either pitied or regarded as weak, soft and corrupt Also the Kreen are intelligent and several of them have begun thinking awkward thoughts such as “Why let the Zik-Chil dominate us like they do”. Several factions have begun to emerge within the empire. Dissenters if caught are usually dragged off to the Zik-Chil laboratories for their experiments. Several factions are revealed below.
Chitin Cabal.
Unknown to the Zik-Chil one of their Zik-Trin'Ta spies while in the Tyr region managed to break her genetic programming via sorcery and returned to the Empire of her own accord. Previously thought to be unable to use sorcery this particular Zik-Trin'Ta managed to learn the ways of magic while among the non-Kreen and took on an apprentice upon her return to the Empire. Due to the Kreen racial memory several Kreen have memories of their ancestors wizardly magic and formed the Chiten Cabal. While not numerous the Inquisition has become vaguely aware of the Cabals activites due to reports filtering from their informants. They suspect that several non- Kreen have managed to infiltrate the Empire using “magic” to disguise themselves. Should the Cabals talent for arcane magic become widespread knowledge it could shake the empire down to its foundations.
The Inquisition
Most of the the leaders of the Inquisition are Zik-Chil the inquisition is dominated by members of the Jez subspecies of Kreen. The Inquisitions job is to root out any Kreen who is to vocal about conditions in the empire or who opposes Imperial authority or more importantly Zik-Chil authority. The Inquisition is currently lead by an particularly cruel Jez named Jek-Jek Dar who it is rumored tortures other Kreen which is virtually unheard of in Kreen culture. Even the Zik-Chil are unsure of Jek-Jek's reach, resources and informants.
Kazin-Tek
This group of malcontents has starting questioning Imperial authority and gathers new a series of stone edifices shaped like Kreen heads. Extremists of this faction want to violently overthrow the Kreen emperor and even the Zik-Chil. However preparations are underway to invade the region above the Jagged Cliffs and their numbers are scattered among several nations in the Empire and they lack the might needed.
The Serpents Keep
Unknown to the Kreen at the heart of the Kano swamp is a former human fortress dating from the time of the Green Age before the Kreen arrived in this part of the Savanna. While the humans are long gone their corrupted bloodlines in the form of Yuan-Ti remains. The serpent men are powerful Psionists and some even know sorcery and are powerful evil preservers. The Yuan-Tis goals are unknown.
What The Kreen Know
For centuries the Zik-Chil laboured to create a Kreen that could pass the Jagged Cliffs. At 1st such scouts were exceptional Kreen of great power who could use Psionics or Cleric/Druidic magic and abilities to reach the top of the Jagged Cliffs. Such Kreen often skirmished with the Windriders of the Jagged cliffs. These few rare Kreen managed to report of lands beyond the cliffs. Around 1000 years ago the Zik-Chil managed to create the Zik-Trin'Ta who were able to climb the Jagged Cliffs and return to the empire. The success rate was low however and out of every 100 Zik-Trin'Ta sent forth only 1 managed to return to report to their Zik-Chil masters. The rest died by various methods probably while ascending or descending the Jagged Cliffs while predators and the inhabitants of the tablelands accounted for the rest.
Just what do the Zik-Chil know though? The Zik-Trin'Ta spies have managed to recreate reasonably accurate maps of the Tyr region and beyond. The Zik-Chil have heard of arcane magic although they know little about it. Most common knowledge of the region has also been made available to the Zik-Chil and they know of powerful beings called Sorceror Kings and have reasonable guesses as to the population of major settlements. They don't know the exact size of each cities armies, the location of hidden cities ( New Kurn, Saragar,Ur Draxa). In general assume they have a reasonable chance of knowing anything the average Athasian would know or could be discovered on a DC 20 or less knowledge check. They may have limited knowledge on specific subjects depending on what their Zik-Trin'Ta spies have managed to discover.