The Frog-Mages claim that they came into being in a time long before any other species arrived in Tyria. They grew wise and powerful with the use of magical waters, developing powerful magic. They found themselves amongst unthinking creatures, and so they began to share their knowledge with the surrounding animals. Soon, these animals changed in body and mind, becoming intelligent and learning to walk and use tools, and they came to revere the Frog-Mages as their gods.
The Frog-Mages’ skill in magic soon drew the eyes of the Havoc Gods, who sought their power. A long war ensued between the Saurians and the Daemons of the Havoc Gods, which soon became locked in a stalemate without a clear path in sight.
The Frog-Mages turned to prophecy to divine a path for their people. They told their people three Great Prophecies: Without the Saurians, the world would burn. Without them, the world would heal. Without them, the world would break.
Without a means to overcome the Daemons, the Saurians opened Voidgates and retreated into a plane where they could be safe from them. They entered into a long hibernation and rested while the Havoc Gods ransacked and burnt their plane. They hoped that when they awoke to return, their home would have healed, and once they returned, their presence would ensure that the world could not break so long as they remained there.
Now the re-awakened Saurians have begun to arrive in Tyria. They have learnt about the release of the Havoc Gods and the Rift with much sorrow. Some Saurians believe that it is a sign that the Frog-Mages failed in their plan to forestall the third part of the prophecy, and that the victory of Havoc is now inevitable. Others fear that some greater threat still lurks in the future, which the Frog-Mages hope to prevent.
Uncertainty is a strange sentiment for the Saurians and their Frog-Mages, but they are not unprepared. Skilled warriors with a proud tradition of fighting Havoc, the Saurians are ready to face whatever dangers Tyria holds for them, even if it means their ultimate doom.
How will you face your destiny?
History
Magical Frogs
When the plane was still young, there was a magical lake deep in the jungle. Over time, the magic waters transformed the small frogs living in it, giving them intelligence and magical power, as well as making them grow enormous.
Lonely No More
Finding themselves to be alone among unthinking creatures, they transformed other reptiles around them, giving them intelligence and making them grow. These reptiles came to revere the frogs as their gods.
Drawing Havoc
The sudden surge of magical power attracted the Havoc Gods, which sent daemons to try to harness this power. This led to a long and drawn out conflict, with no winners.
Three Prophecies
It was at this time that the three prophecies came to the Frog-Mages, that without them, the world would burn, heal, and then finally break. The Frog-Mages sought to avert the last prophecy, becoming determined that their presence should prevent the ultimate destruction of their home.
The End Times
Seeing the war with the Daemons as a sign of the coming end, the Frog-Mages created massive hidden temples and retreated into them, to fulfil the first prophecy. Their plan was to use powerful magic to allow the Saurians to sleep through an age, and awaken after their home was healed, as the second prophecy meant that it could not heal with them present. Then, they believed that the third prophecy would not pass so long as they were present.
Overslept
The Saurians awoke many years later, only to find that the Rift was opened whilst they slept. This caused significant turmoil among the Saurians, who didn’t know what happened. Many feared that they and the Frog-Mages mages had failed in their duties. Some whispered suspicions that the Frog-Mages had lied or, worse, did not understand their own prophecies. Others, including many Frog-Mages, feared that some greater danger was yet to come.
Splintered Conclaves
The Saurians have split into many conclaves, each following their own Frog-Mages, with different interpretations of Three Prophecies and other minor prophecies surrounding them. Other Saurians have abandoned the Frog-Mages to rule themselves, seeking to make their own fate.
Society
The Saurians are the creations and servants of a species of prescient Frog-Mages, who claim to have existed before time began. Their future is predicted at birth, although the predictions are often cryptic and hard to understand before they unfold. Their Frog-Mages direct them in the execution of complex plans intended to prevent the fabric of reality from collapsing.
After a prolonged but inconclusive war with Havoc, Saurians put themselves into a deep slumber inside their buried pyramids. They were planning to return right in time to stop Havoc from endangering the world. But something went wrong, and they emerged from their sleep just as the Rift was opening, too late to prevent this unforeseen catastrophe. Now the Frog-Mages are struggling to find out what went wrong and send their servants across the Plane to study the Rift, hoping to prevent Havoc from devouring the whole plane.
Hidden Pyramids
The Saurians built vast pyramidal structures, many of which are now buried across the Plane. Over the millennia, they were covered in sediments and vegetation until the shock-wave from the Rift triggered arcane mechanisms that woke up the Saurians. Each Saurian in a pyramid has a specific purpose for which they were created.
Damaged and eroded by untold centuries, most pyramids are surrounded by stone structures that Saurians have erected after they woke up, creating cities with statues, temples, habitations and workshops. But deep within the buried pyramids, below the Frog Mages’ sleep chambers, lie many strange structures, arcane weapons and objects that the Saurians have forgotten how to use. They believe that these are the tools their ancestors used against Havoc before their deep sleep, but have so far been unable to figure out how to make use of them again, or even whether it is possible to repair them.
A Shared History and Future
The Saurians maintain a strong social cohesion via ceremonies, lots of chanting and reciting prophecies together. They derive a lot of their self-worth and social status from being as good at what they do as possible. They mostly bond with the people who work alongside them and will often know by heart a long oral history of their family, conclave and band. They do have free will and personalities, but overall, it is a very cohesive society, with a deterministic, fate-based view of the world.
Saurian Society tends to operate with very well-defined roles, laid out for each member from birth. Geckos are often herders, fine artisans, mages, Gators do hard labour, Saurians are often construction craftsmen, Chameleons live on the fringes, are scouts, hunters and messengers.
A lot of their culture centres around tales. It is often kind of unclear whether they are prophecies or memories (or both). Every important event or key lesson becomes its own tale in a pyramid’s culture. When communicating with other species, they struggle with which tense to use because it’s a blurry line to them.
Failing Prophecies
Waking up to the Rift opening was a nightmarish experience for the Frog-Mages. Nothing in their prophecies predicted this event. Whatever caused the Saurians to wake up at the wrong time seems to have also affected the Frog-Mages’ memories. What they know of the past is incomplete and murky, expressed through tales and riddles. It is beyond frustrating for these powerful beings, and they desperately seek any knowledge that might help them get a better picture of where they come from, in order to better predict where they are going.
Still, other things happened as prophesied. There is much debate about this among the mages. Some believe that the Rift was predicted, but that they failed to understand the prophecy. Others believe that unknown forces caused a blind spot in their prescience, and that there might be more. A few have denounced their prescience as useless, simply fever dreams that appear to be right, or even lies purposely fed to them by scheming Gods.
Warfare
As fighters, Saurians tend to specialise and work to fulfil their specific role. This might make them a bit less flexible than more dynamic factions, but they compensate with expert training and the occasional help of prescience - sometimes they seem to know what an enemy is going to do before they do it.
Whether they are conquering a territory to build giant arcane structures, trying to seize a library that holds information on the Rift or staging seemingly random ambushes, every one of their battles is a pawn that the Frog-Mages are moving on an incredibly complex game board, trying to find a way to repair the future of the universe.
Diplomacy
Saurians have many fragments of knowledge that are invaluable to researchers, wizards and scientists. Some pyramids send out little missions to major cities, offering to help the local sorcerers in a cooperative manner. In exchange, the Saurians get access to their collaborators’ knowledge, bringing it back to the Frog-Mages. The Saurians are hoping to painstakingly recreate a more complete picture of the forces that bind the universe, how Havoc can be stopped, and the Rift closed.
There are a few Saurian deserters who reject the Frog-Mages’ teachings and have tried to strike out on their own, as well as groups of Saurians who have lost their ruling Frog-Mages through tragedy. There is even conflict between different conclaves disagreeing about interpretations of prophecies or the desired outcome.
