Batrachi

The batrachi, also called amphibioids, were an ancient amphibious race that were counted as one of the creator races native to Abeir-Toril, who dominated the supercontinent of Merrouroboros during the Days of Thunder.

Description
They were thought to be an aquatic and amphibious race and were capable of shapeshifting. They had wet skin. Artwork in the Hall of Mists suggested they were huge frog-like creatures.

History
This amphibious race evolved in the seas, their growth mirroring the dinosauroids on land. When they became amphibious, they moved onto the land and supplanted the dinosauroids.

The batrachi came to prominence during the Days of Thunder ( to ), following the time of the sarrukh. The Batrachi Empires rose to power circa. They out-competed the rising power of the yuan-ti of Mhairshaulk, ensuring they would never achieve the heights of their creators, the sarrukh.

The batrachi grew to the height of their power under the wise leadership of Zhoukoudien, the High One. However, their golden age ended abruptly when the High One was killed in battle by Omo, a titan thane of the Jotunbrud Tribes, around. The batrachi lord Bazim-Gorag later called Zhoukoudien a fool who unwisely made war against the Jotunbrud and lost the empire.

Around, the batrachi were losing a war against the titans. In their desperation, the batrachi enacted a great summoning ritual that unleashed several once-imprisoned primordials. The gods swiftly opposed the primordials. The primordial Asgorath, the World Shaper, even hurled an ice moon or comet at the planet, in order to destroy what she could not have, in an event called the Tearfall. Disastrous earthquakes, fires, and windstorms swept across all of Abeir-Toril, erasing whole continents and rearranging the seas. Ancient sarrukh legends made cryptic mention of the "changing of the stars". But, before the world was destroyed, Ao split it into two twin worlds: Abeir for the primordials and Toril for the gods.

The extreme climate change swiftly led to the end of batrachi civilization. After a cold period called the seven-turn winter, many batrachi—among them Bazim-Gorag—left Toril for the plane of Limbo. There, the batrachi were changed, for at least the second time in their history, by their god Ramenos to serve his agenda. They created what became known as the Supreme Throne as their kingdom.

Meanwhile, in the seas, the amphibioids appear to have faced pressure from merfolk, sahuagin, and tritons. Their society degenerated and collapsed back into barbarism.

Legacy
The transformed batrachi lived on in Limbo, but were often confused with the similarly amphibious slaadi who also dwelt there. A few Faerûnian sages correctly theorized the batrachi had escaped to Limbo, but believed they had become the slaadi. Some thought the Pandemonium Stone in the Elemental Chaos was a batrachi artifact and furthermore that examining it would reveal the truth of whether the slaadi had descended from the batrachi. Bazim-Gorag was Lord of the Pandemonium Stone and an ascended batrachi invoked by gamblers and those desperate for luck.

In the, Haask, priest-king of Grong-Haap, reigning from Ironfang Keep, was revealed to be not a greathorn minotaur but a batrachi-doppelganger hybrid, when attacked and mortally wounded.

The debased descendants of the remaining batrachi lived on in the deepest, darkest swamps of Faerûn, but were presumed long extinct by the 14 century DR.

However, the batrachi created or were the ancestors of a number of the amphibious, piscine, and shapeshifting races of the Realms, including the bullywugs, doppelgangers, and kuo-toa.

An intricate runic design theorized to have originated among the batrachi was used by the Imaskari in the construction of their Bukhara Spires, during their Early Dynastic Period ( to ). Employing transdimensional magic, these were permanent two-way portals that allowed the Imaskari to cross the continent in moments.

A memory of a conversation between Bazim-Gorag the Firebringer and a human member of the Order of the Black Flame, in which he spoke of the batrachi, found its way into the God-Brain of Oryndoll when that member was captured and mind-read by the illithids in the Year of the Tankard, 1370 DR.

Geographical Region
At their height, the Batrachi Empires spread across the whole of the supercontinent of Merrouroboros, and included the realms of Kolophoon, Boitumelo, Nadezhda, and Zhoukoudien, neighboring the Black Sea, the sea of Pourounkorokale, and the Great Blue. Bazim-Gorag described his domain as "stretching from the depths of the Black Sea in the north to the fiery peaks of Lopango in the south". Much later, the Sea of Fallen Stars lay over the flooded lands of the lost batrachi realm of Kolophoon.

They built proud cities on the land.

Deity
The batrachi of the Ba'etith at the Hall of Mists and those who later lived in the Supreme Throne worshiped a deity called Ramenos. At least twice he had changed the batrachi to serve his goals.

Society
Like the sarrukh before them and the aearee after them, the batrachi once dominated the group known as the Ba'etith during the Days of Thunder. Its purpose was to record and study the primitive magic practiced by the races of Faerûn. Over millennia, the Ba'etith codified this knowledge in the Golden Skins of the World Serpent, later called the Nether Scrolls.

Abilities
The abilities of the batrachi are unknown, but Bazim-Gorag claimed that, as a batrachi lord, he was "far more powerful than any common fiend".

Creations of the Batrachi
The batrachi created or were the ancestors of a number of amphibious, piscine, and shapeshifting races and creatures, including bullywugs, doppelgangers, kopru, kuo-toa, locathah, sivs, and tako.

Notable Batrachi

 * The High One Zhoukoudien
 * Bazim-Gorag, the Firebringer

Background
The batrachi were first named in the 1988 Lords of Darkness. The name "batrachi" derives from the Ancient Greek word for "frog", batrakhos. The word was adopted for the Batrachia superorder of modern taxonomy (which includes frogs, toads, salamanders, and extinct ancestors) and from this the English word batrachian (a term for frogs and toads) was derived. The word "batrachian" has been used to refer to this creator race in such sources as Mintiper's Chapbook: Part 9: The Hall of Mists, but it is unclear if this is meant to be a name or an adjective for frog relation.