Siv

Sivs were frog-like, humanoid creatures that lived in marshes and swamps. They schemed from the depths of their bogs, working in clandestine brotherhoods to rule the swamps from the shadows.

Description
Like the bullywugs, sivs were amphibious humanoids with frog heads and webbed digits, standing tall and weighing. The sivs had clammy, amphibian skin ranging in color from pale green to dark blue. They were very fleet of foot and were known for their graceful movements.

Personality
Sivs were calculating and tactical, carefully assessing a situation before making a move, and planning very far ahead. They were both highly disciplined and elitist, looking down on other races despite their relative smallness in the world. They had been made cocky by their dominance in their swamp territories, and believed themselves to be a superior race.

Abilities
Siv bodies had grown accustomed to the cold marshes they inhabited, granting them resistance to chilling conditions.

Their most unique ability was their power to walk on water as if it were a solid surface. However, they were capable of losing their footing while running on the water, causing them to sink and requiring them to regain their stance. Water with waves above was too loose for them to run on. They could not breathe underwater, and preferred to avoid swimming (although they were perfectly capable swimmers when needed).

Combat
Sivs did not wade into combat without taking precautions. They would use a combination of nets and slingshot stones to weaken dangerous opposition before directly attacking. They often trained as monks, and were practiced in the use of sianghams and nets. They ran on top of the water to outmaneuver those who entered their swamps.

Society
Sivs made their homes in ruins found within swampland, and were mostly found in the Marsh of Chelimber, the Vast Swamp, and the Farsea Marshes. They lived in enigmatic, monastic orders, established in ruins located in their swamps. Sivs preferred to rule from the shadows, orchestrating communities of swamp-going races like lizardfolk and acting as the true ruling powers of such areas. For example, though the lizard king known as King Kront was the nominal ruler of the Marsh of Chelimber, his authority rarely extended beyond his immediate servitors, and it was the siv-dominated Order of the Frog that was the real power behind the throne.

Sivs were believed to have an intense rivalry with bullywugs, especially by the bullywugs themselves, but this was nothing but a façade. They occupied the inner areas of the swamp and only allowed the bullywugs to survive to act as a barrier between them and outside forces, due to their appreciation for privacy and isolation. The other reason was that bullywugs tasted especially palatable to the sivs.

Owing to their longstanding isolation and domination within their marshland homes, sivs had managed to delude themselves into thinking they were a superior race among the many peoples of Faerûn. Attempts by the egotistical amphibians to conquer outside lands held by humans and goblinoids always failed, which surprised them but never seemed to disuade them from their beleif in their own superiority.

Religion
Siv clerics were relatively few, and took the Law and Evil, as well as Death and Water domains.

History
Sivs were either the creations or descendants of the ancient race known as the batrachi.

As of the mid-to-late 14 century DR, they had made a few failed attempts to subjugate the Cormyrean lowlands near their homes in the Farsea and Vast Swamps.