Slaad

Depiction
In the D&D game slaadi are native to the Outer Plane of Limbo. As such they are of the outsider type, being composed of the essence of their home plane. Encountered on most other planes they also receive the extraplanar subtype. Slaadi are almost always chaotic neutral except for the death slaadi, which are usually chaotic evil and the gormeel slaadi, which are usually lawful neutral.

In the various D&D products in which they are presented, slaadi are described as frog or toad-like humanoids. Within that rough characterization they have a wide range of forms depending on subtype, and often corresponding to their rank in society. Size also varies between the different subtypes, from human sized to several feet taller than human sized.

Society
In various editions of D&D the slaadi have been depicted as having a complex social system bound up in the relationship and reproductive cycles of the various subtypes. Some subtypes dominate others, though as slaadi are creatures of chaos, such domination occurs not through a regimented hierarchy, but by brute force. In earlier D&D editions a symbol of power was embedded in each slaad's forehead, and non-magical tattoos on the forehead represented achievements and status. The latter physical characteristics do not appear in 3rd and later editions of D&D. In earlier editions of D&D the slaad were divided only into red, blue, green, gray and death subtypes. 3rd Edition D&D added the mud, and epic level white and black subtypes. In all editions the slaad have been dominated by the Slaad Lords, Ssendam and Ygorl.

Red and blue slaadi reproduce by infecting living hosts. The red do so by implanting eggs beneath their victim's skin which grow into a baby blue slaad that eats the host from within. The blue infect the host with a lycanthropy-like disease that slowly transforms them into a red slaad. Despite being the means of producing the other slaad type, reds and blues despise one another. If either a red slaad or blue slaad infects an arcane spellcaster, the host will spawn a green slaad, superior to its parent in that it may cast spells. A green slaad, upon reaching its hundredth year of life, will retreat into isolation for the duration of about a year. Upon its return it has transformed into a smaller, but more powerful grey slaad, which focus more on spell-casting than most other slaadi. Some grey slaadi undergo an unnamed, mysterious ritual, which transforms them into death slaadi. Death slaadi possess amazing magical and physical might, but eschew focusing on the former, as the greys do, being bent more on perpetuating slaughter and death. As such, death slaad tend more towards an evil alignment than do most other slaadi. If the death slaad survives a century, it turns into the white slaad. And if the white slaad survives a century, it turns into a black slaad in the manner of its preceding transformations. The black slaad is the most powerful slaad, excluding the slaad lords. The reproductive cycle of mud slaadi is not detailed.

The Spawning Stone is the primordial home of the slaadi, located in "a realm of their greatest dominion", and drifting about Limbo. The passage of the stone generates currents in the raw chaos-stuff of the plane, and slaadi are able to follow these currents "upstream" to the Stone's location. In the mating season, each race of slaad converges on the Spawning Stone, wresting the Stone away from the previous group, so that they may fertilize each others' internal egg sacs, and carry away the seed-like fertilized eggs for later implantation into host bodies. Sometimes, however, young slaadi are produced right there at the stone because the slaadi implant each other in their mating frenzy. Thus, dead adult slaadi routinely float about the stone until destroyed by the chaos of Limbo. True slaadi are described as beings of ultimate chaos who have no set form. Only the Slaad Lords Ssendam and Ygorl are representative of this type. Somehow they affected the 'Spawning Stone' to prevent the emergence of slaadi more powerful than them, which keeps the slaadi within the aforementioned groups. Although anomalies do slip through in the chaos, they have less variety, and less chance of being more powerful than the Slaad Lords. One such anomaly is the Gormeel Slaad, which is a subtype introduced in an article in Dragon (magazine) as a large, mutant variety "born from the Spawning Stone", and escaping the notice of Ygorl and Ssendam. They are lawful in alignment, serving as allies and sometimes mounts of the githzerai against other slaadi.

Slaad Lords
Slaad Lords are the defacto rulers of the Slaadi race. Though true to their chaotic nature they often do not appear anything like other Slaadi. Known slaad lords include Ygorl, Lord of Entropy; Ssendam, Lord of Madness; Chourst, Lord of Randomness; Rennbuu, Lord of Colors; and Wartle.

Ygorl
Ygorl is the Slaad Lord of Entropy. He is the second oldest slaad lord, after Ssendam, and is considered the de-facto ruler of Outer Plane of Limbo. He is said to have created the Spawning Stone that is the focus of the slaad race, forcing them to take froglike forms rather than their original, purely chaotic shapes.

Ygorl appears as a blackened, bat-winged, skeletal hulk, wielding a large scythe. He rides a great wyrm brass dragon named Shkiv. As one of the exemplars of the Chaotic Neutral alignment, Ygorl is not truly evil, but still very dangerous, unpredictable, and self-serving. He believes in bringing death, decay, and disorganization to the multiverse, and thinks this is best done by the slaadi, the truest agents of Chaos.

Ygorl considers the slaadi to be his living pawns. They do not serve him in any organized fashion, but most will obey his orders rather than allow him to devour them. Besides Shkiv, Ygorl is allied with Sorel, his lieutenant, who he is grooming to become the Lord of Anarchy.

Ygorl ignores Ssendam and fears Rennbuu. He enjoys the company of Chourst, at least at times.

The "entropic reapers" from Libris Mortis are said to arise in Limbo to "enforce the twisted edicts of chaotic beings that decree the death of lawful creatures." They are not explicitly connected to Ygorl, but they are connected to the force of entropy and the plane of Limbo.

Ygorl's fortress in Limbo constantly changes appearance; it can be a rough cavern, a shattered marbled temple, or (as the 1st edition Manual of the Planes describes it) a series of interlaced carved spheres that whirl through Limbo's layers.

Ygorl was created by Charles Stross for the Fiend Folio (1981). Ygorl had small parts in the anthologies Tales of the Outer Planes (1988) and Tales From the Infinite Staircase (1998).