Slaad
Intorduction
Slaadi were frog-like natives of Limbo and well-known representatives of the Ever-Changing Chaos. Evolved or uplifted from the primordial soup of infinite potential, the belligerent batrachians were disorder given flesh and born carriers of chaos.
History
The origin of the slaadi sparked much debate amongst scholars; as far as most could determine, the slaadi had always existed in Limbo. According to some scholars, the slaadi were descendant from the batrachi, one of the creator races of Faerun, though a being that claimed itself to be a batrachi denied this claim. If the slaadi themselves were to be believed, they were the first beings to inhabit reality, even before the deities or primordials. However, since there were hundreds of slaad origin stories, most of which blatantly contradicted each other, this was often viewed as just another way the slaads embodied chaos.
The hezrou are the tanar’ri that look the most like slaadi, though they are not as handsome or
Some compared the slaadi to demons, given their penchant for destruction, and indeed certain slaadi came into existence via prolonged exposure to entropic, abyssal energy such as void slaads. Slaadi almost certainly existed around the time when the Abyss first formed, some having been bathed in its corruptive energy and transformed into twisted tadpole monsters, and intelligent slaads weren't always opposed to infusing their kind with its unholy power. There were theories that the two races were once one, with demons either being a corrupted race of slaadi or slaads having been demons that broke free of the Abyss's truly evil influence, although if such ideas were true, neither showed any affinity for each other any more.
The Spawning Stone
Some mysterious quality of the Spawning Stone gave slaadi eggs their fertility and without it all slaadi would be infertile. Every few years, seemingly at random, each breed of slaad would feel an undeniable urge to reproduce and be led back to the Spawning Stone from wherever they were. Each breed had their own season, although only slaads were able to tell them apart, involving their own invocations, rituals, and preferences creating different temperatures, environments and blends of chaos matter, effectively resulting in different "flavors" of chaos for each kind. The cycle was thought to involve the core breeds, in order the red, blue, green, gray and death slaads, holding the area around the stone, which could range from a few miles to a hundred yards based on numbers, until forcefully ejected by the next type, the hordes of red slaadi having the numbers to remove the death slaadi.
Each group was supposed to have their eggs fertilized by their own type by the end of the process, although slaads so routinely got caught up in the mating frenzy that it was normal to find a few dead slaadi floating through the air, having instinctually implanted their kin. The mating process caused currents of chaos-stuff to manifest around the Stone and flow outwards throughout Limbo which other slaads could recognize and follow "upstream" to reach the stone. Eventually the currents would twist into tidal waves and tsunamis until the stone fell into the grasp of a different slaad breed and the whirlpools became chaos storms, destructive maelstroms that slaads loved to follow.
Whatever the origin of the slaadi, it seemed inextricably linked to the Spawning Stone, which itself had more than one creation myth. Some legends said that the overlord of the modrons, Primus, was responsible for the Spawning Stone, having created it and casted it into Limbo eons before the arrival of the githzerai. According to such tales, Primus's intention had been to use the law-infused Stone to generate stability in Limbo, in order to prevent its chaos from spreading. While it did make it possible for ordered minds to exist in Limbo, the chaotic energy it absorbed accidentally spawned the slaadi, which immediately set about exterminating every modron colony on the plane. If the story was true then Primus seemed unfazed by his failure, either dismissing the slaadi as threats or choosing to willfully ignore their existence.
Another theory posited that the reason why the slaads were limited was another result of Ygorl's tampering, possibly with the help of Ssendam. When the two first became slaad lords, they considered the possibility that through random mutation, a slaad could appear that was stronger than them and that could supplant them. Possibly taking a lesson from the githyanki queen, they decided to handicap their competition by ensuring that no slaad could arise that would naturally be stronger than them, while allowing them to retain their chaotic natures. Thus, Ygorl created the Spawning Stone from the purest essence of Limbo and used the blazing white, arcane runes that covered its structure to bind the essence of the entire race to it, although it was possible that the two simply altered it rather than having made it. Only a few of the slaad lords, possibly including Bazim-Gorag, knew for certain about the nature of the Spawning Stone, and true to the secretive ways of the slaad lords, they refused to reveal such knowledge.
There also, at times, existed a seemingly connected structure known as the Pandemonium Stone, a great spire covered in similar runes to the Spawning Stone that randomly materialized in an elemental maelstrom within the Elemental Chaos. No god or primordial claimed to have made it, all having known of its existence before the Dawn War, and some entity of god-like power seemed to be gestating inside of it. The enigmatic pillar possibly anchored the minds of the slaadi to reality similarly to how the Spawning Stone restrained their forms, potentially signifying that whoever or whatever trapped them might also have been responsible for their crazier behaviors.
Life Cycle
Slaad tadpoles, born in a bath of blood, were voracious and immature, devouring vermin, corpses and anything else they could find. Unable to properly fight and concerned only with cramming food into their wide mouths, the deformed slaad juveniles had to compensate with an extremely fast metabolism and developmental phase. It wouldn't take more than a few hours for their undeveloped hind legs to grow, their translucent tails to shrink and their flesh to darken in a revolting, molting process, and in just a few more days they would fully transform into mature members of their species. It would take several years for a fully-grown slaad to be completely self-sufficient despite being fully grown.
The exact lifespan of slaads seemed to vary. Slaads slain in battle permanently died, although it was said that the green slaads possibly had some system of reincarnation similar to that of a lich. Upon reaching a certain age, slaads traveled deep into Limbo, having come to some instinctive realization that allowed them to undergo a special transformation. Most, presumably, broke down into their basal essences and dissolved into the primal chaos of Limbo, but some returned as higher forms of slaad. This metamorphosis seemed to exclude the red and blue slaads, but it was possible that they too could advance into a higher form.
Occasionally, necromancers and other malevolent mages transformed slaads into undead versions of themselves known as putrid slaads, almost uncontrollable monsters that shared their living selves desire to devour and devastate. Because slaads were creatures of raw chaos whose corpses quickly decayed after death, the vile caster had to lethally infuse the creature with shadow magic while it was still alive. Waddling forward, the undead slaads leaned close to their victims, emanating mewling croaks from their hideous maws followed by a combination of putrefied filth and digestive acid. The creatures could also arise spontaneously when slaads were killed to the Abyss, presumably infused with entropic energy similarly to the black slaads.
Behavior
Understanding the minds of slaadi could be a maddening task for those that weren't insane, for few beings so willfully and completely embraced chaos as the natives of Limbo. Attempts to trade and negotiate with them could be as frustrating and flummoxing as attempts to give or obtain information and conducting basic conversations. They refused to see reason much of the time, often reacting with rage when approached with arguments and logic even if being offered something beneficial, leading some to believe that they were simply crazy or at best, viewed a reality different to the one that most beings saw. Flattery was seen as trickery and trying to deceive a slaad was an inexact method of cooperation, said to only work if the slaad believed that some new aspect of reality was being revealed to them.
Trying to diplomatically engage a slaad was, in short, a fool's errand likely to get the would-be negotiator attacked more than anything else. Even demons were able to make deals, as tenuous as they were, but slaads made no bargains, accepted no bribery and ignored appeals for mercy. This was because slaads didn't recognize the traditional rules of diplomacy, following their own unique and rapidly changing strings of logic that only the particularly insightful could follow, indicated by differences in their gestures, body language and tone along with changes in the context and relationships between parties that they were speaking about. Failure to communicate with a slaad could result in a wide range of random reactions and conclusions, such as believing the speaker wasn't real, believing the opposite of what they were saying was true, running away from them in fear, attacking the speaker with berserker rage or just making loud croaks until they went away.
Reproduction
Typically reproduction fell to the common slaads, the red and blue, which propagated the race by afflicting others with a condition referred to as chaos phage, in a horrific, maddening process similar to those used by parasites or viruses. Red slaadi implanted eggs beneath their victim's skin which would devour the host's insides from within before emerging as a blue slaad tadpole. Blue slaadi on the other hand infecting their victims with a disease that slowly transformed them into red slaads, leaving them with no trace of their memories or former skills. If either slaad had infected a capable arcane caster, the result could instead be a magically empowered green slaad, generally superior to both its parents. Despite being integral to each others continued survival, red and blue slaads despised each other yet nurtured any green slaads that they produced.
The bizarre and complex reproductive cycles and interrelationships of the slaad helped form the basis for their social system. Slaadi were known to use, or at least be referred to by, gendered pronouns, but they were more accurately described as 'its' or 'theys', since they were technically hermaphrodites that had to first fertilize each others eggs to make them viable. Realizing that it was possible to magically cure chaos phage, slaadi often established temporary prison camps to hold their incubators captive. They were known to prefer reproducing using stronger beings since they would likely spawn stronger offspring that would be better able to distinguish themselves.
They leaped at the chance to infect fiends for that reason, part of the reason why they scoured the deserted battlefields of the Blood War aside from the free food, and the fiends themselves were known to hand over captured enemies to the slaads, fully aware of the grisly death that awaited them. Other slaadi also seemed to be vulnerable to the effects of implantation, although since the process killed the slaad host as it would any other host, it was effectively pointless to do so. Even modrons it seemed weren't necessarily immune to the effects of chaos phage, as there were reports of a blue slaad tadpole and monodrone that had somehow fused to create a rogue quadrone with whims and creative urges combined with a need to find order.
Even without outside factors, the rules for slaad reproduction were reportedly fluid. For example, in some cases it was stated that blue slaadi infected their victims through bite while in others they shared the red slaad method of clawing. Sometimes it was said that slaad tadpoles appeared from the victim's chest while in others they burst out from the brain. There were also reports of slaads producing offspring of the same type as themselves, and even random types. It was possible for multiple slaadi to fertilize the same egg, creating some of the stranger offspring, although such knowledge was hidden from non-slaads. Some slaads were themselves infected with a variant strain of chaos phage that caused postulant boils of blood and bile to emerge from their back that when ruptured, a painful experience the host slaad typically sought to avoid, caused a young, miniature slaad to be gorily born.
Diet
Slaadi were an entirely carnivorous race although they weren't strictly predators, willing to scavenge corpses and devour 'exotic' foods such as certain mephits and fiends. It was said that chaos was as vital to them as food and that without pandemonium they felt pangs of discontent although literally speaking they could actually consume chaos matter, particularly when they were young.
Description
Slaadi, in their base form, resembled large, bipedal frogs with long, sharp claws, wide mouths filled with pointed teeth and huge heads. Embedded in most of their skulls was a gemstone the size and shape of a human child's fist, a jewel that shared their color and that could be seen beneath their forehead skin. Looking closely, one could see that symbols were carved into the shard, markings unique to the slaad which could be used to determine its past kills, conquests, duels and other deeds. If one could decipher the meaning of the tattoo, it could be used to determine the relative strength of the slaad, with other slaads being able to immediately identify the slaad by their mark.
Despite generally sharing the same basic, if baffling, appearance, slaadi were nonetheless creatures of chaos and so no two were exactly identical. They always had at least mild differences in height, build and eye position even within their own subtype, some breeds being human-sized and gangly while others were huge and muscular, and many possessed even more distinguishing traits. While some classified slaads by color, slaads of the same breed could vary not only in their exact shade and pattern but also be of the opposite color entirely.
Other potential differences included additional body parts and organs, features of greater or lesser size, various body types, and wholly unique features like horns, scales, tails and hair. More outlandish traits, such as blade-like claws, wings whether functional or not, and even a medusa's snake-like hair, were also fully possible. It was also possible that, given that some of the more powerful slaadi had polymorphing abilities which allowed them to transform into humanoids, often those of their original hosts, that one might not even recognize a slaad upon meeting them.
Hierarchy
Despite being embodiments of chaos, slaads did operate under a hierarchy, but not one regimented in the traditional sense. Their chain of command was undisciplined and informal, based not in any respect for abstract authority but the pragmatic deference to beings of greater power; in other words, stronger slaads ruled over weaker ones using brute force, threatening the disobedient with destruction.
Ascension
Generally speaking, when slaads ascended to higher ranks and consequently had the power to pursue their desires more freely, they were able to better define themselves as individuals. The logical end point of this was that in order to obtain true freedom, slaads had to become truly unique individuals by completely escaping the ranks of their kind. To do this, slaads had to tap into an aspect of chaos unexplored by any other slaad lord, which could be as simple as destruction, as benign as creativity or as malevolent as murder.
The process was incredibly dangerous, but if it succeeded the slaad would infuse themselves with power and purpose, becoming a personification of their own particular flavor of chaos with no resemblance to the common slaads. The limitations of slaad lords or how many could exist were unexplored as a result of Ygorl's tampering, but given that they lived on the plane of ultimate possibility, anything was possible.
- Red Slaad: Red slaadi, also known as "Blood Slaads", were the most common members of the slaad race. They were brutish bullies of low status used by more powerful slaadi as thugs and were quick to spill blood out of anger, hunger, or just for fun.
- Blue Slaad: Blue slaadi, also known as "Talon Slaads", were members of the slaad race and rivals to the interrelated red slaadi. The batrachian bullies were generally superior to them in every way, but only barely so, and were still considered to be of low status.
- Green Slaad: Green slaadi, also known as "Curse Slaads", were unusually intelligent slaad shapechangers and spellcasters. Spawned from skilled arcane practitioners that underwent the slaad reproductive process, the gloating toads could eventually evolve into the more magically skilled gray slaads.
- Gray Slaad: Gray slaadi, sometimes spelt grey slaadi, but also referred to as "Rift Slaads" or "Executioners", were green slaads that had undergone a magical metamorphosis. They were known as the executioners for their service to the malevolent death slaads, carrying out their demands on missions of doom.
- Death Slaad: Death slaadi, also known as the lesser masters, were possibly the most deadly of the slaad race, responsible for organizing the disorderly creatures into mobs and releasing them across reality to wreak havoc. The transformed gray slaads were thought by other slaads to be the pinnacle of their kind, but rather than being true paragons of chaos they embodied its corruption by evil.
