Pterrans are a rare sight in the Tyr Region, and only recently have they begun to appear in the city-states. This race of pteradon-like humanoids mainly inhabits the Hinterlands of the Ringing Mountains, with some smaller, and to a certain degree more primitive, clans having taken up residence in the dense jungles of the Forest Ridge.
Description[]
Pterrans are a race of pteradon-like humanoids with tough, scaly hide – most often light brown in coloration. All pterrans walk upright, and adults stand as tall as humans. Their arms end in clawed hands, with three fingers and an opposable thumb, and each foot has three taloned toes. Beyond this, pterrans also possess a vestigial tail, and two rounded nubs protruding from their shoulder blades and leathery flaps of skin under their arms, indicating where wings might once have been found on some ancient ancestor. Their heads feature a prominent snout filled with a toothy maw, large, bulbous eyes, and an elongated crest protruding from the back of the skull. Small slits at the side of their heads function as ears, but their hearing is diminished compared to other races. There appears to be no discernible sexual dimorphism between male and female pterrans.
The pterrans’ appearance has led some to believe that they share a common, yet distant, ancestry with the flying reptiles known as the pterrax.
Pterrans communicate through hisses and pops, with occasional growls, further emphasized by clicks and taps from their clawed hands. This strange language is almost impossible for non-pterrans to mimic, much less comprehend.
Abilities[]
Pterrans are naturally strong creatures, as well as highly intelligent. They possess sharp claws and a bite that can be used to ward of enemies, as well as a natural camouflage that allows them to remain hidden from sight in their jungle homes.
While only a few pterran have studied psionics, those who have can be formidable telepaths.
Combat[]
Most pterrans find the idea of combat distasteful, preferring to seek diplomatic solutions to conflicts. However, those who follow the Path of the Warrior know that such niceties must sometimes be abandoned in order to avoid casualties of their own. In a fight, pterrans make good use of their natural weapons, slashing at enemies with their claws or biting down on them with their powerful jaws multiple times in quick succession., while their scaly hide helps protect them from incoming attacks. If possible warriors often engage in mounted combat, swooping down on their enemies from above atop the back of a pterrax, throwing spears as they fly past.
Many warriors make use of specialized pterran weapons as well, the slodak and thanak. The slodak is essentially a wooden longsword treated with tree sap and the blood of an id fiend, rendering the weapon incredibly strong, almost to the point of being as tough as steel. The thanak resembles a saw blade, with a row of pterrax teeth fastened between two sticks, functioning as an axe that rips and tears through the foe’s flesh.
Thanaks and spears are often coated with a debilitating poison which causes the target to grow extremely weak before ultimately dying, many days after the initial strike. There is no known natural cure for this poison, but magic has proven capable of neutralizing the effects.
Personality[]
The pterrans have lived largely isolated from most other races of Athas for so long that it commonly affects their relations with new faces. They tend to come off wary and subdued at first, but to trusted friends they are open and caring, sometimes to the degree of being self-sacrificial. They tend to be extremely polite and give thanks for even the smallest of kindness – a stark contrast to most other Athasians.
Despite being largely unaccustomed to the cultures and practices of the Tyr Region, the pterrans that have ventured from their jungle home have learned to not judge others too quickly.
Ecology[]
Pterrans are omnivorous creatures, and a considerable portion of their diet is comprised of game animals. Hunting parties spend many hours a day to secure food for the tribe, with the meat of the kirre and the id fiend being favored treats. Those hunters that venture towards the badlands are also known to snare flailers.
Pterrans always bear their young in pairs, and most families are made up of an even number of family members, most commonly between four and eight, with two parents and their offspring.
Relations[]
Despite sharing many cultural similarities to halflings, pterrans are still cautious of them after sharing hunting grounds with them for many ages. Suspicions often extend towards humans as well, as they have been shown to disregard the sanctity of the land and its creatures. Furthermore, while pterrans do undertake their quests with open minds, they find the worship of the sorcerer-monarchs distasteful – although they might swallow their abhorrence for the sake of politeness.
Thus far, only Tyr has openly welcomed the pterrans with open arms, although Lalali-Puy of Gulg has extended an invitation to them at their earliest convenience as she’s always interested in meeting those who seek to aid the troubled world. A few merchant houses have begun to establish trade with the pterrans, hoping for new avenues of profit, as have the nomadic elves.
For all their politeness and good-hearted nature, the pterrans have gone to great lengths to avoid all thri-kreen packs emerging from the Great Rift who wander the Tablelands. This particular fearfulness of the mantis-folk stems from a long history of raids targeting the Pterran Vale and Lost Scale villages. This has led to most pterrans consider thri-kreen as little like dangerous bandits.
Society[]
Pterrans gather in tribes of varying sizes. Small tribes can consist of as few as 10-12 members, while large tribe number over a hundred. A pterran village consists of several families, all residing within dwellings surrounding a large ceremonial area at the center of the village. Each individual abode is marked with colors and symbols that identify the family within, and consists of several smaller chambers large enough for two pterrans to sleep in, connected to a large central chamber – mimicking the layout of the village itself.
A pterran tribe is led by its Triumvirate, consisting of the eldest members from each Life Path. The Triumvirate has decides on all major questions, including when and where to move the village, when to send out scouting parties, and when to approach other tribes or involve themselves with the other people of Athas. Even though the Triumvirate has final say in all matters, they never move ahead with any decision without first consulting the tribe as a whole.
The Hinterlands[]
Before the Great Earthquake, all contact with pterrans in the Tyr Region was with the small, primitive clans that settled near the rocky barrens on the eastern side of the Ringing Mountains. These pterrans bear only a superficial resemblance to their cousins from the Hinterland villages.
However, the tremors brought on by the second fall of Rajaat opened up an entirely new world to be discovered. Hinterlands pterrans have already made an impact on the societies of the Tablelands. The free city of Tyr had exchanged diplomatic envoys before the destruction of twin villages of Pterran Vale and Lost Scale. Pterrans was far more advanced than their Forest Ridge kin resided. These pterrans had been living life in isolation, only concerned with their own wellbeing, but the cotinuing aftershocks have wreaked destruction on the twin villages. The Great Earthquake shook them out of their isolation.
Today, more and more young pterrans are sent out on missions to curry favor with the people of the Tyr Region. The Free City of Tyr and a few of the more adventurous merchant houses have obliged in some ways, establishing diplomatic contacts and trade deals with the Pterran Vale – an invaluable asset at the present time, as the continuing aftershocks have wreaked destruction on the twin villages.
The highly intelligent pterrans from the Hinterland villages have begun exploring the Tyr Region in earnest, hoping to find help from the threats unleashed by the Great Earthquake.
The Earth Mother[]
All pterrans revere the Earth Mother, the name they have given to Athas. They believe that they are the Earth's Mother's first, best children.
The Great Earthquake, along with its many aftershocks, has been seen by their race as a call to action, as these quakes are clearly a sign that Athas is experiencing a time of desperate need. “The Earth Mother cries out, and we share her pain,” the pterran druids proclaim.
Pterran society is largely based around celebrations and ceremonies, with each tribe conducting several more-or-less unique ones over the course of a year. Religious events include festivals honoring hunts or protection from storms, with a druid presiding over the celebration. Regardless of the ceremony itself, its always to give thanks to the world. Pterrans believe that their race was born from the earth itself, and regard Athas as their “Earth Mother”. They believe that they were her first and best children, and all aspects of their culture is deeply rooted in this belief – one that is only reinforced by each celebration. Their devotion is so great that is even defines an individual pterran’s behavior.
The pterrans have now begun to explore the Tablelands in earnest, hoping to find a way to conquer the threats brought on by the Great Earthquake.
The Life Path[]
Each pterran follows what’s known as a “Life Path”, a cultural role that helps shape their growth and development. As part of their normal society, at the age of 15, each pterran must choose what is to be their lifelong vocation. There exists three possible Life Paths to choose from: the warrior, the druid, and the psionicist. Once a path has been chosen, it cannot be changed.
The Path of the Warrior is the one most often chosen by pterran youths, and sees them become protectors of their tribe. These warriors are taught a myriad of methods of combat, including the use of their natural weapons, specific tribal weapons, and even those used by their enemies. Training with weapons isn’t enough, however, as warriors are also responsible for the making and procurement of weapons for the tribe, as well as the unique poisons used to coat these weapons.
Becoming a warrior is no easy feat. To prove themselves worthy, each candidate must attempt to catch and train a pterrax on their own – a task that may take months or even years to complete. Once a pterrax has been captured and trained sufficiently, the young warriors prove their mastery of their flying mounts before their peers and the tribe’s Triumvirate.
Only about a quarter of pterrans choose to wander the Path of the Druid, becoming priests of their respective tribes, responsible for all matters regarding faith. As with the warrior, druids must prove themselves before becoming accepted as full-fledged druids. This test sees a pterran leave their home and possessions behind for six months, hiding themselves away in the deep jungles trying to gain a greater understanding of the natural world. Once the period is up, the druid returns and is questioned about what has been learned during this prolonged solitude by the tribe’s Triumvirate.
No more than 10% of pterrans follow the Path of the Psionicist. This is mostly due to the fact that most tribes view psionic powers with suspicion, and perhaps doubly so because of the fact that most pterran psionicists are telepaths with the power to probe and affect the minds of others. Regardless of this, psionicists make up an important part of any pterran tribe, as they are employed as ambassadors to other tribes and even other people. Like the other Life Paths, the Path of the Psionicist requires a test of one’s mettle in the chosen field. This entails penetrating the mental barriers of the tribe’s most senior psionicist, and then sharing what thoughts are find within their mind with the Triumvirate.
Sources[]
- Dark Sun Campaign Setting (Expanded and Revised). Timothy B. Brown, Troy Denning, Bill Slavicsek. TSR Inc., 1995.
- Dragon #319: “Dark Sun Player’s Handbook” (p.28). David Noonan. Paizo Publishing, 2004.
- Monstrous Compendium Dark Sun Appendix: Terrors of the Desert. Tom Prusa, Louis J. Prosperi, Walter M. Baas. TSR Inc, 1992.
- Terrors of Athas. Gabriel Cormier, Nathan Guest, Mark Hope. Athas.org, 2004.