Iksar

A Lizardman Subspecies - 100 points

ST +4 (45 pts), DX +2 (20 pts)

Amphibious (10 pts), Claws (15 pts), DR +4 (Armored scales; 24 pts), Super Running (20 pts), Super Swimming 1 level (10 pts), Fast Regeneration * (50 pts), Tail (Striker at DX, damage is thr/crus +2; 5 pts)

Code of Honor, Iksar Customs (-10 pts), Enemy - Racial Foes ~ Hostile members of any race, including Iskar Exiles ~ (-20 pts), Incoventient Size (-10 pts), Increased life support 2 levels (-20 pts), Racial Intolerance (-5 pts), Odious Racial Habit: Eats other sentients (-15 pts), Racial Reputation -3 Remembered in folk tales and tradition as blood-thirsty and cruel conquerors who will one day return, bring pillage and destruction to all.(-15 pts)

* = They recover 1 hit point per minute.

Iksar are on average 7'6" tall and weight an average of 250 lbs. Use these averages and vary by the height and weight modifications.

Iksar cannot wear plate mail armor, Iksar scales need access to air and the plate chafs their scales. Banded, Chainmail and Iskar made Scalemail (which the Iksar call Cabilis Scalemail or Cab Scale) is designed for ventilation

Iksar Warrior in Cabilis Scale

Iksar are fast on land or in the water, they can run at double their move (in a more or less straight line) and they swim at double their normal movement (again in a more or less straight line).

The Iksar are an intelligent race of lizardmen inhabiting various locales on the continent of Kunark. They eventually united to form a massive empire which later collapsed for the most part, leaving an intricate and proud history as well as a rich setting for adventurers to explore.

The Iksar have a history that most races would consider evil in nature, in that conquest, enslavement, and general war and destruction were the norm. With that said, there are those Iksar who have chosen not to blindly follow in the path of their ancestors and are more or less neutral in their views of the world and its inhabitants.

Generally Iksar may be considered as normal Lizardmen or Retilemen except for the above changes.

The Iksar are a race of Lizardmen who have survived the fall of their empire. They now live in the ruins of their former civilization while their leaders jockey for position and plot to stay in power while speaking of world domination. Most Iksar dream of the day when they will regain their lost glory and reestablish the Iskar Empire, but day to day survival takes up most of their time and energy, and they know they will not see the rise of their empire in their lifetime. They are well known and hated by nearly every other intelligent race as bloodthirsty, ruthless and cruel former conquerors.

PLEASE NOTE: Iksar have very heavy negitive reaction penalties, usually around -7. Even Orcs, Trolls and Ogres usually react very poorly to Iksar and generally they are Kill on Sight in most Civilized (and many no so civilized) Nations.

IKSAR HISTORY

While the dragons took centuries to grow and organize, a race of intelligent snake men - the Shissir - assumed the forefront. The Shissir were a brutal race who enslaved the Iksar, using them for workers and food. From their captical of Chelsith in the area nown known as "The Overthere," they explored dark rites and forgotten evils which would lay the foundation for much of Iksar knowledge and philosophy.

It is said that eventually the Shissir angered even their own dark gods. A horrible plague destroyed the Shissir's power; however the Iksar survived unscared.

IKSAR NATION

Over the next several centuries, the Iksar grew to greatness on the buried ashes of their former masters. They migrated outward across the continent of Kunark and formed five principle tribe-states: Kylong, Nathsar, Obulus, Jarsath and Kunzar. The last tribe-state was led by Venril Sathir, a young and powerful warrior-mage, who rasied an unyielding army of undead with the assistance of dark rites.

Sathir and his Kunzar armies conquerored and annexed the remaining tribe-states under his rule as the first King of Sebilis, the renamed Iksar nation. In order to build his Sebilisan Empire, Sathir brutally captured Hill Giants, Forest Giants and the Froglings of Kunark. Throughtout Sathir's life, the Sebilisan Empire quickly grew in might, power and grandeur.

THE RULE OF RILE

King Sathir aged, but of course, he did not want to die. To cheat death, he made an unholy pact with the Dark Powers to rise, undead and immortal. Rile, Sathir's heir, had other plans and thwarted the ritual. Sathir's soul was trapped inside an amulet that was hidden away as Rile cremated his father's body.

Rile assumed the throne; however little changed in his kingdom. The son of Sathir seized more valuable land and his ruthless reputation increased under the terrors of his warlords: Kurn Maxhta, Karatukus the Cruel and the vampire Chosooth. By the time these warlords ended their careers, most of the continent of Kunark (except for a few pockets of Giants and Dragons) defeitely belonged to Serbis as well as large military colonies upon all the other major continents of the Adarian world.

THE RING OF SCALE

The Iksar had left the dragonlands alone, but to the dragons the threat was easy to see. The Dragon Lords convened the Ring of Scale and argured about how best to proceed. Trakanon, the large blue, advocated swift intervention on behalf of all races against the Iskar. However, Trakanon was voted down by the majority and the Ring of Scale decided upon a policy to interverne only indirectly.

Trakanon and a number of the younger dragons decided more direct action was required. They conqured a mighty squall at sea that destroyed Rile's grand invasion fleet while the King was onboard his flag-ship. This strike triggered a spectacular war amoungst the dragons that lasted for perhaps a centery and a half.

ATREBE'S IKSAR EMPIRE
Atrebe, Rile's young first-hatched son, then became King. This young Iksar was different from his fathers. He was reclusive and enamored of the dark arts. All feared his use of the evil magic of the Shissir and his consulting with his grandfather, Sathir. His foul experienments joined a dragon with an Iksar creating the Sarnak (also known as Draconians), a race of intelligent Dragon-men. He also joined a Dragon with a Frogling, creating flying mounts for his armies, the Sokokar. On these flying beasts, the Iksar were deadly.

Atrebe spend the first half or his reign, experiementing and building up the Iksar war machine while the dragons fought their civil war. During the last half of his reign Atrebe set out upon a massive campaign of world conquest. For fifty years or more the Iskar steadily expaned and continued to conquer and enslave many races on the other continents and in the end founded a world empire that the Sun never sat upon with only minor scattered pockets of resistance left. The Iksar controlled at least three-quaters of the world's land mass.

THE IKSAR WAR AGAINST THE RING OF SCALE

Now only the hardiest of Dragonkind stood unconquered by the Iksar Empire. The Dragon Civil War over, The Ring of Scale was united but much weakened by the civil war amongst it members.

Over the next half century, an undeclared war with many probing attacks was fought as Dragonkind struggled to recover it strength and find the measure the Iksar airborne army's abilities, soon both sides were exhasusted, the Dragons from first their civil war and the losses taken sparring with the Iksar, while the Iskar were bled white from dealing with the problems of maintaining an army of occupation on a global scale.

With dragon aid and support the conquered races continually revolted and were continually crushed brutally. The Ring of Scale aided and supported the resistance fighters and as Emperor Atrebe aged, weakened and fell ill, his Iksar Empire begin to weaken. Terror and cruelty became the halmarks of Iksar rule. The Iksar Empire was unable to continue to support such losses and Atrebe began to fear that the Iksar would lose everything. His last important and most bitter act was to order the complete withdraw and destruction of all the overseas empire with all Iksar to return home to Kunark within the year.

The Iksar withdraw became an orgy of destruction and bloodshed never seen before or since, as many Iksar commanders took their orders quite literally and attempted to completely destroy everything and everyone that could not or would not be transported back to Kunark.

The Iksar Retreat, as the other races came to call it, lasted only a little over a year, but left scars and countless dead, including whole tribes and nations totally exterminated to the last animal and child. Atrebe want mad during the final phases of the operation and is said to have died, broken hearted and by his own hand as the last Iksar warrior from overseas set on Kunark.

The survivors of the Iskar Occupation quickly organized, united by the threat of an Iksar return. Their fear being that the Iksar had fallen back to regroup and would soon return, stronger and more powerful than before.

For five years the former slave races of the Iksar and the resistance fighters with Dragon help rebuilt and re-equipped and then the call for war went out. Several great invasion fleets formed and set sail for Kunark. The fleets combined into two vast armadas and landed on opposite side of Kunark, forming base camps and sending out scouts and raiding parties.

The Iksar may well have been able to defeated one or the other invading armies in open battle and pushed them back into the sea, but with two vast foreign armies upon their native shores, the Iksar split their forces and held a large reserve in their capital. The Iksar field armies were to delay the invaders and cause as many enemy loses as possible, all the while making a fighting withdraw back to the capitol city for the final battle.

As the invading armies finished unloading and built fortified base capes, they began a slow, bloody advance against determined and often fanatical Iksar resistance. The invaders besieging each Iksar stronghold and city as they slowly advanced. No quarter was asked or given from either side. The Iksar defenders fighting to the last, slaying their young and old who could not fight rather than allow them to fall into their foes hands.

With Dragon aid and support the Froglings and other Iksar slaves revolted in the Iksar cities and the remaining pockets of free giants begin raiding Iksar out posts. The Dragons began a campaign of aerial warfare, visiting death and destruction from above, turning the Iksar cities into ash and ruin.

THE LAST CAMPAIGN

After five long bloody years the invading armies had over run and taken every important Iksar stronghold and city except for Cabilis, the Iksar capital. The invaders were weakened and had taken very heavy casualties, but these veterans were determined to finish the Iksar threat once and for all. So the invading forces marched and the two invading armies met for the first time on what was to become known as the Field of Bone in front of the Iksar Capital City of Cabilis.

The eastern army of humans, elves, dwarves and halflings flew the banners of light while the western army of orcs, ogres, trolls and dark elves flew the banners of darkness. While many in both camps would have liked to fight the other, their mutural hatred for the Iksar united them. Placing their own personal dislikes for each other aside, the AMRY OF THE GRANT ALLIANCE was formed. All members swearing to fight together as long as the Iksar threat remained and Sathir's seed sat upon the throne of Cabilis.

Iksar Emperor Gartus, Atrebe's son and heir marched out with the survivors of the Iskar Field Armies and his reserve force of 25,000 fresh Iksar veterans whose only duty during the whole invasion campaign had been to crush the slave revolt in Cabilis. The battles raged on the Field of Bone for Seven Days and Seven Nights.

The last day of the battle Trakanon who had become war leader of the Ring of Scale and Gartus fought an aerial duel over the battlefield which ending with both dying in a blaze of fire and magic. With their war leader dead and having taken more causalities in the Seven Days battle than in their civil war and the whole long war with the Iksar, the Ring of Scale withdrew, but not before making a last desperate raid upon the Iksar Imperial Palace, destroying it with fire and magic and killing every hatching and egg of Gartus.

The Iksar recovered Gartus' body and withdrew inside the Walls of Cabilis to morn and choose upon their ruler(s). The leaders of the five principle Iksar tribes: Kylong, Nathsar, Obulus, Jarsath and Kunzar consumed Gartus so that symbolically at least the Imperial Iksar line would continue.

The Grand Alliance Army held councils of war during the night. It concluded that since they and the Iksar had taken such huge losses * in the campaign and that Iksar power had been crushed and their objectives had been met since the seed of Sathir no longer lived and considering that their dragon allies had already withdrawn, the Army Leaders decided to break camp and withdraw. This decision was bitter to some, especially most of the darker races who wanted to slay every last Iksar that breathed. In the end while feeling betrayed by the "lighties," they agreed to withdraw as well as they knew they were not powerful enough to fight the remaining Iksar alone.

So on the dawn of the 8th day, the Grand Alliance disbanded, each army marching back to its base camp, the Iksar harassed the invaders and claimed it a great victory. Most of the foreign invaders sailed back to their homelands or to newly emptied lands to settle and begin fighting amongst themselves and each other now that the Iksar threat no longer united them.

The base camps were left with strong garrisons to watch the Iksars and limit their access to the sea. Over time the base camps have become strong fortified frontier towns where adventurers can base themselves while raiding the Iksars and exploring Kunark's ruins. The Dark Elves control Firiona Vie while the High Elves manage the town of Overthere. Both port towns are tolerant of other races as long as they cause no trouble and they work activitly against the Iksars. However it is usual for orcs, ogres, and trolls to use Firiona Vie as their base while humans, half elves, dwarves and halflings normally base themselves in Overthere. There are exceptions except in the case of Iksars who are KIll on Sight in both towns. It is also a death sentence for transporting or aiding an Iksar in leaving Kunark although it is common for Iksars to stowaway or be smuggled off Kunark.

The war leader of the humans returned home and begin to build a nation, in time Adare the Great proclaimed himself "Emperor Adare I" and founded the Adarian Empire which while today is a pale shadow of itself in its glory days...the Adarian Empire remains the largest, ricest and strongest single nation in the world...but the rise and decline of the Adarian Empire is a story for another time.

THE ISKAR OF TODAY
Although it has been over two thousand years since Iksar Rule, the Iksar as a race are yet to recover, with their Imperial Line destroyed, the Emerald Circle was formed on the night of Emperor Gartus's death. The Emerald Circle was formed as a council of the five most powerful and intelligent Iksar to jointly rule the Iksar Nation. But as with politics the world over, the leaders began to jockey for position and shift blame on one another to the point where the original fire tribe-states have reformed with little to no trade, no common foreign or trade policies and while the Iksar tribes are not actively hostile with one another, neither are they particularly friendly to one another and over the years individual Iksar has shed Iksar blood on occasion with Iksar bandits warring upon any whom they come across.

Of late several Iksar "Guilds" have formed such as the "Imperial Iksars," "Revenant Souls of Darkness" and the "Scaled Brotherhood" as well as others, these "Iksar Guilds" accept members from all the Iksar Tribes with the goal of forming fighting legions to regain the Iksar Empire, at best they consider each other as rivials and at worst they fight brief, bloodly and generally senseless wars, the leaders of the five tribes use these "guild wars" to their advantage by focusing Iksar attention and energies that might be better used to oust them from power against the others so that none is powerful enough to challenage their rule...such is Iksar Politics.

To this day most other races consider the Iksar a real danger and the Iksar are widely remembered in folk tales and tradition as blood-thirsty and cruel conquerors who will one day return, bringing pillage and destruction to all. For many these childhood stories have left a lingering, very negitive impression of the Iksar. For their part, the Iksar consider themselves vastly superior and do nothing to attempt to improve race relations. They still have large numbers of frogling slaves as well as a fair number of slaves of other races including dark elves, dwarves, elves, halflings, humans, orcs, ogres, and trolls. Generally Iksars are very hostile to non-Iskar they encounter, especially upon Kunark.

Iksar Player Characters will have a challenging and interesting career, however long or brief. In my opinion, I believe it is Essential for an Iksar PC to gain a positive reputation in the land he is adventuring in, either during character creation or in early play, otherwise he (and his party) is going to be attacked nearly constantly while traveling outside Iksar lands. A disguise might not be a bad idea either....

* It is estimated that 90% of the Grand Alliance Invaders died upon Kunark's shores, with 60% of those dying upon the Field of Bone during the Seven Days Battle. On the morning of the 8th day there was less than 5,000 allied effectives ready and fit to continue the battle, with nearly all of those walking wounded (except for perhaps 100 Trolls). It is estimated that only 3,000 Iksar effectives remained alive, but they were fully regenerated, full from eating slaves and the fallen and highly motived and determined to fight to the last to defend their homeland.

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