View source for Chapter III - The Srryn

-1-
 
The srryn are a race of humanoid reptiles. Covered with a 
leathery skills and naturally gifted with whip-like tails, they
are cunning warriors and will  often use their natural abilities
to good advantage. 
 
Mainly dwelling in the swamps and lowlands of Avendar, the
srryn make their living by trading the rare roots that grow in
their homelands, along with itinerant raids on whatever
settlement lie close to their demesnes. The srryn have little of
the formal amenities of government or oganization, choosing
instead to live in smal villages in the swamps. Srryn
leadership is usually determined by age,  predicated on the
assumption that no incompetent lives long enough to come to
power.
 
Despite their primitive surroundings, the srryn are one of
Avendar's oldest races, with an origin shortly following the
Sundering. The earliest written record of the srryn concerns
itinerant raids by them on  various aelin settlements, and
measures taken to combat them. 

-2-
 
For a long period of time, the aelin viewed the srryn as 
hopeless primitives, and viewed them more a nuisance than a
threat. Somewhere near the high  point of aelin dominance,
however, events began to unfold which would lead to the srryn
not only becoming a potential threat, but also potential 
rulers of all Avendar.
 
Matters are unclear on how or why the Srryn discovered the
magics of fire - perhaps the workings of a mad god, perhaps
the primitive rituals of the srryn shamans stumbled upon the
right mystical combination to unlock the power of
flame. However it came to be, this new magic turned the srryn
for a race of primitive and bickering warlords into a force to
be reckoned with.
Cowing the humans who lived around them with both force of
magic and the promise of more power  to come, the srryn
began a series of campaigns to unite their disparate forces. The
srryn and their human allies came against  the aelin with the
suddeness of an inferno. 

-3-
 
At first it seemed the aelin's might civilization would fall
quickly, as one  by one their cities were overrun and put to the
flame. Once the aelin  realized the nature of the threat,
however, they rallied their republic to face the srryn. Using the
relics and weapons recovered from the ruins of the ancient
alatharya, the aelin fought let loose with a swift series of 
counterstrikes, driving the srryn back to a stalemate.
 
The stalemate, though, was an untenable one. The srryn and
humans were both virile races, swelling in numbers to replace
those who fell in battle. Furthermore, their magic was strong
and new, and the aelin were slow to renew themselves, and
their success depend on the rapidly fading power of
ancient weapons and tools. 
 
In the end, the srryn lines did not break until entirely new
forces came into play. Humans not under the sway of the
srryn, with the aid of a daring  minority of the aelin, followed
the clues of an ancient prophecy, journeying to the
northlands to awaken the god Jolinn.

-4-
 
Bringing with them the aid of the magics of water, human, 
aelin, and the newly awakened Titans attacked the srryn 
warlords in the plains and  lowlands of Avendar. A series of
cataclysmic battles marked the end of the War of Fire, as the
desperate srryn and human forces tapped directly into the
elemental plane of fire, often drawing more power than they
were capable of safely channeling.
 
The srryn and their allies lost these great battles, decimating
their forces and laying barren many of their homelands.
Defeated and hunted, the srryn withdrew to the deepest
swamps, hiding themselves from the victorious forces
of aelin.
 
For most of the rise of the humans and during the period in
which the Republic of Earendam held sway over most of
Avendar, the srryn were a relatively isolated people. Content
with the occasional raid or to waylay what travellers who
came into their power. In the War of Night, the srryn allied
briefly with the shuddeni, but turned against them when they
realized the eyeless ones had no intenion of sharing power
with them.

-5-
 
This aid against the shuddeni brought the srryn some measure
of respectability, making them a more common sight in the
cities of Avendar, most usually as  gladiators in fighting
arenas, or gaining notoriety as bandit kings with their own 
small parcels of territory. No longer universally feared, the
srryn are still distrusted, and by no means ignored by the other
inhabants of Avendar.