Thri-Kreen

“Once you get into the desert, there’s no going back,” said the camel driver. “And, when you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward. The rest is up to Allah, including the danger.”

-- Paul Coelho, The Alchemist





The desert wind whispers across a camouflaged carapace, fanning a campfire's glowing coals as the insectoid warrior keeps watch. Loping down from rocky cliff faces with casual grace, the click-click traders bear baskets of rare wasteland herbs into town, antennae twitching eagerly. An alien voice echoes in the mind of a mercenary scout, warning him away from the sacred crystal shrines of the mantis warriors.

The Faceless Desert

Also known as mantisfolk, clickers, mants, and simply kreen, the thri-kreen are an insectoid race of mantis-like humanoids who roam the deserts and wastelands of the world. Hunters and guerillas, the kreen are respected and feared by those who dwell near their hunting grounds.

The kreen are not given to emotional displays, and what sentiment they do show is obscured to other races by their impenetrable body language. To most, they seem as empty and merciless as the desert, leaping from the sands to wreak havoc or slay a monster before vanishing as quickly as they came, caring nothing for what is left in their wake.

In some ways, it's not far from the truth.

Friends and Family

Many races divide the world into "us and them". Few do so as sharply as the kreen, who actively shun contact with those outside of their tightly-knit hunting packs, even fellow kreen. Many mantisfolk have trouble considering outsiders to be "people" at all, much less individuals worthy of concern.

Instead, each thri-kreen pack treats the world around them as a solipsistic garden, to be cultivated or trimmed as suits their needs. If goods are desired, they will protect merchant caravans from the hazards of the desert. If outsiders enroach on their hunts, they will turn on those same traders without a word of explanation or warning.

Mantis Warriors

The thri-kreen have no great respect for mighty structures or long-held laws. They adapt to harsh circumstances rather than seeking to change them, and work around insoluble problems with a flexibility of thought that can unnerve those more steadfastly attached to particular traditions.

Few mantisfolk place any value on material goods. Money, tools, and accessories can be very useful, even attractive, but those who are genuinely convinced of an object's worth are regarded as mildly insane for having inanimate packmates.

A Worthy Pack

While it's rare for the isolationist clickers to integrate into a larger culture, they do make for frequent guides, traders, and mercenaries. Those who truly settle among other peoples range from packless nomadic criminals to lone survivors of an overambitious hunt, from stranded ex-slaves to young mantisfolk determined to satisfy their curiosity.

Most kreen who settle into a foreign culture do so alone, and must try to form a new pack, willing or otherwise, from those around them. This process is often awkward, as the thri-kreen is forced to deal with the bewildering tendency of its non-kreen packmates to care about events and people far beyond their immediate social circle.

As ever, the kreen must adapt to new circumstances. A thri-kreen's friendship can seem distant or overprotective by turns, but its loyalty and value is never to be underestimated.

Kreen Names

Kreen names are dry clicks, buzzes, and rustles, suited to the mandible jaws of the mantid nomads. Translating such names reveals a hidden and flowery poetry at play.

These names are not gendered, and include have no family names, for the kreen focus entirely on those close to them. There is only one of each kreen, after all; why should there be any need to differentiate further?

Those kreen who find themselves in a larger society must sometimes adopt a family name for formal purposes. Most simply take the name of their closest non-kreen companion, a seemingly intuitive decision that can lead to confusion and embarassment on the latter's part.

Thri-Kreen Names: Chak-tha, Chit'al, Drik-chkit, Gulnik, Kacht-ta, Kat'chka, Kiktul, Klaktuk, Krik, Pak'cha, Pik-ik-cha, Pok, Ptekwe, Tak-tha, Tal'tich, Tilnak, Tik-tik, Ze-ra