Source: Exploring Eberron
Most of Kythri’s denizens fall into one of three categories.
Wild Things
The islands of Kythri are inhabited. But how can a creature survive in an environment that can be a desert today and a glacier tomorrow? The answer, of course, is that the creature must change with the environment. Kythri’s islands include some creatures that appear to be natural beasts, though they change as the region around them does; the wolf in the forest becomes an arctic wolf when the land turns into a glacier, and turns into a jackal when it’s a desert. Even beyond their practical changes for survival, Kythrian creatures might be constantly shifting their plumage, behavior, and more fundamental biology, whether from moment to moment or day to day.
However, not all of Kythri’s wild things transform into familiar forms. Part of the plane’s core concept is evolving in response to change, and Kythri is home to many creatures that blend the features of two or more natural beasts: monstrosities such as the owlbear, griffon, and chimera. It’s commonly accepted that at least some of these monstrosities first appeared in Kythri, and that they first appeared in Eberron either by passing through portals or due to the influence of manifest zones.
Just as the environments of Kythri are chaotic but largely blend natural elements, Kythrian monstrosities typically blend the forms of natural creatures. While there are hippogriffs and griffons in Kythri, inherently alien creatures like kruthiks and gricks aren’t found here. The wild things of Kythri also include natural shapechangers, notably a wide variety of mimics—even colossal ones that can assume the shape of natural features such as hills or mountains. It’s quite likely the mimics of Eberron either immigrated from Kythri or were created by its influence, much like the sahuagin of the Eternal Dominion use the blood of the kar’lassa bound to Kythri to create their plasmids.
Unlike other planes where these wild things would likely be manifestations, the wild things of Kythri are mortal creatures. They live, reproduce, and die following (mostly) natural means, and have to find sustenance and shelter in their islands. Between the strange flow of time and unusual environments, this can lead to dramatic surges in populations or sudden extinctions. However, the plane itself seeds new life into islands that somehow become depopulated, and if all the griffons in Kythri were to die, new ones would eventually evolve. So even though Kythri doesn’t have manifestations, it ensures a steady stream of mortals exist—and when they die, it replaces them.
Slaadi
The slaadi are native immortals of Kythri. Though they do reproduce (in strange and disturbing ways) and can die of mortal ailments, they’re defined as immortals because their population remains constant. Whenever a new slaad is born—whatever the method of its creation—an existing slaad dies, seemingly at random. And whenever a slaad is killed, a new one is formed. So while they seem to share many of the traits of mortals, they can never be wiped out even if they die en masse, and even if a blue slaad transforms a village of humans into slaadi with the chaos phage, the overall number of slaadi doesn’t increase.
The slaadi are the only native civilization of Kythri. They aren’t a monolithic society; some live in massive cities, while others are tiny rustic communities. Each slaad community has its own distinct culture and a grand name, and the Slaad Cultures table provides a few examples of these—but there are many more, and they’re constantly changing. The grand city of Cornerstone may be the seat of the brutal Concordance of Iron today, and the Enlightened Lyceum League a month later. These changes are astonishingly fast, but they aren’t instant; there are usually at least a few days of chaotic transition and revolution in between a change. The scope of a community won’t change—Cornerstone is always a metropolis, while Turn is always a village—but the structures of the community shift. Under the Concordance of Iron, Cornerstone is filled with brutalist iron towers, while the Cornerstone of the Lyceum League is filled with slender glass spires.
The slaadi themselves retain their core forms while their buildings and government change. Red slaadi are always red toad-like creatures that implant eggs, but the Lyceum slaadi might be tall and slender, while the Concordance slaadi are squat and heavy. Kythri’s influence can also cause slaadi to change color. So slaadi follow standard methods for creating particular colors—a blue slaad infects creatures with chaos phage, creating red or green slaadi—but a green slaad could go to sleep one night and wake up as a death slaad, and vice versa. In a culture like the Concordance, that means leadership frequently changes, because it’s based on color, not personality. Because slaad cultures change so rapidly, they rarely enact plans beyond their own communities, though cities occasionally clash. Some weeks they seek to exterminate the githzerai, and other weeks, to ally with them. You never know what you’ll get.
Slaad Cultures
| d6 | Culture |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Grand Concordance of Iron is a ruthless regime that intends to subjugate all slaadi, and then, the entire multiverse. It’s a strict caste system in which the death slaadi are cruel tyrants and all slaadi serve in the military. |
| 2 | The Enlightened Lyceum League is a democratic society of scholars and philosophers. They believe in finding a peaceful solution to every problem and a logical answer to every question. |
| 3 | The Final Regency asserts that the Sovereigns have abandoned reality and ordered the slaadi of the Regency to rule the multiverse in their stead until they return. They are fanatically devoted to a slaad-based version of the Sovereign Host and are offended by all inaccurate representations. |
| 4 | The Glorious Union of Flesh asserts that slaadi are the ultimate evolution of life and seek to grant all other humanoids the gift of slaadhood through the chaos phage. They don’t accept the idea that slaad numbers will always remain constant; clearly previous slaad cultures just weren’t doing it properly. |
| 5 | The Confluence of Reality believes that every civilization has something worth emulating, and studies other cultures to find these things. In a Confluence community, you could find slaadi eating Aundairian crepes, playing an Aereni form of Conqueror, and debating the finer points of Daanvi law. |
| 6 | The Republic of B’ob is ruled by a red slaad who makes up new laws whenever he feels like it. Why is B’ob in charge? Well, that was the first rule he made, and the only one he hasn’t changed. And he’s B’ob! Who else would be in charge? |
Githzerai
The githzerai aren’t natives of Kythri, and their presence is an act of defiance: through unparalleled mental discipline, they create bastions of order in the heart of chaos. If they seek order, why don’t they dwell in Daanvi? It’s not that they simply desire order, but to strengthen their will by imposing it on a reality that absolutely defies it. The struggle is the purpose. Beyond this, they’re served by the fact that even great powers can’t scry into Kythri. The “Eberron and the Gith” sidebar explains how the githzerai came to Kythri and what they seek to accomplish.
The githzerai don’t dwell on the Shifting Islands of Kythri. Instead, they’ve created their own islands in the Sea of Chaos: vast monastery vessels the size of small towns, moving through the eddies of chaos and defying transformation. The githzerai devote themselves to meditation and self-improvement, with little interest in what transpires beyond their monasteries. They have no particular love of outsiders—they consider all creatures of Eberron to be warped shadows of their stolen reality—but neither are they inherently hostile. A persuasive group of adventurers could find brief shelter in a githzerai monastery, especially if they bring something interesting to trade or have compelling stories to share. However, should the outsiders offend the githzerai, they’ll feel no remorse in eliminating them; there’s nothing evil in shining light to dispel a shadow.
Greater Powers?
No one knows if there’s a greater power shaping Kythri. The death slaadi are powerful beings, but there’s no known equivalent to Dolurrh’s Queen of the Dead or Dal Quor’s il-Lashtavar. Some sages assert that there must be a consciousness at the heart of the Sea of Chaos, a sentience behind the chaos, but if so, its presence has never been proven.
Chaos beast, githzerai, howler, slaad (all), titan.
Monster Manual III: Quaraphon
Storm Elementals
In the EBERRON campaign setting, storm elementals ravage the plane of Kythri, where chaos holds sway. Storm elementals fi nd their way to Eberron whenever Kythri and the Material Plane are coterminous. The gnomes of Zilargo and the drow of Xen’drik occasionally use bound storm elementals to power vehicles and magic items, a tricky endeavor given the elementals’ temperamental dispositions. On 15 Lharvion 997 YK in the city of Unknown, a failed attempt to bind a storm elemental to a House Lyrandar skyship resulted in the deaths of four gnomish magewrights and caused irreparable damage to the ship.