Enderal Lore: Baeschi Race

Baeschi
Appearance: Half snake, half man
Lifespan: 240
Pregnancy: 3 months
Religion: None, Old Gods
Regions: Eqwunda, Trifedi Isles, Summerlands
Nations: Different Clans

The Baeschi-or the Snakemen-had spread out across the islands in the East of the world. Specifically the larger islands in the Ethereal Ocean. A Baeschi female was only pregnant for three months before giving birth. The most common was between one to three. Baeschi children age similarly to humans.
Oft the Clans would make war upon one another, they make wear upon their neighbors. On the large landmass of Eqwunda many Baeschi Clans lived in peace under the gaze of the mysterious Kingdom of Aarkyl, and also under their protection from outside threats like the Skarrans.
But outside Eqwunda the Baeschi populating parts of the Trifedi Isles fight each other constantly, but not in large full-scale wars. Those engagements was saved for the Skarrans colonizing parts of two of the three Trifedi Isles.
According to ancient Baeschi tradition a dispute was solved by combat between a small group of warriors from the Clans involved. They fought until one side surrendered or was all killed. The most important aspect of this tradition was respect, for both sides to respect the outcome and the other sides warriors.
The Trifedi Isle Clans often had to fight against Skarran attacks. The Skarrans came for wealth and slaves, on occasion also land. Yet they maintain their ancestors traditions.
The Baeschi was known for being great warriors by nature because of their traits and natural abilities. They could use their long snake tail to constrict an enemy, crush his body and hold onto him for up to twenty minutes without a loss of strength or getting tired. Their snake-like physic allowed them to quickly attack and quickly pull back and increase the distance after striking. While they preferred their traditional curved and elegant swords they liked using spears with Tower Shields. It allowed them to jab an enemy with the spear without getting in range of the enemy’s own attack and if they did enter their attack range they could pull back after thrusting the spear at him ones.

The Summerlands used to be filled with many Clans until they were enslaved by the Skarrans in a fifteen year long war. Afterwards they became slaves and within a few generations lost their rebellious tendencies and became far more obedient as they were introduced to the Slave System where service was gradually rewarded over long periods of time. But during the initial war the only reason they lost was numbers. The Skarrans threw countless numbers of men at them until they had been grounded down in numbers.

There was many Baeschi rebellions, but the most successful was the Priestess Fedrija. She was a Priestess of the Sun Goddess Amenset, one of many who converted from their godless believes to worship the Old Gods of the Skarran.
Fedrija was bedding the Sunlord of Starved Kin. Oulu. Fedrija bore Oulu Skarran young twice, first two and five the next. One night Sunlord Oulu of Starved Kin returned from a Meeting of the Skarran Sun Empire’s ruling Council-Council of the Thirteen-to bed his favorite slave. Unfortunately Fedrija used her claws to open his throat at night, then proceeded to kill his wife and many of his children. She escaped the capital and convinced twenty slaves to pick up a torch of freedom with her.
For the next year her small guerilla army grew to hundreds of former slaves as they continued harassing Skarran travelers and army convoys, slaughtering any Skarran male, female or child indiscriminately. Eventually the Council of Thirteen dispatch a force to deal with her after the death toll at her bands hands rose over five thousand Skarrans. Head of the force was Warlord Egis of Starved Kin, seeking revenge for Sunlord Oulu’s death. To his shock his men was ambushed in the barren countryside. His two thousand warriors was ambushed by an equal force of Baeschi, both males and females. The Skarrans didn’t stand a chance and Egis just barely fled with his life intact, but not before he lost his tail to a Baeschi’s blade.

But finally the empires leadership took the threat seriously and sent an entire army of ten thousand after Fedrija’s band. But by that time she had traveled east, swelling her ranks along the way. Over a period of three months her band grew into an army before reaching the Sun Mountains, a long chain stretching as a wall. It left a few paths south into the southeast of the Summerlands.
When she crossed the Sun Mountains she started a campaign of terror and guerilla warfare. She let the few mages she had put fire to a large forest. The forest was responsible for producing a vast amount of timber used for ship construction. She put villages to the torch and destroyed iron mines, slaughtering the Skarran Overseers and bringing the slave miners into her host of former slaves.
For the following eight years she fought a guerilla war with Warlord Egis. As his temper oft flared by his failings to catch her he made more mistakes and the slave host seized the advantage. Egis’s constant failures caused a stir amongst the other twelve ruling Kins but he used his family’s great wealth to pay them off and keep his position as head of the army hunting Fedrija down. this squandering of wealth would eventually bring down his family from their high position in Starved Kin.

Fedrija had become a legend amongst her people, slaves and free alike. In all circles they spoke her name, a great mastermind, a tactician and hero. A woman of true honor and grand nobility. In truth she was anything but noble, the number of innocents that had fallen before her host numbered in tens of thousands.
In the 7th Era 881 on the 30th of Whispering Frost the slave host met Egis in a proper pitch battle. It lasted for hours at the edge of a mountain pass north through the Sun Mountains. Skarran historians later wrote that the the bloodied bodies laid thick on the barren dirt soil and blood streamed into a nearby creek and colored it completely black-red with Ratmen blood as with blue, the color of Snakemen blood. It was said that it was impossible to walk without tripping and stepping over the bodies of the dead, mostly Skarran.
Eight thousand Baeschi fell and almost thirty thousand Skarrans fell. As one-sided as it seemed, Fedrija’s host lost and when she fell on the field, wounded, what remained of her host fled. Those that weren’t butchered was crucified and left to rot along the dirt roads nearby. Fedrija was violently tortured until she died several months later. Unfortunately for Egis he perished in the very beginning of the battle, the prestige went to another rat while Egis was forgotten by his people.