Editing Tarek (section)

==Society==
[[Image: OldTarek.jpg|thumb|right]]
The tareks are a tribal people who live in small communities in the hills and mountains of Tyr. Whilst relatively advanced by the standards of Athas, they are notoriously xenophobic and quick to resort to raiding other races that are unfortunate enough to live or pass nearby. Whilst they will on rare occasions trade with other races, they have a well-earned reputation for using trade parlays as cover to set up ambushes for caravan raids, so, yeah, not a lot of people like them.

Obviously, tareks are very popular features in the [[gladiator]] arenas of Tyr; they're big, strong, and smart, which means they put on much better shows than dumb brutes like the [[brohg]]s. It certainly helps that physical prowess is a matter of great value and honor amongst this naturally aggressive race. In 2nd edition, their ability to coordinate to deadly effecicacy makes tarek vs. beast matches particularly exciting, and tarek teams can be quite popular - Nibenay makes sure to always feature them during the monthly festival of Ral. Mated pairs of tareks are the most popular form of tarek team in the pits.

Amongst themselves, tareks are ruled by the most powerful warriors of their kind, as well as by their [[shaman]]s. Whilst tareks respect all [[Elementalist|elemental]] [[cleric]]s, to the point of being willing to stay their hands and not attack groups who obviously travel with an elemental cleric, they themselves are monotheistic worshippers of the elemental power of earth. Their chosen habitat of the hills and mountains stems from their deep religious reverence of the earth; to tareks, these lands are holy. Solid is the tarek, strong like the earth, and numerous as the soil,” sing the shamans of the tarek tribes.

In 2nd edition, tarek shamans can reach up to 6th level as Earth Clerics; these 6th level shamans serve only the mightiest tarek tribes, and are regarded as holy figures, attracting less powerful shamans to study at their feet. Tarek shamans of 3rd or higher level have the unique ability to bless stone and obsidian weapons once per year, causing them to function as a (+1 per cleric level over 2nd, up to +4 for a 6th level shaman) weapon for the duration of a year. As part of the ritual, such weapons are attuned to a single champion who is intended to wield them; if stolen from this champion, the enchantment rapidly fades, causing the weapon to lose all power and revert to normal after 1d6 weeks. 4th edition simplifies this lore to simply tarek shamans having the ability to create enchanted weapons, which they give to individuals selected as the new leaders of tarek tribes.

In 4th edition, tarek history teaches that they were created and enslaved by "an entity of mad destruction", which used them as its tools of murder and carnage until the earth shamans arose and led their people to revolt against their creator.

Across both editions, despite their reverence for elemental and primal magic, tareks hate arcane magic. Okay, that's nothing ''new'' on Athas, but tareks '''really''' hate magic; they go out of their way to destroy [[Defiler (Dark Sun)|Defilers]] and will chase away any other kind of mage who they discover near their territory. They also despise [[Elf|elves]], for their associations with magic, and fight bitter wars against the [[gith]] of Athas, whose habit of living underground in hill country and mountain lairs has led the tarek to denounce them as defilers of the earth.

Realistically, they would also loath the few pro-magic races of Athas, such as [[reggelid]]s and [[jozhal]], but this isn't mentioned in their monster writeup.