Editing Thri-kreen (section)

==Thri-kreen Psychology==
The psychology of the thri-kreen is very alien at a glance; the most in-depth source is the [[splatbook]] "Thri-Kreen of Athas", which breaks it down in exhaustive details, with subsequent publications largely condensing this information into more succinct points.

The two most important elements of thri-kreen psychology are this: they are natural predators, and they have a collective racial memory. The result is a strongly proactive goal-orientated mindset combined with a natural pack mentality; thri-kreen are individuals, but they have a strong instinctive need to belong to a group.

As part of this, thri-kreen are instinctively predisposed to look out for their social unit.

===Social Instincts===
Thri-kreen are not a hive-minded species but they do have, as mentioned, an extremely strong social instinct based out of their collective memory, predatory nature, and general "pack mentality".
 
The basis of thri-kreen society is "the clutch" - a group of individuals that are united as a single social unit. Thri-kreen form a "birth-clutch" upon hatching as the juvenile kreen instinctively band together to hunt for food and fend off predators. Upon maturing, kreen usually form at least one other clutch with other individuals they have come to trust, like and respect.

The clutch is the very foundation of thri-kreen society; a thri-kreen without a clutch is alone, lost and instinctively driven to find a new clutch to belong to. This is the most common source of thri-kreen [[adventurer]]s.

"The pack" is the next step up from a clutch, and is made of multiple clutches working together, usually due to being interrelated. At the very least, each individual kreen in a pack belongs to at least two of the clutches simultaneously. The map of overlapping relationships can, frankly, be pretty confusing, and Thri-Kreen of Athas includes an attempt at a map of the pack structure.

Clutches are not egalitarian. The term TKoA uses to describe them is "democratic tyranny"; there is a distinct chain of dominance in the pack based on strength, skills, abilities, and even direct combat to determine who is stronger, and the clutch-leader expects to be obeyed implicitly. But, in counter, the clutch expects - ''demands'' - that the clutch-leader be strong and look out for their followers. Combined with their strong collective instincts, and thri-kreen don't engage in the "passing the buck" behavior of most humanoid hierarchies; the clutch-leader either specifically tells somebody to do something because they're seen as the best choice for it, or the clutch-leader gives a general order and whichever thri-kreen feels they are best suited to do it just steps up and does it.

Whilst the "law of the clutch" is instinctive to all thri-kreen, TKoA does include a writeup of it in a sidebar, to cover how a thri-kreen might explain it if they were asked to put it into words:

* Protect and aid the clutch and other clutchmates.
* Practice the hunt and other skills needed for survival.
* In all cases when aid of any kind is required or requested, give first consideration to clutchmates, then to packmates, then to other kreen, then to other intelligent life, then to prey.
* Follow the orders of the clutchleader.
* For the good of the clutch, challenge the clutchleader who becomes weak, and be ready to assume leadership of the clutch from a weak leader.
* Offer advice to the clutchleader, in case there is knowledge the leader does not possess.
* Accept the results of a challenge without argument. There is no shame in being a clutchsecond, or even in being the weakest member of a clutch. Just as somebody must be the most powerful in a clutch, so must somebody be weakest. It is enough to belong to the clutch.

In general, being a good clutchmate simply requires you to help the clutch survive and prosper.

Thri-kreen rarely break clutch bonds amongst themselves, although it can happen - usually when two members of a clutch decide they have very different goals and plans. Even then, formally severing the clutch bond is rarely taken, and when it does, often leads to fights. Non-kreen clutchmates are much more likely to be abandoned or expelled from the clutch, largely because the thri-kreen realize that humanoids don't think the way they do and so they are held to a lesser standard; sometimes, mistakes are made with non-kreen, and clutch-bonding with one was a mistake, the best way to fix it is to end it.

===Predatory Instincts===
Hunting is ''everything'' to thri-kreen. They live to hunt, and the typical thri-kreen clutch spends its time either preparing to hunt, hunting, or responding to the outcome of the last hunt.

Virtually any unintelligent animal is seen as potential prey to a thri-kreen, helped by the fact that their strangely shaped bodies and high speed means they have little need for steeds, and their lifestyle makes domesticated animals of little use.

Eating sapients is... not strictly ''taboo'', at least not on Athas, but it's not a thri-kreen's first choice. In TKoA, they explicitly don't ''mind'' eating sapients, since thri-kreen basically don't view anything outside of their clutch or pack as "people", but the risk to reward ratio is too imbalanced towards the "risk" aspect to make hunting sapient prey practical. Odds are the prey will escape, turn and successfully fight, or escape and ''then'' get its friends to come and hunt the thri-kreen right back. No, thri-kreen only hunt sapients when they're hungry... and, when they're desperate, the more savage thri-kreen clutches will even hunt each other. Starvation can even cause the dissolation of a pack, as the clutches turn on each other in their hunger for food.

According to Thri-Kreen of Athas, the hierarchy of thri-kreen dietary preference is, in descending order:
* Fresh meat from an unintelligent mammal or reptile.
* Fresh meat from an insect, arachnid or arthropod.
* Dried food.
* City food.
* Flesh from non-kreen sapients.
* Carrion.
* Flesh from other thri-kreen.