Editing Sis'thik

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'''Sis'thik''', also known as ''The Desert Scourge'', are a race of nomadic [[lizardfolk]] native to the desert regions of [[Mystara]]. They debuted in the [[Dungeons & Dragons|BECMI]] [[Monster Manual]] AC9: Creature Catalogue, and were updated to [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 2nd Edition in the Mystara Monstrous Compendium Appendix under the subtitle "Lizard-kin (Mystara)", alongside the [[Wallara|Chameleon Man]], [[Cayma|Cayman]], and [[Gurrash|Gator Man]].

Not much is actually known about the Sis'thik as a result of their limited appearances. What we are told is that they are a proud, warlike people with strong territorial bonds, who demand tolls of obsequious behavior and lavish "gifts" (especially of metal goods, gems, and fine wines) from those who would dare cross their lands. As a result, they are generally bitter enemies of the humans of Mystara's desert regions, who consider them little better than jumped up bandits and often launch purgative campaigns against their tribes. Not helping is that they sometimes forge brief alliances with [[Chromatic Dragon#Blue Dragon|Blue Dragons]] to launch raids on human settlements.

In combat, their most unique traits are their strength, their habit of training xytars (a desert-dwelling species of fire-breathing giant lizard) as war-cavalry, and their strong resistance to fire; in old-school rules, they take no damage from mundane fire and only 1 point per damage die from magical fire.

AD&D does add a few new titbits of lore to them. It establishes thatr they are omnivores, feeding primarily on the flesh of desert dwelling animals and even monsters such as ant lions, camels, jackals, and [[wyvern]]s, but also loving figs, dates and cacti. It also gives them the new lore of considering [[Metallic Dragon#Copper Dragon|Copper Dragon]] flesh to be a delicacy, thus founding a bitter enmity between the two peoples - as [[Metallic Dragon]]s didn't exist in Mystara under the BECMI ruleset, this is purely an AD&D Sis'thik trait.

The oddest trait of the Sis'thik is that they are a very rare example of a matriarchal monstrous humanoid society; females are larger, stronger and smarter than males, who are characterized in both appearances as dull-witted to the point of being barely sapient and largely used only for drudgework and breeding. It says something about the kind of setting that [[Mystara]] is that "[[Amazon]] [[Lizardfolk]] Desert Bandits" isn't even in the top ''twenty'' weirdest races of the setting...

[[Category: Monsters]] [[Category: Mystara]]