Story: Haikjadeam History
One of the elder races of Tikol, the Haikjadeam existed back when there was a land bridge between Tikol and the Lensmoor Mainland. The snake-skinned Haikjadeam lived not in the treetops, but in dirty jungle dwellings. Being cold-blooded they had to leave the jungles, to the exposed planes to sun themselves during which time they were vulnerable to attacks.
Since the earliest time in history they were at war with their Lizardman cousins who also populated the isle at the time. Ruthlessly territorial as the Lizardmen are, they attempted to drive the Haikjadeam into extinction.
During this perilous time, their culture was not quite as it is today. A great chief ruled over them and saw to it that they were kept together and safe. At that time males and females were considered equal among them, and social standing was based off a complicated system, the details of which have been lost to time.
Many saw the flaws in his strategies throughout the war, but time and time again those who challenged him failed and died in duels. There was no council of elders to govern these things, merely a ritual that had to be performed publicly prior to the challenge and execution of the duel.
However, one day the chief was challenged by a female, something that until that point was unheard of. This, Battle Maiden as history would call her slew the chief and reorganized the troops as she saw fit. The elders females were taken off of the hunting parties and organized into a council to govern the people. The most controversial move she had made them do however was to build small huts in the trees so they would no longer be vulnerable as they slept, and atop the trees they would receive the sun at all times of day, no longer needing to go out and sun themselves.
The Battle Maiden’s leadership paid off and the Haikjadeam baffled the Lizardmen as to their whereabouts. As with most creatures, the Lizardmen did not think to look in the trees for their prey, and in their zeal to hunt they fell into an ambush. The Battle Maiden lead the Haikjadeam to victory in a heroic battle. Those few Lizardmen who were not slain retreated to the mainland of Lensmoor, their settlements abandoned and left to crumble into dust.
The Battle Maiden was proclaimed Queen by the elder females she had saved. With her authority as Queen the old chief’s position was dissolved as was many of the old rituals. In time, over generations, new rituals were created and a new culture arose. The small collection of treetop huts became the city of Hassis, capital of the Haikjadeam.
Centuries past and the Haikjadeam remained isolated in the jungle corner of Tikol; having nothing to do with the affairs of outsiders they lived peacefully and continued to build their culture. It was only decades after the completion of Hassis that the Gnomes made first contact with them. At first they viewed the Gnomes as potential threats, but in time they welcomed the Gnomes as valued trading partners. It was through that partnership that the Haikjadeam finally began to open up to the rest of Lensmoor.
Even with trade in full-swing, the Haikjadeam sitting queen in each generation, ensuring that her people could put themselves first, maintained the neutrality that kept her race out of the endless human conflicts that covered Lensmoor for decades.
Finally, after the destruction of Old Lensmoor, when the gods declared that the other races would join together and aid the humans in building a New Lensmoor, a few volunteers came forth to do just that. These volunteers brought back stories that would excite the generations to come, and so every once in a while a few Haikjadeam depart Hassis seeking adventure in the lands of adventure that were spoken of in stories.
