The Dark Peak Bestiary
The xin are biologically altered insectoid frogs with a strong set of hind legs and two pairs of forearms, the second of which has adapted so that it can be used interchangeably as legs. Standing upright, they are roughly the same size as humans, with the same sort of height and weight distribution, although older and richer xin can become extremely fat. Like insects, they have multiple eyes.
They are a very warlike race and although they have some technology, it is not very developed and their most advanced weaponry is similar to that of the nethermen. They prefer warring against themselves in the swamps and highlands of The Dark Peak, and rather than firearms would rather use swords and spears in hand-to-hand combat.
The xin are nomadic and use cryptobite as their heavy dray animals, when travelling between their communities and the home of the imperial xin ruler in The Swamp. Cryptobites also provide silk, which is used to produce clothing, sleeping material and can be used as a type of building material - used in the construction of xin tents (yurts).
For more mobile attacks on other xin encampments, or when out hunting, the xin use mentiloth. Mentiloth mares and female cryptobites are a source of milk for the xin. Both species are also useful in different ways for medical products, as are numerous plants found in The Dark Peak that the xin have been able to utilise and master, giving them exceptional expertise in wound healing, and prolonging their life spans to several hundred years.
The xin never come into Hellsborough. The nearest they get is the Stanninxin who live on the plain above the Wisewood at Stannington. They occasionally run into the nascenti if they venture down to the valley bottoms, but this is rare, and as the nascenti are reclusive, encounters are the exception, and would likely end in nothing as the xin know that to incur the wrath of the nascenti would not be in their best interests.
The xin will attack clowns, if the latter stray into their territory, mainly to plunder their airships for food, equipment and furs, and take hostages for further barter; but they do not (usually) actively raid clown territory.
The xin will entertain xaexs, and may even employ them as mercenaries should the need arise.
Like all races in The Dark Peak the xin are hatched from eggs, and like the nascenti, the xin do not know their parentage as they are raised en-mass in creches. It is not known exactly how many xin exist, but most tribes -- of which there are several -- number a thousand individuals.