Firenewt

Greyhawk Creature

Firenewt
A firenewt, as depicted in Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun (2001).
General information
Alignment:	Usually neutral evil
Type:	Monstrous humanoid
Subtype:	Fire, reptilian
First appearance:	Fiend Folio (1981)

Firenewts are reptilian humanoids who dwell in regions of great heat. They are cruel raiders and marauders.

Ecology

Firenewts are thought to be distant relatives of lizardfolk, the product of either natural evolution or deliberate magical tampering.

They breed and train ostrichlike reptilian birds known as giant striders.

Firenewts are carnivores who prefer to dine on the flesh of humans and other humanoids, though they will also eat herd animals and even rodents if need be. They enjoy human flesh most, followed by elves, dwarves, and then everything else. They believe that torturing their prey to death makes it tastier.

Environment

Firenewts generally dwell in volcanic environments, but can be encountered in any region with sufficiently hot temperatures, such as deserts. They cannot abide cold desert nights and take shelter around a heat source (such as giant strider droppings) until at least a few hours after sunrise. They dwell in the Hellfurnaces, where they serve red dragons, and nearby in the Sea of Dust.

Vast armies of firenewts struggle to occupy any islands of solid matter in the Elemental Plane of Fire.

Typical physical characteristics

Firenewts are scaly, reptilian humanoids about the same size as humans. They have mottled dark or grayish brown hides, darkest along their spines and fading to white on their bellies. Their knees are, from the perspective of humanity, reversed. Their eyes are large orbs as dark as night.

Firenewt eggs are guarded by the priests and kept warm near volcanic vents or in giant strider dung, along with the eggs of their giant strider mounts. Those who fail to hatch quickly may be killed by the priests, though this is a rare occurrence normally used as an excuse to slay the children of rivals.

Alignment

Firenewts are usually neutral evil.

Society

Firenewts are sadistic creatures who delight in torture and murder. They live in tribes that almost never get along with one another, and in fact firenewts are at war with one another as often as with any other species. It is a great honor for them to destroy the eggs of rival tribes.

A firenewt tribe is ruled by its most charismatic member, called the overlord, who plans raids, assigns warriors to watch various trade routes, and ensure that the members of the tribe are properly trained. Priests run most of the tribe's day-to-day activities.

Those firenewts found guilty of crimes, such as stealing food or murdering fellow members of the tribe, are tortured for at least three days and then fed to their own mounts.

Firenewt tend not to remain in relationships with their mates for very long.

Religion

Firenewts worship Pyremius and Kossuth, fashioning great golden idols in the hope of currying their deity's favor.

Language

Firenewts speak Draconic.

Creative origins

The firenewt was created by Albie Fiore for White Dwarf magazine, and published in the original Fiend Folio tome.

Bibliography

• Cook, Monte with William W. Connors. The Inner Planes. Renton, WA: TSR, 1998.

• Culotta, Paul F. "The Ecologies of the Firenewt & Giant Strider." Dragon #257. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1999.

• Greenwood, Ed, Eric L Boyd, and Darrin Drader. Serpent Kingdoms. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2004.

• Holian, Gary, Erik Mona, Sean K Reynolds, and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000.

• Reynolds, Sean K. The Scarlet Brotherhood. Renton, WA: TSR, 1999.

• Turnbull, Don, ed. Fiend Folio. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1981.

• Wyatt, James, and Rob Heinsoo. Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2001.

  Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image
Firenewt	Monster		Fiend Folio, AD&D 1e	36, 37
Firenewt	Monster		GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders	18
Firenewt	Monster		GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders: Map/Monster Booklet	10
Firenewt	Monster		Monstrous Compendium - 1996 Annual, Volume 3	46
Firenewt	Monster		MC3 - Monstrous Compendium - Forgotten Realms Appendix 1	Insert (Firenewt)
Firenewt	Monster		White Dwarf #040	28
Firenewt	Monster		World of Greyhawk boxed set (1983)	14, 15
Hrussiall'k (Firenewt)	Deity		White Dwarf #040	28