Editing Thri-kreen (section)

==Thri-Kreen Religion==
Ironically, despite getting a Wisdom bonus and being able to access the [[Cleric]] and [[Druid]] classes right from their debut as a PC race, thri-kreen are not a very religious people - they don't have patron gods of their own.

The first time that thri-kreen priests are touched upon is, of course, ''Thri-kreen of Athas'', which notes that whilst thri-kreen do have shamans ([[elementalist|elemental priests]]) and druids, they do not technically worship anything; the racial memories tell thri-kreen that the elemental powers are not gods, and whilst they respect the power they hold, the relationship between priest and patron, whether that be elemental or nature spirit, is much more "transactional" than anything - you do what your patron wants, and in return they give you power. Still respectful, but thri-kreen are not religious in the same ways as humans are - you wouldn't encounter a thri-kreen zealot.

Further shaping things is that, due to their racial memory, thri-kreen have an intuitive belief in reincarnation. A thri-kreen lies, dies, and is then reborn, and their collective memories are proof of this.

Despite this, Athasian thri-kreen do have an afterlife system, of sorts. They have a "heaven" called ''Dej'', a vast peaceful place with abundant game that acts as a waystation for thri-kreen souls in between lives, and a "hell" called ''Kano'', guarded by a frozen insectoid monster called "Galug" - actually a distorted racial memory of Caina, the frozen 8th Hell of [[Baator]], and [[Gelugon]]s, the thri-kreen-like ice devils that inhabit Caina.

Of the [[Elementalist|elemental priesthoods]], it's stated the majority of thri-kreen priests serve the power of Earth; their close affinity to hunting and Earth's status as the "element of life" in the Athasian meta-theology makes it a natural tie, and its granted powers are considered the most useful for thri-kreen in hunting and aiding the clutch. Air is also highly respected, thanks to the thri-kreen's nomadic nature, love of freedom, and cultural disposition towards using throwing weapons - air priests are less common than earth priests because the need to scale a mountain as part of the initiation is physically hard for thri-kreen due to their anatomy. Weirdly, thri-kreen can reach a higher level as air priests than they can in other elemental priesthoods, when you'd think they'd favor the ''earth'' priesthood. Water priests are rare, because thri-kreen don't really need to drink and their insectile anatomy makes it easy for them to drown, so most thri-kreen have a mild phobia of water. Fire priests are the rarest of the four elemental priests, because thri-kreen culture has virtually no inherent use for fire - they eat their food raw, they don't use it for warmth, and they don't make anything that needs to be fireproofed, such as clay or metal. Fire priests typically embrace fire for its destructive potential. Even more weirdly, they get no penalty to water priest levels, whilst they do for fire. 

As for the paraelemental priesthoods... thri-kreen who devote themselves to such powers almost always worship the Sun; "a few" follow Rain and "even fewer" worship Magma, implicitly for similar reasons to the fire priests. They never worship Silt. We're never given a level limit for paraelemental priests, because officially those priests were supposed to be NPCs and never PCs.

Thri-kreen [[druid]]s are the most common form of thri-kreen priest in 2e Dark Sun, and almost always adopt a philosophy compatible with the traditional thri-kreen lifestyle. The majority, obviously, devote themselves to the elemental powers of earth or air. In the "Dark Sun for [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition]]" article series in [[Dragon Magazine]] #319, it's stated that thri-kreen are prone to great conflict with [[druid]]s, because the thri-kreen predatory appetite clashes with the druidic focus on preserving and expanding the population of native game. Only elemental clerics are implied to be "normal" for thri-kreen in this 3e Athas, and it's stated simply that they are "respected for their power". The "generic 3e" thri-kreen from the Expanded Psionics Handbook says that thri-kreen strongly favor druidic traditions over deities, with druids serving as their spiritual leaders.

Both Thri-kreen of Athas for 2e and the aforemention article in Dragon #319 for 3e state that thri-kreen never become [[Templar]]s; they think the [[Sorcerer-KIng]]s are unworthy leaders, and the templar tendency towards backstabbing, treachery, abuse, self-gratification and corruption is alien to the thri-kreen's pack-orientated mindset.

The 3e [[Forgotten Realms]] thri-kreen from the 3e Shining South are stated to be largely irreligious, but there are a mixture of thri-kreen druids and clerics of [[Silvanus]], [[Malar]], [[Tempus]] and [[Akadi]].

In [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], or at least in the [[Nentir Vale]] setting, thri-kreen religious views are touched upon briefly in both the [[Monster Manual]] 3 and in "Winning Races: Thri-Kreen" in [[Dragon Magazine]] #411. Like their "Thri-Kreen of Athas" counterparts, thri-kreen are stated to not be a pious race and instead take more of a pragmatic "results-fueled" approach to worship. As a result, they favor the worship of the [[Primal Spirits]] over that of the deities, with two Spirits being particularly important: '''Sand Father''' (a kreen identity for Old Grandfather) is respected as the creator of the thri-kreen, whilst the '''Ancestral Khanate''' is the living embodiment of the thri-kreen racial subconsciousness and collective memory, making it the closest thing they have a racial patron god.