Shiawass

Shiawass is a Siv lord — a senior figure in the The Siv order of frog-monks who guard the Spirit Road and the Oghrann Gates. He is currently operating from Sschindylryn, a drow city in the north Underdark, directing the Siv's surface operations from the safety of the underground.

The Siv and the Spirit Road

The Siv are described as the Illuminati of the swamp — a reclusive order whose influence runs far deeper than most outsiders suspect. Their primary function is guarding the Spirit Road, the etheric pocket dimension where the Swamp Gods reside, and the Oghrann Gates through which it is accessed. They oppose the Church of the Silverwing Serpent — the earthly arm of Dambastra, the swamp god of lies and secrets — and seek to free Papa Croakus from Irungarten captivity to restore natural balance to the swamp pantheon.

Sschindylryn and Underdark Operations

Shiawass relocated to Sschindylryn for reasons that are not entirely public. The Underdark provides certain operational advantages: distance from the surface conflicts that have destabilised the Farseas, access to the drow's networks and resources, and a defensible position from which to manage the Siv's activities without constant exposure.

Sschindylryn is a complex environment. The drow who govern the city employ the Zhentarim as contractors, which in turn provides the The Black Circle's Manshoon clone — who runs the Zhentarim's resurgent operations — with additional resources and reach. The city also employs stone giant tribes who keep fomorians enslaved in chains as labor and muscle, and wyverns are kept underground in the northern reaches by Zhentarim skymages and drow handlers — a precaution against their reappearance on the surface, where the old Mir barbarians wyvern-riding traditions could be resurrected by anyone with the means to claim them.

Shiawass operates within this web of competing powers, maintaining the Siv's independence while drawing on the Underdark's resources and cover.

Harboring Yorick Osrin

The most significant thing Shiawass has done recently — from the surface world's perspective — is protect Yorick Osrin. When Yorick survived Carcenjo Foxmantle II's assassination attempt, Shiawass provided refuge and concealment in Sschindylryn, allowing the surface world to believe Yorick dead.

Following adventurers' resurrection of Aromarr Osrin from the Spirit Road, Aromarr was brought to Sschindylryn and reunited with his father. Both Yorick and Aromarr remain under Shiawass's protection. The current head of House Osrin, Chanteclair Osrin, does not know Yorick is alive.

Why Shiawass chose to protect the Osrins in this manner — and what he expects in return — are questions whose answers remain in the deep underground.