Ranid came to be torn between two sects of the same Amphibiot religion, the frog faith and the salamander one. He began as a researcher in the archives of the frog-worshipers but discovered their founder was a fraudulent, ambiguous person. Escaping into the swamps, Ranid joins a salamander community. He saves this cult from a conspiracy of mystics and defeats a mosquito contagion. Rand evolves into a unity-minded combiner dedicated to consolidating the two faiths.