Ekerri wished to conquer the Ascended realms. He was concerned that during this was in the Heavensm, competition could arise on the terrestrial plane, so he created the Aqrabuamelu to maintain his power. After the disappointment of the drow, he programmed with a more sophisticated religion, he was Utu-on-Earth, the avatar of their deity. In addition, he added a promise of hell (Kur) and refdemption by a mythical goddess (Innana) after in order to keep their morale high as he used them. Their goddess, when returned, would free them from the need to use magic to reproduce amongs themselves. When they breed with humans, they would produce other humans. The Aqrabuamelu know, in fact, that this is programming but are unable to deviate from it. Thus they preserve their intellectual capacity but are still controlled.
During the interregnum, they lost their ability to shapeshift and also lost the ability to steal strength from enemies by eating them. Culturally they have a High Priestess who is the leader of the people and practice ritual cannibalism among other rights. Their ceremonies are not formally ritualized and thus vary significantly for different time periods. They typically look Middle Eastern with a slight reddish cast to their skin, and can innately transform between human and half-human/half-scorpion shapes.