a) Woot, yes, designers who preffer the original boxed set and mystery deserve much fluffy non-tarrasque bunny luv!
Veyr happy to hear the core original is the template, not what came after
b) Well, if you mix what Kobold Avenger and Eric said, why not have the vilichii as the Devas? solves that issue. hey maybe there are male vilichii but just weren't known about before?
c) That take on the dray/dragonborn works for me
Dark SUn is jsut so damn weird that fitting races/classes in is not really a problem most of the time, for me, it's just sorting out the flavour of them not the mechanics, and in a world so damn "raw", riddled with corrovie magic, and brutal darwinism, well...just about anything could evolve, mutate or be made out in the wastes or in the "Making pits" of the sorceror kings, or through the will of defilers or psionicists...
I tend ot think Hamanu would have major programs o create more "war creatures" didn't he have giant undead war beetle seige weapon platforms, for example?