Homebrew Lustrian Lizardman Species Details

"Before Elves, before Dwarfs, before Men, the Old Ones arrived upon this world. Then came Chaos and the Great Plan of the Old Ones was unmade. We are the last of their servants, and only by our hand shall the Great Plan be restored, with the total defeat of the usurping younger races."

— Inscription upon the eastern boundary stone of the temple-city of Hexoatl.

The Lizardmen, sometimes known as the Cold Ones or the Children of the Gods, are an ancient, savage, intelligent race of cold-blooded, reptilian humanoids that were at one time the first and oldest civilisation of the World. Long before the rise of Men, Elves, or Dwarf, the empire of the Lizardmen ruled supreme.

Alien, enigmatic, and without mercy, the Lizardmen were there when it all began and will be there when the world draws its last dying breath, never tiring nor relenting until order is finally restored to this uncaring, chaotic world. Such is what they were made to do, for they are the ancient servants of the Old Ones, the one true protectors of this very world.

Once, in a long and forgotten age, the Lizardmen ruled over it all, dominating this ancient world during an age of primeval monsters. Although their realm is now partly in ruins and overgrown, they seek once more to rise up and reclaim that which they have lost many millennia ago. While the task at hand remains near impossible, the empire of the Lizardmen still fights on -- unleashing their cold-blooded savagery upon any who would stand in the way of their sacred mission.

From the lush jungles they come, beneath totems of gold, the Lizardmen march to war, the ground trembling from the approach of their large and mighty reptilian armies. They go to battle for reasons indecipherable to others, an ancient plan known only to themselves.

None can ever understand their motives nor their ceaseless drive, for none truly understand that they are the rightful inheritors of the world. It is their sacred, if inscrutable, duty to restore order across the planet. If this means the wholesale eradication of the lesser upstart races outside of the Great Plan, then the Lizardmen empire shall enact this world-spanning genocide once more.

Defenders of the World

The Lizardmen are all ruled by the mystical Slann, the most intelligent and powerful of the Lizardmen. It is they who rule the other Lizardmen as a sacred caste of powerful magic-users, each one bearing the title of Mage-Priests. The Mage-Priest are in all practicality, the political and religious leaders of their entire civilization. All of the Slann living to this very day belong to this sacred caste, because they all possess the ancient intellect and magical powers bred into their race by the Old Ones of a halcyon age.

However, all of the Slann that are alive today are only the descendants of those that have seen the Old Ones in person. Those that actually came with the Old Ones are already long dead and their relics lost to time. Within the hierarchy of the Mage-Priest caste, the oldest of the Slann are the most powerful within their caste, each of which are divided into five spawnings in descending order in relations to power and importance.

Those of the First Spawning are the greatest and most powerful of them all. Unfortunately, all of them have since died out, leaving the Second Spawning to claim the title of Lord Mage-Priest. There are only five Lords left in existence, but each one reigns over one of the great and major Temple-Cities of the Lizardmen Empire. The Slann of the Third Spawning, known as Master Mage-Priest, are twice as many in numbers and rule the lesser Pyramid-Temples within the Lizardmen realm. The Slann of the Forth Spawning are known as Mage Champions and serve as the generals and leaders of the Lizardmen army in times of war. The Fifth Spawning is the most numerous and are the most energetic and alert of them all. They also occupy the lowest position within their caste and only carry the simple title of Mage-Priest.

Protectors of Lustria

Lustria is a large, tropical continent located within the southern hemisphere of the New World and is considered to be the rightful domain of the Lizardmen race. For long ages of the world, the mysterious continent of Lustria has remained hidden to outsiders. This is not by accident or by some geographical oddity, but rather by strongly maintained magical wards, enchantments which disorient intruders. Those that manage to pass through the unseen barriers find other dangers — Lustria’s coasts are home to treacherous tides, unnatural eddies and typhoons of great power. In its clear blue waters lurk scaled reptilian beasts whose jaws can splinter a ship’s hull.

While the waters surrounding Lustria are perilous, the whole of the enormous continent is one of the most hostile regions in the entire world. The majority of its landmass is covered in jungle, a dark abode where death comes in myriad guises. Mighty, prehistoric carnivores rule the forests — some actively stalking their prey, while others lurk in ambush, awaiting whatever wanders close. No less deadly are the jungle’s smaller killers; everywhere, debilitating parasites lurk, awaiting their opportunity to latch onto a new host, and the humid air buzzes with swarms of blood-sucking insects so voracious they can exsanguinate a man before his body can collapse to the forest floor.

Only the Lizardmen and other cold-blooded creatures can endure the stifling heat and humidity for long; other races eventually sicken and die. To its native Lizardmen, however, Lustria is a haven — a deathtrap to invaders and a bulwark against the disorder set loose in the world with the coming of Chaos. Lustria contains mighty rivers, vast tracts of unbroken swampland, arid deserts, soaring mountains and a vast and fertile plain - deep grasslands and savannahs that stretch beyond the horizon. Yet one feature dominates all others.

Military Might

Since the days of their creation, the Lizardmen have been at the forefront of the battle for the world’s survival. Their armies are anchored by savage warriors spawned for the sole purpose of war and augmented with titanic reptilian beasts whose tread shakes the earth. Their enigmatic leaders are powerful wizards and wield magics beyond the ken of mere mortals. From deep within the steaming jungles of Lustria, the Lizardmen sound the drums of war while gargantuan creatures from a primordial past bellow their blood-rage.

From temple-cities and overgrown ruins, they issue forth to defend their ancient civilization or to unleash their cold-blooded savagery upon the world. Merciless and relentless, the Lizardmen will not stop until all their foes are dead and the entire world re-ordered according to their ancient plan. A Lizardmen host deployed for battle is a formidable sight. A screen of nimble skirmishers spreads out first, followed by rank after rank of merciless warriors. They are guided by the mightiest of mages and their war leaders are battle-scarred veterans who will fight to the bitter end. In the air above, winged beasts screech, while out of the jungles stomp hulking reptilian monsters; pitiless, savage creatures of an elder age. Yet the Lizardmen do not war for plunder or territory, but instead fight for a higher cause — a world order laid out ages ago by their long-lost cosmic masters.

In times of war, a Temple-City often has a standing army to protect it from harm or to march out and eliminate their foes on the field of battle. The Saurus typically form the core of the Lizardmen armies, for their sole purpose in life was to be trained as powerful and fearless warriors. Alongside these mighty reptiles, cohorts of Skinks are often called up to aid the army as a force of dedicated scouts and skirmishers, able to navigate the lush jungles of Lustria with extreme ease. Alongside these small Skinks come the massive Kroxigors, whom are often given the duty of hauling equipment and heavy machinery or sent into the fray as powerful shock infantry.

Yet it isn't these mighty warriors that truly evokes fear upon their enemies, but rather the mighty reptilian beasts that fight alongside them. From mighty Carnosaurs to hulking Stegadons, these massive reptilian monsters have proven themselves time and again as powerful allies for the Lizardmen's cause. Yet even above these mighty beasts comes the true power of the Lizardmen. From above the fighting, the mystical Slann unleashes magic so powerful that it is liken to that of Gods, hurling powerful lightning-storms or massive meteorites against their enemy with an ease that belie imagination. The Slann are truly intelligent beyond mortal comprehension, able to foresee the outcome of a battle long before it has even begun. It is said that so long as a Slann leads them on their campaign, the Lizardmen cohorts are reassured of ultimate and glorious victory time and again.

Society

The society of the Lizardmen is highly sophisticated and ancient beyond reckoning. It was they who first became the world's first true civilisations, erecting their cities of ancient stone long before the rise of Men, Elf or Dwarf. It was they who once ruled the world as the most dominant civilisation, eradicating whole species of undesirables from the face of the earth and writing down ancient mathematics and astronomy upon chiseled tablets of stone long before mortals even learned how to write.

While many other civilisations have arisen and fallen over the long millennium, it is the Lizardmen who have truly endured throughout all the ages, having been there from the birth of creation unto its final lasting day. Even throughout all this time, Lizardmen society has remained unchanged for millennium, being focused around a highly structured and strictly enforced caste system. This caste system was built and formed by the orders of the Old Ones, whom themselves created each of the separate Lizardmen species to fulfil a certain role in their society.

Each and every core species is born into one of these castes. The Lizardmen are taught and perhaps bred to be fanatically loyal to their respective duties, offering little room for any sense of individuality or freedom of thought amongst their kind. Within the system, each caste is composed strictly of one or two of the core species meant to fulfill an extremely important part of Lizardmen society as dictated by the Old Ones instructions, either as workers, warriors or rulers.

Religion

The Lizardmen all revere the Old Ones as all-mighty deities, the ancient and long forgotten creators of this very world. Many long, bloody millennia have passed since the collapse of the polar gates and the departure of the Old Ones. No living Slann Mage-Priest remains to speak of them and so they passed from memory into legend. Ever since then, the enigmatic Old Ones have come to be regarded not as benevolent rulers of an order spanning the universe and the dimensions, but now as a distant, long-lost pantheon of hungry Gods.

With no first hand knowledge of the Old Ones, and with their records scattered and incomplete since the Great Catastrophe, the Lizardmen have but a fragmented picture of their creators. The sacred plaques are replete with oblique and obscure references to various Old Ones and their deeds, and from these the Lizardmen have come to associate specific traits with individual Old Ones. Tlanxa, for example, is an Old One described in many glyphs as the embodiment of the warlike nature of the Lizardmen, and a pair of matching glyphs sequence in Hexoatl and Itza make reference to him riding to war in a all-mighty sky-chariot.

Quetli is spoken of in the sacred plaques of Hexoatl as the "Protector of the True Way". Xhotl, the Old One after which the temple-city is named, is described in every sequence that mentions him as the chooser of those destined for greatness. As the Lizardmen have come into conflict with more and more races, those Old Ones associated with the martial aspects of the Lizardmen's nature have come to the fore.

Language

The Lizardmen language known as Saurian is a primeval reptilian tongue. It is almost unpronounceable for any race other than the Lizardmen to speak, due in part because it contains so many unique sounds that can't be spoken in other tongues. Only a Lizardmen can voice these or interpret them as words or sentences. The Lizardmen's written language is much more understandable, mainly being composed upon glyphs chiseled unto bare stone or gold. It is doubtful whether the Saurian tongue was spoken by the Old Ones as they probably communicated with the Slann by means of telepathy. As such, many scholars believe that the Saurian language is one unique to the Lizardmen race.

Lustrian Lizardman Traits

The mighty Lizardmen of the beautiful jungles of Lustria are masters of nature, and are dedicated to fighting chaos wherever it appears.

Age

Lizardmen are an old race, able to live for thousands of years. Each race ages different; Skinks and their fellow Chameleon Skinks usually can only last a few thousand years. Saurus, Kroxigor, and the Slann are capable of living forever, being effectively ageless.