Lizardfolk

the Kursudu

Primal humanoids from the dawn of recorded history, the kursudu are a race most simply call the lizardfolk. These reclusive reptilians, though native to the marshes of western Jerain, have migrated across the Cota Ocean as far as the continents of Dergonhad and Uluru. Considered primitive by most, the kursudu actively avoid contact with the other races around them. Those few communities that have established contact and trade with nearby settlements, have only done so through years, if not generations, of building trust. Something that can be undone with a single act of dishonesty or misunderstanding.

Lizardfolk are cold-blooded, meaning they cannot regulate their body temperature internally. As such, they are primarily found in warmer climates regions and can be sluggish at night.

Lizardfolk females lay eggs singly, and in general lay only a single egg each year. Kursudu do not nurse their young, and as such their females do not develop breast like other races of intelligent life. They feed their young pulped plants and insect meat from birth, transitioning to animal meant in adulthood. Young lizardfolk are considered adults at 10 years of age and grow to full size by the age of twenty.

Lizardfolk are a territorial people. Foreigners in their controlled region are unwelcome, this usually extends to other tribes of their own kind. The kursudu are not a people of traditional morality in regard to good or evil. The world just is. They consider all outside of themselves as fair game in the 'circle of life.' A human wandering in their lands is as much a game animal as a deer, to be hunted and eaten. This can, though rarely, extend to others of their own kind. If food is needed, there is no moral standard to resist.

This territorial nature causes them to rarely venture beyond their own lands. For it is not theirs to walk. There is also the mental factor of believing they will be hunted and consumed by others should they do so, as they would to any entering their lands. There is a truth to this point of view, as those rare kursudu that do seek to world beyond their own, learn quickly that that world is harsh. Few know of their kind as anything other than cradle-tales to scare children. Those that know the lizardfolk to be a reality, usually only know of them as creatures from the swamps. They will be seen as monsters by most commoners. A kursudu adventurer is advised to avoid populations when traveling. Those rare communities that do know of, and are accepting of, the lizard folk are those that border their swamplands.

Though there are generalities of the lizardfolk, and the above information is accurate to their overall culture, these people are as varied as any other. Most are are based out of small tribal villages hidden at the center of their territory, some however control vast tracts of their region. The kursudu of the swamps of Char'wyn ignore boats and ships traveling through their waterways, while those in Loslands swamps view ships as portable buffets of meat and loot. The kursudu of Uluru are a nomadic people, their tribes, ever moving, and do not have the same view of territorial control as their Ethae kin. Any that cross their path are game to them. On Dergonhad, lizardfolk have thrived, and tribes gather into what some could call kingdoms. In these several tribes submitting to a dominate tribe and their chieftain. These lizard kingdoms trade and establish treaties with the outside human nations.

Show spoiler

Kursudu ethnic groups of Aldern list:

Sarhareia: Natives of the Sarhara.

Sarovi: Natives of the Drawl Fens.

Scelorus: Natives of the Desert of Anbar.

Sshalke: Natives of the Chambray.