Scelorus (SKEEL or ohs)

Anbar's Lizardmen

The desert cousins of the swamp dwelling Lizardfolk throughout Aldern, the Scelorus are natives to the Desert of Anbar. The largest population being in Amber Wastes of that great desert's north, along the southern border of Tinjir.

These desert nomads travel in established routes through the year, hunting, gathering, and resting. At the end of each travel they will dig below the sands into buried Elf ruins that they have hallowed for shelter and a place for gathering underground water. The entire community moves in these travels, never staying more than a few days in one of these ruins before moving to the next. These routes are traveled so often through generations that it is second nature to the people, with an almost compulsorily need to follow.

A territorial people, the Scelorus claim ownership of the ruins their tribe cleared out generation before. Unlike many of the other lizardfolk, the Scelorus tribes' territories overlap in regard to travel routes, with many tribes meeting and trading during their yearly migrations. Territorial claims only apply to the ruin outposts, with others of their kind knowing full which are controlled by their own tribe and with are to be avoided. Scelorus arriving at a site to find anyone within, other lizardfolk or not, will attack the intruders on sight. This is more often a group of adventurous, travelers, or explorers that have stumbled onto, or followed an ancient map to find the ruins. The Scelorus mindset is that it is their territory, and they are defending their right to it.

Natural diggers these lizardfolk will travel just below the surface in the shifting sands and loose soil during the day. Many a desert traveler has been spooked seeing strange clusters of shifting ground moving while the surrounding sand stand still. During the cooler days of the winter months the Scelorus will travel on the surface to gain more of the sunlight through the day. This causes winter to be the best months for one to encounter these elusive people.

The Scelorus are a relatively peaceful people when encountering other races on the surface. They are frienldly with the Lhakamen that dwell with them in the desert. More than one group of adventurers lost in the vast sands of Anbar have found themselves surrounded by these lizardfolk, only to discover that the Scelorus have brought them much needed water. The tribe will quickly vanish into the sands once more.

The exception of this peaceful nature is, as stated before, when intruders enter their ruins. This is never tolerated, even by those the tribe as called friends in the past. To the Scelorus these people should know better than any. This mindset goes in reverse as well, with these lizardfolk never entering a camp or town of other races in fear of being attacked. A wise fear to have, as they are often seen as monsters to those unfamiliar to their kind.

The other exception to this peaceful nature is the Orc. The Scelorus have a deep hatred for the orc dating back to at least the Horde Storm Invasions where the Scelorus by the invaders. Orcs seemed to relish in hunting these lizardfolk, wearing their hides and skulls as trophies. This tradition holds strong today with the orcs of Tinjir. The Ubed Orchold are especially cruel, tracking deep into the Amber Wastes in hunting parties to get Scelorus skulls and meat. While less aggressive, the Taba Orchold and Tostag Orchold will still kill Scelorus encountered. Taba orc fashion favors Scelorus hide garments.

Scelorus are taller than must others of the lizard folk kind, standing near 7 feet tall in adulthood. Their scales range from a yellow do a deep brown, with females often having a pink hue, while males can have a deep red. Green highlights appear in some of the larger alpha males and is considered an exotic desirable beauty. Males have a unique feature among their people, that is not found in other lizardfolk kind. The Scelorus males sport small wings on their back. Unable to fly with them, they are largely used in mating, with males spreading the wings to impress a female. They can also be spread during combat to try to intimidate a foe.

While these lizardfolk can learn to understand other races spoken languages, their tongues and throats were not developed to recreate these sounds. In turn, other races have never been able to learn or understand the subtle clicks, hisses, and grunts that make o the Scelorus's communication. As such the Scelorus and Lhakamen of the desert have developed a sign language over the generations known as the Anbar Hand. Every Scelorus is taught this language at an early age, the tribe knowing well it will come in handy to communicate with outsiders at some point in life.

Ability Score Modifiers:

A Scelorus can increase the Constitution by 2 and increase a different score by 1

Alignment: Scelorus, like many lizardfolk struggle with understanding morals, as such nearly all seem to tend toward a neutral alignment. They do understand and appreciate the struggles of the desert and many tribes come to favor a good alignment. A people of tradition many Scelorus fall into a lawful alignment.

Age: Sshalke have a similar lifespan as a human, thus live about a century at best.

Size: (Medium) Like all lizardfolk, Scelorus are comparable to humans in size though often the tallest of their kind. 7 feet is considered tall for a male, with females reaching about 6 feet tall on average.

Speed: 30

Bite: Lizardfolk have sharp teeth which, if unarmed, can be use as an effective weapon. This is a slashing attack of 1d6+str bonus. Scelorus is slightly toxic, adding +1d6 damage if a natural 20 is rolled in the attack.

Deep Lungs: A Scelorus, though spending much of their time underground, in the shifting sands and loose soil of the desert, they can hold their breaths for up to 15 minutes before needing to surface to refill their lungs.

Scaled Flesh: The scales of a Scelorus are tougher than others of their kind, granting an base AC of 14+dex bonus if they are not wearing armor.

Connected with Nature: Sshalke's connection with nature allows them to learn two of the following skills: Animal Handling, Medicane, Nature, Perception, Stealth, or Survival.

Language: Scelorus has no name for their langauge, nor has any ever been able to understand the subtle sounds of it. All Scelorus learn the Anbar Hand to communicate with outsiders. Those Scelorus that do spead time communicating with the world beyond will often learn to understand (but not speak) the Common Tongue or other local language they may need.