Lizardfolk

"Ancient beyond ancient, their oral traditions stretch back thousands of years and give us perhaps the most vivid descriptions of the earliest days of Eigentica. While certainly colored by myth and superstition, their stories offer a tantalizing glimpse into the pre-Age of Divinity eras... that is, if you can have a conversation with one of them without becoming dinner."

-Wilrose Shiverpike III, Journal of a Tour of Eigentica

Lizardfolk, also called kanaka in their tongue, are an ancestry of semi-aquatic reptilian humanoids who dwell primarily in the swamps and marshes of southeastern Eigentica. They are an ancient and proud species who with very few exceptions remain extremely isolated from the rest of the "civilized" world, choosing instead to shun modern life and live in a more primitive tribal state. While few lizardfolk tribes are outwardly warlike, their distrust of outsiders and fierce protection of their ever-shrinking borders have given them a reputation as a hostile and savage people.

Society

Lizardfolk are among the oldest known peoples on Atarea, and believed by some scholars to have been the first sapient species to come into being. While they never developed (or more likely willfully shunned) a system of writing, they maintain a strong oral tradition which passes down their mythology, history, and tradition through vivid narratives told by their shamans. Due to their isolation and xenophobia, these narratives have very rarely been documented outside of their own cultures. However on rare occasions throughout history scholars have been able to record some of these tales, and found them to be remarkably unchanged even over centuries of repetition. For this reason they are highly valued as glimpses into pre-recorded history, despite being impossible to separate the mythological elements from historical fact.
Lizardfolk tend to remain completely isolated from the rest of the world, living in primitive villages or nomadic tribes in marshes and forests. Occasionally a tribe will engage in some limited trade with nearby towns, but these ventures are often small and very rare. For the most part they prefer to keep to themselves unless provoked, most often by a perceived encroachment on their territory. As civilization pushes further and further into the frontiers of the world, hostile encounters with lizardfolk tribes have become more common.
It is exceedingly rare but not unheard of for lizardfolk to be seen in broader society outside of their tribes. Most often these rare individuals are what other lizardfolk refer to as "eggstolen;" clutches of eggs taken by outsiders and raised in their own culture, either as novelty or an attempt to "civilize."
Lizardfolk view other species as interlopers and harbor a particular hatred of dragonborn, despite (or perhaps partially because of) being commonly mistaken as being a related species.

History

According to their own oral tradition lizardfolk can be traced back to the Primordial Era, before even the first dragons appear in records. Their own stories speak of an ancient lizardfolk kingdom—confusingly also called Kanaka—which existed approximately 3000-4000 years ago during the Primordial Era. This kingdom apparently came into being after repeated conflicts with a group called Utak'xi, of whom frustratingly few details are known. These Utak'xi supposedly regularly abducted lizardfolk and transformed them into foul mockeries of themselves through strange magics. A lizardfolk chieftain named Humkani is said to have united the disparate tribes into one kingdom to march on the Utak'xi, but before they could engage in war the Utak'xi were utterly destroyed by the appearance of a great golden dragon the lizardfolk call Tarakona.
This Kanaka kingdom continued its existence during the Draconic Era until it was conquered and forced into servitude by the black dragon Waikawa. This arrangement came to a destructive end at the onset of the Age of Divinity when the domain of Waikawa was destroyed by the god Paloren. Waikawa was killed and the Kanaka kingdom utterly decimated, leading the lizardfolk to scatter. Those survivors blamed many of their misfortunes on their experiment with civilization and returned to a tribal state.
Over the next thousand or so years lizardfolk became largely irrelevant on a global scale, with their only mentions in historical records involving localized skirmishes with human tribes that began to move into their area. The majority of these skirmishes took place in the the Marromere as the Merending peoples developed their own tribal cultures in the region. By the time the Empire of Räsgard began to expand into the Marromere and Snakewood regions lizardfolk had become all but extinct.
In recent months, a group of lizardfolk known as the Deathscale Tribe on the isle of Kassoth have come into repeated conflict with lumber workers from Wellerstown.

Lizardfolk

Also Known As:

Kanaka

Size:

Medium

Type:

Humanoid

Languages:

Common, Primordial, Draconic

Lifespan:

~80 years

Homeland(s):

The Marromere, Snakewood, Techeryan Jungle