Cold Sun Tribes

The lizardfolk tribes of the Cold Sun Federation have lived in the jungles of northern Q'barra since the age of demons. Today, twenty-four tribes maintain contiguous territory that includes the Basura swamp.

History

The lizardfolk remember the dawn of time when dragons soared in the skies overhead and all was in order. Then the sun’s warmth faded. As it turned into a dark orb hanging in the sky, their kin grew cruel and savage. Masvirik, the Cold Sun, pulled on the minds of the lizardfolk, pitting them against each other. Vicious fiends boasted of their power, sacrificing rainbow-winged serpents—the couatl— on obsidian altars. Before long, those winged serpents who escaped sacrifice arrived with a host of dragons, clashing with the fiends in the skies above the jungles. The couatl cleansed the festering corruption of Masvirik, and the lizardfolk joined them in the battle against their fiendish oppressors.
When victory was in sight, the couatl joined together, dissolving their bodies to form a pure silver flame to bind the Cold Sun beneath his volcano. This binding also captured the dreams of the lizardfolk. For tens of thousands of years, the lizardfolk have been dreaming the same shared dreams: lessons of the past woven together with prophecies and wisdom of the couatl. The lizardfolk of today literally remember the battles of dragon and demon and, as such, can never forget the evil that they stand against. Their dreams teach them of the dusk shards and their duty to ensure that the bound fiends never escape.
As untold years passed, the lizardfolk anchored themselves to the past through their nightly dreams. Though others came and went, settling the land temporarily before being washed away by the sands of time, the lizardfolk did not record their presence—the dangers of Masvirik and the ancient past are all that matter to them. These fleeting empires might have divided the lizardfolk temporarily, but the lizardfolk knew that territorial conflict risked too much. Thus, they chose to simply exist around the temporary kingdoms.
In time, a Q'barran empire grew farther than before, but rather than displaying strength it invited disaster. The warmth of the sun faded as the draconic guardians of the ancient city fell to Masvirik’s corruption. Masvirik’s corruption spread, capturing the hearts and minds of dragonborn, lizardfolk, and kobolds alike. Troglodytes emerged from the shadows to serve their master and progenitor.
However, the couatl foresaw this, and a web of light spread across the land, infusing the dragonshards with the power of the Silver Flame to create the dawn shards. Warmth returned to the sky, and the lizardfolk fought back, working with their dragonborn allies to rebind the escaped fiends and contain the Poison Dusk.
Today, the lizardfolk see disaster looming once again. At first, the softskinned settlers were just another group of colonizers, living on the land before eventually being consumed by the jungle—another era of ruins for future colonizers to explore. Then, a decade ago, half-orcs with strange magic (House Tharashk) began to collect the dragonshards and grind them up, weakening the web of light created by the dawn shards and freeing fiendish spirits from the dusk shards.
The half-orcs brought with them not only many more settlers but also great machines to trawl the earth, harvesting the dragonshards in numbers the lizardfolk had never imagined. For many tribes, there was only one explanation—the softskins were eager and willing servants of Masvirik and must be driven from Q’barra at any cost.

Politics

The oldest government in Khorvaire, the Cold Sun Federation consists of a mix of nomadic and settled peoples. The federation does not have a central government, instead they convene a council of tribal leaders whenever a particularly troublesome development arises, a rare occurrence as significant internal conflict and dissent is almost inconceivable due to their shared dreams.
The Cold Sun tribes are led by members who consider themselves a first amongst equals, placing their people's needs before their own in servant leadership. As such, leadership does not carry many privileges; instead, it is marked by responsibilities. Here, the relative simplicity of their lives is an advantage, as—in sharp contrast to the prospectors drawn to the region—they do not yearn for endless resources and wealth.
When Duke Ven ir'Kesslan and his followers arrived in Q'barra, they realized that the lizardfolk were intelligent. He reverted to his training as a Cyran diplomat in the hope that he could negotiate with them. Maintaining Cyre's lengthy eastern border with the Talenta Plains required recognizing the autonomy of the tribes while asserting the strength and dominance of Cyre. Even more so than the nomadic halfling tribes, the lizardfolk mentality, beliefs, and values were deeply alien to the people of the Five Nations. Furthermore, while the halflings had over a millennium of engagement with human diplomats, dealings with the lizardfolk were genuinely novel. Simply put, the lizardfolk do not understand the Newthrone Accords in the same way that the settlers do. There are no ancient dreams of lizardfolk lawyers poring over wills and contracts to determine their meaning and, as such, the lizardfolk do not put great stock in such agreements.

Religion

The lizardfolk of Q’barra follow a mix of couatl-inspired and even older primal ideologies. The importance of the sun for warmth and life plays a central point in both, as Masvirik’s defining feature is stealing the warmth from the light. Lizardfolk spellcasters wield both divine and primal magic in combat against the Poison Dusk and to guide their tribes.
Almost all lizardfolk villages have a pit full of dusk shards, which colonists generally see as some kind of holy collection. While the colonists are not completely wrong— the dusk shards are kept in pits for religious reasons—it is not out of any holy reverence. Rather, the lizardfolk collect dusk shards to keep them out of enemy hands, ensuring that the fiends trapped in the shards remain there. House Tharashk has been eyeing these dusk shard pits greedily, unaware of the terrible consequences that would be unleashed if they were to grind the dusk shards into residuum.
Nominally, the lizardfolk of Q’barra—like the rest of its scaly inhabitants—speak Draconic, although perhaps with a less polished tone than what is taught to the wizards of Arcanix. But while a wizard with the comprehend languages spell can easily understand the literal meaning of what the lizardfolk are saying, the actual meaning is enshrouded in metaphor and reference.
The lizardfolk’s language has spent eons developing around references to their shared dreams, rendering them unintelligible to other groups.

Tribes of the Cold Sun

Kepeskvaex

The Kepeskvaex embrace the semiaquatic nature of the lizardfolk perhaps more than any other tribe. They live in the northernmost reaches of Q’barra, along the coast of Stormwreck Bay in the Basura Swamp. This isolated tribe has a significant fleet of small boats. In addition to using them for fishing, the Kepeskvaex use their boats to venture out into Stormwreck Bay and conduct raids on coastal settlements in southern Lhazaar. The shamans of the Kepeskvaex are particularly talented with storm magic and use it to protect their fleet from counterattack and pursuit. It’s possible the Cloudreavers of Lhazaar derived their techniques from this tribe.

Athear’ossalur

The Athear’ossalur live within the boundaries of New Galifar. A friendly and diplomatic tribe, King Sebastes ir'Kesslan’s court has held a position for an ambassador from the tribe since the founding days of New Galifar and the original treaty negotiations. After initial frustrations in attempts at communication, both parties retreated into overly simplistic discussions, believing the other to be incapable of higher-level discourse. With the recent uptick in tensions, both sides have renewed interest in trying to make a new treaty. However, even if King Sebastes and the current lead diplomat, Ambassador Noach, were to remove the communication barrier, getting the other softskins and scales of Q’barra to follow the terms of any treaty would be a tremendous diplomatic undertaking.

Sjakmolik

The Sjakmolik are one of the largest lizardfolk tribes in Hope. The growth of settler communities in Hope, in addition to dragonshard prospecting, has seeded serious problems for the Sjakmolik, as their hunting grounds and accessible clean water sources have been shrinking. However, the Sjakmolik are committed to staying in the region as they hope that one of the manifest zones in the area might be used to reinforce the ancient bindings and combat the rising influence of the Poison Dusk.

Type

Geopolitical, Tribe