Desert Lizardfolk

The lizardfolk tribes live in the deep southern desert, in large subterranean cavern nests. Each of the tribes are led by a shaman, and they rarely interact with outsiders. Descended from the mighty saurians that ruled the region in prehistory, their histories still recount tales of the days when the Great Lizards ruled the world.
The deepest parts of the lairs are the pools where the eggs are laid to hatch, the tadpoles eventually growing to become amphibious then leaving the waters to become dry-land creatures, shedding their ability to switch between water and air. Most of the young lizards only grow to about five feet tall, but some reach a stature of well over seven feet. The muscular giants become the warriors of the tribes, defending their most important sites and the nest itself, supported by the smaller and faster lizardfolk.
The tribes wear gold and bronze jewellery dating back to the times of the Raurin Empire, when they had much greater resources and the ability to trade with the others in the area. This jewellery takes a variety of forms, including pectoral necklaces covering the chest, wrist bracers, claw-covers for both fingers and toes, torc necklaces made of braided and twisted wire and metal headdresses made to fit over and around their crests.
Lizardfolk have a large crest on their heads, formed of a wing-like vertical flap of skin raised and lowered by ribs of bone and cartilage. It is used both to control temperature and as a dominance display, with the strongest clan members having the largest crests.
Saurian writing is a form of cuneiform, originally created by pressing claw patterns into clay. Each letter is a square, and the combination of claw-marks combine to create a unique pattern. Originally each pattern was a unique concept, but it later evolved to use unique patterns only for the most important concepts, with the others forming an alphabet. Not all lizardfolk are able to read more than the basic alphabet, and even a tribe's shaman may not be able to read all of the concept-patterns in a piece of ancient writing. Much of their writing has been preserved, however, thanks to the practice of originally storing writing on fired clay tablets, then later incising the claw-patterns onto metal sheets for the important records. The saurian writing made by pressing inked claws onto sheets of parchment, papyrus, or later paper, has all been lost to time, however.