Keshlaen (Kesh-lane)

Summary

Primarily found in the warm equatorial regions of Veltrona, principally the humid and tropical areas, but also the scorching deserts, the keshlaen are a capably sturdy people. In fact, they're often in league with humanity as endurance huntresses, well-coordinated tribal groups, and cunningly inventive schemers. The two species have had a long on-off 'friendly' rivalry as a result, with many forms of ancestral competition established between them. Perhaps if it were any other species, they might actually be regularly at war, but humans are endearing enough to avoid that. Usually, anyway.
Given the often extreme hostilities of where they lived, the keshlaen developed proud warrior traditions. They, however, chose cooperation with their neighbors where possible. More allies against the likes of the Relentless Herds and Packs often proved of greater value than any gold or crysium ever could be. Thus, their civilizations grew to encompass many others, blending into diverse cultural mixtures.
Quite a number of arguments have ensued over whether or not the keshlaen ever had any truly hegemonic presences in the world. It's something nationalistic thinkers scoffed and scorned, but many keshlaen wore it as a mark of pride. Their pragmatic, and often egalitarian, views sometimes earned them the moniker of 'dralinki', a permutation essentially meaning 'friendly dragon'. Something that has throughout the ages caused them some measure of grief and notoriety.
Those ignorant, or misled by generations of hearsay, mistook the keshlaen as being dragons proper due to some anatomical similarities. The respect, or revilement, of dragons was cast upon them as well, for better or worse. Some keshlaen cultures even adopted draconic hallmarks, considering themselves distant relatives of a kind.
It became a friction point, if not outright conflict, when actual dragons became involved. Dragons do not consider humans or monsterkind as their relatives, but rather distantly different 'others'. Hence, only those who've interbred with them and carry dragon blood are deserving of a so-called relation. It is a contentious matter, almost entirely on the draconic side–the matter of lineage is critically important to them, so they despise any perceived disrespect toward it.
Still, some prominent keshlaen civilizations continued to do so all the same. The rest, broadly speaking, leave the issue be and tend to more important matters.
Given their overall presence across Veltrona, the keshlaen have had dealings with everyone. Their capable and hardy natures have made them ideal mercenaries, traveling the lands as guards, pest removers, and soldiers-for-hire. Mercantilism went hand-in-hand with that, and so a great many keshlaen trading guilds arose. In doing so, they established long trade routes stretching across the many different continents. It led them into all sorts of opportunities, in either prosperity or instigating trade wars for influence.
The rachtoh, in particular, have always been agitated by others moving into their spheres of influence. While nominally reclusive, their naturally-made silk has always commanded prestige and wealth wherever they've done business. The keshlaen, bringing foreign wares and competing on such grounds, made them natural enemies. If humans are their friendly rivalries, actual turf wars have been waged between the rachtoh and keshlaen with some regularity. It ultimately took other peoples intervening and trying to mediate the conflicts did they (mostly) stop.
As with so many others, however, the age of the Imperium proved a terrible time. The imperial dragons, despising the keshlaen's even implied relation to them, embarked on campaigns of mass enslavement or genocide, depending on who did it specifically. The great keshlaen nations were torn asunder beneath the Imperium's overwhelming might, but the keshlaen and their allies nonetheless continued to resist. They, alongside the likes of humanity, rachtoh, the yet-unnamed baarham, urni, and others proved a constant, destabilizing threat to the Imperium.
Adept as they were, and for the extreme challenges arrayed against them, the keshlaen kept a surprising grip on themselves throughout the Imperium's life time. Their resourcefulness and hidden bastions allowed innumerable rebel groups to operate and harass the imperial dragons. These same bastions became vital safe harbors when the World Gate exploded. As ash-choked skies blotted out sunlight and cold darkness swept over the lands, it quickly became survival of everyone for themselves.
The eventual clearing of the skies nearly two centuries later saw the bastions transform into new, open cities once more. Hardened as they were, they'd weathered the Great Darkness remarkably well, giving the keshlaen and their peoples an immediate leg up. Something that would come to prove incredibly valuable when the baarham Dominion began to emerge. Led by their vile Sorcerer King Ghown, the Dominion sought to establish baarham supremacy in the revitalizing world.
Having proudly fought against the Imperium, the keshlaen descendants took up arms once more against the Dominion. When it became clear King Ghown would never abate in his desires, the many keshlaen bastion cities went to war. For as well as they did in the beginning, the Dominion wasn't hindered by infighting, disloyalty, or incompetence to the same extent as the Imperium. The baarham proved horrifically capable in their organized war efforts, systematically decimating everything and everyone in their way.
Still, the keshlaen fought.
As their cities fell, keshlaen merchants traveled farther and farther, treading upon old, ancestral routes. They dug out every ancient agreement they could find, and more often not, simply pled to those yet to be involved in the fighting. The Dominion proved an existential threat to everyone, perhaps even worse than the Imperium ever did. Through all the machinations they could, the keshlaen brought in anyone and everyone to fight back.
Then the baarham vanished enmasse, whisked away by magical powers no one had anticipated.
The sudden, palpable power vaccuum left behind proved too dangerous. Those once at risk of being wiped out by the Dominion suddenly had armies of fighters, no visible enemies, and plentiful resources to go after. Once-allies turned upon each other, and soon entirely different wars of conquest tore the lands apart. The keshlaen despised this surprising turn of affairs, for it was an affront to all things good they believed in.
So, as the wars raged on, the keshlaen built renown as defenders of innocent people, justice, and those seeking to live a good life. They utterly despised the power mad, the tyrannical, and very often so the nobles who carelessly threw others into war. Of the many in those terrible times, the keshlaen were among the few as a powerful beacon of hope and prosperity for everyone. Even some dragons of the emergent Votyoger found something admirable in their work.
Despite the seemingly contradicatory arrangement, Votyoger and many keshlaen city-states ended up forming a loose alliance. The concept of democracy appealed to both sides, though they saw it through fundamentally different lenses. Where as dragons regarded themselves and their lineages as living nations, inviolable in their agency, the keshlaen saw all life as deserving such regard. Dragons took toward direct democracy and their Votyoger forum, where as the keshlaen adopted more practical republic-style government forms.
The end result became that, even if the dragons rarely involved themselves in the raging wars going on, the keshlaen were glad to do so. In a roundabout manner, draconic trade fueled keshlaen war capability, giving them a powerful edge in the conflicts. Some historians equate their democratic missions and brutal endings of monarchial rule as a core reason why many of the wars came to an end. Others pointed at the insane amount of Forsaken the wars had created.
In the aftermath, the political landscape of the world had forever changed. For the keshlaen, the defense of their fellows, and their way of life, was among the highest honors they could achieve. To cast down evil, and furthermore destroy the likes of the Relentless, had ever, and perhaps always would be, their guiding principle. Though the end results may vary, and they don't always agree on how to do it, the keshlaen ever manage to build a solution that everyone can at least live with.
Perhaps that, in itself, is truly the most remarkable thing about them.

Basic Information

Anatomy

A humanoid, bipedal species with a head, neck, torso, two arms, hips, a tail out of the buttocks, and two legs. The arms end in five-fingered hands, and the legs end in four-toed feet. The fingers and toes are capped in broad, thick claws meant more for scraping apart hardy nuts, fruits, and other edibles, as well as traversing through terrain. Overall, the keshlaen are functionally muscular, but their specific environmental adaptations can affect how they appear. Those in humid, wet, and tropical climates tend to have softer skin with insulating fat. Those in the arid, dry climates have tighter and thinner skin that prominently displays their physique.
It is this distinction in environments that is important to note. The keshlaen adapted quite well to these climates, to the point some scholars argue if they're different species entirely or not. The keshlaen themselves regard each other as the same people, and so pay the matter no mind.
Similar to dragons, the keshlaen have scales covering the 'outside' facing and harder portions of their body. For example, the sides of the torso and skin areas closest to bones, while their bellies and breasts are generally smooth. Their joints emphasize harder protection on the outside, while the inside remains soft skinned. The granularity of this is different between them, with humid-adapted keshlaen having very fine and small scales, and arid-adapted having harder, armor-like plates (though not as grandiose as dragon scales).
Keshlaen have no hair on their bodies save that of their heads, which can grow to the mid-back at its most extreme. The texture of their hair varies between smooth and glossy to kinky and frizzled. Many cultures in both environments favor protective braids and add-ons to their hair when outside of 'safe' areas, both for pragmatism and safety. However, hybrid blood can dramatically affect their hair characteristics, lending to unique opportunities.
Their faces are unusually expressive, with their eyes and lips being slightly larger relative to the rest of their features. This lends them to either being slightly cuter or unnerving in appearance to other species. Both variants have minimal scales on their faces, though arid ones may have small bumps or horns upon their jawline, brow ridge, and nose. Keshlaen have an unusually wide and somewhat elognated tongue, letting them gulp greater amounts of food down at once.
Their exterior ears beside their heads have a human-like auricle shape, but with small, natural fins extending out of the top and backward-facing sides. Of all monsterkind, their ears are closest to that of dragons, who have very large and flexible fins for ears. It is one of the key identifiers that led to early assumptions of possible draconic relations.
The rest of the keshlaen physique can often be called very human-like in shape and figure, accentuated by their natural strength and scaly skin. Their tails are curious limbs are they are actually quite flexible, and functionally useful as appendages. The length of the tail is normally one-and-a-half their total height, making it a little cumbersome for balancing purposes. Their hips somewhat larger to compensate for the dynamic of their tail and legs, giving keshlaen a somewhat naturally curvy figure.
Keshlaen are minimally sexually dimorphic, with females and males having largely the same physiques. Females notably have enlarged breasts and wider hips, and if applicable, possess more intricate or visually complex skin patterns. Males emphasize simpler, curving or flowing patterns, and use simpler color arrangements that boldly denotes their presence. How the skin patterns express is different between environments, with those in humid regions emphasizing color, while arid ones emphasize scale growth patterns.
Keshlaen have truly spectacular color ranges, and can embody almost anything possible. The humid-dwelling ones, in particular, have the greatest color vibrancy, often to the point of being 'visually loud' to gaze upon. Arid-dwelling emphasize more rocky and gemstone-like characteristics, with some having refractive visual splendor in their scales. There are some traditional color groups that match environments for camouflage, but those can be hard to identify from all the other possibilities.

Biological Traits

Sturdy – Keshlaen can notably endure harm, and handle physical stressors very well. It lends a degree of physical strength that is above average for monsterkind, though not very much beyond that.
Tail Appendage – Their long tails are flexible and usable enough to be considered an appendage for the purposes of manipulation or doing things.

Civilization and Culture

Relationship Ideals

With the keshlaen cultural emphasis on reliability and honor as a foundation, the keshlaen err toward known quantities over unknown. In a simplistic way, they view the trading of goods and services between people as a way to build relationships. When a person makes an offer, even one for free, the recipient can decide to take it up, and thus begin to know one another. How seriously this develops depends on how frequently, or severely, the parties involved come into contact. Casual acquaintances is not at all a terrible thing, and how many keshlaen end up knowing someone, somewhere.
Examining this mannerism in a scholarly way can make it seem much more artificial, stilted, or complex than it actually is. Since the keshlaen wish to know how someone lives, works, and conducts themself, interactions is one the certain ways to do so. Reputation helps to forecast what someone may be like, but one can only truly know after interacting with them. However, sometimes people do not simply come to intersect naturally, meaning special social events like parties, gatherings, and courtship scouting events become much more important.
In this light, the keshlaen preference for long-term courtship and sussing out their partner(s) can make much more sense. It is them seeing if the person they're with is worth building a lifetime beside, or someone suited for something else. Some even regard relationships in a temporary manner, either as circumstance or lifestyle dictates. Figuring out one's long term goals is often a first step in the process.
This puts the keshlaen in a weird position of not really having a 'casual' dating approach, but they understand casual or limited encounters fairly well. In keeping the transactional nature of getting to know one another, these intersecting moments have a distinct place. Still, how they go about it can be regarded as cold or detached for other species, especially those where such affairs are not so cut-and-dry. Some even derisively call the keshlaen as 'coldly logical', or rational to a fault, without understanding how they handle emotions in the first place.
Ultimately, keshlaen settle with people of similar interests and lifestyles. A certain undercurrent of 'we will always have these' that is intermixed with 'these things that are fun and different to do sometimes'. If things work out well, keshlaen relationships are very stable and generally create complex familial webs that not only tie together bloodlines, but business as well.
They're typically monogamous, but polygamy often plays a role as well. The main decider is the complexity of the arrangement–more partners means more work on sussing each other out and establishing foundations. Since they typically court on a long time scale, it lets them build a more cohesive relationship system. Keshlaen multi-partner marriages tend to be fairly robust against the instabilities others often run into. It's something that gets them on with traditionalist nebusah quite well.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

A people born in adversity, the keshlaen took to being huntresses to survive the dangerous lands that sought to end them. In many respects they regarded nature as their ultimate adversary, and saw people as more incidental. To them, cooperation meant better survival, and eventually better living conditions as well. It was incomprehensible, at least for a while, to wage war on other people–but the complexities of life soon taught them that lesson as well.
It is something that brought them into contact, and sometimes conflict, with humanity and the aryauk frequently. Whereas many humans were soon glad to be of allies, the aryauk's competitiveness made contentious enemies of opportunity. Honor, after a fashion, came to embody the good-natured disposition of the keshlaen and how they saw the world. In that sense, the aryauk and keshlaen peoples established a somewhat shared, common sense of honor and its value. The aryauk, however, took it to much more extreme lengths than the keshlaen ever did.
Between their huntress traditions and firm sense of honor, the keshlaen developed a robust, purpose-oriented mindset toward living. Problems existed to be tackled so as to make room for leisure and luxuries, which could be sparing and rare at times. They erred on the side of functionally useful over extravagant, building their civilizations on ideas of certainty and reliably understood methods. In turn, their artistic cultures went wild with all kinds of things, breaking rules and norms for the novelty of indulgence or the rarity of an experience.
Hence, they can seem overtly serious and paradoxically free-spirited and thrill-seeking.
The net result of this has been the innovation of a number of sports, dramatic plays/theater, and other highly physical activities. Keshlaen love friendly competition with fair rules and distinctive 'winning' and 'losing', which spurs them on vigorously. It has had a sort of ripple effect, with even intellectual pursuits often being shaped by such a perspective. A downside of this has been the sometimes overly hostile manner in which keshlaen end up interacting with others. Knowing when to handle winners or losers is an important social skill.
Given their usual proximity and intermingling with other species, cultural osmosis is a frequent thing between the keshlaen and them. This lends toward much greater variety in the different keshlaen cultures, with some becoming unrecognizable to others. The consistent thread of purpose and honor can usually be found, though it may mutate into many different forms. Reliability is often what the keshlaen are most known for, and they take a dim view toward those who themselves are not reliable.
Their concept of egalitarianism arose from a basis of individual reliability and responsibility. As the many sought to strive together, survive, and prosper, those fortunate few had an ethical and moral responsibility to 'give back'. In a cycle of pushing and pulling, one's virtuous character could be established in equal measure. Personal accomplishment that then was shared for the less fortunate to prosper from became the keshlaen's highest form of honor.
This made the likes of authoritarian-based forms of leadership, like bloodline nobility, monarchies, and so on entirely antithetical to the keshlaen mindset. Balancing personal agency and power with the needs of all those who supported them, directly or not, has ever been the sticking point for the keshlaen. Tipping this toward tyrannical rule is, to them, one of the more evil acts that can be done. However, these opposing forms of leadership can become much more tolerable if they work hard, or harder, on the prosperity of their people.
Prominent keshlaen leaders, powerful as they were either physically, magically, or socially, were respected but not treated as 'above' others. Anyone had the potential for greatness, and the keshlaen quickly grew aware of the idea of 'generational power'. Families that amassed wealth, prestige, and secret knowledge could soon command undue influence, and it posed an existential threat to keshlaen social fabric.
But where did one draw the line between personal accomplishment, and societal responsibility?
It is a frustrating issue the keshlaen, and many other species, have ever struggled to answer for certain.
In the end, it could be said the keshlaen care about how everyone can survive and prosper. Even things they may disagree with could be looked over, so long as that single fact remained true.

Inspiration

Salamanders, lizards

Lifespan

~100 years

Average Height

5-6ft / 152-182cm

Average Weight

150-220lb / 68-99kg