Taishando Wall Mounds
Following the easterly slopes of the Seraph Mountains down to the edges of the Nyssan Jungle brings a drastic change of scenery and environment. The air grows increasingly muggy the farther down the mountain one gets, until it becomes so humid that a famous Gnommish anthropologist once quipped it was "like walking around in a bowl of soup". The temperature rises in direct proportion to the humidity, until one laments the need for clothing to protect the skin from stinging insects and thorny vines alike.
Here is where the cities and temples of the Taishando Lizardfolk can be found, far from the coast and safe from the tsunamis that can plague the area. But they are safe for many more reasons than mere location, which can change over time. Often, a temple will be built, and used for hundreds of years, only to be abandoned suddenly once a new one is finished. These abandoned temples are left for the jungle to reclaim, use of the new temple is taken up, and a new city will arise around it. There are times, too, when ancient temples and wall mounds are discovered, and repurposed with modern dwellings and a fully functional temple structure. They are able to do all of this because of the techniques they use to build their protective mounds, and their temples, which stand up to both water and time just as they were made to do.
The wall mounds, in particular, are an interesting piece of engineering. Built with water redirection in mind, these mounds can effectively protect a Lizardfolk city from any normal flood. Constructed of small stones and gravel at the bottom, and with gradually larger stones piled atop of them, these mounds are designed to be wider at the bottom than they are at the top, and to let the frequent flood waters of their homeland through...only, in a controlled manner. The dwellings within will have all been built to wash away with a significant flood; they would all be rebuilt in a matter of just a few weeks. The temple would be housing the population during any flooding events, so they would also be safe. The temple, too, was built with the idea of letting the water through, rather than trying in vain to stop it.
The first explorers to try to make contact with the Taishando Lizardfolk were violently rebuffed, and small wonder. They went into the swamps fully armed, and saw the wall mounds as fortifications, which, it turns out, they can be used as in a pinch. It took another hundred years for a Gnommish anthropologist to embed themselves with a Lizardfolk tribe and discover the truth; the mounds are meant to protect them from floods, not from attackers. The swamp is much better at protecting them from attackers than any wall could be.
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