Salusk
Salusk , also referred to as Native Vesterians and pejoratively as Lizards , are the dominant inhabitants of the continent of Vesteria, though the Human race's colonies are quickly starting to rival their numbers. Though they once built great stone cities as humans do, the Salusk received an unfortunate omen resulting in the destruction of their greatest settlement, and they chose never to build empires again. Instead, they are content to live in small communities built in harmony with nature, or to integrate into human society. They see themselves as more a part of nature than a shaper of it, and try to warn the humans of their folly by relating their people's tragic tale... not that the humans are very prone to listen.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Salusk are generally upright in stature; they possess four limbs, the hind two of which are positioned directly underneath the body and used for locomotion, and a tail, which is long, strong, and muscular, as useful as a tool as it is a weapon. Unlike some species of lizard, their tails cannot be detached or regrown. Their two forelimbs are equipped with manipulatory, five-fingered hands, possessing opposable thumbs, which allow them to accomplish a great many tasks, some requiring very precise and delicate motor skills. Each digit ends in a sharp, bony claw, covered on the exterior of the body by a keratinous sheath, thereby making them longer than skeletal claws. Walking upright and having versatile arms gives them seemingly broader chests than most other animals; they do not possess mammary glands, instead feeding their young small bits of adult food, occasionally pre-processed. Both the body and the details of the face tend to be bilaterally symmetrical down the middle.
Biological Traits
Salusk are reptiles, yet, uniquely, are also endothermic, able to maintain their own body temperature. This trait likely evolved because ancient Salusk ancestors (which share a common ancestor with monitor lizards) lived during an abnormally warm period in the planet's history. While modern Vesteria can be subject to extremely harsh winters, the Salusk have learned to tough it out with sturdy shelters and heavy clothing, though, biologically, the cold still makes them uncomfortable. Salusk are digitigrade, walking on their toes, of which each foot has four. They have five-fingered hands, and all 18 digits end in a sharp, finely pointed claw, which is bone sheathed in keratin. Despite this, Salusk can be extremely gentle with their claws when necessary, able to scrape them over the softest of skin and not cause discomfort. Salusk do shed their skin, about once every 2-3 months until they are fully mature and stop growing. The dead scales slough off in patches, which can be itchy, uncomfortable, and awkward for young individuals, much like human teens experiencing acne.
Genetics and Reproduction
Like other squamates, males possess a hemipenis (dual copulatory organ) and females, a hemiclitoris (its counterpart,) hidden within the cloaca, a body cavity that serves excretory and reproductive functions. Aside from these biological differences, sexual intercourse for Salusk is much like it is for humans. Salusk sexual practices are as varied as those of human cultures, with many positions, trends, and taboos, but frankly, it is a culture not appropriate for discussion here.
After impregnation, the female carries the developing baby for about 3 weeks, becoming slightly bulged around the abdomen, before laying a single, large egg in a nest prepared in the bedroom of the home. The egg itself can be quite large depending on the size of the child, and it can be as strenuous for the mother as a human birth. Smaller, twin eggs rarely, but do occasionally, occur.
After laying, the mother will incubate her egg by holding it or curling her tail around it a few times a day for roughly 6 months before the infant inside is large enough to hatch. They have a ZW chromosome system, like the monitor lizards they resemble, with ZW producing females and ZZ producing males (though it will be hundreds of years before the people of Vesteria have any idea what genetics is.)
The hatchling breaks through his/her shell with the help of an "egg tooth" growing from the snout, which breaks off shortly afterwards; it is often kept as a memento by the mother, sometimes having it strung on a necklace.
Ecology and Habitats
Salusk evolved in forested environments, and like warm, temperate woodlands the best, but can also enjoy arid scrubland or sandy desert. They are exceptionally susceptible to frostbite in colder environments, and don't like to venture into places where it snows regularly. They are, however, very adaptable, and can devise a way to live most anywhere they please.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Carnivorous by nature, this species now eats an omnivorous diet, though meat and fish still form a large part of their cuisine, as their teeth are best adapted for slicing flesh.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Since the collapse of their great empires, the Salusk have taken to living in small villages among nature, usually with no more than 100 inhabitants, often less. Ruled by a chieftain (or sometimes, chieftess), the villagers turn to them for guidance and safety. All the chiefs in a given region appoint a single archon which reports to the continent-wide council held twice a year. Each village chief appoints several guards (or "protectors") from the male heads of household to act as a local police force and militia, should they be needed.
Facial characteristics
In general, Salusk have soft, streamlined faces; their brow and nasal ridges lay flat against the skull, and their strong jaw curves smoothly into the rest of the head and neck's structure. Their heads tend to be almost almond-shaped, but with a flat skull plate and pointed snout. Their eyes are large and glittering, and can be seen clearly in the dark due to eyeshine; because of this, their eyes take longer than humans' to adjust to bright light, and they can be stunned by a sudden shift in brightness.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Across Vesteria, in places with milder winters and not inhabited by monsters.
Average Intelligence
They are sapient, with a full civilization, language, and culture to their name. Being literate and well-read is valued in their society, and the wisest among them hold lofty status in society.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Salusk have exceptional senses of sight and smell, their large eyes helping with the former, and their forked tongue and vomeronasal organ helping with the latter. Their hearing and touch are roughly equivalent to that of humans, though they have a more advanced sense of taste.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Salusk have domesticated many species of animals on Vesteria for food, labor, and companionship. As for parasites, the most common ones in the species are ticks, which like to dig underneath their scales, leeches, often encountered in the swamps, Campylobacter , Leptospira , and E. coli , due to their unique state as warm-blooded reptiles.
Civilization and Culture
Beauty Ideals
Both Sexes Value: Glittering eyes and scales, shiny and sharp teeth and claws, a tone or muscular body with a strong tail, an intelligent mind.
Males Value: Large hips/thighs, tone stomach, large and/or muscular legs, thin/frail shoulders, flat/non-muscular chest, short stature, high-pitched voice, flexibility.
Females Value: Large and/or muscular arms, tone and/or muscular stomach, chest, and shoulders, tall stature, deep or midrange voice, flexibility.
Gender Ideals
Males are seen as leaders, warriors, craftsmen/inventors, and hunters.
Females are seen as housekeepers, gardeners, cooks, and weavers/seamstresses, though stronger females are allowed to become warriors if they wish, and very wise or bold females can become leaders.
Both genders are allowed to become scholars/teachers, artists, healers, and priests.
Courtship Ideals
Couples can be married out of love or out of an arrangement by their families. Ideally, the couple would meet by chance (if love) or during or shortly before their adolescence (if arranged) and get to know each other well, becoming friends with one another and getting to know each other's immediate family. Couples are often allotted time alone and away from everyone (sort of like a mini-honeymoon) during their courtship to increase familiarity. Premarital sex is not taboo unless a pregnancy results, in which case the child (and/or the parents) may be ostracized; to avoid this risk, couples will often either abstain from sex until marriage or perform acts that do not involve genital contact.
If after a time it doesn't seem a relationship will work out, the couple will go their separate ways, sometimes remaining friends, even good friends, afterwards. If, however, things seem positive (or if their marriage was preordained,) one of them will seek out a special gift, something that their potential mate would find especially meaningful, and present it to them on a special occasion with a request of marriage. Both males and females are permitted to do this, and just as many females propose as males. After a brief period of planning for the wedding, the local priest is contacted, the families are gathered, and the ceremony is held. The bride and groom each have special outfits and jewelry for the occasion, and a circlet, bracelet, or other piece of jewelry is exchanged between them as a sign of betrothal, much in the same way that humans exchange wedding rings.
The couple may take up to a month for their "honeymoon", during which they relax, enjoy each other's favorite activities, plan for the life ahead of them (including searching for a home and furnishings), and, of course, have sex.
Homosexuality is considered perfectly natural among the Salusk, as they believe that, for instance, a homosexual male was a straight female in a previous life, and vice versa. Because of this, same-sex couples usually don't experience any discrimination should they be seen in public or seek a public ceremony. Bisexuality is viewed as a male and female spirit sharing one body.
Relationship Ideals
Though each individual varies greatly in what they desire from a relationship, in Salusk culture, it is generally seen that relationships should improve those in them. It is best if your mate is strong in a quality you are weak in and vice-versa, and in the relationship, both partners should learn from one another as well as teach one another, as well as treating one another with the utmost honor and respect. Salusk find it especially lovely if one's mate goes out of their way to do nice things for their partner; said partner is often inclined to do the same for them, and the cycle of kindness and love perpetuates itself.
Average Technological Level
The Salusk, prior to human contact, had not advanced much in terms of technology. Their most recent domestic achievement was the loom and their most recent strides in warfare included complex formations and maneuvers and weapons and armor wrought with iron. Contact with humans has introduced them to steel-making, engineering, and advanced shipbuilding.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Despite being spread across Vesteria, the Salusk people's vast network of trade routes and close cultural unity has allowed them to use one language for centuries, that being Luskvar.
History
The native Vesterians, or Salusk, as they call themselves, are the only intelligent species to have evolved on their home continent. They were quick to establish great civilizations, and though they thrived for a time, they eventually fell to ruin (one by rather... unnatural means) which made them wary of building empires and vast cities ever again. For over a millennia, the Salusk assumed they were the only intelligent species in the world, never able to leave their continent and learn of other lands. That changed in the Year 1240 when Human explorers from the Goldmont Empire stumbled upon Vesteria, and before long, Cross' Landing, the first colony, had been established, with more soon to follow. The Salusk people's world would never be the same again.
Historical Figures
- Rorkast -- Founder and first king of the first great Salusk civilization, the Hilrusk Empire.
- Gesarth -- First of the Great Kings of Hilrusk, revered as a cultural hero among the Salusk.
Common Myths and Legends
See Salusk mythology.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Though somewhat untrusting at first, the Salusk's perception of other species has begun to relax a bit, though they still trust humans the least, given their penchant for consuming vast swathes of land. Salusk are, however, more than willing to trade with and live alongside other species, and wouldn't be opposed if one of their own wished to take a mate from one of the other intelligent races.
Scientific Name
Lacerta intelligens
Origin/Ancestry
Highly intelligent members of Squamata unique to Vesteria
Lifespan
60-90 years (Oldest recorded individual lived to be 103)
Conservation Status
The species is not considered endangered, but is at potential risk due to human activity.
Average Height
5'6"-6'4" (1.67-1.93 m)
Average Weight
100-210 lbs. (45-95 kg)
Average Length
6'-8'6" from nose to tip of tail (1.82-2.59 m)
Average Physique
Tall, slim, often muscular; broad shoulders, or equally sized to the hips, in males, thinner shoulders and wider hips in females. Legs are usually very muscular regardless of sex; arms tend to be more muscular in males, along with a broader, more muscular chest. Tail is very muscular and nearly prehensile; thicker at base, though they do seem to possess buttock muscles as well.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Salusk come in almost every color, and the mating of more colorful individuals can produce extremely unexpected palettes in their children. The most common scale colors include green, brown, yellow, orange or ochre, and blue or blue-green, along with varying shades and tints of each, with the underbelly always being lighter. Violet, indigo/blue-violet, and magenta/red-violet are rarer, but still occur somewhat regularly in a given population. Pure red is the rarest color of all. Albino, leucisitc, and melanistic individuals are also known to occur, with their births often said to be omens or messages.
Related Myths
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