Lizardmen

The lizardmen are the dominant force on Blantyrre. Their city-states and small kingdoms dot the entire continent, and though they quarrel often, they have a sufficiently unified identity that they cooperate against common threats. They were a stone age culture before human ships started trading with them, but even then they built great, walled cities and used surprisingly good tools made out of obsidian and some more obscure magical materials. With the coming of the humans, they have learned the secrets of metal working and even some of the human magics, allowing them to expand out of their traditional areas. Previously, the lizardmen lived almost exclusively along the coasts and rivers of Blantyrre, but now they push ever further into the continent’s interior with every passing day. The coastal communities are still the most advanced and powerful ones, however, due to easiest access to human traders.

By human standards, the lizardmen are still awfully primitive. They have no firearms or advanced machines of their own making, and their native magics are weaker than human ones and restricted to their priestly caste.

Socially, lizardmen are usually led by warrior societies (whose leader is also the king/chieftain of the polity), but the priesthood is a powerful and influential force. The two often butt heads over which course a polity should take. The warrior societies are usually more liberal and outward-focused, but warlike. The priesthood is more insular and traditionalist, but more inclined to solve problems with diplomacy.

## Lizardmen Biology

Lizardmen are just as intelligent as humans and stronger than them, but they tolerate the cold poorly and require moisture to keep their scales healthy, so they are far more limited about where they can live and form permanent settlements. Fortunately for the lizardmen, ‘warm and wet’ describes just about every part of Blantyrre. They are proficient swimmers and divers, but poor runners by human standards.

The lifespan of a lizardman is roughly comparable to that of a human.

## Relations with Humans

Lizardmen are perceived to be the only civilized species beside humans, which affords them a certain amount of respect and interest, but they are still a lesser species as far as most humans are concerned.

Lizardmen travelers are rare outside Blantyrre, but not unheard of. The main problem is that most human polities have legal systems designed exclusively around humans, since wider definitions weren’t necessary at the time of their making. Lizardmen visitors therefore tend to be in a bit of a legal vacuum as far as law enforcement is concerned. They’re unlikely to be attacked on sight, but they will attract attention wherever they go.

The few times that humans have launched attacks on their city-states, the lizardmen have inflicted crushing defeats on the attacking forces. Their greater knowledge of terrain, the sheer number of warriors they can muster in response to aggression and the tendency of their city-states to band together when faced with outside attacks have convinced humans that the only way to deal with lizardmen is through trade and diplomacy.

## Lizardman Magic

In addition to performing religious ceremonies, members of the priesthood are also practitioners of traditional lizardman magic, which only they are permitted to practice. Some lizardmen have begun to adapt human magic for their own use, claiming that its human origin makes it exempt from such restrictions, which puts them at odds with the priesthood that wants to maintain a monopoly on magic use and considers human magic heretical.