Pleot

The Pleot are the slaughtered sub-race of **Zogardian**. They often practice necrotic magic.

## Pleot

### Area(s)

Dry Lakes, Blackwater Marshes, River of Nostalgia

## Settlements

**Xynnar** is a settlement within the **Dry Lakes**. The Pleot living within this settlement make their homes within the underground caverns, which house many precious gemstones. The gemstones within the caverns are harvested by the Pleot and crafted into sculptures, traded away and often being sought after by royalty for their high quality design. Xynnar is considered the capital of the Pleot sub-race.

**Kelneth** is a shared settlement between the **Zos** and Pleot within the **Blackwater Marshes**. The buildings within the settlement are built out of thick, hollowed out logs, with part of the homes being submerged into the water. It is common for the two races to use the submerged end of the home as the exit and entrance into their homes, with their primary way of traveling around the village being through the water.

**Penkurth** is a settlement stationed along the western edge of the **Kropari**. The Pleot who live within this settlement share one large, communal home, which burrows deep underneath the ground into a watery, moist area. Most of them spend their days lazily floating in the waters. Penkurth is seen more as a vacation area, with their way of bringing in visitors being through the pristine waters that connect the ocean and the river.

## History

The Pleot came to be in Ancient 1,205. After the **Eprean Civil War** had ended, **Tozra** wished to expand more of her worshippers and races that would be on her side, would there ever come a time that it would be needed. The **Celestial's** eyes turned towards the crocolisks and alligators of the lands, seeking them out and gaining the trust of the aquatic reptilians. Tozra took a much more gentle and caring route with the Pleot than she had the **Zos**, sitting at their shores and conversing with the large creatures. She would toss in fresh fish to the creatures in the waters, spending entire days at a time sitting at the edge of the water getting to know them and their behaviors.

After months of working with the creatures, they finally began to approach Tozra on their own accord, following her along the edge of the shores like ducklings to their mother. Tozra took the trust as a way to do the same to the creatures as she did to the Zos, imbuing the fish she tossed to them with her own magical properties. As the reptiles ate more of the magically altered fish, their bodies began to shift and change. The Pleot became much more intelligent, walking along the lands with ease and learning how to craft once their hands had mutated enough to allow it. Due to the peaceful era in Eprea, Tozra allowed the Pleot to do as they pleased.

The peace of the Pleot came to an end once **Vyros** had come to Eprea to wage war his war. Tozra returned to the settlements of the Pleot that she had created, raising them up and teaching them to fight. She took those willing and created an army, leading them to assist **Ter’ot** in the war to repel Vyros. Despite her efforts to be more gentle and caring of the Pleot, she led the Pleot to their own mass murder from her orders. Tozra, feeling heartbroken and unsure on what to do, fled from the battlefield and never returned.

Tozra’s abandonment made the Pleot feel lost, and many of them grew to have a deep rooted hatred towards the Celestial. Without a Celestial to guide them, the Pleot began to fight amongst themselves, dwindling their small number even further. Their fights had only come to an end once **Eiryot** had stepped in. Eiryot, being a Spirit of Death, spoke to the Pleot about what they were doing to the souls of their lost ones, and how those who died on the battlefield felt that their lives had been fulfilled rather than wasted. He offered to assist the Pleot in rebuilding themselves, an offer that the Pleot took with hesitation. Many of them were skeptical to believe that a Spirit of Death would be able to help them rebuild their race, but no longer knew who or what to turn to.

Eiryot, being the new deity over the Pleot, taught them how to take better care of themselves. Due to Eiryot's heavy influence on their society, the Pleot began to practice necrotic magics and kept a close relationship with the subject of death.

## Physical Appearance

Pleot can range anywhere from 1' (30.48 cm) to 20' (609.6 cm) tall depending on how drastically their bodies have been mutated. Male Pleot are typically much larger than female Pleot, with the average height difference between them being a foot.

Their teeth are extremely sharp, even when they are more humanoid, and they lack incisors.

Pleot lack scleras and have their entire eye as one color. If a Pleot comes from a crocolisk origin, their fingers and toes are webbed, while those with alligator origins lack the webbing. All Pleot have a third eyelid, using it to make it easier for them to navigate underwater.

Pure white or pure black Pleot are seen as a rarity and considered sacred.

### Life Span

Pleot typically live to 300 years old, with their average age of death being around 250 years old. They are children from the ages of one to ten, adolescents from 11 to 18, adults from 19-150, and elders 151 years and on.

## Culture

Pleot can be found all over the savannahs and swampy regions of Eprea, with many of them preferring warmer waters. The crocolisk descended Pleot are extremely sensitive to the cold, and typically prefer being in more sunny spots where the water is kept warm at all times, while the alligator descended Pleot are able to handle the cold easier and can be found in more reclusive areas.

On days where it is hotter than usual, the Pleot can be seen with their mouths hanging open and panting, due to the only way they’re able to release heat being through their mouth. Their population is small as a result of the war, so many of them band together in areas in an effort to repopulate their race.

After many years of hiding away following **Tozra's** abandonment, the Pleot came back out from their settlements with a new desire to see the world and get to know the other races who inhabited it. They’re naturally curious creatures, which results in them being one of the most social sub-races of the **Zogardian**, alongside **Aldi**. They’re not territorial, so they enjoy when other races or Pleot wander into their lands, using it as a chance to get to know them and find out more about other cultures. Pleot’s enjoy inviting others to join them in sunbathing and cleaning as a form of bonding.

Despite the result of the Pleot’s slaughter, they are still a species who is prepared for battle and always practicing fights and camouflaging techniques. Their favorite method of camouflage is through smothering their scales in mud, causing the sheen of them to be dimmed and match the coloring of the landscape much closer.

The Pleot are a nocturnal species, so they typically do most of their hunting and attacking at the nighttime. This lead to the discovery of the mud technique, due to the Pleot seeking out ways to prevent the moon from giving away their location. They hunt by keeping their bodies low in the water or within bushes, ambushing their prey and typically pulling it under the water with them to drown. Weaker Pleot will sometimes wait in the shadows for another Pleot or another race to make a kill, quickly stealing it and making off with the food if given the chance. Female Pleot are typically the ones who leave the settlements to do the hunting, while the male Pleot are the ones who run the settlements and keep everything in order.

### Food

Pleot have a strictly meat only diet, with their diet consisting of fish, reptiles, birds, and small mammals. When eating, the Pleot will eat the entire body, including the bones. Due to their eating habits, Parli’ans and Oril have a natural hatred for the Pleot. A favorite dish within the society is a slow-turned rabbit roast. Despite the Pleot also eating birds, the Ceardian and Pleot have a strange connection and get along extremely well.

### Trade

Pleot's form of trade is through them bringing travelers to their settlement of **Penkurth**, where the Pleot treat travelers to spa days and clean shores.

### Worship

The Pleot have a strong hatred for the Celestial **Tozra**, with most of them seeing the **Celestial** as a disgrace or a murderer. Following their slaughter, the Pleot began to look towards **Eiryot** as their chosen Celestial, taking up necrotic magic and having a closer relationship with death.

### Romance

Pleot do not believe in marriage, nor do they daydream about finding a mate.

However, once a pair of Pleot have come together as mates, their bond is nearly impossible to break. The two will work closely alongside each other, and will always return to each other even if they were to separate for years. If two Pleot’s split apart and no longer considered each other mates, they would still go to the side of a previous mate to protect them in the face of danger.

Pleot who are searching for a mate will often wear gold hoops along the spines of their back or tail. When two Pleot with this appearance come across each other, they will rub their snouts and faces against each other, exhibiting submissive displays if they are accepting of the other. If the courtship fails, the Pleot who is displeased will chase off the other.

### Childcare

Pleot can have children with **Manna**, other **Zogardian**, **Oril**, **Ceardian**, and **Vlennite**. They typically have seven to 20 children at a time, but it is rare for all of them to hatch from their eggs.

The sex of the children is determined by the temperature that the eggs develop at, rather than chromosomes, with cooler temperatures resulting in females and warmer temperature resulting in males. When it’s time for the eggs to hatch, female Pleot will bring them to the water to hatch there instead.

### Death

Death is handled carefully within the Pleot community, due to the history of death that the race has suffered through. When a Pleot has passed away, their loved ones will bury their bodies in the bottom of riverbeds, burying them far enough down to prevent the currents from river from washing them back up.

### Language

Pleot means “the Slaughtered” in the Eprean language. Pleot are not fond of the name given to them by the Epreans due to their history, and most of them prefer to just be referred to as **Zogardian** instead.

## Leadership

**Tiyamike Nkiru** is the current leader of the Pleot.