Lizardfolk and Dragonborn

In the days of yore, the Dragonborn and the Lizardfolk were one people. They lived on Veni, in a great empire whose ships travelled far. Rumors say they went even to Cidel.

In what would become known as the first year, the Judge disappeared. Without them, the lake the Reptilians relied on dried up and the land fell into chaos. When the Judge reappeared, the Reptilians had split and became two distinct species.

## Dragonborn

### Biology

Despite the name, they are not related to dragons. The Dragonborn got their name from their reptilian appearance, which includes large horns that sprout from the backs of their heads.

One of their most distinctive features—apart from their size, well over 6 feet tall and 250lbs—is the heavy, durable coat of scales that they grow through life. Colours range from copper to steel, not to mention more mundane hues such as blue or red. In toughness it is the equivalent of a bronze scale-mail coat. This means that against small arms they tend to be invulnerable, although that does not mean Dragonborn are completely safe from harm. not to mention from magic attacks, but also from armor piercing weapons and the chinks of their armour. reproduction wise, they are unique in that each of their eggs contains two dragonborn infants who are identical twins, although triplets or more are not unheard of, they are rare, so the Dragonborn have built their society and culture around the twins, with each set of twins being believed to be the same soul in two vessels (although universally, mage universities consider this nonsense) and so they are expected to live and work together, and if one falls the other is expected to become a "Loose scale" travelling around the isles until a worthy opponent manages to slay them.

## Lizardfolk

While Dragonborn are the warriors and oftentimes leaders of the two species being bigger and stronger, Lizardfolk, as is to be expected from the older of the two species are worthy rivals to anyone who would seek to view them dead, however unlike Dragonborn, few lizardfolk would take up the mantle of fighter unless called upon by some greater power or in defense of their homelands.

In terms of appearance the best one to describe one is as a muscular, albeit short, (rarely above five feet tall) lizard headed human, with a long flexible tail coming from their backside, and three fingers each ending in a sharp claw on each finger, covered in a leathery hide which itself has small scales over it, however unlike dragonborn these scales offer no real protection so many lizardfolk will don armour to protect themselves and if forced to fight they often go to war in chain mail armour from head to ton and with a khopesh or scimater (but clubs or axes are both common weapons) and than a round shield for protection. However a fair number of Lizardfolk will have a sort of fin stretching from the top of their heads to the base of their tails consisting of skin stretched between spines of bone.

## Factions

### Twin Fangs Sultanate

While Veni is divided into a vast array of differ principalities, kingdoms, and empires, the largest as of 1210 AE is the Twin fangs Sultanate ruled by Sultans Aye-Eya, a pair of Dragonborn twins who were each missing either their right or left eye upon hatching respectively, together they rule as god-kings over a slice of Veni ranging from the coastline to the very heartland of the island. Aye is the more commanding of the two and is the one most likely to be dealt with by visitors however his brother Eya is more cunning and the one who prefers to work in the shadows, and is said to possess a venomous bite, although if that is just a rumour or some sign that the duo possesses ancient Yuan-ti ancestry is anyone's guess. But beyond that, the duo wield twin Orcihicalum Khopeshs that were last used by the last of the Lizardfolk Viziers under the old Dragon Pharoahs however many wise in knowledge are of the firm opinion that there is a sense of irony as the Khopeshs were first forged for Wyrmborn who the dragonborn themselves were created to destroy.

### Great-City Guard

descendants of those who remained in the Great City when it was ravaged by the wars between the dragon Pharoahs, the Great-City Guard is a lizardfolk faction who continue to live in the ruins of their homeland, slowly trying to restore it to its former glory but the arcane energy unleashed by the fighting means their progress is slow and so now their descendents are forced to only repair buildings as they decay not having the time and resources to build new ones, which means as it currently stands the guard is a union of eight different lizardfolk tribes who each live in a different one of the palaces still standing and which is supposed to provide a different good or resource for the city's continued survival for examples those of Tribe SpearSmash are tasked with patrolling the surronding landscape and in general protect the city from those who would seek to take what they have made for themselves from them. many such as Aye-Eya would gladly see the traditional capital of the island in their hands however for now the City Guard manage to keep it for themselves.

### Kebun

on the coast of Venio lies the city state of Kebun, currently ruled by the dragonborn sisters Gher-Lilum, mothers of Aye-Eya but also one of their biggest rivals the mothers and sons have no real love between the two pairs after what they did to their fathers, LIlum having killed Aye-Eya's fathers soon after the sons hatched. however that is in the past and although offically Kebun and the sultanate are at peace both factions wouldn't mind seeing the other's lands added to their own. However for now Kebun is too important, being a major port importing goods and experienced dragonborn warriors as more and more answer Aye-Eya's call for a crusade for the Sultans to make a move on the port city.

during the old pharoah's reign Kebun was a minor port however after the fall of the pharoahs a succession of different rulers have fought over it, slowly building it up into the sprawling metropolis it now is, population wise while it is mostly Lizardfolk who have made it their home, under Gher-Lilum there is a Dragonborn nobility as well as a wide variety of different species have made their home in Kebun, making use of its trade routes to sell goods across the islands, or trying to find work as mercenaries in the wars between the different warlords of the area.

## History

In 8000 B.E. on the island of Venio, instead of on other islands where the people were forced to build up small villages here and there on patches of fertile soil, the local Yuan-ti were able to build up the first cities, sprawling affairs of mud brick they were a site to see according to the few remaining (legible accounts), however all are fully aware that they were nothing compared to modern cities. for Millennium the Yuan-ti lived on the banks of the great River and her tributary rivers, forming small kingdoms, with them at some point morphing into the more familiar Lizard-folk, however the Yuan-ti lived on as the noble class.

Unfortunately for the Yuan-ti, they were not the only ones who desired greatness so to speak, and so Draco, the first true (land) dragon flew to Venio alongside six of his children to conquer the Yuan-ti civilization and drove the few survivors to the mountains in the south of Venio where they either died off or built a new civilization to replace the one they were forced from. which is true varies based on who is telling the story, but no matter who tells the story one thing is for certain, is that each of the seven dragons claimed their own part of the Yuan-ti empire, crowing themselves as Pharaohs, the greatest of whom was the great Pharaoh, the first of whom was Draco himself however after six hundred years of his reign, during who's reign the lizardfolk slaves first learned how to craft bronze into both tools and jewely, one of Draco's children, Apep, the most cruel and foul of Draco's children, challenged him to a duel and and torn the first true dragons to shreds, but perhaps feeling remorse, or perhaps to show his own power over dragons, ordered a massive pyramid in the style that the original yuan-ti lords first used to memorialize their own dead.

however as a result of Apep's cruelty, an uprising grew amongst the lizard folk, however one day one of them, the lizardfolk known only as wyrm-born broke into Apep's false-dragon "stables" and through means unknown to most, bounded with one of them, in the process becoming the first of the four Dragon-Riders, but when Apep's guards Wyrm-born and his mount were forced to flee from the Tyrant, and soaring on the dragon's back fled to the mountains in hopes of finding the Yuan-ti in order to hopefully enlist their aid in overthrowing Apep, but could only find refuge in an abandoned city of their's, dejected he settled their only flying for long enough to hunt more meat for the both of them, but in times other lizardfolk, who found their way to the city told that Wyrm-born that Apep's tyranny was increasing and that the red-dragon so named for both his blood red scales and the rivers of blood that followed him wherever he went, that through cruel breeding programs and magic rituals had created a new race, named the dragonborn to hunt down Wyrm-born, and so the Lizardfolk was forced to confront his rival in open battle, but forged for himself, two blades, twin khopeshs made from Orichalcum. In battle the two met once more, and at first Wyrm-born was winning against the red-dragon, but unfortunately for him, dispite his swords biting deep into his scales, he was not above trickery and cast a spell that drained the moisture from both Wyrm-born and his mount, mummifying them within moments, commanding that their bodies be left behind for the beasts but at night lizardfolk still loyal to their promised savior hid the bodies in hopes one day he would return and save them from the tyranny of Apep. but perhaps in a cruel twist of fate, a century later it was not a lizardfolk who killed him no, instead it was one of his daughters, who crowned herself the third great Pharaoh, but remembering her father's mistakes, she appointed a lizardfolk Vizier who would rule over the lizardfolk on her behalf, something her cousins in charge of the other draconic kingdoms copied lest they earn her rage, and when they washed ashore on the banks of the great river one morning, she entrusted Wyrm-born's khopeshes to the first Vizier to serve as their badge of office.

Four more Draconic Pharoahs would come and go over the centuries, each killing the one before hand and building a massive pyramid to hold their predeceasor's corpse until the year 0 AC when the last of the draconic pharoahs died due to choking on a bugbear skull during the feast, but without a designated heir Venio fell into chaos, with first the seven provinces each declaring themselves the rightful inheritors of the Great Pharoahs but over the centuries as their armies were depleted and and dragons themselves were killed the provinces themselves fell into disarray and fell apart, for three centuries this happened, until so few dragons were left, most having either been killed by their rivals or left Venio for better lands, as when the last of the pharoahs died the creatively named "great river" died with it, its waters having dried up turning all but the coast lines into a sprawling desert.

## Dragonborn Subraces

### Plated Dragonborn

They share colors with the more common dragonborn and similar stature but their major difference is with the scales they are born with. Plated dragonborn as the name hints have much larger scales across their bodies, forming an effect similar to plate armor with various flexible lighter armored points scattered across their form. These spots normally include the neck, knees, elbows, underarms, thighs, abdomen and lower back. These plates tend to merge with their horns and get confused to being one singular piece at times.

Their scales are much more comparable to iron or steel, the thicker plates making them definitely tankier than most dragonborn, along with it they have sharper claws and fangs as a result worth enough to act as daggers

They are born without a twin or with their twin stillborn causing many to outcast or otherwise avoid these individuals due to the strangeness of a lone dragonborn without their soul twin. Along with that the heavier scales are rather taxing for the metabolism earlier in life, injured then healing and when attempting dexterous activity. The weak points in their scales are still just as effective as normal dragonborn scales, so targeting there is usually an objective when taking one down.

The first of these unusual dragonborn is an unknown individual, currently rumored to be an assassin of Aye-eya and working with a bow of unusual size to account for the general bulk of their strange biology. They have been an effective worry and trained since young to fight, living up to the idea that these dragonborn are born to be killers and murderers. There are even rumors they have a solid scar in their headplate from when they were attempted to be killed as a baby. After that a few more of these mutants arose slowly, few are able to escape their kin and grow to majority as most are murdered and killed due to the cultural reasoning that they are either a murderer or cursed due to a lack of twin or a stillborn twin. The few survivors usually have a scar of their attempted killing and with the exile of their kind they either stick to the shadows or end up in the fate that their regular kin expected would happen. Even fewer of these strange dragonborn are attempting to mend this idea that one born alone is only a bad thing.