An'ssel'rr

The An'ssel'rr (known to most everyone except themselves as Lizardfolk) are a race of sapient beings characterized by their reptillian aspect.

History

An'ssel'rr tradition records that they were created by the Eight Makers to survey and protect the swamps as the origin of the diversity of all life. Whether or not this is ultimately true, they have more-or-less held the monopoly on the least-desired areas of the Mainland since time immemorial, occupying parts of the world that are hostile to all of the other Goodly Races--the most treacherous swamps, the most barren deserts. For most of history, the areas' unique combination of easy defensibility and low desirability, combined with the unique physiology of the An'ssel'rr, allowed them to thrive.

In the ages thousands of years before the Omnity, the An'ssel'rr were more numerous, and occupied small kingdoms that went beyond the range of their habitat. They and whatever slaves they managed to capture built temples to their patron deities, and kept rich histories told as trilling, sibilant songs the like of which has never been seen elsewhere. That history, though, has in the intervening years been one of slow decline, marked by the ascendance of the Ubrekti Empire and the subsequent explosion of Human, Halfling and related populations. They make for discomfiting neighbors, and the warm-blooded vigor of the Humans and Demihumans has been hard to match with the species' low birthrate and slow growth into maturity. It is for this reason that most of Alexandrian records sees them confined to footnotes and margins, or starring as the occasional bogeyman in scary stories.

In places where Alexandrian Empires have seen steady population growth, a desire for farmland has seen many of the swamplands that traditionally held An'ssel'rr strongholds drained. While the struggles from the Calamity (which mostly left them untouched) provided some much-needed breathing room, the reprieve is probably temporary as populations once again reach their pre-Calamity levels. [ed: TBD HERE some Wydmoor stuff will get a mention once Mattiverse enters epilogue]

Physiology and Culture

An'ssel'rr are unique among the (extant) land-dwelling populations in displaying a cold-blooded nature; even Kobolds pump blood as hot as that of any Orc. They are oviparous, and while they possess vocal chords, they are closer in nature to those of birds and are not well-suited to others' speech. Not truly ectothermic, An'ssel'rr still metabolize more slowly than others, and find it difficult to keep up long periods of activity in colder environments. They instead relish heat and humidity that other people find oppressive.

An'ssel'rr average slightly larger than Human-sized, with adults typically ranging from six to eight feet in height. However, unlike most warm-blooded creatures, they are theoretically very long-lived (most die of violence rather than infirmity), and never stop growing. Some particularly resilient individuals have been seen with a physique approaching that of a Troll or Ogre--known as Lizard Kings, these extraordinary beings have typically gotten to their age by being the strongest and most-cunning members of a species defined largely by an affinity to hostile environments, and they can be quite formidable opponents.

An'ssel'rr do not pair-bond, but instead mate and keep their eggs communally. The responsibilities for raising young are typically rotated among the individuals, although the more infirm will assume more-or-less permanent positions of care as they become less able to contribute to the family group's other needs. Gender roles are largely unheard-of--apart from occasionally depositing eggs in the carefully guarded clutches of the clan, the females have no particularly special role in upbringing, both sexes find themselves taking on the varied tasks of life more-or-less equally. Mating itself is a brief interruption in daily routine, and seen as a transaction more on the footing of trading stories, or sharing a meal. Bonds between two particular individuals are typically generated through shared experiences, and are strongest between those who are coincidental either by age or by the specialties they grow into within the clan.

An'ssel'rr morality is typically characterized as "Neutral", but this represents less a descriptive label and more a failure to place their actions into a familiar framework. As a trend, moral judgments in An'ssel'rr society reflect pragmatic approaches to "optimal" outcomes. Cannibalism, for instance, is not only not taboo, but to do otherwise is seen as an illogical waste of resources and insult to the dead. They will freely use their kin as materials in craft, and will reverently refer to mundane household objects made from former friends and respected elders. Any individual unknown to the clan, An'ssel'rr or otherwise, is treated identically. In the swamps, this typically means "with hostility", since competition for resources and territory is fierce, but when a common goal is present, they can be found to be highly cooperative for as long as they find such cooperation expedient. As almost all other civilized species' interaction with An'ssel'rr is in the context of continued encroachment into their territory, they have a reputation of being savage and brutally fierce. Thus, even without a priori predisposition to hostility to anyone in particular, they are more likely to cooperate with other An'ssel'rr groups, who at least have the benefit of understanding their motives.

A strange quirk of this mentality is that people who understand the An'ssel'rr worldview can find it very easy to stay in their good graces. Where other alliances can be ended with some imagined slight or diplomatic misstep, the An'ssel'rr typically ignore the niceties of discourse completely and will always continue a relationship that they find materially helpful, no matter what the disposition of the other parties involved.

Onteractions with those of the Druidic order deserve special mention for being typically very civil, sometimes forming into long-lasting alliances; both have a shared interest in maintaining the wild lands at the edges of habitation, and appreciate aspects of balance in nature that more civilized people might find unnerving, repulsive or inconvenient. As long-lived as this status quo has been, is still strictly out of convenience, and if the An'ssel'rr somehow found themselves occupying a dominant position in the power structure of the Mainland, they would likely dissolve this bond without a thought. To their credit, the Druids understand this quite well, but don't find the prospect worth worrying about too much.

Commonly seen as "primitive", the An'ssel'rr have a nuanced relationship with technology. While they lack the infrastructure for widespread deployment of steel (and practice hardly any metallurgy at all), they have a keen understanding of biological and alchemical processes, and are well-studied in the ecology of their habitat. Most family groups keep detailed written records in flowing script and on strange media chosen for resilience to life in the swamp. These records, when encountered by outsiders, are typically destroyed or pawned off as curious artwork, and their content is largely ignored.

Game Features

Their language is internally called Ssel'it, but other jerks call it Lizardmanlander.

An'ssel'rr maximum age is completely unknown, even by An'ssel'rr. Individuals only grow as they age, without senescence (with the occasional very large examples, known as Lizard Kings, popping up when they reach at least a century of age), but their harsh lives typically see an end through either violence or an accumulation of defects from poorly treated illnesses. There are stories of millenia-old An'ssel'rr reaching the stature of the ancient Dragons of lore, and the occasional account relating that those Dragons were, in fact, An'ssel'rr, but the veracity of these claims is highly suspect.