U'rth: Reptilians Part 2

Trasgus

Trasgus or “lizardmen” are the most numerous reptilian race and without a doubt the most diverse, showing wildly varied physical traits such as spines, crests, poisonous glands, telescopic eyes, long tongues and even detachable tails, among many others. Similarly their build also varies greatly, from short and stocky individuals, to muscular and hulking or spindly and stretched. Such natural talents ensure trasgus adapt quickly to their surroundings, and they will often reject tools over handling every day matters with their own claws. Unlike nagas, males are larger and stronger than females, sometimes more brightly colored as well. Aside from the odd vegetarian breeds, most trasgus are carnivores.

Trasgus are very widespread in U’rth, but their asocial nature prevents them from forming settlements, making them a race of loners. It’s common to see them as explorers and hunters, and when working under others or starting their own businesses they remain noticeably independent. While they still can group together for common causes, they’re quick to part ways once all is said and done. Males and females only purposefully seek each other out for mating purposes, and even then courtship and mating are rough, hurried affairs. Eggs are abandoned, but mothers will make preparations for the survival of the future hatchlings before leaving them to fate.

For stated reasons, many races see trasgus as unnerving and retracted, a notion they don’t really put an effort in dispelling. Their quick wits and lightning-fast reflexes make them, specially smaller breeds, admittedly good escape artists, but this is similarly seen by some as a sign of cowardice, despite the fact even the smallest trasgu makes a ferocious fighter, especially if cornered.


Anjanas

A most curious type of reptilian, the most defining trait of an anjana is the sturdy shell encasing almost the entirety of his or her body, a stone-like structure of bony plates impervious to nearly all physical damage whose owner can retract into in case of danger. Such armor serves anjanas well, for they are stockier and less agile than nagas or trasgus. Omnivorous, they are predominantly terrestrial, though amphibious breeds are more likely to be encountered. Anjanas are also the longest-lived of all reptilian races, counting in the centuries in many cases.

Young anjanas are very impulsive and full of energy, confident that their shells will protect them from all harm as they wander and explore the world around them. As they grow older, larger and heavier, however, they become much more passive and opt for the sedentary life. Family units are small but deeply bonded, with a strong oral tradition. As anjanas are such a long-lived species, their culture believes in learning as much from life as possible to educate and marvel the younger generations, and thus storytellers are common and extremely favoured.

The surface of an anjana’s shell often allows the growth of mosses, lichens, fungi, algae and various sorts of simple plants, and many take advantage of this to raise their own personal “gardens” and emergency food sources.


Makaras

The largest and strongest of the reptilian races, makaras are also very ancient as a species, believed to have appeared in the world far before the rest of their cold-blooded kin. Easily reaching up to fifty feet from snout to tail, their fearsome jaws boast one of the most powerful bites in all of U’rth, and their heavily armored bodies conceal a terrific musculature and persistent vitality. Combined with their seemingly limitless patience and their knack for hiding even in the most shallow waters, makaras have a well-deserved reputation of ferocious and deadly stealth hunters.

Makara society is primitive but straight-forward. Adult males form harems of up to a dozen females and claim dominion over vast stretches of river, creek or swamp. Intensely territorial, they will violently repel all intruders within their hunting grounds, and wars between clans are a constant within their lives. This is only intensified by the fact makaras fully embrace cannibalism; to eat the flesh of another is to take in their strength and vitality, and hunting their own kin not only reduces competition but ensures that the weak will be weeded out and the strong and able will endure. It is for this reason that hatchlings leave their clans as soon as they are able-bodied, and when a lone male challenges a clan leader for his position and harem, it’s only customary that the loser gets messily devoured.

Makaras often strike partnerships with scavengers and lesser races, allowing them to live and providing protection as long as they’re willing to pick them clean of parasites and serve them in whatever means they deem fit. They are fierce rivals of the Taweret therians.


Gorgons

Highly aberrant mutations of reptilian stock, these hissing, babbling horrors inject their victims with an intensely painful venom that rapidly petrifies outer tissues, turning them into living “statues” in a matter of minutes. Any area prowled by a gorgon will have macabre gardens of such poor souls, which the beast will crack open and feed upon at its leisure. It is speculated gorgons used to be not mere mutants, but a fourth, ancestral breed of reptilian in ages past, but with the ever-corrupting touch of magic, no one can say for sure.

Gorgons have an inexplicable fear of reflective surfaces, and refuse to approach them.

Tools: CS3

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