Lizardfolk

the Kursudu

Primal humanoids from the dawn of recorded history, the kursudu are a race most simply call lizardmen, or the lizardfolk. These reclusive reptilians, thought native to the marshes of western Jerain, have migrated across Ethae, and even the Cota Ocean as far as the continents of Dergonhad and Uluru. Considered primitive by most, the kursudu actively avoid contact with the other races around them. Those few communities that have established contact and trade with nearby Human settlements, have only done so through years of trust. Something that can be undone with a single act of dishonesty or misunderstanding.

Lizardfolk are cold-blooded, meaning they cannot regulate their body temperature internally. As such, they are primarily found in warmer climates regions and can be sluggish at night.

Lizardfolk females lay eggs singly, and can only produce a single egg each year. They feed their young, pulped plants and insect meat from birth, transitioning to animal meant in adulthood. Young lizardfolk are considered adults at ten years of age and grow to full size by the age of twenty.

Lizardfolk are a territorial people. Foreigners in their controlled region are unwelcome; something that usually extends to other tribes of their own kind. The kursudu are not a people of traditional morality in regard to good or evil. The world just is. They consider all outside of themselves as fair game in the 'circle of life.' A human wandering in their lands is as much a game animal as a deer, to be hunted and eaten. This can, though rarely, extend to others of their own kind. If food is needed, there is no moral standard to resist.

This territorial nature causes them to rarely venture beyond their own lands. For it is not theirs to walk. There is also the mental factor of believing they will be hunted and consumed by others should they do so, as they would to any entering their lands. There is a truth to this point of view, as those rare kursudu that do seek to world beyond their own, learn quickly that that world is harsh. Few know of their kind as anything other than cradle-tales to scare children. Those that know the lizardfolk to be a reality, usually only know of them as creatures from the swamps. They will be seen as monsters by most humans. A kursudu adventurer is advised to avoid populations when traveling. Those rare communities that do know of, and are accepting of, the lizardfolk are those that border their swamplands and have interacted with the people for generartions.

Though these are all generalities, and the lizardfolk are as varied as any other race. Most are based out of small tribal villages hidden at the center of their territory, some however control vast tracts of their region. The kursudu of the swamps of Char'wyn ignore boats and ships traveling through their waterways, while those in Loslands swamps view ships as portable buffets of meat and loot. The kursudu of Uluru are a nomadic people, their tribes, ever moving, and do not have the same view of territorial control as their Ethae kin. Any that cross their path are game to them. On Dergonhad, lizardfolk have thrived, and tribes gather into what some could call kingdoms. In these several tribes submitting to a dominate tribe and their chieftain. These lizard kingdoms trade and establish treaties with the outside human nations.