The Zoat-Jorn Imperium

Originally coming into being as the Jornian empire, this nation was early to the world stage. Arising after the fall of the dragons, but before the elves could spread their influence across a majority of the globe, they had no true opposition. The Yuanti had yet to develop beyond their primitive tribal societies, leaving only the more advanced Lizardfolk to dominate the sprawling swamps and wetlands of the southern continent. Driven by a warlike god now dead, they expanded rapidly, taking in other species they considered lesser; Such as the yuanti, as well as the even more primitive grung.
  With their borders secured, the resources of this fledgling nation were divided into two camps. One constructed enormous ziggurat temples to the fledgling pantheon while the other sought to expand. Utilizing powerful water magic, and gifts from their imperialist trio of gods, they changed the surrounding lands to better suit their semi-aquatic tastes. This ultimately brought them into conflict with the elves in the north, who saw in the lizardfolk their first true enemy.
  War was inevitable, brutal, but ultimately short lived. With their only foes having been smaller, less organized and less advanced tribes of nomads, the lizardfolk were ill-prepared for true warfare. The first few months of fighting were brutally one sided, with the emperor of the time being slain along with his entire court. Thrown into chaos, the yuanti who had been disallowed from rising up the ranks, took new positions by force, restructuring the fracturing empire while the elves slogged through the seemingly endless swamp. Finally, resistance was mounted, but far from the honorable duels, and straightforward fighting of the lizardfolk, the imperium now fought a bloody guerilla campaign.
  In the end, the elves were driven out, but the lizardfolk had been decimated, their lands ravaged, and their hierarchy in shambles. Even the gods were not safe, with all but one being slain during the prolonged war. The last god of the lizardfolk vanished shortly after the first case of Cinderscale appeared. This plague decimated the already weak population, reducing their numbers to the point that they were on equal footing with the yuanti they had previously enslaved. Forced into an embarrassing set of reforms that restructured what was left of their empire, the lizardfolk were now equal partners with their more snake-like neighbors while the grung remained the only true slave race.
  Though this war is centuries in the past at this point the population of the southern swamps has still not truly recovered. Beaten into submission, they have reemerged a changed people, with a dark, bleak outlook on life.
  Dragon Population: On paper, there are no dragons in the imperium, though many have pointed out that the ziggurats constructed during the imperium's heyday were large enough to serve as homes for creatures as large as dragons.