Caivari

(native raguun, plural raguna, adj aragun, lang Ragunan (Caifar))   Bauplan: Argonian, long-bodied crocolizard people. 5.5-6.5’ tall with 4-4.5’ tails. Short snout for a lizard but more of a muzzle than any other kinvari, can be wedge-shaped or more rounded and blunt at the nose. Nostrils can cinch closed at will, internal ears, eyes can vary in size but all have nictitating membranes. Not amphibious - no gills, warm-blooded - but able to hold their breath far longer than other kinvari (can ‘rest’ in a slow-heart waiting state underwater - in good temperatures - for like 30 minutes at a time). Sharp fish-hook claws on their fingers and thicker, less-curved claws on their toes; webbed fingers and toes. Long, thick, muscular tail used in swimming with dog-like flexibility (far less than cat coilability).   Soft, supple crocodile ‘leather’ hide across their undersides with their oversides having thicker, knobblier, scale-pattern hide. Face framed in a variety of knobbles and quasi-spikes (short, bluntish) in a line from ear-hole to crown to ear-hole; males usually have a similar line of knobbles from the top of their neck down their spines (can stop anywhere from mid-back to mid-tail). Colors are typically swampy - desaturated, muted browns and greens and greys, usually mottled, occasionally with paler or darker blotches, dots, or streaks.   They are in fact marsupials - no eggs, just vulnerable little nakey babies in their mama’s pouch for a few months until their tissue-paper skin develops texture and temperature-resistance. All kinvari find this weird as fuck, partially because caivari don’t hide it and partially because kinvari don’t realize khavari are also marsupial.   Short-range, low-light vision attuned to movement - great in air or under water. Mostly scent-based, highly sensitive to animal pheromones and specific plant scents (usually indicating rot or toxin). Decent hearing in the air (a little less good on average than human, definitely worse than Aeldvaren) but good hearing in the water (low tones much easier for them to detect than high tones). Reduced sense of touch across most of their body, but their faces and wrists contain sensitive little knobbles that serve as whiskers and can even faintly detect electrical signals in water.   Mostly average/expected strength, flexibility, and speed for their proportions and build. The exceptions are their strike speed with their hands (they’re slap-fishers) and their bite strength (which Fucking Terrifies more humanoid kinvari they can also pack a wallop with their tails if they sling ‘em around hard enough. Able to hold limbs or entire body unnaturally still for long periods of time. Obviously excellent swimmers, able to be fast and agile in the water. Generally great physical endurance at slow and steady speed - persistence predators as well as ambush predators.  

Caivaren Culture

moss-coated stone architecture with woven reeds and living-wood roots

stone and hardwood materials for tools, weaves for clothing, fish scales and bird feathers for highlights

natural affinity for Water magic and sometimes Earth (stone) magic

homes have multiple resting rooms, at least one dry and one submerged

slow slow slow pace

philosophy/spirituality movement-based history, bloodline almost doesn’t matter - it’s about voluntarily understanding and choosing your “called” community ← this needs a better term

consider themselves “the mangrove people” and don’t distinguish overmuch between physical borders between “pools” (communities)