Archived: Common culture of the Lizardmen

Deity: Zalsz

Keywords:

  • Went away from the main land
  • Mysterious
  • Rare

Common languages:

  • Lizardmen (uses hisses and snarls)

Common societal structures:

  • Islandic tribal

Example female names:

  • Tseiz
  • Creiz
  • Ruz
  • Enris
  • Thinza
  • Zianroz
  • Crixagzi
  • Dizaeco
  • Chukruyih
  • Otlocoss

Example male names:

  • Qishk
  • Zuk
  • Chik
  • Churzaz
  • Bhaoxik
  • Bhakza
  • Brikanjoa
  • Bhujitszu
  • Aursucazk
  • Bhiltojat

Most of the lizardmen live in a warm climate. This means that by day their bodies are more active. This energy is put into the construction of giant pyramids and monolithic temples used in their religion. Lizardmen are often superstitious. These beliefs vary between individuals.

Men and woman are equal in most colonies and children are raised by the community. Lizardmen are very protective of their colonies' children and of the ones they mated with they are not usually monogamous though. Everyone has their own task in serving the community. This is why lizardmen colonies run smoothly.

Territorialism

Most lizardmen colonies stand neutral towards the other races. Lizardmen are not very interested in what outsiders have to say. And because they tend to kill anyone that enters their territory there is very little contact with other communities.

People that do venture into lizardmen terrain will quickly find in the jaws of several hungry guardsmen. Their dead bodies are then taken to the great fire and is either sacrificed or devoured by temple builders.

It is rare for lizardmen to fight among each other. If such a conflict thus occur it is always the result of a territorial dispute. The result of any conflict is almost always death. As a general rule the lizardman who lives is the one who the territory originally belonged to. This is the only form of law the lizardman understand and respect. This fierce territorial behaviour makes it very difficult for other races to deal with Lizardmen. The only way this can be done is for an ally to contact the lizardmen over a distance and then wait for him to come and meet them on neutral ground.

Language

Lizardmen have their own language, to people who don't speak the language it sounds like a collection of hisses and snarls. Some of the more educated Lizardmen, mostly leaders and high priests, are known to also speak both high and/or low language. Most of the common lizardmen however, don't speak them with the exception of a few words.

Art, music and literature

Lizardmen are surprisingly crafty, they usually make religious art such as small carved wooden statues painted with paint made from plants, clay and earth and small paintings on wooden pallets. They make jewellery such as clay beads, wooden beads and small figurines which they wear as necklaces. If a Lizardmen changes it's skin it will, in many cultures, keep a piece of the former skin embedded in a figurine. (The more figurines the older the Lizardmen.)

Lizardmen are always building new halls for their temples to keep changing and refining them. If the new halls are ready they will desert the old ones . This is why some of their temples are gigantic maze like complexes which consist of many halls and corridors. There have been instances of outsiders entering the labyrinths blinded by their greed for treasure and never come out again.

Most of the time other lizardmen destroy the temples and labyrints that have been build after a certain amount of time or when the engineering of the temple becomes to outdated. This is both to use the materials to build a new temple and to honour Zalsz. Some temples do survive this tradition and remain for centuries.

Lizardmen don't write, however they do make large murals and small drawings that, if looked at well, tell the mythical and less mythical stories of their kind. They draw in a simple, colourful way.

Diet

Altough they can, they usually don't eat elders that died of old age out of respect. They usually do not cook their food before eating it. Lizardmen set traps to capture small animals and use bow and arrow or blowrods (with or without poisonous darts) to hunt birds and other tree dwellers. They don't really hunt big animals but if they find a cadaver they will gladly take it.

Rituals

lizardmen rituals are usually done in name of Zalsz the tertiary god who created the lizardmen. Since the domains of this god are renewal an psyche the rituals are usually made for occasions which involve one or both of these things. The rituals change are never really the same.

Examples of common lizardmen rituals

  • Ritual of birth (to welcome a baby to this world)
  • Rite of parting (funeral rite)
  • Rite of renewal (usually done to initiate priests and new temple halls)
  • Rite of progression (skin changing)
  • Ritual of creation (not the same as the troll ritual of creation, this ritual centers around mating and creating new life)

Examples of rare lizardmen rituals

  • Rite of combined knowledge (a complex and rare rite which allows the participants to combine their minds, this rite has to be repeated on a regular base to keep the participants from becoming insane)

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Last updated Mon, 30-01-2023 22:17 by Brian Bors
Created Mon, 25-01-2021 19:35 by Anonymous

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