Saurian race description

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Eagle_11
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Saurian race description

Post by Eagle_11 »

Has there ever been an attempt at writting one ?

what points should be included in the description should it be attempted to get written ? here i mean if there is any established facts about the species so far.
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ForestDragon
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by ForestDragon »

well, i think the main problem with it is the fact that every place they show up in portrays them somewhat differently, and mainline campaigns don't have much canon saurian-related lore
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Dugi
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by Dugi »

Saurians are a cold-blooded reptilian race. Their bodies are covered in slimy scales usually of green colour. They live for about a fifty years, reaching maturity around age 15. They have a keen sense of smell, which also allows them to tell a male from a female.

Once, saurians were a great a powerful race, but when more advanced races like orcs or humans came, saurians were forced to retreat into inhospitable areas like swamps and deserts. They survive there thanks to the large number of eggs they produce. This has caused them to bear a venomous resentment towards most other races, blaming them of all hardship. Although saurians need to heat up during sunlight to fight properly, they prefer to attack at night, using various ambushes and skirmishes. Saurians sometimes ally themselves with drakes, seeing them as their distant cousins rather than usurpers.

Saurian skin is slimy and covered in scales, which causes pointed weapons to slip on their skin and do little damage. Small stature and using both hands and legs to move arround allow saurians to walk under the weapons of larger combatants, penetrating easily across battlefields and attacking wherever some support is needed.


Or something else.
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ForestDragon
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by ForestDragon »

Dugi wrote:Saurians are a cold-blooded reptilian race. Their bodies are covered in slimy scales usually of green colour. They live for about a fifty years, reaching maturity around age 15. They have a keen sense of smell, which also allows them to tell a male from a female.

Once, saurians were a great a powerful race, but when more advanced races like orcs or humans came, saurians were forced to retreat into inhospitable areas like swamps and deserts. They survive there thanks to the large number of eggs they produce. This has caused them to bear a venomous resentment towards most other races, blaming them of all hardship. Although saurians need to heat up during sunlight to fight properly, they prefer to attack at night, using various ambushes and skirmishes. Saurians sometimes ally themselves with drakes, seeing them as their distant cousins rather than usurpers.

Saurian skin is slimy and covered in scales, which causes pointed weapons to slip on their skin and do little damage. Small stature and using both hands and legs to move arround allow saurians to walk under the weapons of larger combatants, penetrating easily across battlefields and attacking wherever some support is needed.


Or something else.
:shock: bravo! bravissimo! ^_^ this is definately worth getting mainlined in 13.6 or something. well, someone can add a few more ideas, but what you have done is amazing

EDIT:nitpicks and typos: a great a

around age 15 > around age of 15

powerful > a great a great and powerful

when more advanced> when the more advanced

to slip on their skin > to slip off their skin

orcs or humans > orcs and humans

blaming them of all hardship. > blaming them for all their hardship.

penetrating easily > easily penetrating
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Dugi
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by Dugi »

I was editing it a lot and clearly the syntactic quality of the text degraded. Not trying to say that I ever had a good syntax.

Okay, corrected version:
Saurians are a cold-blooded reptilian race. Their bodies are covered in slimy scales usually of green colour. They live for about a fifty years, reaching maturity around age of 15. They have a keen sense of smell, which also allows them to tell a male from a female.

Once, saurians were a great and powerful race, but when the more advanced races like orcs and humans came, saurians were forced to retreat into inhospitable areas like swamps and deserts. They survive there thanks to the large number of eggs they produce. This has caused them to bear a venomous resentment towards most other races, blaming them for all their hardship. Although saurians need to heat up during sunlight to fight properly, they prefer to attack at night, using various ambushes and skirmishes. Saurians sometimes ally themselves with drakes, seeing them as their distant cousins rather than usurpers.

Saurian skin is slimy and covered in scales, which causes pointed weapons to slip off their skin and do little damage. Small stature and using both hands and legs to move arround allow saurians to walk under the weapons of larger combatants, easily penetrating across battlefields and attacking wherever some support is needed.
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by Caladbolg »

Dugi wrote:Saurian skin is slimy and covered in scales, which causes pointed weapons to slip on their skin and do little damage.
Lizards and snakes are actually not slimy but dry. Aside from that, even if you say saurians have slimy skin, that wouldn't help against pointed weapons due to the amount of force behind the strike.

You could mention something about their culture. Moon worship, fortune telling and knowledge of mathematics are parts of pseude-lore for them.
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by ForestDragon »

Dugi wrote:I was editing it a lot and clearly the syntactic quality of the text degraded. Not trying to say that I ever had a good syntax.

Okay, corrected version:
Saurians are a cold-blooded reptilian race. Their bodies are covered in slimy scales usually of green colour. They live for about a fifty years, reaching maturity around age of 15. They have a keen sense of smell, which also allows them to tell a male from a female.

Once, saurians were a great and powerful race, but when the more advanced races like orcs and humans came, saurians were forced to retreat into inhospitable areas like swamps and deserts. They survive there thanks to the large number of eggs they produce. This has caused them to bear a venomous resentment towards most other races, blaming them for all their hardship. Although saurians need to heat up during sunlight to fight properly, they prefer to attack at night, using various ambushes and skirmishes. Saurians sometimes ally themselves with drakes, seeing them as their distant cousins rather than usurpers.

Saurian skin is slimy and covered in scales, which causes pointed weapons to slip off their skin and do little damage. Small stature and using both hands and legs to move arround allow saurians to walk under the weapons of larger combatants, easily penetrating across battlefields and attacking wherever some support is needed.
ok, a few more typos/nitpicks:

about a fifty years > about fifty years

which also allows them > which also allows them, apart from other things,

their hardship > their hardships

using various ambushes and skirmishes > using tactics like ambushes and skirmishes

and using both hands and legs > and the use of both hands and legs (sounds more beautiful)

well, if this stuff is to go into mainline, then we got to make it sound like it came out of the mouth of a fully-language weilding person

EDIT:
Caladbolg wrote:
Dugi wrote:Saurian skin is slimy and covered in scales, which causes pointed weapons to slip on their skin and do little damage.
Lizards and snakes are actually not slimy but dry. Aside from that, even if you say saurians have slimy skin, that wouldn't help against pointed weapons due to the amount of force behind the strike.

You could mention something about their culture. Moon worship, fortune telling and knowledge of mathematics are parts of pseude-lore for them.
yep, fair point. also, Dugi, you really forgot about saurian augurs/ect. since they are a very important part of the saurian society, if i am not mistaken
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Dugi
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by Dugi »

@ForestDragon
How about stopping to nitpick my hasty writing and just editing it yourself?
Caladbolg wrote:Lizards and snakes are actually not slimy but dry.
I am aware that snakes and other reptiles aren't slimy, they are resistant to piercing weapons and it needs some explanation.
Caladbolg wrote:Moon worship, fortune telling and knowledge of mathematics are parts of pseude-lore for them.
I could add some stuff about mathematics. But I'd be glad if somebody helped me with the worship and fortune telling, I don't participate in either because it's useless.

Although saurians need to heat up during sunlight to fight properly, they prefer to attack at night, using various ambushes and skirmishes. The complexity of their plans and need to account for many possible actions of enemies have caused them to develop a deep understanding of mathematics. Saurians sometimes ally themselves with drakes, seeing them as their distant cousins rather than usurpers.
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Aldarisvet
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by Aldarisvet »

Eagle_11 wrote:Has there ever been an attempt at writting one ?

what points should be included in the description should it be attempted to get written ? here i mean if there is any established facts about the species so far.
ForestDragon wrote:well, i think the main problem with it is the fact that every place they show up in portrays them somewhat differently, and mainline campaigns don't have much canon saurian-related lore
I am sorry for saying the obvious, but is not this is a race description? Looks as enough detailed lore for me.
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Chewan
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by Chewan »

@ Aldarisvet » Is not this is a race description?
Or this one: viewtopic.php?f=32&t=43721#p593757
It's not that there is a lack of initiative from the forum... :hmm:
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by ForestDragon »

well, i guess we didn't need to write a new one
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Eagle_11
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by Eagle_11 »

hmm.. ok, i had look into units.cfg, seen [race]id=lizard having an empty description= and thought there would be staying one if it existed, turns out there are multiple already. :shock:
I have taken a look at this one now, and gotta state that its all reading too much like an national geographic biology documentary on saurians.
I think could use this as an base, could enrich it a little bit opening up the bits about astrology to become one paragraph, and then adding mathematics and any other stuff missing from Dugi's.

I shall try to combine all 3 into one that is fluent.

The descriptions for Falcon and wolf races could be adopted from Gyra_Solune's post as is. Have found them to be sufficient.

edit: ok,here it is.

Saurians are an lesser race of cold-blooded reptilian humanoids. Their bodies are covered in scales, they stand about as tall as a dwarf in stature yet are of an frailer construction. This frailty has its own quirks however in the form of sporting an agility surpassing those of any other race, and the capability to adapt into dangerous environments with ease.

Biology
Saurians have an average life-span of 50 years, reaching maturity around the age of 15. They have a keen sense of smell, which they also use to tell apart an male from a female. Being predominantly hunters and scavengers, saurians have extremely strong jaws, and a very powerful digestive system with highly acidic fluids, making them capable of eating and digesting their entire prey including skin, teeth, horns and bones.
Altough they stand smaller than the average man when on their hindlegs, the distance from the tip of their snout to the end their tail can be as tall when the body gets stretched, such as when being on all fours.

Saurians are sharply segregated between the genders. It is the responsibility of the female to hunt and find food, skills which ultimately train them into the warriors other races so fear. Males, meanwhile, are responsible for guarding the clutch- the eggs left by the females.
While this leaves time for the males to develop their bodies to become more tankier than the females, it also exposes them to significant danger, as they become rather stationary targets.

Saurian females produce clutches of about 20 eggs roughly once a year, which creates constant population pressure and would stress most carnivore's food supply. Further they have no aversion to and readily eat carrion and commit cannibalism should the situation demand so.

Warfare
Saurians use their slender figure in battle to evade their attackers, slipping through the enemy lines using their light-weight bodies without getting caught. In battle they sprint throughout the field, assisting wherever necessary, as such no saurian truely fights on it's own. They prefer tactics such as ambush and flanking the opponent.
As pointed weapons are the go-to weapon amongst saurians, their warriors regularly do mock-up training battles where they train up each other's resistance to stinging pain. Each warrior gets paired with another and they start wounding each other poking with spears in a sucession that becomes rapider as time passes.

As other races generally shun the locations the saurians dwell in, the arch-enemy of an saurian tribe is yet another tribe of saurians. Tribal violence remains by far, the most common cause of death.

Society
An new saurian clan gets formed in an event called a "hatching", that happens when the augurs have read the proper astrological signs. The oracles will then hold trials to determine the female indicated by the conjunction, who then selects a group of individuals with lower rank and together they leave their clan to found a new one. Its not uncommon for several females with a specific trait to be selected by the oracles, causing multiple clans to splinter off at the same time.
As for the leaving female's selection criteria, its an rather simple process. No group leaving can be larger than any other if there are multiple, all the groups together can not be larger, than the group being left that remains behind, and an female of higher ranking can overrule another female's choice of who they take with.

Members of the society compete through skill, determination, and reputation. An clear pecking order gets established, with a chief at the top.
The chief has the ultimate saying in the clan, this continues down the rank structure with each individual of lower rank submitting to the higher rank.

On those occasions when the two genders interact they do not contest for dominance in any field, as such dominance biased on gender is undetermined among saurians.
The males of the saurian race tend to specialize in black-magics as they get older, gradually switching over to advising functions within the society, with younger males taking over the clutch.

Culture
Fatalistic in the extreme, Saurians believe all the events in a life can be predicted by the use of a complex form of astrology.
Some of the saurians have a capacity for occult spellcasting - these serve as healers and oracles, the latter performing rituals at night under the stars to predict the future, foretelling prophecies in their seldom-seen script.
Jewels and the substance of gold are an essential part of such rituals, hence saurians hold both materials in high value and are willing to fight for them. Sacred idols made out of pure gold are kept in their holy sites, temples dedicated to the worship of the moon decorated by lawish jewellery can found in most larger settlements.
Despite having an script of their own, that is taught and learned among the spellcasters, knowledge is passed by oral tradition at large, within the society sudden, unpredicted loss of an learned figure can be an devastating blow to the clan.

Saurians have no qualms eating carrion should the situation demand so, as their culture emphasizes survival over defeat. They have an frevelish appetite however, and it is said their skill in cooking can easily surpass that of ogres.
Due to their cold-blooded nature saurians have no aversion to cannibalism, they tend to devour prisoners taken at internecine clan wars and sometimes even those of other races, dependant on how much hatred flows between the races.
Because of the rapid growth rate of saurians, these frequent splits in clans are necessary to control and facilitate population control. Add to this the fact that cannibalism is not taboo among saurian tribes, violence is one of the defining features in the life of an saurian.
This survivalist behaviour has limited the recovery of the once great saurian culture, as their possessions must be mobile.

Geography
Saurians can be found living in many different areas, though swamps are by far their most common habitat. They have been spotted even as far north, dwelling in cavern systems under the surface with freezing temperatures.
One are they are known to dwell in is the Swamp of Dread, that remains north of the Great River, seperating the swamp from the human realm of wesnoth. Their 'capital', if such an thing could even be considered for saurians, is an settlement named Saurgrath, which had been razed by elves once, and is not known if it ever get rebuilt.
In the southern realms, that lays across the desert an large empire resides within the wide jungle of life to the far east, which in turn is but an fracture of an fallen empire, an remnant of eons past.

History
In a time longst past, saurians were but one major race, dwelling in majestic cities and in the posession of empires that spanned through huge swathes of land, some dare to say even continents. As the other races such as orcs and humans became advanced throughout the course of history, the saurians were forced to give up their realms at large through warfare. Under constant pressure of these younger races that were ever wishing to expand, their civilization became gradually set back, as the survivors of that time have retreated into areas inhospitable for their agressors, such as swamp, jungle and deserts in a bid for survival.
As time has passed saurians have evolvingly adapted to thrive in those harsh environments, but inspecially in marshes and bogs. They have became populous throughout the Great Continent yet again, but without their old civilization, as they had degenerated into barbary at large, becoming territorial and openly hostile to outsiders, even to those of kin.

Foreign Relations
The lingering memory of their past turmoils caused by once had been the 'lesser' races have not vanished, as such they act like brigands and harriers to nearly any they encounter. The other races in turn, treat them much like the outlaws and bandits of their own.

Saurians are viewed with mystery by many other races of Irdya, who have not as an strong memoir as them or are simply too young to have had witnessed their old glory.
The more ruthless races are known to enter military alliances with them in exchange for treasure. Tribes of saurian are often seen collaberating with enclaves of Drakes, though it remains in the unclear if this is voluntary.
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taptap
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by taptap »

Never a fan of lore for lore sake, ... especially, when it sets poor saurians up as cartoony villains to be slaughtered by elves and their ilk.

Most lore goes to great length to abuse "cold-blooded" as a mental state, metaphor instead as a biological fact. It is also suspiciously convenient that they like jewels and gold just so, are cannibals, do black magic, have a superiority complex and feat. sufficient population pressure so saurian slaughtering elves never run out of supply.

The simple point that females are stronger, larger thus hunting is omitted, instead we get weird paragraphs about tankier males (which is not supported by the stats). Males are just smaller and weaker, but have other talents.

Food for thought: Intelligent egg-layers should be able to figure out birth control much easier than mammals. It is even easier when you know cold magic.

Food for thought II: TRoW / LoW feat. large scale genocidal campaigns against saurians. The apparent explanation is: Elves try to eradicate non-mammal intelligent species. And induce humans to do so as well.

Food for thought III: Saurians do not live in swamps by preference, but these are the last refuges remaining to them being hunted relentlessly by Elves and Co.

Food for thought IV: Preference for spears is a way to economise metal, with dwarves denying access to mines and elves denying you wood for coke and no one willing to trade with you. -> Looking for iron instead of gold would make much more sense, honestly.
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.
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ForestDragon
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by ForestDragon »

also, you say that females are warriors/hunters, yet mainline saurian warriors are surprisingly male :lol: :geek:
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taptap
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Re: Saurian race description

Post by taptap »

ForestDragon wrote:also, you say that females are warriors/hunters, yet mainline saurian warriors are surprisingly male :lol: :geek:
How do you tell? -> Stop thinking like a mammal!

It is the one thing about saurians everyone agrees to, I thought. It is obvious from the color of the brownish patterns, if you ask me. They are darker with the males, clearly visible in the portrait. :)
Last edited by taptap on August 10th, 2016, 3:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.
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