Page 43 - Serpent Kingdoms

LIZARDS

lizard king are also much more likely to have character classes lizardfolk population) were not involved in the wars, and their
than others of their kind. societies continued as they had previously.

Description Outlook

A lizard king resembles a lizardfolk but may have any of several Violent, cruel, and often despotic, lizard kings combine the worst
demonic features, such as glowing red eyes, extra spines, extra- features of lizardfolk and demons. But although the blood of
long arms, long fangs, or additional scaly frills. Each individual demons fl ows in their veins, they feel responsible for the tribes
is different, depending on its exact heritage. Lizard king statis- entrusted to them. Their Abyssal heritage gives them the ambi-
tics appear on page 68. tion, intelligence, vision, and power to bring their tribes up from
savagery and create stable, enduring civilizations. Lizard kings
Racial History rarely desert a tribe once they have ruled it, and their chaotic
natures almost never express themselves as wanderlust.
Lizard kings arose in Faerûn when the demon Sess’innek, in an
effort to aid the khaastas in their war against the sarrukh, sent Lizard King Society
his lesser demons to Faerûn to take control of as many lizardfolk
tribes as possible. The lizardfolk resisted less than Sess’innek had Lizard king society is inextricably entwined with that of stan-
predicted, caving quickly to the will of their demonic conquerors. dard lizardfolk, with some notable differences. Because of their
Some of the tribes even began to worship the demons as gods. voracious appetite for humans, the lizardfolk of their tribes
The demons bred with the lizardfolk for their own amusement, constantly raid caravans and try to capture travelers passing
killing any offspring as soon as they hatched. through the nearby areas. The lizard kings make every effort
Time passed, and the war between the khaastas and the sar- to keep such raids well away from civilized regions, understand-
rukh failed to end, so Sess’innek ordered the demons to place a ing that if stories of them were to reach the human cities, the
creature loyal to them in charge of each tribe and return to the elven settlements, and the dwarven strongholds, they and their
Abyss. No lizardfolk were deemed suitable for such roles, since people would be hunted down and either forced into hiding or
they had a tendency to switch alliances frequently, especially destroyed outright.
when their allies weren’t nearby to remind them of their com- In standard lizardfolk tribes, the strong use force to rule over
mitments. Thus, the demons decided to allow a few of their those weaker than themselves. Lizard kings fi t into this system
own half-fi end/half-lizardfolk offspring to live. These so-called very well, since their enhanced strength makes even the weakest
lizard kings were then placed in charge of the tribes that the of their kind more powerful than the strongest adult lizardfolk.
demons had controlled. Like their demonic parents before them, Should the strongest lizardfolk in a tribe turn out to be more
the lizard kings interbred with the tribes under their control, powerful than its lizard king, the lizardfolk is nevertheless ex-
producing some offspring like themselves and some normal liz- pected to support the lizard king. Should the lizardfolk attempt
ardfolk children. They did not slay all their offspring outright, to seize power, the clergy of Sess’innek and many of the elite
however, wishing to ensure their own lines of succession. lizardfolk warriors wage a lopsided battle against the would-be
The lizardfolk did not reject the lizard kings, and the usurper. It is completely unheard of for a lizardfolk to defeat a
tribes under their control prospered and became more ad- lizard king in personal combat.
vanced. The news of their achievements spread to other Only one law unites lizard kings, and that is that each tribe
tribes, some of them many miles away, whose members can have only one ruling lizard king and only one adult lizard
became jealous. As a result, many lizard king young were king heir. Before this law was adopted, young lizard kings not
stolen and raised to adulthood, then placed in charge of the chosen as heirs sometimes led rebellions that fractured their
tribes that had fostered them. While the lizard kings didn’t tribes and needlessly cost lives, and others abandoned their
mind their offspring bringing more lizardfolk under the con- tribes, only to return and work against them later.
trol of Sess’innek, they sometimes lost their most promising By their very nature, lizardfolk are more civil toward other
heirs in such raids. A period of general warfare ensued. Since lizardfolk than they are toward many of the other scaly races.
the lizardfolk tribes without lizard kings were almost never Tribes under the rule of the lizard kings are no different, al-
as advanced as those with them, most confl icts ended with though they tend to be more warlike. Even if they are unhappy
the slaughter of the weaker tribe and the absorption of any with the rule of a lizard king, they almost never rebel against
survivors by the conquering tribe. him. Lizardfolk are simply too easily led by strong individuals,
By the time this succession of small wars ended, numerous and they lack the power to organize on their own against a
smaller tribes had disappeared, and the lizard kings had become lizard king without alerting him that something is amiss.
even stronger. The lizardfolk tribes that existed outside the Most lizardfolk from the outside that are absorbed into a
lizard kings’ spheres of infl uence (more than half of Faerûn’s tribe under the control of a lizard king are never given the same

42

620_96566_SerpentKing32-53.indd 42 5/12/04, 2:54:26 PM