Valtún Zalthiss

WORLD & RULES

LOCATIONS

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Hagrtich Ssazar

The Code of Scales - Applicable to all of Quetzal ancestry 1. None born of the earth and scale shall dawn garments not made of leather, bone, or flesh. All else is impure, and disgraces the ancestral heritage, given already perfect skin. 2. None born of the earth and scale shall arm themselves with a weapon in hand, rather it be iron or magic. To do so disgraces the ancestral heritage, given already capable limbs, powerful jaws, and size. 3. To eat one of their own scale or blood is not sin. 4. All born of earth and scale will pledge loyalty to the ancestors who came before them and honor their ambitions. The Dragonborn Little is known of the dragons' true origins. It is suspected they evolved naturally to possess wings, and through evolving alongside magic, developed the ability to breathe fire. Their diversity makes leaving one conclusion difficult to fall upon. The origin therefore, of the Dragonborn is all the more cloudy. Verdanta is regarded by some as the Birthplace of the Beastfolk. Some five-hundred to seven-hundred thousand years ago, it is suspected that some of the Lizard-people migrated out of Africa and into Europe, where the Dragonborn would later give rise through breeding between dragon and Lizard-folk. The resulting offspring came to be known as Dragonborn, and are largely biological. Over the course of time, Lizard-people are suspected to have gone extinct within the region and replaced instead by their descendants, the Dragonborn. The Dragonborn, diverse and numerous, spread across the entirety of Eurasia, and later into the New World. They possess four limbs, tails, scales, and usually, though not all the time, wings. Wings in particular seemed a difficult trait to transfer, as part of their existence is largely magical, which fused often poorly with Lizard-people, who despite being technically products of magic themselves, are among one of the least magic-bearing races in the world. The mutation is exceedingly rare to the point that fewer than two dozen Lizard-people in all of currently recorded history possess any natural-born affinity to the element. Consequently, Dragonborn were technically born with wings, but rarely were they functional anatomical structures. And as generations passed, the trait was not inherited by means of natural selection. Pure-blood Lizard-folk from Verdanta often withheld stigma toward the Dragonborn for their mere existence because of their impure origins. They were seen as lesser than dragons, which already the Lizard-people had conflicting opinions on. Some saw them almost as deities, while others clapped their snouts and dismissed them as ordinary animals. Dragonborn largely inherited the physical prowess their Lizard-folk ancestors possessed, and a portion of their dragon side's sheer scale, but could not fly. At best, using their stunted wings, if they were blessed to have them, they could glide short distances. They were good swimmers, climbers, and hunters. Breathing fire, much like the situation with wings, was quite rare. Manifesting flame was not always accomplishable, aside from, if even, a short exhale of embers. Rather, most Dragonborn developed complex organs suited for the development of extreme heat combined with their Lizard-folk ancestry's toxic stomach acid. The result was often potent, even worse than a regular Lizard-person would be capable of, and in itself, somewhat capable of setting something on fire. The Lesser Dragonborn Dragonborn were able to technically breed with humans through complicated magical processes, which, although few, has produced what Lizard-folk call "Brittlescales". Brittlescales do not have wings at all unless their human parent, who is always magic-bearing, had direct influence over their development to do so. However, this interference is still limited to what is biologically possible, and as such leaves breathing fire more or less out of the question. Brittlescales earned their name for their minimal, often splotched patches of scales along smooth, human skin. They have barely any of the additional physical strength from their Dragonborn parent, and aside from the aforementioned troubles with fire-breathing and flight, are not heavily separated from their human counterparts. They do sometimes possess tails, though it is not guaranteed, and when they do, they are small, poorly functional, and ugly. Brittlescales barely have claws. They are more so nails that are naturally sharp at the edges, made from keratin and not bone. Brittlescales, for all their other faults however, are exceptionally imbued with magic, and are among some of the most naturally prestigious in the world. Much like Dragonborn, Lizard-people's resentment to Brittlescales are deep-rooted in their cultural and ancestral values. Brittlescales are seen as pathetic, and are sometimes owned as slaves by the few Lizard-folk who live outside of Africa.

HISTORY & EVENTS