[Puck]

Something like the Green cries out for dinosaurs as it is the perfect habitat for them. If you've got dinosaurs then you need someone to ride them and why not lizardmen?

Did I say dragons in the Wiki writeup? Well, dragons and dinosaurs.

Call them something else, but they are fun and they scare PCs silly.

If you make them into an elder race full of wisdom then they are like Dragonewts, which people don't like because they are Gloranthan.

I'd make them the Guardians of the Green, Keepers of the Ancient Ways, Descendants of the Ancients with a lot of Ancient Technology/Magic in their Cities. Give them a Gate as well, for fun. Make them tough so people won't mess with them, or make them weak with big pets so people don't mess with them. Make them bloodthirsty to scare people away.

But, I was just throwing ideas around.

I could see the Green as being written with just one culture and one set of people which would spoil such a large and diverse area.

Holy Smoke there is a lot here. I am in total agreement with both of you. There are so many different varieties out their: Aztec Lizardmen from Warhammer, Slarges, must be 10 kinds from D+D by now (I don’t know because I don’t follow this), and then the killers: the dragonewts and newtlings. These last ones are so cool that it is daunting as anything kind of pales beside them. I do not own mrq’s Dragonewts so I do not even know where they have gone with it, but from all reports it sound that now they are even cooler. Another existing strength of lizardmen has been the artwork. Drawings as well as miniatures have been stunning and varied. The problem is again coming up with something that is fresh, new, and then somewhat familiar. I was not even going to take on lizardmen for the Green at least originally and maybe write something later on if people were interested.

This is what I had in my old world. If you remember, somewhere in the mythic past the elves, shea or whatever had huge fight with the Orms(dragons). According to the histories orms were thrown down and slain. Well there were hints that three had survived deep in the mountains, in swamps or off the edge of the known world. (All this history could be myths. There could also be more than three orms as well allowing for other people to create more in their parts of the world). Instead of going into it more here I am just going to drag it out of the ancient file of my computer. This is pretty old, and focuses more on the dragons than on the lizard men, but would this kind of thing work at all???


ORMS
A terror out of legend, the Ormish race is perhaps the most ancient on Efirvia. The Ormish kind barely survived an epic pre-historical war with the Shea. They were hunted to near extinction but a few of the terrible matriarch beasts managed to survive and hide themselves deep in the bowels of the earth. Through the long years they have slowly bred and spread their spawn on the land.
The Ormish races come in a wide variety, but they all hatch from the egg clutches of the great queen dragons that have survived from times before history. As legend has it the queens are huge, malevolent and awesome to behold. The very sight of a great dragon will freeze a mans blood. They are old and wise beyond mans reckoning and they have forgotten more magic than mankind will ever know. Most likely all the Dragon queens have unlocked the secret of undead immortality and are now beyond the reach of mans power. Luckily for mankind they sleep far beneath the mountains and have not stirred in centuries. The last record of an awakened dragon in the early years of the Thuron reign mentioned that the beast destroyed an entire city. Unfortunately their offspring are not so shy. It is said in the old Shea records that:
" The Terrible behemoths are known to commonly lay two types of eggs: That of
Naga and the other of the Dragon's Spawn. Of the two eggs, that of the
spawn is the largest. These hatch into miniature versions of the their foul mothers
Which, fortunately neither grow to be as wicked or as large as the great beasts.
The Naga eggs are much smaller and hatch into foul snakelike beings which are
cruel and intelligent but less mighty than the spawned young.".

Much of the Sombrian research done on Dragonkind is based on these lines from the ancient text. It is also surmised later in the text that once in a millennium a third kind of egg is laid: that of the great dragons themselves. Others believe that a great eggs may be dropped more often but the mothers crush them in cruel abortion.
Three great mothers are still believed to exist based upon the Three strains of dragon spawn and Naga that are commonly hatched.

The Black Strain: The black strained Orms are very dark in color and heavily scaled, some are known to have red diamond shapes on there backs. They are very slimy and have affection for dark wet swamps, caves and muddy areas. They are thought to be the children of Schlalchs the Black.

The Coral Strain: The brightly colored highly poisonous hatchlings of Strighth are beautiful but deadly. The striped coral orms are generally the smallest but highly intelligent and malignant. They tent to dwell in marshes, deep forests and jungles. Some of the coral strain are only in color at certain times during the year. At other times their skin is a light green.


The Horned Strain: The children of Glaaksh the Spined One are the largest of the Dragon kind. They are dry of scale with many spiny protrusions on their bodies. Horned orms run from sable to tan in color and dwell in dry climates. Sand and Desert mountains are the home to Glaakshs offspring. Glaaksh's spawn are well known to the Kaharian continent but seldom are found on the plains of Perosia.


Worm strain: The horrid young of Gluydtha the slimy are leg-less and worm-like. The resting place of these Orms is deep below the earth, where they dig tunnels and plot under mountains were the sun cannot touch them. There are no true naga or brood of the worm strain, but the spawn vary greatly in form and size. None have any workable limbs.

DRAGON SPAWN

The Dragon spawn are massive creatures of malignant disposition. They run anywhere from 15 to 100 feet long and come in a wide variety of shapes and colors depending on their mothers.
The spittle and breath of these creatures is foul and poisonous in the extreme and the very air of their lairs is noxious.

Black Spawn:
The black spawn of Schlalsh have poisonous burning spittle that is death to even inhale. They are known have four legs as well as a pair of wings, but many are long and limbless like a great flying serpent.
Coral spawn:
The Coral spawn are the smallest; sometimes only 15 feet long. They are the most cunning of the known spawn and spit a blinding burning poison.
Horned Spawn:
The Spined spawn of Glaaksh are the largest and rarest of the creatures. They dwell deep in mountains and have a lust for human gold and flesh. Many spined spawn are too large to become fully airborne without gliding from cliff tops. Their breath is foul and wreaks but does not have the potent poisons of their cousins. The skin of Glaaksh's children is nie impenetrable.

NAGA:
The mothers of the dragon brood are the Naga. Naga are hatched directly from the mothers eggs. The Naga then disperse and lay the eggs of the lesser dragonbrood. Naga have the lower half of a serpent and the upper torso of a humanoid. Naga are extremely intelligent and are usually powerful spell casters in their own right. Like all dragonkind naga are variable in size and shape.

Black Naga: Coral Naga: Horned Naga:

DRAGON BROOD
The eggs of the naga hatch into the dragon brood races. Like the Spawn and Naga, there are three types of dragonbrood: the black, slimy swamp dwellers; the poisonous brightly colored corals; and the large, scaled, desert-wandering grandchildren of Glaaksh.
Dragon Brood are by far the most common sort of orm as well as the least intelligent.
Some are led by the naga that bred them and others roam free and have forgotten their heritage.

This allows for different types of lizardmen and kind of ropes them into one background. The most important part would be the Naga and the brood at the end. I with I would have written more on them and less on the dragons. Oh well.