Lizardfolk are one of the older peoples of Aesala, with their surviving population concentrated in and around the Scalded Coast. They use standard Lizardfolk ancestry rules for game purposes. Their population is relatively small, and in the modern era Lizardfolk society is organized almost entirely around tribal communities rather than permanent states or cities.
Ancient Civilization
Modern Lizardfolk are descended from a substantially more settled civilization that once occupied parts of southern Aesala. A small number of its ruins survive in the Scalded Coast, providing evidence of permanent settlements and institutions far larger than those maintained by most Lizardfolk communities today. Much of the civilization’s history has been lost, and the surviving ruins provide only fragments of what once existed.
The Lizardfolk civilization arose long after the Qhalleess Empire, which belonged to a still earlier age of Kor Sirok’s history. The Qoraokllo Empire was also an ancient presence on Aesala, but its concentration in the southern mountains limited interaction with the Lizardfolk of the lowlands. Most other known settlements and states on Aesala developed later than the Lizardfolk presence in the Scalded Coast.
Collapse During the Sundering
The old Lizardfolk civilization collapsed during the upheavals surrounding the Sundering. This occurred in the same broad period that brought the great decline of the Huraz Confederation, although the two societies responded to the catastrophe differently. Huraz survived in diminished form, while the political and institutional structures that had connected the Lizardfolk settlements did not recover.
The descendants of that civilization remained in the region but reorganized around smaller tribal communities. Ruins of the older settlements still survive in places throughout the Scalded Coast, and encounters with those sites are one of the clearest reminders that modern Lizardfolk society represents only the surviving portion of a much older history.
Modern Lizardfolk
Present-day Lizardfolk communities are found primarily through the jungles, wetlands, and river systems of the Scalded Coast. Their settlements are generally smaller and less permanent than those of their ancestors, and the difficult terrain of southern Aesala helps keep many tribes relatively isolated from the continent’s larger political powers.
Because the population is small and geographically concentrated, Lizardfolk communities share more common traditions and environmental pressures than are typical of ancestries spread across several continents. Local differences remain important, but the Scalded Coast and the memory of the lost civilization provide a strong common background for the people who still live there.