Xurose

Basic Information

Anatomy

Swamp-dwelling reptile humanoids. Bipedal and vaguely humanoid, but proportioned closer to a lizard than a human in their limbs and torso. Their long tails can curl to take up less space. They have faces resembling crocodiles, with similar scales covering their bodies. They walk with a hunched posture, as they spend most of their time underwater. Because they don’t have the vocal capacity for speech, they communicate by snapping their jaws in clicking patterns similar to morse code. They are taller than the average human, but have the physique of a crocodile or alligator, though their limbs are longer to allow for walking and using their arms.

Genetics and Reproduction

Because of their size and lifespan, a female Xurose only lays one egg in her lifetime. The egg itself will gestate in the mother for about six months, and then the egg will incubate for just as long. In Xurose settlements, there are nursery buildings where eggs are watched by shifting caretakers who monitor temperature and heart rate.

Ecology and Habitats

Xurose live deep in swamps, where there is deep enough water for hunting, but enough dry land to build dwellings. Their houses are simple, usually small tent-like dwellings suspended by sticks and stones, so that they can remain mobile in case of threats. When a threat arises towards their settlements, they will fold up their homes and create rafts, and then camouflage them with leaves and vines. Then, they will swim away deeper into the swamp, beneath the rafts, unseen.

Dietary Needs and Habits

The Xurose are skilled hunters, with a diet made up of anything they can get; mammals small and large, fish, birds. They share the slow metabolism of alligators and crocodiles, and only need to eat once every several weeks. Every meal is a settlement-wide celebratory feast because of that, and they thank mother nature for their bounty.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Xurose scales are very sensitive to movement in water, making up for their poor eyesight by sensing when there is movement around them. They can also sense vibrations in the air, made by footsteps or thunder.

Civilization and Culture

Average Technological Level

Beyond wooden tools and leather armor, the Xurose have very little in technological development, but are for the most part satisfied with this. A common feeling within their communities is contentment in what they have, and so there is little need for innovation.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Because they don’t have the vocal capacity for speech, they communicate by snapping their jaws in clicking patterns similar to morse code. Though their language is simple due to the nature of clicking, they have many different words for things important to their culture, like food and signalling danger. They have no written language, and because their language is limited, they have no oral history.

Common Dress Code

Camouflage by wearing dark armor covered in mud to blend into swamp settings, and simply wear their armor for clothes, as their scales cover up anything that could lead to shame.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Within a community, there is a great sense of platonic respect and love. Xurose will get together for a sort of grooming, using picks and claws to clean the scales of their friends. Within a single Xurose community, sense of kinship is very strong, but they are very wary of other tribes. After a feast, they will typically share in a communal slumber, and during this vulnerability several volunteer warriors will have to watch over the sleeping citizens, to alert and wake them under threat of danger. Should there be an attack, the entire settlement will be packed up, and the Xurose tribe will slip away, rather than fight.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Xurose are friendly and welcoming to foreign species, but consider those without scales to be hideous and 'exposed', and so there are very few other species they feel any attraction to (one, to be exact).