Lagart
There are few things more frightening than the sight of an enraged Lagart. Ever since they joined the other galactic races during the first centuries of the Second Breath, these cold-blooded scaly humanoids have influenced the course of history both with their powerful fighting prowess and their strict sense of honor. From their home world of Wakusekai, they have traveled galaxy wide and are found in every corner of the Galactic Empire and beyond.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Lagarts are reptilian humanoids typically standing over 2 meters tall. Their scales are normally various shades of green, brown, or yellow, but rarely a Lagart will be hatched with red or blue scales. They have a tail for balance, which measures three to four feet long. Typical weight is between 90 and 136 kg. There is no obvious difference in height, weight, or shape between the male and female of the species. Lagarts will often have a crest of scales that run down their back from the head to the tip of the tail. Rarely, a Lagart will have a retractable frill around its head or neck.
As they grow into adulthood, a Lagart’s scales harden and their claws strengthen. They also develop an enzyme in their saliva, which when mixed with a special oil made from a plant from their home world, permits them to breathe a line of fire that sprays from their jaws until striking its target. Vials of this oil are rare off-world and their price varies with the potency.
Genetics and Reproduction
Lagarts reproduce through egg laying. After the female lays the eggs, males of the same clan will fertilize the eggs on a rotating basis. The act of egg laying and fertilization is not celebrated in lagart culture; it is simply something they must do for the sake of their clan. Only about 30% of all eggs eventually hatch and grow to adulthood. Adventuring lagarts will often have their reproductive duties temporarily halted medically.
Ecology and Habitats
Lagarts are from a warm planet and prefer a warm environment. While lagarts are able to endure a limited range of temperatures, they are particularly vulnerable to extreme cold, entering into a torpor-like state and even dying from extended exposure to water freezing climates.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Lagarts are omnivores, but meat is a staple of their diet. If there are vegan lagarts, they do not advertise themselves.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Lagarts possess typical sight and hearing capabilities. Depending on who you ask, a lagart's sense of taste is either utterly unrefined or far more sophisticated than standard. Lagarts develop mystical abilities at a similar rate as humans and other humanoid races.
Civilization and Culture
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Lagarts are solemn creatures, often rigid in their thinking and their values. Lagarts frequently have a fatalistic view of circumstances; when bad things happen, Lagarts are often the first to shrug. Despite popular thought, Lagarts aren’t humorless; they just find different things funny. Violent physical comedy, unintentionally hilarious injuries or deaths, make Lagarts smile and snort their hissing laughter. The concept of fellowship they understand, but the emotion of love and the idea of romance is completely alien to them.
Lagart society, while united, focuses on a clan system, with a complex system of allegiances that explains each clan’s place in the political hierarchy. Lagarts form friendships, but do not marry.
Honor is extremely important to a Lagart. Many Lagarts would rather than die than face a loss of honor. Those who are found to have lost their honor and do not choose to commit ritual suicide are “Severed”; their tails are cut off and they are expelled from Lagart society. From that point on, the tailless Lagart is no longer considered a Lagart by their former peers. Any attempts to return to lagart society by a Severed are met with lethal violence. On non-lagart worlds, the presence of Severed is barely tolerated by lagarts, and they remain objects of scorn and prejudice.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
In their history, there is no greater hero than Okaga, who freed his people from bondage. As Okaga built his forces, he codified teachings on how to live and fight. These teachings became the Code of Okaga. The Code is standard learning for Lagarts and most of them pay at least lip-service to it. The is as follows:
1. One must have heroic courage. It is not enough to not die – one must live. One who acts, knowing to act could bring death, gains honor from the act.
2. True warriors have no reason to be cruel. When facing an opponent, honor him with a quick death and a fine feast. Would you eat your toys? No? Then do not play with your food.
3. When one says that they will perform an act, it is as good as done. Nothing will stop them from completing what they say they will do. We do not have to 'give our word'. We do not have to 'promise'. Speaking and doing are the same action.
4. Consider your actions deeply, but once you are certain of the right course, act! Make a full commitment to your decisions. This is the path to honor.
5. We are quick and strong. We are not as most people. Have sympathy for those who are less than we are – they cannot help how their ancestors made them.
6. Loyalty is the path to honor. Be true to your companions. If you lead, lead wisely and protect your followers. If you follow, obey your leader.
The other custom that still exists in Lagart culture (although it has fallen into disuse as Lagarts move further out into the wider galaxy) is the custom of eating one's vanquished foe. The eating of the foe is a symbolic taking of the power of the defeated enemy, but it also is meant to honor the opponent. In Lagart culture, the more elaborate the feast of the enemy, the greater honor a Lagart is bestowing on that opponent. The phrase "You aren't worth eating," is still a grave insult in Lagart society.
History
Lagarts were first discovered on their home world early in the Second Breath by Myrr explorers. Lagart society was still very primitive at the time, a violent savage race divided into small warring tribes. When a Lagart would kill another, the victor would feast upon his fallen opponent; this cultural idiosyncrasy is still a part of Lagart culture today.
The Myrr exploited their technological advantage, and the warring tribalism, to conquer the planet. For more than 50 years, the Myrr would play warring tribes against each other, all the while controlling more and more geography and reaping the profits in Lagart slaves and exports built by forced labor.
Then a charismatic warrior rose up and claimed control of one of the tribes. When the Myrr sent representatives to negotiate with him, he returned their headless corpses. Rich bounties were placed on his head, but to no avail; he slipped through every trap set for him. Over time, he began to unite the various tribes through a mixture of assassination, bribery, alliance and combat. After claiming control over a tribe, he would take 20 of their best warriors and train them personally. These became his Udumo Unogada, his elite cadre.
Meanwhile, his forces began attacking Myr colony settlements and slave processing camps; first, using sabotgage and guerrilla tactics, later with overwhelming force. Ultimately, the united Lagart armies forced the Myr into its final stronghold in the Sermindor Grasslands of the main continent. Okaga's forces charged this final outpost, forcing the Myrr Confederation to retreat from the planet, their subjugation of the Lagart race over.
This warrior was Okaga, the greatest Lagart hero in his race’s history. Even today, all Lagarts honor his name and his teachings. On the lagart home world and other lagart colony worlds, there are cults that venerate Okaga like a god, and his teachings like a religion.
After the death of Okaga, the surviving members of his elite cadre, the Udumo Unogada, took control of their people. Each of the Udumo Unogada started a noble clan, and it is these clans that hold sway over lagart society to this day. The clans are connected in a complicated web of rivalries and alliances that only the most dedicated scholar (or a lagart) could unravel and understand.
With their newfound unity and freedom from Myrr tyranny, lagarts pushed out into space, establishing colonies and making both alliances and enemies in the void of space. An aggressive species, lagarts often came to new worlds as conquerors prior to the formation of the Galactic Republic. One such attempt at expansion was the Ducari Shogunate, which subjugated several systems before being overthrown by the oppressed Snosgane species. The result was a war of annihilation; while the Snosgane were successful in destroying the ruling Ducari clan and halting the Shogunate's expansion, their race was made extinct by the conflict.
The remaining lagart colonies joined the Republic as signatory worlds, and transitioned into nobles with the rise of the Galactic Empire. When the Second Breath ended in chaos and civil war, the Hidora clan leader saw an opportunity and parlayed his Species and their forces into an Elector Principality. By the end of the Second Dark Age, lagarts were perhaps the second most politically influential Species in the Empire, and indeed the galaxy.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Lagarts get along well enough with their fellow sentient Species in the galaxy. They do find Illyrians to be a little too jolly and frivolous, but are typically not offended by the little beings. Despite their history with Myrr, lagarts do not automatically view the Species negatively; however, Confederation-born Myrr evoke a hostile reaction from most lagarts, even after so many centuries.
Attributes:
6 HPs
Lagarts start with 2 Heritage Traits:
- Cold Blooded - Any attempt to persuade, influence, or manipulate a Lagart through appeals to emotion or feelings suffers Disadvantage
- Strong Scales - +2 HPs
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