Vrans

Classification: Humanoid.
Other names: Lizard men, Lizard-folk.

CHARACTERISTICS

Vrans are typically tall, covered in scales and have ruby-red eyes which cover half their face and give them infravision. They have venomous fangs which they sometimes use to make their weapons toxic. Female vrani can be distinguished from males by their voice timbre and height. They are also cold blooded and, despite being humanoid, their physiology is completely different from mammalian humanoids.
There is also an entirely separate sub-race called 'Vran warriors' who have smaller eyes and large tails. They are facultative bipeds, as opposed to common vran who are bipedal.

HISTORY

At some point in history before the First Landing, one of the vrani cities was settled by Aen Seidhe and named Loc Muinne. The reasons behind the disappearance of the original inhabitants remained a mystery for many years. At the time, the elves claimed that a mini ice age forced the vrans to abandon the city, while humans suspected purposeful genocide after discovering dismembered vran skeletons in caves nearby. The truth was discovered by the mage aep Dearhanna, finding documents within the Black Academy detailing a bacteria created by the elves to wipe out the vrans.
The elves also attacked several other ancient vrani cities strewn across the foothills of the Blue Mountains, amidst several civil conflicts. These cities are now ruins and caverns underneath them are littered with reptilian bones.
Vrans experienced even more difficult times after the humans came. Their reptilian look quickly became one of the reasons for their persecution, with priests of Kreve claiming them to be demons. Several pogroms and military conflicts saw a rapid decrease in the vrani population. One of the last wars took place some 10 years before the birth of the famed witcher Geralt of Rivia, after the war ended many vrans retreated beyond the Blue Mountains, while the majority of the rest were enclosed in reservations with werebubbs.
Around 1170 a small group of vrans (maybe 8 of them) belonged to the band of Koshchey's men who terrorised the Klamat pass area. Not long after a couple of them were killed by Korin in Klucz, with the remaining ones avenging them by hunting down Korin and shooting him with a poisoned arrow.
Although vrans had a hard time assimilating into Nordling society, some managed and were living in human towns as late as the 1220s-1230s; with a vran named Dziega notably being in Blaviken during the infamous slaughter at the marketplace.