Dracomorph

The Lizardmen of the Sorrowlakes have long sought to breed the lesser spawn-creatures of their kind into new, stable subspecies. These attempts were at their height during the Gaellen War, when the pressures of conflict with the Telerian League caused some Lizardmen clan leaders to look for any advantage, crossbreeding and enhancing their creations in much the same way the nobility of Kaerok bred their hounds for size, intelligence, or viciousness. Some experiments were more successful than others – the famed Vergumkaar, for example, remains unparalleled in terms of his intelligence, size, and strength, but was the only one of his particular kind successfully created. By contrast, a number of Lizardmen spawn-breeders succeeded in creating a stable and relatively easily replicated genus. These beasts, with leathery wings and snapping beaks, bear more than a passing resemblance to the great dragons of old, so it is little surprise that, likely believing a link to the Dragonkin Empire would further enhance their reputation, the breeders named their new creations Dracomorphs. The Dracomorphs were highly popular among the Lizardmen, and with good reason. More than mere beasts, they proved intelligent and learned quickly. Even more impressively, they were found to be magically attuned. Though they were not capable of great spellcrafting or vast sorcerous feats, they were able to instinctively channel their energies into spitting out bolts of lightning or debilitating nearby foes with magic that weakened muscles and made bones brittle. While these traits certainly set the Dracomorphs further apart from the other, more basic companion beasts bred by the Lizardmen, it was their venom that proved to be their deadliest trait. Stored in an enclosed pouch in the gullet, it turned highly corrosive on contact with air. The Dracomorphs were capable of spitting this poison great distances, making them even deadlier on the battlefield. The creation of the Dracomorphs helped prolong the Gaellen War, but they alone were not enough to reverse the victories of the Telerian League. A great many Dracomorphs were killed, and Telerian generals paid bounties to their soldiers for the heads or wings of the beasts. Despite this, the genus was not wholly wiped out. In the years following the war, Dracomorphs became status symbols among the surviving Lizardmen clans. At birth, the spawnling of a clan chieftain would often be gifted with a Dracomorph egg by their parents, spending their first night sleeping by its side. Dracomorphs live long lives, sometimes even longer than Lizardmen, and the hope was that the chief’s spawnling would form a bond with the one they were paired with. If this was the case, the Lizardman in question could be assured that they would have a stalwart bodyguard and companion for life, for Dracomorphs are fiercely loyal. Thanks to the fraught nature of life in the Sorrowlakes, it is not unknown for Dracomorphs to perish in the defense of their bond partner. More rarely, however, it is the Lizardman who is slain while the Dracomorph lives on. In such circumstances, the creatures are often riven with a terrible guilt and separation sorrow, and rarely bond with a Lizardman again. With this connection lost, many wander away from their clan, and they are left to do so. It is seen as impossibly cruel to keep such a bereft creature with those who will forever remind it of its slain bond partner. The most famous of these cases involved the eldest son of the Nakkala clan, Atzii, and his Dracomorph, Trekk. The Nakkala had fought a series of clashes with a rival clan, the Kat’to, and Trekk had earned many honor scars in Atzii’s defense. However, he could not detect the poison that had been slipped into Atzii’s food on the night he was set to ascend to the role of clan chief. Atzii perished. Blinded by rage and guilt, Trekk set out to make the Kat’to pay. Over a series of months, he stalked and slew their hunting parties and used his innate magics to bring sickness upon their village by depositing venom in their wells and food stores. Starving and weakened, the clan became easy prey for a vengeful assault by the Nakkala, led by Atzii’s younger brother. Trekk refused to bond with him or anyone else in his old clan, however, and departed, seemingly intent on wandering Teleria in search of some new purpose behind his existence. Among the Lizardmen, it is claimed that only the greatest leader will be able to bond with him and recreate the link he once shared with Atzii. Many have tried, but thus far, Trekk has rejected them all.