Squentruos
Threat: Low
Size: 6 feet
An intelligent reptilian race residing primarily in the area encompassing the Mist Ocean and the Misty Glade. Squentruos are lizard-like with narrow snouts, a mouth full of small, sharp teeth, arching necks and stand semi-upright as a therapod on clawed feet with radial hooked talons. Their clawed hands have three fingers and a thumb and they have medium-length, fully flexible tails. Their scaled hides tend to be a dull green-to-bluish tint and their bodies are slender with wiry muscles. There is an indentation on the top of their heads with a pearl-like growth encrusted in it. This acts as a 'third eye' of sorts and supplements some of their more magical abilities.
Squentruos are very limber, able to alter their stance easily by adjusting their malleable pelvic structure. If they wished, they could move along the ground similarly to a crocodilian or stand upright to peek over grasses. While flexible, this unique pelvic structure lacks sturdiness and so is prone to injury. By digging their sharp, radial claws into the ground and keeping themselves low, they are offered some protection from powerful winds that would otherwise bat them about, as well as suction-based predators such as the Mist Clematis. Their diet consists mostly of small animals such as insects, amphibians, birds and supplemented with plant matter. Examples of things they commonly build are small game traps and a sort of raft/kite to ride the Mist Ocean skies for distances.
Their hind claws are their primary weapon of self defense, as they can strike out with them from unexpected angles. They aren't very physically strong though, and most of the time would choose to avoid a confrontation than risk injury. Somewhat shy and timid, they will most likely not show themselves to a humanoid as they naturally are. Where their real strength lies is their affinity for certain types of magics, illusion-based varieties being most accessible to them. This affinity is best put to use around the Misty Glade area, as those residing there can learn to see through and create illusions.
Carefully navigating, they 'read' the mists to gather as much information as possible, from suitable prey to the location of predators. If they locate a human or similarly sized humanoid, they probably won't approach them but if they do, they'll be behind an illusion masking them as something else entirely so as not to alarm. If they want them to leave, they'd appear as something large and scary. While they can't actually speak in a way that can make direct verbal communication with humanoids possible, with practice some of them can eventually incorporate sound into their illusions to mimic speech. In many cases their illusion personas remain mute, as this is a more difficult branch of magic for them.
They aren't really deceptively-minded, but from interactions with other races, especially humans, they've come to believe that using illusions is crucial to possibly get along, and that showing themselves as they really are will bring harm to themselves. While most don't leave the misty zones, some curious or adventurous enough may join groups of humanoids passing through and visit their societies. Those which have made it all the way to Negav seem to do well enough to blend in. To maintain their illusion identities, they would take up discreet jobs and live in nondescript housing, keeping as low a profile as possible- a social chameleon of sorts. Late night janitorial positions would be especially sought after.
While being able to live in a place largely safe from the danger of the wilderness is a positive, they rather tend to see humans as a somewhat scary xenophobic race. After all, as they would reason, if many of the humans don't like the very similar nekos around, what if they were found out to be something entirely non-human? (Disregarding that humans tend to dislike nekos because they are predators of other humanoids) Squentruos try to prevent being discovered, but accidents happen. Maybe someone comes along that can see through illusions and doesn't like what's there, or they're de-spelled by a creature or an artifact. Or maybe more mundanely someone is alarmed when they try to touch or just bump into them and find something different. They'd likely panic and leave quickly if their disguise was uncovered. Most likely in result of situations such as that, there are paranoid Negavians raving about a faction of reptile people sneaking in disguised as humans and plotting to take over the city. Since it's highly unlikely any of them could stay there for long without 'someone' knowing their real form, it's likely they've just been left alone during their stay by the real powers around due to posing a very insignificant threat.
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Well, here's a decidedly non-humanoid race (eww, right?) I typed up thinking about the silly Reptoid conspiracy theories and a way to amusingly subvert the concept.
Just thought I might as well run with the idea and post up what I had. Feedback is welcome.
Subject: Squentruos- Lizard People of the Mists 
Sat Nov 28, 2009 9:55 pm
A very good idea overall. As a non-humanoid (eww) race, it might be harder to work them into Felarya but I really like them.
