Lizard-Folk

This desert species shed their skin yearly. At certain significant points in their life - for example, for female lizard-folk, the first shedding after giving birth - the skin is the object of religious veneration.

Some groups will ritually eat the skin. Others will preserve them until the time comes to move (most lizard-folk groups being nomadic), upon which the skin will be burnt. Yet others believe that the skin is a soul - their "child soul", "youth soul" or similar - and will preserve them in familial urns, fearing that the loss of the skin would, if prolonged, cause the loss of all memories of the relevant period in the creature's life, and at worst could give a witch control of them. Many epics of this folk are related to quests to recover a stolen skin. A group, or individual, who displays skins publicly is seen as powerful and confident - even more so those who take them into battle. This might account for the practice of some desert-dwelling humans, of displaying animal skins outside their tents. The theft of skins through battle or cunning, that they may be ransomed, is the aim of many young warriors.

These beliefs may be compared to those of the Dung-Haters.

It is rumoured that a certain desert covers underground cities of a fallen lizard-folk civilisation. These cities are said to have no rooms, only tunnels, and contain untold treasures, even the rare gold. This ancient civilisation is said to have had the power to create utter darkness by magical means, which they used in their slave raids, riding in a long line across the plain so that nothing travelling outside of the walled cities could escape them. By use of this art they reduced the places around them to ruin, and so finally fell themselves, and this is the origin of the desert.

The so-called 'royal lizard-folk' of the Desolation of Ozymandias are most likely an unrelated species.