Lizards and Spiders and Snakes, Oh My! Creating societies.

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all

So I have a (now rather vast) homebrew setting. One area of my world is currently a little empty.

The Cloud Jungles are a large swathe of high altitude rainforets, cut through with deep gorges, underground rivers, etc. The Jungles start inland in a mountain range and where they meet the coast, rather than coming down to sea level, they simply break up into tall, forested "stacks" or pillars surrounded by a shallow sea.

Near the cost, there are raptorans and those 4 armed sailor monkeys and things like that. Inland there are isolated tribes of Painted and Jungle elves, kobolds, goblins, etc.

But I want some power brokers in there and I now have an idea. The problem is executing it.

Basically, I want 3 Mesoamerican-esk cultures (I can handle the fluff), each a different type of creature.

What I have come up with is one will be "Lizard People", mostly lizard folk and the like, and will probably be patriarchal. Another will be "Snake People", so Yuan-Ti and Nagas largely matriarchal with a more imperial feel. The final will be a Spider/Insectoid group, also matriarchal but more High Priestess style of rule. (I may swap the Snake and Spider civs with their regard to religion).

The problem I have is I honestly dont know enough races of each type. Theres the Lizardfolk, and a few more lizardy things in Serpent Kingdoms. And Similar for the 3 MM Yaun-ti, a couple more in SK, and a smattering of Naga across both. I dont really know of any Spider people but there has to be at least one, right?

What I DONT want is dragons. They are in the jungle, but they dont have a power block there. So no dragonborn, and not really any organised Kobolds either.

So, Im looking for lists of Snake, Lizard and Spider people (with book references) that you could help me out with.

Thanks in advance guys.

[Inevitability]

Would Savage Species' Anthropomorphic template work? It's all the way at the book's back.

[CozJa]

Additional Lizardfolks group are described in MM3 and MM4 and Dragon Magazine #335 has an article on them.

As for spider monsters... I'd say that Aranea (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/aranea.htm) may be an interesting starting choice. You can always consider Driders if you are not already using them with the drow; alternatively another kind of man-spider can be obtained using the entomanothrope template (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040621a)

[Inevitability]

Also from Savage Species: the symbiotic template. The resulting animals-attached-to-people will be very dumb, but they'll be animal people!

[Waker]

For Lizardfolk, you could try using T'kel from Dragon 317.
For Spiders there are also Ettercaps.

[Darth Ultron]

So, Im looking for lists of Snake, Lizard and Spider people (with book references) that you could help me out with.


Serpent Kingdoms covers most of the snake/lizard people. There are more scattered around, but they are little more then a stat block and a paragraph that says ''they are snake people'', so not too sure if that will be much help.

The Neogi, found in Lords of Madness are a fun mix of spider, wolf and eel...and might work out nicely.

[Gildedragon]

My tips:
don't focus on just one sort of people per "civilization". You say mesoamerican inspiration, so mix in some cat people into one of the groups; give them moieties and alliances that have fused separate groups into one society.
Mesoamerican societies were avid traders, with networks that took goods and foods to and from the Amazon, Andes, both oceans, up to the Mississippi and four corners, that through force and diplomacy mixed ethnic groups. Avoid making them Races of Hats. They'll cross pollinate a fair bit.

Two: don't forget your power groups are bound to trade with each other: gods move with people, especially gods that actually do stuff.

Three: try giving their distinctions more bite... Cause you got two scalies and a drow-type.
What is more important in them: gender or lineage? Lineage or mystical power? How do they deal with sorcerers and favored souls? How is lineage traced? Stability usually has bilateral lineages (doubles the ways to access higher status, and doubles the ways to find heirs); but one could do age groups: those hatched in certain days are X group, other days Y group, and parenthood isn't so much biological but adopted...

Four: do they have borders with each other or do they keep smaller vassal states as buffers?
What's their relationship with the coastal folk?

Five: don't forget geography: mesoamerica has all manner of climates and geographies. From dessert to mountain to limestone flats to rainforest/woodlands to jungle


Also you might want driders