Strygath

Strygath

Description

The Strygath are humanoid lizards, varying in size from around 4ft, to as tall as 15. They are not one species, but Strygath is the collected name for them, and is based on the name that they used for themselves.

Strygath may or may not have a tail. Most walk upright, but there are exceptions. Generally, Strygath are considered to be intelligent, but there are species of Strygath that even the other Strygath consider to be 'pets'.

Physical Description

The Strygath have a human torso, with what we in the real-world would consider dinosaur heads. Their bodies range in size to make their heads proportionate. They may or may not have tails for balance.

Their skin is scaly, and tends towards browns and greens.

Organisation

Each Strygath comes from a clan. These clans used to be tightly regulated, a Tricergath could not mate with a Brontergath, for example. It was considered unnatural. However, the result of incessant hunting by the other races has led to the destruction of many of the older clans, and the rise of the Strygath as a single clan, where most interbreeding is allowed between other Strygath.

The old ways die hard, and as the Strygath are long-lived, there are many children who do not have their parents blessing for their union.

Interaction with other species

It is difficult to categories how Strygath interact with other species as they are not really a single species. Much of their interactions are based on distrust, based on the tendency of other species to hunt and kill them. However, it is not unheard of for Srygath to live in Ithica, or Elmar, where the might of law gives them some protection.

Despite this, it is still very much a social faux-pas for a non-Strygath to have a Strygath pet. Strygath-pet owners have a tendency to die by Strygath attack, which Strygath vehelmently claim is because only a Strygath can truly tame and own a Strygath pet, and know which are safe to own, and which are not.

Gods of the Strigath

The Strygath believe that their Gods are dead. It's the only way they have managed to rationalise their treatment at the hands of the other races. Why would the gods that created them have let them suffer so. Their society remains highly ritualistic, but the ceremonies revolve around rites of passage, as a Strygath move from one stage of life to the next.

This involves rituals such as 'feeding the dead', which is honouring Strygath ancestors with the gifts of food. This is a celebration of favoured ancestors, often accompanied with stories and food. Tribes generally celebrate on different days, but over the last few decades most tribes have moved to loose agreement that the day should be celebrated on the 9th moon following midwinter. Part of the celebration includes the refrain 'We remember them here / until they return', leading to some Strygath to adopt a loose form of ancestor worship.

The gods of the Strygath have been dead so long that they have all but lost their individual names, with many gods becoming similes, or even confused for and with other great ancestors. So confused is this remembering that it would be near-impossible to separate the gods of the strygath from the ancestors that they have become associated with.

A Chequered History

The Strygath have been persecuted for millenia before the rise Ithica. Many stories from the Wild Times paint Strygath as being much larger, and more fiersome than the modern small-humanoid that they have become. Some have even suggested that the Great Dragon that was felled at the end of the Darkness War belonged to the strygath species.

This has led to many suggesting that the strygath fought on the side of the Darkness. This is true, but no more so than any other race. It seems that the connection of the dragon with the Strygath has led to the popular notion that all of the Strygath fell to the darkness.