Every iteration of the Lizardmen from 5th through 8th edition (and Age of Sigmar too I guess) has gone with the idea that Saurus, Skinks, and Kroxigor all fight alongside their spawning brothers fighting together in units made up of their siblings. Now if you are anything like me, you’ve ended many a game with a tiny remainder out of your mighty Saurus blocks left. Even if 90% of the casualties eventually recover after each battle (highly optimistic but not impossible) then Saurus regiments will deplete over time. At some point Slann (or more likely their Skink and Saurus lieutenants) will have to figure out what to do with the seven Sauri left over from the 3rd spawning from the Pool of Tlaztcotl. Lizardmen love everything being categorized and in its place, but I can’t picture any Lizardmen leader saying, “Okay you guys are too few to form up a fighting uni now. Everyone line up for your ritual suicide, then we’ll eat you!“ Spoiler: To preempt Bob's first silly comment “Saurilient Green is made out of lizard people! It’s made out of lizard people!” Besides ritually killing these remnants, they could be given suicide missions where they take point on all future battles until they are truly dead. Conversely, one could honor their survivorship they could be given safe but mostly useless guard work. Either way that is a waste of resources. I can’t see Lizardmen wasting resources. This is where adopted spawning brothers come in. To me, the most logical solution to what to do with the battered remnants of largely decimated units is to pool them together. I figure most kahoun would have one such regiment at all times. Very peaceful kahoun might have zero. Kahoun with Scalenex leading their table top battles or writing their fluff universe probably have enough casualties to warrant two or three such regiments. I figure most of the Big Four would have several such regiments though their regiments would be barely noticeable. If each spawning is distinctive, they are probably populous enough that they can sub-group their mixed regiments with similar spawnings. There are probably a lot of variations of High Saurian we can use, but I prefer fluffy English terms for ease of relating to the reader. I can’t make up my mind what name I like so I think I’ll have Lizardmen not agree. “Scar Regiments” emphasizing the war torn nature of these groups. Scar Veterans would often graduate out of Scar Regiments. It subtly evokes tragedy too. I imagine Scar Regiment is the most respectful way to refer to this group. “Orphan Regiments” emphasizes the spawning brother angle. The term would probably also be slightly derogatory. A purist might dislike all such regiments out prejudice, but you could also use it to specific. A Scar Regiment would imply you have a group of experienced Sauri who survived many battles. An Orphan Regiment is probably cobbled together by relatively young Saurus spawnings that had a disastrous battle early in their career. “Vengeance Regiments” are another tempting name. Embittered survivors would be very enthusiastic fighters. I imagine Skinks would form vengeance spawnings. They don’t live forever. Skinks who survive most of their brother’s deaths could decide to become skirmishers or retire to a civilian job. Vengeance regiments would be more common against hated enemies like Skaven or Daemons. A vengeance regiment could also be a small regiment of Saurus survivors, who keep fighting as a unit anyway. They might pick up Cold One training or in Kroq-gar’s legendary case, pick up Carnosaurs. Another option is they don’t have a term. If a city only has one or two such regiments, you don’t call it “our orphan regiment.” You call by that regiment by their unique name. Possibly they are dedicated to an Old One that rarely gets spawnings like Uxmac, or they can be named after their leader, or the regiment’s most famous battle or martyr. One thing that might help their status, is barring a crushing defeat, the same Scar Regiment can exist as a continuous unit for thousands of years of heavy battles. A conventional regiment cannot realistically do that. The term Orphan or Scar Regiment probably wouldn’t apply to Temple Guard. I think Temple Guard regiments made up of multiple spawnings would be so common that they wouldn’t warrant their own terminology. Disparate Temple Guard spawnings are so similar you can probably only tell the difference by their age. If you are close enough to scrutinize the difference between a two hundred year old Temple Guard and a four hundred year old Temple Guard, they will probably gut you with their halberds. If anything it would probably be unusual for Temple Guard to guarding a Slann to be made up of one spawning. Not that there would be a need for a special term for these regiments. If the Slann safe who cares about the details. Kroxigor are probably an exception too. I figure most Skroxigor regiments are all of one spawning, but I figure most Kroxigor units are cobbled together from multiple spawnings. At the very least, an all Kroxigor regiment is fielding them without their Skink brothers. They are probably temporary anyway. If a Saurus is assigned to an Orphan Regiment, they are probably expecting to serve there till they die (or evolve into a Scar Veteran). I figure Kroxigor groups stay together for one work project or military campaign and then return to their original spawnings. Of course I also picture Kroxigor having greater kinship with Kroxigor of other spawnings than Skinks and Sauri tend to feel with their distant cousins. They are pretty simple minded so they wouldn’t care about spawning. Then again simple-minded people can be very xenophobic and tribal. Nevermind contemporary politics. Lizardmen shouldn’t have a perfect seemless society but I figure they are far more united in view and purpose than humans will ever be. Another option would be adopted spawning brothers NOT assigned by leaders. In this case it would be an elevated friendship. Brothers of another mother, errrr another pool. Fluff writers can make adopted spawning brothers common or rare, the point is it friendship is so close it becomes family. I don’t think you’ll see that much on the battlefield. Adopted spawning brothers would fight in their normal units and take orders from their normal leaders. Peacetime adopted spawning brothers are mainly to set up the tragic death of at least one of the brothers build character in stories. I'm eager to see what others will contribute to the discussion. Especially names. It bugs me that I have this fleshed out concept but I'm not sure what to call it.
Like the depleted units who have seen war could remain at home lets call them old guys for a moment and they could be seen like father figures and be left to defend the homes of skinks in wartimes etc so lets call them the home-guard a sort of dads army if you will Great concept btw it is silly that in the books it says they keep low numbers of the regiments when they lose their spawn brothers.
Very intressting discussion I love these. But I have come up with a problem. Wath if regiment A loses 90% of their trops and regiment B loses 10%. Would it not be logical for the survivors of A to join B? Would it be called a Scar regiment then eventho 90% were spawned thogeter?
I think a patchwork regiment would be more common in AOS as the slann has the ability to pick and choose, whether he chooses a full spawning or makes an anthology of the individuals who stood out to him over the Millennia. Anthology Squad? Not too catchy, Maybe something from the lore of life spells, to represent something new or a mending of two or more regiments. Regrown regiments, Regiment of Vines, Wyssan's Wild bunch, Harmonic Convergence, Apotheosis Squad. I suppose it's a bit harder to come up with names than I had first supposed. Remnant Regiment Survivor Squads Fracture Forces Scarred Squads/Split Squads Blended Brigade/Battalion Hybrid Host Composite Corps Contingency Cohorts Survivor Squad Flex Force
I like this concept. Never thought about what would happen to severly deplete saurus regiments that are cut down in size over time. I really like the idea of "scar" regiments. It has such a simple name, I think it fits the simpliest of the rest of names. I do like @Bower's list, potential specific regiment names here. This would make a fantastic conversion opportunity to show an elite regiment of saurus warriors let by a scar-veteran. Legendary scar regiments could even be the basis to create some unique regiments of renown, offering their services across Lustria or the Southlands to defend temple cities in need or ruins from plundering armies. I think saurus could potentially join other regiments of the same spawning pool, maybe a little older or younger then themselves to fill out their ranks as well. For instance, the handful survivors of the "Thirty-Second Spawning of the Green-Scale of Tzunki" that survived the battle could be incorporated into the regiment of the "Thirty-Third Spawning of the Green-Scale of Tzunki," but would have a more difficult time being incorporated into a different regiment, say the "Twenty-Eight Spawning of the Pool of Quetzl's Wrath." While both spawning pools may be within the same city, each pool spawns very different saurus with there own sets of pre-programming that would be unique to each individual spawning pool. The saurus spawned from the pool of the "Green Scale of Tzunki" would consider other spawnings from their same pool almost as cousins, instead of the relationship of their original spawning of straight up twin-brothers. Spawnings from nearby pools would be more along the lines of neighborhood families/friends.
Ah yes the neighborhood watch group. But to the effect of having different spawnings, spawned for different purposes /blessed by different old ones, that gives a lot of fluff opportunity. A slann may partner them for the defensive capabilities of these ones, with the spear aptitude of these ones for a shield wall or phalanx sort of ploy. Or maybe the savafof these guys is tempered by the calmness of these ones. Lots of fluff options with a mixed squadron.
This makes me think so much of colnol schaffers second chancers ? I hope I got that right or at least near enough right - in imperium of man hes basically a commissar that takes prisoners as a regiment so they all have different backgrounds but come together to fight instead of death I think? In any event its kind of like this having a group of variety under one banner
Curiously, i am working on a story with a similar problem. My idea is that saurus born from the same spawning pool, share a common ancestral memory (genetic memory? Common knowledge? ). This way, they can join other units from their own pool, even if the tie is not as strong as the one that there was with their "real brothers". Spawning cousins is better than nothing.
Under my vision. Regiment B would continue to operate, just with 90% of their original members. Regiment A would have to find a more depleted Regiment C or sit tight until a future Regiment suffers substantial losses or a very similar spawning to themselves emerges.
Do depleted saurus end up applying to be temple guards? proving themselves in battle might make their application form stand out more?
The way I see it, to get something great, you have to sacrifice something. No, not people! Although with Mayan-inspired lizards, you can never be sure... My prime example would be exam results - to get good results, you need to sacrifice your free time to revise. Anyway, my point is that to get an extremely effective, organised warrior caste like the saurus, what happened was they had to sacrifice their sentience. My Saurus are effectively willing slaves. They probably know the words Kill, Don't, Protect and Recover. And a lot of holy words like Old Ones, Relics and so on. They genuinely don't care about anything other than obeying the general (Or in the saurus guards case, the slann). So my saurus would happily fight alongside Skarbrand himself if they were told to, and have no morals beyond the general/slanns. So, no, I think all saurus would form up and fight next to each other if they felt like it. This is why I choose to write mostly about Skinks - they have social skills, hopes and ambitions. They are far more like idealistic humans, whereas Saurus represent the damaged psychopaths inside everyone. And while psychos can make for good stories (Saw, Saw 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, every slasher film ever made, etc) I prefer to use them as the villain. It just makes more sense to me. I also see them as victims, as creatures that had their morality torn from them and had their mental age fixed at toddler levels without consent. And lobotomised toddlers are just too dark for me to write about without doing an anti @Scalenex and trying to get them all to live. Also, victimised pschopaths? I'd need a degree in Psychology to even begin to understand what drives them on to fight. And to write good stories, you have to understand their motives. Kroxigor I would treat like extremely old people, but without the hearing issues. They would need a couple of explanations to get stuff done, but when they started working out what needed to happen, they would see it through to the end. @SlanntaClause, some could, but I think its just the more powerful ones that get the "honour" of guarding the slann. Or the luckier ones.
Lots of interesting perspectives. The question of how a mixed unit would see itself has a lot of story exploration potential (I'm thinking of @Bowser's Constellation - different cause but similar identity crisis). How they are seen by outsiders could be the source of even more story tension as they strive to exceed expectations. Words that spring to mind: Mixed-water regiment. Pure-water regiment. They are of one water, of course they have the gods' blessing. The Kinless. A spawning of convenience / necessity. That cohort is unspawned. Don't expect much. They are bound by blood, not water. Expect much. Here comes the thin blurred line of Xholankha's Foundlings. I expect they are still arguing about hand weapons versus spears.