Discussion Alternate Lizardman Cultures

This stems mostly from my personal frustration with how lizardmen races in faction are 99% of the time relegated to meso-American inspired cultures. And while Warhammer gets a pass from me, as they were one of, if not the earliest to do so, it's still a good thought experiment for us to toy with.

What other cultures can you envision the lizardmen taking influence from?

Personal answer, and one that there is an undercurrent of in my own work (though it's a background detail as my focus is on the temple-host that over time started to cosplay as Colonial Era British Redcoats), is Ancient Greece. White marble columns, mosaic floors, aspis shields for the saurus, who are trained to work in a phalanx.

Amusingly, it after I first thought that, that I realised the different breeds of lizardmen themselves even work as the different Greek cultures: Saurus are Spartans, Skinks are Athenians, Kroxigors can be likened to the Thebans, while the Slann could be seen as analogous to the Delphic Oracle.

Bonus points, there is no Greece analogue in Warhammer Fantasy, and while the Stormcast Eternals have Greek elements in their design, that's AoS, so doesn't count!

But what other cultures can you envision as a sub-culture of lizardmen?

 

Feudal Japan.

I'm not saying it would make any sense at all ... but it would be pretty cool from a modelling perspective .

 

Funny you mention that. It was seeing somebody's pictures of just such a conversion project that originally inspired me to go with my own project. And if I can find those pictures again, I will link them, because they did an AMAZING job of converting their lizardman into a Sengoku period Japanese theme.

 

That sounds cool!

 

Funny you mention samurai Lizardmen, I wrote some lore set in the WHF Dragon Isles heavily inspired by Feudal Japan during the Sengoku era (Shogun of the Dragon Isles). I have some artwork too.





My favorite Samurai Lizardmen conversions though were from Warhead, I have the pictures posted somewhere else on the forum but I can't find them so here they are again!

Spoiler: Warhead Samurai Lizardmen

 

It's funny, I never really considered what the Dragon Isle's culture would be like, but based on my initial look at the lore you've written (more of a deep look when I'm not using a phone with patchy wifi), yeah, I now can't unsee that. Might have to shamelessly steal borrow that idea at some point for my narrative works.

I like it. You've definitely put the thought into how it works for them.

Also, those might be the conversions I was talking about. They definitely look impressive enough to have inspired me all that time ago.

 

@Warden that is so impressive, both the modelling and the art!!!

 

Japan makes a lot of sense to me given their dedication to following the path set by their leaders.

 

I can' see the Lizardmen as influenced by the japanese culture. For one, the pop japanese culture heavily emphasises the honor code of bushido -- and Lizardmen cares not for honor, only the will of the old ones.
I always thought the hindu fits better, if mixed with the caste system, it would be pretty much the same fit -- many gods, the brahman...

 

I see your point, the pop culture view of bushido is similar to how chivalry is viewed in the modern context.

That being said, I really enjoyed learning about the Sengoku era in school and on my own, it was really interesting how much straight survival and self-interest ruled much of the day during that period. Backstabbing was common, treachery, stealing your neighbor's stuff or your neighboring warlords stuff, brother vs. brother, brother vs father, father vs son. The rise to power of many of the great samurai daimyo is a great example, just look at Takeda Shingen's history, or some of the crazy stuff Oda Nobunaga did. Hell one of Oda Nobunaga's top generals (Akechi Mitsuhide) straight up murdered Oda and much of his family by turning traitor and burning them alive in his castle. And my personal favorite, the battle of Sekigahara in its scope hinges on a single daimyo with conflicting loyalties to both sides in the conflict, and his ultimate decision during the battle led to the victory of the Eastern armies and paved the way for Tokugawa Ieyasu and the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Without the treachery and schemes the entire Edo Period could have been the Toyotomi or Ishida period.