So llamas became all the rage in LM short stories between 2016 and 2018 and then kind of faded away. Anyway, I'm on a World Anvil binge writing phase this month and I'm developing Lustrian lore there, but who says I cannot cross post? If I missed anything or anyone has any more llama related thoughts, let me know. Go to Warhammer Fantasy, Scale Universe Homepage llamas Saurus, Kroxigor and even Skinks and Slann are all technically evolved from carnivores, so it is not a surprise most Lizardmen like meat, and some Lizardmen really like meat.Many Lizardmen are prejudiced against warm blooded creatures but this prejudice stops few of them from eating warm blooded creatures. Sometimes hunting wild meat is not possible or at least not practical.Unfortunately, cows, chickens, pigs, and goats are not native to Lustria, so Skinks seeking a domesticated source of meat had to make due with what they had. Lustria has lots of cold blooded creatures with lots of tasty meat on them, but few of them are susceptible to domestication. Most cold blooded beasts either will not imprint on a humanoid as leader or they won't breed in captivity. Yes, Lizardmen commonly use Cold Ones, Bastiladons, Salamanders, Razordons, Stegadons, and Carnosaurs but these are tamed beasts, not domesticated beasts. Typically Sauri are selected to be shepherds to watch over and protect Lustria's domesticated llama herds but Skinks handle most of the butchering, processing, and selective breeding of llamas. Basic Information Ecology and Habitats Wild llamas are native to the mountains of Lustria, or more accurately the plateaus. Wild llamas are relatively safe from predators in the highlands. A Terradon can take down a llama, but most prefer fish over meat. Ripperdactyls can easily butcher small llama herds singlehandedly but fortunately for wild llamas, Rippers rarely fly around high elevations. Wild llamas cannot survive long outside the highland regions, so domesticated llamas need to be watched carefully when taken out of these regions. In the jungles of Lustria, there are a lot of plants that are toxic or downright poisonous to llamas that their handlers need to make sure they don't accidentally eat. Also, there are a lot of dangerous predators that could easily make a meal of a llama. The Culchan Plains have lots of grass and other tasty plants that llamas enjoy. It's not food, that's a problem for llamas in the Culchan Planes, it's the Culchans of the Culchan Plains. Llamas stand no chance against these predators who are fast and cunning pack hunters. Traditionally, a single Saurus herder is expected to be able to look after sixty llamas in the highlands or thirty or forty llamas in the jungle. In Culchan Plains, its a struggle for a skilled herder to look after even ten llamas. Dietary Needs and Habits Wild llamas graze. Domesticated llamas also graze. Lustrian llamas, like real world llamas, don't digest grain very well, so Skink and Saurus llama herders have to keep their herds moving to feed them rather than have the luxury of penning them up and feeding them crops (though nothing stops Skinks from harvesting and baling hay).Lustrian llamas have a bit stronger constitutions than real world llamas, Lustria's plant life is so frequently thorny or toxic so this is an evolutionary necessity. That said, Lustrian llamas can eat most of the green plants from the mountains and plateaus of the Spine of Sotek mountains, but they struggle digesting many plants in the lowland Lustrian jungles. Llamas can eat most jungle plants but it only takes one toxic plant to kill a llama. This is why wild llamas don't last long in the jungle. Domesticated llamas can survive in the jungle if their keepers guide them carefully and clear out any would be poisonous or toxic plants before the llamas accidentally eat them. Fortunately, llamas have decent instincts and will more often than not hesitate a bit before eating plants they shouldn't. If for whatever reason, Skinks need to clear a section of jungle land, they will often have llamas help them clear the land. Some Skinks jokingly call this a "vegetation assault". Stegadons can digest a lot of plants that llamas, in a lot of cases, Stegadons are the "first attack wave" of strategic grazers and llamas represent the "second attack wave". Biological Cycle Wild llamas typically live around 20 years, though some rare individuals can make it to 30. Domesticated llamas don't normally make it nearly that long as they are typically slain when they are no longer viable breeding stock. Most Lizardmen controlled llama herds have roughly a 4:1 ratio of females to males (and yes, the Lizardmen can tell the difference even though they themselves are asexual).Llama breeding becomes most reliable around age three, but it's theoretically possible sooner. Llamas have a long gestation period with llama females typically being pregnant for eleven months. Behaviour In real world Earth, guard llamas are an actual thing. Llamas are famous for their gentle temperaments but this was bred for. Llamas can be fierce under the right circumstances. Compared to domesticated llamas in the real world, Lustrian domesticated llamas are a fair bit more fierce. Llama bites can severely injure a human, but to a Saurus with her natural scale armor, a llama bite is almost nothing unless they can somehow bite the throat (and even a newly spawn Saurus knows to protect its throat).Sauri, and to a lesser extent Skinks will vigorously protect their llama herds, but to some extent Lustria llamas can look after themselves and a very skilled and experienced Saurus llama herder can coax llamas to fight outside aggressors in extreme situations. The very thing happened in the short story "Food for Thought", written by an online friend of mine, thedarkfourth. Additional Information Domestication Over generations, Skinks and Sauri have selectively bred llamas to make them less spooked around Cold blooded humanoids. They also selectively bred llamas to be bigger and thus meatier.A few have experimented with producing llama breeds for their wool, but this is something the Lizardmen have not advanced very far in. Lizardmen can and do use llama wool, but wool and textiles in general are not nearly as important to the First as they are to the younger races. Uses, Products & Exploitation Llamas are raised primarily for their meat. Their meat is fed to Sauri, Kroxigor, Skinks and it is also fed to the First's predatory warbeasts.Cold Ones are especially fond of llama meat, when Cold Ones are fed llama meat, the are usually allowed to "hunt" the llamas under control circumstances. For practical and safety reasons, Cold One and llama pens need to be kept far apart.A few Lizardmen consider llama meat their favorite food, but not many. Many other First claim that llama meat is inferior to wild game, but in a lot of cases, it is not always practical or even possible for a Lizardmen settlement to rely on wild game meat for the entirety of their protein needs.Most Slann have never asked to eat llama meat. A few younger Slann have asked to try it out of curiosity but with maybe one or two exceptions, no Slann has ever asked for a second helping of llama meat (though most Slann prefer insects and shellfish over meat anyway). Since the Slann turn their noses up on llama meat, some of the haughty Skinks refuse to eat llama meat except in dire situations. Most Lizardmen eat a mix of llama meat and wild game. Lizardmen settlements generally use hunted wild game and caught fish as their default go-to protein food and the settlements only start slaughtering llamas when game is scarce. Skinks also harvest llama wool. It's rare for Lizardmen to want or need wool clothing, but wool carpets and wool blankets widespread. In Temple Cities and Kahoun around Lustria, wool floor mats commonly serve as the beds of a great many First. Civilization and Culture History Before the Great Cataclysm, it was believed that the blessing of the Old Ones essentially made Lustria a veritable Eden. The First Children of the Old Ones barely had to lift a claw to meet their food needs. After the Great Cataclysm devastated the ecosystems of Lustria (and the entire world) and then the Slann collectively worked their magic to terraform Lustria, it became much more difficult for Lizardmen to meet their basic food needs. The First of the early post Cataclysm era had to find a lot of new ways to find food. New methods of hunting, farming, fishing, and insect cultivation were developed by trial and error. One early success was the domestication of llamas. Llama domestication started with the Lizardmen living in the mountainous Temple Cities and Kahoun and llama use gradually spread to the lowlands until llamas became a major staple on the dinner plates of Lizardmen everywhere. During the Time of the Rat and Serpent. The Skaven killed or infected a great many llamas. In some cases, Lizardmen abandoned or slaughtered their llamas on the smallest suspicion that they might be infected with some form of Skaven plague. The fears were overblown. The Holy Grail for Clan Pestilens was to create a strain of plague that had zero symptoms for llamas but was extremely deadly for Lizardmen who consumed the llama meat. This never occurred. On the contrary, given that the Skaven had centuries of practice infecting warmbloods, llamas died to Skaven plagues much faster than Skinks and Sauri, so the First lost a lot of livestock, but the llamas fell to the plague so quickly, the Lizardmen were never able to be infected by their own llama meat.The llama population fell to a tiny fraction of what it once was, but most of the uninfected llamas were in the mountains, so after the Coming of Sotek ended the immediate Skaven threat, the surviving llama herders were able to repopulate their herds, and once again llamas spread from the highlands to the lowlands. Since then, a small number of the small human settlements in Lustria have taken to llama herding with some stolen llamas. In response, a small number of unusually forward thinking Skinks have stolen some pigs and chickens and and are attempting to breed them. Skinks have yet to bother with goats and cows, they view these as dairy animals and most Skinks find the process of drinking milk or eating cheese repulsive.
Here it is: Huanacos The Huanaco or wanaku is a camel-like native herbivore to South Western Lustria. Huanacos stand between 1.0 and 1.3 m at the shoulder, body length of 2.1 to 2.2 m, and weigh 90 to 140 kg. Their color varies very little, ranging from a light brown to dark cinnamon and shading to white underneath. Huanacos have gray faces and small, straight ears. Huanacos have thick skin on their necks that protects their necks from predator attacks. Some Amazons communities use these necks-skins to make shoes, flattening and pounding the skin to be used for the soles. The huanaco is a diurnal animal. It lives in small herds consisting of one male and several females with their young. When the male detects danger, he warns the group by bleating with a high-pitched bleating sound, which sounds similar to a short, sharp laugh. The huanaco can run up to 64 km/h. This speed is important for the survival of guanacos because they cannot easily hide in the open grasslands of their badlands and plateaus. Though typically mild-mannered, guanacos often spit when threatened, and can do so up to a distance of six feet. Natural predators of the guanaco include the Cold One, Culchan or Southern Jaguar. Three breeds of common or lesser huanacos are known: The Common Huanaco: Found across western Lustria from the Amacata Badlands all the way south to the Cape Badlands. Most often on the plateaus and deserts at the foothills of the Spine of Sotek The Alpine Huanaco: Also known as the vicuna, this smaller and lithe breed of huanaco which is found at higher altitudes of the Spine and are priced for their fur. There have been recorded recollections of a third(or possibly even two distinct breeds), much woolier, tamer and fatter breed of Huanaco, being used as domesticated cattle in remote alpine Amazons tribes or Gorol troops. Here compared: From left to right the common, vicuna and (alleged) tame breeds. Huanaco fiber is particularly prized for its soft, warm feel by both traders and Amazons. The huanaco's soft wool is valued second only to that of the vicuna. Greater Huanacos The Greater or Plains Huanco is a large, long-necked and long-limbed, three-toed native South Lustrian mammal closely related to its smaller relatives that resembles a large, humpless camel; it feeds on poorly nutritional grasses and the leaves of sparse trees in the region. One striking characteristic of the greater huanaco is the openings for the nostrils on top of the head, above and between the eyes. The animal has a trunk similar to a tapir, perhaps to keep dust out of the nostrils and from which it produces trumpeting bleats. It is native to the Culchan Plains, Cape Badlands and surrounding areas, where it is the single largest mammalian herbivore and the main game source to High Elven and Lizardmen encampments alongside being the main and preferred food source to the avian culchans. Herds of greater huanacos of up to 80 animals roam the planes, often made up of a few adult males, a few more subservient and subadult males and the harems of females and respective foals. Two lone greater huanacos reach for the leaves of a rickety tree growing by an almost spent watering hole. The trunks of male plains huanacos are larger (female on the right) and tend to be meatier and fatter and are the most sought after cut in the market of the Citadel of Dusk. (basically I made it so Old World naturalists mistake trhis macrauchenia-like animal for a larger breed of these animals)
Llamas and such were also used to carry stuff around too in the mesoamerican world (and even in modern day circumstances, a lot of high up places in peru and bolivia can't really afford the luxury of cars). Would lizardmen find any use in that?
I mean if they are specifically traversing one of the mountain chains sure. So I see some Lizardmen settlements keeping herds for that purpose. But otherwise they have much better options.
It's cold (or cold blooded), but if one takes llamas with them with the intent of eating them later, you can always have them carry stuff before then. They could even carry the cooking supplies.