Lizard Kings

The Lizard Kings, also called Dragon Kings or Dinosaur Kings, and often simply referred to as "dragons", were the greatest of the reptiles, according to Mokolé lore. They ruled over a period known as the Age of Kings, when dinosaurs walked the earth, but vanished during the Age of Sleep, after the Wonder-Work.

History[]

Details about the Lizard Kings are sketchy. The Mnesis does not encompass this period of time in all details, and even the Mnesis can be distorted and corrupted. Most Mokolé remember shadows, patchworked references, and what truly Was is uncertain. Each Mokolé has different beliefs about where the lines of Dream-memory and Dream-illusion lie. Still, some Dreams occur so often that they have become accepted more than others as possible — if not probable — truth.

The Lizard Kings consisted of three saurial breeds: the dinosaurs of the land, the plesiosaurs of the sea, and the pterosaurs of the skies. According to their own legends, they were formed from the union of Helios and Gaia, while the Ananasi believe that the ancestors of the Mokolé were the creation of the Wyld. These beings had three different forms, mirroring the roles of the Triat. One of these, the near-human Drachid form, allowed the different breeds to mingle and even breed with each other. The resulting creatures were bipedal, smooth-skinned creatures with delicate, dexterous fingers, but still with the features of their parents. While the other Fera of the era largely shunned their Drachid forms, the Lizard Kings embraced it, using it to bridge differences across species.

Dragon civilization grew with the discovery of the Mnesis. Using their Drachid forms, the Lizard Kings eventually mastered the strange realm, building the great Dragon Empires. Those who shunned the use of Mnesis were ostracized from the new society. Tribes of Drachids would live with their dragon masters, worshipping them as living gods. Building their cities with the very stuff of imagination and dreams, their very society depended on it. There existed no written records and those who could use the Mnesis ruled over those who could not. The Lizard Kings payed homage to the Celestines and after centuries, they became arrogant and power-hungry. Soon, the War of Dragons between the various empires ravaged the lands. The discovery of the "curse stones" (gold and silver) further led to an escalation of the conflict. The War of Dragons ended in a catastrophe, the Mnesis was exhausted permanently, forming the Gauntlet and the Lizard Kings' achievements melting away, with the survivors being easy prey for rival Fera like the Rokea. The Drachids revolted against their overlords, forcing the Lizard Kings to flee from their former subjects. In desperation, several entered hibernation. And as if things were not already bad enough, the Great Wonder-Work began, often correlated to the extinction event of the Cretaceous period. Only those Lizard Kings that had entered hibernation survived, leaving it a blank spot in their collective memory of their race.

Generations after the Wonder-Work destroyed the last traces of their civilization, new Mokolé began to be born (and hatched), after the first survivors awakened after the Ice Age. The Lizard Kings' fall had cost the Breed, however. None of the new generation could assume the Drachid form that had allowed their ancestors to build their empire and dominate the pre-Event earth. Limited to two forms (Suchid and Archid) and without their breeding stock, the following weredragons interbred with the early humans, becoming the modern Mokolé. Some modern Mokolé claim to remember that humanity appeared at the dusk of the Age of Kings and that the Dragon Kings already interbred with them before the Wonder-Work. Most elder Mokolé regard this as corruption of the Memory.

Some Lizard Kings are rumored to have become the ancestors of the Nagah by accepting a new duty from Gaia. A small group survived by swearing themselves to the Nameless Angel of Despair, becoming the Defiler Kings.

Muvians[]

The Muvians, also known by their tentative Scientific name Dinonychus sapiens, are an extinct species of sapient, tool-using humanoid reptiles native to the prehistoric Pacific supercontinent of Mu. Their precise relation to the Lizard Kings of Mokole myth is left unremarked upon.

During their reign, they established a worldwide network of colonies built around Nodes, including one in what is today Alice Springs, Australia.

It's there that their historical presence was detected by Etherite Scientists Stanislaus Wojciehowicz and Bernhardt Mueller. It was also there that Dr Mueller (or "Doctor Comet" as he would come to be known) uncovered the true cause of the K-2 extinction event that annihilated both the dinosaurs and the Muvians: the gravitational distortions from the hyperdimensional supercomet Mueller named "Mirzaba" ripped the entire continent of Mu off the planet's surface, killing a significant chunk of all life on earth. Mueller would go on to dedicate the rest of his career to doomsaying for the comet's return.

Urr Re'ok is the name of a member of a prehistoric saurian humanoid species (not explicitly stated to be a Muvian or Lizard King) allegedly capable of True Magick. She resembled a pink, humanoid protoceratops. She spent most of her recorded life on Victoria Station, where she lent an encyclopedic knowledge of Umbracraft design while routinely warning against excessive probing into the Deep Umbra. In a twist of tragic irony, she would be among the Awakened lost to disembodiment during the Avatar Storm.