Common Core:Lizards
|
This page is a part of the Common Core lore project.
Common Core is /tg/station's open source lore project. |
Note: this article deals with the civilised lizards of the galaxy. For ashlizards, see this page.
The Basics
The lizardpeople hail from Tizira, in the Rizkalon system, though their centuries in the stars have seen them spread across a wide territory. Their society is deeply militaristic, with mandatory service for all when they come of age, and the military being deeply intwined into all government institutions. A poor availability of plasma stalled their technological progress, particularly in terms of FTL travel, which has left them behind humanity in technological terms, despite having been building a space empire while humanity was discovering the steam engine.
Oh Tizira, Life-Mother of All
Tizira (Life-Mother in Draconic), the homeworld of the Lizard species, is a rugged, arid planet, with shallow seas and limited arable land. The surface is covered with vast savannahs and deserts, and dotted with mountain ranges. The more humid regions near the oceans are greener, with rainforests and jungles in the tropical regions and steppes and temperate forests further north and south. The far north and south become bitterly cold approaching the poles, with taigas and tundras giving way to ice wastes. The planet's population of 10 billion is mostly congregated around the natural water bodies, with many of the largest cities being coastal or on major rivers. Further inland, settlements are smaller as water becomes rarer.
The planet has an abundance of natural resources. Major deposits of high-quality iron, silver, coal, salt and fuel-grade hydrocarbons give the planet a rich material economy. This, alongside its status as the capital of the Tiziran Empire, has made the planet home to many major lizard corporations, and the wealth generated has made the capital a major tourist destination- though visitors are often turned off by the generally stuffy and oppressive atmosphere.
Tizira's three moons (Atrakor, Pelara and Iskil) are sparsely populated for resource harvesting purposes. The largest of the three, Atrakor (Night Sky Lord in Draconic), was famously bombarded by the TerraGov Navy during one of mankind's wars with lizardkind, giving the Lord his distinctive scar. Additionally, Tizira has a number of major orbital habitats, which have earned a reputation as flying slums due to the poor conditions aboard.
Life in the Imperial Tiziran Armed Forces
All Tizirans are expected to serve a five year tour of duty in the Tiziran Armed Forces, from coming of age at 16 until age 21. Due to how intwined the military is with governmental function, this tour can involve a wide range of duties- in fact, active service within an armed branch of service is the minority. A conscript may find themselves building roads in the Engineering Corps, patrolling the streets as part of the Peace and Justice Corps, serving as an aide in the Diplomatic Corps, or any other of a number of jobs that are only tangentially militarily related. Of course, in the event of an outbreak of war any active serviceperson, regardless of their daily duties, may be expected to serve on the front lines, but lizardkind has found themselves in a period of unprecedented peace for the past 150 years following the end of the last Human-Lizard war.
Draft-dodging is illegal, but not entirely uncommon within the Empire, particularly as the distance from Tizira itself increases and governmental oversight drops. Quite frequently those in the furthest regions aren't even contacted by a recruiter, let alone conscripted.