Discussion New to Lizards, any good books?

For official fluff, your best resource is the Fifth edition Lizardmen Army book. The Sixth is not at the Fifth Edition book's level fluff wise. The fluff in the Seventh, and Eight Edition Lizardmen army books are basically copy and pasted text from the Sixth Edition book.

I'm not aware of any Warhammer Fantasy novels where Lizardmen feature heavily. That doesn't mean they don't exist, they just aren't well known.

Quick primer. The Old Ones did not create the Old World but they radically altered it to make it more hospitable to more varied life. The Slann were created to help them terraform the world in their new image. The Saurus were created to guard the Slann and eliminate life forms the Old Ones did not want to see in their world. The Skinks were created to aid the Slann and Saurus. The Kroxigor were created to aid the Skinks (and everyone else I guess). The dinosaurs that serve in the Lizardmen army are not really Lizardmen. They are beasts that are tamed or domesticated to aid them in labor and war.

The Old Ones created the Elves, the Dwarves, the Humans, the Ogres and Halfling and then disappeared around the time Chaos pushed into the world from the poles. The Old Ones are probably partially responsible for opening the door to Chaos with all their terraforming. Oops.

The Lizardmen try to maintain and advance the Old One's Great Plan for the world. Problem is the Slann are not as smart as the Old Ones. Most/all the Slann that personally new the Old Ones are dead. The Slann have to make due divining the Old One's will from a series of Golden Plaques. They are hampered by the fact that some Plaques were stolen or destroyed. they are hampered by the fact that they have to try to interpret often vaguely worded Plaques, and they are hampered by the fact that they have to filter the Plaques directives down the line to Skinks and Sauri who are even less intelligent. That's assuming that the Plaques are correct. The Old Ones could have made a mistake, or the Chaos Moon could have thrown off predictions and directives that WOULD have been right without their interference.

The Lizardmen are probably the least proactive of the Warhammer races. They rarely act unless the Golden Plaques are crystal clear on something. Mostly they react to attacks. They fought to fend off the major Daemonic incursion when the Old Ones left. So did every sentient race, but the Lizardmen were the major players because the other races didn't have much in the way of civilization left. That took a heavy toll on the Lizardmen though.

The Lizardmen did very little for centuries except fend off a few would-be treasure hunters, until the Skaven launched a major offensive beginning with a massive plague that hit Skinks especially hard. A Skink Priest named Tehenhaun recovered a lost plaque prophesying a new god Sotek who would save the Lizardmen if they sacrificed enough enemies (mostly Skaven) to it. The Slann were a little slow to get on board with Sotek worship because Sotek is technically not an Old One, but the Skinks and Sauri REALLY took to Sotek worship. The Prophet of Sotek Tehenhaun rallied the Lizardmen and they soundly defeated the Skaven. At least in the short-term.

Overtime more Warhammer races took to sea and now the Lizardmen have to fend off treasure hunters a lot. There's still Skaven around in the jungles and the Lizardmen are gearing up for the End Times like everyone else. Warhammer fluff basically left with Lord Mazdamundi, the most powerful living Slann planning major proactive moves so that the Lizardmen will actively be a force in the Old World. Contradictions between the Seventh and Eight Edition books led to we at Lustria-Online creating what's called the Great Debate between the Slann.

The hardliners under Mazdamundi's vision believe that the Great Plan cannot be advanced until the intelligent races of the world are brought to the point they were before the Old Ones left. They want to exterminate all the races that are not ordained by the Old Ones, Orcs, Goblins, Skaven, undead, among a bunch of others. The ordained races the Old Ones created must be relocated by any means necessary to the lands that the Old Ones created for them. All Elves must return to Ulthuan, all Dwarves must return to the mountains, all Humans must return to the Old World, etc. This includes forcing Dark, Wood, and High Elves to integrate and forcing Chaos Dwarfs back into the fold (or killing the Chaos Dwarfs).

The dissenting Slann believe that the Old Ones intended for the Forces of Order to aid them against Chaos. They are okay with the Forces of Order living wherever they want as long as they don't make a mess of things. Some of them want to open contact with the Forces of Order. Some of them think they can aid the Prodigal Races by purging their corrupt elements: Dark Elves, Chaos Dwarfs, Chaos worshiping humans, etc. Others just think that trying to forcibly relocate the younger races is a waste of time and resources.

THEN CAME THE END TIMES AND THE AGE OF SIGMAR

The Lizardmen never really got to do anything proactive. They got smacked by Daemons and Skaven really hard. The surviving Slann used Old One created artifacts and their own prodigious powers to fly some of their major temples out of the Old World to resettle (Just about everyone in Age of Sigmar has their own planet or planets).

When Lizardmen became Seraphon, the Slann recreated Skinks, Sauri, Kroxigor and their animal servants from their own memories. That means the Seraphon arguably can't die but because they are solid memories, one could argue that they are not truly alive. We have a lot of good fluff pieces covering just how WEIRD it must be to be a reincarnation of yourself based not on what you remember, but based on how someone else remembers you.

Then I kind of stopped paying attention because no one in my local game circles plays Age of Sigmar.

Back to pre-Age of Sigmar

Officially, without the Old Ones, there can be no new Slann. Slann are super geniuses, telepathic masters of magi alien even to the Lizardmen who serve them. The Old Ones created five Spawning of Slann. All the first generation Slann are dead, but many of them were preserved as mummies. Kroak is one such mummy and he was the very first Slann spawned in the Old World. The mummies are vast conduits of power nearly as postent as they were when alive. If they are not killed by violence, a Slann could theoretically live forever. The older ones are stronger.

Official fluff states there are four or five Second Generation Slann. Each is in charge of one of the four (or five if you count the city of Zlatan which the Eighth Edition book does not). There are maybe two dozen Third Generation Slann, give or take according to the the fifth edtion book. It's a safe assumption, smaller Temple Cities or occupied ruins probably have a Third Generation Slann in charge. There are about a hundred Fourth Generation Slann, and a few hundred Fifth Edtion Slann floating around Lustria. The older Slann are more powerful, but they are also more prone to comatose states or single-mindedly focusing on some pondering so that they seem to be comatose. Basically the older Slann spend almost all of their time pondering the greater mysteries of the universe while the youngest Slann actually oversee the running of their cities. In battle, a young Slann is about as dangerous as an older Slann because the older Slann is only half-paying attention to the battle at best.

More than any other Warhammer race, the Lizardmen are a theocracy. Worship of the Old Ones and Sotek is paramount in everything they do. The Slann, as elder children of the Old Ones are treated by their subjects with a sense of reverence not seen by humans outside of North Korea since the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs.

Saurus warriors are soldiers, guardians, and exterminators. They do not age, like the Slann they could theoretically live forever if they don't die from violence. The catch is that since their sole purpose in life is to fight they meet violent ends often. Sauri become stronger, tougher, and smarter the more battles they survive (though the process is still slow). Scar Veterans are regular Sauri that survive enough battles to truly stand out above the rank and file. Old Bloods are Scar Veterans that live long enough to outshine their fellow Scar Veterans.

They are bred to fight. During peace time, they either guard things, sit and wait, or they nominally participate as laborers depending on whose fluff you read. It's generally assumed that Skinks will answer to Scar Veterans and Oldbloods but that lesser Sauri will generally yield to a Skink's wishes.

Skinks and Kroxigor do age. Games Workshop never said how long they can live, just that they are mortal. Most assume they live as long as humans but Skink Priests and possible Skink Chiefs can live much longer. All the named special characters seem to have survived many lifetimes. This is never explained officially. The Skinks do the vast majority of the mundane work to keep a Temple City running. They gather food and supplies, build things, patrol the jungles, train the beasts, make weapons and tools, wait on the Slann hand and foot, etc. Kroxigor serve the Skinks as grunt labor. Pretty much everyone agrees that Skinks are smarter than Kroxigor. Writers differ on how smart Kroxigor are (or how smart anyone else is).

Compared to humans, Lizardmen are a more obedient and reverent. Different writers interpret this in different ways. Sometimes Skinks, Sauri, and Kroxigor are depicted as barely having enough will to eat a meal when hungry without being told by a superior "now is the time to eat". More often they are portrayed as having human depth, just with a conservative worldview.

In addition to the divisions of the Lizardmen subgroups, Slann, Sauri, Skinks, and Kroxigor also have preordained roles in their Spawnings. The Lizardmen are flexible enough to move people to different tasks then needed, but they probably have a specific task they were assigned to shortly after their spawning that they do most of the time. You are a scholar, you are going to move bricks, you are going to patrol, and most Lizardmen are okay with this.

Lizardmen don't really spawn in a tradition sense. Medieval philosophers believed when worms grew in old cheese that the life was CREATED in the cheese. Basically that's how spawning pools work. Once in a while, life is created. Depending on whose work you read Skinks, Sauri, and Kroxigor grow quickly over minutes/hours/days/weeks then emerge as adults or near adults. How much inborn knowledge they are born with and how much they have to learn varies from writer to writer.

Now that you have the primer, I'd recommend going to the Lustriapedia and cherry pick stories you are interested. With our nice organization you should be able to find writers and topics that appeal to you.

 

I imagine Lizardmen as they are born of water would enjoy luxury baths. Most of us can't see Slann doing this though. They tend to be cerebral, not physical hedonists. I could easily pictures Skinks enjoying a nice bath house.

 

I own a copy of this book. It is a very interesting book. It has an amazing section on creating Lustrian terrain and interesting section with rules for creating a map campaign (yes it's 6th ed but it'd be easy enough to adapt for 8th, 9th Age, or AoS). But in terms of fluff, there is not much, most of it is in one paragraph sidebars. Maybe six or seven pages of fluff.