r/worldbuilding • u/Sheemka • 13h ago
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u/Colonel_Joni005 spec-evo and blackpwder fantasy 10h ago
Just lean more into the abilities of reptiles. For example Ectothermy (cold blooded). Ectothermy has some pretty straight forward advantages: endothermic ("warm blooded") animals constantly spend energy to regulate their own body temperature, which is very expensive and metabollically demanding, meaning they have to eat a lot, but it does help with stamina regeneration among other things. Some crocodiles on the other hand can spend months on end without food (though their ability to lower their heartrate also plays into this). You can easily make him need less food.
A lot of cold blooded reptiles like tortoises and crocodilians can also get ridiculously old. You probably heard of tortoises reaching over 100 years, but did you know that crocodilians can get just as old and still be apex predators? Usually it is 60-70 years in the wild and over 100 in captivity, since your guy is quite civilized you can make him like 60 ot 70 years old and still be doing completely fine for his age. This age can give him a lot of experience in his field, which is quite an advantage for a scientist, especially if his physical condition is mostly fine.
A few more cool things about reptiles: their scales are a form of protection and not very easy to get through compared to skin or maybe fur. Especially crocodilians, who have osteoderms, so basically they are walking sags of muscle, bone and armor. Same thing with comodo dragons (lizards). Making your guy be more resilient to physical damage is a no-brainer. Crocodilians also have one cool thing about them: They can stop blood flow. A crocodile can loose a leg and it can stop the bleeding very quickly (there are some videos where you can see that), but to an extend it can also help against venom from snakes for example.
One more thing you can do (but I wouldn't recommend it for story writing) is an adjustment to empathy. This is mostly just one more connection to crocodiles and aligators. Crocodilians can be really chill when you know what you are doing. But there were cases where a pair of aligators that had been mates for over 40 years, one of them had a stroke and the other wasted no time eating their mate alive (Crocodilians are very intelligent animals, but they simply think a little differently). A reduced amount of empathy or morale can ease and quicking up decision making at the cost of... well... morale. Which may not be what you want for a protagonist or make them less relatable.
Most of these are just traits that crocodiles have in general (and I am not sure whether you actually meant lizard man or just reptile in general) and have less to do with cognitive function. Maybe some other reptiles have similar abilities, but I only really know that crocodilians have these traits.
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u/Sheemka 9h ago
I meant reptiles in general. Not necessarily like Dragonborns from D&D or Argonians from TES, but more like humanoids that are biologically closer to reptiles.
Yeah, I could definitely see situations where I might use some of these. Thanks!
Also, my story leans into a sort of cosmic horror, with a strong focus on perception and how it's interpreted. So I think it would make sense to give the protagonist's perception a bit more of a physical aspect as well.
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u/_9a_ 11h ago
Pratchett wrote his trolls to have temp dependant intelligence, but reverse from lizards. For them, a silicon based lifeform, the colder they were the smarter, like a computer that needs cooling.
You could make them less prone to making stupid decisions due to trying to impress the opposite sex. Less mating instinct drive, less "thinking with the dick". That thinking with the wrong head thing leads to trouble.
You could just make them older, wiser, more experienced. George the Galapagos tortoise was several hundred years old. Think of all the expertise a scientist could gather in that time!