Rolaan

Art by Eistheid

Rolaan are a fossorial lizardlike species of sentient that have quick minds and even quicker feet. They're short in stature, coming up to 4 feet high at their tallest and rely on powerful noses to navigate. Moreover, they have a talent for magic casting more than psionics or tech. They hail from a world long since lost to the annuls of history where supermassive predators hunted them while they cowered, and since then the Rolaan have spread amongst the stars. To see them as a society, go here

• Incredible snoots
• monochrome vision
• diggin' claws
• Smooth scales
• Poor heat regulation
• Obligate carnivores/insectivores

Rolaan are an egg-laying species that live up to fifty years without magical or technological enhancements. With those options, they tend to live significantly longer.

• Rolaan begin life as an egg, usually laid in a clutch of two to five.
• Egg development takes about 7 months
• Rolaan childhood is about 3 years, with pubescence taking 1 to 3 more.
• On average, they live up to 50 naturally.

Rolaan are short and generally scrawny by mammalian standards, with smooth scales making them seem thinner than species with fuzzy hair sticking off of them. Females tend to have bigger hips but not always. Rolaan do not naturally possess breast tissue however exceptionally well fed, corpulent rolaan may develop fatty masses over their pectoral muscles which are visually similar to breasts. They also have poor internal heat regulation, and often resort to using enchanted bands to keep their bodies within comfortable margins.

Rolaan have arms roughly one and a half times their torso length, and short digitigrade legs with thick, muscled thighs that keep them low to the ground and very bouncy on their feet. Their hands are four fingered (three and a thumb) but are capped with very thick and hard, nigh calcified claws meant for digging. Their feet are similarly equipped, though with three toes.

Rolaan sit around 4 feet high (With a foot wide degree of variance) and weigh somewhere between 110 and 160 lbs.

Rolaan are covered in scales, all very smooth and polished to the touch. The exact colouration varies from type and Rolaan to Rolaan, but your basic ones tend to be grassy or earthen tones with patches of bright colouration about the face. Males tend to have brighter colourations on their stomachs and inner legs, but otherwise look fairly similar to the females.

Rolaan heads are very reptilian, with eyes and a short snout. Their noses are extremely sensitive, able to pick up faint scents from a football field away. But, it's also sensitive to touch. Depending on region, they either develop upwards pointed (past tropic zones) or downwards pointed (In tropic zones) horns, along with cheek flares of scales.

Rolaan have slittable pupils with light-coloured sclera. They only have black-and white vision.

Their teeth are mostly sharp canines, with a few flatter teeth towards the back of their maws for chewing. They also have a very long tongue with a sticky endpoint that they use to catch bugs with that escape their claws.

Rolaan have a trilling quality to their voices, but often rely on their magic bands to autotranslate for them.

As previously mentioned, Rolaan are lacking in the vision department, and they have fewer taste buds than humans, owed to their mostly meat diet. Rolaan can still pick out sweet from sour - though they lack the ability to differentiate finer flavours. To make up for it, their smell and hearing are excellent.

Rolaan have a sturdy skeleton that allows them to take on the repetitive shock from digging through harder materials with a spongy marrow to assist, but are otherwise unremarkable.

Rolaan have all the same organs that humans do, with a few minor, unmentionable differences.

Rolaan brains are located right in their heads.

Rolaan are obligate carnivores, with a side of insectivorousness, if that's even a word. Their primary concern is meat and protein, and while they can eat veggies they NEED meat. That being said, their diet can be supplanted by insects if meat is not available.

Rolaan aren't particularly hardy, having resorted to magical methods of vaccination eons ago. If, for whatever reason, their bands stop working, they have a habit of getting sick quickly.

Rolaan are a reactionary species. While they do have the capacity for tactical thought, it doesn't come out in situations where there are immediate concerns.

Rolaan have a forward thinking outlook, always looking to the next hurdle to jump or goal to meet. Emotions are expressed through physicality of action more than facial expressions, of which they are very limited due to the nature of their biology.

Rolaan have a tendency to greet strangers with enthusiasm. How they express this enthusiasm varies from individual, but it ranges to heaps of praise or admiration based theft.

Surprisingly, rolaan are a lot more reserved and intimate with compatriots, especially those of their own species.

Rolaan are innate magic casters, and much of their ability thrives on their use of the rings. The bands, both a cultural and biological necessity, oftentimes serve as a focus for their magic and as their belief system.

While Rolaan are capable of psionics, they have no tradition of it due to the prevalence and usefulness of magic in their society. So, more often than not, a psionically sensitive rolaan may go their entire life without realizing it.

Desert Rolaan have much longer and thinner tails, with shorter and flatter claws than their more common bretheren. True to their environment, they tends towards more rocky and sandy tones to their scales.

Polar Rolaan are the rarest variety. They're a foot taller on average, thicker-bodied, and their scales are more coarse than their cousins, taking on much paler and duller hues. But, what they lack in sleekness they more than make up for with magical potential.