Side Chapter: The Arrzat

The Arrzat are a race of lizard-folk who live in the Blacksands. They’re proficient in many forms of ice magic, and they tame many of the monsters that live in the Blacksands to use both in warfare and as beasts of burden.

The combination of being cold-blooded and having access to ice magic means that they’re far more resistant to the heat than anyone else who tries to make their way through the Blacksands.

For the most part, Arrzat reside within large, fortified cities, often multi-layered affairs made of sandstone.  Those that do not are typically nomads, moving from city to city for some reason or another.

While most Arrzat utilize ice magic, there are two other, rarer forms of magic used by some Arrzat- one being fire magic. However, as these Ildzat, as they are called, cannot learn ice magic, they are often dependent on those around them for survival- especially as their fire aptitude makes them almost warm-blooded. For this reason, most Ildzat spend their lives almost entirely within citadels, typically becoming skilled artisans and glassworkers. However, in wartime, many Ildzat join the battlefield, their heating techniques making most metal weapons and armor useless against them. Across the blacksands, there are many areas of metallic glass, remnants of powerful battles between Ildzat and their enemies where the heat of the flames was such it melted the very sands around them.

Even rarer than the Ildzat are the Erdzat, who hold power over metal and magnetism. They’re more self-sufficient than the Ildzat, with some Erdzat being able to live solitary lifestyles. However, any Erdzat who does live within a city will most likely have a position of great power within it, as their control over metal extends to the metallic sands that make up almost everything in the Blacksands. This is a very important ability, being usable for construction, mining, smithing, and combat; as any who dare assault a city with a skilled Erdzat inside will soon find the very ground they stand upon turning against them.

The Arrzat naming structure is an interesting and surprisingly simple one- It’s just a long line of descriptors, mostly monosyllabic. These descriptors can refer to anything from their coloration, age, and stature, to their profession, demeanor, or many other things. For example, one may be called Zin Ket Afn Set Arr Zat, with each of those words translating to a different identifier. In fact, Arrzat itself isn’t the name of their people, more a common word meaning ‘Ice Person’. Humans, who for the most part don’t speak the Arrzat language, just noticed the word appear in more or less every Arrzat name and assumed it was their species.