Draak Harg Mercenary

Draak Harg -dragon men- mercenary from Amidas

_{D R A A K H A R G, Populus Draakii}

Race: Draak Harg

Class: Draak Harg

Species: Draaki

Other names: Anthro Draaks, Drakonids, Draakfolk, Slaver Draaks, Trader Draaks, Leather Skins, Tooth Faces.

Allegiance: Dark Legion of Demons

The Draak Harg, meaning dragon men in their own tongue, or true Draak Harg are reptilian inteligent dragon men of a roughly humanoid configuration that live througout Aels, Zarhuy and Hieyoks. A broader sense of the term Draak Harg includes
all the Draaki dragon peoples -such as Draakans, Siggos and Aminiotas, is not used in this article. The term Draak Harg here applies only to the dragon men owithin the subfamily of the Draak harg.

The specific Draak Harg are the most populous group of dragon men, they are the most commonly seen and that humans and most other humanoids are used to dealing with.

Among the Draaki -Dragon People-, or dragon creatures, there are five main families: Draaks (Dragons), Draak Harg (Dragon-men), Siggos (lizard-men), Aminiotas (amphibious-men) and Dragonids (dinosaur-like animals).

The wider definition of the Draak Harg includes four main types of natural dragon folk, The Draak Harg (specific definition), Drakaans (dragon folk that have tails), Draakly (flying dragon folk), and Annash. There are additional types of dragon folk,
"Demon Servers" such as the Sergdraak, Naga and Cobren Harg that were magically engineered by the demon lords.

Although they appear to be similar to the untrained eye, Draak Harg, Draakans and Siggos belong to separate biological families, which can be distingished as they have morphological differences.

One of the most obvious external differences is that the Draak harg lacks a tail, with tells them appart from the Draakans. Another trait that separates Draak Harg from other dragon men are their much higher levels of agression.

Dragon men size, morphology, behavior and ecology somewhat differes between the species.  However, they have many similarities in these areas as well. They were originally carnivorous peoples, feeding mostly on vertebrates such as fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, and sometimes on invertebrates such as mollusc and crustaceans, but they will later become adaptative omnivores. The Draak Harg, unlike the tropical Draakans and Siggos, weren't very sensitive to cold.

The Draak Harg are the most humanoid of the dragon folk. They are reptilian in nature, but lack tails, unlike some other groups of dragon men, or other reptile folk of the family Draaki. They live for 600 years as a natural lifespan, and they are oviparous (egg laying) creatures.

They appear to stand about the height of humans in general, with somewhat greater weight. Some are larger or smaller.

Draak Harg have smooth skin on their bellies and sides, while their dorsal surfaces are armoured with large osteoderms. The armored skin has scales and is thick and rugged, providing some protection. They are still able to absorv heat throught this armor, as a network of small capillaries allows blood throight the scales to absorb heat. These scales are normally of green, brown and grayish tones, but other colours of scales existed, but unlike the Draakans, they didn't had complex or colorful patterns on them.

Draak Harg are poluphyodonts and able to replace each of their teeth up to 50 times in their 300 to 600 year lifespan. Next to the full grown tooth there are a small replacement tooth and a odontogenic stem cell in the dental lamina in standby that can be activated if required.

Draak Harg do not have sweat glands and release heat through their mouths. They often sleep with their mouths open and may pant like a dog. They have acute senses, an evolutionary advantage that makes them successful predators. they have very good night vision, and are mostly nocturnal. Their sense of smell is as well very well developed.

The Draak Harg were among the creators of some of the first civilizations that Aiers will see, along with the ones of elfkind and the dwarves, developing quite early writing systems and cities, and for long they will contest with dwarves for who will be the better metal workers, as they where able to resist to the intense temperatures of the forges.

However, while their cities will be among the first, and some will be among the more lasting settlements, very little was known of the cultures of any of the reptilian folk: this was partly because of their cold-blooded, non-mammal nature, their society and settlements had less contacts with other peoples of Aiers, and while early in history some dragon-men will create some empires, as dwarves, elves and later after the Age of Invasions, they will slowly retreat, and they will tend to live in isolated pockets, either almost a world away
in the depths of Kazrrad, or jungle or desert environments. They tend towards the edges of humanoid civilizations when they appear.

In the case of the Draak Harg, the most common and usually seen members of the dragon folk, they are known for adopting various humanoid customs and behaviors in interacting with humanoids and humanoid cultures. This is useful as they make a living as traders, crafts-dragons, mercenaries, and slavers.

While in general not much was known of the Draak Harg culture, they had largelly a polytheist pantheon, that had as gods dragons. While in different dragon-men nations and cities, there where different gods, in general they shared a creational myth of the dragon-men by the great dragons after their own image, to serve as their hands and servants, and in fact, many of the earlier Draak Harg civilizations where ruled by dragons -calling themselves dragon-gods- in teocratic societies.

Draak Harg were noted blacksmiths, with a skill that is only surpassed by the dwarfs. According to some historians, they conjecture that they may have developed this skill to compete with the dwarves  militarily in earlier ages. Regardless, it is one of the best known  skills and trade of the Draak Harg. Unfortunately, this was followed by their roles as slavers, serving as an important piece of the slave trade as many civilizations and peoples of Aiers keeped slaves in some degree or other, particularly in Kazrrad. Some conjectured that this was perhaps because of their non-mammalian 'alien' natures and role of outsiders, Draak Harg were better able to act as  'impartial middlemen' and ply their various trades, particularly slavery, and warfare, where other races who existed in closer contact with ever shifting roles in war and peace would find it more difficult, with the Draak Harg being sort of 'assigned' the role of 'cold-blooded' merchants and soldiers of fortune.

However, while perhaps more Draak Harg are merchants, mercenaries and slavers than any other race per capita, dwarves outdid them in sheer volume of trade and slave trading due to their greater populations. The same is certainly true about their metal working and some authors suggested that perhaps their mercenary companies as well.

In their role in the Dark Legion of Demons, Draak Harg were largely unaligned on the whole, but in Aels they chose to serve the Demonic Dark Legion in the form of providing mercenary companies, metal weapons, and slave trade. More scattered populations elsewhere such as in Hieyoks or Zarhuy did likewise, but usually as it suited them.

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Again, meeting! And that mean a bunch of doodles done in my notes. XD