What do you think lizardmen look like when they first come out of the spawning pools? Do they spawn at full size ready to fight? Do all species look the same until a certain age? Can they look after themselves, or does some kind of nurturing need to happen? I tried looking through the army book a bit but only found a small passage on spawning pools. I'm thinking about writing up some fluff for my army.
I'm pretty sure that a whole unit of fully formed Lizardmen jump out of the pool all at once. Ready to fight and everything.
The book makes a slight, but detailed, notation that all Lizardmen emerge fully formed and knowing their duties as soon as they step out of the spawning pools. There are, of course, slight exceptions like the Temple Guard needing their helms to gain pass knowledge, and Saurus becoming more aggresive and armored as they grow older. So, mainly they form fully grown, but gain a little extra over the hundreds and thousands of years that they live.
the books(all 3) say the saurus emerge fully grown and ready to fight, and have basic instincts for fighting tactics
well from what I can gather from the army book is that they are spawned from like frog spawn and start of at the same size of a 2 year old depending on whether their skink, saurus warrior or kroxigor each spawned group of lizerdmen will stay together from that moment onwards operating together each is of the same colour and size but change as they get older I believe thet when the old ones created the lizerdmen they used the genetic coding of other reptiles for the basic structure
Great, that is exactly what I wanted to hear. Obviously they will change somewhat over time, age, gain experience etc. but coming out ready to fight is cool. Thanks for the replies.
That's just Saurus, the skinks and Kroxigor can go else where, howeer the Saurus have a strong bond of kinship. This explains why skinks can goad beasts, ride terradons, ride stegs and fight with Kroxigor, its all because they don't have such a straong bond. The TG may have the same bond, but it wouldn't show because they practically hug a slaan on sight. And when you think about it, its good Saurus arn't too smart, because with that strong bond, it'd just suck being an oldblood (you know, the last of your spawning alive, same for eternity wardens.)
I disagree with this statement 100%. Everything that I've read indicates that Sarus are extremely intelligent creatures. They instinctually have the knowledge of the best tactics when they're spawed. The reason they do not communicate as much as their skink counterparts is because their role is primarily combat and there isn't much to say about that, considering that everyone of them is practically thinking the same thing. Scar Veterans and Oldbloods don't have to issue many orders, especially on the battle field, because their Sarus rely on their instinct for combat tactics and timing. I'm pretty sure this is evidenced in the new and old books about the LM. Just because their role is to act as the best infantry the army (or nearly the world) has to offer and don't need to communicate to fill that role, does not make them any less intelligent than a skink. Remember the Old Ones spawned them for different reasons. On an opinionated matter of the skink spawnings, I'd say that skinks that are spawned for a specific purpose spawn together and skinks that are to have two different roles in the Old Ones plans will not spawn at the same time. Basically, you won't see a group of skinks that are intended to ride Terradons spawned at the same time you would see a group of atrisans or scribes who attend to their Slann.
I meant that they're not as mentally agile, you know, not too many emotion (besides the one that makes Khorne proud). I think that bit is good because it excells them in their role. But like i said, if they had the feeling to be hurt, the whole being alone when you've spent most of your life with a whole bunch of other would just be crappy. But now im almost repeating the post. I now Saurus are spawned smart but its not the kind of "smart" i mean, you always hear of skink chirping happily, running like pansies etc. but never Saurus, they keep to the roaring and killing... unblike skinks that will errupt with emotion whenever something happens. And i've read the fluff on Saurus too, i know they don't need to communicate with chirps and stuff... added perk of the closeness. But as i said, i don't mean stupid as a plank, i mena overall, they're incredibly smart for what they do.
naw, my saurus just flee. Another question is, How are spawning pools created? and is it possible that mage priest can create them?
KFTW, I think I understand what you're saying. For the sake of debate, I'll point out that mental agility has nothing to do with emotion. A being that is totally emotionless may be extremely intelligent, consider the race of Slann, for example. I would agree with you in the fact that Sarus tend to be emotionless and that their decisions are goverened by pure logic or combat analysis, rather than how they feel. Vulcans (from Star Trek) would be a great example of a Sarus, when you add a touch of bloodlust (I know that this comment stands to be debated, don't go too deep). I don't see skinks quite the same way as Sarus, but I also don't view them as a race that is governed by emotion. I think that their choices to flee are based on a logical understanding of combat tactics as well. I would go as far to say that Skinks function in the same way that a Sarus functions with the exception that their instinctual knowledge goes beyond combat and manual labor, hence their abilities to become artisans, designers, priests and anything else that LM society demands of them. Skinks do come off as 'pansies' at times but if you look at Sotek's prophet, they can be extremely warlike and as we have seen already, great assets on the battlefield. Overall, each species of lizardmen understands its purpose as it was spawned for the Old Ones commands and rarely makes decisions on emotion, but more on a sense of instinctual purpose. This creates a society that is difficult to understand from a human perspective, which is why the LM race remains secluded from the other races. Those races view Lizardmen as savage combatants who perfer to fight when they do not understand that violating the territory of the Lizardmen is not in line with what the Old One's planned for this world.
Its good you get my point... And good point with the Slann. Wow, you know we're nerds when we refer to star trek. (Meant to be a joke, NOT a personal attack) Well, Skinks weren't really made for combat prowess, instead they were given agile bodies and minds to perfor, as you said any task that the LM need them to fulfill. I definatly agree with your point about the prophet of Sotck (can anyone actually pronounce his name?) Although i wouldn't say that they were intended for combat... They've just got kick ass weapons. So, so true...
try looking in the LM book at cold one cavalry and enchanted items. Horned ones. one page says they spawn with ther master the other that they live in the wild and you have to tame them. It's actually an annoying mistake. If i samoday want to use a horned one i dont know if they are from the jungle or from the spawning pool. in another book they only live in the southlands. and Author i can pronounce Sotek... but I'm from Scandinavia(Denmark not a city in Sweden).