The Lizard People

[TheMike]

So if the vahanati go into hibernation to avoid the death of their civilization via the caves resources crapping out, and the humans leave in 6 due to their magical mushroom solution failing.... how on earth are the lizard people not only surviving, but strong enough for a minor barbarian faction to repeatedly assault exile in army-sized engagements?

[Lilith]

My guess would be they're relying heavily on fish; Sliths are extremely strong swimmers, much more so than humans or vahnatai. In the long run they're probably going to exhaust their caves' resources, but until then they can certainly be a thorn in humanity's side.

[Jerakeen]

Like the Vahnatai, they are native to the caves. Unlike the Vahnatai, they are semi-aquatic. They're probably living on cave eels.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Jerakeen
Sniped!

[Alorael at Large]

Sliths may require less food than vahnatai; they've got lower metabolisms if their cold intolerance is taken to mean they are more weakly endothermic than the other races. They may eat broader diets that are less likely to exhaust resources, or rely on food that is more renewable than the vahnatai diet. Their populations may stay low enough to avoid the problem, or their homeland in Bahssikava may be far more fertile than other areas. Perhaps their magic is able to sustain the ecosystems they rely on or supplement their diets.

 

As Lilith says, the sliths in the caves that the humans are exiled to may eventually exhaust resources, but the exhaustion cycle seems to take a very long time for the vahnatai. It may not be a problem for many generations. The magical mushroom failure is a separate issue; in fact, the sliths seemed just fine before the humans came with their enhanced fungi.

 

—Alorael, who wonders if the vahnatai problems are actually due to the fact that the chitrachs they seem to treat as an endemic problem destroy everything else. They could be an invasive species that the vahnatai are inadvertently spreading. They certainly were unknown in human caves before the first vahnatai encounter, yet by A4 they've become an unholy terror in the Eastern Gallery.

[Earth]

they eat fish & chips.

 

also they are also meat eaters (like Nephils) and there are plenty of lizards and bats to eat.

[Questionably Legal]

If there were plenty then humans could eat them too, and there would be no famine. Also, you'd think that humans could rig up enough magical and/or mechanical devices to catch fish, and since humanity seems to be more omnivorous, I'm wondering why the Sliths don't starve out first.

[Randomizer]

You see in the Abyss that they are planting fruit trees and fishing, but the amount doesn't equal the needs for the human population. Plus there is no interest in controlling the population growth to deal with the food shortage. The human solution is to go to war for resources as the Sliths are expanding into Avernum.

[Earth]

maybe humans are too nitpicks to eat bats etc but sliths and nephils not.

[Edgwyn]

The humans are leaving because without the "magic" mushroom life in the caves is much less pyschedelic.