"L" is for...

LIZARDMAN

Chameleon Skink, from DeviantArt

    Lizardmen. The most common denizens of Venus (although the Parrotmen are a close second), and hordes of them live in tribal units and warbands across the steaming jungle surface of the entire planet. There are literally dozens of different sorts, of varying sizes and colors. Some are crested, others are not. Some tower over the average man, some are the size of a healthy child. All are perfectly acclimated to their jungle planet's hot, humid lowland rainforests. They move silently through the underbrush and kill with neither warning nor compassion.

Salamander archers, 15mm, from Khurasan

   Germany has managed to befriend a few tribes of lizardmen who were in the vicinity of the German colony of Venusstaadt. These natives have been trained in the use of firearms, and organized into units of askaris or schutzetruppe to bolster the military strength of the German Empire on Venus. They have the added advantage of being able to travel through areas no human could survive.

GW Skink 'askari' conversion, 28mm

   Some of the larger tribes have very complex social structures, with the priests and temple guardians of the sacred spawning ponds at the very top of the heap, and the lowly slaves at the bottom. Their technology is crude, but effective nonetheless, and they can be trained to operate more complex machinery as well.

Martian Empires Lizardman Temple Guard, 18mm, by Black Hat

   Lizardmen come in a variety of sizes, one of the largest varieties (known in my VSF universe as a Kroc) is seen below. It seems that for the most part, the larger the lizardman, the less intelligent they usually are. Krocs have been known to trade for weapons and ornamentation with their smaller cousins. They have also been known to prey upon them for food.

GW Kroxigor, 28mm

   Some of the more advanced tribes have mastered their larger distant kin, the dinosaurs of Venus. Pictured below, you can see a tribe of blue-skinned lizardmen borne into battle atop a huge Stegadon. Other varieties have domesticated (at least partially) the pterosaurs as flying mounts, and other (mainly herbivorous) varieties as beasts of burden, much as the European colonists have done.

GW Lizardmen Stegadon, 28mm, all rights reserved, used w/o permission.

   The lizardmen make Venus a dangerous and exotic locale for adventure. Victorian Science Fiction would be a much less colorful place without them.