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Art reference link: Behance

Long though extinct, an unlife of service to the God of Rot gave fruition to the impossible.

The Greylings had not returned to the world for long before it ended and they were forced to find their own way through its ashes.

Description

Greylings are a race of small reptilian creatures with large pointed ears and patchy, scaly skin. Their skin color is grey, but their scales take on mottled and rarely colorful patterns ranging from dull blues, to oranges, to greens. Different colors run in different families. This can help them blend into their natural environments: mountains, bogs, cities, and caves. Their eyes are solid black, but there is one known lineage of Greylings that have blue irises with white sclera like a human’s. If you want to play one such Greyling, reach out to one of the players of that family and inquire about playing a descendant of theirs. Greylings are omnivorous, but have doglike teeth and short, sharp claws.

Greylings range in height from around two to four feet by the time they reach physical maturity at 10 years of age. They continue to live for around 30 years of age before biting the dust. Although greylings have a small natural lifespan, they make up for this by being able to reproduce in great numbers. A pregnant Greyling can lay 1-4  eggs every four months, and expect them to hatch within two weeks.

Greylings have no gender, but those that live among other races sometimes present as either masculine or feminine, whether through learned behavior or personal preference. Greylings reproduce asexually through laying eggs as though reptilian in nature.

Greylings & Ages

Greylings live for three ages.

Abilities

Within their small figures and stone-like skin, greylings possess a natural ability to hide in favorable environments.

Greylings only see in shades of black and white, but are able to see fine even in the pitchest black darkness.

Greylings are physically weak and fragile.

History

The first Greylings were corrupted halflings created by the machinations of Grief, in a time so ancient it passed into legend. Over time, the influence of Grief waned but Greylings never found their own place in the world. They were always the other, isolated, and suffering. In part because of prejudice, and in part because Greylings were legitimately a threat to others by virtue of their volatile nature.

Eventually most of the Greyling population in the world found their way to a city called Riddleport. In the city of Riddleport, they were killed off over a period of only a few years. The Greyling population in the rest of the world was so small that it could not sustain itself, and within one generation all of the Greylings in the world had died - or near enough to seemingly make no difference. No one mourned their passing.

No one, except for one Greyling that was more ambitious and driven than most. He would not allow his kind to die quietly, and so found himself in the only port that would accept him amidst this tumultuous storm: Skraag, the God of Rot, Decay, Undeath, et al. Greylings naturally live only for around thirty years, but this Greyling lived many times longer than should have been possible for a member of its species. He refused to die. He refused to abandon his quest, no matter how long it took, until he was the last Greyling known to the world.

Then, and only then, after lifetimes of service, did Skraag grant his wish. Skraag’s power rose through the earth, and through unspeakably foul ritual the Greyling was able to resurrect the lost souls and shapes of his people. Slowly at first, then faster, and faster, and faster until a sustainable population was achieved.

No one knows the fate of that long lived Greyling who sold his soul and everything he had to Skraag for a chance at seeing his people returned to the face of Altera. All that is known is that the pit from which they were born has been lost to the Daughter of Grief, and this hardfought second chance at life is likely the last chance that Greylings as a people will ever have.

Thanks to @chimp for the initial writeup.