The story of Wizards & Lizards is a story of two peoples: the human Reapers, and the draconian Hssklks. And it is a story of the mountain called the Stone Mother by the Hssklks, and Akronchrusos by the humans – meaning Gold Mountain. It is also a story of blood.

The Wizards & Lizards backstory revolves around the two forces vying for a central mountain. Akronchrusos is an igneous mountain roughly one kilometer in height and shaped like an enormous dragon curled around an ordinary stone peak. The dragon’s “mouth” is an entrance to a complex network of inner caves, and live volcanic action often causes steam to billow forth in geysers, or at any rate to waft out from the dragon’s maw in a suitably dramatic fashion.

For centuries the Hssklks have regarded this mountain as a sacred place, as their religious lore deems the stone dragon to be an old god who mothered their race, and then turned into stone to sleep until they needed her once again. The Hssklks are a cave-dwelling race, and live in caverns carved out of the mountain proper, though they are very careful to never dig into the granite dragon-formation wrapped around the peak. The Reapers are not so careful. They were a slave-race that rebelled against their masters and underwent a great exodus. They stopped their march at the foot of Akronchrusos, hoping to set up a town in the fertile delta below, and to mine the rich gold and gem resources of the mountain for trade with other towns. They regard this as a promised land, as the great riches within the mountain could set them well on their way to establishing themselves as a new nation. And so the Reapers have started tunneling into the old dragon, mining the rich seams of living gold and rubies they find inside, and carting them down the mountain.

The Hssklks see this as blasphemy, of course, but more importantly it constitutes an invasion of their home, so they’ve taken to resisting the Reapers, smashing their carts and attacking any miners who delve too deeply into the dragon. The Reapers, on the other hand, see the Hssklks as a group of savage lizard-beasts, and are trying to exterminate them all.

The climax of the story (the game) comes on the Hssklk New Year, the Night of Whispers, when the twelve pieces of the dragon-god’s heart are supposed to become visible, and shine like stars from where they were scattered
across the smaller peaks of Akronchrusos. According to Hssklk lore, if they collect the twelve pieces and return it to the dragon, she will awake from her slumber and save the Hssklk from whatever danger faces them.

The Reapers believe that there is a magical energy within the twelve stones, and that if they can be gathered for an incantation, the volcano can be made to erupt, thereby cleansing all the caverns of the Hssklks, and bringing the
gold and gems closer to the surface.

And so the game begins with the Hssklks flying over the human village, raining flaming naphtha down upon them and trying to wreak enough havoc to frighten them away from the mountain forever. The Reapers decide it’s time to get rid of the lizards once and for all and take flight, determined to gather the orbs and cleanse the mountain. The player is a magic carpeteer, part of the wizard air force, whose job is to gather the power orbs and cast the Spell Of Terminal Immolation upon the mountain.

Akroncrusos is one mountain in a range of volcanic mountains that, in turn,
sit atop a tectonically elevated region. The predominant biome is boreal taiga in the upper reaches, giving way to coniferous forest below the peaks and finally grasslands on the basaltic shield. Ankroncrusos itself is a volcanic mountain sitting on the shield that then has a stone dragon wrapped around the peak -- the dragon-shaped formation really is a dragon turned to stone and not a natural formation at all. The remaining, shorter, peaks are quite stony, some with small snowcaps, generally with scraggly spruce and shrubs the rest of the way down.

The human village is in a grassy area on the shield, below all the volcanic
cones. It's protected from prevailing winds by a rocky outcrop, sort of a small hill in whose lee the encampment lies.

The Reaper society is a steal from the book of Exodus, but more technologically advanced -- very much iron age, let's say about 800AD Europe. The society they are fleeing resembles the Roman Empire.

The Reapers came from a warmer climate and are not used to the cold near Akroncrusos, and so generally dress warmly in heavy woven cloths and whatever furs they can trap. They are capable of animal husbandry but lack sheep for wool -- in fact they are quite impoverished which is why Akroncrusos is so important to them.

The wizard-carpeteers of the Reapers are sort of a social elite, like knights. Indeed magic is the demense of the aristocracy in the wizard society and one's adeptness with it largely dictates one's position within social hierarchy.

Reaper peasant dress resembles that of German serfs circa 800. The wizards are more colorfully dressed but higher quality fabrics are difficult to come by given the society's recent flight and resource poverty.

Reapers live in small stone or wooden homes; hovels for the peasants,
larger villas for the patricians. There has not yet been time to build castles or other large social structures, apart from the barracks and town hall.

The Hssk'lk are a reptilian race, perhaps roughly neolithic in technology--
like the hunter-gatherer-herdsmen tribes of the African Savannah, or
American Indians. They live by hunting smaller creatures that live in the
caves, harvesting lichen and fungi, and gathering from the boreal vegetation.
Prior to the arrival of the humans they had started to cultivate agriculture on the shield plain and live in longhouses outside of the mountain, but this was cut short by the arrival of the Reapers.

Hssk'lk cloting is spare, and tends towards rough cloths and animal skins, like loincloths and tunics. They do wear boots to protect their feet from 'a'a lava flows. The Hssk'lk priests are heavily decorated, wearing headresses, bead necklaces, and decorative cloths.

Hssk'lk religion is beyond animistic, and revolves around the worship of old gods who are generally considered to be asleep or removed from daily life, but capable of returning. The most important of this tribe is obviously the Stone Mother, of which cult the shaman is effectively the high priest.

Other important gods include Ssisris, the god of death and Kukulos, the sun.

Hssk'lk generally lived in the lower caves of the mountain proper but have been forced further into the labyrinth of the Stone Mother as the Reapers delve deeper into their mines. They lay eggs and raise children communally, which means that when children are hurt it is an affront to the entire community.