☆ pathfinder: wrath of the righteous [video game] ☆
while wotr is based on an existing pathfinder campaign/adventure path/whatever you call it, lizard boy is a character original to the owlcat game adaptation.
[☆ Posted: May 22, 2025.]
i need to talk about the lizard man.
or, well, the half-lizard man. does his other half count as human? there's a whole horn and pointed ear situation going on, but it's still more human than reptilian and different from elves' appearances in pathfinder. there's a mix of human and elf dna coming into the equation from his mom, too. so…human-ish, elf-ish? human with a big, bold asterisk, like nobby nobbs.
i need to talk about the half-lizard, half-human-with-an-asterisk. because despite not being my favorite wotr character (that's nenio! it took lizard until after my second playthrough to work his way up another tier and past regill to receive the silver medal), he's the one that i will inevitably discuss in a way that ends with me gesturing forcefully at him, demanding acknowledgement of this humanoid-shaped mass of flesh and scales stuffed stiff with self-esteem issues. you couldn't puppeteer him via the classic hand-up-the-ass method because the self-esteem issues are packed in there too damn tight.
there's a specific scene i often reference when discussing lann, my lizard buddy. it is vitally important for understanding me. it's early in the game, so let me try to describe the lead up.
you are whatever character you just finished making, and oh man, you are also laid out on a stretcher. a soldier serving in the mendevian city of kenabres found you alone and injured outside the city walls and called for assistance. it's a nasty wound you have, one that requires the magic of kenabres' dragon protector to even heal partially. you're all right enough in the meantime, though, so come by the church tomorrow and the dragon will make further attempts to heal you. for now, enjoy the party in the market square!
oh, shit. the demon lord of locusts, deskari, and his minions have crossed into the city interior, something that shouldn't be possible. kenabres is situated on the edge of the worldwound, the blighted land of old sarkoris now frequented by demons and their cultists where the material and demonic planes of reality were woven together. to prevent the infiltration of demons into mendev proper, the goddess iomedae and her herald created the wardstones as a perimeter around the worldwound to halt its advance. common demons should not be teleporting into kenabres, much less a full-ass demon lord like deskari.
the situation is immediately less than great. deskari beheads the dragon and cleaves a deep gash into the foundation of kenabres, into which your character falls--but whew, don't worry, you make it out okay somehow. there's even a few other folks who survived mostly uninjured: seelah, a paladin of iomedae; anevia, an injured rogue-type who investigates cult activity in kenabres with her wife; and camellia, a half-elf of noble birth who you find standing beside a brutalized corpse. the goal is to find a way back to the surface and not die in the process!
a little wandering around subterranean caves, and we finally come to our first meeting with the half-lizard, half-human-with-an-asterisk man!
when i first played wotr, i took lann too straightforwardly. i was still sorting out the setting itself and everything he and wenduag had to say that informed said setting. it was difficult to really process how that all impacted and showed lann and wenduag's characters on a more minute level. i also knew that wenduag was the "evil" option to lann's "not evil" one, so i was like "ah, yes. this must be a nice lizard man who is maybe a bit too idealistic and certainly on the good end of the alignment chart." it's…more complicated than that.
lizard and his friendly vriska expy are looking for the sword of an angel that fell to the caverns below kenabres years ago. or, well, lann is looking for it, and wenduag came along to gawk (and kill him if the opportunity presented itself). why? buncha cave monster teens got too amped up and ran into the murder maze separating the underground and the city above. you aren't supposed to go into the murder maze. it's dangerous, and cave monster tradition is funky on when the time to go surface-side, so lizard thinks that finding a magical angel sword would be enough of a "sign" to spur the reluctant cave monster tribe chief into doing something. because right now they're all sitting on their hands and going "damn, sucks about those cave monster kids." lizard is cynical enough to not place much stock in what is part of a legend probably designed to make cave monsters feel better about being cave monsters, but who the fuck cares if it makes asses move.
you happen across the magical angel sword and somehow make it…work? very weird, but lizard is like holy shit, please go show that off and make asses move. let's just assume you do that so i don't have to explain more about vriska's deal. by investigating the murder maze, you get your best chance of getting back to the surface and also can maybe save some cave monster children. you do so, and uh…wow, vriska has been buddy-buddy with an actual demon and encouraging cave monster children to join her in cannibalism for demon friendship. lizard does not support her life choices, and yeah, man, he's a little ready for a change of pace (and desperate to make his dumb, short life mean something), so he tags along with you, seelah, anevia, and camellia.
the city is a fucking wreck, but good news: anevia's wife, irabeth is alive and she is a competent lady. finally a chance to rest in a safe place that doesn't smell like mold! this is a good time to talk to your party members and get to know them a bit better. camellia doesn't have much to say. seelah is happy to talk about what motivated her to become a paladin. and lizard…
ding, ding. we have arrived at our destination.
there is a very specific story lann will tell you about his childhood. his father was a mongrel (what i keep calling a cave monster) like him. mongrels are a short-lived people and that is if they are born healthy and whole enough to survive infancy. his mother was a half-elf woman who ended up below kenabres and ended up taking his father up to the surface where they tried to start a family. lann is their first kid. he's half-lizard, but he is more than healthy by cave monster standards. what a miracle, right? lann doesn't really think so. him being healthy meant his parents tried to have more kids and those weren't born nearly as healthy.
the second kid survives birth, but he has no nose. their parents helicopter around him, terrified of him suffocating. he dies very young. but they try again.
the third is bad. it's really bad. it's technically a set of triplets, but none of them develop intact. they are in pieces, literal pieces. a priest assisting with the birth holds a head. it is upsetting and horrible, and they do not try again. in fact, the emotional toll is heavy enough that the marriage collapses. lann goes underground with his dad (because on top of the traumatic births, having 2/3rds of the family looking like cave monsters in a place scared shitless of demons is not conducive to good neighborly relations), and his mom goes about her life.
i repeat "sibling born in pieces" like a deranged person when talking about wotr. this story struck me deeply and immediately when i first read it. like i said before, i was really caught up in figuring out the world when this slapped me across the face. it's dense with detail and nuance. part of lann's fucked-up mortality complex stems from sibling born in pieces. he firmly believes that his good health, that his being born, led to such grief for his parents. without him, maybe he could have spared his mom the pain that made her give up on them as a family. he doesn't know how to comfortably feel anger or upset over it, only deep repression and guilt. he tries to play off most things with humor, but it's a thin cover to his obvious suicidality (he would happily die if it was meaningful). he's a prickly and defensive asshole frequently, and it can be actually uncomfortable how he'll preemptively self-deprecate. he's a weird defensive guy with painfully bad coping mechanisms, and he had a sibling born in pieces.
when his mother appears later and asks for your help in trying to talk to him because he is hardcore avoiding her, it's all echoes of the tragedy of sibling born in pieces. he insists he save her the pain of getting to know her adult son who has maybe a decade or two left to live, and yes, that's true, but he's also angry and hurt. she tries again and again in vain to convince him to speak to her, even thinking he must hate her because she was a bad mom who abandoned him. but he finally comes over, completely awkward and with no clue what to say. is he supposed to say angry, that he was a selfish child that wanted to be with his mom? it clumsily comes out that he is all that, and he's so bad at not just blaming himself. she's sorry, wishing she hadn't given up like that, but she wants badly for them to be in each other's lives. they hug. i cry like a fucking baby every time.
the very raw and complicated emotion expressed in sibling born in pieces is indicative of how good i think wotr's writing is in general. there's meat to these narrative bones, and i'm fucking munching.
lann is a fucking excellent character, and i feel like i really get the nitty-gritty of what makes him tick. love me a half-lizard, half-human-with-an-asterisk.
sibling born in pieces, man…
wotr fandom is only so big. i've seen some love for lizard, and i've seen some wow, what a borderline incel takes for lizard. i think the latter are pretty funny--and honestly, not an unfair reaction to him! the sheer fact you can romance this fucker, not fully resolve his crippling self-esteem issues, and get an ending where he drinks excessively whenever you're gone because he is still dealing and coping badly... i love it, but he has major issues lmao.
SIBLING BORN IN PIECES!!!!!!!!