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Crocodile Lord
Seyhrain Deinosuchus. Planar animal lord [he/him] N
Realm: Beastlands / Kriala / The Crocodile Lord’s Roll
Long before mortals built the first cities from clay bricks, the Primordial Rivers carved sinuous curves through the sunlit plains of Krigala. Within their silted depths stirred Deinosuchus, a primordial crocodile who had a voracious appetite. As the legends say, he ate and ate, but was never satisfied. Even elephants and hippos were just a snack for him. One day as he was basking in the eternal sun, stomach rumbling, he looked up and realised—the sun! Selera looked so round and warm, like a beautiful ripe fruit. And so he swallowed the sun, plunging Krigala into darkness!
The powers were not pleased by this, and demanded that Deinosuchus relinquish his prize, for the plants were withering and the other beasts going hungry. But Deinosuchus refused, because his belly was finally full. Although to be honest, Selera was a little spicy—but of course, he did not want to admit this.
The powers sent Lugh of the Long Hand, spear blazing, to pierce the beast’s belly and free the light. Yet Deinosuchus merely laughed, his scales deflecting the divine steel. “You strike like a heron—all noise, no patience,” he rumbled. For three weeks, Lugh hurled lightning, while Deinosuchus just waited. When the god’s fury finally waned, the crocodile surged forth, pinning Lugh beneath his claws. “You lose because you rush,” Deinosuchus hissed. “The river does not chase its prey. The river waits.”
Impressed, the gods bargained: Deinosuchus would become Lord of Ambush, guardian of predation’s patience. In return, he spat out Selera—but kept a sliver lodged in his gullet. To this day, his eyes glow with stolen daylight, a reminder: All things come to those who wait.
The Crocodile Lord
Now that legend may or may not be true, but what graybeards do know is the Crocodile Lord is a descendant of Deinosuchus. In his humanoid form, he travels Krigala’s riverbanks as a towering, broad-shouldered humanoid with greenish skin and scales on his neck, a leather jacket, and a voice so deep it rumbles your ribcage. He has a musky scent like a primeval swamps—a smell that triggers primal fear in mammals, and reverence in reptiles.
However, most of the time he assumes the form of a colossal forty-foot crocodile with armour-like osteoderm scales that deflect lightning and most weapons, jaws strong enough to bite through adamantine, and a tail smack that can knock even the Elephant Lord prone.
The Crocodile Lord embodies the dichotomy of crocodilian nature—endless patience, and lightning reflexes. His mantra is that ‘patience is power’. He outwaits rivals, letting their impatience exhaust them and erode their position. During the War of Thirst when the ulrehain threatened all land animals, he waited hidden for days until lupine throats were so parched that they dared risk a drink from his river—and then he struck like a tsunami. He believes in selective mercy—a creature demonstrating a ‘worthy struggle’ is released, only the weak are devoured and in that way all of animalkind is strengthened. Crocodile also has a deep contempt for waste. ‘To kill without eating is a sin’, as he says. He has a particular revulsion for trophy hunters.
Crocodile maintains the Beastlands’ Law of Ambush—the Natural Principle that predation must balance abundance. Through this, he ensures that no species becomes too dominant, that hunters respect the sanctity of the kill. He also ensures that rivers of the Beastlands should remain wild untamed places, unspoiled by mortal or planar hands.
Allies and Enemies
The Crocodile Lord has an ancient allegiance with the Lizard Lord, based on a share mistrust of the warm-blooded mammal lords. Crocodile sees them as hot-headed and too hasty to act. He used to be close to the Dinosaur Lord but since the latter’s self-imposed isolation on the Forgotten Plateau, chant goes they haven’t spoken in centuries.
Crocodile also has some admirers in githzerai circles. Occasionally anarchs will journey to his swamp seeking to learn from his disciplined stillness. Crocodile responds by ignoring them completely—and apparently this is exactly the wisdom they are looking for.
The Crocodile Lord is also a cutter with a long memory, and a long list of enemies. He remembers the ulrehain and still holds the Wolf Lord responsible, even though that was a different cutter from a different time. Another of his peculiar grudges is with the Peacock Lord, who he disapproves of for ‘prancing through his marshes’ during the Gaudy Migration. Crocodile mocks his ‘gilded fragility’, while Peacock sniffs about Crocodile’s ‘muddy vulgarity’. It seems likely that particular grudge will endure forever. But Crocodile doesn’t mind waiting—that’s what he’s good at, after all.
Source: Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: The crocodile lord is homebrew.