Galapto

Galapto are turtle-like humanoids with a large shell on their back and scaly reptilian skin. Most Galapto are shades of green or brown, but colorations vary. They move slowly, speak slowly, and outlive everyone who ever teased them about either.

Shell Defense — If you are not wearing armor, you can add your Fortitude to your Hit Score instead of Agility.

The Galapto awoke in the jungles of eastern Im'ran Dorei at the beginning of the world and founded the nation of Taval there during The Age of Colonization, sharing its wetlands with the Croaklings. Taval was the old world's quietest civilization — a nation of gardeners, archivists, and philosophers who measured projects in centuries.

Taval was never conquered; it was overgrown. In the centuries after The Dark Dawn, the explosive regrowth that became the Brutewilde Jungle swallowed the nation whole. The long-lived, few-numbered Galapto did not fight the forest. Some withdrew deeper into the green; most simply walked out into the world, carrying Taval in memory.

The Galapto are thought to be on the verge of extinction: most alive today are long past child-bearing years, and no Galapto hatching has been confirmed in over a century. They are the longest-living race in all of Ardelûn apart from dragons — a few known in history have reached their millennial birthday — and individual Galapto are treasured across the world as living archives. Several nations and universities maintain formal "elder chairs" for resident Galapto, and it is considered profoundly bad form, everywhere, to hurry one.