Ponury Legwan
The tall, lean lizardman known only as Ponury Legwan cuts a tragically forlorn figure as the star attraction of Barvick's Traveling Carnival of Curiosities. His dull, olive-green scales glistens in the sunlight. Legwan's pupil-less orange eyes convey a soul-weary sadness that seems disturbingly at odds with his fearsome reptilian appearance.
For as long as the lizardman can recall, the roving carnival has been his permanent home and prison. He has no memories from before being a captive – he knows only the cruel beatings, scanty meals and forced humiliations of being trotted out to gawk at like a freak of nature. His name itself, "Ponury Legwan," is a derisive mockery in the Common Tongue meaning just "Gloomy Lizard."
Ponury's dim recollections hint that he may have origins among the reclusive lizardfolk tribes dwelling in the fabled Desert of Dread, over a thousand leagues away. However, years of conditioning under the cruel whip of showman Barvick have beaten any certainty of his heritage out of the downtrodden being's mind. He doesn't even known his birth name or language - just that his scaled, bipedal form marks him as highly abnormal to the human crowds who recoil in shock and horror at his unveilings.
Each whistle stop on the carnival's eternal journey brings more torment for the wretched lizardman. Barvick's rambling shows brimming with filthy obscenities, off-color jests and shocking freak-show exhibitions have cemented his reputation as a master showman. And no attraction draws more gasps and cheldbird screams than trotting out the bizarre, unhappy Ponury as the main event.
Stripped near vicinity naked, Ponury is paraded about on a spiked leash and encouraged to screech and thrash with undignified ferocity while Barvick mocks and baits him mercilessly. Gaggles of human children find perverse delight in throwing rotten fruits and taunts at the dispirited lizardman. Yet he stoically endures it all - his only reprieve from torment coming when the carnival packs up until the next town.
Occasionally, Legwan allows himself to envision another life in the harsh alien deserts of his lizardfolk kin. Yet the lizardman knows such dreams are hopelessly naive. For he has been so systematically stripped of identity, pride and spirit that he doubts any desert tribe would even recognize the broken, hollow creature before them as one of their own. So Legwan resigns himself to his perpetual role as an outcast, on display as the grotesque freak and circus minion, forever.
lizardman
outcast
slave
