Waterlizards
Long, slinky necks ending in a narrow pointed head and jaw, more like a bird’s beak, and obviously used to catch prey. Golds are the size of medium sized dogs, while blacks are the size of small dogs... Wings are miniscule, incapable of flight, and the foreclaws are entirely too small for the creature’s body, leaving it to instead balance on two powerful hind legs, with webbed paws, and an extremely long, solid tail. From their neck rise ridged spines with flaps of skin in between, and whenever the Waterlizard feels any extreme emotion, whether it be pleasure or anger, it will splay these spines rapidly up and down, making a clicking sound, as well as glow in strange phosphorescent patterns, much like an earthen jellyfish or deep sea fish. Waterlizards have gills to breath deep under water, but have no problem living on land as long as they can occasionally immerse themselves. Seeing that they eat only fish, they would die anyway without being able to swim. Though they can Impress to humans, and make excellent companions when they do, a Waterlizard will not accept any type of abuse, physical or verbal, from their partners and will return to the wild.

Gold

Appearance
Gold waterlizards are as large as they come, growing to be as hefty as the average spit dog and twice as pointy. They run the gamut as far as gold goes, sporting any color at all from brilliant yellow on to rose and from antique to white. The white, though, is more often reserved for their frills, where the pale color serves better to glow in phosphorescence. Being the largest females of the bunch and the primary egg-layers, golds are quite weighty creatures. They are not slim and delicate. Feminine of course, but with muscle. They are in fact the biggest powerhouses of the waterlizards, with the most stamina and strength. Only the most cunning crimsons and bronzes are able to ever keep up with them, and then only when she Rises.

Mental Capacity
Other ranks can come close, but Queens take the cake. They do have their one favorite word that is used most often, occasionally two, but they are also able to use a few other choice words if they try. Their grammar is awful, even worse than a wher on a bad day, but some sense can be made of their sentences more than from any other rank. Along with this command of language, there is a power over other waterlizards. The eldest gold of a territory has command over any other waterlizard, and it takes a very feisty black to try to defy a Queen.


Crimson

Appearance
Crimson waterlizards differ from red dragons in that they are always male, and are quite a bit higher ranked than a red. They have the same color range, though, and beyond, encompassing all shades of red-violet, red-orange, and pure red, from dark to brilliant. Oddly enough, their membranes are the opposite color to the rest of their hides, taking shades from blue to green opposite the scales from red. They are even larger than bronzes, taking the place of leading male from them, and they have a similar build. They are usually narrower through the body, but have just as much strength as any bronze, and are larger besides.

Mental Capacity
While they cannot match golds, they can also use phrases as well as just their favorite word. What mostly sets them apart is a definite lacking of power over the lower ranks. Almost any lizard can disobey a crimson, and they need only worry about their physical health. And of course any crimson has to do as a queen tells him to.

Bronze

Appearance
Unlike most other bronzes, waterlizard bronzes are more true to the shade of the metal they are named for. Still more of a dark yellow color, but tinted more toward light brown than others. Their frills are usually orange in color, as if waterlizard bronzes are more a mix of brown and bronze than true bronze. Perhaps it doesn’t strike people as a very natural or camouflaged color combination, copper not being a common color in the sea, but bronzes don’t really need to hide. They are large and muscular, and while not as large as crimsons or golds, they are plenty large enough.

Mental Capacity
Bronzes most often stick to their word. They have the ability to string a few words together, but are not as good at it as the higher rankers. It takes a lot more work to put together a coherent sentence or phrase. Their mental power is even less, but they are still able to have some sway over the least of the ranks.

Blue

Appearance
Blue waterlizards are the ones seen least often in the wild. And for obvious reasons. Being blue living in a very blue ocean, they blend right in. Their colors vary across a very wide range, from midnight to periwinkle, as they do in other species with blue in them. The phosphorescent colors of blues tend much more toward green than their original color, staying in the range of sea green. Blues are much slimmer than bronzes and crimsons, and count as the first of the low ranks for it. They are built for speed, with some stamina only because they, unlike many blues, reside in the middle of the waterlizard rankings and size.

Mental Capacity
Blues are much more confined in their speech. They have their one favorite, and when they really, really try a few might string two words together. More than that is beyond them. Not that it is necessary. The meaning gets through by inflection, not by the word itself. Blues are forced to take the orders of golds, and very often crimsons and bronzes as well, though they could disobey a bronze or crimson if they desired. They have very little power themselves, and only over silvers and whites if at all.

Green

Appearance
Greens are the second highest ranked females, and much more than golds they fit the stereotypical female build. Curvy, slim, graceful. Not strong by any means, but at least fast. Like other small ranks, they have sacrificed their stamina for speed and maneuverability. Their color is much more blue-toned than it usually ends up in other species, making greens harder to spot under the water. Some greens are even close to being teal more than green, but their rank is clear by their gender, and by their phosphorescent patterns. Their frills are still green, but opposite from their hide. They vary from yellow to pure green, more often staying in the realm of kelly or grass.

Mental Capacity
Greens are less intelligent than blues, naturally, but they do not stake the claim to least bright among their species. There are, after all, several more ranks to go. They are stuck with just their one word, though, relying entirely on how they say it to communicate. They have almost no power at all, and at most might get a smaller white to do as they say, while they are forced to comply when the highest ranks give orders.

Silver

Appearance
Quite naturally, silver waterlizards are pale gray in color. And quite like platinum dragons, they are male. But not high-ranked, and instead of being bronze-gray, they are blue-gray. The amount of blue varies from lizard to lizard, but they stay in the natural fish color range in order to blend in well in the open ocean. Their phosphorescence, though, is always in the range of ‘out there’, with vivid, oftentimes obnoxious colors to shine against the silver hide. They are the smallest and sleekest of the waterlizard males, being very fast runners and swimmers, but lacking of course in stamina and strength. Once in a very long while, an odd silver will hatch female instead of male. They conduct Runs, but are completely sterile.

Mental Capacity
And so down the rungs we go. Silvers are not the brightest things around, and stick to their one word exclusively. The point is still clearly gotten across, though, for what waterlizards lack in vocabulary they make up for in feeling. They can use their one word to mean anything at all, and silvers are no exception. As far as authority goes, silvers have next to none. Maybe a few whites will do as they’re told, but there’s no use betting on it.

White

Appearance
White waterlizards are very much like a white in any other species. The only difference with waterlizards is that they aren’t actually the smallest. That title belongs to the blacks. However, in most every other way white waterlizards fit the standard. They have no specific gender, and since it really doesn’t matter they often don’t bother choosing one. Being small, they are built sleek and agile. In color they are pure white, occasionally with sparse marks, and with phosphorescence in any shade imaginable.

Mental Capacity
Where white waterlizards differ is in their heads. They are in fact the least endowed when it comes to mind power, being forever stuck with just their one favorite word and forced to follow the orders of the higher ranks. For all that blacks are smaller, whites are much less useful and half as smart, and so they sit squarely at the bottom of the ranks.

Black

Appearance
Blacks are as small as waterlizards come, and the majority get an automatic ‘awww!’ for being small and feminine. The smallest blacks have been said to nearly be smaller than the largest firelizard queens, but such waterlizards have not yet been seen. They are, as mentioned earlier, female, and they look it as much as it is possible for something shaped like a waterlizard. They are the slimmest, fastest rank, but they tire easily. In color they are black. Simple as that. Once in a very long while some of the phosphorescent color might leak out on to their hide, but don’t sit around waiting for it. Their phosphorescent frills come in any color imaginable, and often are the highlights of the little blacks’ colors.

Mental Capacity
Blacks are surprisingly feisty little things. They actually are quite intelligent for their size, and often end up with the same mental capabilities as bronzes or crimsons. They are often quite uppity and power-hungry, and have been known to order those of higher rank around. And more often than not the authoritative tone of the little black has convinced many a blue or green to follow directions, though of course blacks do not have the true power to bend higher ranks to their will.