Massenpreost Despotanfras

The Massenpreost Despotanfras - also known as "The Ancients", "The Ancestors" and "The Precursors" - were a race of humanoid reptilians - said to be physically resembling Lizardmen - that created the first historically recorded city-states on Continental Artograch, and are also credited with creating the very first known civilization on Artograch.

Even though they are extinct, their language is still used for magic.

Secret origins
Unbeknownst to the other races, the Massenpreost Despotanfras share one similarity with the Dwarves - the fact that both of them are foreign to Planet Artograch. Both races arrived to Artograch from outer space, but their cultures were vastly different. While the Dwarves were originally a technologically advanced spacefaring civilization that built computers and nuclear power plants and used gunpowder-powered kinetic weapons, the Massenpreost Despotanfras technologically never advanced beyond the Bronze Age. Instead, they invested all of their intellectual capital into psionics, magic and new revolutionary ways to harness this mysterious yet powerful source of energy. The Massenpreost Despotanfras had such an advanced knowledge of spellcraft, that they managed to build magic-powered spacecraft without industrialization, chemistry or knowledge of physics. Their magic-powered spaceships however were not without fuel - several different crystals were required to provide mana to propell the ships and power their magical weapons.

Unlike the Dwarves who intentionally colonized Artograch, the Massenpreost Despotanfras accidentally landed on the planet: they were stranded on Continental Artograch by mistake, believing that the planet had all the crystals required to fuel their spaceships. Lacking the necessary fuel, they attempted to contact the mother planet and ask for assistance, but their cries for help remained unheard: the nebula in the star system not only prevented other ships from locating the planet, but also blocked psionic communications. Forced to fend for themselves, the Massenpreost Despotanfras began building up their civilization in Southern Etrand. Without the crystals that powered their space ships, they were effectively little-more than a Bronze Age people that lacked technology.