vesk's physiology

[wild_Dragonfiy_13]

What reptile does a vesk resemble? When a vesk is shirtless, what does its torso look like? How scaly is its chest and abdomen?

[Justnobodyfqwl]

I know that in a recent stream about Starfinder 2e, one of the Starfriends spoke with a vtuber known for really NSFW humor and content. When the topic of Shirtless Aliens came up, they joked about how sometimes artists would automatically give female Vesk mamillian breasts, when they're not supposed to have them. (The blame was jokingly put on forgetful Astrozoans or cosmetic implants).

So at the very least, we know they don't have breasts!

[Driftbourne]

So obviously reptiles are not mammals so no breasts. Snakes tend to have a different larger-scale pattern on their underside, but vesk are not snakes. There are some rare scaleless reptiles, but I don't know if there are any mixed with parts with and without scales. As far as what type of lizards look like Vesk I'd say they kind of look like iguanas or monitors.

lizard species .

[Kishmo]

In general, some vesk have the blunt, rounded, snout of an iguana (like 1e Obozaya,) whereas some have the same blocky, pronounced, underjaw of TriStar's 1998 Godzilla remake, and then there's the more 'draconic' ones like Tassada Kor from 3-11 or Enktuya Shipbreaker from 2-04, that have more of an anthropomorphic dog-snout lizard deal thing going on?

When it's come up before, Paizo People have said that it varies depending on the artists and authors involved.

There's talk of a "design bible" and consistent guidelines for 2e, so it could change, though, and maybe the blocky jaw that 2e Obozaya's sporting in her 2e pregen art will be the norm!

I think we can all agree, though, that yeah, they're lizards, through and through. No mammalian chest stuff going on. Near Space talks a bit about vesk physiology, and we know they're a warm-blooded, egg-laying, species. I would assume they're scaled all over.

One could guess that, like Earth lizards, they're less protected on the 'underbelly,' but then again - there are no bipedal lizards on Earth, so that may not be a safe assumption? If anything, the vesk's long history of war and conflict probably means evolution has weedled out any obvious weak spots in their natural armour, so it wouldn't be improbable for vesk to have tough scales all over with no 'underbelly' area, of softer/smaller scales.

[Tim Emrick]

The junk shop owner Julzakama is depicted in a muscle shirt, which shows off more skin than any other vesk portrait that I can think of offhand. That piece of art doesn't render individual scales. However, apart from his head spikes, his skin texture seems to be pretty uniform overall, with a subtle shift in color on his neck and chest.

[John Mangrum]

Varies a ton between artists, but skimming through my art archive I see that most artists who show off a little vesk skin depict slightly pebbly, lizard-like scales.

[The-Magic-Sword]

I was actually thinking about this recently because I was considering what connection if any I wanted to draw between Vesk, Lizardfolk, and Nagaji in my homerbrew setting.