D&D General Black Dragonborn sighting

[Corinnguard]

Does this fella remind you of a Black Dragonborn?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The face lacks a snout, which is a pretty significant change. The under-slung forward-swept horns are unlike anything I've seen on dragonborn, but not strictly incompatible. Dragonborn generally have far less ugly teeth. One of the big draws about dragonborn, at least for me and several other people I've spoken with, is that they're a "proud warrior race" type that hard averts the association between a warrior culture and being dumb, ugly, and brutish. This instead sort of doubles down on the ugly-brutish, but still averts the "dumb" side by showing that this person (and presumably the species at large) has a spacecraft, precision-wrought wristblades, and some kind of energy-blaster equivalent of a P90 submachine gun or some kind of assault rifle.

That said, there is a resemblance here. Had the focus character possessed a snout and even slightly more symmetrical (or just less "brutish") teeth, I'd have called this a dragonborn with weird horns. As it stands, it's more a reptilian alien that takes some cues from dragonborn (like the long ropy scales for "hair")--or, more accurately, takes from some of the same cues that dragonborn did, since "Predators" (who call themselves "Yautja") had the ropy-scale-hair-on-a-reptilian-body back in the 80s.

The overall vibe I get is a hybrid of Predator/Yautja and the Skaarj of the Unreal games. The body layout is more similar to the latter, but the eyes and "hair" are more similar to the former. Some Skaarj do have stuff that could be head-scales or tentacles, but many don't, so the Predator influence is stronger there. And the overall behavior and such much more resembles Predator, what with someone seemingly seeking out a good fight and hunting down some bit of presumably lost tech or fallen clan-ship or the like.

 

[ezo]

Sort of reminds me of the predator, though.

 

[Corinnguard]

It was the skull-like appearance of the face and the horns that made me think that this fella bore a slight resemblance to a Black Dragonborn.

 

[Tonguez]

Its definitely derivitive of the Yautja Predator, it actually reminded me more of an Orc than a Dragonborn (see @EzekielRaidaboucomment about the ugly, brutish look)

still it could be some kind of dragonborn

 

[pukunui]

It reminds me more of the 3.5e-era black dragonspawn. (Featured as assassins in The Red Hand of Doom, for instance.)

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Its definitely derivitive of the Yautja Predator, it actually reminded me more of an Orc than a Dragonborn (see @EzekielRaidaboucomment about the ugly, brutish look)

still it could be some kind of dragonborn

While I fully agree that the Predator is a huge influence here, those under-slung horns don't look Predator at all--that's why I referenced the Skaarj, because they do have under-slung horns, and some members of the species have the scaly-dreads stuff as well. In fact, the under-slung horns are one of the most distinctive things about the Skaarj. Here's some art from their depiction in the never-completed Unreal Tournament 4 (pre-alpha released in 2014):

Most likely, the artist was intending to evoke/inspired by both species, as well as other popular franchise "warrior race with high tech" like Halo's Sangheili (also called "Elites") and Star Trek's Gorn. The latter are, surprisingly, a rare aversion of the "warriors r dum" cliche; in Star Trek Online, the Klingons conquered and absorbed the Gorn Hegemony in part because they desperately needed Gorn ingenuity and tech expertise to help improve the Empire. A majority of KDF-specific science and reconnaissance vessels are Gorn-made for this reason.

But yeah, looking at the above, the general body layout is more Skaarj, the build is much more Predator (huge, rippling muscles, as opposed to the more lean look of the Skaarj shown above), and the face is a hybrid of Skaarj and Yautja, having the humanlike jaw of the former but facial structures more similar to the latter. The ropy scale hair is present in both species to differing degrees, but I'd actually say that part really does resemble dragonborn more. It's much more extensive than most depictions of either Skaarj or Yautja, really a full head of dreadlocks, and at least some of the ropes are long enough to reach the person's mid-back even with the slightly hunched posture.