Note, I didn't draw the image, i found it somewhere random and that inspired the racePhysiology/culture/psychology/abilities/everything else: Aquatic and have gills, Very similar to the picture above morphologically, often called "newtmen" on first encounter. the main differences from the image is: webbed feet - their feet looks like a mix of that of a cat and a frog, and the skin that isn't visible on the sketch, the skin is very smooth and similar to that of amphibians - it varies from black to deep blue, sometimes a brighter region covering the underside/belly, there is rarely individuals whit green shades but it is rare and deemed unimportant.
the first thing that strikes one looking at a Netwa if the alien simplicity of the design, surreal and uncanny, like an abstract sculpture, just a minimum of smooth curves like it was blown in glass, and their way of moving whit exact and smooth feline precision increase this impression even more. they have no kinds of hairs anywhere on their body.the eyes are also covered by a protective membrane on land, making them look like huge egg-shaped black pearls, they can show vivid expression but 99% of the time they show only machinelike efficient lack of emotion.
The average Netwa is 2m tall whit a 1.5 long tail, and weight ca 70 kg, they are about usually twice as strong as a human of this size.
They can in a way similar to ordinary newt regrow lost limbs in a few months, they are also quite a bit hardier than humans, but noting out of the ordinary.
they have 3 very dexterous fingers on each hand including the opposable thumb.
They have strong wings that allow them to propel themselves very fast in water (ever seen penguins swim?) and also enables them to fly in air, the average wingspan is ca 3m.
They are inherently stealthy, again like a cat.
their main diet usual consist of molluscs, fish, and various seaweed.
Netwa live on average 400 years.
The wings are to small to be perfectly optimised for flight, so while they can fly uite fast and long due to their great endurance they tend to prefer to go by foot over long distances. They are capable of swimming while they sleep in a way similar to dolphins, but this put some strain on them and is generally not done except necessary, and can handle obstacles well so it only works in open waters (18 tiles in one turn on ocean, in best case whit a trained courier).
They have hard time fly as it is and can not lift much doing so, maybe 25kg+themselves, another reason they often prefer to walk.
note that even thou I say that they have hard to fly they are still very fast, agile, exact, and graceful when they are not encumbered, they are not to fast at gaining altitude but the first 10m they generally get for free by jumping, if they have time to speed up swimming they might get as high as 30m before they need to begin flapping.
All Netwa wear a tight warping of black seaweed that gives slight protection and doesn't hinder movement.
The Netwa have no magic and stone age technology, however they make up for this whit pure classic badass.
They are strong, agile, and have fast reflexes, can jump into the air and take to flight, are very thought and all of both genders trained from early childhood to never show emotion, pain, or weakness, as well as trained into elete soldiers 300 style. this makes them FORMIDABLE soldiers, the best way I can get you in the right way of thinking is "SPARTA" and "Nist Akath".
Badass and being awesome warriors might go a long way, but the key to the Netwa military power, like to most great militarys, is organisation, and loads of it.
((Edit to be clearer: the sentence about Sparta and Nist Akath is more as a statement of their style, they are not as overpowered as 300 or Ironblood, more like slightly better than the Roman legions (mainly stronger and faster, and slightly more disciplined, but they have no armor and worse weapons.) ))
The main features of Netwa culture is uniformity, standardization, and organization. All Netwa suffer from a serious case of collective OCD in everything they do.
All Netwa eat the same, look the same, and live the same, all buildings are identical and low and undecorated as they never invented the window, and perfectly are square on perfectly square streets in perfectly square settlements. they are quite skilled masons and often decorates the otherwise ugly bunker like houses whit beautiful fractal patterns.
The Netwa society is usually a matriarchy, the queen is called the Methane, but can be replaced by popular vote.
Under the Methane come the nine Ethanes, usually generals and province rulers.
Under the Ethanes come the 81 Propanes, 9 under each Ethane.
after than comes the 729 Butanes, 6561 Pentanes, 59049 Hexanes, and so forth.
They have a rigid and strict law system, whit very little red tape.
A number of soldiers are referenced whit what might look like the system turned upside down, a Propanate means 81 soldiers in addition to their 9 commanders and one person commanding those, regardless of what level that actual is.
for example, if you have 60 000 people so the lowest is Hexanes, and you say you send a Butanate for something, you send 729 Hexanes, 81 Pentanes, and 9 butanes all lead by a Propane.
If you havn't figured yet Netwa count in base 9.
They might not have tech or magic, but they are quite intelligent, they have scientific working methods and a rather large intellectual population and most can read and write, however nearly all their knowledge is in the areas mathematics, psychology (including other species), linguistics, and tactics. As a result they are vry good at these things. They have no religion, and is unfamiliar to the concept.
The Netwa have a strong gift regarding body language, and can usually understand whit remarkable accuracy if someone is lying, look thought poker faces, and so forth, they are also very good at controlling this in themselves, making them able to completely avoid showing emotion/pain, as well as communicate stuff whit body language so well that most will be surprised how well they can understand them. This gift also means they are very good at bargaining, intimidating, pleading, etc. and in general makes them able to be very charismatic. they also have an inate feeling for diplomacy, and are fast to grasp new languages and also very good at understanding and exploiting the psychology of other races (or their own.). They are also very good at sensing the intent and alignment of the speaker, meaning it is virtually impossible to trick them into demonic contracts or making them kill unrighteously for a religion or government by tricking them into believing it's for the greater good when it is not.
It is said only a demon can resist a Netwa doing puppydog-eyes.
Netwa usually have a strict code of honour and a strict code of morals, and despite being an uniform war machine they are deep inside good, general, but of coarse there are many exceptions, but far less than among humans.
The Netwa very rarely show emotion except to their closest friends, but they do have emotions. However their emotions tend to be less permanent, and much more directed forward, and they tend to be very rational about it, meaning that they may be much more moral than a human, yet if they are forced to do something horrible they wont spend their resources on grief, but will go on doing what must be done.
Weapons/armour: they don't have any metal, and rarely work whit textiles or leather, so their primary materials for weapons and armour is bone, sharp rocks like obsidian and flint, but most importantly shells. They have a special kind of giant oyster that has a shell as hard as iron or even steel whit the best breeds, these are generally used as the cutting edge making the weapons on pair whit metal ones in most cases. They don't have any ranged weapons except throwing their spears, oh and shell shrunken, but few know their use.
The standard armament is a spear (not as large as in the picture, more like the ones the Romans used, throwable), two swords (sabre-like, one handed, actually also throwable), a small shell dagger, and a light turtle shield.
They rarely use armour as it hinders their moments, and is heavy making it hard to fly.
The sometimes use nets and ropes for various strategies, they also sometimes employ a larger weapon that is basically a 10m long bone spear, which require 5-10 Netwa to fly whit (maybe 3 or 4 to walk or swim whit it), but can gain enormous speed when dropped from a great height, piercing thought even thick armour.