Ahueyza ophidiopathy

Ahueyza ophidiopathy (sometimes pureblooded ophidiopathy) is a permanent supernatural condition that causes the subject to exhibit serpentine abilities and physical traits. Considered one of several syndromes within the ophidiopathy family, ahueyza is the least extensive permutation of the condition. It gets its name from the ahueyza caste of the yuan-ti, an ancient human civilization that structured its culture around the pursuit of ophidiopathy as a means of apotheosis.

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Transmission & Vectors

Hereditary Transmission

The most common means of transmitting ophidiopathy is through sexual reproduction. Ophidiopathy is passed down from parent to child, though symptoms of the condition usually don't manifest until several years after birth. Because variables in the intensity of ophidiopathy can result in multiple permutations, specifics of yuan-ti reproduction vary from caste to caste. Mating between castes always results in offspring of the lower caste parent, which encourages an endogamous culture. Female yuan-ti typically lay clutches of between 2-6 eggs, though reports of live births are not uncommon.
Ahueyzatlii are able to reproduce with humans, though insemination between yuan-ti and mortals is rare. The offspring of these unions are always ahueyzatlii, though they are often ostracized in yuan-ti society for being born of "weaker stock."

Ritual Transmission

The method of ritual transformation from human to yuan-ti remains a closely guarded secret among surviving yuan-ti societies. Yuan-ti very rarely permit outsiders to join their communities, as most regard non-yuan-ti as nothing more than future slaves and sacrifices. Additionally, these rituals are tailored specifically for human anatomy, with non-humans often dying horrific deaths mid-transformation. Typically, these rituals only have the resources to transform an individual into a yuan-ti of the ahueyza caste, though transformations resulting in moxazatlii or even sixavatlii have been rumored.
Yuan-ti can increase the intensity of their ophidiopathy through a similar ritual. However, the cost and time of performing such rituals are prohibitively expensive for most yuan-ti. As a result, the majority of yuan-ti never undergo the physical and social transformation. Every instance of the ritual must be modified to suit the individual undergoing the ordeal, and requires many rare herbs, exotic magical substances, and one or more humans to be sacrificed and eaten as part of the procedure.

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Symptoms

Appearance
Ahueyztlii look largely human with only a few ophidian traits, such as forked tongues, venomous fangs, patches of scales, slit pupils, or unhingable jaws. Most also exhibit slender or willowy frames that conceal heightened reflexes and muscles.
No two yuan-ti look the same, with substantial variation in physical traits even between family members. While ophidiopathy does not draw from one specific species or group of snakes, most individuals bear a resemblance to a specific species. Scales colors range from highly camouflaged greens and browns to vibrant reds, blues, oranges, and yellows. These colors can also appear in a variety of patterns from solid, to stripes, to dappled or reticulated. Among the higher castes, heads also reflect specific species of snakes, such as hooded cobras, slender pythons, snub-nosed, horned adders, and triangular vipers.
Metabolism
Additionally, the process of contracting ophidiopathy appears to change the metabolism of the subject. Ahueyzatlii have much the same digestive system as humans, though they have some added gut bacteria which can help aid in processing hair and bone from uncooked or live prey.
This change in metabolism impacts how yuan-ti are able to regulate their body temperature. While ahueyzatlii are considered mesothermic, yuan-ti of higher castes have a harder time regulating their body temperature without the aid of external heat sources.

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Treatment

As it is a supernatural condition enabled through a divine connection to the Old Magic, there is no cure for congenital ophidiopathy. Some have speculated that individuals that undergo a ritual transformation can reverse the curse's physical and spiritual effects through curse removal spells if they are performed shortly after the initial ritual. However, no known documentation of said reversal exists.

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History

What little information we have comes to us largely from a combination of legends and art work taken from Old Temekan, which seek to explain the origin of a people they referred to as the Tsakhit. These Tsakhit are believed to have been colonists from the original yuan-ti empire in Teroa who settled the Niru Delta region in Nioa during the earliest centuries of the Mithril Era.
According to Temekanian sources, one of these groups revering Valdra was located in Teroa and made up of humans, the youngest of the mortal peoples. These mortals called Valdra, Huxenotizhuatli,¹ or "The Serpent-That-Dwells-Below." Created by the gods and watched over by the wise coatli, these humans built great stone palaces, hewn crystal blades of shadowglass, and were among the first to work metal into tools.² Many of them admired the snake above all creatures, seeing perfection in its flexible form and cold, calculating intellect. They came to develop a philosophy the separated thought from the heart.
This was in contrast to the teachings of their protectors, the coatli. The feathered serpents preached that knowledge without compassion is useless to all but the individual. Huxenotizhuatli's followers called these feathered serpents soft and without flexibility of thought. So the coatli banished them, hoping that they would learn the merit of altruism in the darkness of the jungle. And the people of the city called them yuan-ti, meaning "The Proud Ones."³
Soon Huxenotizhuatli's harbingers taught her followers the secrets of the Old Magic, spells long considered forbidden by their old coatli masters. With this newfound power, the followers of Huxenotizhuatli constructed their own civilization of mighty temples and floating gardens. Yet such power requires payment and so the Great Old One demanded sacrifice. The followers of Huxenotizhuatli made war on their former neighbors, taking many captives. They brought them to the high altar and offered their blood to the snake god. They ate of their victims' flesh and writhed in charnal pits with living serpents until they were transformed into the image of their patron. Freed from the limitations of their human bodies, the yuan-ti used their new forms to conquer new lands and create a new empire dedicated to the Serpent Below.⁴
From here, records indicate that the yuan-ti spread out across forest and plain, conquering many tribes and demanding tribute from the terrified people of Teroa. They even crossed the seas and set up colonies in Hakoa and Nioa, where their armies would plunder the land for wealth and slaves. These colonies acted as bases from which the yuan-ti could send their armies to demand tribute food, ore, and slaves. One such colony is believed to have been the aforementioned Tsakhit people attested to in the Old Temekanian legend.
The wealth of the empire grew, allowing the ruling elite to focus on further perfecting their ophidian forms. Huxenotizhuatli taught the humans how to take on aspects of the snake, but the cost of the change was high, requiring many sacrifices for each person to be transformed. Entire households of slaves in one city-state were killed and eaten to create the first yuan-ti, and once the news of how to perform these rituals spread to other leaders, the call for slaves to fuel the process increased. As the Huxenotizhuatli began to demand more and more sacrifices, the yuan-ti stepped up their raids on bordering settlements to meet this need.
The physical and magical prowess of the yuan-ti empire allowed them to retain their holdings for several hundred years but then many of their colonies and raids begin to abruptly stop. Many reasons for the decline of the yuan-ti have been proposed, with the most likely cause being a combination of drought, plague, attacks by enemies (including dragons and coatli), and slave uprisings. By 1000 ME, little records remain of serpent people raids and the spread of Valdra-worshipping cults slows dramatically. Only a few centuries later, the Great Exodus of Man began, allowing for humans to slowly begin populating the rest of Holos.

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Cultural Reception

Ahueyza yuan-ti are particularly feared by mortals. Communities that lived near the ruins of ancient yuan-ti or by contemporary yuan-ti enclaves often pass down tales of their subterfuge and treachery. They are often accused of seducing, capturing, and enslaving young people as well as kidnapping children, blackmailing community leaders, and forming illicit cults to bolster their numbers. As a result, many of these societies are wary of outsiders and may even subject travelers to examinations to ensure that they are not ahueyzatlii in disguise.

by Anna Helme

Ahueyzatlii often appear human at first glance

Type

Supernatural

Parent

Ophidiopathy

Origin

Divine

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired & Congenital

Rarity

Uncommon

Affected Species

• Human

by Warie Lym

Ahueyzatlii can sometimes develop unhingable jaws much like many species of snakes

by Monica Robles Corzo

An ancient yuan-ti depiction of Huxenotizhuatli, the Serpent-Who-Dwells-Below

by Andrea Piparo

The ahueyzatlii of the Tsakhit culture eventually integrated with the peoples of the Niru River's Upper Cataracts to form the Temekanian Empire.

Footnotes

¹ pronounced hoo-SHENO-teez-HOO-a--tlee (IPA: [hu'ʃɛnoti:zhuatɬi:] )
² Though unconfirmed, these people and their civilization may be related to the legendary Lost City of Ild, which is supposedly the birthplace of humanity. Both Ild and the city mentioned here are said to have perfected monumental architecture, shadowglass production, and early metalworking.
³ This translation of yuan-ti has been disputed, as it comes to us from Old Temekanian glyphs. Linguistic analysis of ancient Teroan words suggest the term might be closer to exiled" or "outsider." Additionally, it is possible that the Tsakhit who relayed this story to the Temekanians were editorializing their forebearers' name, either intentionally or as a result of generations of internal recontextualization.
⁴ This concludes what is recorded in the Old Temekanian legends from the period. The rest of our knowledge of the yuan-ti comes from contemporary excavations and encounters with serpent cults and actual yuan-ti cultural enclaves.