Yuan-Ti
The serpent creatures known as Yuan-ti are all that remains of an ancient, decadent human empire. Ages ago Yuan-ti discovered rituals under the guidance of Obyrith to free themselves of the Colonists grasp. In doing so Yuan-ti became snake like beings and retreated into the remains of their fallen empire.
The people who became Yuan-ti were one of the original human civilizations. Their society built great temples of stone and forged metal into armor, tools, and weapons. In their ceremonies they paid homage to the colonists they served. That is until they encountered the Obyrith Born. Gari taught them the dark magics needed to escape the Colonists, but it came at a cost. They developed a philosophy of separating emotion from intellectual pursuits, allowing them to focus their energy on personal advancement and expanding their territory. Engulfed in hubris they slowly but surely took on the forms of snakes.
Gari heeded the prayers of these people and hissed dark demands into their ears. The people tainted their souls by performing human sacrifices in the name of the Obyrith, debased their flesh by cannibalizing their victims, and then performed a sorcerous ritual while writhing in pools filled with living snakes that enabled them to mix their flesh with that of serpents, becoming like the gods in body, thought, and emotion. Freed from the limitations of their human bodies, the Yuan-ti used their new abilities to hold of the Colonists, but ultimatly fled to the ruins of civilization where they continue to operate in stealth.
The bodies of all Yuan-ti have a mix of humanlike and snakelike parts, but the proportion varies from individual to individual. After the initial metamorphosis of the humans, their society quickly coalesced into a caste system based on how complete a person’s transformation was. The vast majority of Yuan-ti fall into three categories — abominations, malisons, and coldbloods — while the mutated broodguards and exceedingly rare anathemas have their place in the hierarchy as well, steadily working towards the promise of fully awakening Gari.
The Yuan-ti have abandoned their humanity and consider their new lives to be all that ever was. Traumas of the past make them spiteful towards the Colonists, and all their soft fleshed experiments.
For over a thousand years after their empire fell, the Yuan-ti remained ensconced in their hidden strongholds, biding their time until they were ready to strike again. Today, with their numbers greatly depleted and their enemies much stronger than in ages past, the Yuan-ti know they can’t resort to direct interaction in order to achieve their goals. Operating out of the subterranean ruins of their buildings in foreign lands, Yuan-ti agents infiltrate enemy governments to discover weaknesses that their leaders can exploit. The yuan-ti look forward to the day when their empire rises again and spreads across the world like venom through the blood, as it once did.
During their ascension ages ago, the Yuan-ti freed themselves from the yoke of their human emotions, as a means to eliminate the control over free will that was lost to mortal races. Now they view the world from a pragmatic and dispassionate perspective. They understand emotional connections in a detached, intellectual way, and recognize that these feelings in others can be exploited through bribes, favors, or threats.
As creatures devoid of emotion, Yuan-ti exhibit behavior and use tactics that exemplify that outlook (or lack of one). Whether in combat or in daily life, the following principles guide the yuan-ti in all they do.
Yuan-ti are likely to retreat or flee from conflict if they don’t believe they have a reasonable chance of success. This reaction isn’t out of cowardice, but practicality—yuan-ti value their own lives much too highly to risk them when the odds aren’t in their favor. A short retreat might be just the thing to reach a better tactical position, find allies, or to allow the yuan-ti the opportunity to study their opponents and implement better tactics. Any enemy who chases a group of fleeing Yuan-ti might be on the victorious side of a rout or could be heading into a trap; if the enemy has been encountered before, it is likely that the Yuan-ti have prepared a special ambush at the end of the pursuit.
To force their compliance, enemies might be brainwashed, charmed, tortured, or transformed into broodguards. Using the very magic they rejected long ago on their enemies. Those that prove intractable still have their uses, either as sacrifices to the gods or as food.
Yuan-ti have no sense of honorable combat. They are naturally stealthy, and if they can sneak up on enemies, either in an ambush or to murder them in their sleep, the yuan-ti will do so—and they actually prefer these tactics to open warfare. Because abominations and malisons can change into the shapes of snakes, they can keep their presence hidden and get into places their normal forms couldn’t enter.
Their immunity to poison gives all Yuan-ti a tactical advantage in dealing with other creatures. A pureblood serving as a food taster for a royal family could poison a meal and declare it “safe” after taking a bite.
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