Yuan-ti

The yuan-ti are a species of monsters that are normally evil. These Snake-men have an origin, not necessarily unknown, but one that is not known for sure. Some say the yuan-ti are descended from evil human cultists who mixed their bloodlines with those of serpents. They have exemplary psychic abilities.

Yuan-ti breeds

Purebloods appear mostly human, with minor reptilian features, such as slitted eyes, a forked tongue, or patches of scales on their skin. They serve as diplomats and infiltrators, pretending to be human.

Halfbloods are humanoid in shape but have a wide variety of noticeable serpentine features, such as a snakelike tail in place of legs, a complete covering of scales, a hood like a King Cobra, a snake's head, and snakes in place of arms. Halfbloods serve as warriors and temple assistants.

Abominations are almost completely snakelike, with only a few human features, such as arms or a humanoid head. They are the most venerated within the yuan-ti society, serving as administrators, council members, and in other roles of power.

In addition to the three main breeds, other breeds have been described as well:

Tainted ones (histachii) are human agents of the yuan-ti who have willingly undergone a ritual of transformation to make themselves yuan-ti, gaining a venomous bite and slight psionic ability. They retain their human appearance but often develop reptilian mannerisms, such as frequently licking their lips or drawing out sibilant sounds as they speak.

Brood-guards are humans who have undergone the ritual of transformation but have been found unworthy, degenerating into hairless, near-mindless reptilian monsters. The yuan-ti employ these wretches as watchers over egg-broods and other demeaning tasks.

Holy guardians are a rare breed specifically bred as temple guards; they are also sent on missions to obtain needed goods for Abominations. Holy guardians are naturally servile and follow their superiors without question. They uniformly have a serpentile tail in place of legs and a snakelike head and face. There is no religion where they're from, but Humans call supernatural beings Gods, but to us, it's just high power (powerful) beings. These "Holy guardians" will serve, usually those high powered beings.

Mageslayers, another rare type of yuan-ti, are bred for the special purpose of battling or hunting down human magic-users as well as monsters, demons, and/or aliens, and most of their abilities are magical rather than psionic. Mageslayers have a humanlike head but a snakelike tail instead of legs.

Anathemas are by far the most powerful and loathsome of yuan-ti, worshiped as divine incarnations of Merrshaulk, one of the first Yuan-ti. They are truly bizarre in appearance, with a body made of hundreds of snakes entwined together to hold up a gargantuan snake head. An anathema's power dwarfs even that of an abomination, but since they represent such unfettered chaos, they are usually found away from yuan-ti cities, establishing cults that worship Merrshaulk through them. They make a common practice of grafting yuan-ti body parts onto humans and other races for use as personal servants. Anathemas are extremely rare, however, and only a handful are likely to exist on any world.

Ignans are another rare subspecies of yuan-ti that dwell in hotter climes of the world, including in volcanoes and on the Elemental Plane of Fire. Ignas are similar to yuan-ti halfbloods, except they are slightly more powerful due to some of the fire spells they wield.

Wretchlings are pathetic creatures created out of humans and used as guards and expendable shock troops by the yuan-ti. They are unintelligent, at most. Wretchlings have no memory of their former human lives and have a savage desire to kill, though they lack the intellect for complex strategies unless carefully instructed by their masters. Wretchlings look like scaly humans with fangs, reptilian eyes and patchy hair.

The goal of the Yuan-ti is to bring about the ultimate destruction of the world. In addition, there is a sub-faction of Yuan-ti, the Vanguard of Sertrous (outlined in Elder Evils), who follow the teachings of the ancient obyrinth Sertrous, sometimes known as the first heretic, who wish to assist him in reconquering his layer of the Abyss.Yuan-ti societies are divided into the pureblood, halfbreed and abomination castes. The histachii were described as the progenitors of the yuan-ti. It was necessary for the yuan-ti to acquire human captives to turn into histachii, as breeding between any of three yuan-ti castes resulted only in abominations, while histachii could produce purebloods and halfbreeds.

Associated creatures:

There are several reptiloid creatures closely associated with the yuan-ti that are not yuan-ti themselves:

Extaminaars are the result of interbreeding between yuan-ti and humans. They came to be after human cultists of the snake-goddess Varae began consorting with yuan-ti in the region surrounding the city of the Yuan-ti. Members of the leaders of the two groups, the yuan-ti of House SeSehen and the humans of House Extaminos, intermarried, producing more yuan-ti, who quickly came to dominate House Extaminos and Hlondeth itself. To create a corps of loyal troops, as well as to ease relations with their human subjects and serve as the house's public face, the Extaminos yuan-ti created the extaminaars, a new race blending human and yuan-ti abilities. Extaminaars are born resembling scaled, armless human babies with undefined facial features, but grow to resemble thin, pale humans with straight black hair and brownish spots on their neck and back. Extaminaars outside Hlondeth serve as diplomats, spies, and interrogators for their yuan-ti creators. They excel at stealth and deception and often form cells to undermine governments and organizations antipathetic to their masters. Rogue extaminaars are often found as crime bosses and information brokers. Only the second generation of Hlondeth extaminaars has come to maturity, and other yuan-ti houses are starting to create extaminaars of their own.

Ti-khana are reptiles that have been altered by the yuan-ti. Ti-khana are far more intelligent than the creatures from which they are created, and possess both the psionic abilities and cruel disposition of their yuan-ti creators. They appear more snakelike than their mundane ancestors, appearing somewhat elongated, with venomous fangs.

Ophidians are an unrelated race of serpent-people who are nonetheless commonly associated with the yuan-ti. The ophidians are said to be snake-worshiping human cultists who discovered a powerful yuan-ti relic that transformed them into degenerate reptilian humanoids. Ophidians are not very intelligent, and are easily impressed by shows of power by yuan-ti whom they frequently serve as willing slaves. Their most potent weapon is their venom, which can change humans into degenerate ophidians. Most ophidians worship their yuan-ti masters as gods.

Histachii are savage creatures who were once human prisoners, but were transformed into reptillian-humanoids by their yuan-ti captors via the drinking of a potion of yuan-ti venom mixed with other ingredients. The resulting savage and mindless creature serves no purpose other than as fodder for the yuan-ti; to run headlong into opposing foes, to guard the brood chambers, to tear apart any non reptillian creature they see. Those too old or stupid to be of any use, or those too powerful for the yuan-ti to control, are left on the surface to rot and die.

Ssvaklors are a type of serpentine dragon created by yuan-ti using special rituals on a dragon egg, typically that of a black dragon. Ssvaklors are less intelligent than even humans and, like true dragons (a group of which they are not a part), have a breath weapon: a cone of poisonous gas. They are typically green and black in colour. Greater ssvaklors also exist, though they are simply a more powerful version of the "standard" ssvaklor with the ability to spit globs of poison to their foes. Like yuan-ti, ssvaklors' serpentine nature makes them natural swimmers. They are normally met in the company of yuan-ti and are often used as guardians by them.

--Skitch6 02:12, May 5, 2011 (UTC)