Yuan-ti
Yuan-ti are a species of mortals, found on Apa Axas. Amongst the most vilified of the mortal races, the Yuan-ti are a snake-like people who are often employed as mercenaries, bandits, spies and assassins due to their natural gifts of speed, stealth and subterfuge. While most Yuan-ti live alone and downtrodden in more modern times, scrounging and scrimping to eke out a meagre existence however they can, they were once the seat of a short-lived empire that dominated the whole of the Seven Kingdoms, known as The Sarkic Empire, before it was brought down by The Scarlet Banner, establishing The Second Human Empire. Since then, the Yuan-to have lost much of their culture, leading many to be spiteful towards the other races, and some even plot to regain their former glory and wreak sweet retribution on those who usurped them.
Civilization and Culture
History
The origins of the Yuan-ti are unclear, but according to their own apocrypha, the Yuan-ti of Apa Axas were said to have been forged by the spite of Kal Crist, whipped into a mortal shape by Shubb'Ki, as a perverse parody of The Most-Favoured, to offend The Vida Quda. While it is unknown how the Vida Quda feels about the Yuan-ti, the fact that snakes and the ilk are unwelcome in Sprigalif may indicate that she views the Yuan-ti as a personal insult towards her. This origin is widely believed by the Yuan-ti, believing the Vida Quda to be a cruel tormentor goddess, while many Yuan-ti worship Shubb’Ki and Kal Crist as their saviours. This connection to Shubb’Ki may also explain their many forms and variations, as the ScarKing is known for imbuing mutagenic power onto his most dedicated cultists, and the Yuan-ti Malison are well within his remit.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Yuan-ti are a scourge amongst the Kingdoms, usually existing in their own tropical islands, however, many Yuan-ti seen outside of these cities are seen as pirates or brigands due to their strong stature and natural predilection for subterfuge. In fact, some Yuan-ti are employed as high end assassins, due to their ability to kill with their natural poisons, thus eliminating the need to smuggle weapons, and their natural stealth allows them to infiltrate and escape highly secure facilities without trace. The most notorious assassin on Apa Axas, Lafar Greenfang, leader of the notorious Sarkic Serpents, is a Yuan-ti.
These Sarkic Serpents, a huge sprawling criminal empire run almost exclusively by Yuan-ti, are the final remnants of the Yuan-ti’s crowning achievement: The Sarkic Empire. This loose connection of Yuan-ti houses seized power after The First Human Empire had been weakened by The War on Time. They quickly established a tyrannical dictatorship, enslaving most of the other mortal races before being defeated themselves by a human-led uprising known as the Scarlet Banner. Since then, the group was scattered and the Yuan-ti were cast adrift, making their homes wherever they could. This put them at odds with the Goblins , who were undergoing an exodus of their own. However, many encounters between Goblins and Yuan-ti end with Sangroke Bliss’ children being devoured, as they are seen as a delicacy amongst the Snake-folk, and are often killed slowly and painfully in order to “tenderise the meat and imbue it with savoury pain”.
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