Yuan - Ti

Yuan - Ti are a collective race of serpentfolk, who are seen as corrupt and degenerate monsters by other races.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The appearance of yuan-ti varied greatly from nearly human-like to nearly snake-like, but all had some serpentine features. Scale colors were usually simple greens and browns, but more elaborate swirls, stripes, or diamond patterns were possible, even in blues and reds. Yuan-ti gave off almost no scent that a human could detect, but animals could sense a dry, musty odor from their bodies. Only the most human-like forms wore clothing, but all varieties wielded weapons if they had means to carry them.
Yuan - Ti have three main subraces:

• Purebloods - Purebloods appear mostly human, with minor reptilian features, such as slit eyes, a forked tongue, or patches of scales on their skin.
• Halfbloods - Also called malisons, 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 cobra, a snake's head, or snakes in place of arms.
• Abominations - Abominations are almost completely snakelike, with only a few human features, such as arms or a humanoid head.

Civilization and Culture

Culture and Cultural Heritage

The yuan-ti take advantage of their great intelligence during battle, planning traps and making excellent use of their surroundings. They favour ambushes over direct attacks. If in groups, they send their least valuable members forward first, meaning that purebloods advance before halfbloods who advanced before abominations. Yuan-ti favoured bladed weapons. They used slow-acting poisons in their elaborate traps but not typically on their blades.
In general, the more serpentine features a yuan-ti possesses the higher its status in yuan-ti society. Abominations are at the top of their society, followed by halfblood, and finally purebloods. Within their subraces, yuan-ti are ranked by achievements and favour. centredOutside their temples, they usually only appear in small groups of less than five. Yuan-ti find the body odour of humans repulsive, so much so that in areas controlled by yuan-ti, humans wear perfume to conceal their body odour.
Yuan-ti are consummate carnivores, eating any kind of warm-blooded flesh, including humans. Besides human meat, they also enjoy birds and thus keep large herds of flightless birds captive for food.