Snake-Kin Lore

There are two specific races considered to be "snake kin" and those two races are, the Naga, and the Yuan ti, they share a very intertwined history and could almost be considered cousin races, despite being distinctly different, The yuan ti stem from the Naga and the Naga from the union of God and human, and as such they are grouped together for simplicity's sake. Naga:

The Naga were spawned from the union of the God of Serpents and a human woman. The identity of the woman, now known in modern-days as the Mother of all Naga is unknown. However, she bore the children of the god of serpents, and these children were half human half serpent. Their upper torso was human, though scaled, and their lower half was a long snake body.

However, despite being direct descendants of a God, they lacked any magical abilities due to being birthed by a human. With these limitations, which many other races lacked, they became renowned warriors, they honed their bodies and techniques as they could not harness the arcane. They became such legendary warriors that they could even tackle some of the most powerful mages, however, due to their warrior lifestyle many of them died. If not from wounds, then old age.

As Naga do not have exceptionally extended lifespans, the eldest Naga was reported to be 256 years old, and as the years dragged on and mankind grew, they came under threat from fanatical homosapiens who worshiped them in barbaric ways, they would hunt Naga and ritually slay them to consume their flesh and drink their blood, this significantly thinned the population of Naga till they were but a shadow of their former selves.

However the persisted, they survived, and while they have never been able to cast spells or weave magics, they still managed to adapt and carry on with life, many Naga these days train to be guards or soldiers or workers, some take the path of academia and become historians and scientists, and even fewer walk the path of pride and attempt to rekindle the prowess and authority they once commanded.

Naga can come in many different forms, as descendants of the god of snakes they can be born as any snake that exists, however like the animal snakes there are rare and common Naga's, for example, like their animal kingdom counterpart, there would be less "Antiguan racer".

Naga as the Antigua racer is one of the rarer snakes, while there would be much more rattlesnake Naga's or grass snake Naga's, and again like their animal kingdom counterparts if a Naga's snake half is of a snake that does not have venom then that Naga would not have venom, and Naga with snake bodies of more deadly serpents have more potent venom, obviously due to that fact that Naga aren't just normal snakes the scaling of venom is different as a previously only slightly dangerous snake venom could result in possible death if it was a Naga's venom.

Naga's entire body are covered by scales, the colour of which are variable but most commonly shades of green and brown and red, they have fangs and venom glands situated behind the eyes in the skull, the same as normal snakes, their eyes are slanted and most commonly yellow, their tongues are forked and proved them with a great sense of their surroundings, however they lack a nose and their ears aren't the best, the durability of scales is variable but commonly quite tough, unlike snakes they do not shed skin possibly due to the fact that they are descended from a god, but no one really knows why. Yuan-Ti:

Unlike Naga, the Yuan-Ti are not decended from god's or any kind of deity, they owe their heratige to fanatical ritual murder and sacrifice. A small group of early humans worshiped the Naga- but not in the conventional way; they worshiped them as stepping stones which would help mankind ascend. To ascend, the humans hunted and sacrificed the Naga, they then would devour the corpse and drink it's blood. This practice went on for years, and years, until a large chunk of the Naga population had been wiped out.

Eventually constant consumption of blood and flesh caused the humans to change. They were not Naga, they were something twisted and unnatural. These humans would mutate in strange ways, some would have their arm's turn into snakes, some became snakes, some turned into snake men which were basically snakes but with arms and much larger.

However what they did gain which the Naga could never: was magical affinity. the consumption of holy descendants changed them in horrific ways, but in changing them unlocked the way to magical power, they formed cults and shrines of worship to the god of snakes in thanks for this boon, though it was not given by the god, and they receded into solitude believing that they had reached enlightenment.

eventually all the once human members of these specific tribes of man all became these twisted serpentine abominations and when they breed. They bread more like them, over time their culture faded into obscurity and they became more placid, friendly creatures, but the Naga's never accepted them, the Naga saw the Yuan-Ti as bastard abominations of dark magic and shunned them, the relationship between the two races has forever been fragile at best, and at worst a bloodbath.

Yuan-Ti appearances changed over the years into something more uniform and recognisable, instead of random mutations their bloodlines coalesced into one singular race with distinct features.

Yuan-Ti are humanoid snakes people, they are generally around the 5ft range in terms of height and have mostly stocky builds, their body's covered in scales and like their Naga forefathers they are usually of the green and brown and red colouration though other colours aren't unheard of, their upper body is where things get interesting, their heads are that of a kind cobra, and their mouths sport large fangs, they lack venom but the teeth are razor sharp, despite all having the head of a kind cobra, each yuan ti has different markings lining the front facing portion of their hood, and their eyes come in various colours, their eyes are also quite distinctly human instead of slitted like a snake.