# Race: Yuan-ti > [!info] Quick Facts > | | | > |---|---| > | **Rarity** | Very rare | > | **Perception in Gryth** | Very negative. The few encounters on record have gone badly enough that the rest is assumed. | > | **Guide Section** | Very Rare Races | ## Overview In the far south of [[Continent - Ganath|Ganath]], where the mountains come down hard to a coast that offers no harbour worth the name, lies the country of Sathany. Its people are farmers and miners and fishermen much like any others, and they have lived for three thousand years alongside a neighbour that no other nation has had to reckon with. Beneath their hills, and cut into the faces of their cliffs, stand the temples of the yuan-ti. ## Slow Blood A yuan-ti stands as tall as a human and is built along much the same lines, with skin ranging from pale sand through olive to a deep and lightless green, patterned with fine scales across the shoulders, the forearms and the throat. Their eyes are slitted and gold or amber, and slow to blink, which is what most often gives them away in poor light. Yuan-ti move deliberately and speak quietly, and they hold themselves very still when they are listening, a habit that other peoples find difficult to sit near for any length of time. ## The Curse of the Great Serpent Three thousand years ago the ancestors of the yuan-ti gave themselves over to the worship of the Great Serpent of legend, and for that worship they were cursed. The curse has run true in every generation since. A yuan-ti may let the legs go and take in their place the long coiled tail of a serpent, doing so at will and without ceremony, and may take the legs back again as easily. The peoples of Sathany hold this to be the visible mark of what the yuan-ti did. The yuan-ti hold it to be proof that their worship was heard, and they speak of the curse as a blessing that the ignorant have mistaken for a punishment. ## Temples and Communes Yuan-ti society is a sect before it is a nation. The temples beneath the Sathany hills are its centre, the communes cut into the high cliffs and mountain faces are its outposts, and every yuan-ti belongs to one or to the other. The work carried out in the temples is the work of the Great Serpent, pursued with dark magic and without apology or concealment. Sathany has been attempting to root it out for as long as it has kept written records, and no attempt has held for longer than a generation. ## Poison The magic that runs in a yuan-ti runs to poison and to decay. It is taught in the temples from childhood, it is the common tongue of their rituals, and it is what the border settlements of Sathany have learned to expect from them. Skirmishes between the yuan-ti and the human and dwarven villages in the foothills are frequent, old, and understood on both sides to be permanent. Neither party has ever sent an envoy to the other. ## A Tale in the North Ganath joined the Gryth-wide trade networks only recently, and its far south later still, so word of the yuan-ti is new in the north. In [[Continent - Edaria|Edaria]] and in [[Continent - Auken|Auken]] they have arrived first as a story. Children are told of the snake-men of the southern mountains and listen half in awe and half in fright, in the comfortable certainty that they will never meet one, and their parents have generally heard nothing more reliable. > [!warning] A difficult character to play > Yuan-ti are met with open hostility and outright fear wherever they are recognised, and the assumption made about them is always the worst one available. A player choosing this race is taking on a roleplaying challenge that will shape every settlement the party enters, and should agree that with the rest of the table before session one. ## Yuan-ti Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1. **Age.** Yuan-ti mature at about the same rate as humans and live around 120 years. **Creature Type.** You are a Humanoid. **Size.** Your size is Medium. **Speed.** Your walking speed is 30 feet. **Darkvision.** You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You cannot discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey. **Magic Resistance.** You have advantage on saving throws against spells. **Poison Resilience.** You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the poisoned condition on yourself. You also have resistance to poison damage. **Serpentine Spellcasting.** You know the *poison spray* cantrip. You can also cast *animal friendship* an unlimited number of times with this trait, but you can target only snakes with it. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast *suggestion* with this trait. Once you cast it with this trait, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast it using any spell slots you have of 2nd level or higher. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells; choose when you select this race. **Serpent’s Tail.** As a bonus action, you can exchange your legs for a serpent’s tail, or change back. While you have the tail, you have a swimming speed equal to your walking speed and advantage on checks and saving throws to avoid being knocked prone. You cannot wear armour on your legs, and boots fall away. **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. ## Connections - [[Continent - Ganath]] — Homeland; the temples beneath the hills of Sathany in the far south - [[Continent - Edaria]] — Yuan-ti known here only as a story - [[Continent - Auken]] — Yuan-ti known here only as a story --- ## Gallery ![[Race - Yuan-ti.jpg]] --- *See also: [[Races]]*