The Yuan-ti are a serpent/human hybrid. They got that way through horrific rituals committed by their ancestors centuries ago. However human blood still taints their veins, causing individuals to have varying amounts of serpentine features. The highest ranking among them have very few human qualities, if any, and appear as serpentine monstrosities with snake bodies, heads, and in some cases even having snakes for arms and the like.

But others have very little serpentine appearance. These individuals form the lowest caste in Yuan-ti society, and are often outcast if not killed outright in order to purify the bloodline. Most of these outcasts do not survive alone in the desert. However a few of them manage to get folded into mixed societies.
There have been even rarer cases of such individuals not being outcasts, but instead having been sent as Yuan-ti spies.




Yuan-ti populations generally are evil, however outcasts do not always reflect these origins.

The yuan-ti inhabit the far ends of the desert, and they attack any other sentient being on sight. It is rumored that beyond their well-protected boundaries to the North can be found perilous tropics where the very water runs with poison. Adventurers seeking seeds have sought after this land, yet those few who survived found nothing.

Yuan-ti culture is tightly bound by their religion, which involves both sacrifice and cannibalism. It is through their deities and foul sorcery that their society first bred with snakes, sacrificing their humanity to become like the serpent gods in form, as well as in thought and emotion.

Yuan-ti philosophy focuses on calculated poise followed by a deadly strike. They see detaching from emotion as a virtue, valuing clear, focused thought. The most advanced members can no longer identify with humanoid emotions, seeing them only as a weakness to exploit.
The yuan-ti are pragmatic and power hungry, willing to mislead others or sacrifice their own in order to attain victory. Even the worship of their gods is deceptive, as they hope to ascend to such power as to be able to devour the gods.

What ascension they do experience is achieved in stages, each involving shedding their skins and emerging as ever more serpentine. They are willing to commit the greatest atrocities in order to progress through this holy coil. However some members fail to advance noticeably by the time they reach maturity. Such are the outcasts.




Yuan-ti outcasts closely resemble humans, save for a few tell-tale signs such as slit pupils, scaly patches of skin, a forked tongue, or fangs.