Post by menatkhufu on Mar 3, 2008 12:29:56 GMT -5
The hiss off the magma flowing lazily through eons-old stone chambers... caves full of the sound of writhing, coiled, slithering bodies... The occasional rush of steam from a crack down below the dark. So vivid, so recent. Now gone. All gone.
Not more than two decades ago, three tribes of yuan-ti prospered in amidst the Crescent Forest. Of those, my clan, the Ssaizjhi were well protected in the underground caverns from the searching eyes of warmbloods. Since the warmbloods see the yuan-ti as dangerous beasts that are impossible to reason with, we willingly severed all contact with the close city-state of Nibenay. No-one could breach our safety if we didn’t want to. The remaining clans of the forest did support the reputation of our race being bloodthirsty monsters who revealed in carnage, though. We on the other hand, did not deny our predatory nature, while not succumbing to love for bloodshed, focusing on higher understanding of our surroundings and natural forces through more sophisticated ways. This resulted in our clan’s alternative existence being perceived as an insult to “the ferocious blood-might of our race” by the other clans, so conflicts or even full scale attacks to our home-caverns were not uncommon, and we would hardly survive their numbers and martial prowess were it not for our ancestral blessing: the art of soul-twinning, Bedai-Lihn.
At the age of 13, every yuan-ti in my clan was subject to a ritual called “the Knowing”, upon which one is supposed to see a glimpse of the true nature of her soul. This knowledge manifests itself in various powers that you discover within yourself. In the case of success, we were entitled a name and right to be trained in the details of Bedai-Lihn. As the years pass and the yuan-ti becomes more attuned to the depths of her own soul, with the help of mental training, her soul-twin also gains power. I remember elder Yylann blasting a dozen well-armed yuan-ti warriors without moving a brow, another elder multiplying his body as he wishes through his soul-twin. Thus is the Bedai-Lihn, not the same with two individuals.
Mother and elder Yylann accompany you to the Seer’s chamber. The day of your awaited “Knowing” came, after a month of restricted nourishment and physical activity. The room is completely empty, save the snakes slithering around the dry dirt, and the Seer. Yylann ties your eyes with a leather strap as mother rubs your forehead with a foul-smelling ointment. You -almost instinctively- scurry to the Seer, who is as motionless as the stone slabs she has coiled on. Noticing you are left alone with the Seer, worry overcomes you as the room becomes completely null to your senses. You cannot say how much time passed when you feel you no longer have a body, swirling in space, totally lost. Until you see the Seer’s ophidian eyes. Hot as the crimson sun that rules supreme up above, cold as the caress of a viper’s scaly belly. As bright as the fire that burns, as dark as the deepest cave one can imagine. Terrible and soothing, hard and soft. Closer and closer they come. It is then you realize who the eyes truly belong to, they are yours! You lose all consciousness.
In the days of our elderly, through an excavation effort in order to make more place for our steadily growing hatchery, the caverns were discovered to be the minor component of a larger underground complex. Chamber after chamber was revealed, the touch of sentient beings obvious in the making. Many relics and ancient tablets were found in the toil, depictions of serpentine beings covering the walls, trying to silently speak with us. Utilizing the seers and augurs, revered-leader Lassha’syyl searched for a way to comprehend the situation. The omens were unclear, and the seers were confused: the tablets spoke of a time of prosperity and power, and upon the tablets was contained the means to reach that power.
I was born into such a background. Everybody was in anticipation of more to be found, although year upon year resulted in failure to reveal anything of the relics. Unsatisfied with the answers, the elders thought wise to find someone who actually can read the tablets. Illiteracy being universal in the yuan-ti societies of the Crescent Forest, we decided to contact with the city-states of warmbloods, in which one is said to find whatever she searches for.
Born to the only pureblood family of the clan, I was charged with the duty of entering Nibenay. Our hunters had then recently spotted a couple of heavily wounded Nibenese warmbloods lost in the depths of the Forest. Thinking that they could be useful in teaching us in the ways of the city, they saved them from a certain death at the claws of animals of prey. We took them captive for the following years to come. Thankful for their rescue, they teached me their language, and I told them of our society and ways as far as they should know. I studied their mimics, gestures, movements and the like to the possible extent. With the help of some disguise, I could easily impersonate them humans. We three got used to each other a lot in the end. Heqet and Yaka'su they were called, and in the city of Nibenay they helped me to find what I searched for, a scholar who once studied the yuan-ti and their ancient language .
A dwarf stands in front of you, his bald head standing upright, a welcoming smile on his face. He is in his declining years, but still strong and resolute. His clothes are simple but well-maintained, and he wears little in the way of ornamentation, save for a black ring on one finger and a locket around his neck. The dwarf nods towards you: “So you need my services? Your kin is rarely -if not never-
encountered in the Shadow King’s city.”
Cursed is the day when I met Bolin. Telling little of the tablets, we made a mutual pact. He would teach us about the ancient written yuan-ti language as much as he knew, in exchange we would provide him with information about the yuan-ti culture and spesific concepts that would allow him more command on the language, as well as some rare materials unique to the Forest. After that, I returned home to inform my elders of our new contact. Arrangements had to be done to provide a meeting place with the dwarf and his cohorts, and a time-lost ruins close to Nibenay was appointed as a meeting place.
For a whole year, those meetings continued every month, but progress was slow. The meetings were attended by Ssuranathi, youngest of our elders. In the last meeting, Ssuranathi, hungry for more knowledge, brought one of the tablets with him. He handed the tablet to the dwarf, discarding my protest. The dwarf’s esurient eyes beamed bright with avid curiosity, promising to tell us more on our next meeting... which did not happen.
The next month, two days before the day we would meet with Bolin, Ssuranathi and some his disciples vanished with some more tablets. The elders, suddenly aware of the fact, dispatched our hunters to track him. Only one returned, heavily wounded, with news of an attack-force composed of many warmbloods and yuan-ti. In a mere two days, our cavern-home was brought down upon us, all we achieved reduced to ash, all our elders killed... save the betrayer Ssuranathi, which was fighting alongside Bolin as he commanded the attackers from behind. The Ssaizjhi fought with all might, our elders bringing down half of the attack force as they fell, but we were eventually crumbled under waves of enemy warriors. Bolin and his followers were defiling the land, tearing dozens of our kin asunder with a simple wave of the hand. Our soul-twins weren't enough to save us.
After crushing the resistance, Bolin subjugated the rest of the clan. The other yuan-ti clans, having at last defeated their long-time enemies, happily left some of their numbers back as our gaolers. Using the intact portion of our cave-system, he began to train our younglings in the ways of the defiler, well-aware that he could use their corrupted soul-twins to whatever end he desired. Many of the offspring were taken from us, to be brought to Nibenay, never to be heard from again. Worse, he used us in an experimental breeding program, trying to merge different species through magical means. The only thing I found solace in, was the fact that Bolin could never reach the chambers in which the tablets were hidden, his probable goal for being in our home uncompleted.
Eventually though, he grew tired of us yuan-ti and moved on to other unknown projects, effectively casting us all to the wayside. Probably because he didn't like leaving loose ends, he slaughtered all that remained of us before departing. Almost all.
You scream in agony as the human thrusts his blade in your abdomen. Slashing your womb wide across, she reaches for the immature fetus inside. Frowning with disgust, she throws the abomination aside, “This one also failed.” she mutters. The suffering. You give in to the pain. Before passing, you see Bolin smiling to you. “It has been a mutual agreement, hasn’t it, Per-Wadjet?”
Had your father not decided to help me, I would not be here before you now. He belongs to one of the other clans I kept mentioning. He was skeptic of his elders’ decision to aid a warmblood on his mission of dominating a clan of yuan-ti, even if they were an enemy-clan. Anyway, he did save me from a certain death, because my striking beauty has softened his stone-heart, as he says.
In the depths of the jungle we withdrew, hiding from everything, trying to stay alive. Until we learned to listen and to understand it, the Forest did not welcome us in the sanctuary of her roots and branches. We met a brethren who successfully escaped from the fall of our cavern-home, who was learned in the ways of the Hunter. He taught me a lot. It was then, we realized that other yuan-ti could also be alive. Searching through the forest, we met more Ssaizjhi that could escape the events. After a dangerous but successful effort to unite all the remainder of our clan, we assembled on what to do next. Our aim is now set as to stay alive, try to clain our home back, pass the art of Bedai-Lihn from generation to generation, and not forget our history that it does not recur again.
Now I will leave you to your father and our kin, now that you are old enough to care for yourself. I passed our heritage, the Bedai-Lihn to you, know the value of that knowledge. I told you everything that you need to know to be aware of who you are, because someday we will return to our home again, and unveil the truth about our glorious past.
Now I leave. To find Bolin and the Betrayer. My aim is to recover the tablets, and if the situation permits, exact revenge.
- Per-Wadjet, to her offspring
Not more than two decades ago, three tribes of yuan-ti prospered in amidst the Crescent Forest. Of those, my clan, the Ssaizjhi were well protected in the underground caverns from the searching eyes of warmbloods. Since the warmbloods see the yuan-ti as dangerous beasts that are impossible to reason with, we willingly severed all contact with the close city-state of Nibenay. No-one could breach our safety if we didn’t want to. The remaining clans of the forest did support the reputation of our race being bloodthirsty monsters who revealed in carnage, though. We on the other hand, did not deny our predatory nature, while not succumbing to love for bloodshed, focusing on higher understanding of our surroundings and natural forces through more sophisticated ways. This resulted in our clan’s alternative existence being perceived as an insult to “the ferocious blood-might of our race” by the other clans, so conflicts or even full scale attacks to our home-caverns were not uncommon, and we would hardly survive their numbers and martial prowess were it not for our ancestral blessing: the art of soul-twinning, Bedai-Lihn.
At the age of 13, every yuan-ti in my clan was subject to a ritual called “the Knowing”, upon which one is supposed to see a glimpse of the true nature of her soul. This knowledge manifests itself in various powers that you discover within yourself. In the case of success, we were entitled a name and right to be trained in the details of Bedai-Lihn. As the years pass and the yuan-ti becomes more attuned to the depths of her own soul, with the help of mental training, her soul-twin also gains power. I remember elder Yylann blasting a dozen well-armed yuan-ti warriors without moving a brow, another elder multiplying his body as he wishes through his soul-twin. Thus is the Bedai-Lihn, not the same with two individuals.
Mother and elder Yylann accompany you to the Seer’s chamber. The day of your awaited “Knowing” came, after a month of restricted nourishment and physical activity. The room is completely empty, save the snakes slithering around the dry dirt, and the Seer. Yylann ties your eyes with a leather strap as mother rubs your forehead with a foul-smelling ointment. You -almost instinctively- scurry to the Seer, who is as motionless as the stone slabs she has coiled on. Noticing you are left alone with the Seer, worry overcomes you as the room becomes completely null to your senses. You cannot say how much time passed when you feel you no longer have a body, swirling in space, totally lost. Until you see the Seer’s ophidian eyes. Hot as the crimson sun that rules supreme up above, cold as the caress of a viper’s scaly belly. As bright as the fire that burns, as dark as the deepest cave one can imagine. Terrible and soothing, hard and soft. Closer and closer they come. It is then you realize who the eyes truly belong to, they are yours! You lose all consciousness.
In the days of our elderly, through an excavation effort in order to make more place for our steadily growing hatchery, the caverns were discovered to be the minor component of a larger underground complex. Chamber after chamber was revealed, the touch of sentient beings obvious in the making. Many relics and ancient tablets were found in the toil, depictions of serpentine beings covering the walls, trying to silently speak with us. Utilizing the seers and augurs, revered-leader Lassha’syyl searched for a way to comprehend the situation. The omens were unclear, and the seers were confused: the tablets spoke of a time of prosperity and power, and upon the tablets was contained the means to reach that power.
I was born into such a background. Everybody was in anticipation of more to be found, although year upon year resulted in failure to reveal anything of the relics. Unsatisfied with the answers, the elders thought wise to find someone who actually can read the tablets. Illiteracy being universal in the yuan-ti societies of the Crescent Forest, we decided to contact with the city-states of warmbloods, in which one is said to find whatever she searches for.
Born to the only pureblood family of the clan, I was charged with the duty of entering Nibenay. Our hunters had then recently spotted a couple of heavily wounded Nibenese warmbloods lost in the depths of the Forest. Thinking that they could be useful in teaching us in the ways of the city, they saved them from a certain death at the claws of animals of prey. We took them captive for the following years to come. Thankful for their rescue, they teached me their language, and I told them of our society and ways as far as they should know. I studied their mimics, gestures, movements and the like to the possible extent. With the help of some disguise, I could easily impersonate them humans. We three got used to each other a lot in the end. Heqet and Yaka'su they were called, and in the city of Nibenay they helped me to find what I searched for, a scholar who once studied the yuan-ti and their ancient language .
A dwarf stands in front of you, his bald head standing upright, a welcoming smile on his face. He is in his declining years, but still strong and resolute. His clothes are simple but well-maintained, and he wears little in the way of ornamentation, save for a black ring on one finger and a locket around his neck. The dwarf nods towards you: “So you need my services? Your kin is rarely -if not never-
encountered in the Shadow King’s city.”
Cursed is the day when I met Bolin. Telling little of the tablets, we made a mutual pact. He would teach us about the ancient written yuan-ti language as much as he knew, in exchange we would provide him with information about the yuan-ti culture and spesific concepts that would allow him more command on the language, as well as some rare materials unique to the Forest. After that, I returned home to inform my elders of our new contact. Arrangements had to be done to provide a meeting place with the dwarf and his cohorts, and a time-lost ruins close to Nibenay was appointed as a meeting place.
For a whole year, those meetings continued every month, but progress was slow. The meetings were attended by Ssuranathi, youngest of our elders. In the last meeting, Ssuranathi, hungry for more knowledge, brought one of the tablets with him. He handed the tablet to the dwarf, discarding my protest. The dwarf’s esurient eyes beamed bright with avid curiosity, promising to tell us more on our next meeting... which did not happen.
The next month, two days before the day we would meet with Bolin, Ssuranathi and some his disciples vanished with some more tablets. The elders, suddenly aware of the fact, dispatched our hunters to track him. Only one returned, heavily wounded, with news of an attack-force composed of many warmbloods and yuan-ti. In a mere two days, our cavern-home was brought down upon us, all we achieved reduced to ash, all our elders killed... save the betrayer Ssuranathi, which was fighting alongside Bolin as he commanded the attackers from behind. The Ssaizjhi fought with all might, our elders bringing down half of the attack force as they fell, but we were eventually crumbled under waves of enemy warriors. Bolin and his followers were defiling the land, tearing dozens of our kin asunder with a simple wave of the hand. Our soul-twins weren't enough to save us.
After crushing the resistance, Bolin subjugated the rest of the clan. The other yuan-ti clans, having at last defeated their long-time enemies, happily left some of their numbers back as our gaolers. Using the intact portion of our cave-system, he began to train our younglings in the ways of the defiler, well-aware that he could use their corrupted soul-twins to whatever end he desired. Many of the offspring were taken from us, to be brought to Nibenay, never to be heard from again. Worse, he used us in an experimental breeding program, trying to merge different species through magical means. The only thing I found solace in, was the fact that Bolin could never reach the chambers in which the tablets were hidden, his probable goal for being in our home uncompleted.
Eventually though, he grew tired of us yuan-ti and moved on to other unknown projects, effectively casting us all to the wayside. Probably because he didn't like leaving loose ends, he slaughtered all that remained of us before departing. Almost all.
You scream in agony as the human thrusts his blade in your abdomen. Slashing your womb wide across, she reaches for the immature fetus inside. Frowning with disgust, she throws the abomination aside, “This one also failed.” she mutters. The suffering. You give in to the pain. Before passing, you see Bolin smiling to you. “It has been a mutual agreement, hasn’t it, Per-Wadjet?”
Had your father not decided to help me, I would not be here before you now. He belongs to one of the other clans I kept mentioning. He was skeptic of his elders’ decision to aid a warmblood on his mission of dominating a clan of yuan-ti, even if they were an enemy-clan. Anyway, he did save me from a certain death, because my striking beauty has softened his stone-heart, as he says.
In the depths of the jungle we withdrew, hiding from everything, trying to stay alive. Until we learned to listen and to understand it, the Forest did not welcome us in the sanctuary of her roots and branches. We met a brethren who successfully escaped from the fall of our cavern-home, who was learned in the ways of the Hunter. He taught me a lot. It was then, we realized that other yuan-ti could also be alive. Searching through the forest, we met more Ssaizjhi that could escape the events. After a dangerous but successful effort to unite all the remainder of our clan, we assembled on what to do next. Our aim is now set as to stay alive, try to clain our home back, pass the art of Bedai-Lihn from generation to generation, and not forget our history that it does not recur again.
Now I will leave you to your father and our kin, now that you are old enough to care for yourself. I passed our heritage, the Bedai-Lihn to you, know the value of that knowledge. I told you everything that you need to know to be aware of who you are, because someday we will return to our home again, and unveil the truth about our glorious past.
Now I leave. To find Bolin and the Betrayer. My aim is to recover the tablets, and if the situation permits, exact revenge.
- Per-Wadjet, to her offspring
