Using their forked tongues, serpent people can transfer odor chemicals to this highly sensitive organ. Like many snakes, serpent people are venomous. Certain subspecies can even spit their venom, as the spitting cobra of Africa does. Some varieties of serpent people have hypnotic eyes. Most can hibernate for extended periods of time.
Many serpent people are sorcerers.
The abilities to assume human shape, enslave the ghosts of the slain, and reanimate corpses are among the most common magical powers of the serpent people. Most importantly, serpent people are either very long-lived or immortal. There are many still alive that have seen millennia pass. At their height, the serpent people were great scientists. They are best known for their alchemical creation of toxic substances and for their genetic manipulation of many life forms.