Some have degenerated due to interbreeding with humans, while others have simply devolved. Various subspecies have lost their limbs, their intelligence, and even their ability to speak. The best known degenerates are the worms of the earth, which may still burrow beneath Wales and Scotland. The old ones of Lost Valley, in the American Southwest, and the slitherers of the Nameless City, in the Middle East, are also degenerate serpent people. Lurkers tend to hide in human society, using their powers of disguise to appear as humans.
Most lurkers are great sorcerers who have lived for millennia.
Two powerful lurkers are the geneticist Ssruthaa and the high priest Ssathasaa. Dreamers are serpent people who escaped long ago to the Dreamlands. They fled to that land through the Vaults of Zin when Yig cursed Yoth long ago. Accordingly, most serpent people of the Dreamlands still worship Tsathoggua. Sleepers are serpent people who have hibernated for thousands of years and are just awakening now.