Venom Tilani

*“The snake produces poison in its body to poison its enemies! But man is a strange snake; he produces poison in his mind to poison his fellow men! Snakes hide in grass, people behind their lies.”*

-Venom Tilani

## History

Tilani and her people live as a subculture within another society, as they’re a minority and long ago lost whatever land they might’ve called their own. So while the yuan-ti are generally integrated into society, they hold onto specific traditions with ferocity. In particular, they have many customs surrounding family hierarchy. Yuan-ti have only one or two egg broods during their lifetimes since each brood produces so many children, and within each (and across all, if one pair of parents has multiple broods) one of the children will be distinguished from the others as the worthiest and most capable through various trials conducted throughout their youth. When the trials are over, the children are 16 and the worthiest inherits the name of their more distinguished parent, a judgment that will be remembered and impact the rest of their lives within their family/community. Before 16, it is expected for the children to create their own names or only use the nicknames their parents gave them as hatchlings. The youngest worthiest will be called the Venom, their worthiest parent the Fang, and their worthiest grandparent the Head, which is typically how far the hierarchy is paid attention to. Roles can overlap and lines might die out and cause confusion, but no one is expected to know about the finer inner workings of yuan-ti society when coming from outside of it. Once the youth trials are over and the Venom has been decided, all the brood is cast out into the world to live on their own, gain experience, make a difference, and show themselves to be worthy of glory – especially the Venom. Tilani was the runt of the brood, not as fast and certainly not as strong as her siblings. She was fierce and she fought constantly for herself, but she inevitably lost by trying to prove her mettle through pure brute force. Every one of her siblings was highly motivated as well, even more so than yuan-ti broods typically are, because their mother and her mother’s mother and her mother before that had all been judged the Venom and all been given the name Tilani. It was a clear and confident line of succession that few yuan-ti families could boast, and every one of Tilani’s siblings were eager to continue that line for themselves and their future children. Though her name today gives away the game, when she was young, success was a fiercely wanted but nigh impossible dream for our would-be Venom Tilani. She was not friendly, she was not strong, and she was often so frustrated with her own failure that she would accidentally sabotage herself further. As a young teen, however, she realized her assets included not only her physical fitness but also her mind, most specifically her words. She found she could easily twist someone into underconfidence or bluster them into overconfidence or simply convince them falsely of something and then reap the benefits of their blunder later. After this revelation, she began to hear whispers in her ears, the voices of yuan-ti long dead, Tilani's and others going generations back in her family, and she grew even more successful as her confidence grew and she listened to their wise advice in battle and otherwise. The runt finished her youth trials with ease and had earned the name Tilani, the Venom of her brood, and after the traditional few years of additional training and growing she was ushered out onto her quest along with her siblings. Tilani has been wandering for the last two years, having gone through her fair few scrapes, and has learned that even with her ancestors and the glory of being the Venom does not diminish the importance of teamwork, a hard but invaluable lesson.

Because the yuan-ti are not well-known and a relatively small population that keeps to themselves, Tilanihas created a second identity for herself, a nit-witted, guileless, bumbling yuan-ti named Snake (“someone told me that’s what my name translates to in Common!”) knows nothing, has a tenuous grasp on Common, and has often allowed Tilani to garner secrets and information she never would have gotten if she was viewed as the least bit competent.

## Personality

Tilani is a show-runner, confident and swaggering but generally cool-headed, assured things will work out when care and attention is being paid to the outcome. She always tries to talk before she fights, even when she plans to kill a target anyway, and is highly annoyed when things don’t go her way, especially when someone ignores her persuasion. “Can’t you see reason?” she thinks. She is not afraid to fight, but she’s knows it’s not her strongest area, and when she’s raging she often forgets this crucial fact. Sometimes, her spirit guardians will remind her and successfully shake her out of it, and sometimes their warnings fall on deaf ears. She likes to take trinkets off her enemies and is fond of little arts and crafts like woodcarving, which she is often fiddling with when not occupied. She’s very one-minded; when she has a goal, all of her force is put into it and usually does not think of a backup plan unless prompted. Why undercut your confidence of your plan, after all? She’s friendly and likes making friends when she can, and while she’s quick to trust, it is also quick to lose that trust based on observed behavior. Usually, you’ll be able to tell the difference, as Tilani might be a good liar when she has a goal, she is a terrible one when she does not, and unless you are vital to some plot, friends and enemies are not part of that goal and thus not part of her lie.

## The Third Northern Expedition

Venom Tilani is slain by the King in Yellow in Thule.

## Aftermath

The Human Effigy, having been run dry of its power and a sight of grief to Mark Patenaude, was sundered using the Silver Key. Mark eventually relented and gave some of the pieces to be forged into a new longsword which carried an echo of Tilani's spirit. The weapon was given the warrior Anders Jensen, who commanded King Knil's forces after the death of Marzell Sommer, who passed it down his family. The blade eventually fell into the hands of Doc Anderson, his mad descendent, who carelessly handed it to one of his experiments to wield. The experiment was killed and the sword came into the possession of Onyx the Indestructible, a worthy warrior who heeded the spirit's unquiet urgings.