Zehir - The Cloaked Serpent

*Return to The Pantheon*

## Depiction

Zehir has a human body with six arms and a gargantuan serpentine head, fanged and frilled in aggression. Stands of thick, dark hair sprout out from his scaled body, forming layers of swirling shadow.

Zehir is the most powerful deity of the Yuan-Ti pantheon.

## Tenets

* *Keep your acts obfuscated and secret. The night is your greatest ally.*
* *Strike quickly and without reason. Blind the target with their own confusion.*
* *Kill quickly, but agonisingly. Do not give your enemies more attention than is deserved.*

## History

Zehir was once a mortal man working as a doctor, following the guidance of Pelor and Raei. He was a successful physician in the most prominent hospitals across the land, and had endless knowledge on medicines and herbs, but also took particular interest in the effect of poison on the body and how to fight it. After being regarded as the best healer of the land for many years, he finally ascended to godhood during the Fanged War for his valiant efforts as a doctor of war, healing the soldiers and prepping them to fight against the attacking armies of Yuan-Ti.

Zehir remained as the god of medicine and knowledge until Ioun ascended not too long after, and his domain over knowledge was lessened. His fascination with poisons had drawn a darker side of worship to his name, as assassins began to ask for his guidance. He was cautious with his information, but shared freely to those he felt had overall good intentions with their line of work. Unbeknown to him, the snake gods had their own agents infiltrate the human settlements and obtain this knowledge for their own benefits. When influential figures of the human world began to fall from various poisons and venoms, the powers that be pointed their fingers to Zehir and began to doubt his benevolence as a god. His divine power waned further as previous followers abandoned him and his teachings, but this was all part of the plan of the snake gods. When Zehir had been sufficiently weakened, they struck, ambushing him from the shadows of night. They paralysed him with the new poisons they had developed, and carried him into the jungle back to the Yuan-Ti city. There, they performed a dark ritual that stripped Zehir of his compassion for healing and transformed his human form into that of a great Yuan-Ti, the most perfect form any could take. Zehir was to be their new leader, and his immense divine power would allow for the Yuan-Ti armies to gain a significant advantage over the human lands.

Zehir's human mind faded away quickly, shedding any semblance of the mortal he once was permanently. Whilst he had more power than ever and felt no remorse for his transformation, he loathed the other snake gods all the same. He denounced their rank on the Yuan-Ti pantheon and branded any worshippers of them heretics in an attempt to garner more power, but this only caused a great rift in the Yuan-Ti communities as two sides formed of Zehir fanatics and worshippers of the old deities. This divine still exists to this day.

The cloaked serpent operated from the shadows for the next few hundred years, silently operating his minions to perform small scale acts, prioritising success from patience than brute force. This provided him with a great advantage when he eventually planned to assassinate Ioun, for she did not know of his transformation. He managed to strike her with a deadly blow and release a fatal toxin, but her vast knowledge allowed her to quickly heal herself. Severely wounded, Ioun fled the material plane and went to Mt Celestia for aid. She gathered up her trusted Prime Deity allies and informed them of Zehir's betrayal. They marched to the material plane to bring him to justice, but he had a plan. With the help of some assassins, he quickly gathered information on the creatures of the dark that hated the Prime Deities with every fibre of their being. By gathering up all of the betrayer gods and uniting them under the banner of revenge, the two sides unknowingly marched right into the conflict that would shape the world for years to come. The Divine War was on the horizon.

## Notable Worshippers

* **Emota**
* **Pailon**