Weaving Serpents of Night

Weaving Serpents of Night is a book recovered from the Ender Temple.

## Description

Well-thumbed and dog-eared at the edges, this somewhat gore-stained text explores the various rituals carried out by the Yuan-Ti. Detailing those used more routinely, and those considered aspiration if not unachievable in most instances, Weaving Serpents of Night is a dark tome filled with secrets of all manner of fell magics - though does not claim to be a comprehensive list.

## Research

### Completed by Hassk

#### Ritual of Ascendancy

All Yuan-Ti aspire to ascend to a status higher than their own, to lift themselves from their languishings within their current caste and reach instead for those breeds they are currently considered beneath. Through the ritual, a pureblood could aspire to become one of the halfblood variations, known also as the malisons, the specific type dependent on the exact reagents utilised while the process was executed. Costly in both time and resources, each ritual requires tailoring to the specific individual regardless, but is unified in a few central features.

After declaring their intentions to ascend at an Altar to Ophidian, a Yuan-Ti will have the initiation of the ritual sprung upon them with a series of attempts to prove their inappropriateness for such an occurrence. Substances intended to maim, sedate or otherwise weaken the hopeful individual are laced through food and drink, smeared on their belongings and otherwise exposed to their being, and should they falter as a result, they are instead sacrificed as an unworthy and weak-willed failure. Following successful avoidance of such a fate, the Yuan-Ti is immersed in a ceremonial chamber filled with the blood of slaves and snakes alike, having impaled themselves upon a number of obsidian shards equal to the sentient souls butchered to fill the pool. The greater the might and strength of the slaves and the more venomous the snakes, the greater the level of empowerment, likewise the more shards are used the more potent the power, allowing further the mingling of blood between an individual and their victims.

Conventionally in excess of dozen shards are used for the ritual to transform a being from pureblood to malison, but from malison to abomination this requires tenfold the crystals, and thus tenfold the sentient sacrifices. While it is unconfirmed, it is postulated that the creation of an Anathema requires tenfold further this still.

The individual undergoing ascension must linger within the blood until it has fully coagulated and curdled, at which point ravenous serpents are loosed into the ceremonial chamber to feast upon the gore until their hunger is sated. Only then, assuming they have survived the process, may an individual emerge - finding themselves reborn anew.

By nature of Yuan-Ti biology, while all types can interbreed, it is of the weaker type and caste that the brood are born. Acknowledging the difficulties and costs associated with the Ritual of Ascendancy, it is customary for Yuan-Ti to breed within their own caste, as not to weaken their settlement in the next generation.

#### Ritual of Defilement

Guided by Ophidian to delight in the sullying and perversion of those of pure intention and heart, the Ritual of Defilement achieves as such while further bolstering Yuan-Ti supremacy and strength. The primary challenge associated with the ritual was in truth the nature of its intentions, for meaningful and impactful results required the capture of a living entity of immutable good - most commonly that of a guardian naga or a coautl - and subsequently maiming and torturing the entity to point of relinquishment of their personal ideals, further still if possible to revoke their religious beliefs or allegiances in exchange for mercy. As such, the Ritual of Defilement was an excessively long process, sometimes taking decades or centuries to achieve, despite near continuous efforts being made by the tormenting party. Due to the difficulties faced, young individuals, or even sometimes unhatched eggs were the preferred targets for this process as the souls did not yet burn so fiercely, and so could be more easily be attained.

When such a breaking point was approached, death would finally be granted - though the soul not given a chance to rest in the peace deceitfully promised. Instead, the soul was channeled and mingled with that of a Yuan-Ti recently deceased, most commonly enacted purposefully atop a sacrificial altar, prompting an empowered rebirth of the individual known as a Dark Soul. A Dark Soul wielded substantial power, akin to those others capable of channelling sorcery through other means, such as a draconic bloodline or exposed to the unfettered chaos of wild magic.

The Ritual of Defilement is not infallible however, for there is the potential for the contained soul to turn to the divine light once more, granting new gifts and abilities to that which it had been moulded within. Such a process usually results in irreparable psychological collapse resulting from competing willpower and personalities, and so such individuals are hunted, captured and sacrificed with great haste, the souls once again reaved and entrapped with the intention of corrupting them once more.

#### Ritual of Fidelity

Alongside their purpose as the reagents in many other rituals, non-human humanoid prisoners served a secondary role in the protection of the Yuan-Ti castes, and so a few amongst their number were subjected to the Ritual of Fidelity and transformed into broodguard, an emaciated reptilian form covered in tough scales. Complete with small bloodshot eyes, forked tongues that flicked between dull, yellowed hooked teeth and thin-fingered hands adorned with curved black claws, they served as fierce front-line fighters and guards for Yuan-Ti settlements, as well as defenders of eggs and hatchlings within brood chambers.

Those destined for new life as a broodguard are restrained and force-fed a repeated brew made of fermented yuan-ti poison, herbs and roots. Most are slain within a day or two by the process, at which point their bodies are exsanguinated and the remains feasted upon, whereas those that survive are subjected to a fortnight of torment and pain as their innards dissolve away and reform in preparation for the transformation. Some cultists of Ophidian have been known to undergo this ritual willingly, particularly those of non-human lineage, as only those of human blood can instead undergo the Ritual of Investiture to become a Yuan-Ti Pureblood.

While the process could be reversed before the final transformation occurred, subsequent attempts were only possible via use of a *Wish* spell.

#### Ritual of Investiture

Unlike non-human volunteers, humans of perceived zealotry and fealty - most commonly sourced from Ophidian-worshipping cults - were instead subjected to the Ritual of Investiture, in which they were transformed into Yuan-Ti Purebloods, the lowest caste of Yuan-Ti, save for the Broodguard, themselves considered only marginally above humanoid slaves and prisoners.

As part of the process, a trio of hopeful initiates would be sealed within a room, brick and stone reworked to prevent any passage of sound or matter. Only a central channel would provide airflow, the air gradually tainted with noxious fumes on increasing intensity over the course of a month, later adulterated with ceremonial incenses to bring about transmutative mutations and changes. Only with the passage of the month is the room unsealed, at which point it is expected that only one intiate will have survived, having killed and feasted upon the others to survive.

While least of the true Yuan-Ti, the newly created Purebloods could expect to find continued service and purpose within serpentfolk society in relative comfort. Still possessing human-like features but having gained magical resistance and immunity to poison, they are commonly utilised as assassins and spies, sent to infiltrate humanoid settlements of interest to their malison and abomination masters. Occasionally however, using guile and charm alike, Yuan-Ti Purebloods create a life beyond the constraints of the caste system in their human guises, and so resent ever returning home.