Listen to the Serpent People

Sorry for the light posting lately. Work's been a bear. Lots of reading and writing. Meeting upon meeting upon meeting. It's been pretty exhausting. But anyway...

I'm working on the next session I'll run for the Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad campaign. It's tentatively titled "Temple of the Serpent God," and provides a little bit more insight into one of the races of our campaign world, the serpent people. In my story, the serpent people and lizard men were more or less two sides of the reptilian coin. The serpent people are on this side of it. That's them, right there.

All joking aside, I've mentioned in an earlier blog post that the lizard men are warrior and/or sailor types, vicious raiders. Their ophidian brethren, on the other hand, are philosophers, spies, cultists, and wizards. The lizards provide the brawn, and the serpents provide guile, technological and magical skill.

Here are thirteen rumors about the serpent people.

1. They crawled like snakes but have arms like men (sort of).
2. They wore (or didn't wear) clothes--two versions of this story.
3. They are skilled builders and artificers, and it is from them that the dwarves learned their skills, around the time of the coming of the first wave of what later would be termed the "Imperial" elves.
4. They are a myth, and never existed. They're merely degenerate forms of the Old Ones, as that race reached the Death part of their cycle. But they'll be back soon. They always come back.
5. Some wizards have grimoires made of the skins of serpent people, because of their magical properties.
6. The serpent people are, like the elves, from another place outside of reality.
7. The Viridians are descendants of the serpent people, a product of elven experiments gone awry.
8. The serpent people still walk among men, wearing the skins of human beings.
9. The serpent people are the offspring of dragons, and are frequently found in dragons' lairs.
10. The serpent people died of a fungal disease, released when their dwarven slaves dug too deep and found the Mushroom Kingdom.
11. The serpent people's skills as armorers were peerless, and collectors will pay big money for artifact weapons. People also say that wizards will kill the owners and take the weapons for their own use. No one knows why that would be.
12. Serpent people are venomous and and are capable of hypnotizing their prey.
13. Cold is the bane of the serpent people.

Can you think of anything else that might be true of the serpent people? Share your rumors and folklore in the comments or on G+.