Ssanu

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The Ssanu are a race of serpentfolk native to the world of Arcanis; originally, they were just the Yuan-ti when the setting began as a 3rd party setting for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, but after Arcanis went its own way with a custom rule set, and then returned to its roots by adapting itself into a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition setting, the serpentfolk were split, with the abominations becoming the ssanu and the purebloods & malisons becoming the yissera.

Heavily detailed in the first two volumes of the Codex Geographica splatbooks, the ssanu are one of the most ancient races of Arcanis, and are the foremost amongst the ssethric - the scalykind of the world. Resembling giant serpents with a set of humanoid arms, ssanu formed one of the world's great empires in the Yahssremoran Empire, a cruel and decadent affair - in the best traditions of their pulp fantasy ancestors, the ssanu are characterized as innately wicked. To quote the Codex Geographica II:

Ssanu are cold hearted and stoic, rarely displaying any emotion except for the strongest, most base ones. Concepts such as love or compassion are foreign to them. Feelings of lust, passion, hate, jealousy, and anger are the fuel of their cruel society. Ssanu delight in the pain and suffering of others, for this is an emotion they can understand and relate to in others.

Living an average of four to five centuries, ssanu are carnivores, favoring warm-blooded prey above all others - humanoids are a delicacy. Fortunately, they are slow-breeding; ssanu females only become fertile during one to two weeks a year for only a decade after reaching adulthood, with each successful mating producing a brood of 12-24 eggs that hatch after a six-month incubation period. All females in a clutch (that is, the collective spawning of a given year) typically become fertile upon the same four to five-day period each year, resulting in ssanu society largely shutting down as the entirety of the fertile community abandons their usual pasttimes and pursuits for a giant city-wide orgy. This is one of the two most vulnerable times in a ssanu's life, the other time being during their yearly molt, and ssanu city-states take great care to avoid disruptions to the breeding season - if that window isn't taken, there won't be any eggs until next year, and successive disruptions can basically lead to a wasting death for an entire city-state.

These scaly sons of bitches are constantly infighting and trying to one-up each other, but they unite as one in the face of a common enemy, so they're not quite as bad as, say, Skaven. Theyre still pretty close, though! Ssanu divide themselves into subraces called "Pits", and these have become so inbred that they are losing the ability to successfully interbreed between different Pits, as their drifting genes become incompatible - think of it as being like how you can't really breed horses with donkeys or zebras. Combined with their internecine wars, and the Pits have dwindled from dozens at the race's height to a mere six Pits in the present day - Aspis, Coasca, Crotalus, Elapis, Maliss, and Sseth. A seventh Pit, Pit Talasis, survives only as a hidden necropolis of undead ssanu dreaming vainly of returning to the glory they once enjoyed in life.

The ssanu are masters of arcane magic and psionics, and also the pioneers of the art of fleshcrafting - or, as they call it, "biomancy". They used this ability to create biological technomantic upgrades for themselves, and to breed slave-races, such as the ss'ressen and the elorii. The latter race, regarded as their ultimate creation, would ultimately be their downfall when the elorii rose up against them. Fortunately for the ssanu, the elorii were traumatized as a race by having been responsible for the total genocide of 12 sapient races during the reign of the Yahssremoran Empire, and so they lacked the stomach for a thirteenth, driving the surviving ssanu towards the tropical southern regions and permitting them to lick their wounds and rebuild.

The modern iteration of the ssanu have rebuilt indeed as the thriving Ssethregoran Empire, but ironically they have faced some considerable turmoil. They have actually been conquered by one of their own creations, the naga; descendants of ssanu biomancers who spliced themselves with halflings in order to perfect and augment their psionic capabilities, and now there is an underlying power struggle as the "true" ssanu seek to depose their mutant cousins and reclaim the throne. They are also being subverted by an alien race called the varn, who have set themselves up as living gods and are steadily erasing the traditional faiths of Kassegore and Yig.

5e PC Stats

Ironically, the ssanu are given a full player-charater writeup in the Codex Geographica II for D&D 5e, with the following stats:

Ability Score Increase: +2 Intelligence, +1 Constitutiion

Size: Medium

Speed: 30ft, Swim 40ft

Darkvision 60 feet

Elder Spellcasting: You can only take Arcane Magic classes or subclasses with the Elder Sorcery designation.

Psionic Potential: You can take classes or subclasses that grant psionics.

Cold Susceptibility: When exposed to temperatures below 40 °F for more than 1 minute the you suffer disadvantage on all Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution

ability checks and saving throws until you spend 1 minute in warmer temperatures.

Ssanu Body: Due to the nonhumanoid shape of your body, you cannot use magical items based on leg-wear or footwear, such as boots or greaves. You can use humanoid medium or light armor that does not protect the legs, such as cuirasses or breastplates but not plate mail. If you wear armor that protects more than the upper torso, you reduce the armor’s base AC by 1 to a minimum of 11. Additionally, you are resistant to poison damage and have advantage on all saving throws to resist the poisoned condition.

Ssethric: You are considered both ssethric and monstrosity for the purposes of spells and feat accessibility.

Master’s Control: As a bonus action you can suppress the Ss’ressen Frenzy of ss’ressen within 60 feet of you. The frenzy continues to be suppressed for one hour after the ss’ressen leaves your presence.

Prodigy: All ssanu possess some level of arcane or psionic training. You learn one cantrip from the elder sorcerer spell list or one psionic power of your choice. Your manifesting and spell casting ability score is Intelligence. You are also gain proficiency with both the Arcana and Psionics skills.

Reptilian Features: Other races find it difficult to read your facial expressions to determine your intent. Non-ssethrics suffer disadvantage on all Wisdom (Insight) checks when attempting to discern your intentions.

Natural Armor: When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC equals 12 + your Dexterity bonus. You can wield a shield and still gain this benefit.

Natural Weapons: You possess a bite attack that deals 1d4 piercing damage and are considered both a finesse and light weapon. Upon reaching 6th level the damage of your natural attacks increases to 1d6 piercing damage.

Nationality: You must be from the Ssethregoran Empire.

Languages and Literacy: You speak Ssethric, Eloran, and Ss’ressen. You also speak a number of additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier. You are literate.