Naga: Empires of the Serpent Kings

So, this whole idea was spawned by a few things. Firstly, the idea of a pre-existing society, a great lost Empire filled with power and wonder lost to the modern age. As remarked on by Matt Colville this is a pretty solid fantasy trope, and moreover, and underlying principle of D&D and Medieval Fantasy Roleplaying (there needs to be a lost Empire for there to be forgotten tombs full of loot). The idea of living in the shadow of bygone greatness is a staple of culture in Medieval Western Europe, with the architecture of the Romans being a marvel attributed to giants and other magics. 

Also, I really wanted to use Tomb of the Serpent Kings, so I needed Serpent Kings... and the first time I read it, I sort of thought all the serpent people mentioned were half snake. Plus, it was inspired by the lore of Legend of the Five Rings, Exalted, and from the Twilight Imperium RPG. As can be seen from other blog posts, all my best stuff is stolen from others.

The Naga

The Naga were a people of the age of the Dragons, and they built their great societies in the shadow of the draconic wing. As with the other dominant life forms of the period, they were of a primarily reptilian cast. It is uncertain whether the Naga lived in awe of the Dragons, if they warred against them, or if they simply tolerated them as an aspect of their world. The surviving representations of them do not seem to indicate that they worshiped Dragons as gods as the Kobolds do, preferring it seems to venerate their ancestors or perhaps living god-kings. The powers of the Naga were certainly great enough at their height to make war upon the Dragons, although there is no surviving evidence that they did so (although some clearly hunted for sport the great and terrible lizards that shared their lands).

Physically the Naga were serpent featured with a humanoid torso and arms. They primarily moved about on their large muscular tails, as can be seen from their surviving art and the peculiar architecture of their ruins. Although they were possessed of a set of four limbs, their lower limbs form vestigial secondary arms. A "standing" Naga would have been slightly taller than an average human (about 2 metres tall), but their total length from nose to tail would have been nearly three times this.

Due to their unique physiology, the architecture of their ruins is often bafflingly hard to navigate. Although they principally relied on ridged ramps as stairwells, they would often employ poles around which to twine their bodies for swift ascent and descent. The construction of which is varied between great cyclopean stonework, and shimmering walls of impervious glass.

Some of the Naga are shown on the surviving statues and inscriptions as having cobra-like hoods. These hooded types seem to have been more powerful sorcerers and held in higher status. Although whether this physiology developed from increased sorcerous knowledge, or if it is a physical trait distinct to noble bloodlines is uncertain.

Like this, but with more arms

Empires of the Serpent Kings

Once they ruled over all the land they surveyed, now naught is left save the few settlements that have not been pillaged by the grubby mammals that succeeded them. In fact the great city of Babylon is built amid the towers of one of the old Naga cities, the great ziggurats and walls which have stood for thousands of years paling in comparison to the spires and towers of the Naga that rise beside them, dwarfing them in both size and antiquity.

The tombs, cities, and other ruins that lie undisturbed are always far up in mountain ranges, buried at the floors of deep chasms, or otherwise hidden from the thieving hands of earlier generations. Not that the Naga themselves built there, but rather the land itself has shifted in the millennia since their dominance [This is held as evidence for the theory that the planet itself is alive at a glacially slow pace and shrugs and writhes its skin in discomfort as humanity crawls mite-like upon its surface].

Their civilization was advanced enough to travel across the surface of the globe in an eyeblink, to raise great many spired cities of glass as strong as steel, vessels that sailed through the sky as mortal ships lough the waves, and devices that it is said could think for themselves. From what can be gleaned of their knowledge from the ruins and scraps of record recovered from the immeasurably ancient sites, the Naga possessed an advanced understanding of natural philosophy so complete as to bend the very world to their whims.

The Naga, whilst being all of the same breed, were not it seems one people. Their various cities and temples warred one with the other. Their devices and machines of war must have been wonders to behold. Energies that could have shattered mountains, and turned the very stones to glass. If anyone of this age were to discover such a device and how to use it, surely they could make themselves monarch of the whole orb against whom no army could withstand.

Some of the records of the Naga still survive, imprinted on bas reliefs in their surviving ruins, inscribed onto eldritch substances which look like the finest glass yet bend and fold like a new spring leaf, writing themselves in letters of fire across obsidian plates in front of the eyes of disbelieving dungeon delvers. Unfortunately, no-one knows how to read this language... yet. Many of the wisest of the Universities have come close, using powerful magics of understanding and deciphering and drawing on a vast trove of archaeological research, but there is always some missing piece. Such knowledge of the Naga civilization that exists comes from these exertions, but only fragments and inferences are really understood.

Perhaps something analogous to the Rosetta stone may be discovered, or one of the capricious Fey might be able to give some insight, or through some form of great necromancy the spirits of the long departed Naga themselves might be communed with. In any case, if even the slightest skerrick of sense could be made from these ancient writings then there would be a great rush to delve for the forgotten wisdom of these vanished people. 

Church doctrine of course equates the Naga with the biblical serpent, and hold that their association with magics is clear evidence (if more was needed) of the utter unholiness of such practices. As such, the church does all it can to convince the laity to avoid any trace of them, to shun their cities. They know they cannot influence or stop the incessant delvings of godless wizards (or other adventuring types) but where they can they will interdict any of the more accessible ruins, and destroy any heretical teachings and writings relating to the demonic Naga. Although it is whispered (in largely conspiratorial circles it must be said) that the majority of the miracles accomplished by the relics of the church are in fact the powers of Naga artifacts, obtained by the Church heirarchy through years of accumulated wealth and control of ancient Naga sites.

The cataclysm which destroyed the Naga is uncertain, whether it was the great movement of the planet to set it amongst the Orrery as the Kobolds maintain, or if they destroyed themselves in a great internecine war. Perhaps there was another explanation; a great plague, or a collapse of their civilization into barbarism, perhaps the meteorite that brought the Fey, or the coming of the Lich, or maybe they were all eaten by dragons. The truth will never be known, the only certainty is that the Naga are long gone from this planet for many ages of the world, leaving behind only their enigmatic ruins and artifacts more powerful than mortals should ever weild.

Dragon Roads

The great wonders of a lost age, these roads are straighter, more level, and more impervious to the elements than any road of mere earthly material that could be made in this fallen age. They are called Dragon Roads because folk wisdom holds that they were fused out of the living rock by the heat of dragonfire, however close inspection of the surface of these roads reveals them to be not of fused rock but of some other wonderous material impervious to all outside force. 

Curiously, there does seem to be some sort of lingering energetic connection between the Dragon Roads and the ancient magical items of the Naga. If a Naga magical artifact is brought into contact with a Dragon Road, all expended charges are restored. Almost like the road is somehow harvesting and storing magical energy.

Clarke's Third Law in action

Interestingly, unlike the lost Naga cities, or their precious and mysterious magical artefacts, the Dragon Roads tend to be well known to most people, as they invariably pass through modern settlements and cities. These great arteries are even more convenient to navigate than the steadiest of rivers, and run in dead straight lines across the land. There are a few great cities and settlements which have, though accident of politics and geography, flourished away from Dragon Roads, but for the most part wherever there are Dragon Roads that is where wealth and trade will flow. Due to their usefulness, and their ubiquitous nature across the land, the Dragon Roads seem to be one aspect of the lost civilization which the Church does not hold as inherently demonic, although there have been outspoken firebrand preachers that have railed against them as if they were forks.

Magical Artifacts

The Naga were masters of magic and technology, weaving the chaotic reality warping forces into safe and predictable mechanisms. Some of these are useful devices such as the Eyes of Night, or the Ring of Distant Touch. Some are completely obscure in their intended purpose, such as the myriad obsidian slates which are found in every Naga ruin some no bigger than a human palm, some the size of a folio book, all of which seem to serve no purpose; although some have reported such items displaying writing, or images, drawn from within the glass as if writ with fire; bathing things in an eerie glow before falling blank again (mostly these are used as fashion and decoration, attached to rich clothing or worked into large jeweled pieces). 

Some of the devices are weapons, weapons of terrible destruction. There are swords that glow with green fire and cut through steel as if it were warm tallow.  There are strange wands that emit gouts of flame that will burn a human to ash in seconds, and some that emit even stranger yet no less fatal energies. There are machines that, when improperly handled, release all the energies of a volcanic eruption, or so those who investigate the subsequent scenes of cataclysm theorize.

Fortunately for the modern mammalian inheritors of the planet, the physiology of the Naga was similar enough that most of the equipment can still be employed. Swords can still be wielded, rings and bracers can be worn, even eye pieces and crowns made for serpent heads, with some modern metalwork additions, can be adapted for purpose. Not all the commands or workings of these machines can immediately or intuitively be understood, and some experimentation may be needed. Best to hope you are not holding one of the great "turn a city to a puddle of glass" devices when you start fiddling with your latest treasure.

Sleeping Serpents

Not all the Naga are gone. Their great magical wonders allowed them to sleep the sleep of ages, stored away from the ravages of time. Perhaps they foresaw the coming of the great extinction that the creation of the Orrery would bring. Perhaps they are in hibernation from an even earlier age of the world, waiting out some great conflict which ended aeons before the coming of the stars. In shimmering clear tubes, encased in ice or glass, the last of the Naga await their time to rise again. 

What might awake these ancient beings? A band of tomb raiders exploring an ancient and forgotten Naga stronghold may come across these tubes and through their bumbling cause them to stir and spark to life once more. Perhaps a complex apparatus monitors the surface environment, awaiting the time when conditions will be habitable for the cold-blooded peoples once more. Perhaps it is merely a time delay, and at some specified point the legions of the old Empire will swarm out from long lost complexes. Perhaps, the Naga wait for the Dragons to wake, to take their place once more in a great reptilian alliance. 

What might the Naga want? Will they be willing to communicate, to try and share their knowledge with their newfound planetary neighbors? Or will they come from beneath the cities of the mammal usurpers bringing fire, sword, and sorcery to humble these upstart primitives. Will they come to reclaim their lost eminence? Will there be swarms, or a mere handful? An unstoppable army, or a tragic last echo of their kind?

Who can say...