Naga

Naga

Realm Affiliation: Night

The Naga are touched by the realm of Night, a realm of shapechanging wyrms and winged serpents. They embody both the subtle nature of the Night Eternals and their powerful emotions. They are a Lineage that expresses itself physically in a number of ways, and Lineage strength varies greatly based on part how inhuman they appear (as opposed to Changeling and Cambion Lineage, for example, which tends to appear more human at all levels).

The Naga Lineage is intended to appeal to players who want to be subtle and manipulative, as well as those who want to be a little “sexy” (although we run the danger of them becoming the new Wemic). The Naga suits a number of concepts – fanatical priests, fighters who enjoy fighting, artists and performers of all types, mysterious wizards.

The concept plays with images of the snake as wise and subtle, but subverts the idea that snakes are “cold-blooded.” There is also some room to explore dragon-like concepts with this Lineage (greed, arrogance and a love of riddles all work with this idea).

Naga Trappings

Naga are snake people. A problem I’ve encountered to date is finding “low end” Lineage images – most of the pictures appear to be full-on snake people, which would represent a powerful Lineage in Empire. With an eye to the trappings – the physical changes that set a Naga apart from a human without Lineage – I’ve put together this short list. The “required trapping” is intended to be the baseline thing that defines a Naga as a Naga – a starting point from which to build a look based on how “lineaged” a character wants to be.

Required Trapping: Scaled Eyeband or Scaled Brow or Fangs

A scaled eyeband is created with make-up, possibly supplemented with latex scales. A “scaled brow” is a built up prosthetic piece covering parts of the forehead and highlighting the eyes, like that used by some dracoscions. Fangs – apparently these are reasonably easy to get hold of. Whichever of these is the required trapping, the others become “Other Trappings”

Other Trappings

Scaled skin – either with make-up or latex. Naga are not restricted to any one colour scheme – exotic shades are entirely appropriate for this Lineage. Snake-like Eyes – costume contact lenses. Scaled forearms with talons in place of nails Feathers – some feathers can enhance the Couatl-like elements of a Naga, but may run the risk of confusing the concept and ending up with “bird-people.” Sibilant voices – Hissing is not out of character for the Naga.

Roleplaying Naga

Naga blood influences the character of the one who possesses it. Not every Naga expresses these effects to the same degree, but characters who strongly express these roleplaying effects often possess stronger blood than those who do not.

Naga are subtle. Observers rarely know what a Naga is thinking or planning, whereas the Naga themselves will be very clear of their ultimate goal and how they might achieve it. There is a subversive pride to be taken in pursuing one’s goal without anyone else knowing until you have succeeded. This might be used in long term political plotting, manipulating a social function in order to get close to a particular individual, or controlling a conversation in order to shorten it for their own end (without the other person knowing of course that they were the last thing on one’s mind)

Naga are intuitive. They love to watch and to try and work out the motives of others, presuming there is some goal beyond the obvious and perhaps linking unrelated occurrences into this perceived ‘plan’. Having made such a conclusion it may colour their actions and interactions, even in the face of contrary evidence they may feel they know more about what is really going on. If it is someone they feel strongly about, they may seek to help or hinder such perceived goals.

Naga are passionate. Naga could never be thought cold, even at their most calculating and devious there is a keen fire in the eyes and tension at the thrill of the chase (literal or otherwise). They feel all emotions strongly and love to engage with the moment, and if they enjoy an experience may seek to prolong it, or seek it out again. They are not childish, nor erratic, just every sensation is more real to them and they cannot help feeling it, nor would they want to. Each Naga has their own passions and preferences which makes them very varied but linked by a common thread.

Naga are single-minded. The passionate pursuit of a goal can become so strong that it excludes other concerns, perhaps to the detriment and ultimate injury of others. The tragic tales of those who followed their heart’s desire only to find everything else they loved had been destroyed in the wake of their pursuit; those whose study removed them so far that they became hated for their indifference; those who with near-mad fervour struck down one of their dearest who tried to stand in their way.

The Blood

Despite their appearance, Naga are as warm blooded and mammalian as any human, they just have some ophidian characteristics. They mate and breed just like humans do, they have hair, and they give birth to live offspring. Naga bloodlines require regular influxes of human blood. Without them the bloodline reaches a point where the Naga becomes incapable of successfully mating with another Naga. As a consequence Naga often take human lovers, even if they are in a relationship with another Naga. As well as Naga who have a Naga parent, some Naga claim one of their parents was directly seduced by a disguised Eternal of the Realm of Night.

Possible Advantage : Discerning Senses

Naga senses are more subtle than those of humans, especially their senses of taste, touch and smell. Strong tastes and scents may be overpowering, while subtle smells and flavours provide great pleasure. This is purely a roleplaying effect – it is of no advantage to detecting poisons or the like. Naga are encouraged to display their keen senses through their roleplaying.

This is probably not a good idea – while we can say “roleplaying only” there is the risk that people will want to use it to detect poison and so on and so forth. I also considered the possibility of explicitly letting them change their colours and details by “shedding their skin” to capture the transformative nature of the Realm they are associated with but again that is probably open to abuse.

Lines of the Naga

Currently our only “line” of Naga are the Kallavesi Marshsnakes who dwell in the swamps of Wintermark. Another example could be the Catazzarian Shadow Brokers, a loose network of Naga who trade blackmail material, secrets and influence with each other in the same way more