for Irk. And Min, too, if she wants to look.
Make and think about a culture of nagas… where do they live, how, and why. The nagas worship a seven-headed snake, usually a cobra, which they refer to as “naga” and from which they take their racial name. The Naga is not a god- rather it is the guardian of the god, or gods… how many isn’t important to them. But the Naga is the guardian of god, and they’re very proud of that. If a deity doesn’t have or need a guardian, well then… obviously this is not the supreme god, now is it? The naga race will never be convinced otherwise (though individuals may vary).
For each species of snake, there is a species, or clan, of naga. Subspecies (using rattlesnakes as an example, eastern diamondback and western diamondback) are merely different clans. They consider themselves the same kind of naga, though occasionally it gets to be like Yankees and Red Sox. Each lives in an environment best suited to its corresponding species of snake, and tend to view snakes of a parallel species (rattlesnakes and rattlesnake nagas) as cousins. They do not eat snakes… unless their species happens to eat snakes. (bull snakes, etc)
General clan habits closely mirror the habits of the snake species they correspond to… especially in times of day most active and when they best like to hunt. As said above, they live in environments very similar to those that best favor their corresponding snake… though the nagas tend to have a better tolerance of environments outside of that ideal than the actual snake would.
The naga culture looks down upon stealing, but is very… hands-off when it comes to dealing with death. Things die, and then you eat them. It isn’t complicated. Sure, if you up and kill Uncle Claude just because you were hungry, they’ll look at you funny, but there won’t really be any kind of public outrage unless Uncle Claude had some special knowledge you didn’t bother to learn from him first. It’s a lot like going dumpster diving, or going through other people’s garbage before the trash trucks come. Most people don’t really care, but they give you odd looks. Someone who gets the reputation of eating people he knows, whether he likes them or not, is definitely looked askance at. And mothers tend to watch their kids in his presence… at least until they’re old enough to be expected to watch their own damn selves.
Stealing! Since they do not place importance on personal possessions and very rarely care enough about any THING to keep it with them, stealing is a VERY serious offense in their minds.
Territorialism is another matter, and varies from clan to clan. People are irritated when someone else takes the best basking spot, or sleeps in your usual place, but that is not the same as “stealing.” That’s violating “territory.”
Live-bearing snakes and egg-laying snakes CAN interbreed, but there are qualifiers. If the mother is oviparous, eggs are laid. If the mother is of a species that bears live young, live young will be brought forth. The female offspring, however, are iffy, and often sterile as their bodies cannot decide how, exactly, they should reproduce. In many species, egg-laying is dominant over live-bearing. Males have no such problems, and their offspring are laid or born depending on the genes of the mother.
Patterns are dominant over solids, and patterns are partly dominant among themselves, much like hair color. Instead of being one or the other, they tend to combine.
Non-venomous non-constrictors occasionally interbreed with either constrictors or venomous nagas without too much fuss on either side. Constrictors and venomous nagas do not tend to interbreed as a general rule, but isn’t unheard of. It’s less a function of biology and more a function of the Yankees/Red Sox phenomenon. In the first generation, neither constricting nor venom is dominant- children may have both or neither, and frequently the answer is neither. If they have both, they’re nowhere near as good as either parent at either skill. In the second generation, constrictors are dominant over venomous snakes. Non-constricting non-poisonous snakes (bull snakes, corn snakes, etc) are always recessive… and in slightly higher demand in the slave trade. All they can do is bite, and once you pull the fangs… well.
Most nagas “stand” at about the same height. “Height” is a somewhat flexible measure, since how “tall” a naga “stands” depends mostly upon how much effort it feels like going through. Going by the relevant species of snake, nagas from snakes ranging from three to six feet maximum length tend to “stand” between five and six feet tall, depending on posture. Nagas from snakes smaller than that tend to “stand” between four and five feet tall, nagas from snakes between six and twelve feet long generally “stand” between six and seven feet tall, and nagas from the great constrictors (fifteen or twenty-five feet) can “stand” as much as nine feet tall (ten, if they feel like exerting themselves), but generally stick to eight. Height is not necessarily an advantage to a reptile. Longer snakes in the general height group usually translate to nagas of similar height with longer tails. Snakes that tend to be slender for their length correspond to nagas that are “shorter” than they “should” be. Beefier snakes generally result in “taller” nagas.
Nagas, as a general rule, get along very well with snakes. Very well. They’re the closest thing to the same species. If nagas were at all interested in keeping their limbless cousins like that, they’d be the best snake-breeders in the world, able to handle even the most difficult of serpents without stressing them out or pissing them off, able to keep healthy and successfully breed the most delicate of species. They’d also make very very good snake wranglers. Steve Irwin would have to stick to crocodiles. As it is, they don’t much care. Other snakes are out there, in the wild, and so are they. Some individuals keep snakes that cannot fend for themselves, for one reason or another, but some also eat snakes like that. It’s personal preference.
There is some debate over whether or not snakes actually feel affection for people the way a cat or horse or dog would. I have no idea. But nagas can and do. They just generally don’t care about many things, and lack a lot of facial expression when they do, so nobody who isn’t a naga (or reptile anthro, or possibly a dragon) can really tell with them either.
Dragons will be gratified to know that nagas consider themselves absolutely no relation at all to dragons. Totally different creature. But they are cousins to other reptiles and reptile anthros. Just not as close a cousin as they are to snakes and to the Naga.
Many things are dependent upon individual clans, and many of them do not divide down neat lines like “venomous” and “constrictor.” For example, trickery. Among the venomous clans, the cobras are very fond of riddles; the taipans every bit as nasty, are quiet and mysterious; the cottonmouths and asps are downright tricksters; the coral snakes and rattlesnakes are brutally direct. Among non-venomous snakes, the bull snakes are very straightforward, and the hog-nose clan tends to try to bluff, hide, and misdirect… even though they are notoriously bad at it. The king snake clan, on the other hand, is very _good_ at bluffing. The same applies to the constrictor clans… the anaconda clan likes to lie in wait for someone to do something stupid, the pythons are opportunists to varying degrees, and the boa clans vary on directness from clan to clan, sometimes wildly.
Naga clans who have had little or no contact with humans, ebons, elves, or other such creatures generally see no point in projectile weapons. In weapons period, really. If it’s too big for you to catch and kill without a weapon, chances are it’s too big for you to eat. Other naga clans, usually the less isolated ones, have had a change of heart. Still, bows and arrows are rare among all but the most molested and aggressive of clans, and even then aren’t common. Spears and short knives are the most common. Swords, shuriken, throwing knives and the like are completely unused by any naga that has NOT grown up in a city. A sword will never be a popular naga weapon. It strikes them as unwieldy.
Magic? Maybe a primitive alchemy, with a natural species ability towards alchemy? Reread the site.
Nagas have a human face, with hair, but a very “snaky” cast to their features, with a snake’s eyes (of course). They do have scalp hair and eyebrows, but they do not have eyelashes. This is because they do not have eyelids. They also don’t have external ears the way mammals do-just holes in their heads. They’ve also got holes on their faces (usually along the jaw, but it depends on the type of snake) for heat-sensing organs. These are properly called pits. Very slim hips… females tend to have narrower shoulders than the males and a more rounded, feminine cast to their features. Both genders tend to have well-developed torsos, and females do not have breasts. Two arms with four fingers and a thumb on each hand, with no claws or fingernails, and the lower body (of course) ends in a serpent’s tail… though technically the “tail” doesn’t start until after the anal vent. And that’s a ways past the part of the body the naga “stands” on. They do not have teeth beyond fangs (and constrictors do not have fangs unless they have a fanged grandparent, at least) and a series of slight barbs in their mouth to prevent prey from escaping mid-swallow unless the naga chooses to release it. Their jaws completely unhinge, just like a snake’s, and their ribs expand, just like a snake’s.
They shed their skin, and become irritable and more prone to illness during this time. Definitely become irritable.
If you read this, lemme know if it is good. As for the actual character, I want to take a bit from the owl I met, and have a one-eyed blind guy, possibly from a blow to the head. (Samantha the owl was hit by a car, resulting in one eye exploding and the other having a detached retina. The eye dialates and everything, but it can't see.) Not that being blind is that much of a HARDSHIP for a serpent... sight is only important to a very few varieties of snake. Smell, feeling vibrations, and heat-sense are much more important.
I am wondering if the serpent-people would be better at finding the can'tspellits, the two headed snakes, than the average guy on the street. Being as snakes like them... unless they're the type to eat snakes. Whatever.