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Subraces

Snakeshifters do not have subraces. While their true forms can vary greatly in appearance, their basic physical and magical abilities are roughly the same. A snakeshifter with the features of a garter snake is just as threatening as one with the features of a cobra. Snakeshifters do have distinctive stages of life with key changes as they shed their skin and grow older.

Pureblood: Snakeshifters start at the pureblood stage. They are mostly human in their true physical appearance. There is still a small snake feature that cannot be hidden by their magical disguise, but it can often be obscured through clothing or makeup. Without a need for a magical disguise, purebloods often reside in their natural form among humans. Purebloods have no physical advantages over humans, but they do have natural enchanting magic. Their magic allows purebloods to charm the people and animals around them into doing their bidding. After living for one hundred years, purebloods shed their skin and become halfbloods.

Halfblood: Snakeshifters that are older than a century transform into halfbloods. Halfbloods are still mostly human in appearance but are unable to hide their snake features without a magical disguise. There are different features that appear for halfbloods with no fixed order. Scales over their entire body, a tail growing between their legs, their legs fusing into a snake tail, a serpent’s head instead of a humanoid head, or having prehensile snakes for arms. An additional feature is added every century as halfbloods shed their skin again and grow closer to their complete abomination form.

The halfblood transformation comes with many physical and mental benefits. Halfblood magic abilities are all stronger than their pureblood counterparts. Venom glands form in halfblood bodies allowing them to inject poison with their teeth, whether they have a serpent’s head or a humanoid head. Halfbloods are physically stronger than purebloods and have tougher skin as scales take the place of soft tissue. Most importantly, halfbloods have at least a century of experience, making them smarter and wiser than most other species they encounter.

Abominations: After four centuries of life a snakeshifter transitions from halfblood to abomination. Abominations are gigantic snakes, measuring at least twenty feet from head to tail. They continue to grow and can reach lengths of up to fifty feet long. Their tails have powerful coils that are able to constrict their foes during combat. The upper portion of an abomination has a powerful chest with two strong arms and a large serpentine head.

Abominations have powers beyond halfbloods and purebloods. They maintain their venomous bite, powerful magical abilities, and strong defensive scales. Abominations can simultaneously constrict an opponent, attack with a sword in one hand, and cast a spell with the other. Their magical powers have grown to include more effective enchantment spells as well as a curse that turns a foe into a toothless green snake. The increased size of an abomination is useful in combat but makes their magical disguise weaker. They can still only disguise themselves as a humanoid shape, but the long tail make such disguises easy to discover if they are not careful about where they go. Due to this issue, abominations frequently stay hidden while using halfbloods and purebloods to coordinate action in the communities they reside in.