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Snakemen

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"There are those within my order that believe the Dread Maw originally comes from the distant Hinterlands of Khuresh. Nightmarish tales involving the fabled Blood Naga Queens say that the Dread Maw were created -- not born, created -- to prevent easy travel from the west. Such tales could be entirely dismissed as irrelevant hearsay, if not for the fact that a cult dedicated to those distant horrors was uncovered in Sylvania just a few years ago -- one that had been attempting to enact a terrible blood ritual that would summon a Dread Maw even unto the Empire."

—Kistiane Brockdorf, Jade Wizard, on the Dread Maw.[6a]
Snakemen illustration (2)

An evil Snakeman of Khuresh[5]

Snakemen, also called Naga, are a race of intelligent and ancient beings who combine serpentine and humanoid attributes and may be related to the more common Beastmen of the west. They are native to the Far Eastern Hinterlands of Khuresh where they are ruled by their Blood Naga queens. Their reputation among the other peoples of the Known World is universally evil and deadly.[3a]

History[]

Assaults on Cathay[]

HintKhuInd

Official map of the Hinterlands of Khuresh and surrounding areas.

Despite being an adversary of the Fire Dragon, who rules over the Southern Provinces of Grand Cathay, the Monkey King's Monkey Warriors were requested by the Cathayan Dragons to defend the southern borders of Grand Cathay against the Naga of Khuresh in the past, much to the Monkey King's amusement.[8]

This situation has led the Cathayan Dragons to reluctantly allow the Monkey King to continue his rule over the Mountains of Heaven, rather than risk the border falling to the Snakemen.[8]

Tales[]

800px-Beastmen Map

A map detailing the concentration of Beastmen warbands in the Known World. As might be expected, the largest concentrations of Beastmen populations are found in the Northern and Southern Wastes. Note that Cathay is mistakenly depicted where the Hinterlands of Khuresh lies.[1a]

There are many night-haunted legends emanating from the fetid jungles and deadly wastes of the far Hinterlands of Khuresh. Stories abound of the dread Snakemen and the foul and nightmarish Blood Naga queens who rule there, and it is a realm where Men are no more than hunted prey, and blood and souls are the only coin in trade.[3b] The lives of the frightful serpent-Naga of dim Khuresh are said to be counted as the ages of the Known World, and their appetite for blood shames even the ancient Vampire queens of thrice-cursed Lahmia.[3a]

Another nightmarish tale involving the fabled Blood Naga Queens say that the serpentine creature known as a Dread Maw were created to prevent easy travel from the west. Such tales could be entirely dismissed as irrelevant hearsay, if not for the fact that a cult dedicated to these horrors was uncovered in Sylvania just a few years ago.[6a]

Rarely do artefacts of this fell civilisation reach the Old World and all are steeped in blood and misunderstood power. One such artefact is the White Sistrum, a strange, ivory-graven rattle-drum shaped like an hourglass, whose discordant music brings madness and death, and evokes the terrible rites of the Naga -- invoking their power and the slaughter of forgotten ages when the cold-blooded serpents of Chaos held the mortal world in a stranglehold of terror.[3b]

One more strange treasure known in the Old World is a Khuresh Blood Naga crown, held among the possessions of Lord Bedauer-Schmidt in Salzenmund.[7a]

It is unclear whether these Snakemen also correspond to the three big concentrations of Beastmen located to the north, centre and south of the Khuresh peninsula, or if they are in any way related to the Lost City of the Old Ones that lies in the centre of the Khuresh jungles, of which nothing is known except its location.[1a][2a]

Miniatures[]

Trivia[]

A range of Snakemen miniatures were released in the mid 1980s, during the 3rd Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. However, they never received any rules or official background. They were not mentioned again in the lore until the 6th Edition, almost 20 years later.[5]

In the non-canon Blood Bowl series, there is at least one Snakemen team -- the Kureshi Kobras.[4a]

In Indian mythology, a Naga is a member of a semi-divine race, part human, part cobra in form, associated with water and sometimes with mystical initiation.

Sources[]

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