Worldbuilding Help! Dao-serving Yuan-ti

[ZenBear]

Hello playground! Just a heads up before you start scrolling, this is going to be quite the wall of text and I will not be giving a tl;dr so bail out or strap in!

I'm looking for some worldbuilding brainstorming help with a region I'm having a bit of analysis paralysis trying to develop. As a DM I take a very liberal philosophy regarding world and character building, and as such my setting is very much the "kitchen sink" style composed of not just every D&D thing I can cram into it, but also elements from Warhammer, Warmachine, the Soulsborne series, and many more inspirations. As such, I allow my players a lot of freedom to do interesting and unique things with their characters that often push my creative limits in fun and engaging ways.

One of my players in my newest campaign has decided to play a Fey-touched Yuan-ti Pureblood Genie Pact Warlock who is the consort/priest of a Dao patron. That's a lot of strings to tie together, but I actually managed to quite tidily fit their rather specific preferences into a cozy spot in my setting. They live in the Boneway, a winding path through the mountains dividing the verdant grasslands of the Reach from the scorched dessert of the Skorne Empire, so named for the countless skeletons that litter the ravines from the fallen Cryx Empire's attempts to conquer the southlands decades ago. (I use the map of Westeros as a baseline. I'm a shameless plagiarist when it comes to D&D. Don't @ me.)

I need a little help with fleshing out the Dao-serving Yuan-ti culture. For starters, the player has given me precious little input beyond the general aesthetic and the specific relationship their character has with the Dao-in-chief. The rest is up to me, and I'm kinda spinning myself in circles trying to reconcile the tropes of the Yuan-ti with those of the Dao and other Genies. I'm on the fence on if I want to go down the whole slavery angle that both species engage in throughout most of their lore, but also the party is mostly Good and would have a problem with that potentially leading to in-character friction with the Yuan-ti character and that could turn into a real custercluck if not managed properly. The aesthetic direction I was given is semi-Arabian or Indian, which are two cultural ranges I have very little experience with so I'm not sure how to deliver on that without getting offensively tropey. In a sense I'm looking for a sensitivity reader on this brainstorm.

[Sorinth]

If your player chose Dao for the mechanical features then you don't have to restrict the Patron to an actual Dao, any earth flavoured Fiend/Celestial/Archfey would also work as a patron. Similarly the Fey-Touched feat doesn't actually have to be Fey related, anything that can gift magical power could provide those mechanics including the original Patron.

Now if you want to stick with it being a Dao then one option would be the Patron as Prisoner angle. The Dao is imprisoned in your mountain range near/underneath your Yuan-Ti settlement and is granting powers to anybody willing to help it escape. There's a key to unlock the prison somewhere in a far away land so at least some of the Dao servants have to go out adventuring looking for it including the PC.

I would be very tempted to have the Yuan-Ti settlement be an archeological dig site that holds the Dao. So the Yuan-Ti are digging up this lost/ruined city where the Dao is imprisoned and have made it their home as they excavate. The dig is led by the "priesthood" that is serving the Dao so these "priests" either focus on the excavation or they go out into the world searching for the key. If it's a full on Yuan-Ti settlement then naturally purebloods like your player would be the type chosen to go out and search for the key since they can pass as human. Perhaps this tribe of Yuan-Ti were originally desert nomads before the high priest had visions and led the tribe to this lost city. This would be a way to create some tension in the tribe as one faction would probably want to return to their nomadic roots. To avoid the slavery angle, have there be a group of unscrupulous mostly dwarven miners who in return for their help digging up the city get a portion of the relics which they then sell to the outside world. The Dao may be working with/on the miners as well, perhaps the Dao is causing that inherent dwarven greed to become more prominent, so the longer they spend at the dig site the greedier they become and the more driven/focused they become in their work.

[Millstone85]

Yuan-ti culture is built on a dream of attaining godhood. The yuan-ti considered the closest to that goal resemble snakes with humanoid torsos and arms.

A genie is born when a sentient living creature takes a dive in an elemental plane and their soul isn't entirely destroyed by it. Genies consider themselves as good as gods. One often appears as a humanoid upper body moving on a swirling trail of elemental power.

This particular dao could claim and/or believe that they are a yuan-ti who successfully went through an earth-based ritual of ascension. Their would look like a yuan-ti abomination whose tail turns into swirling sand, or maybe like some sort of "earth salamander".

The other yuan-ti would serve them, and make pacts with them, in the hope that a few might one day undergo the same transformation.

[Temperjoke]

Well, one option is using a caste-based system. Various noble-ranked Dao are at the top, instead of the usual serpent gods, they pick various yuan-ti pureblood to act as their agent/priest, then below this agent's level are regular yuan-ti, and below that is the "slave" rank, usually criminals, but sometimes conquered people as well. Slaves aren't necessarily treated horrifically, individual cases can happen but any of the yuan-ti could find themselves in the same position so it curbs most of the worst situations.

[Millstone85]

Well, one option is using a caste-based system. Various noble-ranked Dao are at the top, instead of the usual serpent gods, they pick various yuan-ti pureblood to act as their agent/priest, then below this agent's level are regular yuan-tiWhere it might get confusing is that the usual yuan-ti caste system puts purebloods at the bottom. Maybe that's still the case and the player's character is regarded as using their relationship with the dao to skip steps.

I have done something similar with the backstory of my shulassakar divine-soul sorcerer. She is physically a bloodsworn (pureblood) but is sometimes treated like a flametouched (malison) because of her powers.


and below that is the "slave" rank, usually criminals, but sometimes conquered people as well. Slaves aren't necessarily treated horrifically, individual cases can happen but any of the yuan-ti could find themselves in the same position so it curbs most of the worst situations.A difficult line to walk. The MM tries to do this with the "slaves" of the djinn and doesn't make it work IMO.

[Temperjoke]

Where it might get confusing is that the usual yuan-ti caste system puts purebloods at the bottom. Maybe that's still the case and the player's character is regarded as using their relationship with the dao to skip steps.

I have done something similar with the backstory of my shulassakar divine-soul sorcerer. She is physically a bloodsworn (pureblood) but is sometimes treated like a flametouched (malison) because of her powers.

A difficult line to walk. The MM tries to do this with the "slaves" of the djinn and doesn't make it work IMO.

If he's world-building, perhaps all there are in this particular society of yuan-ti are the purebloods, because the Dao prevent them from utilizing the usual rituals that other yuan-ti societies have that create the malisons and other higher ranked yuan-ti?

[ZenBear]

Thanks for the replies so far, folks! Unfortunately when I trimmed part of this post to remove a sizable tangent question I answered for myself while writing, I cut a portion that’s relevant to the discussion at hand. Here it is:
—
The call to action for our FtYtPbGPW is that the ritual by which the lesser Yuan-ti Purebloods are transmuted into Halfbloods and Abominations has become somehow corrupted, as those who undergo the ritual emerge with a violent mania that is as-yet incurable by traditional or magical means. They were sent to the nearest major city to recruit adventurers, a respected profession in this setting, to seek the cause of this ailment. They learned that similar symptoms have begun cropping up in other places, unrelated to any such rituals, and so the party was sent to seek out a Druid who is researching the issue.
—
So it’s established that all tiers of Yuan-ti exist in this society. Riffing off Millstone85, I’m liking the idea of the Dao offering a form of deification through its Wish granting. I might lean into a somewhat antagonist relationship between the Dao and Yuan-ti, with the Dao trapped and holding their Wish as a bargaining chip to grant in exchange for their freedom.

[Tawmis]

Known for its bloody history, the Boneway has been home to countless battles - seemingly cursed to spur on fury and rage in some sort of dark, magical sense.

The Yuan-Ti sensing this immense power that seemed to linger in the very grains of sand in the land, became interested in harvesting such power and took up residence in the Boneway.

Generations of Yuan-Ti shamans and priestesses finally uncovered the secret - eons ago, before written history perhaps - a great war among the planes took part here in the land now known as the Boneyard - and the reason that the very soil teems with such anger and fury is because - some of those who died during this war between planes were the Dao - who, upon death - their bodies disintegrated into crystalline powder - leaving their searing essence and fury to become one with the land. The Yuan-Ti then learned how to reverse this death - and bring back the Dao from their banished death - and force them to serve them.

The Dao are assigned to help those who show signs of potential in magic - to become patrons.

Your player, displaying magical abilities, was assigned a Dao to serve him as a patron.

EDIT - And to be clear, you could just make it the essence/spirit/whatever of the Dao, if not a full resurrection.