Naga

The naga were large quasi-humanoids with human-like torsos and snake like lower bodies. They were typically scaly and reptilian in appearance with greenish tinted skin being the most common, though some were brown. with other shades occasionally seen. The tail of a naga could be anywhere from 10-20 feet long. Typically, the tails of the Constrictors were the longest, while the Greensnakes tended to be smaller. An upright naga could range from four to seven feet tall normally, but they could rear up even higher. Naga moved with at same general pace and endurance of a man, but their serpent form gave them an advantage that allowed them to move fast in nearly any terrain. Unfortunately, they did tend to leave a distinct trail marking their passage. Unless they were trained to accept them, horses tended to avoid naga, presumably due to their scent being similar to snakes.

All Naga begin their lives within an egg, tended by the Naga Vedic. After they hatched, first they were an Ashamana, a Naga youth, distinguished only by their 'egg-name'. Then, once they had performed the first shedding ritual, they choose the path of their lives, taken the name they would be known. When it happened, the young Naga underwent a special magical ritual that made him forever immune to the Shadowlands Taint. Because all eggs from a given Bloodline were kept in one cove, a Naga might never know who their parents were.

Creation

Amaterasu and Onnotangu named the shapeless world, and life began to appear in Ningen-do. From the creatures that rose, there were ones that began to build, the Naga race. They worshiped the Fortunes, and above them the Sun, lady Amaterasu. They had the ability to reshape themselves to suit any environment. It would be seen by a menace for other races, as the Ashalan.  

Naga Myth

Legends said the Naga were first born from the Black Stone, that they had golden scales, they were no divided in different Bloodlines, and even the communal Naga mind, the Akasha, did not exist. The deeds and wishes of the Golden One, the Svarbhanu, were instrumental in the fate and changes which led the Naga race to the creatures as they were later known in Rokugan.  

The First Naga War

The expansionist Asp used their poisons to destroy the lesser bloodlines during the Bloodland Wars. The Greensnakes were enslaved, while the Chameleons escaped to the sea. Before they could conquer the Cobra and Constrictor Bloodlines, the Asp leader, the Shahismael, was defeated by his lieutenant, the Shahadet. The Qatol made an alliance with the Cobra and Chameleon, and with the great constrictor vedic Galishavi, they opened the gates of the Akasha to all the Naga. Now united, this marked a new golden age of peace and prosperity with the Naga civilization.  

The Naga Empire

Before the war, each Naga bloodline only thought of the welfare of its own. Shahismael's cruelty ultimately united all others against him, and the Naga Empire was born. Where once they were clad in gold they became as the earth, covered in greens and browns. They lost the will to fight against each other and gained access to a new power, the Akasha. Through this newfound gift, each Naga gained the knowledge of every member of his or her race that had ever been, as well as the ability to communicate mentally. The Age of the Ancients was thousands of years before the Fall of the Kami and the creation of Rokugan. The Empire of the Naga was a thriving culture dedicated to arts and science. They became complacent, unheeding prophecies and warnings of a Great Sleep.  

Naga tale about the Nothing

Once, the People stood beneath the Bright Eye's radiant gaze, and felt her warmth alone. She was our lover, a mother to the creatures of the world and the beloved lady of the People. Her eye was that of kindness. Her mate, the Pale Eye, was jealous of the things of the world, and he caused her to weep over his hatred of her beloved people. The Pale Eye, cold from anger and envy, watched as the People sang praises to the Bright, and so he hid his face in the Shadow. He gave no warmth to the People, no friendship or hope, and to his mate the Bright Eye, he gave pain.   As they walked across the land, prepared to give names to all, the Pale Eye lagged jealously behind. Alone, his eye was caught by a small slip of Shadow which hid beneath a rock and did not want a name. "Let us make a deal," the Pale Eye said to the Bright. "I will provide the names, and you will choose which creature to give them to." The Bright agreed and it seemed a fair agreement, and so they spread the Names among the world. Jealous of the love that the People had for the Bright Eye, the Pale chose not to show the hiding Shadow to his mate, to let it stay as it wished and be free. And when the Bright had used all the names he had given her, the Pale did not offer more and the thing within the Shadow remained as it was, unnamed and unmade. After the Bright and the Pale stepped again into the Sky, the Shadow greedily used its power to feed upon the People. Pleased to avenge its father, the Pale Eye, it devoured the bodies of the People, twisted them beyond bone and scale.   Yet among the people rose a hero. His name, at the time was Qatol. He was a warrior, a dread-mind-hunter, bringer of food. The Qatol fought the darkness with weapons of steel and jade, but nothing drove it away. More died. More vanished into the Shadow, never to be seen again, their souls lost forever. The Bright Eye, weeping as her People died, could do nothing. She could not break the bargain with the Pale, and she had no other names to give. Angered, she sent her youngest son to steal a name from the Pale, but he fell to the earth with his brothers and sisters, defeated.   No name was ever given, and the Darkness that Walks remained free.  

Day of Wrath

The Jinn lord, Kaleel began the First Jinn War against the Sun and the Moon, his parents. It ended in the Day of Wrath, when the Sun unleashed her rage against her children, Kaleel's Legion, but the rest of living creatures also suffered. The barrened Burning Sands replaced the fertile lands, and three quarters of the Naga race was destroyed. With their Akasha, the mind-hive, this kind of destruction could doom the entire race, unable to forget the sudden loss of many of their kind. The Ashalan used the magic to remove this memory from them, but with a drawback. When the Naga realized the destruction, and without knowledge about what really had happened, blamed against the Ashalan as the only responsibles. The Naga called this day the First Burning of the Land.  

War with the Ashalan

With no memory and affected by the wounded nature of the Burning Sands, the Naga in the desert attacked the Ra'Shari and Moto before being stopped by a large group of Ashalan Blood-Sworn. To this day, the Naga believe that the Ashalan were just long-lived liars who attacked them without provocation, which became in a bloody feud with the Ashalan. Naga saw the Ashalan as an arrogant race who believed they created the world. They sought to dominate all living creatures, and believed that lesser beings existed only to serve their whim. The Naga and Ashalan war was so destructive Lady Sun was forced to end it and placed a curse upon both races. The Naga could not leave their territory and the Ashalan could not enter the Naga's. The curse would twist any member of the race that broke the curse, turning them into abominations to their respective race. This conflict stood for centuries, as the races were very long lived and knew how to hold a grudge. Naga and Ashalan could sense one another's magic, to them it was a foul stench that they could not mistake.  

Cursed by the Ashalan

Other said the Ashalan levied a curse upon the Naga. The Naga, who were capable of reshaping themselves to suit any environment, were crippled by the curse on all who were shaped by this power. The Naar Teban, the Naga who entered the Burning Sands, were rendered mindless beasts, as were the creatures who ventured too far into the Ivory Kingdoms. The Naga who ventured into the sea forgot themselves and became the ningyo. Only those Naga who remained within the borders of the territory which would be known as the Emerald Empire were spared, but even then the curse of mutation visited them.   A Naga legend told the curse in a different way, as a side-effect provoked after the Ashgara released the Bright Eye from the Dark Well.  

First Burning of the Lands

The Naga were foes of the Darkness, a powerful evil that hunted the land unchecked, destroying everything it could find, and to the terrible Oni-like creatures. The Naga fought back, conquering the Evil and sending it away during the First Burning of the Land. After the war, prophets and astrologers spoke of a time of Great Sleep, a period of Ages in which the Naga would rest, undisturbed, waiting to fight the Dark again, in a far-distant time called only "The Second Burning of the Land."  

Great Sleep

After their biggest threat, the Ashalan, having been dealt a society-crumbling blow, the naga became more complacent. Some believed they had to enter the great sleep to preserve their culture, and some hoped to defeat an enemy they knew to come, known as the Foul.   Despite the premonitions of the prophets, the Naga civilization went on in its decadent ways, until eventually the time known as the Great Sleep arrived. When Onnotangu caught Amaterasu, she faded her light, and the Naga fall to the Great Sleep. One by one, the Naga fell into a deep slumber, but most were unconcerned. They knew the greatness of their civilization would remain a thousand years, and so they allowed the Great Sleep to take them off into the uncharted realms of dream. They woved a Veil of Sleep around their greatest city, and nearly all the Naga throughout the world fell into a deep slumber. As they were sleeping, the Naga race existed in the city Akasha, deep in Yume-do, a place superimposed over the Cobra city Vyakarana.   Time took a greater toll on the naga then expected, and unforeseen tampering by the nezumi and humans dealt them a great amount of damage. The realm of Dreams exerted its control, yumeji, while more and more Naga had been born inside Yume-do. [35] The Age of Man had ushered out the Age of the Naga.  

Initial Awakenings

  In 815, after the Return of the Ki-Rin, a small group of Shadowlands creatures broke through the defenses of the Crab Clan and entered the Shinomen Mori. These creatures destroyed a large cluster of naga eggs. This disturbance to the Akasha caused many naga to awaken, and they quickly crushed the Shadowlands force, leaving nothing but a foul, Tainted marsh in their place.     In 925, on a mapping expedition of the outer reaches of the Shinomen Mori on behalf of the imperial cartographers, Shinjo Fujimaka and Ikoma Gohesu discovered the ruins of a great naga city. There had been naga ruins discovered before this event, but none of this size, which indicated a major naga settlement. Many scholars believe that this intrusion into the naga lands caused the initiation of their slow awakening process.