Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24.44.141.89-20131113224543/@comment-13446185-20131222230040

Ralok wrote: Mysterious Akavir makes it very clear taht when a tsaesci eats something, that they become it... As the in-game book was written by Kirkbride... we can deduce his intentions when writing by looking at the tsaesci creation myth.

while it may not be canon, it can be used to decipher the INTENTIONS of what is written in mysterious akavir. The name of the creation myth is... I think "we become what we eat"

implying they are "shapeshifters" in some sense, but they need to consume something in some sense to assume its shape.

This line from mysterious Akavir makes it very clear

"The serpent-folk ate all the Men of Akavir a long time ago, but still kind of look like them."

there is a direct connection here between the Serpent Folk eating the men, and looking like the men... Has nobody but me ever questioned this sentence? Why would the serpent-folk look like men at all? why would their man-like appearance degrade with time? and why would eating men be connected to the act of consumption.

The most obvious way to interpret this is "The snake people consumed the men to gain their appearence, and despite it being so long ago they still resemble them"

this is supported by the later line in Mysterious Akavir

"After the Serpent-Folk ate all the Men, they tried to eat all the Dragons."

There is no logical reason for them to eat the dragons unless it incurred some sort of distinct benefit. And then this line indicates the state of humanity in their culture.

"They managed to enslave the Red Dragons,"

To the Tsaesci "eat" is a word they share with "assimilation" as in to absorb or to bring into their culture. Its this way because to consume the blood or flesh of a being does the same to themselves.

To me its very clear the Tsaesci are a society of snake-like vampires that absorb the traits of the beings they feed on (whether the process is involuntary or they can choose to take specific traits is unknown) and that they likely have kept a myriad of Akaviri men in their service for ages, using them as the bulk of their soldiers and invasive forces.

And those that do join men in combat have likely absorbed enough man-like traits to pass for one. This is probably the true answer.