The Deadly Dye

There is a kind of snake. So venomous, that one drop is enough to finish off a whale. And yet, there are people, who deal with it. They are the kind of people, who keep an antidote in one pocket and a will in the other.

They handle the snakes, collect the venom, which is of an unusual color, refine it until all the toxins evaporate, giving off a cloud so noxious, that anyone standing within some 10 feet would immediately drop dead, and finally get the pigment – a vivid, unearthly purple, so expensive that only the richest nobles and the royal family can afford it. Therefore, it is called the Royal Purple, the Serpent Purple, or just Serpentine.

A small vial of Serpentine could make you a fortune, or cost you a life, and that’s why these particular snake milkers are very rich, even more respected, and above all, stunningly daring. Most of them enter the trade at an elderly age, – this way you’ve got less to lose. They wear a simple outfit and have a mundane appearance, since daily handling of a hissing death at an arm’s length makes you lose taste for trinkets, but instead gain a powerful, resolute will, an extraordinary strength, and a philosophy of your own.
They are also quite reclusive and solitary.

And there’s only twelve of them.