Gorgon lady

Gorgons are carnivorous creatures with upper bodies resembling humans and lower bodies resembling massive snakes. Females also have four-six appendages on their heads through which they channel their magic and which resemble the heads of snakes. Most live among humans as second-class citizens, on the edges of cities or in slums. The women are forced to cover their heads or even have their extra appendages crippled or removed while males are defanged. Those who live freely are often aggressive towards humans for the treatment of their kind, unfortunately only contributing to the idea that they must be crippled to belong in society. These free gorgons often live in small communities, helping each other when necessary but mostly just sticking together for strength in numbers and easy access to mating partners.

Gorgons are usually between 13-16 ft long, with olive skin, dark hair and brown scales. Their eyes are typically orange, red, or yellow. Females capture prey with paralysis spells, stopping their heart and freezing them in place, while males have a much weaker paralysis venom and powerful tails for restraining and crushing their prey to death. Both then strip off chunks of meat to swallow whole. They hatch from eggs in batches of 9-12,  in the wild all eggs are usually clumped together and not kept track of, so no one’s quite sure who anybody’s related to. In human cities they usually follow the culture of the humans around them when it comes to having and raising children. Infants are already capable of lethal attacks and of basic locomotion, and so are kept hidden and restrained in human cities. Gorgons are all immune to paralysis effects, so they’re able to safely care for the young and play rough with their siblings. They reach maturity at about the same rate as humans, though they usually don’t live quite as long.

Male gorgons are slightly larger than females and have more drab coloration. In most groups of free gorgons the females are dominant, outnumbering the males and having more powerful natural weapons. Males would often be kept out of combat roles and decision making, instead being in charge of hunting when the corpses of their enemies isn’t enough and taking care of eggs. In human cities it’s reversed, as the humans have more respect and less fear for the men. The males in human cities will typically take charge to protect their wives, sisters and daughters from the human’s oppression. Most females in human cities don’t ever leave their homes.

Most gorgons speak the human language of their area, their own language was lost long ago after their kingdom was conquered and enslaved by one of the human ones. They were sold all over the continent, and learned the languages and cultures of their masters for generations. Most free gorgons are the descendants of escaped slaves, while the ones living in cities are the children of those who were let go or bought their freedom.