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* BareYourMidriff: For most of her appearances, she only wears a bustier.
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* TheDreaded: Ophidia are traditionally enemies of humans, and Saramanda's crimes have not helped shake that reputation. Whether an individual ophidia deserves this moniker of TheDreaded or not, it remains.
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* NonMammalianHair: Often found on both genders.
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%%* SnakePeople
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* {{Expy}}: Of the yuan-ti from ''DungeonsAndDragons'', changed to make the species more mutable story-wise.
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* {{Expy}}: Of the yuan-ti from ''DungeonsAndDragons'', ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', changed to make the species more mutable story-wise.
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* NonMammalMammaries: Female ophidia have them, although a narrative says that they're always completely non-functional. (On another note, [[NonMammalianHair some also have hair]], another trait reptiles aren't supposed to have; combined with the fact that ophidia some ophidia have definite human features and can breed with them, their origins may be more closely linked than both races would like to admit...)
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* NonMammalMammaries: Female ophidia have them, although a narrative says that they're always completely non-functional. (On another note, [[NonMammalianHair some also have hair]], another trait reptiles aren't supposed to have; combined with the fact that ophidia some ophidia have definite human features and can breed with them, their origins may be more closely linked than both races would like to admit...)
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* SnakePeople
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* BareYourMidriff: For most of her appearances, she only wears a bustier. (Originally, she also wore sunglasses and a floor-length skirt to disguise her identity as an ophidia from Awares, but got rid of them later).
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* BareYourMidriff: For most of her appearances, she only wears a bustier. (Originally, she also wore sunglasses and a floor-length skirt to disguise her identity as an ophidia from Awares, but got rid of them later).
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* [[spoiler: FateWorseThanDeath: Towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', the aboleth casts the Bells of Baphomet on her which would have caused to suffer this eventually. Fortunately for her, Wilhelm puts her in an eternal sleep in order to prevent her from hearing the bells, but causes her to stay that way until ''Soulscape'' wherein she gets cured of the curse, thankfully avoiding this trope in the process.]]
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* [[spoiler: FateWorseThanDeath: Towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', the aboleth casts the Bells of Baphomet on her which would have caused to suffer this eventually. Fortunately for her, Wilhelm puts her in an eternal sleep in order to prevent her from hearing the bells, but causes her to stay that way until ''Soulscape'' wherein she gets cured of the curse, thankfully avoiding this trope in the process.]]
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* [[spoiler: HeelFaceTurn: At the end of ''Soulscape'', she becomes the ophidia negotiator for the Shadowchasers, promising to help improve the relations between her people and humans.]]
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* [[spoiler: HeelFaceTurn: At the end of ''Soulscape'', she becomes the ophidia negotiator for the Shadowchasers, promising to help improve the relations between her people and humans.]]
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* OlympusMons: In the original fic, she uses a Venom deck containing Venomminaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes (which is actually an avatar of the ophidia goddess Seghulerak) during her first duel with Ember and towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', a deck containing [[spoiler: Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder that the aboleth forces her to use. Due to the card being too powerful for her, she almost dies out of exhaustion while it's in her control.]]
to:
* OlympusMons: In the original fic, she uses a Venom deck containing Venomminaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes (which is actually an avatar of the ophidia goddess Seghulerak) during her first duel with Ember and towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', a deck containing [[spoiler: Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder that the aboleth forces her to use. Due to the card being too powerful for her, she almost dies out of exhaustion while it's in her control.]]
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* [[spoiler: [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe Half the Woman She Used To Be]]: She meets her end this way when the Demonic Guardian attacks her with his weapon, cutting her in half in the process.]]
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* [[spoiler: [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe Half the Woman She Used To Be]]: She meets her end this way when the Demonic Guardian attacks her with his weapon, cutting her in half in the process.]]
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* [[HunterOfHisOwnKind Hunter of Her Own Kind]]: She doesn't truly hunt other ophidia, but her usual method of executing an underling [[YouHaveFailedMe who has failed her]] is to devour him. (The ophidia believe that an ophidia killed this was is condemed to eternal slavery by their dark goddess, a FateWorseThanDeath most likely.)
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* [[HunterOfHisOwnKind Hunter of Her Own Kind]]: She doesn't truly hunt other ophidia, but her usual method of executing an underling [[YouHaveFailedMe who has failed her]] is to devour him. (The ophidia believe that an ophidia killed this was is condemed to eternal slavery by their dark goddess, a FateWorseThanDeath most likely.)
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* [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal: The Demonic Guardian kills her after her second duel with Jalal.]]
* OneWingedAngel: Her usual form looks much like Hebi-Na. Her ''true'' form (which she assumes only when she is about to feed on a victim or is infuriated) is so horrific that it frightens even other ophidia.
* OneWingedAngel: Her usual form looks much like Hebi-Na. Her ''true'' form (which she assumes only when she is about to feed on a victim or is infuriated) is so horrific that it frightens even other ophidia.
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* [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal: The Demonic Guardian kills her after her second duel with Jalal.]]
Jalal.
* OneWingedAngel: Her usual form looks much like Hebi-Na. Her ''true'' form(which she assumes only when she is about to feed on a victim or is infuriated) is so horrific that it frightens even other ophidia.
* OneWingedAngel: Her usual form looks much like Hebi-Na. Her ''true'' form
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* [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Why Don't You Just Shoot Them?]]: He asks Taramanda at one point on why should they bother dueling the Neo Domino Shadowchasers when they can just hire a professional gun instead. [[spoiler: Taramanda then tells him that due to an alliance Jalal made with a group called the Knights of Domiel (whose name she avoids saying out loud), any assassination attempt on any Shadowchaser (except Jalal himself) is thwarted and the would be assassins disappear without a trace. (In other words, many people have tried to "just shoot them", but they have never succeeded.)]]
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* [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Why Don't You Just Shoot Them?]]: Played with. He asks Taramanda at one point on why should they bother dueling the Neo Domino Shadowchasers when they can just hire a professional gun instead. [[spoiler: Taramanda then tells him that due to an alliance Jalal made with a group called the Knights of Domiel (whose name she avoids saying out loud), Domiel, any assassination attempt on any Shadowchaser (except Jalal himself) is thwarted and the would be assassins disappear without a trace. (In other words, many people have tried to "just shoot them", but they have never succeeded.)]]
trace.]]
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* TheAnticipator
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* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: Being declared insane by a monitor reduces an ophidia to a status that is barely better than a slave in their community, and while Taramanda technically can override this decision, she never does. As a result, the ophidia are more afraid of Magdalene than they are of Taramanda. However, among the ophidia of Neo Domino, she seems the least malignant, and acts pretty much like any psychologist does. (On the other hand, she seems to have no objections to Taramanda's plans.)
to:
* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: Being declared insane by a monitor reduces an ophidia to a status that is barely better than a slave in their community, and while Taramanda technically can override this decision, she never does. As a result, the ophidia are more afraid of Magdalene than they are of Taramanda. However, among the ophidia of Neo Domino, she seems the least malignant, and acts pretty much like any psychologist does. (On On the other hand, she seems to have no objections to Taramanda's plans.)
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* TheShrink: She's something called a "monitor", an ophidia who is trained to determine if an ophidia is mentally ill (more of a problem for them than it is for humans) and control the ones that are. (It is implied that in the past, a monitor's job involved focusing the rage of insane ophidia so that it was unleashed upon enemies. In modern times, however, monitors tend to take actual training in psychology.)
to:
* TheShrink: She's something called a "monitor", an ophidia who is trained to determine if an ophidia is mentally ill (more of a problem for them than it is for humans) and control the ones that are. (It is implied that in the past, a monitor's job involved focusing the rage of insane ophidia so that it was unleashed upon enemies. In modern times, however, monitors tend to take actual training in psychology.)are.
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A group of half-human, half-snake Shadowkind who are known for their bad relations with humans, due to them thinking of them as meerly prey. As a result, they did not take well to the Great Treaty. Eventually, an ophidia leader named Saramanda tried to openly rebel against the Treaty by leading a rebellion but was quickly overwhelmed. And when punished, she turned informant by becoming a Submitted in order to avoid the death penalty. Since then, she had been branded a traitor and relations between the humans and ophidia have taken a major strain. They serve as main antagonists in ''Power Primordial'' until the aboleth's introduction.
!!Tropes shared for all ophidia:
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* {{Expy}}: Of the yuan-ti from ''DungeonsAndDragons'', changed to make the species more mutable story-wise.
* OnlyOneName: As mentioned in "Soulscape", ophidia do not use surnames.
* NonMammalMammaries: Female ophidia have them, although a narrative says that they're always completely non-functional. (On another note, [[NonMammalianHair some also have hair]], another trait reptiles aren't supposed to have; combined with the fact that ophidia some ophidia have definite human features and can breed with them, their origins may be more closely linked than both races would like to admit...)
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Most ophidia tend to be antagonistic towards humans.
* SnakePeople
* ToServeMan: Their species traditionally regards humans as prey, although only evil ones actually do it.
!!Hebi-Na
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* ArchEnemy: Ember considered her this [[spoiler: although Hebi-Na currently does not think the same way.]]
* AscendedExtra: Originally just a minor criminal in the original storyline, she played a much bigger role in ''Power Primordial''.
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: ''Soulscape'' shows how much she feels sorry for what she's done and the pain she had inflicted to her victims, especially Ember. One of the things she wants to do if she ever wakes up is to find Ember and apologize. Although she has been cured of her curse, it is unknown if she had ever made amends with Ember.]]
* BareYourMidriff: For most of her appearances, she only wears a bustier. (Originally, she also wore sunglasses and a floor-length skirt to disguise her identity as an ophidia from Awares, but got rid of them later).
* [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind Battle in the Center of the Soul]]: The whole plot of ''Soulscape'' revolves around this, with Jalal entering her soul to battle the demons who have invaded it.
* ButtMonkey: And ''not'' played for laughs either. Towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', a lot has happened to her that she thinks she's merely [[CosmicPlaything a divine being's chew toy.]] Fortunately she gets better in ''Soulscape''
--> '''Hebi-Na''': Is there some higher force at work? Was I doomed since the day I was hatched? Did someone wager my soul on some celestial game of craps and lose?
** Note that the Shadowchasers ally Wilhelm denies that this is true, quoting Einstein by saying that "God does not roll dice". It doesn't do much to convince her.
* DespairEventHorizon: Crosses this after [[spoiler: Taramanda's death and when her life was practically in ruins]].
* DrivenToSuicide: Clearly, she wanted to kill herself after [[spoiler: Taramanda's death,]] thinking she truly had nothing left to live for. This was made even more obvious in ''Soulscape'', when one of the demons that Jalal encountered in her mind was an ''embodiment'' of the sin of self-murder. Fortunately, she did not succeed.
* [[spoiler: FateWorseThanDeath: Towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', the aboleth casts the Bells of Baphomet on her which would have caused to suffer this eventually. Fortunately for her, Wilhelm puts her in an eternal sleep in order to prevent her from hearing the bells, but causes her to stay that way until ''Soulscape'' wherein she gets cured of the curse, thankfully avoiding this trope in the process.]]
* GodIsEvil: She makes this controversial claim at her trial when asked to make a statement, after explaining that humananity's fear and distrust of snakes has dated back to the story of Creation. She suggests that God let the Serpent into Eden on purpose to tempt Eve, and when it's clear that the spectators are upset at this statement, she mentions the Book of Job as further "proof" that it's true. (It's very likely, of course, that she was simply trying to get a reaction. After all, she really thought she had nothing to lose.)
* HaveYouComeToGloat: [[spoiler: Says this to Ember when she (Ember) approaches Hebi-Na after she loses to Wilhelm while in her weakened state. Ember doesn't.]]
* [[spoiler: HeelFaceTurn: At the end of ''Soulscape'', she becomes the ophidia negotiator for the Shadowchasers, promising to help improve the relations between her people and humans.]]
* [[HotWitch Hot Witches]]: Used a Fortune Lady deck during her and Msskim's tag duel against Shichiro and Jinx in ''Power Primordial''.
* IronicEcho: During her second and third duels with Ember, she uses [[spoiler: a deck similar to Sonja's as an attempt to psyche Ember out.]]
* MarkOfShame: Taramanda gives her one after rescuing her from jail due to her failures in the original fic, she later removes it after Hebi-Na is given authority over the Dark Synchro cards.
* OlympusMons: In the original fic, she uses a Venom deck containing Venomminaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes (which is actually an avatar of the ophidia goddess Seghulerak) during her first duel with Ember and towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', a deck containing [[spoiler: Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder that the aboleth forces her to use. Due to the card being too powerful for her, she almost dies out of exhaustion while it's in her control.]]
* ProfessionalKiller: Part of her job in the conspiracy in the original fic, although she also acted as a go-between between two groups of conspirators.
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: In her case, this is justified. During her first duel against Ember, an omen from her goddess gave her advice, and it turned out to be ''very'' bad advice.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Well maybe not "why you suck", but in ''Power Primordial'', she tells Taramanda off after winning the Dark Synchro cards from the Demonic Guardian about the deceptive nature of their goddess when Taramanda demands her to hand over the Dark Synchro cards to her.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Besides from being one herself [[spoiler: (at first)]], she has used Reptile Decks that focus on some well-known sinister Reptiles on two separate occasions (Evil Dragon Ananta and Venomminaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes.)
* TheScapegoat: She is treated like this by the rest of her clan for much of ''Power Primordial'', who blame her for much of the failure in the original fic. She regains a little respect, at least from some of them.
* [[SignatureMove Signature Card]]: Evil Dragon Ananta in her original deck. [[spoiler: In ''Soulscape'', the card is a representation of what Hebi-Na used to do: the cruelty that she used to inflict towards others. By the end of ''Soulscape'' Hebi-Na officially forsakes the card in favor of her Serpent Knights.]]
* StarterVillain: She was the first major antagonistic Shadowkind to appear in the series, and was responsible for Ember's Awareness to kick in, which in turn, began the plot.
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler: Tries to pull this off when Ember refuses to kill her herself. Fortunately Wilhelm has a better alternative.]]
* SympathyForTheDevil: At the end of ''Power Primordial'', [[spoiler: after she is inflicted with the cruel curse the Bells of Baphomet and forced into an eternal slumber to protect her from it, Jalal issues her a pardon for her crimes on sympathtic grounds.]]
* TooDumbToLive: What was likely the biggest the mistake of her life was confronting the aboleth. Granted, she ''wanted'' to die when she did so, but what it did to her [[FateWorseThanDeath was far more cruel.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Compare her from the original fic to ''Power Primordial'' and ''Soulscape''.
* WildCard: Has gone through the most number of deck changes in the series until Ben and Dante are introduced. [[spoiler: By the end of ''Soulscape'', she has her Serpent Knights as her permament deck.]]
!!Taramanda
The ophidia empress, who rules the race mostly by default, given the fact that she has been given a blessing and the form of an anathema by their dark goddess, Seghulerak.
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* BigBadWannabe: During ''Power Primordial'' she is manipulated by the true BigBad into fighting the Shadowchasers for much of the fic, and then [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness disposed of]] when it is clear she is about to be apprehended.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: The Shadowchasers thought that she was the BigBad for the first half of "Power Primordial"
* [[spoiler: [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe Half the Woman She Used To Be]]: She meets her end this way when the Demonic Guardian attacks her with his weapon, cutting her in half in the process.]]
* [[HighPriest High Priestess]]: Of Seghulerak, naturally. [[spoiler: Secretly, Seghulerak is a goddess whose power is in a steep and steady decline; one of the biggest duties of anathemas like Taramanda is to keep other ophidia from knowing that, and to make them thing that their goddess is still powerful. Taramanda goes so far as to forgive Hebi-Na when there is risk that the secret will be revealed.]]
* [[HunterOfHisOwnKind Hunter of Her Own Kind]]: She doesn't truly hunt other ophidia, but her usual method of executing an underling [[YouHaveFailedMe who has failed her]] is to devour him. (The ophidia believe that an ophidia killed this was is condemed to eternal slavery by their dark goddess, a FateWorseThanDeath most likely.)
* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: After her death, the Demonic Guardian says to Jinx that it is possible that she is doomed to be Seghulerak's slave forever, saying that she was a ruler in life but a slave in death. Jinx doesn't find it funny one bit.]]
* [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal: The Demonic Guardian kills her after her second duel with Jalal.]]
* OneWingedAngel: Her usual form looks much like Hebi-Na. Her ''true'' form (which she assumes only when she is about to feed on a victim or is infuriated) is so horrific that it frightens even other ophidia.
* PragmaticVillainy: She shows this in one very important scene. After Ember escapes from their Neo Domino base, and Hebi-Na fails to recapture her, which requires their clan to abandon the whole base, her advisor Hssim tries to pin all the blame on Hebi-Na (as he has done for most of the fic). However, Taramanda sees it differently: the entire crisis could have been avoided if Hssim had not, numerous times, come up with stupid ideas and given bad advice. Hssim is lucky to escape with his life after this, but he does lose his job as her advisor.
* [[SignatureMove Signature Card]]: Hundred Eyes Dragon in her first duel with Jalal. Sun Dragon Inti and Moon Dragon Quilla in her second one.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Calls Jalal "wyrm-waste" during their first duel, which only confirms to Jalal that the ophidia were in charge of the Dark Synchros on the loose.
!!Hssmim
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* BreakTheHaughty: Later on in ''Power Primoridal'', Taramanda starts realizing that their plans have been failing because of his prioritizing of getting Hebi-Na blamed, and as a result loses his position as her advisor. [[spoiler: And in his last appearance, he loses the last of pride and dignity when he is defeated and arrested by Gears.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: And ''how!''
* LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler: Is forced to use Edmund's Worm Deck during his duel Gears.]]
* NoodleIncident: We never really figure out why he and Hebi-Na have a grudge with one another in the first place.
* SmugSnake: Both figuratively ''and'' literally.
* TreacherousAdvisor: Not to Taramanda, but sometimes he tends to do things that could ruin their plans just so that he could get Hebi-Na in trouble.
* [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Why Don't You Just Shoot Them?]]: He asks Taramanda at one point on why should they bother dueling the Neo Domino Shadowchasers when they can just hire a professional gun instead. [[spoiler: Taramanda then tells him that due to an alliance Jalal made with a group called the Knights of Domiel (whose name she avoids saying out loud), any assassination attempt on any Shadowchaser (except Jalal himself) is thwarted and the would be assassins disappear without a trace. (In other words, many people have tried to "just shoot them", but they have never succeeded.)]]
!!Cssmith
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* TheAnticipator
* MarriedToTheJob: Magdalene claims the reason he's stressed is because he hasn't taken time off in so long.
* ProperlyParanoid: After being forcibly taken to another planet and made to duel Gears, he's so concerned that he might be losing his mind that he talks to Magdalene on his own initiative, despite the fact that having her agree with him and being labeled insane would be a FateWorseThanDeath.
* StraightMan: To Hssmin
!!Msskim
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* DumbMuscle: But not quite as dumb as he looks.
* TheLegionsOfHell: Uses an Archfiend Deck
* [[SignatureMove Signature Card]]: Zera the Mant
!!Magdalene
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* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: Being declared insane by a monitor reduces an ophidia to a status that is barely better than a slave in their community, and while Taramanda technically can override this decision, she never does. As a result, the ophidia are more afraid of Magdalene than they are of Taramanda. However, among the ophidia of Neo Domino, she seems the least malignant, and acts pretty much like any psychologist does. (On the other hand, she seems to have no objections to Taramanda's plans.)
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Uses a lich-themed Zombie Deck during her duel with Gears.
* TheShrink: She's something called a "monitor", an ophidia who is trained to determine if an ophidia is mentally ill (more of a problem for them than it is for humans) and control the ones that are. (It is implied that in the past, a monitor's job involved focusing the rage of insane ophidia so that it was unleashed upon enemies. In modern times, however, monitors tend to take actual training in psychology.)
* [[SignatureMove Signature Card]]: Fushioh Richie.
!!Tropes shared for all ophidia:
-----
* {{Expy}}: Of the yuan-ti from ''DungeonsAndDragons'', changed to make the species more mutable story-wise.
* OnlyOneName: As mentioned in "Soulscape", ophidia do not use surnames.
* NonMammalMammaries: Female ophidia have them, although a narrative says that they're always completely non-functional. (On another note, [[NonMammalianHair some also have hair]], another trait reptiles aren't supposed to have; combined with the fact that ophidia some ophidia have definite human features and can breed with them, their origins may be more closely linked than both races would like to admit...)
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Most ophidia tend to be antagonistic towards humans.
* SnakePeople
* ToServeMan: Their species traditionally regards humans as prey, although only evil ones actually do it.
!!Hebi-Na
-----
* ArchEnemy: Ember considered her this [[spoiler: although Hebi-Na currently does not think the same way.]]
* AscendedExtra: Originally just a minor criminal in the original storyline, she played a much bigger role in ''Power Primordial''.
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: ''Soulscape'' shows how much she feels sorry for what she's done and the pain she had inflicted to her victims, especially Ember. One of the things she wants to do if she ever wakes up is to find Ember and apologize. Although she has been cured of her curse, it is unknown if she had ever made amends with Ember.]]
* BareYourMidriff: For most of her appearances, she only wears a bustier. (Originally, she also wore sunglasses and a floor-length skirt to disguise her identity as an ophidia from Awares, but got rid of them later).
* [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind Battle in the Center of the Soul]]: The whole plot of ''Soulscape'' revolves around this, with Jalal entering her soul to battle the demons who have invaded it.
* ButtMonkey: And ''not'' played for laughs either. Towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', a lot has happened to her that she thinks she's merely [[CosmicPlaything a divine being's chew toy.]] Fortunately she gets better in ''Soulscape''
--> '''Hebi-Na''': Is there some higher force at work? Was I doomed since the day I was hatched? Did someone wager my soul on some celestial game of craps and lose?
** Note that the Shadowchasers ally Wilhelm denies that this is true, quoting Einstein by saying that "God does not roll dice". It doesn't do much to convince her.
* DespairEventHorizon: Crosses this after [[spoiler: Taramanda's death and when her life was practically in ruins]].
* DrivenToSuicide: Clearly, she wanted to kill herself after [[spoiler: Taramanda's death,]] thinking she truly had nothing left to live for. This was made even more obvious in ''Soulscape'', when one of the demons that Jalal encountered in her mind was an ''embodiment'' of the sin of self-murder. Fortunately, she did not succeed.
* [[spoiler: FateWorseThanDeath: Towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', the aboleth casts the Bells of Baphomet on her which would have caused to suffer this eventually. Fortunately for her, Wilhelm puts her in an eternal sleep in order to prevent her from hearing the bells, but causes her to stay that way until ''Soulscape'' wherein she gets cured of the curse, thankfully avoiding this trope in the process.]]
* GodIsEvil: She makes this controversial claim at her trial when asked to make a statement, after explaining that humananity's fear and distrust of snakes has dated back to the story of Creation. She suggests that God let the Serpent into Eden on purpose to tempt Eve, and when it's clear that the spectators are upset at this statement, she mentions the Book of Job as further "proof" that it's true. (It's very likely, of course, that she was simply trying to get a reaction. After all, she really thought she had nothing to lose.)
* HaveYouComeToGloat: [[spoiler: Says this to Ember when she (Ember) approaches Hebi-Na after she loses to Wilhelm while in her weakened state. Ember doesn't.]]
* [[spoiler: HeelFaceTurn: At the end of ''Soulscape'', she becomes the ophidia negotiator for the Shadowchasers, promising to help improve the relations between her people and humans.]]
* [[HotWitch Hot Witches]]: Used a Fortune Lady deck during her and Msskim's tag duel against Shichiro and Jinx in ''Power Primordial''.
* IronicEcho: During her second and third duels with Ember, she uses [[spoiler: a deck similar to Sonja's as an attempt to psyche Ember out.]]
* MarkOfShame: Taramanda gives her one after rescuing her from jail due to her failures in the original fic, she later removes it after Hebi-Na is given authority over the Dark Synchro cards.
* OlympusMons: In the original fic, she uses a Venom deck containing Venomminaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes (which is actually an avatar of the ophidia goddess Seghulerak) during her first duel with Ember and towards the end of ''Power Primordial'', a deck containing [[spoiler: Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder that the aboleth forces her to use. Due to the card being too powerful for her, she almost dies out of exhaustion while it's in her control.]]
* ProfessionalKiller: Part of her job in the conspiracy in the original fic, although she also acted as a go-between between two groups of conspirators.
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: In her case, this is justified. During her first duel against Ember, an omen from her goddess gave her advice, and it turned out to be ''very'' bad advice.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Well maybe not "why you suck", but in ''Power Primordial'', she tells Taramanda off after winning the Dark Synchro cards from the Demonic Guardian about the deceptive nature of their goddess when Taramanda demands her to hand over the Dark Synchro cards to her.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Besides from being one herself [[spoiler: (at first)]], she has used Reptile Decks that focus on some well-known sinister Reptiles on two separate occasions (Evil Dragon Ananta and Venomminaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes.)
* TheScapegoat: She is treated like this by the rest of her clan for much of ''Power Primordial'', who blame her for much of the failure in the original fic. She regains a little respect, at least from some of them.
* [[SignatureMove Signature Card]]: Evil Dragon Ananta in her original deck. [[spoiler: In ''Soulscape'', the card is a representation of what Hebi-Na used to do: the cruelty that she used to inflict towards others. By the end of ''Soulscape'' Hebi-Na officially forsakes the card in favor of her Serpent Knights.]]
* StarterVillain: She was the first major antagonistic Shadowkind to appear in the series, and was responsible for Ember's Awareness to kick in, which in turn, began the plot.
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler: Tries to pull this off when Ember refuses to kill her herself. Fortunately Wilhelm has a better alternative.]]
* SympathyForTheDevil: At the end of ''Power Primordial'', [[spoiler: after she is inflicted with the cruel curse the Bells of Baphomet and forced into an eternal slumber to protect her from it, Jalal issues her a pardon for her crimes on sympathtic grounds.]]
* TooDumbToLive: What was likely the biggest the mistake of her life was confronting the aboleth. Granted, she ''wanted'' to die when she did so, but what it did to her [[FateWorseThanDeath was far more cruel.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Compare her from the original fic to ''Power Primordial'' and ''Soulscape''.
* WildCard: Has gone through the most number of deck changes in the series until Ben and Dante are introduced. [[spoiler: By the end of ''Soulscape'', she has her Serpent Knights as her permament deck.]]
!!Taramanda
The ophidia empress, who rules the race mostly by default, given the fact that she has been given a blessing and the form of an anathema by their dark goddess, Seghulerak.
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* BigBadWannabe: During ''Power Primordial'' she is manipulated by the true BigBad into fighting the Shadowchasers for much of the fic, and then [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness disposed of]] when it is clear she is about to be apprehended.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: The Shadowchasers thought that she was the BigBad for the first half of "Power Primordial"
* [[spoiler: [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe Half the Woman She Used To Be]]: She meets her end this way when the Demonic Guardian attacks her with his weapon, cutting her in half in the process.]]
* [[HighPriest High Priestess]]: Of Seghulerak, naturally. [[spoiler: Secretly, Seghulerak is a goddess whose power is in a steep and steady decline; one of the biggest duties of anathemas like Taramanda is to keep other ophidia from knowing that, and to make them thing that their goddess is still powerful. Taramanda goes so far as to forgive Hebi-Na when there is risk that the secret will be revealed.]]
* [[HunterOfHisOwnKind Hunter of Her Own Kind]]: She doesn't truly hunt other ophidia, but her usual method of executing an underling [[YouHaveFailedMe who has failed her]] is to devour him. (The ophidia believe that an ophidia killed this was is condemed to eternal slavery by their dark goddess, a FateWorseThanDeath most likely.)
* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: After her death, the Demonic Guardian says to Jinx that it is possible that she is doomed to be Seghulerak's slave forever, saying that she was a ruler in life but a slave in death. Jinx doesn't find it funny one bit.]]
* [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal: The Demonic Guardian kills her after her second duel with Jalal.]]
* OneWingedAngel: Her usual form looks much like Hebi-Na. Her ''true'' form (which she assumes only when she is about to feed on a victim or is infuriated) is so horrific that it frightens even other ophidia.
* PragmaticVillainy: She shows this in one very important scene. After Ember escapes from their Neo Domino base, and Hebi-Na fails to recapture her, which requires their clan to abandon the whole base, her advisor Hssim tries to pin all the blame on Hebi-Na (as he has done for most of the fic). However, Taramanda sees it differently: the entire crisis could have been avoided if Hssim had not, numerous times, come up with stupid ideas and given bad advice. Hssim is lucky to escape with his life after this, but he does lose his job as her advisor.
* [[SignatureMove Signature Card]]: Hundred Eyes Dragon in her first duel with Jalal. Sun Dragon Inti and Moon Dragon Quilla in her second one.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Calls Jalal "wyrm-waste" during their first duel, which only confirms to Jalal that the ophidia were in charge of the Dark Synchros on the loose.
!!Hssmim
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* BreakTheHaughty: Later on in ''Power Primoridal'', Taramanda starts realizing that their plans have been failing because of his prioritizing of getting Hebi-Na blamed, and as a result loses his position as her advisor. [[spoiler: And in his last appearance, he loses the last of pride and dignity when he is defeated and arrested by Gears.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: And ''how!''
* LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler: Is forced to use Edmund's Worm Deck during his duel Gears.]]
* NoodleIncident: We never really figure out why he and Hebi-Na have a grudge with one another in the first place.
* SmugSnake: Both figuratively ''and'' literally.
* TreacherousAdvisor: Not to Taramanda, but sometimes he tends to do things that could ruin their plans just so that he could get Hebi-Na in trouble.
* [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Why Don't You Just Shoot Them?]]: He asks Taramanda at one point on why should they bother dueling the Neo Domino Shadowchasers when they can just hire a professional gun instead. [[spoiler: Taramanda then tells him that due to an alliance Jalal made with a group called the Knights of Domiel (whose name she avoids saying out loud), any assassination attempt on any Shadowchaser (except Jalal himself) is thwarted and the would be assassins disappear without a trace. (In other words, many people have tried to "just shoot them", but they have never succeeded.)]]
!!Cssmith
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* TheAnticipator
* MarriedToTheJob: Magdalene claims the reason he's stressed is because he hasn't taken time off in so long.
* ProperlyParanoid: After being forcibly taken to another planet and made to duel Gears, he's so concerned that he might be losing his mind that he talks to Magdalene on his own initiative, despite the fact that having her agree with him and being labeled insane would be a FateWorseThanDeath.
* StraightMan: To Hssmin
!!Msskim
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* DumbMuscle: But not quite as dumb as he looks.
* TheLegionsOfHell: Uses an Archfiend Deck
* [[SignatureMove Signature Card]]: Zera the Mant
!!Magdalene
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* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: Being declared insane by a monitor reduces an ophidia to a status that is barely better than a slave in their community, and while Taramanda technically can override this decision, she never does. As a result, the ophidia are more afraid of Magdalene than they are of Taramanda. However, among the ophidia of Neo Domino, she seems the least malignant, and acts pretty much like any psychologist does. (On the other hand, she seems to have no objections to Taramanda's plans.)
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Uses a lich-themed Zombie Deck during her duel with Gears.
* TheShrink: She's something called a "monitor", an ophidia who is trained to determine if an ophidia is mentally ill (more of a problem for them than it is for humans) and control the ones that are. (It is implied that in the past, a monitor's job involved focusing the rage of insane ophidia so that it was unleashed upon enemies. In modern times, however, monitors tend to take actual training in psychology.)
* [[SignatureMove Signature Card]]: Fushioh Richie.
