Are Yuan-Ti capable of falling in love with each other?

Question

I have a few ideas of an adventure involving a large group of Yuan-Ti.

The backstory of the adventure would include two Yuan-Ti falling in love with each other, and hence trying to get whatever is necessary to stay together in order to consummate their love.

The Monster Manual (p. 307) describes the Cold of Heart trait of the Yuan-Ti as :

Humanoid emotions are foreign to most yuan-ti.

_{Emphasis added}

I am thinking that human emotions can still happen because the book uses the word, most, but maybe love is much more than what a Yuan-Ti could really feel.

The lovers are a 'Pure Blood' (appearing mostly human) and a 'Malison' (having more serpentine traits). So they are not 'Abominations' (the most snakelike), which could be relevant. After all, snakes do not seem to have love-like relations, the same as with most reptiles.

I'm more interested by existing D&D 5e lore, but if that has happened in older versions of D&D, it would be enough for me to consider this has a possibility in my world.

Answer 1

In Lore: It's complicated.

Firstly, there are smatterings of evidence here and there, and it's hard to pull together all the pieces, but none of the lore I've found proves that it would be impossible. Regardless, there is no reason you should constrain yourself to existing lore, rather than creating your own, even if it subverts your players expectations.

However, below are some lore-inspired reasons for Yuan-Ti to be capable of 'love', or other human emotions.

All quotes are from the Forgotten Realms Wiki, unless stated otherwise.

Human origins

Firstly, from a lore perspective, in the forgotten realms at least Yuan-Ti originated as humans:

The yuan-ti were once human.^1,2 [...] bred [...] by magically experimenting with and breeding men with snakes.

(emphasis added)

Simply put: Humans are capable of love, and you might argue so are some Yuan-Ti.

What is love? Baby don't hurt me

Yuan-Ti are communal, so they clearly understand the value of societies and relying on others rather than being purely solitary.

They also have the concept of 'friendliness', as per this FR Wiki excerpt:

Yuan-ti call themselves vrael olo (which means "favored ones"). Daily use typically uses the shortened "vrael", and can be modified to "auvrael" (meaning friendly or known yuan-ti) and "duthrael" (unfriendly or unfamiliar yuan-ti).³

(emphasis added)

Also, at least outside of FR Lore, the concept of love itself is nebulous at best, and even animals (as a counterexample to Yuan-Ti) are considered capable of emotion.

Even the fact that Yuan-Ti typically lay broods:

Female yuan-ti lay eggs in brood chambers, marking each clutch with its parentage, then abandoning them to the care of broodguards.

(no source given in the wiki)

Doesn't necessarily mean that they are not able to pair bond with one or more (as monogamy is not a requisite for love) individuals.

This behaviour seems all too similar to the rigid structure of Drow society, which has been comparatively expanded on much more than the Yuan-Ti. Despite that rigid structure though, and some people assuming all Drow are cold and heartless, there are examples of them experiencing emotions like love.

Logical, captain.

Though Pureblood and Malison are both described as 'wicked', 'arrogant' and 'self-centered'^{4, 5} that doesn't necessarily preclude feelings of genuine love (merely conflicted and complex emotions).

Despite being thoroughly wicked, the majority of purebloods had magnetic personalities. Like all yuan-ti, they tended to be arrogant and self-centered.

Like most yuan-ti, [malison] tended to be self-absorbed and arrogant.

Indeed, it's even hinted that they can have affections towards each other:

Prospective partners will coldly measure one another and if both agree that the match is promising, they usually mate, regardless of their personal affections towards each other.⁵

(emphasis added)

This seems to hint, that although they may be Cold of Heart, they merely look past their emotions to logical conclusions, not unlike Vulcans from Star Trek.

Exceptions that prove the rule

Just as Drizzt (and others) prove that not all Drow are evil, there are examples (though less clear cut) of Yuan-ti 'pair bonding' or 'becoming interested in other', either Yuan-ti or other species. All these are featured in the novel series 'Forgotten Realms: House of Serpents':

• Zelia - becomes interested in another Psionic (unclear on the nature of her interest)
• Dediana - "Her mate was First Consort Ssibalentanamas, a spirit naga cleric of Sseth" (unclear on the the motivation of mating outside of Yuan-Ti)
• Dmetrio - In love with/Loved by Glisena. "Dmetrio Extaminos, son of Dediana Extaminos was in love with the baron's eldest daughter." (Unclear how well Glisena's affection was reciprocated, as per the novel Viper's Kiss: "He cared not for her at all, as he did not try to find her when she disappeared nor changed her mind when he was told she was pregnant with his child.")

As you can see, the Yuan-Ti are a complicated bunch. Often portrayed as being cold, the above bits of lore should show it's not as simple as that.

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Outside of Lore: It's your choice.

As others have argued, even if none of the above evidence existed, it's entirely your pierogi if you want to write or re-write lore, as per the 5e Monster Manual:

The alignment specified in a monster's stat block is the default. Feel free to depart from it and change a monster's alignment to suit the needs of your campaign. If you want a good-aligned green dragon or an evil storm giant, there's nothing stopping you.

Until Drizzt came along, we didn't have any examples of 'Good aligned Drow' (they probably existed in-universe though). And yet here we are now, with a more complicated and nuanced view of them. The same logic can be applied to any species portrayed in D&D lore. Just because the authors of the lore have not 'put the head on the robot' (aside: I highly recommend this article by James Mendez Hodes) so to speak, does not mean that the 'robot' can't be used for good, rather than doing harm by oversimplifying the portrayal of sentient creatures.

It's perfectly reasonable to say, these Yuan-Ti tend to be evil aligned due to societal/environment/magical factors, but outside of that, they are actually free to be any alignment.

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In support of the above, there has also been an errata to Volo's guide to Monsters

Roleplaying a Yuan-ti (p. 98). The four paragraphs before the tables have been replaced with the following: “When you’re roleplaying a yuan-ti, the following tables contain possible inspiration. They suggest characteristics that a yuan-ti might possess.”

And

Yuan-ti Pureblood Traits (p. 120). The Alignment trait has been removed.

This follows the general pattern of making humanoid creatures not restricted to a fixed alignment, or lore that limits them to a one-dimensional cultural expression.

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References copied over from the Forgotten Realms wiki:

1. David "Zeb" Cook et al. (1989). Monstrous Compendium Volume One. (TSR, Inc). ISBN 0-8803-8738-6.
2. Gary Gygax (August 1983). Monster Manual II 1st edition. (TSR, Inc), p. 130. ISBN 0-88038-031-4.
3. Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd, Darrin Drader (July 2004). Serpent Kingdoms. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 10–11. ISBN 0-7869-3277-5.
4. Reynolds, Forbeck, Jacobs, Boyd (March 2003). Races of Faerûn. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 151-152. ISBN 0-7869-2875-1.
5. Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook (July 2003). Monster Manual v.3.5. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 262. ISBN 0-7869-2893-X.

Answer 2

Monsters Are Individuals

The Monster Manual (pg. 7) gives you explicit permission to make the monsters what you need for your story.

The alignment specified in a monster's stat block is the default. Feel free to depart from it and change a monster's alignment to suit the needs of your campaign. If you want a good-aligned green dragon or an evil storm giant, there's nothing stopping you.

This idea is the basis for a lot of the newer content, where Fizban's Treasury of Dragons talks more about this idea that monsters aren't just their stat block. While it is talking of dragons, the concept is something that really applies to any and all monsters you choose to include in your world — even if you're using a canon world like Forgotten Realms:

Dragons are complex creatures with varied personalities, goals, priorities, and mannerisms. In that respect, they’re much like mortal folk—but dragons are also shaped by their specifically draconic characteristics, including incredibly long life spans, fundamentally magical biology, and the sheer enormity of their power.

Answer 3

You're the DM - you tell us.

You have the power. It doesn't matter if TSR or WotC or I or anyone else says they can or they can't; it's your adventure, if you want it so, make it so.

What other people have said (like you should care)

Since their original origin story in Dwellers of the Forbidden City where they were created from humans in a dark ritual involving the sacrifice of 1,000 human babies to a demon lord, Yuan-ti have been reinvented several times over.

This is still their history in the World of Greyhawk but they have a completely different genesis in the Forgotten Realms. So, right there is your unneeded justification for blazing your own trail.

Purebloods pretend to be human - why wouldn't they pick up human foibles? Halfbloods not so much but it's your story, you tell it how you want.

Answer 4

Highly Logical, emotionaless, but still have natural instincts

(Specifics may vary depending on the campaign world, since there is no RAW for this)

Pairings: While commitment and emotional bonding may not exist, like most humanoids, you can expect YT to have libidos and an interest in mating similar to most other races. They likely view reproduction as a side-effect of recreational 'activities', or a product of an arrangement between groups within the YT social structures (arranged 'marriages'). In more advanced yuan-ti civilizations (aka, cities of them), brothels would be both highly popular and a not-insignificant source of purebloods. The species does have to perpetuate itself, after all.

On Attachments: Yuan Ti do not 'love' per-se, but they can develop a favorite partner, and usually for a practical reason. Power, prestige, and their own lives are the only things any Yuan-Ti will ever think twice to part with. Everything else has value until it does not, at which point it is abandoned, sold, or ignored, .

On Children: Generally, you can expect a society of Yuan-ti to be big on slavery and not very big on tending to their young. You can expect Pureblood children to be abandoned without remorse (even sold off) to be raised in something resembling an orphanage. Higher breeds of YT, such as malisons, might be kept and raised by factions within the YT social structure (typically led by an Abomination) due to their higher status in the heirarchy, but Pureblood children would be more of a commodity raised merely because someone has to, then committed into whatever service is in need of bodies as soldiers, apprenticed labor (unlike slaves), low ranking clergy, slave handlers, or scouts/spies.

Small villages and isolated communities may be far more communal in nature compared to full blown cities. Someone is going to get tasked with raising and educating the kids and keeping them out from underfoot, setting them to work as soon as they're capable of understanding and following directions.