The House of Shadowsnakes
The original guild of Shadowsnakes from which the modern House is descended was founded in the year 196 AF by Cobra and his Shadow Cabal, after they broke away from the guild of Serpentlords to focus on the study of a set of tomes they discovered housed in a mystical ship on the bottom of a remote lake. These tomes contained the notes from years of experiments by the original serpents, Loki and Ekanel, into what they called the "Mastery of the Shadows". With the aide of Lady Eris and Her occult scholars, this knowledge was eventually condensed into the Shadow Codex, the sentient collection of ancient serpentine lore which guides us in our study of the Shadows to this day. We are the living embodiment of the Shadows, mysterious children of darkness and chaos, and our goal is mayhem. Living on the fringes of society, we have no qualms with shaking up its quiet existence to fulfill our duty. We are the spies, saboteurs, and the assassins. We are the dark scholars who seek out hidden knowledge and hoard it away to further our goals in the future. As Shadows, we are linked to one of the primordial fears of mankind. Shadows are a gateway to the unknown - the home of things parents tell stories of to frighten their children. Unpredictable by nature, we flow between times of quiet solitude and bloodthirsty rage without the slightest warning. We are the makers of Mischief, the sowers of Chaos, and the harvesters of Discord. Defiantly independent, our methods are as varied as our members. However, we remain fiercely loyal to each other and the Shadow of secrecy we provide each other. To put this secrecy at risk is to dispel the mystery of the Shadows; therefore, our silent secrecy is paramount. Unfortunate accidents tend to happen to those who find themselves no longer welcome within the Shadows.