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difficult to like. Their worship of the Serpent-God, Issa, has led them
,to adopt certain reptilian mannerisms which most outsiders consider
repugnant.
While the nation is referred to as a kingdom in conformity with
the practice in other western countries, this designation is not
precisely accurate, since the ruler of the Nyissans has always been a
queen. The traditional name, Salmissra, appears to have no
particular hereditary significance, and the process by which successors are
'chosen is a closely guarded secret intimately involved in the
religious life of the Nyissans, since the Queen is also the high priestess
of the national religion.
*Salmissra is modeled in part on Cleopatra, obviously, and Nyissan society is to
a degree
Egyptian, though not entirely. In the Belgariad the N's are incomprehensible
villains, but in the Malloreon Sadi proved to be an important character, as did
Zith.
THE PEOPLE
Because of the abundance of strange flora in the Nyissan jungles,
the snake people have developed a vast lore having to do with
herbal compounds and drugs, and it is generally believed, though
probably erroneously, that the entire nation
is addicted to one or the
other of these compounds. The drugs do, however, play a significant
part in Nyissan religious observances. It is also unfortunately true
that one of the sidelines of Nyissan pharmaceutical experiments has
been the development of a vast range of poisons and toxins which
have intruded upon occasion into the politics of Tolnedra. The
removal of a political adversary in Tolnedra has always been too
simple a matter largely because of the lamentable proximity of the
Nyissan border.
Sadly, the basic industry of Nyissa has always been the
slavetrade. The battlefields of the wars and insurrections of the west have
for thousands of years been haunted by Nyissan slavers. They are
indeed sometimes as prevalent as ravens. Although the trade is
generally condemned, captives without the means to afford ransom
all too frequently end up in chains on Nyissan slave ships. The fate
of these unfortunates is unknown, but since the Nyissan slavers
almost invariably pay for their goods and supplies with Angarak
gold (which has a distinctive reddish cast by reason of the iron
deposits in the vicinity of the mines of Gar og Nadrak and Cthol
Murgos), it is generally assumed that the ultimate destinations of the
slaves are the Angarak Kingdoms to the east. One shudders at the
thought of what may happen to them once they fall into the hands of
the Grolim priests in those dark lands.
THE HISTORY OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE
Because of the secretive nature of the Nyissans, attempts to gather
historical data about them are extraordinarily frustrating. Indeed,
beyond a few cursory facts, most of which came to light during the
Alorn invasion of 4002-3, little is 'actually known about the country's
history.
Generally it is assumed that the Nyissans were a part of the
vast westward migration which took place during the first
millennium, at which time were also established the kingdoms of Aloria,