The Rainbow Serpent

Domain: The Nightmare Lands
Domain Formation: Unknown
Power Level: 💀💀⚫⚫⚫
Sources: Domains of Dread (2e), Nightmare Lands (2e)

Over the last several weeks I have reviewed each Darklord of the Nightmare Lands and today I shall discuss the final one depicted within the traditional Ravenloft setting, the Rainbow Serpent. It is the only member of the Nightmare Court to adapt a non-humanoid appearance. The Rainbow Serpent is a winged-snake similar to a couati, though quite opposite in its nature. Its scales are a brilliant crimson with bands of indigo, yellow, and black. Its eyes hide a malignant intellect and its mouth is always set with a mocking smile.

At the very center of the City of Nod within the Nightmare Lands, the Serpent makes its lair in the Park Primeval. The park is a nearly impassable overgrown jungle and the number of venomous reptiles that live within would satiate even the most renown of Borcan toxicologists. Similar to Mullonga’s alleyway maze, Park Primeval is a shifting labyrinth trapping aspiring explores in its layers of vegetation and toxic lifeforms. The only constant within is the Tree of Suspicion. This vast, black-leafed tree, who’s roots continually pulse as if drawing in a thick ichor, is located at the heart of the Park Primeval. Suitably, it is also the Seperent’s arcane relic, granting the paranoia inducing snake much of its power.

The Rainbow Serpent feeds on the paranoia and insecurities of dreamers. It typically targets those suspicious of betrayal. Perhaps you were an Earl of a vast domain and your son worked against your cause and freed political prisoners…Theoretically, you may suffer from paranoia after such an event. The Rainbow Serpent targets such individuals, replaying the same betrayal in their dreams or creating new highly believable ones that have yet to transpire.

The Serpent’s dreamscapes are cunningly crafted dreams within dreams transforming the sleeper into a state in which they can no longer discern the dreaming from the waking world. One could wake in the middle of the night to discover their spouse in the embrace of another, tumble back to bed in disbelieve and wake up the next morning never realizing that what they witnessed had only been a dream.

In addition, this manipulative snake communicates telepathically to those that walk within the Park Primeval. It often hides amongst the jungle canopy sending thoughts of suspicion, doubt, and insecurities into his victim’s minds. This is done in such a way that the recipient often cannot differentiate the Serpent’s suggestions from their own thoughts and emotions.

As with the rest of the Nightmare Court, the Rainbow Serpent’s past is obscured by the Mist. It is not above our tormentors to capture animals in these realms, though the idea of a pathological liar becoming the embodiment of the silver tongued, treacherous snake is quite fitting.