My campaign is set on a sister world of Golarion that has been cut off from the multiverse as it is in a demiplane. The Daemons tried to hijack the world and drag it to Abaddon but were partially thwarted.
On this world several ancient cultures have managed to survive such as the Atzlanti (very rare/hidden) and the Serpentfolk have their own empire. God cannot grant spells on this world unless physically present (cut off from multiverse) and the SF have a nascent demon lord as Empress who can grant them spells.
They are the only race in the world with alrge scale divine casters. Other divine casters are very rare as they need to find a divine power source. The serpents are opposed by most of the other races and the Red Mantis who regard divine casters as heretics worthy of death.
Anyway how do you view the way the erpentfolk empire is actually run. Beyond these ones practicing slavery and human sacrifce I ahven't thought about it to much. Ironically the Serpentfolk empire has managed to save the world by stopping it falling into Abaddon. The evil of the world has another evil behind them.
The grand goal of the campaign is to save the wrold I suppose and reestablish a connection with Golarions multiverse.
So the PCs can't be clerics?
Not as a general rule. They have to find a divine power source and multiclass into Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger. Kinda like Jedi in the Star Wars RPG in the classic era with the empire.
Do you have access to Serpent's Skull, AP #37?
There you find the article "Ecology of the Serpentfolk" which might answer most/some your questions.
It does relate to Golarion's "version" of the Serpentfolk empire prior to Earthfall, but why should these slithering beasties have changed their way to run things?
Ruyan.
My friends has parts of Serpents Skull but i have only read the 1st one in any depth. Its a different world with major changes to the gods and stuff.
To go back to the original question. Clearly you would expect the divine spellcasters to rule/be very influencial. With serpentfolk I would expect alot of assasinations/cut-throat politics and divisions. Inquisitors could figure strongly.
Dotting for future reference.
Hm, question is: do the players know the differences to what's going on and how things are handeled in your homebrew compared to what is canon for Golarion (where the Serpentfolk Empire predates the height of Azlant - which in turn is hidden under a couple 1000 years of history?)
Otherwise, I would be in the same team as Haldrick then, and (still) imagine the serpentfolk hierarchy similar to what's know of Aztec/Maya or even Egypt.
Especially Egypt-related stuff would be a nice twist since players might know Osirion stuff from Golarion. The over-exaggeration of all things gods/religion-related cannot be stressed enough - especially with what you've described.
Ruyan.
My players don't know Golarion that well as we ran kingmaker to start with and that wasn't very Golarion as such. They know about things like the Red Mantis and have heard about the Atzlanti. I'm the one who own the inner sea world guide.
They probably don't know much about Osirion and probably don't care to. Generally we don't like porting real world areas to a D&D setting. A quasi Egypt has been overdone and being honest its one thing about Golarion I don't like (Nithia, Mulhurond, Orision etc).
THey don't know much about the Serpent Folk nor do they know why magic doesn't work properly although some of them are guessing based onthe little they do know. Teleport for example doesn't work and most summon and calling spells don't work properly. You conjure up a demon for example and it doesn't go home at the end of the spells description and it is very angry it can't go back home to the Abyss. Interdimensional magic is one way or doesn't work at all.
One of the smarter PCs suspects that we're actually playing on a demiplane which is incorrect but he is on the right path. One of the PCs reads these forums so I don't wanna go into to much detail. Part of the changes were to balance out spellcasters. You want to be a primary spellcaster you can be but you have to multiclass into it as the Red Mantis function like the Sith. THey don't mind minor spellcasters like bards, magus, or alchemists but anything with access to level 7+ spells or spells not on one of those spelllists are in trouble, espicially divine casters.