By lineage or accident of fate, spiritual enlightenment or inner turmoil, you’ve taken your first steps down the path of a servant of the Serpent Empress, a ruler from beyond the planes whose power rivals the gods themselves. Residing in her palace of gold and turquoise, her imperial majesty sleeps in solitude for countless ages, traveling slowly between the planes. When her palace arrives upon a new world and she awakens, her reign of cruelty commences. Your style of martial arts has been taught to you by one of her handmaidens or was discovered in scrolls containing these forbidden techniques that were left behind when the Empress departed from your world ages ago for unknown reasons.

Constricting Vice

At 3rd level, you learn to ensnare your foes, crushing the life from them as punishment for their transgressions. You can choose to use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier when you make a Strength (Athletics) check. Once per turn when you hit a creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows feature, you can choose to attempt to grapple the target. While you are grappling a creature, you can spend 1 ki point as a bonus action to constrict them, dealing bludgeoning damage equal to your Martial Arts die + your Dexterity modifier. The target is also restrained until the start of your next turn or until the grapple ends.

Ophidian Stance

At 6th level, you learn to adapt your body to the movements of the more advanced techniques of this style. You can move at full speed while you are prone, and you gain the benefits of the Disengage action while you are prone. You can stand up from prone without spending additional movement. When you are the target of an attack, you can use your reaction and spend 1 ki point to stand up from prone or drop prone before the attack roll is made.

Eyes of the Empress

At 11th level, your reptilian ki infuses your eyes, sharpening your vision and causing your pupils to become snake-like slits. You gain darkvision out to 60 feet, and your darkvision is not impeded by magical darkness. As an action, you can attempt to transfix a target that can see you, overpowering their senses with your mental influence. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Ki save DC. If it fails, it is charmed until the start of your next turn. You can use this feature on a creature who failed its saving throw as a bonus action on your next turn. A creature who succeeds on its saving throw is immune to the effect to this feature for 1 minute.

Basilisk Venom

Starting at 17th level, your fingers drip with a deadly toxin whose effects mimic the fearsome power of the Empress. Whenever a creature is grappled by you and is struck by your Stunning Strike feature, you can spend 2 additional ki points to paralyze the target until the end of its next turn. If you critically hit a creature, you can spend 3 ki points to petrify it. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw against  your Ki save DC. If it fails, it is petrified as though it had failed three saves against a flesh to stone spell. If you maintain concentration on this effect for 1 minute, the creature is permanently turned to stone, and the petrification can only be reversed by a remove curse or dispel magic spell cast at 6th level or higher.