The Serpent Men are creatures which were created by Robert E. Howard for his King Kull stories, but were subsequently incorporated into the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Cthulhu Mythos.
Description[]
The Serpent Men are humanoid reptiles who possess the head of a snake. They are magical creatures with many abilities, but the one they use most commonly is their ability to cast illusions upon themselves in order to appear as a regular human. According to some legends, the spirit of a mortal killed by a Serpent Man becomes his slave upon death.
History[]
Originally created by the Great Serpent, who was actually the Great Old One Yig, the Serpent Men were birthed into this world in aeons past. Building a mighty empire, this first civilisation fell with the rise of the dinosaurs over 225 million years ago. Much later, a mere 20,000 years ago, the Serpent Men rebuilt their empire and ruled over the human race, but were eventually toppled by their slaves in a long war. They then proceeded to infiltrate human society where they again ruled their former servants, but this time from behind the scenes. Ultimately, they were discovered and cast out again, and thus the Serpent Men passed from reality into legend.
From the overworld, the remnants of the defeated civilisation migrated to the cavern of Yoth beneath K'n-yan in modern day North America. Slowly rebuilding their society, the Serpent Men this time brought about their own downfall by abandoning their worship of Yig in favour of another Great Old One known as Tsathoggua. Seeing this, Yig cast down their cities and laid a curse on the Serpent Men, forcing them to flee their new home and scatter across the globe.
Man-Serpents[]
At some point in their history, the Serpent Men produced an offshoot race known as the Man-Serpents. These creatures are markedly different from their parent race in that they have the body of an enormous snake, a human-like head and a shock of live serpents in place of hair, much like the Gorgons of Greek mythology. Possessed of an inhuman strength, the Man-Serpents have a highly venomous bite and are able to transfix an opponent with merely a look. Their current relationship with their progenitor race is unknown.
Appearances[]
- The Shadow Kingdom (1929), by Robert E. Howard.
- The Seven Geases (1934), by Clark Ashton Smith.
- The Horror in the Gallery (1976), by Lin Carter.
- The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1984), Robert Shae & Robert Anton Wilson.
- Outer Gateways (1994), by Kenneth Grant.