Lightly glowing yellow eyes,
Cruel king in curséd guise,
Gentle waves proclaim he's near,
Sailors swallow failure's fear,
When he strikes, the pain comes quick,
But you will die before you're sick.

Serpent of Eld

Splinter - ΛZMΛRÉ, the Water Splinter

Set - Untamed

Class - Sea Serpent - One-of-a-Kind

Size - There are plenty of sea monsters larger than the Serpent of Eld, but the most massive of them stay to the deeper waters much further from the ΛZMΛRÉ shores. He is by far the most dangerous of the monsters that live closer to land. The Serpent of Eld is sometimes called by nicknames such as the shallowbeast and slithering doom because of his tendency to lurk near beaches and sometimes emerge from the water. When fully vertical, the Serpent of Eld is roughly four times taller than the sails of ΛZMΛRÉ’s largest ships, which belong to the pirates.

Lifespan - The life of the Serpent of Eld is the result of an ancient curse. He was once a king. In fact, he was the last king of ΛZMΛRÉ, and though the Water Splinter is a land rich in stories, there are very few who know the truth of Eld’s origin. Only a few decades had passed since the great Splintering, and the greedy jungle king was doing his best to cling to his power in the aftermath. He accumulated massive piles of gold and treasure in his palace, which was one of the precious few buildings that was left unscathed by the Splintering. The king gathered treasures from anywhere he could find them, but little did he know that some things unearthed by the Splintering would have been better to remain buried for all time. One particular cup that attracted the attention of one of his bands of treasure hunters turned out to be a judgement chalice. This cup that seemed to be an average piece of treasure was the subject of pirate folklore; it possessed the ability to judge the soul and character of its owner, and to distribute supernatural justice to them if necessary. The king of Eld was found unworthy by the Chalice to remain in his human form. He was instantly transformed into the monster known today as the Serpent of Eld and all his treasure was laden with a curse of death. Whoever has touched even a single piece of the treasure since has died shortly after in what always appeared to be a tragic accident. Until slain in the wild, the Serpent of Eld will live to torment the ΛZMΛRÉ shoreline.

Habitat - The Serpent of Eld is an amphibious beast, but it greatly prefers life underwater. He can usually be found (if someone was foolish enough to go looking for him) somewhere around the edge of the ΛZMΛRÉ jungle, which covers the entire western edge of the continent. There he can remain close to the cursed treasure that he still considers his own, even though there is no worldly satisfaction for him in its riches. Pirates believe that the Serpent has several lairs spread throughout the shallows, holes that lead to underwater caves. These are the places that they presume the Serpent sleeps.

Weapon - As one of the largest serpents in the world, every single part of Eld’s body can be considered a weapon. He moves with incredible quickness for something so large. In Moxian combat, his enemies often think they have the drop on the Serpent, only to find that he is already behind them and poised to strike a deadly blow. When he strikes, he prefers to bite rather than constrict, but he can easily do either. Each of the Serpent’s fangs are as tall as a man, and as they bite into prey, they release a large amount of venom. While this venom is not as deadly as that of many smaller creatures, its pain is enough to drive a victim mad within the first few minutes. When his teeth sink into an enemy on the battlefield, the Serpent groans with pleasure, as if the act of releasing its toxins is extremely satisfying to the beast.

Diet - One thing that has not suffered from the years of cursed transformation for Eld has been his diet. As a giant sea serpent, he can outswim nearly any type of seafood he wishes to try, and his mouth always opens wide enough to fit a living meal inside. He also enjoys the taste of merfolk, so he sometimes swims up into the Inner Sea through the network of deepwater tunnels below ΛZMΛRÉ and surprises the inhabitants of Poseidar with a sudden and deadly visit.

Allies - The cruel magic of the Medusa that dwell in the deepest parts of the Dark Water have no effect on the Serpent of Eld, so he has befriended their kind. He enjoys their company because they too are despised by nearly everyone else in the world for their instinctive power to turn the living to blocks of stone. The Serpent is also respected by the Axemasters that live around and near the palace in the jungle. He views these blue-skinned people as protectors and stewards of his treasure and does not realize that they only respect him out of fear for their lives.

Enemies - Eld is known throughout the Water Splinter (and thanks to Moxian combat, the whole world) for his cruelty and wrath. Still, many simply look at the Serpent as a force of nature rather than a creature in control of its actions. The Pirates of ΛZMΛRÉ are the one notable exception to this rule. They believe that the king of Eld is still his old self, only now more deadly and with a different kind of power. They also believe that when the Serpent is finally slain, the curse upon his vast treasure will be lifted at last. This is why one of the most important ongoing missions of the ΛZMΛRÉ pirates is to locate and destroy the Serpent. Should they locate any of his lairs or discover where he sleeps, the pirates would set aside all their internal feuds for a chance to kill the beast and become richer than their wildest dreams.

Pastimes - Because he has lived as a Serpent for so many years and there is no end in sight, the king of Eld has a great deal of time to kill. There is an endless world to explore beneath the sea, and it is not widely known that the Serpent has an exceptional ability for diving deeper than any other sea creature. This is possibly due to the curse with which he was stricken by the judgement chalice so long ago. Whatever the reason for the power, he spends many days exploring the ocean floor, searching the many shipwrecks around the edges of ΛZMΛRÉ and seeking powerful treasures, like the one that took everything from him over 800 years ago.