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| “ | There are not, of course, any leaders within the Library, save for the Serpent Herself. In Her omniscient wisdom, She chose fit to lay down the Rules, and any other form of leadership would be frankly unnecessary and a waste of valuable resources. Despite this, the vast majority of those who live within the Library's walls would rather take the risk of incurring Her wrath than the displeasure of those people euphemistically referred to as 'management'. Nobody is ever quite sure exactly what they manage, as the Library for the most part runs itself, but everyone agrees that they're certainly important. | „ |
| ~ A Librarian about the Serpent and the Wanderer's Library in "Introjection Infection Detection". |
| “ | Gossip would have you believe that the Library is located on the Serpent's back. This is a metaphor, taken as fact. The Library was built upon the back of the Serpent, who labored to create this sanctuary of knowledge. The Serpent does not even exist as a true being, it is a Platonic ideal of knowledge at any cost. | „ |
| ~ The Black Queen on her book Our Prometheus from "Found in a dusty corner of the Library". |
| “ | I watch. I see. I know. I am the Serpent |
„ |
| ~ From "Serpent Bound \\\ BEAR WITNESS". |
The Serpent is an anti-heroic serpent figure in the SCP Foundation mythos based on the Serpent from the Bible. They are established as a fundamental figure in the universe, creating the Wanderer's Library, worshipped by the Serpent's Hand, and the brother of Ananteshesha/SCP-3000.
They play a major role in the "Verse of an Endless Song", "Project PARAGON", "War on All Fronts" and "white space" series, and is partially responsible for the events of SCP-6000.
Biography[]
Possible Origins[]
Due to lack of canon in the SCP universe, there have been several stories telling the origins of the Serpent. The readers are free to choose whatever origin for their headcanon.
SCP-4840/Historia Europa I[]
According to Seth, before the creation of the universe there were two opposite forces that helped shape creation. One force was the existence of "IS", creation and reality that existed which took form of the Wanderer's Library, while the other was the reality of "IS NOT", non-existence. The two forces combined their powers to create all of reality allowing Mekhane and Yaldabaoth to seed the newly created universe with life. The remnants of the two forces would then manifest in the form of two brothers, the Serpent and the Eel, which became revered as holy figures by the people of the city of Audapaupadopolis, and its king, Adam el Asem proclaimed to be the sovereign of everything related to "IS".
In the account of Quin of Nore, the Chronicler of the Sky King Idus III von Apollyon, the Serpent was originally one of the nine Paragons created by IS to make IS's dream of creation come true and was named Runheia the Serpent by the Paragon of Names who sacrificied itself to name all of the Paragons. Because she was the Paragon of Knowledge, Runheia was the one who completely understood the dream of IS thanks to her knowledge and in her attempt to make it come true she created Her Eternal Library between IS NOT and the foundation of creation built by the other Paragons. Because the Library housed the Perfect Knowledge, Runheia made sure that people who entered the Library would understand the everything regarding the Paragons which would lead to them to find the Tree of Life Everlasting and steal from it the power of the Paragons.
However, after Aella lamented to her sister that this new Knowledge would lead to the usurpation of IS's Dream and the ruination of Their Arrangement, Runheia decided to use another seed from the heart of IS to create the Tree of Perfect Knowledge which contained the single TRUTH that was not found within IS. People could eat the fruit of one of the trees only if they ate had eaten the other's first, causing the Great Paradox to be created. Following the completion of creation, all of the Paragons went their separate ways, with Runheia resting inside the Library, until one day they returned to the Dream of IS after the world would end.
During the antediluvian period, the Daevite Queen Cynewise of Azidahaka started her own cult known as the Many Hands of the Serpent which worshipped the Serpent. This caused the Scarlet King, the main deity worshiped by the Daevites, to become jealous and wage war on those who betrayed him, but was defeated. The Many Hands of the Serpent appeared to have dissolved along with the Daevite civilization during the Flood.
Beneath Two Trees[]
Nahash was originally a protector of the Tree of Knowledge and kept watch over its secret power on behalf of the All-Mighty. He spoke of all the wonders that came with the Tree's power, the power that would test man's skill and spirit. His sister, Hakhama, was the guardian of the Tree of Life, keeping watch over its gifts.
During the Scarlet King's conquest, Nahash saw him coming from the east, rising out of the Abyss to consume creation. Nahash became frightened by this and, out of fear, acted out of line. He wanted to attack first, so he spoke to Hawwah of the People of the Valley, since she was wiser than her husband, and told her of what would happen. He asked her to use the gifts of the Tree of Knowledge against the Daevites, but she declined.
Nahash then spoke to Qayin, warning him of the king in the east and revealing the secret knowledge to him, teaching him the most powerful magics and spells. However the knowledge became a burden on Qayin, his mind strained from this burden, eventually leading him to striking down his brother, Hevel, with a stone, not killing him, but getting Qayin banished from the valley.
After this, the Daevites took control of Hevel, who became known as Ab-Leshal, and attacked the Valley, killing most of the people while those who were spared were taken as slaves. As Hakhama was shattered during the attack and the Tree of Knowledge burned, Nahash fled, first to the space-tower at Babel, and later on to the Wanderer's Library created by the Brothers Death, where he remained in penance for his participation in these events. Upon seeing that Hawwah had survived the attack after being left for dead, Nahash approached and helped her with her injuries. He then informed her what had happened and what was currently going on, before Hawwah became furious at him for cursing Qayin and abandoning them. Nahash tried to apologize to her, but she then requested him to grant her knowledge of the future since he owed her. He complied and gave her the dark knowledge, and following that he returned to the Library once more.
Provenance[]
Before the beggining of time, the Serpent wandered aimlessly through the Nether inhabited by other gods. During his wandering he met the Scarlet King who had taken the form a girl and sympathized with him as she was also extremely lonely. After the King asked the Serpent what purpose he wanted he replied that he wanted to learn meaning. Seeing that the Serpent was smarter than most gods the King responded that he should build a library so he could spread his knowledge. The Serpent became convinced and set out to create his library. He went to the two brothers, Yaldabaoth and Mekhane and gave each them gifts in exchange for their help in building his library. The two agreed and Mekhane created the entire Library while Yaldabaoth created the Librarians which would maintain it. The Serpent then went to the Constellation Starfish and asked it grant his library a way for the mortals to enter. The Starfish complied while accepting nothing in exchange and granted the Library the interdimensional roads known as Ways which allowed individuals to enter the Library.
History of Behemoths[]
The Serpent was one of the god-like Behemoths that parasitized the Tree that spawned all of existence and enslaved all lower lifeforms. Like their fellow Behemoths, the Serpent was greedy and egotistical, until they encountered near a lake one of the lower lifeforms named Pangloss manipulating the fire and shaping it to whatever he saw as beautiful. The Serpent was mesmerized by this show and befriended Pangloss, wishing to see his beautiful demonstrations. However, while waiting for him near the lake, Pangloss never came, angering them and causing them to go after him. To their horror, they found that Pangloss with all of his fellow lifeforms had been massacred by their sibling Shesha simply out of boredom.
Saddened by this loss, the Serpent realized that all of the Behemoths were cruel monsters which cared about nothing other than themselves. Wanting to get back at them for the suffering they've caused, the Serpent cut the access to the Tree from the Behemoths, slowly starving them. The Behemoths didn't notice this until it was too late and fought the Serpent for the betrayal. Luckily, the Serpent prevailed, and most of the Behemoths perished, leaving the Serpent all alone. As the Serpent grieved around the Tree, they were approached by the Brothers Death who told them not to despair as new life began rising. The Serpent became joyous at this sight but was concerned that the new lifeforms would become like the Behemoths. Agreeing with their concern, the Brothers took the blood and flesh of the dead Behemoths and bark from the Tree to create the first book and rechristen the Serpent as the guardian of the Tree who would share the knowledge to guide the new lifeforms, a task the Serpent wholeheartedly accepted. Following this, the Serpent eventually reshaped sections of the Tree into the first wings of the Wanderer's Library and recruited several creatures into looking after its halls.
Tree of Alexandria[]
Shortly after the creation of the Wanderer's Library, the entity known as Alexandria created as gift to her children the tree known as Yggdrasil Progenitor which connected to all of the dead universes and archived every life of each world. However, during the Scarlet King's rampage on creation, Alexandria feared that he would destroy the tree and so she asked the Serpent to help her protect the tree, and the Serpent complied, taking the tree and hiding it in a secret place within the Library.
Serpent's Hand[]
In ancient times, a warrior cult was formed worshiping the Serpent as the creator of the Library and became known as the Hand of the Serpent. This cult was formed from smart long-lived monks, but eventually as time went on the cult slowly died out, leaving their teachings behind. However, in the modern age, several people came across these teachings which stated that the spread of knowledge was one of the greatest honors that existed and this inspired this group of individuals to christen themselves the New Serpent's Hand. Just like the previous iteration, the new Hand also worshipped the Serpent as the source of knowledge and dedicated their lives to reveal the true nature of the world to humanity, causing them to come into conflict with the SCP Foundation and the Global Occult Coalition.
SCP-4343[]
The SCP Foundation eventually found the Serpent residing on SCP-4343-A, an island which can only be accessed through a cave in a mountain in Azores, trapped within a marble building where only their head is visible. The Foundation designated the serpent SCP-4343 and found out that they possessed great abnormal powers, mutating native animal life on island into monsters, one of which possibly became SCP-682, and when the serpent opened their eyes, or made sound would cause an anomalous event on reality, which would be referred to as "Black Events". The Foundation tried to interview SCP-4343, but they learned very little due to their cryptic nature.
During their time under the Foundation custody, the Serpent caused several Black Events: In 1999 they improved the lives of 31 civilians; in 2002 an incantation from an unknown source was heard above the city of Mekka, Saudi Arabia, causing mass panic; in 2004 the Serpent improved the recovery of around 20 people who were suffering from deadly diseases; in 2007 they gave 17 civilians in China reality-bending powers, with a few having realized the truth that the Serpent wanted to show; in 2010 they caused the Hekla volcano to produce winged humanoid entities speaking an unintelligible language and seemed to be in a form of ecstasy before completely vanishing.
SCP-6000[]
In an alternate universe, a group of Serpent's Hand members decided to enact a ritual in the Amazonian forest and create an altered Way which would expand itself and engulf the entire world. After successfully executing the ritual, one member of the group came into direct contact with the Serpent who transformed her into a human-serpent hybrid, while the other members died. Under the effects of the Serpent the created Way began growing and converting nearby locations into new sections of the Library. Both the SCP Foundation and the GOC of that universe tried to stop the Way from engulfing the entire Earth, but to no avail. In the end the Way was successful in transforming the entire Earth into a new section of the Wanderer's Library, with the residents being relocated within the Library while the universe became another story archived story.
The Way It Ends[]
When Calvin Lucien and other members of the Chaos Insurgency began hunting down the entire of the O5 Council in order to heal reality, he and Adam Ivanov entered the Wanderer's Library with the intent of assassinating O5-10/The Archivist.
However, after learning almost all of the information contained within the Wanderer's Library, O5-10 was able to overpower the two Insurgents and took the form of the Serpent during the confrontation. After Adam used the Spear of the Non-Believer to kill the Overseer, the Serpent arrived at their location and began analyzing the spear it as they were unable to perceive it, before the two Insurgents arrived to talk to them.
The Serpent congratulated the duo on being alive after crossing the boundaries between IS and ISN'T and proceeded to hand the the spear over to them before teleporting them back to the forest where they were had accessed the Way to the Library.
The Thing at the Bottom of My Dreams[]
In an alternate universe, the evil gods the Scarlet King, Yaldabaoth and the Constellation Starfish were able to reach Earth and began causing destruction and chaos on the universe, while the three battled each other. The Serpent seeing that the world was lost decided to save one inhabitant and taking them to the Library so they could evade their universe's demise. After introducing themself to the individual they then asked them if they could help them sort the newly arrived books from another universe.
Possible Endings[]
When We Came Home[]
After Mekhane was repaired, Nahash returned from his exile to help his sister and humanity to fight against the Scarlet King. However, his redemption was brief as he was quickly ripped into two by the Scarlet King.
0 Texts Found[]
The Serpent and the Hand eventually decided to go all in and forcefully grant humanity all of the knowledge. They devoured the knowledge of the Tree and spread it throughout the world in order for humanity to ascend to paradise. However, they did so seemingly in secrecy as one of the Horizon Initiative's holy texts about Saint Manos which prophesied this event became corrupted and lost.
ANASTASIS[]
After learning that the Behemoths such as LSA-Brasil-01 had returned and began causing chaos on Earth, the Serpent left the Library and decided to confront them. When MTF Eta-5 piloting SCP-5514 were being overwhelmed by some LSAs which achieved antimemetic properties, the Serpent came to their aid and guided the MTF in killing the monsters. Deciding to work together in preventing the world to be destroyed by the LSAs, the Serpent and the MTF went to the coast of Greenland where they would act as bait for LSA-Brasil-01. Soon after, LSA-Brasil-01 arrived and immediately attacked the Serpent. As the two beings struggled with each other, the MTF using SCP-5514, grabbed the evil monster and slammed it on the sea, allowing the Serpent to get freed from its grasp. LSA-Brasil-01 then tried to attack both the Serpent and SCP-5514 with its laser beam, but the MTF were able to evade it by using their shoulder mounted railgun, the Beowulf-Sigurd Rail, as a shield and sacrificing it in the process. The three beings then charged into each other, but the monster was able to use its multiple tentacles to grab both the Serpent and SCP-5514, forcing the MTF to use their plasma wristblade to cut the tentacles off before kicking LSA-Brasil-01 away from them. However, the monster then proceeded to steal SCP-5514's sword and used it to destroy the mech's legs before pinning the Serpent to the ground and releasing a beam to the sky. At that moment the MTF decided to use SCP-5514's solar energy to fire at the monster, successfully disintegrating its top half, killing it for good. In the aftermath, the Serpent and the Global Occult Coalition went on to kill most of the remaining LSAs that were still causing havoc.
Old Kansas Sector[]
In August 11 2119 in which the world was slowly ending, the Serpent was summoned when SCP-1203 was sacrificed by the Serpent's Hand as part of a ritual. The Serpent was summoned to help reset the world, but this time they decided not to after doing it so many times and then committed suicide by going into the sun. Following their death, the Wanderer's Library was left in disarray and the hive-mind behind the Library's Archivists destroyed.
white space[]
WIP
Appearance[]
As their title says, the Serpent resembles a gigantic snake with scales, but other than that is unknown except that they possess peacock feathers, emerald eyes and is as vast as the mountains or with planetary proportions. They are also often seen wearing a pair of reading glasses while in the Library. In SCP-4343's file, it is mentioned that their skin resembles that of a dragon and that they possess three eyes in the visible side of their face. According to the Librarians of the Wanderer's Library, this appearance isn't their actual appearance but rather one of their many appearances they take while on Earth.
When interacting with Calvin and Adam, the Serpent took the appearance similar to that of an ordinary Librarian, a tall and lean robed humanoid whose face couldn't be seen, with the only difference being the color of their robe which was a more vibrant green than those of other Librarians and was described as possessing a simpler appearance than them. When fused with SCP-4260, the Serpent grew multiple limbs like a centipede which ended in claws.
Personality[]
| “ | Pure character assassination. Better than confusing me for that thrice-damned rapist on his sodding throne, I suppose, but please restrain presumptions of nicety. I am a tester of men and a god of difficult choices and a keeper of delicate knowledge. An ass by trade. But, that said, I do have a vested interest in keeping mankind alive and well. They keep me both entertained and employed. | „ |
| ~ The Serpent to Naomi Zairi-Lewitt from "Mud on the Carpet". |
The Serpent was shown as being enigmatic and cryptic and often tested men with difficult choices, but they do genuinely care for humanity, contrary to the mythology. Being the embodiment of knowledge the Serpent is very wise to an extent, but they appear to be also somewhat of a coward as when the Scarlet King's army conquered their tree, the Serpent fled leaving the People of the Valley on their own. However, the Serpent still wanted to help humanity, using their powers and knowledge to improve their lives and tried to fight the Scarlet King in the final battle. The Serpent had formed a deep attachment to the Wanderer Ethan Horowitz and was upset when he left the Library to become the Administrator of the SCP Foundation. Even during their last battle against the Foundation after the latter had ascended through the layers of reality, the Serpent still thought about Horowitz near the end of the battle, filling them with enough determination to turn the tides and defeat the organization for good.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Serpent is the embodiment of knowledge and creator of everything that exists. It appears that the Serpent is on a same level of powers as Mekhane and SCP-3000, but they were much weaker when compared to the Scarlet King. As SCP-4343, they were capable of manipulating reality simply by opening their eyes or making a sound, and was also able to manipulate the biology of animal life surrounding it, although it is unknown if they did it willingly or involuntarily. It is presumed that they can also manipulate the "smoke", designated SCP-4343-1 by the Foundation and designated "PROJECT 001" by the Office of Reclamation of Islamic Artifacts. The Serpent would later claim that they didn't actually create the Wanderer's Library or vise versa, but that they had formed a strong symbiosis between each other and their existence depended on the other. The Serpent proved to be more than a match between LSA-Brasil-01 and her offsprings, although they did require additional help to take her down, and while battling Incarna, who had reached 256,713 Tiers of the classification of gods, the Serpent merged with SCP-4260, the embodiment of Death, to fight her, but although they were at first defeated the Serpent managed to regain their forces through sheer determination and managed to destroy the being.
Followers[]
As a god and symbol of knowledge, the Serpent was revered by several groups that were dedicated to spread knowledge. The Serpent was an important figure in the Wanderer's Library, being seen as its custodian and builder. The Librarians, although did not talk about them, deeply respected the Serpent and held them with high regard. The Serpent has also been likened to other serpentine figures from various religions and mythologies.
The biggest group that venerated the Serpent was the Serpent's Hand, a formidable organization that wished to break the Veil of Secrecy and allow the public to learn about the anomalous world, but was opposed by the SCP Foundation and the Global Occult Coalition. Although not all members directly serve the Serpent, a few straight up worship them, claiming to have received visions from the being and fighting to uncover the truth in the Serpent's name. The Serpent is aware of the Serpent's Hand and gave the group their blessing.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Trivia[]
- The Serpent appears to have been based from the Ophites' interpretation of the serpent from the book of Genesis.
- The Serpent is not to be confused with neither SCP-722, the actual Jörmungandr from the Norse mythology, SCP-4959 the real Quetzalcoatl from the Mesoamerican culture, or Yaldabaoth's Archons. However, since there is no real canon, it is up to the reader if those characters are in any way related to the Serpent.
- The name "Nahash" is a Hebrew word which literally translates to "serpent".
- Famous author Ihp once intended to write an SCP-001 proposal for the Serpent who would have devoured the entire world before scrapping the idea.
- When the Foundation attempted to kill SCP-682 using the Gate Guardian, 682 implied that he himself was the Serpent, although this creates contradiction. In SCP-CN-1418-A, a Mekhanite library, there was a book which said that the Scarlet King was the Serpent and brother of SCP-3000.
- As stated in "Found in a dusty corner of the Library", several explorers, including some versions of the Black Queen and Lord Blackwood, tried to find more information about the Serpent, but in the end they came empty handed.
- In some stories such "The Taking of Dr. Sinclair" and SCP-6000 the Serpent was referred to as female. This can be because, just like with the other deities, it doesn't have an affixed gender.
- Elder Rockwell of the Children of the Scarlet King has expressed great hatred towards the Serpent and is dedicated to rid humanity of the "Serpent's Seed".
External Links[]
- Serpent at the VS Battles Wiki
