Shame eats at this one's entire being. How can one ask the Creator for forgiveness when you are the reason why the First partook of the Forbidden?
Gognod is the First and only giant snake, a gargantuan creature over five kilometers long that shares his appearance with the king cobra. Though his shape is the only thing that he shares with the humble, yet deadly serpent. Every one of his scales is as black as night, darkened over the years by his shame and the curse that robbed him of his legs.
Marathekedar93
Yet, he doesn't hate the Creator for this curse... he remembers exactly who is truly to blame...
Gognod began his life as a normal snake, or what was considered normal within the Garden. He had six legs, the front two being tactile and as maneuverable as hands. Capable of speech, he spent all his time in harmony with all the other animals that lived within the Garden.
But then his simple destiny was ripped from him.
No one—at least no one in their right mind—asks to be possessed, and no one in the Garden expected such a thing to occur way back at the dawn of the universe. One moment Gognod was sunning himself under a sunbeam, and then he knew nothing. Some time later he came back to himself with a coppery taste on his long, forked tongue and a distinct feeling of wrongness. It was then that he was told what had happened, how his voice had been used to manipulate and upend all the Creator's designs. Ashamed that he had allowed himself to be used, even though the Garden had been safe and undisturbed until then, his shame only grew as the Creator removed his legs and cast him from the Garden.
Yet he did not hate Avva'ai. He did not resent Him. But he was utterly lost.
Into the barren wilderness he drifted, a slow process until he learned how to move his body in a way that would propel him forward. Gognod never spoke much of what he did for the next while, only that a couple of years after the Exile he found a mate and helped her care for a clutch of eggs. They came together year after year in order to mate and have more children, but as time continued on, Gognod began to realize that time didn't seem to touch him. He watched the female snake grow old and lose her ability to lay eggs... until one year, she did not return to their rendezvous spot.
He went in search of her and eventually came across her remains.
Gognod's life was comprised of endless wandering after that. He kept to the far wilderness and did not dare stray too close to human settlements. At some point, he wandered too far, and found himself slithering through a rift in reality that led him all the way to infant Eldûra.
And there he continued to live, sticking to the shadows and praying for death in order to put him out of his misery and silence the shame that lingered in his shadow and his heart. And as he wandered, a change came over him that he would not notice for several years, as it was gradual and caused him no discomfort—except for a growing appetite that would slowly take more and more food to satiate.
Unbeknownst to him, this slow change was caused by an equally slow metamorphosis that saw his length increase by mere inches a year. It was so slow that Gognod did not notice until one day, when he reared up in order to get a good look at some prey, he towered over the trees that used to make him feel so small. It had not occurred to him until then, even though he had long been feasting on large game like a jungle anaconda back on Earth, that he was no longer considered a "normal" snake.
Towering Gognod by M.R.R. Shelswell
This had gone unnoticed because he had spent the last few centuries wandering the desert to the south, searching for death, where there were no landmarks to compare himself to. The truth of it sent him into a state of shock that had him wandering the lands in a state of disassociation for days, until the sense of hunger brought him back out of it.
But in that time he had lost track of where he was and had drawn too close to a human settlement before he had realized. The settlers there cried out at the sight of him, and in his state, he cried out. And as his mouth opened, the glands in his fangs engaged and he ended up spitting a large puddle's-worth of venom that ate at the ground and kicked up a noxious cloud that sickened several of the humans that were standing too close. His hood snapped open, casting a large shadow over the frightened people and sent even the protectors of the town running, but not before a few spears were launched at him.
Though the spears did not pierce him, the fact that he had been attacked had him finally break free of his surprise and flee. He rushed off into the wilderness once more.
After this, not much is known about what Gognod did. Gognod himself doesn't really remember what happens at this point, other than the fact that he returned to the barren desert where no man has ever roamed, where he remembered seeing large cave systems that he hoped he would fit. It is assumed that he was able to fit in those caves, and slept for long periods of time that were only interrupted when his hunger awoke him.
Around fifty thousand years
1, 2 before the present day, a sense of claustrophobia came over him, awakening him from his slumber with a jolt. This had been the longest he had slept yet, and thus much had changed while he had been unaware. The cave had grown small and cramped and he rushed from his hiding spot with a scream that shook dust from the walls. His head barely squeezed through the entrance as stalagmites and stalactites scraped at his belly and back until he bled and as he tumbled out onto the sands he realized that things had changed yet again and he was once again unable to comprehend why he was still and why the Creator kept changing him.
His body coiled and stretched over the rolling sand dunes, and according to a shed skin that curators of the Athenaeum found dating back to that time, he measured at least two kilometers (1.24 miles) long at this point. His girth was estimated to be dozens, perhaps even hundreds of feet around as well, and if he reared up the shadow he would have cast would be undoubtedly terrifying.
The only place he could now hide was under the desert sands, but that would soon turn out to not be quite enough when the Battle of Unspoken Grief came and the mountain fell from the sky, kicking up enough debris as it crashed to earth and blocked out the sun for hundreds of years. The shelter of the sands could not keep him warm, and so he made is way deeper and found his way into another cave system, though this one was more than big enough for him as it had been carved out by raging rivers that roared to life at the time of the Shattering. As snow began to fall, he went deeper and deeper until he found a massive set of caverns blessed by multiple hot springs that warmed the air and kept the cruel cold out.
The Epoch of Snowfall
For hundreds of years, snow fell from the sky as the debris kicked up by the meteor's impact floated in the atmosphere and continued to block out most of the sunlight and heat. With nothing else to do, Gognod resumed sleeping for long periods of time. When his hunger woke him again, he was confronted by the fact that there was no food for him down there. Usually, available prey was not an issue, since his ever-increasing size had slowed his metabolism until he only needed to eat a few times a year. But with the falling of the snow, he was not sure how long it had been since he had eaten, and his empty stomach was beginning to ramp up his anxiety.
Slowly, cautiously, he began to search the tunnels and caves for any scrap of food. He hungered for meat but could only find the fungus that grew in the cracks and crevices. The tunnels he had chosen were barren of life and he began to curse his choice of shelter.
Eventually, he caught onto a scent that pointed directly towards food. His mind had grown a little fuzzy at this point, rendering him unable to comprehend exactly what he was smelling. But he went towards it anyway.
When he reached its source, he couldn't hold back and lunged for it without checking to see if it was edible. Screams filled the air as the thing in his jaws thrashed and roared in defiance. As he swallowed his catch, the screams fell silent and were replaced by breathing heavy with panic and a strange whinnying. Curiosity had his head turn towards the source of the strange sound, even as every muscle within him began to tense as the faint memory of his first encounter with humans in this strange world returned to him.
His gaze locked with that of a young human woman, whose large hazel eyes practically bugged from their sockets. He felt the urge to snap open his hood and bear his fangs but restrained himself. Where there was one human, there was bound to be more, and though he knew his presence alone would be enough to send the humans into a frenzy, he couldn't go back out into the cold in search of another hiding spot.
What was his luck that the caves he had chosen to shelter in would just so happen to link up to ones where humans resided?
The horse wrenched itself free from her grasp and took off down the tunnel away from him, leaving her alone. The girl cowered as he stared at her, trembling as he studied her with eyes that the girl would go on to describe as "full of fire". Curiosity filled him as he got a good look at the first human he had managed to see in hundreds of years. But the moment was broken when the girl was able to break out of her frozen state and scream before she ran after her horse.
Her flight, somehow, left him saddened, and he left. When he thought about it, he wondered if he had been cursed to have a lonely existence, where the enmity the Creator had mentioned left would leave him without any companionship at all. Forever. Would he always be looked at with such terror?
After retreating to the depths of the caves again, he tried to not wallow in self-pity.
Some time later, his solitude was interrupted by a small creature, a
Prismatic Tortoise that had wandered into his tunnels in search of food. Gognod was surprised at its sudden appearance but welcomed its presence. It made his existence just a little bit less lonely.
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Author's Notes
This is just a snapshot into Gognod's life, as it is long and long-winded. I am planning on also making a character article for Gognod in the future, where it goes into detail about his appearance and affiliations. But this article is taking too long and it just keeps growing LOL. I may add more to this article before the end of the challenge, we'll see.