For context on the world, please see the Intro post and context on the rings of The Sorcerer King, please see Item 22.
Now we know how The Sorcerer King enchanted people
and got the citizens of Cantre’r
Gwaelod to do his bidding and accept him as their new king. Well, at least we
know one of the methods!
The other methods will be examined in other
documents. For now, we will be looking at the one ring that kept him alive for such
a long time, and protected him from assassination attempts, stabbings, guns
shots and much more. This is the one ring worn by the Kings and Queens of Kemet,
Hellas and Norðvegr.
This is the immortality granting ring, The
ring of Ouroboros.
The Sorcerer King not only wanted the ring to gain
immortality, but to also use the Brisings ring, without falling under its
spell.
And the only way to do that is to either gain the life that the ring shows you, as with Freya and the necklace of Brisings (see Item #128: The Necklace of Brisings), or you must get rid of the one thing that the ring uses to mesmerise anyone who looks into it, their heart.
The
second option was chosen by The
Sorcerer King and since no one can live without a heart, The Sorcerer King had
to figure out how to gain immortality.
As I mentioned in Item #22 The hand of The Sorcerer King,
after obtaining two rings that gave him power, The Sorcerer King, decided that he was only going
to use magic rings as his primary power source. One of the reasons for this
choice was that when The Sorcerer King was looking for the Midas ring and going
through Merlin’s research, he saw how powerful magic rings were and why Merlin
was trying to make (and succeeded in making) power rings.
After that The Sorcerer King was only interested in
magical rings and stole everything Merlin had on all different types of rings
that exists. And it was in those documents that The Sorcerer King stumbled on
the ring of Ouroboros.
Now what is a ring of Ouroboros? As
mentioned, it is a ring that grants its wearer immortality. Now the origins of
these rings are very interesting.
For you see the ring is made from the shedded skin
of The White Snake, Bai Suzhen.
Bai Suzhen was a lamia, Human-snake hybrids, with
the top half of a Human and the bottom half of a snake. But Bai Suzhen was a
part of the Daoist magical spirits, beings who have been born with natural
magical abilities.
Bai was one of two born from the lamias that were a
part of the Daoist magical spirits. The other lamia was Xiaoqing, The Green
Snake. Xiaoqing was also Bai’s closes friend and often considered as Bai’s
little sister.
There are other snake/human hybrids in Magusterra, such as the
naga and the gorgon, but what separates them (besides the fact that a gorgon
has bat-like wings and turns people to stone) is that lamias are all women.
Nagas and gorgons can be born male or female, but the lamias are always born
female.
To reproduce, lamias, seduce and capture male Humans
and mate with them and in some cases drain the men of all their blood
afterwards. Because of this many people have developed a fear and hatred
towards lamias.
But what makes Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing different from other lamias is that they can change their form to look like a traditional lamia, or to turn into a giant snake or (what they did for most of the time) they could change to look like normal Human women.
Not only that, but they can give birth to sons as well as daughters. But the sons are born Human and the daughters lamia.
Now the evil Queen of the lamias, aptly named Lamia, heard about the White and Green Snake sisters and wanted to use them to get her revenge on Poseidon and The Lady of the Lake.
Queen Lamia was the daughter of the Lady of the Lake’s son Poseidon and the lamia princess Libya. Libya was the daughter of Epaphus, a King of Kemet.
Because Libya was a lamia she was chased away from her home. While running away through the desert, she found an oasis west of Kemet where a group of lamias lived. There Libya formed a new kingdom, Libu, which became a sacred place and a home for all lamias.
But as mentioned the Humans feared them and so Libu
was under constant attack. They managed to hold their own and even formed a
peace treaty with the neighbouring kingdoms, seeing that Libya was of royal
blood.
One day, while Libya was bathing in the Mare
Nostrum, she caught the eye of Poseidon. The two of them fell in love and had a
daughter, Lamia.
But as Poseidon left Libya to fulfil one of his
duties given to him by his mother, The Lady of the Lake, he came across Amphitrite,
a Nereid or sea nymph. Amphitrite was also a princess, the daughter of Doris (also
a Nereid) and King Nereus (a worshiper of The Lady of the Lake).
Poseidon instantly fell in love with Amphitrite
when he saw her dancing with her sisters. At first she turned down Poseidon’s
advances, but when he persisted and even gave her a dolphin, named Delphinus,
as a pet, she gave in and the two got married.
Poseidon did however feel guilty for leaving Libya and his daughter Lamia. And to make amends he sent two of his adopted sons, Agenor and Belus, as warriors to help protect the kingdom of Libu.
Agenor and Belus were then adopted by Libya and they became the guardians of Libu’s borders. When the war between the Humans and the Immortals broke out, Libya was killed and the newly crowned Queen Lamia pledged her allegiance to her grandmother, The Lady of the Lake, to fight back. But when Lamia learned that The Lady of the Lake didn’t want to partake in the war, Lamia joined forces with Sister Death.
Lamia led an army of reptiles and serpents into battle, breaking the peace treaty with the other kingdoms. When the cease fire was enacted, Lamia was punished for dishonouring the deals her mother made. And so the kingdom of Libu was cut off from the rest of the world and no one was allowed to leave.
Wanting to get revenge on her father and
grandmother, Lamia, sent word that she wanted to ally with Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing,
who lived outside of Libu. For not only can they disguise themselves as Humans
and help carry messages to other lamia groups, but they can help build up their
armies by giving birth to both male Human warriors and female lamia warriors.
But Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing refused. This angered
Lamia and she exposed the sisters for who they really were. Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing
went on the run from the Humans as well as their own kind as they were labelled
as lamia traitors.
Eventually after many years of running, Bai Suzhen
and Xiaoqing found a remote village, where they settled down and opened up a
medicine shop.
It was also in this village that Bai Suzhen found and fell in love with a medicine man and scholar named Xu Xian. They met when Xu offered the two sister his umbrella when they were caught in a rainstorm.
Together they opened a new shop selling herbs and special remedies to help cure the sick.
All was well, until a monk, Fahai, came to the village.
He was fascinated with Bai Suzhen and her abilities to heal others. To him it seemed like she was using other worldly powers to help the sick. Which was true as Bai Suzhen used both plants and magic to help people.
After some time, Fahai realised who she was and
warned Xu Xian. Xu Xian laughed in Fahai’s face and even belittled the monk,
offending him.
In retaliation, Fahai tricked Bai into drinking
some wine. As it turns out, lamias can’t drink alcohol, as only a little bit
can turn off their Human side, letting the snake/animalistic side take over
completely.
When Bai drank the wine she lost control and turned
into her white snake from. Attacking the villagers and seriously injuring her
husband, Xu Xian.
It was only when Xiaoqing transformed into her
green snake form that she was able to subdue and calm down Bai Suzhen.
Fahai took the opportunity to rally the villagers
and get them to attack the snake sisters. But they were stopped by the
seriously injured Xu Xian. He reminded them how Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing, helped
them when they were sick.
The villagers agreed that the sisters weren’t evil and they were an asset to their remote village. So they turned on Fahai and chased him away.
Everyone tried to help Xu Xian, but he was far to wounded and at death’s door. One of the elders in the village told Bai Suzhen about a medicine man who had a special herb that could heal and cure anyone. This medicine man was known as The Old Man of the South Pole or Xian of Longevity. With this information, Bai Suzhen, went to find this man and steal the herb.
Using her snake form to travel long distances in a
short time, Bai Suzhen found a mountain far south in Zhongguo. Bai climbed the
mountain in her Human form and made it to the palace of The Old Man of the
South Pole.
Xian of Longevity was an old man who devoted his
life to healing the sick. And when he died, he was given a peach from the Celestial Peach tree by Queen Xiwangmu
herself (see Item #59: Eilifligh flamberge or the Immortal killer).
Queen
Xiwangmu deemed him worthy of receiving an immortal peach so that Xian of Longevity can carry on
helping heal the sick. And thus Xian of Longevity travelled the land of Zhongguo
doing just that.
Xian of Longevity was later asked by Mother Nature to help create and invent new herbs and medicinal plants to help stop a plague that was spread by an evil warlock.
So Xian of Longevity moved to the mountain on the most southern point of Zhongguo, earning him the nickname of The Old Man of the South Pole. There he was successful in developing a cure alongside the Moon Rabbit. And because of his victory over the plague, Xian of Longevity, decided to stay in the mountain and carry on researching and creating new medicines.
And to protect him from anyone who sought to harm the Old Man of the South Pole, Mother Nature sent a white crane (Xianhe Tongzi) and a white deer (Bái Lù) to protect and guard his palace.
Bai Suzhen made it to the top and ran into Xianhe Tongzi and Bái Lù. Bai Suzhen told the two guardians that she was there to bring gifts to the Old Man of the South Pole as a thank you for helping her village.
The guardians, sensing no hostility from the woman,
led her to the garden and told her to wait there as they went to fetch Xian of
Longevity.
While in the garden, Bai Suzhen, looked around for the special herb. She came across a locked greenhouse and used her lamia strength to break it open.
There she found a single plant and feeling the magic that was radiating off of it, she knew that it was the herb she was looking for.
Hearing footsteps, Bai Suzhen panicked and plucked a leaf from this plant and hid it under her tongue, but unfortunately for her, Xianhe Tongzi, the white crane, saw her and attacked.
Bai Suzhen turned into her snake form and fought
back. They both seemed to be equally matched, but then the Old Man of the South
Pole came in riding Bái Lù, the white deer.
Xianhe Tongzi tried to explain what happened, but Xian
of Longevity, silenced him and asked Bai Suzhen why she stole from him. She
explained her story and how she was doing this to save her husband.
Moved by her story, Xian of Longevity, gave her the
herb and told her to eat it. He explained that if Bai Suzhen ate the herb
herself, she will gain the ability to heal anyone with the skin that she sheds from
her snake form.
Bai Suzhen did as the Old Man said and went back
home. There she shed her skin and gave it to her husband and the rest of the
villagers that were injured when she lost control.
Years later Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian had a child, a
Human boy, who they named Xu Shilin. This enraged the monk Fahai, who, in an
attempt to get his revenge on the White Snake, trained and learned how to use
magic.
Fahai tricked Xu Xian to come to his home near the Qiantang
river. There the monk trapped Xu Xian in order to lure the snake sisters to
him.
Bai Suzhen learned about her husband’s imprisonment
and with her sister, Xiaoqing, travelled to the Qiantang river and fought
Fahai, but he proved to be too much for them to handle.
Bai Suzhen was defeated and imprisoned in Fahai’s Leifeng
Pagoda.
Xiaoqing took Xu Xian to his son. Xu Xian and Xu
Shilin went into hiding and Xiaoqing left to find a master that could teach her
how to defeat the monk.
Meanwhile, Fahai was enriching his pockets by
selling Bai Suzhen’s shedded skin to royal families from the lands of Kemet, Hellas and Norðvegr.
Fahai also sold the skin to small hidden kingdoms on remote islands.
The royals from Kemet, Hellas and Norðvegr
turned the skin into rings so that they can always have the skin touching them.
It turns out that, yes, the skin heals anyone who touches it, but once they let
go, the skin loses all of its healing properties. But the Kings and Queens
realised that as long as they touched the skin it always healed and protected
them from sickness, wounds and even time itself. Making them immortal.
As you can imagine it is quite inconvenient
to hold on to a piece of skin for the rest of your life. So the Kings and
Queens had them turned into rings, so that it would always be touching them,
while also keeping their hands free.
The reason why they went with rings is
because it was harder for enemies to remove. The Kings and Queens did try turning
the skin into clothing garments, but these could be easily removed. Same for
necklaces and bracelets.
Eventually, The Immortal One and Sister Death learned about these rings and put a stop to it.
They forced the royal families to give up
their rings and the skins, all except for the hidden island kingdoms. Because,
well… they were hidden.
Then to stop the supplier, Sister Death and
The Mighty Phoenix approached the Green Snake, Xiaoqing, and told her to find the warrior known as
Red Boy.
Red Boy’s story is long and complicated and I will go over it in more detail in a later document. But for now, all I’ll say is that Red Boy is the son of Princess Iron Fan, a follower of Mother Nature and Bull Demon King, a son of The Mighty Phoenix.
Red Boy is the inventor of a magic spell
known as the True Samādhi Fire, a spell that summons a fire that can only be
extinguished by magic water.
This spell was so dangerous, that Red Boy
was subdued by Sun Wukong, The Monkey King, on behalf of Guanyin, a follower of
The Lady of the Lake and Mother Nature.
Together Sun Wukong and Guanyin captured
Red Boy by binding him with special rings that tightened around his hands, ankles
and neck, subduing him and forcing him to become a disciple of Guanyin.
But after a while, Red Boy escaped and ran
away. He hid away from Guanyin, so that she wouldn’t tighten the rings further,
as she can only tighten them when she has the person with the rings standing in
front of her.
The Mighty Phoenix sent Xiaoqing to Red Boy so that she can
learn the True Samādhi Fire spell. But in order to learn the spell, Xiaoqing had to promise (that after
she defeated the monk) to return to Red Boy and become his guardian and protect
him from Guanyin’s soldiers.
Xiaoqing agreed and was taught the spell. When Xiaoqing
mastered the True
Samādhi Fire, she went to Fahai’s palace and defeated him with the fire spell.
Xiaoqing also used the spell to burn down the
monk’s Leifeng Pagoda, freeing her sister, The White Snake, Bai Suzhen.
Bai Suzhen was reunited with her husband and son.
They went back to the remote village and carried on selling medicine. As for Xiaoqing,
she went back to Red Boy and protects him from Guanyin’s attacks.
Now the question is: If the Immortals destroyed all of the rings and skins, and the kingdoms that still had them where hidden, how did The Sorcerer King get a ring of Ouroboros? Well, The Sorcerer King sought out the now disgraced monk, Fahai, and forced him to give up one of the hidden kingdoms.
It turns out that Fahai had some of the snake skin hidden away. And when Xiaoqing, nearly burned him to death, Fahai used his snake skin to heal himself, but he dropped it when he was escaping.
Fahai managed to prolong his live by growing plants and using healing spells that he learned from Bai Suzhen when he held her captive.
The Sorcerer King was surprised that he was still alive, but he was very fragile. The Sorcerer King promised Fahai that he will share the skin with him if he told him about one of these hidden islands. Fahai in his old and weakened state agreed and told them that he sold some of the White Snake’s skin to the king of the island of Serendid.
If you know the stories of Sinbad, this name might
ring a bell, as Serendid was an island that Sinbad washed up on in his sixth
voyage.
With the help of the Viking King Seithennin, The Sorcerer King and Fahai
sailed to the island of Serendid.
Serendid was said to be so rich that even the
poorest of its citizens lived in giant mansions. Everyone on the island wore
lavish clothes and jewellery. Even their everyday household objects, such as
plates, vases and glasses were made from the purest diamonds, rubies, emeralds
and other precious stones. Their cutlery was also made from the most valuable
metals.
The Kings and Queens of Serendid travelled with a
thousand elephants and each elephant was adorned with the most beautiful jewels
and the finest silks. And they also had the one thing The Sorcerer King wanted,
the casted off skin of the White Snake.
Where did this island get all of these riches? No
one knew, except for Sinbad.
Sinbad was a merchant from Baghdatha. He is mostly known for his tall tales, known as the Seven voyages of Sinbad. These tales brought the merchant fame and fortune, and captured the attention of everyone.
But as time went on, Sinbad’s stories were becoming criticised and called out for being fake or over embellished. Most of the criticisms come from the fact that his stories start the same way, such as Sinbad being left behind on an island and coincidentally finds help from a king or someone connected to a king on that island.
And some stories, specifically the third voyage, is
a plagiarised version of one of Odysseys’ adventures: Odysseus in the Cave of
Polyphemus. The one where Odysseus runs into and defeats the cyclops Polyphemus.
But I won’t go into that now, maybe in a later
document I will go over Sinbad’s stories and separate fact from fiction.
But what I will say is that people and scholars
don’t want to call Sinbad’s stories an outright lie, as there seems to be some
validity to them and that they might just be over exaggerated or combined with
other peoples’ and sailors’ stories Sinbad heard when he went on these voyages.
I bring this up because there is proof that his
final two voyages were somewhat true. I am referring to his sixth and seventh
voyage.
On Sinbad’s sixth voyage, he claims to have crashed
his boat and lost all of his men (this was another recurring theme in his
stories, most likely a convenient way for Sinbad to say that anyone who
witnessed his stories died). Then he found an island, where he built a raft and
floated down a stream and washed up in the kingdom of Serendid.
There Sinbad met the King of Serendid and they
became friends. They became such good friends, that the King wanted to form an
alliance with Sinbad’s kingdom.
The King of Serendid gave Sinbad a boat full of treasures and the skin of The White Snake. Sinbad went home and took the treasures to his King, the Sultan Abdalla Haroun Alraschid, the leader of a small caliph in the land of Baghdatha.
The Sultan accepted the gift and sent Sinbad back to the island of Serendid with luxurious robes, blankets and linen made from the finest silks and a bed of gold tissue. This was Sinbad’s seventh voyage.
Then when the King of Serendid said he will prepare to sail to Sinbad’s caliph to finalise their new found alliance, Sinbad went back home.
But on his way home Sinbad’s boat was captured by pirates (another recurring theme in Sinbad’s stories). The pirates sold Sinbad into slavery on an unknown island. There Sinbad was put to work. Sinbad gained his freedom by making his master so rich, that his master let him go home.
The real story is most likely that Sinbad ended up on this island by himself and lost a bet to another sailor. And to pay off his debt, Sinbad was sold into slavery. And as for gaining his freedom, the real story is believed to be that Sinbad worked with the other slaves to break their chains and run away.
But whatever the real story was, Sinbad did eventually make it home, and that is where Sinbad learned how Serendid got all of its riches.
As Sinbad disembarked from his boat, he saw that his city was destroyed and ransacked of all its treasures. It turns out that the King of Serendid would find kingdoms that he would “form an alliance with” by sending them gifts. Then that kingdom would in reciprocation send gifts back. The King of Serendid would then closely examine the gifts and determine if it is worth attacking that kingdom.
Sinbad was heartbroken to find his caliph in ruins and even ran into the King of Serendid. The King thanked Sinbad for his help in filling his pockets and gave Sinbad a small share, if he vowed to keep Serendid’s secret to their wealth.
Sinbad accepted and went on the run. But soon the money ran out and Sinbad made money by telling stories of his adventures. But he left out the part where he led to the downfall of his own kingdom.
That was until his deathbed, when Sinbad revealed the truth and Serendid’s location was revealed, putting them under a constant treat of invasion. Some wanted the island’s riches, others wanted revenge for their fallen kingdoms.
The island of Serendid managed to hold off the attacks by using their immense wealth to hire mercenaries and assassins to protect them.
As The Sorcerer King approached the island, he used Seithennin’s position as a Viking King to get an audience with the now ruling Queen of Serendid.
The Sorcerer King offered the Queen the opportunity to replenish her coffers, and help fund her war with his Midas ring. He also promised to send an army of men to her island to help fend off invaders once he became the new King of Cantre’r Gwaelod. In exchange, he gets the snake skin.
The Queen accepted, but she admitted that they didn’t have the skin anymore. The last place it was seen was the caliph of Sultan Abdalla Haroun Alraschid in the land of Baghdatha.
The Queen said that the Sultan hid the skin to save it for emergencies. And that he hid it so well that the Queen’s great-grandfather couldn’t find it when they took back their gifts and the caliph’s treasures. The Queen also said that her people were still there searching for the skin and that they would help The Sorcerer King find the hidden vault that held it.
But the Queen also required two more favours from The Sorcerer King. First was that he must bring back the snake skin to the island and second was to kill the monk Fahai. The reason being that Fahai was the only person who knew that they still had a piece of the skin, and they feared that the monk would tell the Immortals.
Luckily for her, The Sorcerer King was planning on doing it anyway and used his power ring, Pacator, to set Fahai on fire, finishing the job that Xiaoqing, The Green Snake, started.
The Sorcerer King went to the now ruined caliph of Abdalla Haroun Alraschid, and there with the combined help of the Serendid people and Seithennin’s army, they searched for the vault. It took them nearly three years and many magical hunting/searching/navigating spells, to find the skin.
And when they did, the Serendid people turned against The Sorcerer King and tried to double cross him. But the Viking King, Seithennin, saw this coming, and had his army on standby to protect them. The Sorcerer King, Seithennin and his army slaughtered every one of Serendid’s people in the caliph.
Then when The Sorcerer King took over Cantre’r Gwaelod, he sent
an armada of Deep Ones to Serendid and had them kill everyone there and clean
them out for everything they were worth!
But before that… The Sorcerer King, with the help of
Seithennin (who comes from the land of Norðvegr and whose
ancestors had owned, made and used Ouroboros rings), made a new ring of Ouroboros.
First, The Sorcerer King, had to petrify the scales to
harden the shedded skin. Secondly, he carved a ring out of the fossilised
moulted flesh. Lastly, The Sorcerer King engraved the symbol that would curse
the ring to stay on his hand forever (more on this in another document). Then
to stop anyone else from also making the same ring, The Sorcerer King used the rest of
the skin to heal the Viking King and his army from the wounds they got in the
fight against the Serendid people. And the rest of the skin was destroyed.
Once the ring was made, The Sorcerer King placed it
on his thumb. Then he cut out his heart and crushed it in his hand!
Now he was completely immune from any Brisings
jewellery. Then he went back to Norðvegr where he met with Loki, freed the Brísingamen
brothers and had them make the ring of Brisings (see Item #23: The Brisings Ring).
Now to
carry on with the story of how The
Sorcerer King usurped the throne from Gwyddno Garanhir. This one is quite short,
as The Sorcerer King
only made the ring of Ouroboros
to be able to use the Brisings ring.
But the ring of Ouroboros was a big help to The Sorcerer King in surviving any
arrows shot at him, or fatal stabbings or as mentioned, any and all
assassination attempts.
The Sorcerer King knew that even though the ring
was cursed to stay on his hand forever, that if he lost his hand he would die.
And to compensate for this weakness, The Sorcerer King adopted a long ranged
fighting style, which involves him fighting enemies from a distance, only using
throwing daggers, bow and arrows and dark magical spells casted from his power
ring.
So to basically sum it up, the ring of Ouroboros’ part in taking over Cantre’r Gwaelod, was just
to allow The
Sorcerer King to use the Brisings ring and survive any fatal attacks during the
siege of the kingdom. I will continue the story in the next document.
As mentioned in Item #22 The hand of The Sorcerer King, although The Sorcerer King had his hand cut off and died, the ring of Ouroboros didn’t lose its healing abilities, as it kept the hand fresh and intact! The way you can tell if a ring is still working is that it gives off a blue glow. If it doesn’t glow blue when you try to use it, that is an indication that it had already been used.
And that was the ring of Ouroboros, the immortal giving artefact made from the moulted skin of The White Snake, Bai Suzhen.
Join me in the next post, where I talk about the ring that gave him an army of Deep Ones, Item 24: The wedding ring of Shala.
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