The Legendary Sea Serpents of Tamriel - The Elder Scrolls Lore

Hello YouTube! Tamriel is full of interesting creatures and we've talked about many of them on this channel in the past. One of those creatures is the Sea Serpent, large monsters of the deep seas that we talked about briefly in my video on Sea Monsters of Tamriel. However, their story is far more expansive than the brief summary that I gave there, so brace yourself as today we're delving into the story of the Sea Serpents. So, Sea Serpents. Gigantic snake-like creatures which roam the deep seas around Tamriel. These creatures are gigantic and are dangerous with some of them, according to the Elder Scrolls Redguard, being over 20 meters long or that's 64 feet for the yanks out there. They have extremely hard scales that almost nothing can pierce. The poison in their sharp, sometimes 3 feet long teeth is extremely deadly and almost no one to see one on the high seas is likely to live to tell the tale. To many people on Tamriel, especially those living more inland, they are popular creatures for folktales, scary creatures that old fishermen scare the children of the village with. But they are very real. They seem to be native to the oceans south and west of Tamriel, where wild variants presumably live close to the ocean floor. However, we best know them as the Warbeasts and Mounts of the Marmer, or the Sea Elves, who are the race of elves that are native to the continent of Pianenei which lies far to the south of Tamriel. They are led by their king Orgnum, a legendary immortal elf who had allegedly been there since the very earliest days of the elves on their legendary homeland of Aldmeris. Now, king Orgnum is a topic for a video all on itself. But according to the lore that we have, he is some kind of wizard king who allegedly uses dark magic and rituals involving sacrifices to extend his own life. But whether that's true is to be determined by future lore. What's important, however, is that Orgnum is said to have been the first one to actually tame one of the mighty sea serpents that he found in the deep seas around Pianenei and then use it for a war mount, riding it into war at the head of his sea elf fleets. It's said that he tamed the sea serpents using a special kind of snake magic ritual, which brings these beasts under the Marmer's control. Now, ever since the domination of the very first sea serpent, they have been the backbone of the Marmer navy in their eternal battles against the Summerset Isles and the High Elves. Some Marmer, like their king, mount the sea serpents into battle while other, even larger sea serpents, accompany the Marmer fleets on their voyage under the water, ready to surface at a moment's notice and crush the High Elves when the captains of the fleet command it. It's said that the Marmer breed ever larger sea serpents, with some of them being so big that they can snap a High Elf ship in two by simply curling their massive bodies around the ship. A Marmer invasion or a ship battle on the high seas almost always involves a sea serpent, which they try to leverage in the most advantageous way possible to crush their High Elf enemies. It is said that even some regular Marmer pirates, or rather privateers as they are pirating in the service of their king, sometimes bring a sea serpent, making Marmer privateers one of the most dangerous kinds of pirates that you can encounter on the high seas around Tamriel. While the Marmer breed a lot of sea predators such as flying sea vipers for war, the sea serpent is by far the largest and the most deadly and the most important one. It's an iconic animal to the Marmer, appearing in all their iconography, from their flags to their weapons to their tattoos to their ships to their helmets and even to their cutlery, with many ornate Marmer forks seemingly having a sea serpent for a fork head, according to some item descriptions. The sea serpent is described as sacred to the Marmer, which is not a surprise after hearing that it's basically in everything for them. Seemingly, the animal also serves some kind of religious purpose to their culture, although we know very little about their religion. What we do know, however, is that the hard scales and supple skin of sea serpents makes for very sturdy material that the Marmer use to make armor out of and they use the long teeth of the sea serpents to make weaponry. And not just that, as the Marmer also use sea serpents to breed with elves, with Marmer. Well, likely not in the way that you're thinking. You see, the sea elves have these leviathans, which are skilled sea elves with lower intelligence than regular sea elves, but they have more muscles and they have higher primal aggression, requiring other sea elves to keep them in check on the battlefield and just, you know, in society. Tamrielic scholars have discovered that these leviathans are likely the results of Marmer crossing with sea serpents. While the idea is quite disturbing, it's likely that it isn't breeding in the literal sense. You see, King Orgnum seems to like his dark rituals and experiments, so it's, I think at least, far more likely that these leviathans are the result of regular Marmer babies having been involved in some kind of magical ritual which fused them with some sea serpent genes or whatever. Because it's far more likely in my opinion that they are, you know, a result of a ritual than these humanoids doing the nasties with a really big snake. But, you know, that's just my interpretation of things. Now, another piece of speculation on the sea serpents is on how exactly the rituals which bring them under Marmer control work. Because we don't know how they work. Because one source that we have implies that it's just King Orgnum's magical rituals which allow all Marmer to control the serpents. The way that the source is written makes me think that Orgnum himself may be the only one who's able to do it and thus that he is the one who dominates the minds of all the sea serpents under the Marmer control, all at one point in himself. Meaning that if you as a Marmer serpent rider disobey Orgnum, he might just send your own serpent upon you. However, that's only one implication of the wording. One can also interpret the text as Orgnum having invented the rituals to control the serpents and then teaching it to his underlings. Which one it is, we can't really say for certain. But considering that we see some traitors to the Marmer King in the Elder Scrolls Online and they don't seem to have their own sea serpents with them, that does kind of imply that it may be just Orgnum all by himself who holds all the serpents under control at once and just allows some limited control over them by the riders while keeping the ritual secret to his subjects and keeping the full control with himself. But that's just my own theory. Especially since there are some suggestions made that the ancient Yokudans, the far ancestors of the Red Guards from since before they migrated to Tamriel from their ancient home of Yokuda, they might have had sea serpents of their own. But that might just be, you know, unreliable sources. But if that is true, that would make it far more unlikely that Orgnum is just the only one capable of doing it. But I suppose that we won't know the answer anytime soon until we have new lore on this kind of subject. That being said, that's about all that we know about the sea serpents and I sincerely hope that you enjoyed this video. And you know, if you got interested in more Elder Scrolls lore, especially those of sea monsters, like the sea serpent, check out my long video on sea monsters around Tamriel. I talk a little bit about the sea serpents there, although not in that much detail as I did here. But I talk about far more creatures that you never know probably existed in the Elder Scrolls universe. Anyway, I do hope that you enjoyed the video and I hope that I managed to teach you something new about the Elder Scrolls universe today. And if I did, why not consider subscribing to the channel? We just passed 90,000 subscribers. We're nearing 100,000 subscribers. Never thought I'd get that near. But when we reach it, you definitely don't want to be in the haven't subscribed yet club. Now there's still a chance to be one of the OGs. Oh my god, I hate people who say things like this. 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