Gwumbo Snake

Gwumbo Snake is a true story turned myth turned campfire horror story about the Gwumbo Snake.

Summary

The Gwumbo Snake was a big snake beyond understanding, having gained its name after eating a man named Gwumbo, that could seemingly teleport around whenever in darkness. It murdered entire villages each night, eating the inhabitants to grow ever larger, until a hero name Mallimus fought it with a plasma rifle with a plasma bayonet. Somehow, it tanked out on all of the plasma bullets that were in the gun and so Mallimus killed the already injured snekk with the plasma bayonet.

Historical Basis

Gwumbo Snake wasn't as big as stories suggest, but more dangerous, and it wasn't a hero called Mallimus that killed it but a unit of 200 highly trained and well armed soldiers.

The CHG was experimenting on animals to create creatures capable of "teleportation" by making it possible for them to transfer themselves into Mirror Dimension D and out again so that any successful results could be transferred to human super-soldiers. Gwumbo Snake was a member of the species nicknamed "Death Serpents" and escaped the facility in which it was created, having hatched with its abilities and, due to experience within the lab, knew exactly how to use its abilities to assist in its survival in both hunting and avoiding being hunted.

Gwumbo Snake, after escaping, already had a preference for going after humans due to a dislike of the humans that had experimented on it in the lab and gained more of one when it became clear that they were easy prey. It slowly wittled down the populations of towns, growing and becoming more intelligent as it did so to the point where it was actively torturing its victims before killing them, until the CHG sent out a force of 200 elite soldiers, half in our reality and half sent into the dimension that the snake was using, to kill it. It tactically moved in order to kill 13 of these soldiers before being killed by a single plasma shot to the head.

The CHG covered this up as much as possible but not all cases of mind-wiping were entirely successful and some individuals escaped it entirely. The story of what happened eventually developed into Gwumbo Snake, with the CHG's help in making it how it is today to make it seem obviously fake.

Spread

Very popular in the Athena system where the events occurred. Even the Smurfs of Athena 1 have their own similar version they made as an adaptation of it.

Variations & Mutation

Smurf version, snekk size, some versions don't include light being a factor in teleporting (weirdly enough it was tho), was it a bayonet or straight-up sword?, Mallimus sometimes has a helper(s) in the story in the form of a sidekick (often a woman he supposedly later married or his brother, who he didn't marry because the CHG is not Alabama) or an animal (usually a dog), sometimes there's not even a plasma gun and just the blade, sometimes he kills it with the gun and there's no blade, sometimes there are backstories as to how he got the weapon.

Cultural Reception

Mostly just a story of smol good/order triumphing over thicc evil/chaos and so pretty well received.

In Literature

There're 14 movies of it, 5 shows of it (mostly following Mallimus before, during and after the battle with the snekk), numerous books of it, an encyclopedia of versions of the story, many museums have murals of the events in the children's play area to teach them that good always triumphs over evil, etc. It's the equivalent to Robin Hood within the Athena Ring, but without the rich vs poor comparison (unless you feel like stretching it a little)

In Art

Murals, murals, how about more murals, ohhh and a painting, and lots of drawings by children tooooooo.

Date of First Recording

2543 in a CHG Secret Event Log. Stories really got rolling 8 years later.

Date of Setting

No real-world setting for the story, at least. Everyone knows that such a dangerous creature would have a squad of 200 or more highly trained and well equipped soldiers sent to kill it.

Related Ethnicities