Kotqophay

In the religious tradition of the Eleven Cities, Koqophay is a sea serpent that arose to answer the impertinence of King Kepheran. After bedevilling the city of Oluz for some time it was eventually slain by the pseudohistorical wizard Morogyad.

Narrative

The sea trade made Oluz fantastically wealthy, leading King Kepheran to boast that the sea worked for him rather than vice versa. To answer this impertinence the seas gave rise to the serpent Kotqophay, who began to crush ships and devour sailors in the Straits of Oluz. To appease the monster Kepheran began leaving three virgins a year chained to rocks in the Straits, which kept shipping moving but made the king very unpopular with his people (there is also a venerable joke in some other cities that it quickly became unsustainable due to a paucity of virgins in Oluz).
After an unspecified number of years the wizard Morogyad arrived in Oluz, flying on the Discus of Morogyad. He offered to rectify the situation in exchange for the freedom and patronage of the wealthy city, to which Kepheran readily agreed. With the aid of his uncle Ajqyod, Morogyad forged The Blue Trident and used mineral salts of his own devising to pickle a handful of kelp, which he ate, endowing himself with the ability to breathe underwater. Armed with the trident, he then leapt into the Straits of Oluz from the rock where the maidens were to be sacrificed. Able to function underwater, he was able to neutralise Kotqophay's advantage as a creature of the sea, and kill the monster with repeated stabs the trident. As Kotqophay sank into the depths of the ocean he dragged the trident with him, and the weapon thus passed beyond mortal hands.

Literary/artistic tradition

The central pre-Wesmodian literary source for the story is Typhan of Ramoros's History of Morogyad. The matter is also discussed, obliquely but at some length, in The Ramoros Libram. Versions have also been found in pre-Wesmodian copies of The Book of Favour, particularly those found in the northern cities, though these are the only northern written narratives - the story appears to have been more popular in Ramoros than in the city where it supposedly took place.
Artistic depictions of the story are common in the northern cities, however. Illuminations depicting the battle are common in Oluz and Halumay, with lavish versions appearing in the copies of The Book of Favour kept in the Guildhouses of both cities. Oluz Guildhouse features a large mural depicting Morogyad impaling Kotqophay from below, which has been retouched and restored on several occasions since the Wesmodian Reformation. The question of how much of the original mural actually remains, and whether the revisions detract from its capacity as an example of pre-Wesmodian public piety, or a thaumatological study aid, has yet to be publicly addressed.
Also of note in the artistic tradition surrounding Kotqophay is the Sepulchre of Morogyad in Oluz. Though not Morogyad's actual tomb, the monument is topped with a brass statue (significantly above life size) waist deep in water wrestling with Kotqophay, shown as a eel-like monster with fishy fins, enormous fangs and a scaly muscular body. The sculpture once included the Blue Trident, but the weapon was removed at some point and has never been accounted for.

Commentary

Morogyad's confrontation with Kotqophay very precisely mirrors the battle between his father Zargyod's battle with the serpent Qotrophay. Given the similarity between the two monster's names, it has been suggested that the story of Kotqophay is simply an Oluzian appropriation of the earlier story of Zargyod's battle, and never actually happened. Pholyan thaumatologists Ryl Ryan Kol and Selph Taldume explore this possibility in their book Footsteps of Morogyad which suggests the pseudo-historical wizard is an amalgam of various historical and mythological figures.