The Aranlek, the Snake King of the deserts of Unhellion

The Aranlek, is a mythical creature of Sun and Desert elf mythology that inhabited the deserts of Unhellion during the time of the heroes. According to both Sun elves and Desert elves the Aranlek is the responsible for the movement of the endless sand dunes of the desert and has her lair deep beneath the sand, altough some myths say that she lives behind some of the abandoned temples across Unhellion, like the Temple of Dayr Enmeret .

Appearance

One of the first mentions and descriptions of the Aranlek appears in the Elven "Book of the Kings", where this famous snake is presented as a guardian of a splendorous treasure deep beneath a temple. The Snake King was described as having silver scales and golden eyes " as bright as the thrones of the gods" , with a big mouth with very big and sharp teeth. She was also describe as being as tall as a house and as large as 10 cows and her venom would be able to kill the strongest and biggest Dragon Bird in a matter of minutes.

Aranlek by Assasins Creed Origins

Diet and other characteristics

This very same book tells us how the snake ate both the adventurers that tried to search for the treasure and also travellers and caravans that dwelled across the desert (camels, tents and other animals included). The snake would also leave her den in order to hunt cows, sheep and other animals in the Wetlands, Unhellion's most fertile region and the birthplace of Sun elf civilization. It was said in the book of the kings that once, the Aranlek deprived the city of Tiruz, the first capital of the Sun elves, without any meat for 3 years, such was the appetite of the Snake King.
Of course, being a legendary creature, the Aranlek could speak, and she had a very deep voice that could frightened the bravest of all the adventurers. Before she captured and ate her elven victims, she would play with them trying to catch them and giving her prey a false hope of salvation.

A divine punishment

According to the myth the situation became so untenable for the Sun Elves that the gods decided to intervene. Ahira, the goddess of fire was sent by the Sky father, the God of the Sun, to deal with the monster. And here is where we find three different versions of the myth. The first one tells us that Ahira created a hammer in order to kill the giant beast. One day the Aranlek was hunting cows in the Wetlands where suddenly the goddess jumped from a hill and stroke the snake's head with her hammer, stunning her and forcing the snake to return to the deep caves that lie beneath the temples and some desert areas. The other version of the myth is very similar to the previous one but in this case Ahira managed to kill the Aranlek but her tail kept moving due to nerve impulses and creating the movement of the dunes.
And, lastly, the third one tells us that Ahira mounted her griffon, and each summer, when the aranlek decided to go hunting some cows, she descended upon him, scaring the monster and forcing her to return to the cave or temple where she was living each time that the goddess descended from the heavens. So, according to the myth, the earthquakes and the movement of the dunes are produced because of the Aranlek running towards her laid.