Poison

Wyvern · Type of Dragon — Legendary two-legged, winged reptilian creature

The wyvern is the two-legged, bat-winged dragon of medieval European heraldry and folklore, named from Old English 'wivere' (viper) — itself from Latin 'vipera' — and distinguished from the four-legged Western dragon by the absence of forelegs (the wings serve as arms) and by a long barbed tail terminating in an arrow-shaped venomous sting. The heraldic form was codified in late twelfth-century Anglo-Norman heraldry under Henry II, and Juliana Berners's 'Boke of Saint Albans' (1486) is the first English manual to set the wyvern apart from the four-footed dragon as a distinct heraldic beast. The Welsh red dragon Y Ddraig Goch became an official badge of the Tudor dynasty after the battle of Bosworth in 1485, and nineteenth-century English heralds harmonised it with the four-legged form as a 'four-footed wyvern'. The same silhouette has been adopted in J.R.R. Tolkien's Fell Beasts in 'The Lord of the Rings' (1954-55), the wyverns of FromSoftware's 'Dark Souls' (2011), the Rathalos line of Capcom's 'Monster Hunter' series (2004- ), the dragons of 'The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' (2011), and the dragons of HBO's 'Game of Thrones' (2011-2019).

Cursed Treasure Dragon of Norse Myth

Fáfnir is the tragic dragon of Norse legend, recorded in the late thirteenth-century Icelandic 'Völsunga saga' and in the Poetic Edda lays 'Reginsmál' and 'Fáfnismál' preserved in the Codex Regius (GKS 2365 4to, c. 1270, Árni Magnússon Institute, Reykjavik), and retold in the early thirteenth-century Middle High German 'Nibelungenlied' as the hoard-dragon slain by Siegfried. He was originally a dwarf, the son of king Hreiðmarr, but coveted the cursed gold paid as compensation for the accidental killing of his shape-shifted brother Otr — the hoard contained the ring Andvaranaut, taken from the dwarf Andvari under a curse — and murdered his father, drove out his brother Regin, and transformed into a venom-spitting wyrm (legless serpent-dragon) coiled atop the gold. The hero Sigurðr (Middle High German Siegfried), aided by Regin's sword Gramr, dug an ambush pit beside the dragon's path to a stream and stabbed Fáfnir from below in the soft belly; drinking the dragon's blood gave Sigurðr the speech of birds, and eating its roasted heart gave him universal wisdom. The episode is the direct source of Richard Wagner's 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' (1869-1876) and of J.R.R. Tolkien's Smaug in 'The Hobbit' (1937).

Nine-Headed Marsh Monster

The Lernaean Hydra (ancient Greek 'Lernaia Hydra', Latin 'Hydra Lernaea') is the most iconic many-headed monster of Greek mythology, the second of Heracles's twelve labours imposed by King Eurystheus of Mycenae. Her birth is fixed by Hesiod (late eighth century BCE) in the 'Theogony' (c. 730 BCE), lines 313-318, as the daughter of the serpent Echidna and the storm-giant Typhon, sister of Cerberus, the Chimaera and the Nemean lion, and was reared by Hera to test Heracles. She is canonically nine-headed, the central head immortal (Pseudo-Apollodorus, 'Bibliotheke' II.5.2, second century BCE), and her decisive power is regenerative: every severed head sprouts two new ones. Heracles defeats her only with the help of his nephew and charioteer Iolaus, who cauterises each cut stump with a flaming torch; the final immortal head Heracles severs and buries beneath a great rock. The Hydra's venomous blood is then collected on Heracles's arrows and goes on to kill the centaur Nessus, the giant Antaeus and, finally, Heracles himself. Her lair is the Lerna marsh of Argolis on the eastern Peloponnese, identified with the archaeological site near modern Myloi village, ten kilometres south of Argos, where the University of Cincinnati expedition (1950-58, John L. Caskey) excavated a Neolithic settlement of the third millennium BCE.

Acidic Tyrant of the Swamps

The Black Dragon is one of the branches of the chromatic dragons that took root in the 1974 first edition of Dungeons & Dragons by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, a great evil-aligned lizard ruling the rotted seats of swamp and marshland. Scales black as lacquer, two long horns that curve back as they grow, and narrow yellow eyes that gleam through the mist are the clearest mark of one seat, and from its mouth it breathes a single straight line of strong acid that corrodes even a steel harness in a single pass. It knows every seat of its territory exactly, and the sadistic habit of not killing a man at one stroke but tormenting him slowly and drinking in his pain stands out the most among the other chromatic dragons of the same seat. Its lair is a sunken old temple or a narrow, dark cave in the heart of a swamp, where it sets human slaves and lizardfolk to weave the seat of a labyrinth.

Hydra · Lernaean serpent — Multi-headed mythical beast

The Hydra (Greek Hydra, Latin Hydra) is the most famous many-headed monster of Greek mythology, properly the Lernaean Hydra after its swampy haunt at Lerna in the Peloponnese near Argos. Born of Typhon and Echidna, sister to Cerberus, Chimera, and Orthrus, the Hydra was reared by the goddess Hera as a test for Heracles. Its heads number nine in the canonical account, though variant traditions give seven, fifty, or a hundred; one central head is immortal. Its signature power is regenerative: cut off one head and two grow back. Its breath and blood are venomous. As the second of Heracles' Twelve Labours, the hero, aided by his nephew Iolaus who cauterised each severed neck with a torch, finally lopped off the immortal head and buried it under a great rock. He then dipped his arrows in the Hydra's blood, beginning a chain of poisonings that ran through the rest of Greek myth.

King of Serpents in Medieval European Legend

The basilisk is a legendary creature from ancient Greco-Roman and medieval European traditions. The name derives from Greek 'basiliskos' (little king), referring to it as the 'king of serpents.' Pliny the Elder's Natural History first recorded it as a small snake with a crown-shaped crest. Through medieval times it evolved into a snake-rooster hybrid with chicken's head and legs. Its most feared ability is the 'death gaze' that kills with a single look, while its breath withers plants and cracks stones. Its only weaknesses are its own reflection and the scent of weasels.

Beelzebub · Lord of the Flies — Prince of Gluttony

Great demon of Jewish and Christian tradition. The name comes from Hebrew 'Lord of the Flies' (Baal-Zebub). Originally Baal-Zebul ('the noble lord'), worshipped at Philistine Ekron, the Jews mockingly renamed him 'Lord of the Flies' (zebub = fly). In the New Testament he is called 'the prince of demons' by Christ himself. Prince of Gluttony among the Seven Deadly Sins.