The Seven-Coils

The Seven-Coils was one of the gods-from-stone, slain by the Colonel with the help of the Mother of Ants during the Lithomachy before they opened the Mansus to humanity. It is described as being a furious, flabby, fanged creature of monstrous size, the colour of sand and sulphur, with multiple tentacle-necks tearing at its own flesh. The Seven-Coils is one of the more difficult Hours to place a “proto-aspect” to. Not only is their death tied to the rise of both the Colonel as an Edge Hour and the Mother of Ants as a Knock Hour, but they also appear to have some connection to Secret Histories.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

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Events

The Lithomachy: The Seven-Coils was slain by the Colonel, who scarred and blinded himself to defend against the magic of the god-from-stone. One telling justifies this act by saying that the Seven-Coils had a monstrous appetite and a disdain for humanity. After its death, the Colonel bathed/drowned a priestess in the monster’s blood, who then arose as the Mother of Ants.[7][8][9]

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Servants

• Younger Sisters: These great serpents are literally the younger sisters of the Mother of Ants, suggesting that they were also born somehow from the Seven-Coils, who is also the “Father of the Mother”, and can be found guarding many old tombs and forgotten locations.[10]
• The Carapace Cross: The Carapace Cross are the predecessors to humanity, who worshiped the gods-from-stone such as the Seven-Coils. They are believed to be extinct, though in truth, “the Carapace-cross did not perish but passed within”.[11][12]
• Medusa: A member of the Ligeian Club, said to be the oldest among them (not that she’s alive). She is connected to the Seven-Coils through the book “Medusa’s Lament”, as well as some thematic similarities, having a destructive gaze and an association with serpents. She holds the Forest Key used at the end of the Moth path of the Change legacy, and also appears in the Exile legacy, and can be encountered in Budapest.[13][14][5]

Relationships

• The Colonel: The god-from-flesh which slew the Seven-Coils, and likely inherited some portion of its power.[3]
• The Mother of Ants: The priestess who arose from the blood of the Seven-Coils as a god-from-flesh, who bears the title of “serpent-daughter” among many.[5][3]
• The Horned Axe: The last surviving god-from-stone, who eventually made a treaty with the newer Hours that involved the Thunderskin’s sacrifice as restitution for the deaths for her siblings.

Other Notes

• The death of the Seven-Coils is seen in the “Seven-Coiled Vision” of the Priest legacy.[15]
• The Seven-Coils itself is recalled in the Ghoul legacy, as part of the Palest Painting. The Colours Seven-Coiled come from a Furious Memory, found in the corpse of a warrior-king connected to the Colonel.[18]
• The lesser memory of Something Menacing also seems to hold some recollection of the Seven-Coils’s death.[19]
• A lesser tendril of the Seven-Coils in which Worms bred can be found in the vault in Baghdad, which holds the Imhullune Tectrix.[20]

Real World References

• The Lernean Hydra is perhaps the most obvious monster which the Seven-Coils resembles. The Hydra was a serpentlike beast with seven heads, and when one head was cut off two more would grow in its place. It was slain by Heracles, who used fire to cauterize the wounds on its necks before new heads could grow.[15]
• The Seven-Coils bears similarities to several different monsters in myth. Its connection to Medusa brings to mind the mythical Medusa’s slaying by Perseus, where the Greek hero cut off the head of the snake-haired gorgon who could petrify anyone who looked upon her face. The descendants of the Colonel are even called the Perseids to reinforce this connection.[16]
• It also has a connection to Tiamat, a primordial sea-serpent or dragon. It was slain by Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, who wielded Imhullu, a divine wind weapon, and used Tiamat’s body to form the heavens and the earth. The Imhullune Tectrix is presented in the Exile legacy as potentially the weapon used to kill the Seven-Coils, and the origin of this legend in Mesopotamia brings to mind the Mother of Ants, who also took part in the Seven-Coils’s death and is tied to the region.[8][17]
• Another mythical figure the Seven-Coils resembles due to its habit of tearing at its own flesh is the Ouroboros, a serpent or dragon depicted as eating its own tail, which appeared originally in Egyptian iconography before spreading to the Hellenistic World, later being used in Gnostic and Hermetic traditions as well. It is often interpreted as a symbol of cyclic life, death, and rebirth. It was also used in alchemy and has connections in Norse mythology to the serpent which encircles the world, Jormungandr, who will signal the beginning of Ragnarök when he releases his tail and will battle the god Thor at the end of the world until both lie dead.
• One interpretation of the death of the gods-from-stone connects them to the rise of human civilization and a transition to a “higher” state of being. The Seven-Coils in this case could represent the end of an Age of Myth and the beginning of an Age of History, as its death is described in a mythic fashion leading to the founding of human civilization, with texts after that time transitioning into more “historical” accounts of the world. The monster also seems to be tied in some way to the strange principle of Secret Histories, which involves heavily the variations of the past and how they are remembered today.

Theories and Questions

• The description of the Seven-Coils in the Ghoul legacy and its death at the hands of former mortals implies that it existed in the Wake, residing somewhere in the desert.
• The Seven-Coils may also have a connection to Echidna, who in the Apostle Aestuant legacy appears to have a connection to the society of St. Hydra. Perhaps it also bears some connection to the legendary father of monsters, Typhon?[21]
• The Seven-Coils may be the entity called “Wound” in the Priest legacy, who preaches about the aspect of Heart, and “those who were cast down, wave or wound or snow”. However, it also might simply be a reference to the Hours that have not yet been revealed, who from leaked information can similarly be tied to those symbols. A similar reference exists about incantations used to defend against Worms as well as “the Wave and the Wound,” though these Protections apparently haven’t been performed for at least a thousand years. Again, this may just be a reference to leaked Hours and not the dead ones, but there’s no way to be certain currently.[22][23]
• Apart from the most obvious connection between Secret Histories and the Seven-Coiled through the Society of the St Hydra, there are another two more obscure hints.
• One phase of the Enigma included downloading a version of Cultist Simulator with principle names and descriptions being different from the normal game. Secret Histories turned into Hydrae with normal description “History is the scar on the world’s skin” turned into “History is the scar on the world’s neck”, and Society of St Hydra being called "Lernean Club".[24]
• In her dialogue about the Society of the St Hydra, Echidna says that there should be seven Histories instead of five: "Did you ever wonder why it was five, not seven? Two missing Histories."[21] In the context of History being the scar on the world's neck, it's possible to assume some connection between beheading of the Seven-Coiled and appearance of the Histories.
• It is possible that the Seven-Coils represented Rubedo before its death at the hands of the Colonel. Rubedo is the zenith of alchemy’s magnum opus, and it is symbolized by the color red, the sun, blood, sulfur, heat and dryness, and basilisks. Most of these can be found in the memory directly. The more indirect connections are the heat and dryness (for the desert), the ouroboros (where both it and the Seven-Coils are snake-like beings warring with themselves), and the basilisk (whose stony gaze can be compared to that of the Seven-Coils).[1] However, the Seven-Coils is not believed to have either Proto-Forge or Proto-Lantern, with the modern forms of the two being almost necessary for involvement in alchemy. The connection with Proto-Knock could potentially negate this need for them. [25]

In-Game Sources

1. The Colours Seven-Coiled 2. Feast upon a Remnant (#memory.furious) 3. Read 'The Sevenfold Slaying of the Seven-Coiled' 4. Read 'The Deeds of the Scarred Captain' 5. Read 'Medusa's Lament' 6. Society of St Hydra 7. Read 'The World Does Not Weep' 8. Imhullune Tectrix 9. Read 'A Second Glory' 10. Younger Sister 11. Read 'The Songs of the Carapace Cross' 12. On the Smoky Satisfaction..., Enigma compilation 13. Search for Something Unseen 14. The Last Dance, Drums in the Storm, The Door in the Wood 15. The Seven-Coiled Vision 16. Read 'The Book of Thrones' 17. 'The Mother of Ants' 18. Crowkiss Hill, One More Treasure, Scarred Bone-Fragment 19. Secrets in the Soul 20. Althiban Abyss, A Complication (#ee.coiltrace) 21. A Good Reason 22. 'The hearts of the false shall be taken from them when they cease; but the hearts of the true cease not.' 23. Read 'Commandments For the Preservation of All That Exists' 24. Enigma Archive: Phase VII – Solution, Phase VIII – Solution 25. When the Sun Might be Mistaken for the Moon

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