The Serpent, originally named Cul Borson, was the son of King Bor and the giantess Bestla. He was also the elder brother of Odin, Vili, and Ve.
Cul had once been a good young man in his youth. Back when Earth was still called Aesheim, he had gone riding alone through the Scandinavian mountains, only to be attacked by giants from his mother's kin. They beat him half to death and threw him off a mountaintop.
That era still belonged to the Titans, and the giants looked down on any creature smaller than themselves. Bestla's union with Bor was seen as a disgrace, so their son was naturally hated by the giants as well.
Cul did not die from the fall, though nearly every bone in his body had been broken. He remained unconscious for a long time, and when he woke, the massive blood loss left him desperately thirsty.
Both his legs had been broken in the fall. So, dragging himself forward on his belly like a snake, he crawled into the giants' camp at night and found them asleep.
He then secretly assassinated most of them, draining their blood to quench his thirst and using their life force to mend his wounds. He left only one survivor.
Cul did not kill that surviving giant. He merely chopped off all four of his limbs, turning him into a Human Stick, then left a message in blood:
"Gods do not live in the heavens. We live upon the ground, and the way you look at me reminded me of that."
Afterward, he unleashed the power he had newly comprehended, pouring immense amounts of "fear" into the giant Human Stick. That fear spread like a disease, passing among the giants in the form of blood and death, giving rise to the