Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
Yig, otherwise knows as the Father of Serpents, is one of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones.
First seen in "The Curse of Yig", this snake-like being is known for his love and control over
snakes of the world.
But what if this freaky snake god was real?
Let's explore.
If you want more What If videos, check out our “Biggest What Ifs” playlist on the
channel.
Now get ready to get Yiggy with it, it’s time to ask the question: What if The Yig
was Real?
Yig was actually created by Zealia Bishop, first appearing in The Curse of Yig, but it
was changed when Lovecraft added it to the mythos. Little is said of Yig; some stories
say he closely resembles a man until you get too close, while other works depict Yig as
looking much more like a snake.
In all cases, however, Yig has a distinct love of snakes.
Yig views snakes as its children, and much of its kindness and wrath is based on how
various individuals treat snakes.
Treat them well, and Yig has your back.
But treat snakes badly, and you may feel the wrath of this great old one.
Although Yig received relatively little attention in Lovecraft’s work, he has found a good
deal of popularity in recent years, often being chosen over greater beings when creating
mythical games like Dungeons and Dragons.
This is largely because he’s more relatable to modern readers and gamers.
Why?
Well, Yig is rather different from many of the other Lovecraftian Gods.
While the others tend to be incomprehensible and mysterious, difficult to pin down, Yig
seems very much like a god from one of the better-known pantheons.
It seems like something you’d find in Egyptian mythology, rather than disturbing literature.
In fact, within Yig’s lore, it’s stated that he may have been the prototype for the
serpentine Mosoamerican deity, Quetzalcoatl.
This gives Yig a somewhat different feel, trading the mysterious dread of the unknown
for the well-understood fear of snakes.
It also allows us to look at more specific effects of Yig’s existence.
Lucky us!
So, how would the world be different if there was a Snake God on the loose?
Well first and foremost, people would probably start being a heck of a lot nicer to snakes.
Yig has been known to be easy to anger, and any act against a snake could be dealt with
heavily.
It is said that Yig will either send his snake minions after one who has angered him, or
else turn the offender into a snake themselves, do join his ranks.
The idea of being attacked by snakes, or worse yet, turning into a snake slave, would likely
be more than enough to make people terrified of harming a snake.
This might eventually lead to humanity worshipping Yig.
It’s tough to believe in a vague, mysterious God that may or may not exist when there’s
a big snake thing running around chucking cobras at everyone it hates.
This is something that Yig would likely be very much open to.
Perhaps the world would not only avoid harming snakes, but would even raise them to a higher
position, similar to cats in Egypt.
They would likely become much more numerous, but as long as you stayed on Yig’s good
side, they likely wouldn’t be a danger.
However, other than the changes to how we treat snakes, there really wouldn’t be much
change.
Yig is believed to be rather easy to please, so he may not bring with him a number of commandments.
He probably wouldn’t order us not to mix fabrics, when or with whom to have sex, he
wouldn’t even necessarily care about killing people… just be excellent to snakes, and
party on dude!
Now, it should be noted that some interpretations see him requiring somewhat more from his followers,
but it’s possible that Yig would be less demanding when it comes to all of humanity.
That said, it’s possible that even accidental harm to snakes would be punished, and this
would have some rather significant effects, particularly on transportation.
Transportation would become much more stressful, particularly in more rural areas, and off-road.
If you accidentally ran over a snake in your car or bike, you may find yourself feeling
the wrath of Yig.
This would cause people to be more reluctant to travel in certain areas where snakes were
common, and would be made even more difficult as the number of snakes rose and rose.
Furthermore, it could be that Yig would cause animals that prey on snakes to go extinct,
since they, too, would be killing his children.
This would have a huge effect, since many species of animals eat snakes, from bobcats,
to wolverines, to the endlessly stoic honey badger.
We might see a mass extinction of many animals we love, and that would be a tough pill to
swallow.
Interestingly, while past videos have largely involved humanity’s fight against the Old
One, it’s unlikely that mankind would fight back against Yig.
First, Yig would be significantly smaller than Cthulhu or Yog-Sothoth, so it would be
a smaller target.
Furthermore, Yig tends to work more behind the scenes, making it harder to find him in
the first place.
Plus, given his abilities with snakes, it seems likely that anyone plotting against
Yig would come to an unfortunate end before they managed to succeed, and he wouldn’t
even need to leave his home.
So fighting the beast would be largely futile.
And now we return to our question: What if The Yig was Real?
Well, after an initial slaughter of people who didn’t get the memo, there’s a good
chance that the rest of humanity would step in line, and avoid harming snakes at all costs.
It’s possible, even likely, that a religion would form around Yig, although his commandments
would likely be limited to the treatment of snakes.
However, these new rules would cause people to be incredibly cautious when traveling,
severely limiting man’s mobility, and could even result in mass extinction of animals
that prey on snakes.
So I, for one, am glad that Yig isn’t real.
But if he is…
I welcome my snake overlords!
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own.
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While you’re down there, let me know what other deities you’d like to learn about.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.