Origin of Madcoil?

What the comic shows seems to contradict a lot of online stuff.

Per, OQ #4 - it mentions the long tooth cat and the black serpent locked in mortal combat, the flames of ancient High Ones magic rekindled...
http://elfquest.com/read/OQ/OQ04/oq04-16.jpg

However, sites like this cite something else...
https://elfquest.fandom.com/wiki/Madcoil
Madcoil was the hideous result of the human and elves' continued animosity. It was the twisted fusion of a giant anaconda and wildcat who devoured each other where the Wolfriders abandoned all hope of a human-friendship.

Now, normally I'd be inclined to go with the comic. However, comics being comics, it could have been a retcon that someone wrote?

Quote :

However, sites like this cite something else...
https://elfquest.fandom.com/wiki/Madcoil
Madcoil was the hideous result of the human and elves' continued animosity. It was the twisted fusion of a giant anaconda and wildcat who devoured each other where the Wolfriders abandoned all hope of a human-friendship.

It's likely a rather vage description and pathetic interpretation of the events in Wolfrider!, Tymber. The story is about Bearclaw's chieftime and holds a retelling and completation of Madcoil's creation. Basically it goes with the known elements - the longtooth, the giant snake and the dark pool of elfin magic. The new facet is the fact that the foul magic was revived and nourished by the rage of Elder Shaman* and Bearclaw fighting - start here for the sequence.

*snickers* ... for some reason I always have to figure out whether it was a longtooth or a bear ^^ ... *wonders why*


*Elder Shaman is the predecessor and foster father of the Shaman we know from EQ#1.

Embala wrote:

Quote :

However, sites like this cite something else...
https://elfquest.fandom.com/wiki/Madcoil
Madcoil was the hideous result of the human and elves' continued animosity. It was the twisted fusion of a giant anaconda and wildcat who devoured each other where the Wolfriders abandoned all hope of a human-friendship.

It's likely a rather vage description and pathetic interpretation of the events in Wolfrider!, Tymber. The story is about Bearclaw's chieftime and holds a retelling and completation of Madcoil's creation. Basically it goes with the known elements - the longtooth, the giant snake and the dark pool of elfin magic. The new facet is the fact that the foul magic was revived and nourished by the rage of Elder Shaman* and Bearclaw fighting - start here for the sequence.
*snickers* ... for some reason I always have to figure out whether it was a longtooth or a bear ^^ ... *wonders why*
*Elder Shaman is the predecessor and foster father of the Shaman we know from EQ#1.

Ah, thank you! As you might have guessed, I was asking for a reason.

Always glad to be of service, Tymber!


Looks like Madcoil has no character page or further information on Elfquest.com ...

This creature was created by
- a sabertooth cat
- a giant snake
- a pool of foul elfin magic
fusing into a a terrible monster.

The transformation was initiated and fueled by the fight of Chief Bearclaw and a human shaman - emitting rage and hatred. Due the the "elfin magic" part the monster is able of "dark sending".

Had some fun with the July 2020 grab bag.

Arill3.0's alternate reality story line... got me thinking about some big moments in ElfQuest.
And one of them is certainly Madcoil.
And the "stink" element made me think of writing something up.
And now, I give a twisted version of Madcoil's birth... using the stuff from the comics.
https://fathertreeholt.forumotion.com/t1020-july-2020-grab-bag-stories-poetry-art-etc#55677

Sabretooth makes sense. For some reason I thought it was a mongoose and an average-size snake that grew to monster size. Then I wondered why a mongoose would be so far from the Forevergreen.

Trollbabe wrote:

Sabretooth makes sense.  For some reason I thought it was a mongoose and an average-size snake that grew to monster size.  Then I wondered why a mongoose would be so far from the Forevergreen.

I always remembered it as a sabretooth tiger and snake entwined... Once even considered getting that as a tattoo on the forearm.

It does, if you think of it, make you wonder where the sabretooth tiger came from. I don't think we see any after the birth of Madcoil (around the Wolfriders original home)

And in my story (linked above), I delve into the idea - how was Madcoil able to send?

The story is intentionally ... "jaunting" in the way some sentences are written, to indicate the "broken" thoughts.

Madcoil, the monster of mystery.

On the World of Two Moons we do see Trolls and Elves encountering animals that are extinct on our world. I think there was even a story in which Elves were chased by dinosaurs.

I got the impression that the Palace landed before the last Ice Age on the WOTM. When the Ice Age came, the Trolls built pit traps to catch wooly mammoths or mastodons, I can never tell one from the other. The High Ones tried to use magic to start a fire and warm themselves. (You can see who does all the thinking on this planet... tch… ) Meanwhile, humans continued their Stone Age existence.

If the snake which encountered the sabretooth was as big as a python or an anaconda, by the time Madcoil was formed the climate would have had to be warm enough for the snake to be alive and awake. The sabretooth might have been a holdover from the Ice Age.

Sending is apparently such a basic level of magic that even humans can learn it. So maybe he/she/it just picked it up from the magic deposit, just as Shenshen received sending when in the vicinity of the palace.

When we see Madcoil's origin in the form of a group-send, I noticed that we see it from a third-person vantage point, though, rather than through the eyes of the snake or the cat.

Trollbabe wrote:

Madcoil, the monster of mystery.
On the World of Two Moons we do see Trolls and Elves encountering animals that are extinct on our world.  I think there was even a story in which Elves were chased by dinosaurs.
I got the impression that the Palace landed before the last Ice Age on the WOTM.  When the Ice Age came, the Trolls built pit traps to catch wooly mammoths or mastodons, I can never tell one from the other.  The High Ones tried to use magic to start a fire and warm themselves.  (You can see who does all the thinking on this planet... tch… )  Meanwhile, humans continued their Stone Age existence.
If the snake which encountered the sabretooth was as big as a python or an anaconda, by the time Madcoil was formed the climate would have had to be warm enough for the snake to be alive and awake.  The sabretooth might have been a holdover from the Ice Age.
Sending is apparently such a basic level of magic that even humans can learn it.  So maybe he/she/it just picked it up from the magic deposit, just as Shenshen received sending when in the vicinity of the palace.
When we see Madcoil's origin in the form of a group-send, I noticed that we see it from a third-person vantage point, though, rather than through the eyes of the snake or the cat.

I suspect, that their "Stone Age" and "Ice Age" are all merged together - where the World of Two Moons has both dinosaurs and man and sabretooth tigers all running around at the same time. From what I've known, Sabretooth tigers - like lions - tended to hunt in the plains, so I wouldn't be too surprised if one wandered into a forest.

As for the sending - I had some fun explaining it in my version of the story.

Don't forget the lightning strke. Both Bearclaw and the Shaman were a little bit on the singed sided side after their brief encounter. If I remember correctly this happened not long after Eyes High and Shales deaths.