False-Snakes

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"The body is preserved in a jar: legless, scaleless, deep blue. There are tiny tentacles on its face, below its sightless eyes."

False-snakes are creatures with superficially serpentine bodies, but are otherwise very different from actual snakes. They are dark blue and lack scales, and apparently reside deep underground, with pointed jaws and facial tentacles used to burrow through dirt. They also seem to possess a second pair of jaws within their exterior mouths, and, like many other animals that live in extreme darkness, their eyes are also recognizably sightless.

The bodies of false-snakes have an adverse reaction to light, emitting vibrant pink toxins upon exposure. These toxins can melt even stone, and may be released when exposed to the light of the Neathbow as well. Whether this is some form of defense mechanism against predators, or perhaps against light itself, is unknown.

Apparently, false-snakes are a relative of frogs and other amphibians. Many supposedly ancient false-snakes were found west of London in the Hinterlands, their corpses preserved in a strange, icy marsh. Whether or not these creatures still roam the Neath today is unknown.

Scientific Inspirations

There are hundreds of real-life lizard species that have mostly or completely lost their limbs, and have become known as legless lizards. In particular, the family Dibamidae constitutes the blind skinks: legless lizards that have also lost the use of their eyes. Perhaps, though, false-snakes were instead inspired by caecilians (given the mention of their affinities to frogs), and some text in the game, though ambiguous, suggests that by studying false-snakes the player has indeed seen caecilians of a sort.