The Basilicok
The Basilicok (Also known as Serpent King or the Beast King of the Sands) is an ancient beast that terrorized the Nornir (Wyrd Dragons). It was said to be the most powerful magical beast, being highly feared by their people.
Overview
Capabilities
It's said that the Basilicok's very existence is toxic, and like a true Basilisk, a single look from this creature's monstrous gaze can instantly kill a man. Just by fighting in the vicinity of the beast, the Nornir were fatally poisoned. This even went so far as to impact the land around the battle, reducing it to uninhabitable desert until it was restored.
Name
The Japanese version of the book calls this creature the Basilicok, referring to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. This is potentially a reference to the fact that the Basilisk in our myths is said to either be part cock rooster, or to be killed by hearing the sound of one. The official translations write this name as Basilisk which is a fair choice considering potential viewer maturity levels but since there's an equally valid kana word for Basilisk that isn't used in these books, I decided to use the original. In spite of this, the shape of the Basilicok Ruins imply that, regardless of its name, this beast wasn't actually a cockatrice at all, but was instead the older European version of the Basilisk, which was a snake with no cockerel qualities.
Appearance
For as much as the Basilicok is hyped up in the books, it was never actually pictured. At least not within the core series itself. It would later be pictured in the 25th anniversary manga and anime series, in two radically different forms, neither of which actually match the creature that its name is based on at all.
25th Anniversary Manga:
In this series, the Basilicok was a pseudo-beaked monster with large demon horns. It was a bipedal creature with rippling muscles and sharp claws, towering over the Nornir of Alenhatam as a massive beast. In this iteration it had larged feathered wings, which at least has some characteristics of a traditional Basilisk. This version shares the same general history as the original books.
Stray Journey Anime
An exclusive episode found on the blu-ray set for the new Stray Journey anime depicts the history if the Basilicok Ruin. Here, the Basilicok is an almost human-like creature. The unusual interpretation has two massive horns coming out of the shoulders that arch up beside the head, a muscular torso, and clawed hands with three fingers. Most unusual of all is its fusion of the snake themes of a mythical Basilisk. Its lower half seems to be a tangle of snake heads, with three or four long necks, each with a head of their own. Both the heads and the main creature itself have red eyes (though the head on top of the torso has four eyes.)
In this version of the show, its gaze simply made people disintegrate. Whether that was just for visual effect or literally how it worked in the show is unclear.
History
The Basilicok was said to be a terrible monster, a magical beast sent by the gods to destroy the dragon race as divine punishment for the Nornir stealing the god's magic. It's said that to counter this threat, the Nornir built Fort Basilicok to defeat the creature. However, during the battle, the fort was said to have been destroyed, and the entire region reduced to a desert. 1,000 years prior to the start of the story, it's said that the Nornir finally succeeded in killing this beast.
The Nornir would go on to heal the land, and build the ancient capital of Alenhatam up around it, constructing a massive canal that ran atop the subterranean levels of Fort Basilicok. However, for all of their hundreds of years of effort, in the end, the Basilicok still won. Its poison had a deadly effect on the Nornir, even if their long lifespans meant that they didn't see those effects for many years to come.