Olm, what is it

[chattius 2,610]

Olm is the German name for a very strange real existing beast: The Grottenolm, cave olm. It is a kind of albino blind aquatic cave salamander. Olms are somehow mudpuppies who never leave there cave. They are albino, blind, with no pigment cells, die in the sun, ... In the ice age most of the caves were connected. and they were more often. Now cave divers and tourists made it that they only existat a few places still

They have a lifespan of more than 100 years but a very frustrating sexual life laying only eggs once in all this time. They can life 10 years without feeding, ..

 

The mystical part is: since they never left their caves they were unknown to the people before cave diving. At very heavy rain the caves could be flooded and the olms washed into rivers. The dead olms in the rivers were thought to be dragon babies who have just left the egg (mainly germanic stories), or human fish - a mixture between fish and human because of there skin (slovenia), and a lot of other theories.

Swamp olms could be rather mudpuppies (most related) or hellbenders (being big salamander) swho life in america but not europe. But since they are somehow related to the cave salamanders german emigrants sometimes named them olms because that was the closest to them in Europe's fauna.

 If your heard about other sources naming them olms and have some other stories heard, please report.

 

[gogoblender 3,182]

7 hours ago, chattius said:

Olm is the German name for a very strange real existing beast: The Grottenolm, cave olm. It is a kind of albino blind aquatic cave salamander. Olms are somehow mudpuppies who never leave there cave. They are albino, blind, with no pigment cells, die in the sun, ... In the ice age most of the caves were connected. and they were more often. Now cave divers and tourists made it that they only existat a few places still

They have a lifespan of more than 100 years but a very frustrating sexual life laying only eggs once in all this time. They can life 10 years without feeding, ..

 

The mystical part is: since they never left their caves they were unknown to the people before cave diving. At very heavy rain the caves could be flooded and the olms washed into rivers. The dead olms in the rivers were thought to be dragon babies who have just left the egg (mainly germanic stories), or human fish - a mixture between fish and human because of there skin (slovenia), and a lot of other theories.

Swamp olms could be rather mudpuppies (most related) or hellbenders (being big salamander) swho life in america but not europe. But since they are somehow related to the cave salamanders german emigrants sometimes named them olms because that was the closest to them in Europe's fauna.

 If your heard about other sources naming them olms and have some other stories heard, please report.

 

 

 

This is a brilliant write up Chattius! I appreciate the time you put into the writing (as always! )  There's two places where we can place in Wiki...  what do you think about adding a link to the bottom of this page here which is the actual page for Olms

 

http://www.sacredwiki.darkmatters.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Swamp_Olm

 

We sometimes place live links that lead back to this forum from the bottom of the page, (This way the info would be credited to your name via the link) and I could name it historical info or something like that ... sound good?

 

gogo

[chattius 2,610]

We could do it. I hoped for a bit more information how the 'human fish' and 'baby dragon' made it into something like the 'thing from the swamp'-movies ;)

[gogoblender 3,182]

9 minutes ago, chattius said:

We could do it. I hoped for a bit more information how the 'human fish' and 'baby dragon' made it into something like the 'thing from the swamp'-movies ;)

lol! yes those are batrachian horrors.. lovecrafian raised and empowered!

Ill be putting in that link into Wiki today

 

gogo

[gogoblender 3,182]

lol im rusty in the Wiki...but its just as gratifying as before! 

Here's the link to the page Chattius, if you want to add more go for it 

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Swamp_Olm

 

 

gigi

[Hooyaah 2,953]

The Olm from Sacred 2 always reminded me of The Creature From The Black Lagoon.

 

 

 

[gogoblender 3,182]

45 minutes ago, chattius said:

We could do it. I hoped for a bit more information how the 'human fish' and 'baby dragon' made it into something like the 'thing from the swamp'-movies ;)

 

1 minute ago, Hooyaah said:

The Olm from Sacred 2 always reminded me of The Creature From The Black Lagoon.

 

 

 

Creature from the black lagoon it is!

And...i really loved adding that snippet to the Wiki pointing to an important page here on the forum... If I see any other opportunities like that in future I'll add more to other pages

[Flix 5,162]

I'm reminded of the Ithilids from Dungeons & Dragons.  More commonly known as the "Mind Flayers".

 

And of course the Great Old One himself, Cthulhu.

[gogoblender 3,182]

2 hours ago, Flix said:

I'm reminded of the Ithilids from Dungeons & Dragons.  More commonly known as the "Mind Flayers".

 

And of course the Great Old One himself, Cthulhu.

These are almost perfectly related to the Olms... in fact I believe now that maybe the swamp thing movie based its ideas on lovecraft? Flix isnt there cartoon out ..i vaguely remember it, but very gruesomesque...where the eillithids were going about capturing lesser beings in some kind of craft to "install" in their ship to use for power?

 

gogo

[gogoblender 3,182]

I think I found it... baldur's gate 3 trailer!

gogo

[Flix 5,162]

Yes indeed, they appear to be driving the plot of BG3 as the main antagonists.

I put together a mind flayer halloween costume a few years back.. Wish I still had pictures from back then.