>>5508253There's different origin stories for the Snake Men, but they are all from thousands of years before He-Man.
In the original MOTU, they were just an ancient evil sealed up until Skeletor unlocks their seal deep in Snake Mountain. He-Man thought Skeletor was attacking the disguised Hsss until POP OFF TORSO ATTACK.
The Filmation cartoons never did anything with the Snake Men as a faction, although one or two showed up as part of Skeletor's gang or the Evil Horde.
In the 200X cartoon, the Snake Men were again an ancient evil sealed up, but this time Evil-Lyn was the one who unleashed them. Evil-Lyn, despite being pretty competent in the series, does most of the fuck-ups (gets Skeletor with Hordak, unleashes ancient wizard Count Marzo, unleashes Snake Men, was about to unleash the Horde for season 3).
Classics I think used a throwaway line in the old bios that the Snake Men were originally created by the Unknown One, a terrible wizard who was going to use the Snake Men for his army until King Hss rebelled and led his faction for himself. Unknown One was made into a figure for MOTUC. He was Evil Orko, basically. Not a well-liked development.
In the DC comics, the Snake Men were just the Old Race before warm blooded humans arrived. The Goddess took the snake aspect to interact with them. King Hsss took over the Snake Men and led them to take over the planet but was defeated by time. Hsss however survived as a spirit, possessing people through the ages. He tried to possess He-Man, but he (barely) got his ass kicked out by the Power of Eternity inside He-Man. For a few issues, though He-Man was actually King Hsss, and wore the classic armor. I'm almost tempted to get a Classics King Hsss just for a possessed evil He-Man.
