Dark King (Old One) (Earth-616)

Dark King
Name	Totaro (possibly, see notes)
Current Alias	Dark King
Aliases	King of Darkness, the King
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Served and worshiped by the Shark Men (Samebito)
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Old One
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Fred van Lente
First	Fear Itself: The Home Front #5 (August, 2011) (Mentioned)
First	Fear Itself: The Home Front #5 (August, 2011) (Mentioned)

History

Origin and Early Years

In Earth's first epochs, shark-like creatures sensed the power of an ancient Old One beyond space and time, and evolved into the Shark Men in order to be able to worship it, calling it the "Dark King".

Vril

Its "essence" was known as "the Vril", a kind of anti-life force that dates back millennia, described as "pure evil". This force was used in Atlantis during the Pre-Cataclysmic Age to enable ships to fly. In the aftermaths of the Great Cataclysm, the priests of Xotli and their slaves used those to flee to Antillia.

The secret of Vril was lost to the Antillians in the Hyborian Age. On Hyboria, it was used by Daedikaron to treat his Orichalcum wings and create the synthetic man Tros of Kamothrake from clay and Vril. Vril was extremely difficult to find or obtain in those days.

Finally, it was used to power the legendary "Hell-Carrier", seemingly created during World War II, by either or both the Shark Men and their Thule Society allies. The Hell-Carrier was reactivated during the Fear in the Modern Age.

Notes

• The "Dark King" was seemingly inspired by various sources:
  • Similarities exists with Cthulhu, created by H.P. Lovecraft in "The Call of Cthulhu" (Weird Tales; February 1928):
    • The "Dark King" is an Old One from beyond space and time.
    • The coordinates of the Hell-Carrier in the Pacific Ocean ("47°9′S 126°43′W) are those of the sunken city of R'lyeh as stated by H.P. Lovecraft in "The Call of Cthulhu".
    • The chant "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Totaro Samebito wgah'nagl fhtagn" pastiched Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu's chant "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn". It translated as "In their dread house the warriors of the King of Darkness wait dreaming."
  • This chant is also seemingly a reference to Lafcadio Hearn's short story "The Gratitude of the Samebito" (in Shadowings, 1905), which featured Tōtarō and his encounter with the shark-like Samebito. The Shark Men, worshipers of the Dark God, were stated to be known as the Samebito in Japanese. Given the translations of the chant and of its original version, "Totaro" might be a name of the Dark King.
  • Its essence, Vril, a force used to enable ships to fly, was mentioned in "Conan of the Isles" (October, 1968), written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, adapted in Marvel Graphic Novel #42 (1988).

See Also

• 3 mention(s) of Dark King (Old One) (Earth-616)