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Druig is a member of the Eternals, a genetically superior offshoot race of humanity who possess abilities such as levitation and immortality. He is power-hungry, and often enters into opposition with the other Eternals in an attempt to usurp power and control them.[citation needed]

Druig has double-crossed his fellow Eternals many times over the centuries in an attempt to assert dominance over them, helping characters and organizations such as Ghenghis Khan's Mongol army,[8] Russia's KGB,[9] and even the bloodthirsty Thanos.[8] Despite his repeated transgressions, Druig is always allowed back into Eternal society after each encounter to preserve unity.[citation needed]

History

Druig, like every Eternal, was created by the Celestials one million years ago and has looked after humanity ever since.[10][11]

Druig, Lord of Flames and Nightmares, was a Polarian Eternal, the son of Valkin, and cousin to Ikaris. A power hungry schemer, Druig was a disappointment to his father, who nevertheless turned a blind eye to Druig's faults.[12]

One thousand years ago, in preparation for the Third Host of Celestials, Druig worked with Valkin, Ajak, and his uncle Virako in preparing sites for the Celestials' arrival. During the preparations, Druig snuck away and attempted to seize power from the entombed Deviant Mutate known as Dromedan, but ended up unleashing him. Thor, God of Thunder, and the Eternals succeeded in beating Dromedan, but at the cost of Virako's life. Valkin vouched for his son, who claimed innocent intent in his actions, but also adopted his nephew Ikaris (Virako's now orphaned son) as his own.[13] The close relationship between Ikaris and Valkin only further soured Druig's relationship with his father.[14]

In 1242 AD Ögedei Khan, son of Genghis Khan, sent General Subutai to invade Europe with the Mongol horde. Kingo Sunen learned that Druig was marching with them and believed he was controlling their minds. He confronted him at a campfire and the warriors fired arrows at him but Kingo just plucked them out of the air. Druig revealed the truth that he was not controlling the Mongols, and he has had nothing to do with the rise of the Mongol Empire nor their brutally efficient methods he was just there to study them. Druig suggested that if he wanted to stop them he should assassinate Subutai. Kingo crept into the leader's tent but could not bring himself to do it, fearing he would become like Druig. The next day; Subutai and his Horde returned home and Druig has stayed to meet with Kingo. He explained that Ogedei Khan had died of a stroke and the Mongols must return home to select a new ruler. Druig claimed not to have known what was happened but stated that if he killed Subutai the Horde would have continued into Europe, killing thousands more.[8]

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In modern times, Druig served as an agent of the KGB in Russia, and found that he enjoyed torturing people. When Ziran the Tester came through Polaria, Druig planned to slay him using "the Weapon," which he had learned of by torturing his cousin Ikaris, but Ikaris disintegrated Druig before he could fire the Weapon.[9]

His body was then recovered by the Celestials, and put into everlasting containment at the Desecration Annex. His container was even breached during a battle between Godstalker and Genis-Vell.[5]

After Sprite's trickery reduced the Eternals to humans, Druig became deputy Prime Minister of Vorozheika under the name "Ivan Druig". Druig hired Sersi to organize a party at the Vorozheikan embassy, asking her to invite wealthy guests and prominent scientists, ostensibly to promote tourism to their Soviet splinter nation. He then arranged for armed men to storm the party, kidnap the scientists, and manufacture a hostage situation. However, one of Druig's co-conspirators turned against him and ordered the mercenaries to murder Druig as well as the hostages once the scientists were away.[15]

In addition to Sersi, Thena Eliot (one of the scientists) and Mark Curry (Makkari, Sersi's date) were also Eternals present at the party. Their close proximity and the stress of the situation created a minor "Uni-Mind", starting to awaken their powers. While Makkari dealt with the gunmen at super-speed, Druig experienced a reawakening of his mental powers, and his ambitions.

Returning to Vorozheika, Druig seized control of an army unit and then rounded up all heads of the government. He then had all the people involved in the betrayal at the embassy dragged before him and the government heads, and gave the heads a choice. They either kill a betrayer, or kill themselves. After one government head tried killing Druig, he forced the man to kill himself. With this small but bloody revolution, Druig took control of Vorozheika.[16]

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As the other Eternals began to awaken, Zuras needed Druig's help containing the Dreaming Celestial. In exchange for his assistance, Druig extracted a vow from Zuras to leave Vorozheika to him and his rule. Zuras reluctantly agreed.[17]

With the Dreaming Celestial contained, an "arms race" began between Zuras and Druig's people to locate other Eternals. Druig found that he could brainwash Eternals to his cause during the process of reawakening their true selves, and soon established nearly a dozen followers.[18]

Druig (Earth-616) from Eternals Vol 4 5 001

When Ikaris grew tired of allowing Druig to roam free, he abdicated any ties to Olympia (and Zuras's edict) and attacked Vorozheika. Ikaris battled Druig and his corrupted Eternals alone, then led them into battle with his allies in San Francisco, the X-Men.[19] Ultimately, Druig and all the Eternals joined forces to counter the threat from space known as the Horde.[20]

After the Mad Titan Thanos was blackmailed by Phastos into stopping the Eternals' resurrection process,[21] he killed the Prime Eternal Zuras.[11] Phastos made it look like someone rigged the resurrection system to bring Thanos,[22] indicating a traitor among them.[11]

This brought suspicion on the manipulative Druig. Druig came under further scrutiny when Thanos entered Polaria and wiped out many of its inhabitants, including Druig's father Valkin, resulting in Druig becoming Polaria's new leader. Thena and Kingo Sunen went to Polaria to question Druig. Druig was apparently absolved of guilt when Thanos suddenly appeared and attacked him, and Thena and Sunen were able to force Thanos to retreat. After the pair left, Thanos reappeared and revealed that Druig had telepathically contacted Thanos during the fight and offered to help him.[23]

Thanos explained to Druig that Phastos had rescued him and was blackmailing him to do his bidding in exchange for repairing his body and by threatening to end him. Druig aided Thanos by telepathically erasing from Phastos' mind the method he would have used to end Thanos.[21]

Druig then told Thanos that he could fully restore his body by becoming the Prime Eternal, which then allow him to resurrect himself using the Eternals' resurrection process. While Druig was able to work out alliances with other Eternals to assure Thanos was voted Prime Eternal, he also secretly copied how to use the self-destruct mechanism within Thanos from Phastos' mind. Later, as Zuras was forming a Uni-Mind to determine the next Prime Eternal, Thanos joined in the Uni-Mind process and was voted as the new Prime Eternal. Thanos then killed Zuras when he opposed him. Thanos also killed Druig as he knew he copied how to use the self-destruct mechanism from Phastos' mind.[24]

Druig was later resurrected by Thanos to be his adviser but was stripped of his most recent memories, including how to work Phastos' mechanism. When Thanos learned from the Eternal administrator Domo that he would need Phastos in order to deal with the fail-safe so he could be resurrected, Druig suggested to Thanos that he call upon the Oceanic Watch to help retrieve Phastos.[6]

After Thanos captured Phastos, Druig aided the Mad Titan as he tortured Phastos for answers on how to disable the failsafe and link himself to the Machine and as he then tortured his parents for information on his physiology. Druig then aided Thanos in infiltrating the mind of Thanos' father Mentor for the information he needed on his physiology so he could be linked to the Exclusion.[25]

When Thanos learned that he couldn't be linked to the Machine because his body had mutated too much, Thanos decided to destroy the Machine and thus destroy Earth in revenge.However, Phastos' failsafe activated because Druig had secretly rigged it to activate if Thanos ever try to destroy the world. After Thanos' death, a new election was held to determine the new Prime Eternal with Druig being elected thanks to his scheming. After becoming Prime Eternal, Druig asked the Machine to locate areas of excess deviation. One of the locations was the newly founded mutant-only nation of Krakoa.[4]

Seeing that wiping out the mutants of Krakoa would ensure his position of Prime Eternal, Druig had Domo prepare an anti-matter bomb to destroy Krakoa. As Domo and Druig were about to destroy Krakoa with the bomb, the Machine reacted badly to the attempt, forcing Domo and Druig to recall the bomb. Domo informed Druig that the island of Krakoa was a living creature and was a part of the Machine in a fundamental way, so, destroying Krakoa wasn't an option.[26]

Druig was able to convince his fellow Eternals to aid him in his war against the mutants and received help from Moira MacTaggert who wanted revenge against Krakoa for casting her out in the form of information as well as from his grandfather Uranos. The Eternals launched an attack on Krakoa with the goal of wiping out the Five, the key to the mutants' immortality. The attack on Krakoa was ultimately a failure, but a simultaneous attack launched upon the Arakkii community on Mars by Uranos was. Druig then unleashed Uranos' Hex upon Krakoa.[27]

Attributes

Power Grid[30]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Experienced Fighter:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Virtually Indestructible:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Warp:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Genius

Powers

As an Eternal of Earth, Druig is descended from the original Eternals created by the Celestials and further empowered by Kronos' experiments with the cosmic life-force.

  • Near-Immortality: Eternals like Druig possess total conscious control over their molecular structures, which are reinforced by cosmic energy. As a result, they are virtually immortal and indestructible. They only age when they choose to, and are virtually invulnerable to any force weaker than their own cosmic energies or total molecular disintegration. Druig can use his control over his molecular structure to heal from damage although more extreme damage like a shattered spine would take hours for him to properly heal.[28]
  • Super Strength: Druig can bench/press at least 30 tons, however he can increase this though his levitation and telekinetic abilities.
  • Superhuman Stamina: Druig has incredible stamina.
  • Telepathy: Druig can psychically communicate, read minds, and project his thoughts into other people. He has cultivated a talent for locating fears in the minds of others. He can then force people to experience these fears as a waking nightmare, and use the threat of these fears to manipulate people's behavior. Druig can also directly override someone's control over their own body. He has some skill in long-term brainwashing as well.
  • Illusions: As an Eternal, Druig is capable of casting illusions, altering his appearance or making people ignore his presence.
  • Telekinesis: He can mentally move and manipulate objects, living creatures, and fly.
  • Cosmic Energy Projection: Druig is able to project blasts of cosmic energy from his hands or eyes, in the form of light, heat, or concussive force. He is highly skilled at projecting a form of cosmic flame that is painful even to other Eternals.
  • Teleportation: He can teleport himself and others across vast distances although doing so is unpleasant for Eternals.
  • Matter Transmutation: Druig is more skilled than most Eternals in the use of matter transmutation. Zuras referred to him as a highly-effective "Changer", even comparable to Sersi.
  • Superhuman Durability: Druig has an enhanced durability, although a strike from Thor's hammer almost knocked him into unconsciousness.

See Also

Links and References

References

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