Elder Gods of Earth

This page is dedicated to the beings referred to as "Elder Gods" in the context of Earth.
For other beings known as "Elder Gods," on Earth or elsewhere, please consult the "Elder Gods" glossary page.

Elder Gods
Name	Elder Gods
Aliases	Elder Gods of Earth, Elder-Gods, Earth-Spirits, Elder Deities, Titans, Ancient Gods, Ancient Ones, Ancient Giants, Elders, Old Gods Ancients (see notes)
Affiliation and Identity
Identity	Secret
Physical Characteristics
Body Type	Variable
Average Height	Variable
Average Weight	Variable
Eyes	Variable
Hair	Variable
Skin	Variable
Number of Limbs	Variable
Number of Fingers	Variable
Number of Toes	Variable
Origin and Status
Origin	Offspring of the Demiurge Primordial
Reality	Earth-616
Base of Operations	Mobile
Place of Birth	Earth
Creators and Appearances
Creators	August Derleth, Mark Gruenwald, Alan Zelenetz, Bob Hall
First	Thor Annual #10 (August, 1982)
First	Thor Annual #10 (August, 1982)

Born from the Demiurge Primordial, Earth's Elder Gods were purportedly its first life forms. Nearly all of them became demons, and in a war among themselves, they were purged by Demogorge the God-Eater. A few survived the culling: Set, Chthon, Gaea, Oshtur, etc. The demonic Set and Chthon fled to other dimensions to escape Demogorge's wrath. Banished from Earth, they repeatedly seek to return but are opposed by Gaea and Oshtur, the two who were never corrupted.

Additionally, five Elder Gods dwell in Utgard: the Utgard-Loki, Toranos, Kemur, Mejed, and Nrgl. They have been sealed there since the Elder God culling, but Gaea recently opened the gate to Utgard.

History

Origins and the Early Years

The Demiurge Primordial spawning the Elder Gods

The Elder Gods are incredibly powerful ethereal beings with vast mystical powers. They were spawned by the Demiurge Primordial's energies soon after the One Above All formed Earth, roughly 4 billion years ago.

Curious about the stars, the Elder Goddess Oshtur left Earth tens of thousands of years before the conflict that would erupt among the Elder Gods.

Degeneration and the Godwar

Chthon and Set escaping Demogorge

The Elder Gods were originally benevolent beings who knew no malevolence. They lived in peace between them and helped their creator with shaping the planet Earth, but one day the evil entity named Vinruviel emerged and planted the seeds of corruption within the Elder Gods. Most of the Elder Gods fell to her corruption and soon waged a war between them. During the Godwar, the Elder Gods battled endlessly to claim what their siblings possessed, ravaging the Earth and preventing even the sturdiest of Gaea to survive.

Set discovered that he could increase his own powers by eating his fellow Elder Gods and he became Earth's first murderer; however, the process caused him to degenerate into a demon. Most of the other Elder Gods, with the exception of Gaea (and Oshtur who was off-world at the time), began to imitate him and became demons themselves to further their own strength. Horrified, Gaea called upon the Demiurge Primordial to produce her a savior that could wipe out the Elder Gods-turned-demons: Atum. Absorbing the demons' powers into his own body, Atum became Demogorge the God-Eater and wiped out almost all of the demons, except for Chthon and Set who escaped to other dimensions (the Flickering Realms and the Serpent's Sea, respectively).

The Utgard-Loki giving Gaea the key to his realm

A scant few other Elder Gods survived. Tiwaz left Earth to wander. Meanwhile, the Utgard-Loki (like Chthon and Set) escaped to his own realm, Utgard. Also, united against a common foe, he was joined by four other Elder Gods: Toranos, Kemur, Mejed, and Nrgl. The Utgard-Loki then created a gate and gave his sister Gaea the key to his realm in case she would ever wish to release them.

When Oshtur returned to Earth, she discovered what happened to her kin. Similar to how Chthon and Set created their own realms, Oshtur and Gaea also made planes for themselves: the Astral Plane and Avalon, respectively. The four Elder Gods set aside their differences to create the Crossroads as "neutral ground." Agreements were made between the four of them, including restrictions to direct interference with the others' activities.

The Nethergods, including Necromon and Mandrac, were possibly degenerate Elder Gods.

According to the Darkhold, 1 million years ago, Chthon led a group of evil gods in a war against a benevolent faction, but was sealed away along with his army by his victorious opponents.

Ancient Times

In ancient times Thor and Loki were wandering near the River Vimur when a gateway to Utgard appeared. The two went through and were met by the Utgard-Loki as "Skrymir", who led them to Utgardhall. Once there, he greeted them as himself and tested them to see if their people were worthy of life.

The Modern Day

Of the survivors, Gaea currently resides within Earth itself and is also known as both "Mother Earth" and "Mother Nature"; Oshtur formed the Vishanti to assist Earth's Sorcerer Supreme; and Chthon and Set reside in their own dimensions, but they still exert influence through their followers and artifacts (such as the Darkhold and the Serpent Crown).

Chthon tricked Ian McNee into gathering the Cornerstones of Creation, and was both nearly reborn though Victoria Montesi and almost unleashed by Carnage.

Gaea decided that humanity needed to change from its ways of destroying her environment, and decided to release her siblings from Utgard to force change upon them. Toranos was the first to emerge, attacking Thor and New York City, but he fled when Thor forced a conscience upon him.

Powers and Abilities

Weaknesses

The Elder Gods originally had no physical or true appearance. Doctor Strange theorized that as humans came to know the Elder Gods, they began depicting them as possessing a physical form, which caused the Elder Gods to inadvertently adopt these forms.

Habitat

Habitat

Originally Earth. Eventually, four of the surviving Elder Gods created Inner Planes for themselves.

• Chthon's Inner Plane is the Flickering Realms.
• Set's Inner Plane is the Serpent's Sea.
• Oshtur's Inner Plane is the Astral Plane.
• Gaea's Inner Plane is Avalon.

In addition, the four of them created the Crossroads as "neutral ground."

The Utgard-Loki's realm is Utgard. Uniting to escape Demogorge, several Elder Gods joined him there, namely Toranos, Kemur, Mejed, and Nrgl.

Miscellaneous

Level of Technology

The Elder Gods created magical items. Among them are the Cornerstones of Creation, four powerful artifacts left behind by four Elder Gods (one each):

• The "Sword" from Oshtur. It is associated with air, as Oshtur is an air deity.
• The "Rose" from Gaea. It is associated with earth, as Gaea embodies Earth.
• The "Crown" from Set. It is associated with water, as Set rules the waters.
• The "Mirror" from Chthon. It is associated with fire; the Mirror is actually the Darkhold, and it reflects Chthon's dark flames.

Representatives

Chthon (the Mystic of Dark Magic), Gaea (the Mother of Earth), Oshtur (the Giver of Light and Justice), Set (the Great Destroyer), Tiwaz (who is Wisdom and the Winter Sky), Toranos (the First of All Thunderers), the Utgard-Loki (the Magus of the Ancient Tales), Kemur (the King), Mejed (the Hooded One), NRGL (the City of Death), Hyppus, Isuus

Atum, the son of Gaea, is "the first of the new race of gods," but he is sometimes treated and/or counted as an Elder God.

The Nethergods, including Necromon and Mandrac, were possibly degenerate Elder Gods.

Notes

• The Elder Gods were created by August Derleth as a new classification within the Cthulhu Mythos. Marvel's Elder Gods were then created by Roy Thomas, and were inspired by Greek mythology (Gaia), Egyptian mythology (Set and Atum), as well as the Cthulhu Mythos (Chthon), with some of them being close to the Great Old Ones.
  • Oshtur's name was possibly inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos entity Hastur.
  • In Marvel Premiere #5 (November, 1972), a story written by Gardner Fox and strongly influenced by Robert E. Howard and the Cthulhu Mythos, the Vishanti appeared as the "Eternal Ones", benevolent elder entities having fought the Great Old One Shuma-Gorath, seemingly as counterparts to Derleth's benevolent Elder Gods. "The Eternal Ones" were also a benevolent group of entities who were tied to Epemitreus, mentioned in the adaptation of Conan of the Isles (October, 1968; Lancer Books) by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter in Conan the Barbarian Annual #7 (reprinted and completed in Marvel Graphic Novel No. 42: Conan of the Isles), written by Roy Thomas and penciled by John Buscema. The mention of "Eternal Ones" in Marvel Premiere #5 was possibly a reference to those entities.
  • Since then, Carnage (Vol. 2) #1–16 (January, 2016 to March, 2017) depicted Chthon as one of the Great Old Ones and a stand-in for Cthulhu, and combined the Ancients, the Great Old Ones, and the Elder Gods.
  • The Elder Goddess Gaea exists in each of the Earthly pantheons as the "Mother Earth" equivalent for that pantheon (e.g., Jörð for Norse mythology). On the other hand, the Elder God Set does not exist in the Egyptian pantheon, but he instead has a similarly named Ennead equivalent, Seth. Set and Seth's respective sisters, Isuus and Isis, are also similarly named.
• The magical hierarchy was confirmed in Marvel Tarot #1 and the Mystic Arcana to only have four surviving Elder Gods. All of the other Elder Gods were destroyed by Atum and are where the pantheons of humankind emerged. Atum has himself been considered as an (additional) Elder God. Set's sister Isuus was also worshiped in Stygia, though her status remains unknown.
• The Elder Gods of Earth are not to be confused with the multiple groups known as Elder Gods - especially the Great Old Ones (also known as the Many-Angled Ones) of the Cthulhu Mythos, such as Shuma-Gorath; which are sometimes called "elder gods". In Carnage (Vol. 2) #1–16 (January, 2016 to March, 2017), the Elder God Chthon was depicted as a stand-in for Cthulhu, and was included into the Great Old Ones. The name "elder gods" is used also as a generic term for ancient gods and pantheons.

See Also

• 118 appearance(s) of Elder Gods of Earth
• 4 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Elder Gods of Earth
• 46 minor appearance(s) of Elder Gods of Earth
• 38 mention(s) of Elder Gods of Earth
• 8 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Elder Gods of Earth
• 1 invocation(s) of Elder Gods of Earth
• 5 image(s) of Elder Gods of Earth
• 45 representative(s) of Elder Gods of Earth

Links and References

• Elder gods, List of Marvel Comics demons, at Wikipedia
• Elder God on H.P. Lovecraft wiki