Mhuruuks (Earth-616)

The Mhuruuks were a group of magic users whose members came from a number of sentient races native to the Dark Dimension. Under the leadership of various wizard-kings, the Mhuruuks were their dimension's governing body for tens of millennia before the arrival of Dormammu and Umar changed everything.^[2]

History

Origins[]

Long ago, some of the life forms native to the Dark Dimension evolved to intelligence. Over time, some members of those races learned how to master ambient mystical energies so as to create a kind of flame that could create light out of darkness and stabilize gravity. The peoples of the Dark Dimension began to call these magic users "Mhuruuks," a term which is roughly equivalent to the English word "wizards."^[1]

As more time passed, the various civilizations grew and the roles of the Mhuruuks within those societies became more important. Mhuruuks came to hold both spiritual and temporal power, and often led their peoples on the slow path toward enlightenment. As their influence continued to grow, the word “Mhuruuks” came to refer to all of them as the ruling social class as well.

As the civilizations became more complex, the first cities were built and rose and fell over time. A number of violent wars were fought in which Mhuruuks on opposing sides fought each other.

Eventually, lasting alliances between the cities were made and the allied cities became empires. The foremost empire was the G'uranthic Empire, ruled by G'uran the Great, who established the Azure Throne and created the huge G'uranthic Guardian to protect it.^[1]

After G'uran, there were more wars followed by periods of darkness but the peoples gradually gained wisdom enough to avoid war. Eventually, a descendent of G'uran named Oka'an led the Mhuruuks in a gethering at which they agreed to a lasting peace. The now-unified Dark Dimension would be ruled from the Azure Throne by wizard-kings.^[1]

The Golden Age[]

For 28 "great" cycles (approximately 28,000 Earth-years), the people of the Dark Dimension lived in peace and security.^[1] During this period, the Mhuruuks used their powers to continuously fan the great mystical flames that were at the heart of the realm's power ever higher.^[2]

Towards the end of that era, Olnar became the wizard-king.^[2] Unlike the other Mhuruuks, who regarded the wars of the past as days of chaos and misery, Olnar thought of them as ancient glories that he dreamed of resurrecting. Despite this disagreement, the first 27 cycles of Olnar's reign remained peaceful.^[1]

The Coming of Dormammu and Umar[]

Near the end of the 28th cycle of Olnar's reign, two strangers named Dormammu and Umar arrived in the Dark Dimension, and asked Olnar for sanctuary, claiming to be fugitives from the universe of the Faltine.^[2] In actuality, the twins had been banished by the Faltine for their crime of murdering their parent Sinifer and for their obscene (to the Faltine) lust for matter, and they had decided that the Dark Dimension was best suited to their plans.^[3] When the twins offered to show Olnar new ways of power that would expand the boundaries of his realm, the Mhuruuks disapproved and strongly warned Olnar against trusting the exiles but Olnar was intrigued by their offer and chose to ignore the protests of the Mhuruuks.^[2]

After Olnar granted them high status in his realm, Dormammu and Umar showed him how to break down the barriers between worlds and taught him how to absorb those other universes into the Dark Dimension.^[2] These conquests revived the old and shunned war-like ideals and caused Olnar to become increasingly unpopular among his own people.^[3]

Midway through the 29th cycle of Olnar's reign, the twins helped Olnar annex the neighboring universe inhabited by the Mindless Ones, savage, tireless and indestructible creatures who attacked anything and everything they saw. Once released into the Dark Dimension, the Mindless Ones began to rampage across the realm, killing everyone they encountered, beginning with Olnar himself.^[2] The twins used this invasion as an excuse to exterminate most of the Mhuruuks.^[3] They also cast a spell of silence upon the few survivors that rendered them incapable of speech, and (supposedly) stripped them of their powers. Dormammu and Umar then combined their magic to erect a great mystic barrier that confined the Mindless Ones to a pocket within the Dark Dimension. As the twins had planned, the people of the Dark Dimension, grateful for being saved from the ceaseless attacks by the Mindless Ones, chose the twins to become regents since Olnar’s son and heir, Orini, was only an infant and thus unable to rule.^[2]^[3]

With the Mhuruuks exiled to wander the realm as Outcasts, Dormammu and Umar were free to revise history in their favor. Children were taught that the twins had barely escaped injury at Olnar's side and that many of the Mhuruuks had been killed by the Mindless Ones. According to this narrative, Dormammu and Umar had then somehow sensed that the remaining Mhuruuks, those who had survived by fleeing before the slaughter, were going to band together against them instead of against the Mindless Ones, so they struck down the "old fools" before they could be overcome. In this story, the Mhuruuks were exiled because they refused to support Dormammu as the new ruler.^[2]

The Mhuruuks remained wandering exiles for many, many cycles. The citizens of the Dark Dimension came to know them only as the Outcasts and shunned them on those rare occasions when they were seen.^[2] However, during their exile, the Mhuruuks discovered that they could communicate through thought-speech (telepathy) and, when they worked as a group, were still able to perform certain magics.^[4]

Rebellion[]

After Dormammu disappeared following an all-fated attempt to conquer Earth and Umar assumed the Azure Throne, a rebellion against her rule began with Clea, Orini's daughter who had openly defied Dormammu some years earlier, as its leader.^[5] The Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, Doctor Strange, became involved after a paranoid Umar sent attacks against him on Earth under the assumption that he, as Clea's former mentor, was the true power behind the revolt.^[6] After Strange managed to successfully enter the Dark Dimension undetected, he disguised himself as an Outcast and made contact with the rebels by helping six of them escape from a trap set by royal guardsmen. However, when Strange continued to aid the rebels while disguised as an Outcast, the Mhuruuks acted as a group to teleport him into their presence. They explained that they had brought him to them because they had heard of an Outcast aiding the rebellion and feared that, if a true Outcast were to be captured with any rebels, then Umar would exterminate them all.^[4]

Soon afterwards, following Umar's announcement that the rebels had been vanquished and Clea had been captured, the Outcasts urged Strange to flee but he refused and insisted that they help him to stop Umar. When they refused, stating that they had tried to do so long ago but the twins were too powerful, Strange became angry, asked if Dormammu had stolen their nerves as well as their tongues, stated that they made him ashamed that he had ever worn their robes, and declared that he would confront Umar alone. However, his words had ignited their anger and they informed him that he would not.^[7]

As a group, the Outcasts approached Umar's palace, bringing with them a seemingly-bound Doctor Strange who they claimed (via a scroll that they presented to the soldiers on guard) to have captured to make amends for their past wrongs. The deception was almost immediately exposed by the G'uranthic Guardian but Strange quickly incapacitated the guards and blinded the Guardian, enabling the Outcasts to enter the palace. Once inside, a telepathic message from Clea directed Strange and the Outcasts to the dungeon area to free the captured rebels. Umar was swiftly informed of this but Clea, who had disguised herself as her own father, revealed herself and the two began battling. Soon after their battle began, Clea secretly activated the magic gemstone that Umar used to communicate with the entire realm. As Strange and the Outcasts began freeing the rebels, that gemstone cast images of the battle between Umar and Clea throughout the realm, including Umar's statement that she would draw power from the Great Barrier even though doing so would weaken it and allow the Mindless Ones to sweep across the realm and kill thousands. As the Mindless Ones began to attack the nearest city, Strange, the rebels and the Outcasts came help the city-dwellers, making sure any potential victims were out of immediate danger. The Outcasts then joined their collective minds with Strange's psyche, creating a group mind that was strong enough to generate a barrier that forced the Mindless Ones out of the city. Having witnessed this heroism and the fact that Umar was an uncaring tyrant, the people of the Dark Dimension turned against her, denying her their psychic support and weakening her enough that Clea could defeat her. Once the Mindless Ones were safely sealed away again, one of the Outcasts spoke to Doctor Strange, thanking him for providing a focus for their diminished power and for giving them hope again. By doing so, he demonstrated that the spell that had rendered them mute had been broken by Umar's defeat at the hands of Clea, the new and rightful ruler of the Dark Dimension.^[7]

Clea's Reign[]

After becoming ruler, Clea restored the Mhuruuks to their previous status.^[8]

Final Fate[]

About a year later, Dormammu's spirit returned to the Dark Dimension, created a new body for himself and was able to overcome and mesmerize Clea before she knew what was happening.^[1] During a later confrontation in front of the G'uranthic Guardian, the Mhuruuks were present when Dormammu brought the bound Clea and Strange there. The Mhuruuks initially held back but attacked Dormammu when he prepared to destroy his captives. However, Dormammu was far more powerful than they were and, to make an example of them, he cast a darkspell that melted, melded and meshed them into a single miasmic mass which was then absorbed into the mystic granite of the G'uranthic Guardian to add their mystic essence to it. Minutes later, when Dormammu cast a spell that drained the sorcerous powers of Clea and Strange into it, Strange secretly sent his conscious will into the Guardian along with his power, and it joined with the wills of the Mhuruuks to take control of the Guardian and use it to attack Dormammu. Strange soon used the Guardian to restore the powers of himself and Clea but he was unable to restore the Mhuruuks to a physical existence.

Later, after Dormammu had been forced to accept a truce and had been tricked into exile in the pocket domain of the Mindless Ones, Umar, the new ruler, stated that the Mhuruuks had to remain imprisoned within the G'uranthic Guardian because even her magic could not reverse that spell. However, she suspected that they would be content because they had ever been the Dark Dimension's protectors.^[8]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

After becoming an organized group, the Mhuruuks all wore orange robes with attached hoods. During the time that they were Outcasts, they were seemingly required to also cover their faces with orange masks.

Weapons

Staffs

Notes

Although Roger Stern and Paul Smith created Olnar and the wizards of the Dark Dimension, it was Roy Thomas and R.J.M. Lofficier who established that "Mhuruuks" was the Dark Dimension name for the wizards and created G'uran the Great and Oka'an.
The only named character who has been specifically identified as being a Mhuruuk is Olnar. His ancestors, G'uran and Oka'an, are presumed to have been Mhuruuks as well.
Although some Mhuruuks looked like pale-skinned humans from Earth, many Mhuruuks were members of species that had significantly different appearances, with differing facial features, skin colors, and numbers of fingers per hand. Some Mhuruuks had tentacles instead of jointed arms. However, since they were always depicted wearing robes that concealed almost all of their bodies, it's impossible to completely describe the exact appearances of these non-human races. Similarly, none of these races have ever been named, not even the human-looking one.
The history of the Dark Dimension that appeared in Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #71 was a version being taught to children. Having been approved by Umar, certain elements of it had been altered to present the actions of Dormammu and Umar as benevolent. In this version, the Mhurruks were identified only as a host of wizards who became known as the Outcasts after being defeated and sent into exile by Dormammu.
In contrast, the "Legends and Lore of the Dark Dimension" chapters from the Book of the Vishanti that appeared in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #21-23 presented more of the early history of the Dark Dimension. Those chapters also revealed that the original (and true) name of the Outcasts was the Mhuruuks and that Dormammu and Umar's takeover of that realm had been a deliberate but secret conquest.
According to that original history, the arrival of Dormammu and Umar, the birth of Olnar's son, and the exile of the Outcasts had all occurred "many cycles ago." This is somewhat problematic because Dormammu is believed to have ruled the Dark Dimension for many hundreds (or thousands) of Earth-years.^[9] This would mean that the Outcasts, the Mhuruuks who had survived his takeover, had also been alive for that length of time. While Dormammu and Umar, as Faltine, are apparently immune to aging, it has not been revealed if the extreme longevity that those Mhuruuks demonstrated was natural.
In Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #24, Dormammu refers to the Mhuruuks as "dwarfish wizards." Since they have always been depicted as being about as tall as Doctor Strange, this comment seems odd.
Although the last known Mhuruuks are not completely dead, the fact that their consciousnesses and physical bodies have been melded together into a single miasmic mass that was then absorbed into the G'uranthic Guardian has effectively rendered them inactive.

Links and References

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #21
↑ ^2.00 ^2.01 ^2.02 ^2.03 ^2.04 ^2.05 ^2.06 ^2.07 ^2.08 ^2.09 ^2.10 Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #71
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #22
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #72
↑ Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #67
↑ Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #68–69
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #73
↑ ^8.0 ^8.1 Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #24
↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #4 ; Dormammu's entry

[Doctor_Strange,_Sorcerer_Supreme_Vol_1_21-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #21

[Doctor_Strange_Vol_2_71-2] 2.00 ^2.01 ^2.02 ^2.03 ^2.04 ^2.05 ^2.06 ^2.07 ^2.08 ^2.09 ^2.10 Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #71

[Doctor_Strange,_Sorcerer_Supreme_Vol_1_22-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #22

[Doctor_Strange_Vol_2_72-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #72

[Doctor_Strange_Vol_2_67-5] Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #67

[Doctor_Strange_Vol_2_68-69-6] Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #68–69

[Doctor_Strange_Vol_2_73-7] 7.0 ^7.1 Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #73

[Doctor_Strange,_Sorcerer_Supreme_Vol_1_24-8] 8.0 ^8.1 Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #24

[Official_Handbook_of_the_Marvel_Universe_Vol_2_4-;_Dormammu's_entry-9] Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #4 ; Dormammu's entry

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