Real Name: Chthon
Occupation: Inapplicable
Identity: Inapplicable. Chthon's existence in unknown to most inhabitants of Earth
Legal Status: Inapplicable
Other Aliases: The Other, Demon of the Darkhold
Place of Birth: Earth
Marital Status: Inapplicable
Known Relatives: Gaea ("sister")
Group Affiliation: Inapplicable
Base of Operations: An unknown extradimensional realm
First Appearance: (as The Other) MARVEL CHILLERS #1, (in human host) AVENGERS #185, (true appearance) AVENGERS #187

History: Chthon is one of the major Elder gods who first materialized in Earth's biosphere shortly before mankind appeared on Earth. He and his sister god Gaea were among those who inhabited the land masses of the Earth (as opposed to the sea or skies), and may have had something to do with forming certain geological patterns. When Gaea gave birth to the first of the newer gods, Chthon perceived that his sister's progeny would eventually supplant the Elder Gods. A scholar by nature, Chthon inscribed a parchment with the mystical knowledge of the world he had thus amassed. This parchment would later be known as the Darkhold. Chthon intended the Darkhold to be his touchstone with the Earthly dimension. As he surmised, Gaea's son Atum was a god-slayer, dedicated to the consumption and elimination of the evil which the Elder Gods had wrought in their degradation into demons. Chthon managed to escape to a nether dimension before Alum could slay him. When the Darkhold passed into the hands of intelligent beings at some later date, Chthon would have an indestructible medium through which to manipulate Earthly pawns as well as a talisman that could one day be turned into a dimensional portal for his return to Earth.

The Darkhold was first discovered by human sorcerers of pre-Cataclysmic Atlantis who managed to remove it from the doomed island-city before it sank. They found a cult called the Darkholders and used the spells contained in the book to create vampires. The book passed through a succession of hands through the next millennia, including Babylonian servants, Egyptian priests, and Hebrew scholars. Whoever employed the knowledge contained within did so at the cost of the corruption of their "soul." This earned the Darkhold the name "Book of Sins."

In the Sixth Century A.D., the parchments found their way to Britain where the sorceress Morgan Le Fey had them bound into a book form for the first time. Morgan used the book to summon Chthon to the Earthly plane for the first time, but discovered Chthon was far too powerful to do her bidding. It took the sorcerous might of Morgan and her new band of Darkholders to repel Chthon from the mortal plane. A renegade Darkholdernamed Magnus stole the Darkhold, place it in a tower and wove an intricate spellwhereby no one of evil intent could enter. An apprentice sorcerer named Modred misguidedly entered the Tower and had his soul corrupted by Chthon. Centuries later he would serve as Chthon's agent.

Eventually the Irish monk St. Brendan removed the Darkhold from the Tower, believing it to be a temptation to evil, and scattered the various indestructible pages throughout Europe. In the Twelfth Century, a corrupt Spanish monk named Aelfric used occult means to reassemble the scattered pages of the Darkhold. The parchments continued to pass through various hands, although few were skilled enough to employ the spells within to real effect. Transylvanian scholar Baron Gregor Russoff bound the parchments back into book form and used the blank pages he placed in the back as a diary for his occult experiences. The possession of the Darkhold triggered Russoff's hereditary tendency toward lycanthropy and turned him into a werewolf.

Russoff had inadvertently brought the Book to where the Earthly essence of its demonic author had been imprisoned, Wundagore Mountain. Chthon made his second major bid to return to the Earthly plane, but was repulsed by the forces of the High Evolutionary and the spirit of the Sixth Century sorcerer Magnus. When Russoff died, an American named Miles Blackgar bought his estate and acquired the Darkhold. Aware of the danger inherent in the book, Russoff's son Jacob stole it and entrusted it to the care of Father Joaquez, a priest.

From there, it came into the temporary possession of Dracula, Lord of the Vampires, who was looking for a means to restore his flagging powers. The spirit of Morgan Le Fey also renewed her interest in the Darkhold, and gained as a mortal enemy the original Spider-Woman, who had been befriended by the ghost of Morgan's former colleague Magnus. Morgan once used her magic to simulate the aspect of Chthon in an attempt to defeat the Spider-Woman. When Modred the Mystic was released from suspened animation, Chthon commanded him to fetch the Darkhold so he could be released on Earth. In an elaborate scheme, Chthon took demonic possession of the mutant Scarlet Witch, who had been born atop Wundagore Mountain. The Avengers managed to dispossess the Scarlet Witch and imprison Chthon's earthly essence in Wundagore Mountain.

Finally, Dracula sought the Darkhold once more, relizing that a spell to destroy all vampires was contained within. Earth's sorcerer supreme Doctor Strange managed to use the Darkhold to destroy all vampires on Earth and create a spell by which vampires could no longer exist on Earth. Due to his vast power, Strange was the only person to ever use the Darkhold without forfeiting his soul to Chthon. The Darkhold is currently in the custody of Doctor Strange. Chthon is still in his nether dimension, patiently awaiting a fourth attempt to return to Earth.

Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Eyes: Red
Hair: None

Strength Level: Unknown

Known Superhuman Powers: Chthon possess a mastery of the forces of magic on a single description. In the dimension where he resides he has absolute control over every aspect of that dimension's reality. His major limitation is that he cannot freely teleport between dimensions because it takes such an enormous rift to accommodate the massive magical force that dwells within him. He cannot travel to Earth without the most elaborate of preparations due to the exhaustive magical screens around Earth first erected by his sister Gaea and reinforced by Earth's multitude of sorcerers over the millennia. It is far easier for Chthon to take mortal hostbodies on Earht that to manifest his psychophysical entirety. Even so, it appears that Chthon cannot easily (if at all) transfer his entire power into such host-bodies.