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.