| “ | . . . [A] colossal shadow [appeared] that was not wrought by anything in the room. It filled the portals from side to side, it towered above the lintel – and then, swiftly, it became more than a shadow: it was a bulk of darkness, black and opaque, that somehow blinded the eyes with a strange dazzlement. It seemed to suck the flame from the red urns and fill the chamber with a chill of utter death and voidness. Its form was that of a worm-shapen column, huge as a dragon, its further coils still issuing from the gloom of the corridor; but it changed from moment to moment, swirling and spinning as if alive with the vortical energies of dark aeons. Briefly it took the semblance of some demoniac giant with eyeless head and limbless body; and then, leaping and spreading like smoky fire, it swept into the chamber. | „ |
| ~ The Charnel God, Clark Ashton Smith. |
Mordiggian, also known as The Dark One, is a Zothiqion Old One who is mainly worshipped by ghouls and necromorphs.
Overview[]
Mordiggian is an Ogdru Hem, worshipped by several human cults and cults of ghouls as a kind of symbol of Death. He is the primary god of the city-state of Zul-Bha-Sair, attended to by a mortuary-cult of ghouls dressed in long, hooded robes of purple paired with silver skull masks.
Described as swirling darkness, a gigantic shadow, a worm shaped column. Although capable of ferocious acts of wrath when roused to anger, he is generally a peaceful, amiable god who genuinely respects his faithful worshippers and who merely asks to be fed with the bodies of the dead. Mordiggian's age cannot be reliably tracked, as he can move back and forth in time. As far as one can look into the past or future, his cult can be found.
Appearance[]
Mordiggian is a living cloud of darkness, capable of congealing and coalescing all or portions of his form within the inky depths to serve his needs, whether he’s manifesting a long, grasping limb to pluck a ripened morsel from a coffin-platter, or visiting his wrath upon those who dare to tread upon halls where only the dead may walk.
The Charnel God’s favored form is that of an immense worm with a set of grasping tentacles arrayed around a central maw; this fanged maw appears often in the god’s physiology.
When he appears, all fire and heat is sucked into his swirling, void-like body, instantly lowering the temperature by many degrees, and filling the area with a deathly cold and still air. All within the presence of the Great Ghoul are blinded by the weird changing and dazzling form of the necromantic god.
History[]
Background[]
As with all the Ogdru Hem, he was a child of the Ogdru Jahad and was sent to covet the universe in darkness and entropy at the behest of his parents. He did this by building obelisks known only as the Markers with the sole purpose of converting all organic life into necromorphic organisms. When arriving to Earth, Mordiggian sought to pervert the Natural Order like his brethren, specifically meddle with the workings of death itself. As such he was a hated enemy of several chthonic gods and Azrael himself.
Mordiggian first tampered with the process of death by resurrecting dead hominids and mutating them into the first necromorphs due to their unique physiology. He would have these hominid necromorphs build the first Markers that once activated would project a beam that reflects off the surface of the moon and back at the Earth, consequently spreading an alien contagion that reanimates dead cells and kills all life in the area. From this, Mordiggian would reign supreme over a planet filled with abhorrent undead 'life'.
Imprisonment[]
He became the patron of all necrotics, but most of them have since forgotten him and converted to the worship of other death gods after his defeat and imprisonment by the gods during the Battle of the Powers. After the war, Mordiggian was defeated and presumed destroyed by the chthonic gods Hades and Ereshkigal. They took his 'corpse', encased it in one of his own Markers, and buried it beneath the terrain of a foreign planet known as Tau Volantis.
Most of the necromorphs' forms however could not maintain themselves and broke down into pieces after they were severed from Mordiggian's influence. The bodies of the necromorphs that were gathered by the Elder Things were placed either on top or within tombs of a massive plateau known as the Plateau of Leng. The plateau itself was ported from existence after a failed escape attempt by the Elder Things using a Stargate. When the evolution of mutated primal hominids advanced throughout the millennia so too did their biology to where instead of necromorphs modern humans become ghouls which are looked down upon as "lesser" necromorphs.
Legacy[]
Even after untold millennia of being imprisoned, there were little reports of activities involving Mordiggian's worship around the world. Most of Mordiggian's modern followers are humans who deformed themselves to resemble ghouls, and hide these features under silver masks and heavy cloaks, using vile rituals and surgical practices, they transform their limbs and visages into ghoulish countenances.
Mordiggian's temples are either hidden vaults under graveyards, his temples are grand mausoleum-cathedrals placed in positions of prominence in their cities. These massive grave sights are what came to be known as a Necropolis, meaning "city of the dead". Few of these cities of the dead however were exhumed of the unspeakable rites being committed within them to pay homage to Mordiggian by several chthonic gods. Arabian priests were tasked with blessing the catacombs of where these ghouls lay as a way of sterilizing the tomb from Mordiggian's dreaded touch.
Personality[]
Mordiggian does not appear to be especially malevolent and has been known to spare those who have not personally offended him or his followers (the ghouls); when a trio of Necromancers snuck into the temple, the wizards were torn apart by the Ghoul priests while Phariom and his newly revived wife were spared at Mordiggian's bidding.
As one of the Necromancers said "Mordiggian's wrath, though rarely loosed, is more terrible than any other deity. And it should not be thought by wise men to break into his sacred house." So while Mordiggian is attributed with immense powers of destruction, he is apparently a calm and benign deity.
Power and Abilities[]
Mordiggian attacks by engulfing victims, sucking away their life force, and dissolving their bodies. Nothing remains of the God's prey, and they are never seen again in the waking world or in the Dreamlands.