Rhan-Tegoth (Art by BorjaPindado)
Rhan-Tegoth is one of the Ogdru Hem though classed as among the weakest of its kind. Even so, it was one of the few Old Ones which was nearly released unto the world.
Description[]
Rhan-Tegoth is a fifteen foot tall, medusa-like, insectoid amphibious godly horror. This Old One is shaped somewhat like an enormous insect, with a tremendous, barrel-shaped trunk with six appendages ending in claws-like pincers and a near-spherical head covered with hair-like filaments or feelers, a tentacle-like proboscis and three small, beady eyes.
History[]
Background[]
Originating on Yuggoth, Rhan-Tegoth spent its early years trawling the ocean depths of that cold world before abandoning it upon sensing the arrival of one of the archangels. It made its way to Earth around three million years ago where the second host of the Ogdru Hem arrived in conjunction with Cthulhu's arrival.
However, after the battle between the Elohim and the Old Ones, Rhan-Tegoth was among those defeated before being tossed and buried beneath the depths of Alaska's icy plains. It fell into a millenia-long torpor, hibernating while stiff and even solid as a statue. It was believed to have been worshiped by the Gnoph Keh.
1926[]
In 1926, Rhan-Tegoth's body was found by a man named George Rogers, a wax museum owner specialising in grotesque and disturbing sculptures, who passed the being's body off as one of his exhibits. Rogers slowly began to lose his mind to the insidious influence of the Great Old One, and started to make sacrifices to it. Rhan-Tegoth eventually killed Rogers, and thereafter went missing for a time.
1980s[]
It reappeared in Sheffield, UK in the 1980s, where it met a young John Constantine who was well into his fixation with the occult and magic. At the time, John was performing as a stage magician where he received strange contents for him to perform an act with.
The contents in question was revealed to be Rhan-Tegoth in its statuesque form. However, Rhan-Tegoth's presence was beginning to take its toll on the minds of the audience who slowly but surely would regress into their savage and barbaric roots. John was nearly a victim of said influence by Rhan-Tegoth until he used his cigarettes to create a powerful charm in the smoke which he inhaled and protected him from Rhan-Tegoth. John saw that this was no demon, but something far more terrible, all while the audience would kill themselves in order to offer their corpses as sustenance for Rhan-Tegoth. He attempted to use a powerful spell that repelled Rhan-Tegoth but barely for when the dust cleared, the Old One was nowhere to be seen.
1990s[]
Rhan-Tegoth would emerge once again in Chorazin, New York where its activities drew the attention of the B.P.R.D. Hellboy would follow the tracks of one of its cults into the underground caverns of Chorazin. There he was met with the cult of Rhan-Tegoth as they were in a midst of a ritual to try and fully release the Old One in order for it to awaken the other Ogdru Hem. Numerous B.P.R.D. agents made short work of the cult, but by that the time, Rhan-Tegoth was in the process of awakening resulting in Hellboy engaging it in a fierce battle. During the scuffle, Rhan-Tegoth nearly overwhelmed Hellboy until it was burned to death by Liz Sherman.