Known by the Federation as monstrum, the old gods an ancient, powerful and destructive race who were believed to have threatened the nature of the world. They were defeated and banished by the Ancients in a war thousands of years ago. Now, they wander this world as massive, but harmless apparitions. They are represented by a sideways eye, which mark offerings and cults that still worship them.
Characteristics[]
Telepathy[]
Old gods are capable of powerful telepathy across vast distances; this explains their ability to communicate through dreams and blood and maintain a connection to the Mask of Power even at great distances. It is possible to disrupt this telepathy, such as with a baffler screen, as employed at the Blood Court.
Background[]
The Old Gods appear to have come to this world from another world or plane where they were previously exiled.
Among the Old Gods there appear to be several factions. Before the war with the Ancients there were factions represented by Zinn and Hajin that wished, respectively, to remain in the known world or to voluntarily exile themselves again in order to save the lives of the beings there. In the present timeline, most old gods remain painfully imprisoned in an alternate realm, but a few have infiltrated the Cumea including the mother superior, the leader of the inquisitrixes, old dagon and dreamer. In chapter seventeen one of the old gods describes being taken control of while wearing the mask fragments and refers to the "fallen houses" and the "defiled" implying an aristocracy or hierarchy among the old gods.
History[]
Volume 4[]
The appearance of an old god over Pontus drives the local arcanic population rabid and violent. Many of them are forced to be put down by their own arcanic and human neighbors. It is suggested that something similar happened to Constantine as well.
Lady Dracul instructs Kippa on their origins, revealing that the old gods are beings from another world who once traveled the stars. After some unknown war, when interstellar travel was lost, some old gods then settled on the Known World. Kippa is also introduced to the sentinels, descendants (perhaps native to this planet) of the old gods.
The Doctor discoverers that old gods are capable of powerful telepathy, which he has learned how to disrupt by constructing a baffler screen in his sanctum.
Volume 5[]
Gull and Dagon speak of the Fallen Houses, suggesting that there are factions amongst the monstrum within the extraplanar prison - and that maybe their allies are no longer in control.
Related Species[]
Hosts[]
Humans and arcanics can serve as hosts to old gods, with varying degree of control over their bodies afterwards. The most well-known hosts are the Cumaea, including the Mother Superior, Yvette, and Gull, and the Shaman-Empress' bloodline, via Maika and her father.
In some instances, such as with the Cumaea, the old god host seems to be entirely in control, although it is not clear to what extent the human hosts accept or desire this union.
In the case of Maika, the relationship is more symbiotic, with Zinn and Maika having their own wills and maintaining semi-separate physical forms, while being intricately connected. However, the true nature of their bond is the foundational tension fueling much of the series' drama and the pair's journey together.
Known Hosts[]
- Cumaea
- Gull
- Mother Superior
- Yvette Lo Lim
- Unknown Fourth Host
- Old Dagon
- Dreamer
- Zinn
- Shaman-Empress (former)
- Lord Doctor (former)
- Maika Halfwolf (current)
Sentinels[]
Sentinels are the descendants of the olds gods, who kept them as slaves. They are not entirely mindless, but they are more susceptible to the flesh-hungry predilections of their progenitors.
Lady Dracul keeps sentinels as servants in the Tomb of Baru.