Gods of the Dead

GODS OF THE DEAD

The Gods of the Dead are a loose cabal of underworld deities belonging to the respective pantheons of Earth, a collective order of extra-dimensional beings who were worshipped as gods by the ancient cultures and civilizations of Earth, some of whom still exist in some form or another today. Each pantheon had a separate deity or “god” whose responsibility was the final destination of the astral spirits (or “ghosts” or “shades”) of their worshippers and in some cases the persecution of beings who were guilty of great misfortune (“evil”) against the living or guilty of offending the gods, often to the extent these spirits were subjected to great punishment in the afterlife, mostly in a separate region of the underworld set aside for those offenders.

Contrary to their public perception, the gods of the dead were not evil or malevolent beings; many of them were responsible for providing a safe afterlife to the mortals who had worshipped them, such as Odin and Osiris. Many of them had a counterpart to Elysium (the concept of heaven of Judeo-Christian religion). Several of the gods of the dead, such as Osiris, Arawn, Yama, Emma-O and Chibiabos, ruled over peaceful realms of bliss and even had multi-layered reams for separating the astral spirits of their worshippers as per status and value. However, some of the gods of the dead, such as Ahpuch, Tawhaki, and Damballah, were known to have malevolent tendencies, often invoking curses or giving into personal whims. Some of the Gods of the Dead even shared their attributes or lost their positions to other deities. Hela shared dominion of the dead with Odin, who had greater duties as Chieftain of the Asgardian gods, and Ahpuch had conquered control of the underworld from the Twelve Lords of Xibalba, which became Mictlan to to the Aztecs. In Egyptian religion, Osiris allowed Seth to have dominion over souls rejected into Duat (Celestial Heliopolis) while in Russian lore, the forest-god, Veles, overthrew Pikuolis, the Slavic god of the dead, for rule of the underworld. In Oceanic myth, Hina-Hau One replaced the Polynesian god of the dead, Tawhaki, in the Hawaiian pantheon. Under Hinduism, Yama, the Vedic god of the dead, became a judge in the underworld as souls passed through to be judged for the lives they would inherit through reincarnation. However, since the rise of Christianity, many of the Gods of the Dead are no longer allowed to procure more spirits to their realms.

Despite their passive jurisdiction over the spirits in their charge, several of the Gods of the Dead had limited to full contact with demonic entities. Yen-Lo Wang and Emma-O held control over the demons of their perspective realms, respectively the Yao-guza and the Oni, and Eriskegal left control of the Utukku to Lilith, the goddess of the underworld. Ahpuch and Vichama used demons as servants and allies, namely the Tzitzmime and the Guecufu, In recent years, Hades and Seth were approached by Mephisto, one of several demonic lords with interests on Earth. The three respective underworld gods struck a bargain to increase the size of their realms by merging their perspective realms. During the course of this endeavor, they even tried luring a few other gods of the dead, only attracting the interests of Hela, Ahpuch, Yama and Eriskegal. However, the occult ritual they attempted either attracted or conjured the primeval spirit Demogorge responsible for the destruction of the Elder Gods in Earth’s ancient past. Suspecting them to be degenerated gods, he attacked the Gods of the Dead present and devoured them, but Thor, the Norse thunder-god, led an army of thunder and sun gods to defeat him and protect their perspective realms. Although consumed himself, Thor appealed to Atum, the buried consciousness within Demogorge, and reversed his palate, freeing the consumed gods. Humiliated over the experience, the Gods of the Dead dissolved their scheme and returned to their own respective realms.

In later years, an entity known as the Archenemy presented himself to sorceress Illyana Rasputin, claiming that all the perspective realms of the dead had been once been one realm and announced his attention to unite them once more. To defeat him, she called upon the Gods of the Dead and the myriad demon-lords as an army she called the Lords of the Underworlds. Although many of them were killed in the Archenemy first attack, Illyana encouraged them to merge their powers in order to preserve their realms, and they destroyed him.

In recent years, Baal-Hadad, the deposed lord of Allatum, the realm of Eriskegal, called upon several of the Gods of the Dead in a plot to subvert the known heroes of Earth into willing agents. Izanami, the mother of Emma-O, joined him in this plot, as well as Morrigan, the Celtic death-goddess, Mixcoatl, the uncle of Ahpuch, and Ravanna, the Hindu demon-lord, in his avatar as Ahriman. Although several of these beings were not the gods of the dead of their respective pantheons, they referred to themselves as Gods of the Dead.

While posing as a journalism student with a minor in mythology named Kiki Bones, Izanami approached Lois Lane, the love interest of Superman, and transformed her into a goddess to sway the Man of Steel, but Lois unwittingly managed to break the facade the gods were using to conceal themselves. With Wonder Woman’s help, Superman defeated the maligned gods and turned them over to their perspective pantheons. Lois lost her godly powers afterward.

In recent years, Hela called upon the other gods of the dead to get their permission to restore Hippolyta of the Amazons to life in order to battle the Doom Maidens, Odin's original Choosers of the slain, as she had done in the past. Each of the death-gods participated in this pact out of fear the Doom Maidens would invade their realms, and with the Defenders, Hippolyta put a stop to their carnage on Earth.

First Appearance: Thor Annual 10