NDRIANANAHARY
Real Name:
Ndriananahary
Occupation:
God of the underworld, patron god of the Razenes
Legal Status:
Citizen of Afe (Ife)
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Ndriananahary except as a mythological deity. He is well-known in Madagascar.
Other Aliases:
None known
Place of Birth:
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives:
Buluku
(possible father), Gaea
(possible mother, alias Nana), Unkulunkua (sister/wife), Ataokoloinona, Rabefihaza
(sons), Obatala, Olokun (possible brothers), Odudua (possible sister), Nyambe,
Oroshako, Lusa (nephews), Mawu (niece)
Group Affiliations: The Vodu (Gods of Africa), ally of the Council Elite
Base of Operations:
Ile
First Appearance: Marvel Universe: The End #2
History: Ndriananahary
is a member of an extra-dimensional race of beings known collectively as the
Vodu, who were worshipped as gods by the ancient African tribes of Africa. The
Vodu do not seem to have as nearly defined a pantheon as much as the Olympian
and Asgardian gods; their worshippers honoring more than one chieftain among
their perspective tribes. Nyambe,
the god of heaven, is the sky-father among the Yoruba, Dahomey, Fon, and Ewe
tribes of Western Europe while Ndriananahary reigns as the chief god among the
Razenes of modern Madagascar.
Ndriananahary was one of the Orishas, one of
the ancestral gods of the later African gods. He ruled the other-dimensional
world of Ile, which was said to exist underground. In
actuality, Ile existed in another dimension connected to Afe, the realm of the
African gods, and interconnected to Earth through underground inter-dimensional portals in the land of the
Razenes. Ile was the home of the mortal descendants of the African gods.
Ndriananahary took Unkulunkua, the mother-goddess, to be his wife and she sired him several children, among them Ataokoloinona and Rabefihaza. His worshippers on Earth credited him with creating the Earth, but they claimed he forgot to create a sun to light it. His son, Ataokoloinona, was the first Chief of the Razenes who departed Ile to explore Earth. When he vanished, Ndriananahary created a great light to look for his son on Earth, but it terrified mortal man who had never seen it before. In return for the light, the Razenes promised to look for Ataokoloinona on Earth. As mortal men died, their spirits returned to Ile to let Ndriananahary know about the results in the search for Ataokoloinona. Much of this tale may be apocryphal and may actually describe the departure of the Razene ancestors from Ile to Earth. (Ile is not to be confused with Iku, the land of the dead dominated by Damballah, the god of the dead.)
Eventually, the spirits departing Earth began to complain to Ndriananahary about how the light he had created never went out and how they were suffering from the heat. Looking down on earth, Ndriananahary sent rain to cool the Earth, but as spirits crossing over started mentioning how wet the Earth was becoming, Ndriananahary invented a calendar of days and seasons in order that the Earth could experiences regular intervals of sun, rain and night.
Despite his rule of the underworld, Ndriananahary
was superseded by Nyambe, the chieftain of the African gods. Nyambe meanwhile became
a member of the Council of God-Kings comprised of the heads of the other
pantheons of gods once ruled on Earth. The
Council came together often to discuss threats to Earth, such as when the
Egyptian Pharaoh, Akhenaton, returned from outer space with the power to conquer
Earth. Ndriananahary appeared as a proxy
for Nyambe when he failed to appear at the meeting to discuss the threat Akhenaton
posed to Earth, but Akhenaton discovered their plot and destroyed all the gods
present, except for Zeus
and Thor who
just barely escaped. Ndriananahary, however, was restored to life after
Akhenaton was deposed by Thanos of the Eternals, who then recreated the universe
and Ndriananahary to its previous state.
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: 310 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black, partially silver
Strength Level: Ndriananahary possesses superhuman strength enabling
him to lift (press) around 75 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Ndriananahary
possesses the conventional physical attributes
of the Orishas
or African gods. Like all Orisha, he is exceptionally long-lived, but he is
not immortal like the Olympian gods. He has not aged at an extremely slow rate since
reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. He is immune to all
Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If he were somehow
wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It
would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his
bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for
a god of significant power, such as Nyambe, Olorun or Buluku
or for a number of African gods of equal power working together to revive him. Ndriananahary
also possesses
superhuman strength and his Orisha metabolism provides him with far greater than
human endurance in all physical activities. (Orisha flesh and bone is about three
times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the superhuman
strength and weight of the African gods.)
Ndriananahary also possesses undefined
mystical abilities similar to that of Nyambe, enabling him to conjure the
weather and create balls of light. Despite being a god of the underworld, he is
not a maligned figure like Hades or Hela, but rather a deity of the afterlife.
He can sense and perceive spirits and astral beings, traverse the boundaries
between Earth and Ile and collect the souls of beings who had attempted to lead
just and pure lives, leaving the souls of sinners for Damballah.
Base of Operations: Ndriananahary
rules an other-dimensional paradise called Ile kept separate from Iku for the honored
dead. In African lore, the spirits of the dead must walk a great desert for nine
days to reach the underworld, kept separate from Earth by a great desert. It is
a layered region with Ile only for the chosen and the bottom portion, Iku, ruled
by Damballah, for sinners. Similar levels exist in Mexican, Egyptian and Chinese
myth.
Comments: This bio involves Ndriananahary as he has appeared in the
Marvel Universe; he has not yet been seen in DC Comics.
Ndriananahary's relationship with the other African gods is a bit tenuous. He has an unnamed sky-god and an unnamed earth-goddess as siblings which would make him ambiguously a son of Buluku, father of the sky-god, Obatala, and the earth-goddess, Odudua, and a uncle to Nyambe, Lusa and Mawu, the parents of the Loa.
In African mythology, Afe or Ale is the realm of the African gods and Iku is the name of the underworld. The name of Ndriananahary's realm is unnamed, but for clarity, I am calling it Ile (Ife), which is actually another name for Ale (Afe).
Ndriananahary is possibly the Madagascar equivalent of Nyambe of Western
African, but in the Marvel Universe, they are separate beings.
Ndriananahary also has parallels with Prometheus
who bestowed fire on mortals and with Aiomum Kondi who son Okonorote also
departed to live on Earth. The mere concept of mortals seeking Ataokoloinona
before passing over also seems to have Christian annotations behind it.
Marvel
Universe: The End #2 is meant to have a gathering of godheads within it. Missing
from attendance is Odin
(Asgardian, but considered deceased at the time and replaced by Thor), Ammon-Ra
or Osiris
(Egyptian, but replaced by Horos as proxy), Anu
(Mesopotamian), Vishnu
(accompanied by Atar),
Yu Huang
(Chinese, replaced by Shou Hsing by proxy), Itzamna (replaced by Hunab-Ku
by proxy), Viracocha
(Incan), The
Dagda (Celtic), Svarog
(Russian), Ukko
(Finnish), Manabozho
(Native American) and Tame
(Oceanic).
Last updated: 12/13/08