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cover of episode The Seven GODS of Chaos - Even One Look Breaks the Mind - Hellboy Explained

The Seven GODS of Chaos - Even One Look Breaks the Mind - Hellboy Explained

2021/11/23
logo of podcast Mythology Explained

Mythology Explained

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. Today we're going to take a quick pause from Greek mythology to spend this episode discussing one of the most interesting villains from pop culture mythology, the Ogdru Jahad, known as the Dragons of Revelation, a group of monsters so powerful that they're destined to bring about Ragnarok in the Hellboy universe.Let's get into it.The Ogdru Jahad were a group of seven dragons. Their appearance was an amalgam of crustacean and serpentine inspirations, only on a colossal scale. They were behemoths. Incarnations of chaos, mercilessness, and cruelty, once, they were the overlords of earth, and the mere sight of them was said to be so horrific that even the briefest glance could drive a person mad. Confident in their overwhelming power, they seem to be indifferent to humanity, much as we are indifferent to ants frantically labouring about, and they claim to harbor no particular hatred for humanity, which suggests a loathing and deep disdain for all life.At the dawn of creation, God created a hierarchy of greater spirits, and many of these were tasked with overseeing earth, posted as its guardians. One of these spirits, Anum was the grand-architect responsible for the genesis of the Ogdru Jahad. He wrought them of fire and mud, but life would not quicken within them, even after other of the great spirits joined in, imbuing them with spells and infusing them with fire a second time. But then night fell and in the darkness the Ogdru Jahad awoke, immediately filled with terrible purpose, which was to spread its will, initially through propagation, birthing the Ogdru Hem, 369 children, all of them abominations, all of them immensely powerful. The greater spirits waged war against this foul brood, and the Ogdru Hem were eventually crushed, not killed though, but imprisoned, much as the Titans were imprisoned in Greek mythology. The Ogdru Jahad, while immeasurably more powerful than their progeny, were also dealt with, imprisoned, sealed away in crystal and banished in the heart of the abyss. Following this, the greater spirits no longer trusted Anum, whom they blamed for the catastrophe that just transpired. Through a concerted attack, they struck him down, going so far as to destroy the individual pieces of his broken body; only his right hand, the hand of Anum, later called the right hand of doom, survived.