Ogdru Jahad

The Ogdru Jahad
Publication information
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
First appearance	Hellboy - Seed of Destruction (1993)
Created by	Mike Mignola
In-story information
Alter ego	Nunn-Jahad, Adad-Jahad, Amon-Jahad, Irra-Jahad, Beuu-Jahad, Nergal-Jahad, and Namrat-Jahad
Team affiliations	Nazis the frogmen Mayans
Notable aliases	The Dragon, the Beast, the Serpent, the Seven Gods of Chaos, Ogdru Eb Jurhad, the Seven Who Are One
Abilities	Nigh-omnipotent powers of destruction hindered only by their imprisonment

The Ogdru Jahad are fictional characters in Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic. They are the Dragon of Revelation, and are destined to bring about the end of the world. Though the Ogdru Jahad are the ultimate antagonists in the series, they are not themselves active, their release from imprisonment instead being the object of many other villains' plans. They were imprisoned in their Golden Cocoons by the Right Hand of Doom shortly after the creation of Earth, but not before they spawned 369 children, known as the Ogdru Hem.

Mostly inspired by the Great Old Ones of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos (with some ancient Egyptian and Babylonian influences as well) the Ogdru Jahad are serpentine/crustacean entities which once resided on, and presided over, Earth. They are pitiless, chaotic, bent on destruction and subjugation and often so horrific in appearance that the mere sight of one of them sometimes induced madness. They are listed as follows:

In the beginning of time, God created an order of spirits. Of these, many of the greater spirits were sent to newborn Earth to oversee it as Watchers. After a time, one Watcher named Anum "...dared to take fire from the air, and with it, fashioned out of mud the dragon (...)". The Ogdru Jahad is thus made up of the four classical elements. The other Watchers set their seals on the Ogdru Jahad and yet the entities did not come to life until nightfall. By then, the awakened Ogdru Jahad are instilled with purpose and function as they instantly give birth to the Ogdru Hem who become Earth's first lifeforms.

The Watchers, upon seeing the creation of these abominations, went to war with them. The Ogdru Hem were eventually all disposed of, with many of them barely clinging to existence in some fashion, with the Ogdru Jahad sealed by their creator in a prison of crystal and placed in the heart of the abyss. The other Watchers, however, turn on Anum and destroyed him. After that, God looked down in fury on what had happened, and exacted his retribution on the Watchers for botching their task: some were cast down into the pit, while others were stranded on Earth to breed monsters. Eventually, lesser spirits were given form by God and took up residence on Earth as the first men, the Golden People of Hyperboria.

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Wikipedia