Vishanti
| The Vishanti | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance |
Strange Tales #115 (mentioned) Marvel Premiere #5 (appeared) |
| Created by |
Stan Lee (writer) Steve Ditko (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Member(s) |
Agamotto Hoggoth Oshtur |
The Vishanti are a fictional triumvirate of powerful mystical beings appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The three beings who make up the Vishanti are Agamotto the All-Seeing (The Light of Truth), Omnipotent Oshtur (Oshtur the Omnipotent, Lady of the Skies), and Hoary Hoggoth (Hoggoth the Hoary, Lord of Hosts). They are extra-dimensional creatures with vast magical abilities, which are generally benevolent towards humanity and support the Earth's Sorcerer Supreme. They grant occult power and knowledge to benevolent practitioners of sorcery, including Doctor Strange and Brother Voodoo. The three all live in extra-dimensions, but can observe and interact with other dimensions.
The Vishanti can manifest themselves to humans, but take disguises that the human mind can recognize to interact with them as their true forms are incomprehensible to any human, even human beings trained in the occult. They commonly manifest themselves to Doctor Strange as a bald male humanoid head, a green female humanoid head, and a lion-like head with flaming eyes.
In a preface to the Dr. Strange story in The Origin of Marvel Comics, co-creator Stan Lee explained that while many people assumed such names to be distorted allusions to real-world spiritual terminology, he "just made 'em up." In the Modern Greek language, Agamotto's name is transliterated using slightly different vowels in order to avoid an unfortunate resemblance to a vulgar phrase.
The "Vishanti" received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #8.
Little is known about the Vishanti's origins. All three are ancient and very powerful; "hoary" Hoggoth is likely the oldest; though Agamotto has claimed to be older than the Earth itself, he is in fact, the son of Oshtur, who was among the ancient Elder Gods of Earth, spawning Agamotto years after her emergence. The Vishanti, especially Agamotto, have protected the Earth's dimension for billions of years. Thousands of years ago, the human known only as Aged Genghis sought out the Vishanti and asked them for knowledge and mystical power. In return, Aged Genghis would gather the most powerful mages and sorcerers on Earth every century to test them. The strongest would become Earth's Sorcerer Supreme. The Sorcerer Supreme would protect Earth's dimension for the Vishanti and fight their enemies and in return could call upon the powers of the Vishanti.
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Wikipedia