Ghaur (Earth-616)

Early Life[]

Ghaur was a Deviant from a line that was specifically bred by the Deviant priesthood over countless generations.

"Lord" Ghaur became the Priestlord of the Deviants. Although Deviant Lemuria was ruled by a monarch and a noble class, most of the power was exercised by the priests. Between their main functions, the priests "eradicated" Deviants with the most extreme features, dubbed Mutates, throwing them to flame pits in "Purity Time". They also perform the ascendancy rite to accept the rising of a new monarch - initially they only "authorized" the legitimate heir, but they could designate someone different as a new monarch. For millennia, the Deviant priesthood had kept to their functions... until Ghaur became the new Priestlord.

At that time, the Deviant monarch was Brother Tode, an ambitious king who took the ruling class and tried to raid Olympia, the Eternals' main city. Tode's invasion was soundly defeated and the Eternals fused all the invaders in a block of stone which they sent into space. The only survivor was Kro.

Ranar, son and rightful heir of Tode, claimed the throne to Ghaur. However, Ghaur wanted the power of the throne, so he sentenced Ranar to death. Kro asked for the throne then. Ghaur allowed him to became the king, but he showed his own disdain towards Kro's position by making a guard crush the ascendants royal ring under his feet.^[3]

Ghaur, the Dreaming Celestial[]

Ghaur remained behind Kro's actions for a time, without going to the foreground until he had a good scheme. Ghaur wanted to hold the power of a Celestial and defy the Celestial Hosts with it. He chose to steal the power of Tiamut, the Dreaming Celestial, who had been punished by the other Celestials and was hibernating underground on Earth. To do so, Ghaur manipulated Kro and made him search for a vial with the Dreaming Celestial's essence. Kro went to the Pyramid of Winds and was confronted by the Eternal Ikaris, who defeated him. Ikaris would have killed Kro if not for the intervention of fellow Eternal (and occasionally Kro's lover) Thena.^[4]

Ikaris, Kro and Thena discovered Ghaur's scheme and Purity Time and confronted him. Ikaris tried to stop Ghaur from holding the power of a Celestial, but he failed and Ghaur became a Celestial - a giant, armored figure with Ghaur's face.^[5]

However, from his crypt, Tiamut was trying to direct Ghaur's actions so Ghaur would free Tiamut. Eventually, if Ghaur remained in Tiamut's armor, he would have been utterly destroyed by the Celestial's power. However, the Eternals joined as the Uni-Mind and defeated Ghaur, destroying his body and depriving him from his consciousness. A nebulous mass, all that remained from Ghaur, drifted around the orbital space of Earth.^[6]

Accidentally, Silver Surfer's cosmic power touched the mass and allowed Ghaur to reconstruct himself, using the remains of the Dreaming Celestial's power. The powerful demon Set absorbed the last traces of the Dreaming Celestial's power in Ghaur and expanded it, trying to break a spell Doctor Strange had used to exile Set from Earth. Although this scheme failed, Set decided that Ghaur had been a useful and loyal pawn, and Ghaur also liked Set's patronage and power, so they formed an alliance.^[1]

Atlantis Attacks[]

Set guided Ghaur to Llyra and they formed an alliance to reconstruct the Serpent Crown in a new, giant and supposedly indestructible version they would use to physically bring Set to Earth.

Ghaur marked seven superhuman women with the Mark of Set to place them under his control and named them the Brides of Set - namely Andromeda, Dagger, Invisible Woman, Marvel Girl, Scarlet Witch, She-Hulk, and Storm. Ghaur wanted them to mate with Set and provide him with sons, one bride for each of Set's heads. Ghaur did not notice that, although the Brides were under his control, they did everything in their power to resist him (for instance, when ordered to fight for him, they tried to lose).

Ghaur and Llyra also sent a monster to destroy Atlantis, trying to provoke many deaths to free enough life energy to bring Set to Earth. Unfortunately for them, the life energy was not enough.

Ghaur them sent Andromeda to recover a sphere with a part of Set's life essence from Neptune's Rage Altar. The Scarlet Witch would then use her power to alter probability on the sphere, freeing energy to make Set come. The operation was a success and Set came to Earth.

Doctor Strange, Quasar, Thor, and the Thing entered one of Set's mouths and went to a pocket dimension - not being organic, Set did not have entrails. However, in his own reality, Set fought these four superheroes, leaving Earth for a while. Thor, with great courage, invoked Demogorge and they managed to defeat Set. Without Set's consciousness, his pocket dimension imploded and his body was destroyed, although Strange, Quasar, Thor, Thing, and Demogorge escaped.

Ghaur and Llyra returned to Lemuria and tried to sacrifice the Seven Brides to bring power to the Serpent Crown and thus bring Set to Earth. They sent their armies of Deviants and Lemurians to fight the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Sub-Mariner, while Ghaur mentally probed the insides of the Crown. Doing so, Ghaur accidentally released the spirit of a previous holder of the Crown, Emperor Naga of Lemuria, who also wanted the power of the Crown. Naga and Ghaur fought using their mental powers, and finally both them and Llyra vanished. Finally freed from Ghaur's mind control, the former Brides of Set threw the Serpent Crown into a subaquatic cave.^[7]

Ghaur's Return[]

Ghaur was later resurrected by his followers using a combination of genetic material from humans, Inhumans, Eternals, Deviants, and the Young Gods. He tried to force the creation of a new Uni-Mind, with himself in command. He kidnapped the Avengers, but was stopped by Kro and his Delta Network of heroic Deviants.^[8]

Ghaur was resurrected as a giant, golden, and inanimate statue. Even in this form, Ghaur tried to create an Anti-Mind to attack the Celestials. As a part of the plan, he kidnapped Donald and Deborah Ritter, children of Kro and Thena. However, he was soundly defeated by the Heroes for Hire; the Ritters were then returned to their parents.^[9]

Eventually, a salvage crew recovered Ghaur's body and he again became the Priestlord of the Deviants - although Kro remained as the official king, the priests were the real rulers of Lemuria. Ghaur mated with a Deviant woman who gave birth to a human-looking daughter in Wakanda. This was a great shame for Ghaur - his own daughter, a reject! Ghaur tried to recover his daughter to kill her and, to that end, he waged war against Wakanda. However, Namor the Sub-Mariner managed to hold the child and Everett Ross convinced Ghaur to falsify the girl's death and to leave her with Namor.^[10]

• Genetic Alteration: Ghaur could alter the malleable genetic structure of any Deviant, giving them new shapes, or killing any Deviant by creating a lethal mutation. Only Kro (who controlled his own body, and whose genetic code was a mystery) was immune to this power.^[11]
  • Mind Control: Ghaur could mind-control people whose genetic codes he knew.^[11]
• Consciousness Transfer: Ghaur could transfer his consciousness into other forms, such as statues.^[11]

• Leadership: Ghaur demonstrated skills in leadership and as an occultist, as well as an excellent memory.^[11]
• Genetics: He used to remember the genetic code of every known living Deviant, and of those Deviants he thought could have survived an apparent death.^[11][3]

• According to a sailor's ear, his name is pronounced (/goʊr/, /gɔ:/).^[12]