The Dimension of Raggadorr

The place where the Shades of the Shadowy Demons dwell

Type: Extradimensional alien/magical realm

Environment: Alien, and varied. The dwelling of the Shades of the Shadowy Demons seems to be in liquid state, as transparent as water. Their environment resembled a near-zero gravity space, with flows and streams, and molten or muddy semi-liquid formations of unrecognizable material. Geometric shapes also floated into the "sea." Other regions have a gaseous atmosphere, as complex and active as to produce Rains (of Raggadorr), and Mists (of Ragador). The Rains have a cleansing effect against curses and also magic in general.

Usual means of access and exit: Magic;
    For the Rings of Raggadorr and other spell-related things, very likely magical summoning by magic-users into their dimensions.
    The passage in the barriers that imprisoned Kaluu before the clash of celestial spheres.

Unusual means of access and exit: Astral form via dimensional overlapping very limited in time and space, banishment from other dimension with near-zero possibility of return, solar system cataclysm like the shattering of celestial spheres, the Winding Way. Likely traveling through dimensional gateway (Fangs of Farallah)

Significant Inhabitants: Raggadorr, Demons of Denak/Shades of the Shadowy Demons
    possibly Tazza (formerly)
    Kaluu (for about five centuries)
    possibly the Rings of Raggadorr

Visitors: Two terrestrial men (in astral form, only), Kaluu
    Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange) only witnessing from outside but with possibility to interact via magic, or watching via divination

Aliases: "A place which is not a place", Nameless Dimension

First Appearance: Strange Tales I#147 (August, 1966)

Features: "A place which is not a place" suggests the presence of laws very different from the time-space continua like Earth-616.

    Magic is surely present and is possibly the law under which the Dimension works. The Ancient One stated that the magic present there, is "far beyond what known to other mortals".

History:
(Marvel Tarot) - The dimension Raggadorr is part of the Consecution of Colors, a group of realms also including the Crimson Cosmos and the Purple Dimension; they are separated from the Inner Realms by Brona's Barrier, but they are accessed via the Bridge of Asbru.

    For centuries, Raggadorr was thought to be as far as a mortal wizard could travel without sleeping, dying, or undergoing some sort of mystic transformation; but then a treacherous passage was found through the Winding Way that opened up the Archipelago to other realms. Raggadorr is still considered to be "Beyond the Pale" by most, and very little is known about it or its seven rings.

(Conan the Barbarian I#180 - BTS) - During the Hyborian Era, the witch Renrutanit used the Mists of "Ragador" to make a truth serum.

(Strange Tales I#148/2 (fb) - BTS) - Centuries before the War of the Seven Spheres, Kaluu was forced to flee into a dimension beyond the edge of the universe, in exile. The Ancient One called that dimension "the Place which is not a place" and stated that Kaluu could not come back from there.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#4) - Kaluu lived in the Dimension of Raggadorr.
a flash brightier than a thousand suns
(Strange Tales I#150/2 (fb) - BTS) - During the hundreds of years in exile, Kaluu learned a powerful spell, among other things: a Mystic Bolt.

(Strange Tales I#146 / 148 (fb)) - Dormammu challenged Eternity. Their battle had cosmic reverberations. When two celestial spheres collided and shattered, the fabric of existence seemed to shred. The barriers, that had confined Kaluu for five centuries into the Dimension of Raggadorr, fell.

(Strange Tales I#147/2) - Doctor Strange and two robbers could observe the Shades of the Shadowy Demons in their own dimension.

(Strange Tales I#148/2) - Kaluu was surrounded by demonic servants, in a place concealed by Kaluu's magic. One of the demons, seemed identical to a Shade of the Shadowy Demons.

(Strange Tales I#149/2) - After five hundred years of exile in the Nameless Dimension, Kaluu returned to exact vengeance. Kaluu used a spell to restrain the Ancient One and Doctor Strange. Even calling on the Rings of Raggadorr's power, Strange could not discern what kind of magic was attacking them, and wondered what was the power that Kaluu had found in the Nameless Dimension. Shortly after, Kaluu unleashed the Demons of "Danak" (Denak) against the two mystics. The Ancient One recognized them as coming from the farthest reaches of the universe. Among the Demons, there was one that seemed identical, from behind, to one of Kaluu's demonic servants, and to a Shade of the Shadowy Demons.

(Strange Tales I#150/2 (fb) - BTS) - Kaluu, enacting his vengeance against the Ancient One, used the spell learned during his exile into the Dimension of Raggadorr: a powerful Mystic Bolt. Shortly thereafter, Kaluu tried to vanquish Doctor Strange with a second spell, which involved the power of Amtor the Unspeakable, claiming that his true name was only known in the "Place which is not a place". The spell cast was the Suspended Animation, but it was repelled by the Book of Vishanti and affected Kaluu himself. Once neutralized, Kaluu stayed surrounded by three rings which seemed to be Rings of Raggadorr.

(Marvel Premiere I#5 - BTS) - Doctor Strange conjured the Rains of Raggadorr to dispel a curse.

Comments: Name created by Stan Lee. Art by Bill Everett.

    The Dimension of Raggadorr is known as the Nameless Dimension (ST149).
    The "TSR6870: Marvel Super Heroes Realms of Magic (TSR)" hypothesizes that the Rains coming from the dimension of Raggadorr may be powerful enough to support life without any other need of sustenance; the Rains might also grant good health and increased longevity to the dimension's inhabitants. The hypothesis took into consideration that Kaluu aged very slowly in the centuries he lived in the Raggadorr's dimension (ST149). Taking into account that Kaluu knew a spell for the Suspended Animation, there's also a little probability that some of the years in Raggadorr passed in that way.

    When Doctor Strange conjured the Rains of Raggadorr, the clouds producing the drops were not shown. Maybe a sorcerer can also conjure a Bolt from the same clouds that produced the Rains of Raggadorr. No sorcerer ever used Raggadorr's name in conjunction with a Bolt, but Kaluu learned the Mystic Bolt magical spell in the Dimension of Raggadorr.

    Renrutanit used another type of meteorological event, the Mists of "Ragador".

    One of the spells that Kaluu used against Strange induced suspended animation (see Strange Tales I#150). Eventually Kaluu was victim of his own spell, and once in a transfixed, immobile form, he was surrounded by rings. The imprisonment (the suspension, the rings) was very like the one built by Umar to restrain Ardina (Marvel Untold: Sisters in Sorcery - Prose novel), it is likely that the Rings were Rings of Raggadorr. Still, it is unrevealed if Kaluu learned that spell during the 500 hundred years he spent in the Dimension of Raggadorr.

    In Doctor Strange II#55 D'Spayre taunted and deceived Doctor Strange with illusions, making him the star of a movie named "Doctor Strange II - Beyond Raggadorr!".

Raggadorr, "a place which is not a place" and the Dark Dimension:
  1. Kaluu spent centuries in exile, the Ancient One called that place "THE place which is not a place" (ST148).
  2. Kaluu called the place of his exile: "Dimension of Raggadorr" (ST150).
  3. Kaluu also used a spell of Suspended Animation, which seemingly included the Rings of Raggadorr (ST150).
  4. That same spell included the power of "Amtor the Unspeakable whose true name was known in THE place which is not a place..." (ST150).
  5. Amtor is likely a mis-writing/mis-reading of "Umar". Amtor was named in ST#150, Umar appeared few pages after. One of Umar's titles is "The Unspeakable" (ST#155).
  6. Dormammu ruled in "a place which is not a place" (ST146), the Dark Dimension.
  7. The place where Clea was sent in exile by Umar was called (by Stan Lee) "a place which is less than a place..." (ST155), and that place, a fathomless void, was at the edge of the Dread Dimension (an alias for the Dark Dimension).
  8. After the clash of the Maelstrom of Malevolence, Dormammu found himself hurled in a world he called Realm Unknown (DS172). He defined it "a place which is not a place". That same place was defined by Doctor Strange as "a place which is truly a time...a time which has spatial existence..." (DS171).

    There is the tiny possibility that, in his youth, the Ancient One knew only one place which was not a place, so that he considered it THE only one, and that it was Raggadorr. On the other hand, there's the tiny probability that somehow Kaluu, too, had learned from other sources about another place which is not a place, and he considered it THE only one. So, the scripter (of ST146, Danny O'Neil) was right when he wrote of A place which is not a place, because there are at least two of them. These possibilities would imply that:

Tazza, Shades, demonic servants and Demons of Denak

    Assumed that Raggador is not a place, it could be something like the Realm Unknown, "a place which is truly a time...a time which has spatial existence...", or like the Dark Dimension "...a state of existence where neither time nor matter is real...". Or an extradimensional magic user. Or else.

Raggadorr, its/his inhabitants

Things we know, facts:

  1. Raggadorr is still considered to be "Beyond the Pale" by most.
    It was the Ancient One to state "...a dimension beyond the edge of the universe" (ST148).
  2. The Demons of Denak comes "from the farthest reaches of the Universe" (ST149).
    The Ancient One called them "spirit beasts"     (ST149).
  3. Kaluu lived for five centuries in the Raggadorr Dimension (Kaluu, ST149).
  4. Kaluu had servants with a demonic appearance (ST148). Doctor Strange defined them "spirits". They lived in an alien place where a set of the Fangs of Farallah was present, too.
    O    ne of the servants was similar to a Demon of Denak that Kaluu summoned to assault the Ancient One (ST149).
  5. The same servant was very similar to one of the Shades of the Shadowy Demons which Strange used to frighten two robbers (ST147). 
    They lived in an alien place where a     set of the Fangs of Farallah was present, too.
  6. The same Shade was almost identical to the most powerful form assumed by Tazza while fighting Doctor Strange (ST144).
  7. Tazza lived (and ruled) "...in a dimension on the outer edge of infinity" (ST144).

Suppositions, hypothesis:

  1. The Kingdom of Tazza is a pocket dimension farther away than possibly any other dimension, except Raggadorr (TSR Realms of Magic).
  2. About Kaluu "... upon his return we first hear of and see the Demons of Denak, so it is quite possible that they originated in that dimension (Raggadorr)..." (TSR Realms of Magic). Enforced by (C+D+E).
  3. When the Ancient One used the phrase "farthest reach of the universe" (ST149), he used the term "universe" in a very general way, which meaning encompassed the "Multiverse," thus, other dimensions.
  4. Raggador "...is probably the dimension farthest away from Earth’s dimension..." (TSR Realms of Magic).

Deductions:

  1. D+E = The Shades of the Shadowy Demons and the spirit servants of demonic appearance are the same.
  2. B+D = The demonic spirits, and the spirit beasts (the Demons of Denak) are the same.
  3. B+D+E = The Shades, the spirits and the Demons of Denak are all the same.
  4. B+D+E+F = Tazza is able to transform into a Shade of the Shadowy Demon, thus into a Demon of Denak.
  5. Little uncertainty: B+o+p = n = C+D+E = The Demons of Denak come from Raggadorr.
  6. Uncertainty: B+G = The source place of the Demons of Denak (Raggadorr) and the Kingdom of Tazza are "adjacent" (in terms of dimensions).
  7. Uncertainty reduced = B+F+G = Tazza could transform into one of the Demons of Denak because he knew them. He knew them because their dimension was accessible from his own kingdom. It was accessible because the two places were"adjacent".
    8.

Apparently non-important facts:

  1. Tazza's skin is green (in the original ST144, not in the recent reprint) and is a magic user. He can change form. He used a spell with concentric "energy" rings.
  2. Raggador's skin is green, he is a magic user. He has at least two forms.
  3. One of the Demons of Denak seemed to be a squid cephalopod (ST149).

Further speculations:Tazza's energy rings

  1. Uncertainty: H+I+B+o+p+n+C+D+E = Tazza and Raggador belong to the same race, and Tazza comes from the Dimension of Raggadorr.
  2. Greater uncertainty: H+I+B+o+p+n+C+D+E = Raggador's and Tazza's race has shape-shifting powers.
  3. Uncertainty: E+J = The environment where the Shadowy Demons floated seemed without gravity or low-gravity.
    The bubbles above the Fangs of Farallah lead one to think that that part of the environment was liquid and that the bubbles contained a gas lighter than the liquid. Did the Fangs of Farallah breathe? Maybe the Fangs were active and leaked gas from the other side of the gateway when the demon crossed it.
    Green-flames burned into liquid. When the flames are green and magic, they are often Flames of the Faltine. 


Profile by Spidermay.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Dimension of Raggadorr has non known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Strange Tales I#147, p3, panel 1 (The place where the Shades of the Shadowy Demons dwell, probably the Dimensions of Raggadorr)
Strange Tales I#146, p7, panel 3 (two celestial spheres collided, their clash altered the fabric of space and the barrier of the Dimension of Raggadorr fell)
Strange Tales I#144, p5 panels 2-3 (Tazza in his most powerful form)
Strange Tales I#147, p2, panel 6 (a Shade of the Shadowy Demons, identical to Tazza)
Strange Tales I#148, p2, panel 3 (a demonic servant of Kaluu, identical to the Shade and to Tazza)
Strange Tales I#149, p4, panel 1 (a Demon of Denak/Danak from behind, identical to the previous demons)
Strange Tales I#144, p9, panel 2 (the green-skinned Tazza trying to imprison Dr. Strange with energy rings)

Appearances, appearances behind-the-scenes, mentioned:
Strange Tales I#147/2 (August, 1966) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Denny O'Neil (writer), Bill Everett (co-plot/pencils/inks), Steve Ditko (pencils/inks)
Strange Tales I#148/2 (September, 1966) - Denny O'Neil (writer), Bill Everett (co-plot/pencils/inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Strange Tales I#149/2 (October, 1966) - Denny O'Neil (writer), Bill Everett (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Strange Tales I#150/2 (November, 1966) - Roy Thomas (writer), Bill Everett (pencils/inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Conan the Barbarian I#180 (March, 1986) - Jim Owsley (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Bob Camp (inks), George Roussos (chine), Larry Hama and Jim Shooter (editors)
Doctor Strange II#55 (October, 1982) - Roger Stern (writer), Michael Golden (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Glynis Oliver (colors), Al Milgrom, Jim Shooter (editor)
Marvel Tarot (September, 2007) - David Sexton (writer), Jeff Youngquist (editor)

First Posted: 03/31/2024
Last updated: 04/08/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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