BROODLINGS OF CHTHON
Classification: Elder race & elder race/human half-breeds
Location/Base of Operations: Unidentified island in the Timor Sea (200 nautical miles east of Kupang, Indoneasia) & presumably other dark corners on Earth
Known Members: Obrien (half-breed)
Affiliations: Chthon
Enemies: Manuela Calderon, Carnage (Cletus Kadasy), Man-Wolf (John Jameson), Victoria Montesi, Yuvraj Singh, Raze (Claire Dixon), Toxin (Eddie Brock), Jubulile van Scotter, unidentified whaling ship's crew (Briggs, Harkins, Hembeck, Martinson, Captain Obrien, Olafson, Doctor Quimby, Ramirez, Samuels, others)
Aliases: Daughters of Chthon
First Appearance: (Mentioned) Carnage II#9 (August, 2016); (seen) Carnage II#11 (October, 2016)
Powers/Abilities: The Broodlings of Chthon are all female. They possess muscular bodies with scaled, green skin, which enhanced their durability against physical harm to some degree. They have large, glowing red eyes, a mouth full of pointed teeth and sharp claws on their hands and feet. Pure-blooded Broodlings communicated with guttarul sounds only. Their actual lifespan is as a mystery.
Half-human Broodlings are closer to humans in physical appearance in body proportions and facial features. They are also capable of human speech with the occasional guttural sounds mixed in. Like their mothers they possess pointed teeth and clawed hands and feet.
Broodlings and their half-breed children are armed with spears, bows and arrows, scythes and nets. While not the most proficient fighters their large number could overwhelm enemies with modern weapons or even superhuman abilities.
Presumably each generation of half-breeds possessed more diluted abilities and strenghts of the original Daughters of Chthon.
Traits: The Broodlings of Chthon are religious zealots, who performed human sacrifices. They were loyal to the death to their god Chthon, whose return to Earth they prayed for and worked toward for a very long time. They were extremely aggressive against outsiders and murdered anyone coming in contact with them, even the male humans they caught to create a line of half-breeds (they didn't care about consent). Their actions are influenced by the powers of the Darkhold and the Elder God Chthon.
Type: Semi-humanoid
Eyes: Solid red
Fingers: Variable (four or five per hand are possible, but also four on one and five on the other)
Toes: Five
Skin color: Green
Average height: 5'4" (by approximation)
History:
(Carnage II#11 (fb) - BTS) - Before the dawn of mankind Chthon created a race later known as his daughters or broodlings, drawing them from the mud.
(Carnage II#9 - BTS) - According to the Darkhold the Daughters of Chthon guarded an altar on an uncharted island in the Timor Sea that could be used to summon Chthon to Earth.
(Carnage II#11 (fb) - BTS) - The island, hidden by magic from the world, became their nest.
(Carnage II#11 (fb) - BTS) - <1821> A whaling ship was drawn to the island through unknown means (insert Chthon whispering in their minds) and shipwrecked.
The ship's crew were soon attacked by the Broodlings of Chthon, who fled, frightened by the crews' guns.
<June 9th, 1821> Captain Obrien wrote in his ship's log about another attack by an even larger number of Broodlings on him and his crew. Olafson killed two of them, but was then carried away by others. The crews' guns didn't frighten the Broodlings anymore.
<June 10th, 1821> The Broodlings grew bolder with every night. Obrien and his crew found Olafson's body that morning. Obrien wouldn't even write about how the Broodlings mutilated Olafson's body.
Ship surgeon Doctor Quimby studied the Broodlings Obrien and his crew managed to kill and found out that they were all female.
Quimby and the ship's first mate Harkins visited the Broodlings' village in a dark night and discovered that the Broodlings mated with the captured crewmen before sacrificing them in a torturous blood rite to Chthon.
<June 14th, 1821> Martinson, Hembeck, Ramirez, Samuels and Briggs were buried after they were abducted and murdered by the Broodlings. Obrien stopped giving his dead men Christian burials after learning the Broodlings were mating with his men. He considered their souls to be lost and feared the same would soon happen to him and the other crewmen.
(Carnage II#11 (fb) - BTS) - The mating with the whaling ship crew by the solely female Daughters of Chthon led to generations of male and female half-breeds loyal to Chthon. The lines continued into the modern era.
In the modern era the Broodlings were still waiting and praying in the dark corners of the world for the return of Chthon.
(Carnage II#11) - On the uncharted island a group of Broodlings of Chthon attacked Carnage and three fishermen Carnage had transformed using the Darkhold and his symbiote. One fisherman was shot in the head with an arrow, another in the shoulder and the third was decapitated. The Broodlings then captured Carnage with a net.
At the nearly 200-year-old graveyard of Obrien and his whaling ship crew Singh realized the island was a nest of the the Broodlings of Chthon when he saw a statue portraying one of Chthon's daughters. Jubulile found the ship's log in a chest at the graveyard and read about the Broodlings' repeated attacks on Obrien and his crew in the year 1821. Mere moments later the Broodlings came from the jungle and attacked Brock (Toxin), Calderon, Jameson (Man-Wolf), Montesi, Singh and Jubulile. Brock, as Toxin, took down the first wave with his symbiote and the Broodlings' own spears, but a second wave of Broodlings attacked mere moments later. Though they were only armed with spears, short swords and scythes the Broodlings showed no fear at the sight of the monstrous Toxin and Man-Wolf or the firearms wielded by Montesi and Calderon. It proved to be a fatal mistake that cost the attacking Broodlings their lives. Even Jubulile, influenced by her psychic connection to Carnage, lashed out at a Broodling and broke her neck after destroying the Broodling's scythe. After Montesi's team left the graveyard Raze (Dixon) arrived and kept reading in the ship's log and learned how the Broodlings in 1821 were all female and forced Obrien and his crew to mate with them before killing them. Raze was attacked by a Broodling wielding a spear from behind, but her symbiote easily dispatched of the Broodling.
Montesi and her team arrived at the Broodlings' village. Through her psychic connection to Carnage Jubulile felt his pain. The Broodlings danced around a giant campfire and a metal contraption Carnage was chained to. They were cooking Carnage alive.
(Carnage II#12) - Calderon watched the dancing Broodlings through binoculars from the distance and noticed one of them holding the Darkhold. She told Montesi, who suggested to circle around the Broodlings to steal the Darkhold while the Broodlings were busy cooking Carnage. Some Broodlings led two chained men with symbiotes (presumably the two fishermen shot with arrows survived) to the fire. Brock didn't care for Montesi's plan and only wished to help Jubulile, who was suffering due to her psychic connection to Carnage. While Toxin attacked the Broodlings from one side of the village, Man-Wolf and Singh attacked from the other side. Calderon and Montesi circled around, but Raze beat them to the punch and stole the Darkhold after overpowering a Broodling. Toxin tried to save Carnage to end Jubulile's anguish, but Raze surprised him from behind and tossed him into a crowd of Broodlings while she freed Carnage herself. The heroes kept killing Broodlings until they retreated. When Jubulile revealed that Carnage and Raze were heading to the temple with the Darkhold the heroes went after them.
(Carnage II#13) - On their way to the temple Carnage and Raze were targeted by more Broodlings, who drove them forward with their arrows and spears. Carnage and Raze easily slaughtered every Broodling attacking from the cliffs, but were then attacked by more Broodlings coming from behind. While Carnage and Raze ripped through the Broodlings at first they were eventually forced by the massive number of attacking Broodlings to jump down a cliff. Raze realized the Broodlings weren't actually trying to kill them, but rather herded them in the direction of the temple because the Darkhold influenced them to do so. As intended Carnage and Raze eventually reached the temple of Chthon with the Darkhold.
(Carnage II#14) - Broodlings attacked Montesi and her team on the way to Chthon's temple. When they proved too many for them to handle Montesi asked Singh to get Jubulile to safety while they held back the Broodlings, but at the last moment Man-Wolf came to their aid and slaughtered all the attacking Broodlings before running off into the jungle again.
At the Temple of Chthon Carnage and Raze were welcomed at the altar in the name of Chthon by Obrien, the last half-breed descendant of whaling ship captain Obrien. He was surrounded by a horde of Broodlings while explaining how Carnage would help them return Chthon to Earth so he could rule the planet again. Jubulile witnessed the scene through Carnage's eyes and told her allies that they were apparently too late to stop the return of Chthon. Though Obrien and the Broodlings planned to sacrifice Carnage, the symbiote-powered serial killer corrected their mistake because he had realized the reason the Darkhold called him the Red Slayer was because he was supposed to sacrifice the Broodlings to Chthon and not the other way around. Carnage immediately started to slaughter the Broodlings present.
(Carnage II#15) - Ignoring Montesi and her team a group of Broodlings ran past them to aid the Broodlings in the temple against Carnage, who mercilessly slew as many of them as he could. He allowed Obrien to live, but only because he needed someone to hold the Darkhold for him while he read the incantations to summon Chthon to Earth. Carnage succeeded.
(Carnage II#16) - Chthon rose from the depths of his temple and started devouring Broodlings to grow strong again while thousands of them surrounded his temple. He ignored Carnage, who asked for a reward for bringing Chthon back to Earth, and instead tried to summon more of the Elder Gods to Earth. Jubulile, who had absorbed the symbiotes of Toxin and Raze, confronted Chthon and blasted the still weakened Elder God with a psychic blast. Jubulile succeeded to banish Chthon after Montesi increased her powers using the Darkhold, which absorbed and then transferred psychic energy from any being on the island, including the Broodlings, and beyond to add to Jubulile's powers so she could banish the Elder God once again.
The fate of the Broodlings after Chthon's banishment is unknown.
Comments: Created by Gerry Conway (writer) & Mike Perkins (artist).
I absolutely loved this series! The Lovecraftian influence, the action, the horror, a fitting art style and actual adults (for the most part, but even the teen wasn't your usual millennial moron or acting like a spoiled, arrogant brat) dealing with the situation. Conway and Perkins worked with the pitch of a "Tomb of Dracula with Carnage as Dracula" perfectly. Thank you Gerry Conway and Mike Perkins!
--Markus Raymond
Statues like the one to the left surrounded the whaling crew's graveyard on the uncharted island. It was a depiction of a Daughter/Broodling of Chthon. Similarities to Bronze Age figurines like the Venus of Willendorf are probably not coincidental.
The language spoken by Chthon and written in the Darkhold in this series was Cthuvian (or R'lyehian), which was invented by H.P. Lovecraft for his Horror stories.
The Broodlings were not the only race created by Chthon. Others included the Wolf Men (the precursors of werewolves including Vârcolac) and the N'Garai.
Elder Gods and their themes. Gaea liked her mammals (and surprisingly spiders; see Omm), Set liked his reptilians, Oshtur liked her birds (she is the creator of angels after all). Chthon liked a multi-faceted cabinet of horror and chaos and his Daughters/Broodlings fit right in.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Broodlings of Chthon have no known connections to:
(Carnage II#14 (fb) - BTS) - The half-breed Obrien was the last male descendant of Obrien, the captain of a whaling ship, which shipwrecked in the year 1821. He served as the high priest of Chthon at the temple on the uncharted island.
(Carnage II#14) - Obrien introduced himself to Carnage and his blood bride Raze and welcomed them at the altar of Chthon's temple in the name of his god. He reveled in the prophecy that promised Carnage, the Red Slayer, would help them return Chthon to Earth. Carnage though had realized the Darkhold didn't call him Red Slayer to become a sacrifice and started killing the Broodlings surrounding the altar in front of Obrien.
(Carnage II#15) - While Carnage slew the last few Broodlings at the altar Obrien prayed for Chthon's protection. Carnage showed mercy to Obrien because he still needed him to hold the Darkhold for him. While Carnage read the incantations to summon Chthon back to Earth, Obrien held the Darkhold for him until Chthon rose from the depths.
Note: Obrien either fell to his death when Chthon rose from the depths or was consumed by his god shortly after. His survival is pretty unlikely.
--Carnage II#14 (Carnage II#14-15
images: (without ads)
Carnage II#11, p10, pan3 (main)
Carnage II#12, p2-3, bottom (females & hybrids dancing)
Carnage II#16, p6 (consumed by Chthon)
Carnage II#14, p13, pan2 (Obrien)
Carnage II#11, p8, top right (statue)
Appearances:
Carnage II#9 (August, 2016) - Gerry Conway (writer), Mike Perkins (artist), Darren Shan (editor)
Carnage II#11-16 (October, 2016 - March, 2017) - Gerry Conway (writer), Mike Perkins (artist), Darren Shan (editor)
First Posted: 10/27/2018
Last updated: 10/27/2018
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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