PHOYU
Real Name: Phoyu
Identity/Class: Human (?) magic user
Occupation: Part of
The Forgotten;
formerly one of Merlin's prisoners in the Hollow Out of Time;
originally a mystic
Group Membership: Those mystics corrupted by a Word from the Word of God tome who were later fused together into the collective entity known as The Forgotten
Affiliations: The other mystics who made up The Forgotten
(Bohra/VIII,
João, VI, X,
XII, XIII, and hundreds
of others); Jowath;
the forces of the Empirikul;
unwitting potential slave of the
Author of the Word of
God
Enemies: (As Phoyu)
Merlin of Camelot;
(as part of the Forgotten)
The Conjuror (Nina),
Demon Rider (Kushala),
Doctor Stephen Strange, Merlin the Magnificent,
the Mindful One,
Sir Isaac Newton, Wiccan (William "Billy" Kaplan), Yao
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: 6th Century Britain;
formerly imprisoned in the Hollow Out of Time (early 6th Century to early
21st Century);
place and era of origin not yet revealed
First Appearance: (BTS as part of the Forgotten) Doctor Strange and
the Sorcerers Supreme#1 (December, 2016)
(as a partially-separate entity) Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#3
(February, 2017)
Powers/Abilities: Unrevealed. The fact that Phoyu ended up as part of The Forgotten means that he must have possessed enough mystic power that he could use a Word from the Word of God tome, but no details as to the extent of his abilities have ever been provided.
Limitations: As a mystic who had spoken at least one Word from the Word of God tome, Phoyu had unknowingly cursed himself. The act of speaking any Word from that tome caused that Word to be secretly written onto his very bones. As a result, a mark had been carved into those bones, one that the Author of the Word of God could use to take control of Phoyu.
Since the Word technology had been created for use by an alien from another dimension, any humans who used it would eventually be driven mad. It is not clear if this was an unplanned side effect or if it was a design feature meant to punish any beings who used the technology without authorization.
Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Three, black
Hair: Unrevealed
History:
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#4 (fb) - BTS) - Phoyu was one of a number of magicians who found magic that they didn't understand and as a result were somehow drawn to the Word of God tome in early 6th Century Britain.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#8 (fb) - BTS) - Like all the other mystics who became followers of the Word of God tome, the Words that Phoyu spoke were written unto his bones without his knowledge. This left a mark carved into the bones that bound him to the Author of the Word of God, a mark that would enable the Author to control him. Also like the others, Phoyu was unaware of the fact that using the alien technology of the Words would eventually drive him mad.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#4 (fb) - BTS) - Merlin of Camelot became aware of this power that no mortal could understand and how it would corrupt anyone who had been drawn to it. Merlin decided to do what he had to do to protect Earth from these corrupted mystics.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#4 (fb) - BTS) - Phoyu was one of the many magicians who were hunted down and imprisoned by Merlin in a cell in the Hollow Out of Time where magic would not work.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#5 (fb) - BTS) - Phoyu and the other corrupted magicians remained trapped in the Hollow Out of Time for centuries.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#4 (fb) - BTS) - As time passed, the prisoners began to become one, merging both physically and mentally into a single composite being that called itself the Forgotten.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#1 (fb) - BTS) - In the early 21st Century, the alien Empirikul eradicated most of Earth's magic. This weakening of magic somehow released The Forgotten from its prison. Seeking to regain all that Merlin had taken from them, the Forgotten traveled back to Merlin's time and began collecting magical relics.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#1 - BTS) - Phoyu was part of the Forgotten when they attacked and killed Merlin.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#2 - BTS) - Phoyu was part of the Forgotten when they and some of their beast-men battled the Sorcerers Supreme. Later, after the Sorcerers had retreated, the Forgotten put their surviving beast-men back in their underground resting place. Once that had been done, four of the Forgotten's component personalities manifested themselves to briefly argue about what they should do next before the majority made its decision. Phoyu was not among those who manifested.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#3 - BTS) - Phoyu was part of the Forgotten when they waited outside the walls of Merlin's castle for the Sorcerers Supreme to open the path to the Hollow Out of Time. When they sensed that the warding had been removed, five of the Forgotten's personalities manifested to comment on what had happened before the main personality regained control and they entered the castle. Phoyu was not among those who manifested.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#3) - Phoyu was part of the Forgotten when they invaded Merlin's library in search of a relic that they needed. The Forgotten used the Light of Darkness amulet that they had brought with them against the Supremes but their foes managed to reflect some of its black energy back at the Forgotten. Struck by a black beam, the Forgotten's head split itself into at least eleven different heads, each of which was controlled by a different personality. The Demon Rider took advantage of the distraction and attacked, cutting off one of the larger heads. After observing this beheading, one of the other heads remarked, "She killed Phoyu." While one of the other heads wanted to make the Sorcerers bleed because of this act, the majority agreed that they had what they needed so the Forgotten retreated from the battle so that they could prepare the ritual and return to the Hollow.
(Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#4) - Later, in the Hollow Out of Time, Sir Isaac Newton was able to use the Word to destroy the Forgotten by splitting their body back into the magicians out of whom it had been composed. Phoyu's body may (or may not) have been among the corpses of those magicians who did not survive the separation.
Comments: Created by Robbie Thompson, Javier Rodriguez and Álvaro López.
Phoyu, Bohra and João were the only three components of the Forgotten whose real names were revealed. Also, out of the fourteen individual faces (aside from its main face) that the Forgotten manifested, Phoyu's face was the only one whose owner was identified by name.
The most distinctive thing about Phoyu is the fact that he had three eyes, two in the normal human configuration and a third situated in the middle of his face and slightly above the level of the other two eyes (but not high enough to be in the middle of his forehead). Aside from this anomaly, Phoyu's facial features were otherwise like those of a normal human (i.e., no fangs or horns like those of some of the Forgotten's other faces).
Although I've used masculine pronouns when referring to Phoyu, his (or her or its) gender was never actually revealed. In the absence of any data, using the masculine pronouns was simply more convenient than listing the alternatives every time a pronoun was needed.
As with his/her/its gender, Phoyu's species was never identified. Phoyu could have been a typical member of a three-eyed humanoid race but he could also have been a human mutant who had been born with a third eye or a human who had been born with only two eyes who had later gained that third eye via some magical procedure or accident. Without more information, nothing can be known for sure.
According to the Forgotten, many (or most or all) of the magicians who became followers of the Word of God tome were said to have been "drawn from different times... to (Merlin's) time." As a result, it is impossible to identify the time period and locale from which Phoyu originated. This is in contrast to Bohra, who seems to have been a native of early 6th Century Britain, and João, who traveled back in time from somewhere (probably Brazil) in the 1950s.
How any of the magicians who were not native to 6th Century Britain knew how to travel through time to reach the Word of God tome has never been revealed. This is a question that should have been answered because time travel is not (or should not be) something that is easy for anyone to do, even sorcerers. The most likely explanation is that whatever call these magicians heard that compelled them to travel to the Word of God tome also enabled them to make the journey, presumably by supplying them with the knowledge and/or power that they needed. However, this is only speculation.
There's really
nothing much to say about the severed head animated by Phoyu after the
decapitation because that head is not depicted anywhere aside
from the panel in which it was decapitated by Demon Rider. The
Forgotten is not
shown to be carrying it with them when they retreat and it is not shown
to be
among the rubble left in Merlin's library after the battle.
So what happened
to that three-eyed head? Since it was part of a shape-shifting entity, did
that head disintegrate once it had been separated from the rest of the
Forgotten's body? Or was it just out of sight in the panels showing the
Forgotten leaving the library? Two of its four hands are empty and the third is
carrying the book that it needed but the fourth hand is not visible at all.
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Phoyu has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#3, page 18, panel 1 (main image)
The second image is just a left-rotated close-up of the first.
Appearance:
Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme#1-3 (December, 2016 - February, 2017) - Robbie
Thompson (writer), Javier Rodriguez (penciler), Álvaro López (inker), Nick Lowe
(editor)
First Posted: 05/25/2019
Last updated: 05/25/2019
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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