REN
(please note that these stories are from Epic, part of a more mature line and may not be appropriate for everyone)

Real Name: Ren

Identity/Class: Human;
    active circa 9000 B.C. (Hyborian era)

Occupation: Concubine

Group Membership: Ath'Agaar's tribes

Affiliations: Ath'Agaar, Jhagur

Enemies: Dark Lords (Eeyod, Hemuth, Koth and Zepharr) and their people, Kaok

Known Relatives: Ren may or may not have been Ath'Agaar's queen/consort, etc. vs. just being his long-term lover; she was referred to as his concubine, meaning she lived with him but had a lower status than a wife (or wives, either of which he may not have had); however, she was the only one for which he gave any thought, and she seemed to be his one true love

Aliases: "Girl," "Whore" (from the Dark Lords)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    physical death in Kur, Novum Terra (see comments), in the region that would become New Mexico;
    formerly the Citadel of Erok, Novum Terra, in the region that would become New Mexico;
    possibly formerly an unrevealed location in the glaciered northland of Novum Terra (see comments)

First Appearance: Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (1984)

Powers/Abilities: Other than her physical attributes, Ren did not demonstrate any particular abilities in her limited appearances, and she was presumably a normal human woman of the Hyborian era.

    Her will to live was strong, and she endured fierce torture for nearly 24 hours.

Height: Unrevealed (perhaps 5'9")
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 135 lbs.)
Eyes: Brown (destroyed or removed prior to her death)
Hair: Brown

History:
(Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (fb)) - Circa 9000 B.C., Ren enjoyed romantic embraces with her lover Ath'Agaar (before, during, and/or after he became chieftain of a glaciered northland and then led his tribes south,  conquering four -- Kerei, Baalat, Tzerama, Erok -- of the citadels/enslaved city ruled by the ancient Dark Lords, seizing power and then establishing his stronghold in Erok). 

(Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (fb) - BTS) - Appreciating that their stronghold, Kur, might be next, the Dark Lords began sacrificing their followers by the thousands, but the enslaved people, with minimal willpower, granted them limited power. They resolved to capture Ath'Agaar himself, knowing that to him death without resistance was unthinkable, and to sacrifice him to their master, Kaok, the demon-lord of Sominus.

(Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (fb) - BTS) - Despite Ath'Agaar's orders, Ren spoke to Erok's former magistrate and his witch-woman, who told her that the wizards had marked Ath'Agaar for vengeance and that their time on Earth was nearly finished.

(Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (fb)) - As Ath'Agaar and Ren embraced in Erok's palace bedchambers, Ath'Agaar noted that her unsure and faltering touch and her rigid spine indicated that she had disobeyed him. She reluctantly admitted her conversation with the former magistrate and his witch-woman and her fear that their time on Earth was nearly finished. After Ath'Agaar reminded her that those two had been the sorcerers' lackeys, which was why he had forbidden her to speak to them, Ren encouraged Ath'Agaar to discipline/crush her as she pulled him nearer; however, she then screamed as the Dark Lords materialized in their bedchamber.

    After Zepharr magically sealed-over Ren's mouth to stop her screaming, another of the Dark Lords transformed Ath'Agaar's sword into an immense serpent that coiled around him. The Dark Lords then transported both Ath'Agaar and Ren back to their sacrificial chamber in their stronghold, Kur, after which they told Ath'Agaar to watch as they tortured his woman. When they refused his demands to release Ren, Ath'Agaar summoned his strength and tore apart the serpent holding him, but one of the Dark Lords magically bound Ath'Agaar in an unbreakable filament. 

    As Ath'Agaar called out to Ren, one of the Dark Lords noted that Ath'Agaar actually cared for her and that they were in the presence of genuine passion. Koth noted that too many centuries had passed since they had felt with such intensity, and he envied the savage. Ath'Agaar then argued that Ren had done nothing to them and that he was the one they wanted, but Eeyod explained that they wanted them both, especially now that they knew the strength of their bond: Watching her perish by degrees would fuel his hatred for them, and the fierceness of his loathing was precisely what they needed. 

    Eeyod then told Ren to behold the light that glinted from his blade, as it was the last glimmer she would ever see. With two swift slashes, Eeyod rendered Ren sightless, after which the other sorcerers joined in what became a protracted process of unrelenting excruciation. The Dark Lords were grimly delighted when Ren proved stronger and less willing to die that they had anticipated. 

    It was twilight the next day when Koth finally delivered the death stroke; by then, there was little left of her to torment. Her vital life force had been expended as agony and greedily devoured by the Dark Lords.

    On the third night of Ath'Agaar's torture, he shattered the Living Orb/Eye of Kaok, which spewed forth a cloud of force that engulfed the domed chamber and all within it -- their bodies flayed and their bones ground to powder -- before similarly destroying the walls of Kur and then all of the nine citadels formerly ruled by the Dark Lords. Within hours, the entire civilization was obliterated.

(Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (fb) - BTS) - The spirits of the hundred thousand entities slain in the conflagration demanded that the sorcerers not know peace until they had paid for their atrocities, and the spirits of the Dark Lords were sent back to the physical plane, into a cycle of death and rebirth, repeatedly reincarnated. 

(Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (fb)) - The spirits of Ath'agaar and Ren, half-crazed with pain and hate and unable to accept their integration into the spirit world, tore loose from the cosmic fabric and willingly followed, seeking both vengeance and one another. 

(Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (fb) - BTS) - Ath'Agaar, Ren, and the Dark Lords all lived innumerable lifetimes -- some as brief as a moth's, others as long as redwood's. Their souls were scattered over continents and seas, and across the vastness of space. 

(Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (fb)) - By the late 20th century (see comments), the incarnations of Ren and the Dark Lords were on Earth, while Ath'Agaar had been reincarnated in the extraterrestrial Jhagur of the planet Gebura.

(Void Indigo#5-6: "DOMINION AND REBELLION" (unpublished, from Gerber's script)) - As Jhagur -- having traveled to Earth -- underwent a ritual of purification in the desert outside Hollywood, California, Ath'Agaar and Ren appear to him in a vision. When Jhagur reached out for Ren, her form replicated the wounds inflicted upon her by the Dark Lords before crumbling to dust, after which Ath'Agaar deteriorated in a similar manner.

(Void Indigo#5-6: "DOMINION AND REBELLION" (unpublished, from Gerber's script) - BTS) - Joined by all his past incarnations, including Ath'Agaar, Jhagur confronted Kaok and then drove Kaok into the Void Indigo astral realm. There Kaok was torn apart by the psychic assault of all the hundreds of thousands of souls whose lives he had cut short those 11,000 years ago. 

    With his past incarnations having vanished and with still no sign of Ren after he returned to Earth, Jhagur wandered off into the desert alone.

Comments: Created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik.

    There is not confirmed evidence (as far as I know) that Ren was with Ath'Agaar before he came down from the glaciered northland vs. whether she was part of one of the four of the nine citadels under the dominion of the Dark Lords that Ath'Agaar and his forces conquered. However, given that her spirit was strong and valuable to the Dark Lords, I think it is pretty convincing that she was part of the group from the glaciered northland (or, at least, form somewhere north of the nine citadels.

    I would not normally capitalize the letter after an apostrophe, but as Gerber's scripts had "Ath'Agaar," I'm going with it.

    The Void Indigo is somewhat nebulous, but it exists beyond the mortal veil, into the continuum of pure spirit. It is a "horizonless, liquid space from which all things -- material and spiritual -- originate, threads of the great chain of being. Each perfect, pearl-like bead along its infinite length glimmered with the light of a soul. From its position on the chain can be determined the condition of that soul and its location in the cosmos."

VOID INDIGO

• The Void Indigo stories -- creator-owned by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik -- referenced Zhered-Na and Sominus, both creations of Gerber and Mayerik back in the (Adventure into) Fear series.
• Marvel Graphic Novel#11 / Void Indigo has the aged Dark Lords Eeyod, Hemuth, Koth and Zepharr invoke "Kaok, lord of Sominus, whose seed spawned Zhered-Na in the world's dark womb" and call upon his power via blood sacrifice. They sacrificed thousands of young men and women from their five citadels under their rule, regaining some small measure of their lost vigor. Seeking greater power, they then tortured and sacrificed the barbarian chieftain Ath'agaar and his lover Ren for greater levels of power.

  

• The graphic novel Void Indigo references Atlantis and the Great Cataclysm (with the Dark Lords being survivors of pre-Cataclysmic Atlantis) and the above conflict took place circa 9000 BC, fitting in with the Hyborian era. An artifact from the conflict was mystically borne nearly 1000 miles away (almost to the sea), ending up in what is now New Mexico. The region that is now North America was known as Novum Terra in the Hyborian era and was minimally referenced in the Conan stories.
• The glaciered northland from which Ath'Agaar originated could be northern Canada, or it could even be the Arctic.
• The end of the Hyborian era, which featured another lesser Cataclysm (not to be confused with the lesser Cataclysm that followed the Great Cataclysm (circa 18,000 BC) that again affected Earth's topography, is usually placed around 8000 BC, but it's not an even year, and it makes sense that the rupturing of the Living Orb and the energies unleashed that wiped out all evidence of the Dark Lords' nine citadels could have gradually spread across Earth and contributed to the post-Hyborian Cataclysm.
  
• There was a six issue follow-up Void Indigo series planned, but it was cancelled after only two issues. The scripts for issues #3-6 can be found here.
• The modern portions of the Void Indigo story does not reference other modern aspects of Earth-616.
• Ultimately, there is no official ruling on Void Indigo...for whatever reason, I didn't review the series until someone told me in March of 2022 that Zhered-Na was referenced in it, which led to my appreciation of all of this material. I was therefore unaware of this information when I wrote the Zhered-Na profile for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
• Having reviewed the Void Indigo graphic novel and series/scripts, it my assessment is that there are elements of Reality-616 present in this storyline, which would either make them the same reality or just a reality with common elements. However, there is nothing to exclude it from being Reality-616, and when that's the case, I would certainly not err on the side of exclusion. I think it would add nicely to the tapestry that is Reality-616.. 
• I think it would fit perfectly -- even if likely not what was intended at the time of publication -- to have the modern Void Indigo stories locked into 1984, the time in which they published, rather than being part of the sliding timescale. That would have them taking place decades before the Fantastic Four's space flight. 

• Regardless, it is interesting to consider Zhered-Na's connection to Kaok and Sominus. 
• Specifically, it says that Kaok's seed spawned Zhered-Na. That would seem to make him her father, although "seed" could also refer to his child, making Zhered-Na his granddaughter. 
• Sominus being a realm of demons puts an interesting spin on Zhered-Na, who was a benevolent sorceress worshipping the god Valka. 
• Clearly there's more to the story, but tragically, Steve Gerber passed years ago, and we can't ask him. 
• I talked to Val Mayerik, but unfortunately, he doesn't remember the details. But, I'm hoping that doing these profiles may jog his memory...

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Ren should be distinguished from:

• REN ?? - friend of Nick Malloy, briefly turned into thrall of Nightfire--Illuminator#1
• REN of Earth-20345 - Spider-totem, Canadian woman living in Japan, manipulate emotions, spin webs--Twitter post; Spider-Verse III#4
• REN (Ren Hoek) of Earth-92157 - English-speaking & intelligent "Asthma Hound" Chihuahua, partner of cat Stimpy--The Ren & Stimpy Show cartoon short, "Big House Blues"
• RENNY (Col. John Renwick) - @1930s, Fabulous Five, construction engineer, large and strong--Doc Savage Magazine#1 (1933); Doc Savage I#1
• RENNY ?? - WFSK, partner of Dom, henchman of Insomnia--Daredevil I#357
• WREN - Inhuman Bird People of Sky Island/Aerie, tracked Condor for Red Raven; aka Brother Wren--Nova III#4
• WREN, HUBERT - post World War II era, developed duplicator, inadvertently duplicated fiancé "Barb," much to his chagrin--Uncanny Tales#54/5
• other "Ren" characters, places, races, items, etc.
  

Appearances:
Marvel Graphic Novel#11: Void Indigo (1984) - Steve Gerber (writer), Val Mayerik (artist), Laurie Sutton (assistant editor), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Void Indigo#5-6 scripts (unpublished)

First posted: 08/14/2022
Last updated: 08/14/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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