Origins and early years[]

The Elder Gods are incredibly powerful ethereal beings with vast mystic powers. They were spawned by the Demiurge's energies soon after the Earth's formation, roughly 4 billion years ago.^[7][8][10]

Curious about the stars, the Elder Goddess Oshtur left Earth ten of thousands of years before the conflict that would erupt among the Elder Gods.^[11]

Degeneration and the Godwar[]

During the Godwar, the Elder Gods battled endlessly to claim what their siblings possessed, ravaging the Earth and prevententing even the sturdiest of Gaea to survive.^[5]

Set discovered that he could increase his own powers by eating his fellow Elder Gods and he became the Earth's first murderer; however, the process caused him to degenerate into a demon. Most of the other Elder Gods, with the exception of Gaea (and Oshtur who was off-world), began to imitate him and became demons themselves to further their own strength. Horrified, Gaea called upon the Demiurge to produce her a savior that could wipe out the Elder God demons: Atum. Absorbing the demons' powers into his own body, Atum became the Demogorge and wiped out almost all the demons, except Chthon and Set who escaped to other dimensions (the Flickering Realms and the Serpent's Sea).^[8]

A scant few other Elder Gods survived. Tiwaz left the Earth to wander. Meanwhile, the Utgard-Loki (like Set and Chthon) escaped to his own realm, Utgard. Also, united against a common foe, he was joined by four other Elder Gods: Toranos, Kemur, Mejed, and Nrgl. The Utgard-Loki then created a gate and gave his sister Gaea the key, in case she would ever wish to release them.^[5]

When Oshtur returned to Earth, she discovered what happened to her kin. Similar to how Set and Chthon created their own realms, Oshtur and Gaea also made planes for themselves: the Astral Plane and Avalon, respectively. The four Elder Gods set aside their differences to create the Crossroads as neutral ground.^[12][11] Agreements were made between the four of them, including restrictions to direct interference to the others' activities.^[13]

The Nethergods, including Necromon and Mandrac, were possibly degenerate Elder Gods.^[14]

According to the Darkhold, one million years ago, Chthon led a group of evil gods in a war against a benevolent faction, but was sealed away alongside his army by his victorious opponents.^[15]

Ancient Times[]

In ancient times Thor and Loki were wandering near the River Vimur when a gateway to Utgard appeared. The two went through and were met by Utgard-Loki as "Skrymir", who led them to Utgardhall. Once there, he greeted them as himself and tested them to see if their people were worthy of life.^[16]

Modern days[]

Of the survivors, Gaea currently resides within the Earth itself and is known as "Mother Nature"; Oshtur formed the Vishanti to assist Earth's Sorcerer Supreme; and Chthon and Set reside in their own dimensions but they still exert influence through their followers and artifacts (such as the Darkhold and the Serpent Crown).^[7]

Chthon tricked Ian McNee into gathering the Cornerstones of Creation,^[17] and was nearly reborn though Victoria Montesi and almost unleashed by Carnage.^[18]

Originally Earth. Eventually, four of the surviving Elder Gods created Inner Planes for themselves.^[12][11]

• Chthon's Inner Plane is the Flickering Realms.
• Set's Inner Plane is the Serpent's Sea.
• Oshtur's Inner Plane is the Astral Plane.
• Gaea's Inner Plane is Avalon.

In addition, the four of them created the Crossroads to meet as "neutral grounds."^[12][11]

The Elder Gods created magical items. Among them are the Cornerstones of Creation, four powerful artifacts left behind by four Elder Gods (one each):^[21]

• The "Sword" from Oshtur. It is associated with air, as Oshtur is an air deity.
• The "Rose" from Gaea. It is associated with earth, as Gaea embodies the earth.
• The "Crown" from Set. It is associated with water, as Set rules the waters.
• The "Mirror" from Chthon. It is associated with fire; the mirror is actually the Darkhold,^[17] and it reflects Chthon's dark flames.

Chthon (the Mystic of Dark Magic), Gaea (the Mother of Earth), Oshtur (Giver of Light and Justice), Set (the Great Destroyer),^[22] Tiwaz who is Wisdom and the Winter Sky),^[23] Toranos (Elder God of Thunder), Utgard-Loki,^[5] Hyppus, Isuus, Kemur, Mejed, Nrgl

Atum, son of Gaea, is "the first of the new race of gods,"^{[8][24][25][5]} but he is sometimes treated and/or counted as an Elder God.^[26][27][28]

• The Elder Gods were created by August Derleth as a new classification within the Cthulhu Mythos.^[29] Marvel's Elder Gods were then created by Roy Thomas,^[30] and were inspired by Greek mythology (Gaia), Egyptian mythology (Set and Atum),^[31] as well as the Cthulhu Mythos (Chthon)^[31][30] some of them being close to the Great Old Ones.^[30]
  • Oshtur's name was possibly inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos entity Hastur.^[32]
  • In Marvel Premiere #5 (November, 1972), a story written by Gardner Fox and strongly influenced by Robert E. Howard and the Cthulhu Mythos, the Vishanti appeared as the "Eternal Ones", benevolent elder entities having fought the Great Old One Shuma-Gorath, seemingly as counterparts to Derleth's benevolent Elder Gods.
  • Since, Carnage (Vol. 2) depicted Chthon as one of Great Old Ones, and a stand-in for Cthulhu, and mixed Ancients,^[6] Great Old Ones,^[15] and Elder Gods.^[33]
  • The Elder Goddess Gaea exists in each of the Earthly pantheons as the "Mother Earth" equivalent for that pantheon (e.g. Jörð for Norse mythology).^[34] On the other hand, the Elder God Set does not exist in the Egyptian pantheon but he instead has a similarly named Ennead equivalent, Seth. Set and Seth's respective sisters, Isuus and Isis, are also similarly named.
• The magical hierarchy was confirmed in the Marvel Tarot #1 and Mystic Arcana to only have four surviving Elder Gods. All other Elder Gods were destroyed by Atum and are where the pantheons of Humankind emerged.^[7] Atum has himself been considered as an (additional) Elder God.^[26] Set's sister Isuus was also worshiped in Stygia,^[35] though her status remains unknown.
• The Elder Gods of Earth are not to be confused with the multiple groups known as Elder Gods - especially the Old Ones (also known as Many-Angled Ones) of the Cthulhu Mythos, such as Shuma-Gorath; which are sometimes called "Elder gods".^{[36][37][38][1][39][40][41]} In Carnage (Vol. 2), the Elder God Chthon was depicted as a stand-in for Cthulhu, and was included into the Great Old Ones.^[15] The name "elder gods" is used also as a generic term for ancient gods and pantheons.^[42]